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THE    COMPLETE 


HISTOEY    OF    IE EL AID 


FROM    THE    EARLIEST    TIMES: 


BEING  COMPILED  FROM 


A    CONNECTED    CONTINUATDON 


BY    APPROVED   STANDARD   WRITERS. 


ifivut    ^ii}iuion. 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  RECORDS,  TO  THE  END  OF  THE  TWELFTH  CENTURY; 


BY  MR.  O'HALLORAN, 

AUTHOR  OF 


THE    INTKODDmON    TO    THE    HISTORY    AND    ANTiqUITIES    OF    IRELAND. 


EMBELLISHED     WITH 

magnificent   Steel   (KngraDings, 

FROM    DESIGNS    TAKEN    EXPRESSLY 

BY    W.    H.     BARTLETT,     ESQ 


R.  MARTIN  &  CO. 

26   JOHN   STREET, 


AND  26  IVY  LANE, 


PATEBNOSTEB   KOW. 


£onbon. 


PRESS  AND  FOUNDRY  OF  NEWELL  &.  CLAPP. 


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PREFACE 


/o  In  former  times,  the  study  of  History  was  i^ttempted  by  only  a  very  few 
devoted  admirers.  The  dignified  historian  was  surrounded  with  ahnost  astro- 
logical mystery,  and  the  persevering  student  became  an  abstracted  being,  like 
Manfred,  diving — 


PQ  " to  the  caves  of  death, 

Searching  its  cause  in  its  effect ;  and  drew.  - 

From  witherM  bones,  and  skulls,  and  heap'd-up  dust, 

Conclusions  most  forbidden." 


Latterly,  we  have  too  many  demands  on  oiu*  attention,  and  we  aim  at  too  much 
general  knowledge,  to  appropriate  many  years  to  the  pursuit  of  any  one  branch 
of  science.  With  these  reasons,  the  historical  novel  became  a  pleasing  vehicle 
for  the  useful  truths  of  History.  This  arrangement,  however,  has  been  f(miid 
inadequate,  because  captivating  writers  are  much  more  numerous  than  faithful 
historians.  Students  of  taste  and  discrimination,  whose  aim  is  correctness, 
will  always  prefer  the  wheat  of  truth,  if  it  could  be  gleaned  and  thresked  from 
the  straw  that  surrounds  it.  This  desirable  object  has  been  attempted  in  ^ 
History  of  Ireland  which  is  now  submitted  to  the  judgment  of  the  public.  . 

The  ordinary  difficulties  of  preparing  "  a  reflex  of  complex  events"  are  much 
increased  by  the  generally  partisan  character  oi  a  large  portion  of  the  evidence 
relating  to  Irish  History.  James  Madison  has  well  remarked,  that  "the  Irish 
nation. has  been  as  much  traduced  by  the  pen  of  History  as  it  has  been  by  the 
%  rod  of  Power."  To  claim  praise  by  making  a  parade  of  our  industry  in  this 
History  of  Ireland,  would  have  produced  a  bulky  compendium  of  merely  facti- 
tious importance.  We  are  quite  willing,  however,  to  receive  credit  for  show- 
ing the  reader  how  to  master  the  whole  subject. 

The  text  has  been  compiled  from  the  best  authorities ;  dulness  of  record  is 
avoided  as  much  as  possible ;  and  it  will  be  perceived  that,  in  order  to  furnish 
a  true  and  lively  narrative,  the  variations  of  different  writers  aife  noted,  with 
discriminating  and  connective  remarks.  In  adopting  this  latter  method  of  con- 
struction, we  are  conscious  of  having  deviated  from  the  rigid  canons  of  his- 
torical composition ;  but  our  excuse  will  become  more  and  more  apparent,  as 
the  student  travels  over  the  dusty  road  of  research  where  we  have  laboured. 

For  the  First  Division,  the  text  adopted  is  that  of  Sylvester  O'Halloran,  an 
Irish  gentleman,  who  brought  to  his  task  a  fund  of  classical  erudition,  great 


lit.  1 


%^'^'b 


PREFACE 


candour,  sound  sense,  and  sincere  patriotism.  In  the  conjectural  portions  of 
History,  these  qualities  are  often  more  likely  to  produce  a  true  and  faithful  book 
than  the  highest  attainments  of  mere  authorship. 

The  two  following  Divisions  continue  the  narrative  down  to  the  present 
times. 

This  original  and  highly  interesting  compilation  is  in  the  hands  of  a  com- 
mittee of  gentlemen,  who  will  endeavour  to  avoid  those  partialities  and  defects 
which  occasionally  characterize  the  productions  of  individual  writers  on  Irish 
History.  At  the  same  time,  it  will  be  the  most  agreeable  part  of  their  task  to 
record  full  justice  to  the  history  of  a  great  and  glorious  country,  which  has 
produced  some  of  the  noblest  characters  that  ever  excited  the  admiration  of 
the  world. 


■■'^•fsmtv;'- 


\>' 


• 


TO    THE    RIGHT   HONOURABLE 

M  0  R  0  U  &H     O'B  R  Y  E  N, 

EARL  AND  BARON  OF  INCHIQUIN,  BARON  OF  BURBEN,  AND  LORD  LIEUTENANT  AND  CUSTOS 

ROTULORUM  OF  THE  COUNTY  OF  CLARE. 


MY  LORD: 

No  natkm  paid  greater  attention  to  its  history  and  antiquities  than  the  an- 
cient Irish.  The  care  of  letters  was  a  particular  object  of  state  attention ;  and 
the,  kws  and  ordinances  respecting  history,  philosophy,  and  poetry,  became  a 
part  of  the  studies  of  our  monarchs.*  The  numerous  universities  of  the  king- 
dom were  founded  on  such  liberal  principles,  that  not  only  the  natives,  but 
strangers  from  different  parts  of  Europe,  were  received  into  them,  and  supplied 
with  all  the  necessaries  of  life*  and  even  with  hooks,  gratis !  The  Venerable 
Bede  is  an  unexceptionable  authority  for  these  facts,  with  respect  to  the  Sax- 
ons;! and  proofs  are  notr  wanting  th*a|  such  was  the  case  with  other  nations 
of  Europe. J  Need  more,  my  Lord,  be  said  to  the  point,  than,  that  such  was 
the  pre-eminence,  of  the  Irish  in  letters,  that,  by  universal  consent,  the  king- 
dom acquired  the  title  of  Insula  Doctorum  ! 

But  the  protection  they  vouchsafed  to  the  sciences,  did  not  diminish  their 
love  for  arms.  In  other  countries,  arts  and  letters  were  the  consequences  of 
power  and  conquests:  in  Ireland,  they  attended  and  added  vigour  to  both. 
Glory,  intrepidity,  and  the  love  of  their  country  were  the  constant  themes  of 
the  antiquarians  and  bards ;  and  how  well  our  princes,  our  nobility,  and  mili- 
tary profited  by  their  lessons,  our  annals  sufficiently  proclaim.  While  the  rest 
of  the  world  bent  the  knee  to  all-powerful  Rome,  Ireland  alone  remained  free 
and  independent,  and  held  forth  her  arms  to  support  every  struggle  for  liberty 
in  Britain  and  Gaul.  From  Tacitus  we  may  collect,^  that  Rome  could  n(5t 
count  on  the  peaceable  possession  of  Britain,  until  Ireland  was  subdued,  being 
the  country  from  whence  the  disaffected  drew  their  resources ;  and  the  subse- 

*  Teagasc-Cormbhic-Mhic-Art,  or  the  Royal  Admonitions  of  Corinac  to  his  son  Cairbre. 
t  Histor.  Ecclesiast.  Britan.  lib.  iii.  cap.  27. 

X  Vita  St.  Cataldi,  Usserii  Primord,  Eccles.  Britan.  p.  755,  etc.  §  Vita  Julii  Agiicolae. 

V. 


DEDICAtlQN. 


quent  periods  of  our  history  will  show  who  were  the  real  authors  and  pro- 
moters of  these  mighty  confederacies,  which  accelerated  the  ruin  of  that 
extended  empire ! 

Why  a  history,  in  itself  bo  curious  and  instructive — ^which  throws  new 
lights  on  history  and  chronology  in  general,  and  (what  makes  it  still  more  vol- 
uable)  which  is  the  only  one,  of  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  that  has  been  trans- 
mitted to  us  pure  and  uninterrupted,  from  the  remotest  antiquity  to  this  day — 
why,  I  say,  it  should  be,  not  only  greatly  neglected,  but  grossly  misrepresented 
in  modern  times,  is  not  to  my  purpose  to  inquire.  It  is  sufficient,  my  Lord, 
that,  animated  with  the  love  of  truth,  and  of  my  country,  I  have  laboured  to 
render  that  justice  to  our  ancestors  which  had  been  so  long  denied  them,  and 
to  lay  open  to  public  view  these  annals,  which  seemed  to  have  been  destined 
to  dust  and  oblivion !  A  work  of  this  kind,  extracted  from  pure  native 
records,  unsophisticated  with  modern  systems  and  modern  opinions,  I  flatter 
myself  will  appear  no  unacceptable  present  to  your  Lordship,  and  to  the 
curious. 

To  whom,  my  Lord,  with  greater  propriety  could  such  an  attempt  be 
inscribed,  or  who  better  entitled  to  this  mark  of  respect  and  attention  than  the 
Earl  of  Inchiquin,  the  lineal  descendant  of  the  first  of  heroes  and  legislators, 
the  renowned  Brien  Boirumhe,  and  through  him,  of  Heber,  eldest  son  to  Mile- 
sius  ?  To  support  and  protect  whatever  may  tend  to  elucidate  the  History  of 
Ogygia ;  and  by  your  precepts,  as  well  as  example,  to  induce  others  to  unite 
in  a  cause  so  interesting  to  letters,  are  in  fact,  my  Lord,  duties  which  you  owe 
to  your  own  dignity  and  to  your  ancestors,  as  well  as  to  your  country.  For 
what  avails  it  that  Ireland  should,  in  justice,  rank  foremost  among  the  nations 
of  Europe ;  and  that  her  sons,  for  purity,  antiquity,  and  nobility  of  blood, 
exceed  all  others,  if  these  facts  are  not  properly  set  forth  ?  Her  title  to  pre- 
cedence is  not  the  less  valid  because  it  has  not  been  fully  asserted ;  and  it  may 
be  said,  that  the  neglect  of  Irish  History  is  the  only  enemy  to  its  dignity. 
From  your  Lordship,  for  instance,  to  Heber,  are  reckoned  ninety-three  genera- 
tions in  your  house,  of  which  number,  eighty-four  were  kings  of  Thomond, 
kings  of  Munster,  or  monarchs  of  Ireland;  so  justly  may  the  atavis  edite 
regibtis  of  Horace  be  applied  to  your  Lordship.  Thus  a  peerage  could  be 
no  accession  of  honour  to  it;  and  this  is  so  true,  that  all  North  Munster 
were  in  flames  when  it  first  became  known  that  such  a  title  was  adopted. 
The  same  thing  happened  in  Ulster,  when  Con  O'Neill  assumed  the  title  of 
Earl  of  Tyrone :  it  was  the  case  with  Mac  Carthy  in  Desmond,  with  Fitz 
Patrick  in  Ossory,  etc. 

However  solicitous  I  have  been  to  render  this  work  worthy  of  public  atten- 
tion, your  Lordship's  protection,  and  the  title  which  it  bears,  yet  I  am  satisfied 
that  an  undertaking  on  so  extensive  a  plan,  and  on  a  new  scale,  must  necessa- 
rily be  subject  to  many  imperfections ;  and  I  greatly  regret  that  my  situation 
in  life  would  not  permit  me  to  devote  to  it  all  that  leisure  which  it  merited, 
and  which  I  wished.    Yet,  be  its  defects  what  they  may,  I  will  venture  to 

VI. 


DEDICATION. 


affirm  that  it  exhibits  a  clearer  and  more  comprehensive  view  of  the  true  state 
and  importance  of  Irish  History  than  any  other  work  extant. 

Deign  favourably,  my  Lord,  to  receive  this  public  testimony  of  my  esteem 
and  attachment,  the  greatest  I  can  offer,  and  permit  me  the  honour  to  subscribe 
myself,  with  the  highest  respect, 

My  Lord, 

Your  Lordship's  most  obedient, 

and  most  devoted  humble  Servant,     . 

SILVESTER  O'HALLORAN. 


%.'■ 


:.«^ 


PBELIMOAEY    DISCOUESE 


TO    THE    FIRST    DIVISION. 


BY    SYLVESTER    O'HALLORAN. 


Nothing  has  proved  so  great  an  obsta- 
cle to  the  study  of  ancient  history,  as  the 
very  great  uncertainty  in  ancient  chronol- 
ogy. The  Babylonians,  Chaldeans,  Egyp- 
tians, and  Chinese,  have  carried  their  dif- 
ferent chronologies  so  amazingly  far  back, 
that  to  credit  them,  one  would  be  almost 
tempted  to  suppose  the  world  eternal ! 
The  Greeks  came  much  later  into  the  cus- 
tom of  recording  historical  events ;  and,  it 
must  be  confessed,  that  where  they  have 
touched  on  remote  periods,  their  eras  are, 
to  the  last  degree,  uncertain.  Even  in  sa- 
cred writ  we  meet  with  great  discordance 
in  point  of  chronology ;  the  Septuagint 
translation  of  the  Bible,  and  many  of  the 
fathers,  reckoning  three  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  thirteen  years  from  the  creation 
to  the  vocation  of  Abraham  ;  while  the 
Hebrew  text,  and  some  of  the  principal 
fathers  of  the  Church,  fix  it  at  two  thou- 
sand and  twenty-three !  It  is  on  account 
of  this  great  uncertainty  in  ancient  chro- 
nology, that  Varro,  the  most  learned  his- 
torian and  philosopher  of  ancient  Rome, 
deemed  every  relation  which  preceded  the 
first  Olympiad,  (i.  e.  the  year  of  the  world 
3232,)  to  be  obscure,  fabulous,  and  un- 
worthy of  public  notice ! 

A  variety  of  causes  have  concurred  to 
make  chronology  so  unsettled,  and  of  course 
its  concomitant,  history,  so  unsatisfactory. 
No  two  nations  of  antiquity  are  in  accord 
as  to  any  fixed  epocha,  nor  even  as  to  the 
length  of  the  year,  or  the  time  when  it 
should  commence.  The  Greeks  began 
their  era  of  certain  history  from  the  Olym- 


piads, and  the  Romans  from  the  foundation 
of  their  city.  Some  have  counted  time 
from  the  solar,  others  from  the  lunar  year. 
Even  in  the  Christian  world  some  centu- 
ries had  passed,  from  the  Incarnation,  be- 
fore it  was  agreed  to  compute  time  from 
that  epocha.  To  this  may  be  added  the 
diflferent  periods  in  which  letters  were  in- 
troduced into  countries,  the  repeated  con- 
vulsions and  revolutions  which  every  na- 
tion of  the  continent  has  experienced,  and 
the  neglect  and  destruction  of  annals  and 
records,  ever  attendant  on  such  general 
calamities  1 

The  nation,  whose  history  I  have  ^ 
honour  of  presenting  to  the  public,  has  ex- 
perienced none  of  these  misfortunes,  at 
least  not  in  so  remarkable  a  degree  as  to 
destroy  all  her  annals,  or  bring  her  chro- 
nology into  any  kind  of  doubt.  They  ap-j 
pear  to  have  been,  from  the  most  remoi 
antiquity,  a  polished  people,  and  with  p: 
priety  they  may  be  called,  the  fathers  of 
letters!  Sequestered  in  a  remote  island, 
giving  laws  to  neighbouring  states,  and 
free  from  foreign  invasions  for  the  certain 
space  of  two  thousand  and  sixty  years,  they  f 
had  time  and  leisure  to  attend  to  their  his-  ] 
tory  and  antiquities ;  and  they  certainly  ^ 
exceeded  all  nations  of  the  world  in  their  % 


ap.. 

lotev 

)ro-S 


attention  to  these 


!     As  I  have  en- 


^% 


pomts . 

deavoured  to  elucidate  a  variety  of  obscure  j; 
parts  in  ancient  history,  and  to  determine  | 
many  controverted  eras  in  ancient  chro- 
nology by  the  annals  of  Ireland,  it  is  but 
just  that  the  candid  critical  reader  shouid 

receive  the  clearest  evidences  and  the  fiil- 

IX.  ^ 


i 


■^k 


PRELIMINARY  DISCOURSE 


lest  information,  as  to  their  authenticity. 
This  matter  satisfactorily  explained,  he 
will  then  no  doubt  naturally  inquire,  why 
a  history  so  manifestly  interesting  to  let- 
ters, and  which  throws  such  light  on  the 
early  laws,  religion,  and  customs  of  the 
Celtce,  should  have  lain  so  long  concealed 
from  public  view,  especially  in  ages  learned 
and  inquisitive  as  this  and  the  last  have 
proved  ?  But  of  these  points  in  their  or- 
der ;  and  first  as  to  our  chronology. 

The  Milesians  began  their  own  imme- 
diate history  with  Phaenius,  the  inventor 
of  letters,  and  their  great  ancestor.    They 
have  not  determined  on  the  precise  period 
of  time  in  which  he  flourished ;  but  yet  the 
generations  and  names  of  his  lineal  succes- 
sors, to  the  sons  of  Milesius,  have  been 
preserved  with  such  care  and  accuracy ; 
and  the  same  subject,  from  that  period  to 
this  day,  has  been  continued  with  such  un- 
exampled fidelity,  that  it  will  require  little 
trouble  to  determine  it,  with  precision  and 
certainty,  by  admitting  of  the  following 
reasonable    computation.      Twenty-three 
generations  are  counted  from  Phaenius  to 
Hebcr,  and  I  have  allowed  thirty-five  years 
to  each  generation,  which  I  think  (consid- 
ering the  remoteness  of  the  time  and  lon- 
gevity of  the  people)  will  be  deemed  a  fair 
and  reasonable  medium.     If  to  this  we  add 
eighty-one  years  for  the  supposed  extent 
of  his  life,  it  will  make  up  the  gross  term 
of  eight  hundred  and  eighty-six  years.     By 
the  Reim-Riogra,  or  Royal  Chronology  of 
GioUa-Caomhain — a  writer  of  great  an- 
tiquity— ^ninety  monarchs  of  Ireland  are 
reckoned    from    Heber    to   Conaire    the 
Grand,  in  whose  administration  the  Incar- 
nation happened  ;  and  the  reigns  of  these 
pviaoei,  one  with  another,  according  to  his 
efilf^tation,  amounts  to  one  thousand  six 
kondred  and  fifty-seven  years.     But,  in 
this  list,  a  reign  of  seventy-seven,  of  sev- 
oity,  and  of  sixty  years  is  allowed  to  some 
jMinices ;  to  one  in  particular  (and,  it  would 
seem,  merely  on  account  of  his  surname 
of  Soaglach,  or  the  Long-lived)  a  hundred 
and  fifty  is  given!     But,  in  Ireland,  the 
monarchy  was  elective  with  respect  to 
peraoDS,  though    hereditary  in   point   of 


blood.  Minors  were  declared  incapable 
of  governing ;  and  no  prince  could  become 
a  candidate  for  the  throne  who  had  not 
passed  the  age  of  twenty-five.  Revolu- 
tions were  frequent,  and  the  strongest  sword 
always  determined  the  contest.  Sound 
criticism  and  plain  sense  seem  to  concur  in 
reducing  so  improbable  a  period  to  a  rea- 
sonable time,  and  will,  I  think,  justify  me  in 
lopping  off  an  exuberance  of  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety-three  years  from  this  ac- 
count ;  so  that  from  the  birth  of  Phaenius 
to  the  Incarnation  comprehends  a  space  of 
two  thousand  one  hundred  and  forty-six 
years,  in  which  a  clear  chronology,  sub- 
ject to  the  severest  scrutiny,  is  exhibited, 
and  which,  if  not  under,  does  not  exceed 
true  time. 

From  this  period  the  Irish  chronology  is 
allowed  to  be  accurate,  by  the  most  crit- 
ical judges   of  the  matter.     Yet,  as   Sir 
James  Ware,  and,  from  him,  most  British 
writers,  who  were  very  incompetent  judges, 
have  aflirmed  that  our  chronology  at  best 
is  "but  uncertain  till  the  landing  of  St.  Pat- 
rick;  let  us,  for  argument  sake,  admit  it 
to  be  so,  and  endeavour  to  reconcile  the 
number  of  reigns  in  this  interval  to  reason 
and  chronology.      Loaghaire    began   his 
reign  A.  D.  428,  four  years  before  the 
landing  of  St.  Patrick,  and   twenty-nine 
princes  intervened  between  him  and  Co- 
naire.    From  the  landing  of  Patrick  the 
most  incredulous   have  not  doubted  our 
chronology ;  nor  could  it  be  otherwise,  as 
the  time  of  his  legation  was  so  well  known 
to  foreign  as  well   as  domestic  writers. 
Fifty-one  monarchs  swayed  the  Irish  scep- 
tre from  the  days  of  Loaghaire  to  those  of 
Roderic  O'Connor,  last  monarch  of  Ireland. 
Now,  if  we  compare  the  number  of  reigns 
in  the  first  and  second  stages  of  our  his- 
tory, or  from  Heber  to  Conaire,  arid  from 
him  to  Loaghaire,  with  those  in  the  third, 
or  uncontrovertihly  true  time,  we  shall  see 
a  very  close  agreement,  and  that  the  pe- 
riods preceding  this  last  epocha  are  rather 
contracted  than  enlarged.     Let  us  suppose 
upon  an  average,  that  the  reigns  of  these 
princes,  one  with  another,  did  not  exceed 
fourteen  years  each;  and  when  we  con- 


TO   THE   FIRST   DIVISION. 


sider  the  nature  of  an  elective  government, 
where  each  prmce  generally  fell  by  the 
sword  of  his  successor,  it  seems  a  fair  me- 
dium. The  number  of  reigns  from  Heber 
to  Conaire  are  ninety  years,  which,  at  an 
average  of  fourteen  years  to  each  reign, 
will  give  us  one  thousand  two  hundred  and 
sixty  years,  just  four  years  less  than  the 
time  assigned  !  From  Conaire  to  Loaghaire 
were  twenty-nine  years,  which,  at  an  av- 
erage of  fourteen  years  to  each  reign,  will 
give  us  four  hundred  and  six  years,  which 
is  twenty-two  years  less  than  true  time ; 
and  fifty-one  reigns  from  Loaghaire  to 
Roderic,  multiplied  by  fourteen,  produce 
but  seven  hundred  and  fourteen  years, 
which  is  about  forty  years  less  than  the 
real  time.  Thus  it  appears  (I  apprehend) 
evident,  that  instead  of  extending,  I  have 
sensibly  contracted  our  ancient  chronology, 
and  that  if  it  does  not  want  half  a  century 
of  true  time,  it  cannot  be  deemed  a  day 
beyond  it. 

From  this  chronology,  the  periods  in 
which  the  following  interesting  facts  hap- 
pened, appear  thus :  The  invention  of  let- 
ters by  Phaenius  (computing  from  the  He- 
brews) was  in  the  year  of  the  world  1912, 
the  sixty-second  year  of  his  age,  and  six- 
teenth of  his  reign. 

The  introduction  of  letters,  of  arts,  and 
sciences  into  Egypt  by  Niul,  the  son  of 
Phsnius,  took  place  in  the  year  of  the 
world  1941. 

The  Cretans  received  the  Phoenician 
alphabet  from  Cadmus  the  high-priest,  son 
of  Sru,  and  brother  to  Heber  Scot,  in  the 
year  of  the  world  2046 ;  and  this  at  once 
explains  a  matter  very  doubtful  and  very 
interesting  to  ancient  history.  The  Greeks 
unable  to  determine  the  time  in  which  Cad- 
mus lived,  have  conjectured  it  to  be  after 
the  days  of  Moses.  Now  in  his  days  the 
Hebrew  alphabet  contained  twenty-two 
letters,  which  is  six  letters  more  than  the 
Cadmean ;  and  the  dominions  of  the  Isra- 
elites bordering  on  Phoenicia,  have  made 
some  literati  suppose  that  this  last  alphabet 
must  have  contained  more  letters  than  an- 
tiquity has  attributed  to  it ;  but  we  now 
plainly  see  that  "Cadmus  [U'eceded  Moses 


by  more  than  four  centuries,  which  at  once 
removes  all  doubts,  and  justifies  the  reports 
of  antiquity. 

The  first  Phoenician  settlement  in  Af- 
rica took  place  in  the  year  of  the  world 
2279.  For  it  is  agreed  on  that,  long  be- 
fore the  days  of  Joshua,  a  Phoenician  col- 
ony had  made  a  settlement  about  Carthage, 
though,  till  now,  the  time  has  not  been  de- 
termined on  with  any  kind  of  precision. 

Briotan,  the  son  of  Feargus,  with  his  fol- 
lowers, retired  from  Ireland  to  Britain, 
A.  M.  2380;  and  from  him  the  country 
took  this  name,  (its  more  ancient  one  being 
Inis-More,  or  the  Great  Island,)  as  all  our 
antiquities  declare.  From  the  settlements 
in  Wales  the  people  were  called  Cimri,  not 
from  being  the  descendants  of  Gomer; 
cvmar  in  Irish  denoting  a  hilly  country,  as 
Wales  undoubtedly  is. 

The  Firbolgs,  or  Belgse,  entered  Britain, 
A.  M.  2541 ;  the  Damnonii,  or  Tuatha  da 
Dauaans,  A.  M.  2736 ;  the  Picts  took  pos- 
session of  Albany,  A.  M.  2744 ;  and  the 
Irish  Brigantes,  of  Cumberland,  etc^  A>  Mf 

2749.  ^  .  -   ./■   ■     -: 

The  Brigantes  of  Spain  (so  called  firom 
Breogan,  grandfather  to  MUesius)  became^ 
a  respectable,  warUke,  and  comsaercial 
people,  about  A.  M.  2600 ;  and  a  part  of 
their  posterity  conquered  Ireland  in  |tie 
year  of  the  world  2736. 

As  to  the  history  of  the  peo{de,  on  which 
this  chronology  is  founded,  every  evidenoe 
and  every  circumstance  that  can  ia  reas(w 
be  expected,  seem  combine4  to  stamp 'ui- 
thority  on  it.  From  Phaenius  to  the  sons 
of  Milesius,  their  exploits,  their  travels* 
successes,  and  disappointments,  have  been 
narrated  from  age  to  age  with  such  an  air 
of  native  simplicity  and  candour,  that.it 
would  be  hard  to  conceive — even  si^ 
posing  it  aji  imposture — what  could  be 
proposed  by  the  deception.  The  short- 
ness of  the  voyages ;  their  coasting  from 
land  to  land ;  and  the  length  of  time  they 
were  tossed  about,  so  as  to  take  V3fa» 
years  in  passing  from  Phoenicia  to  Getulia^ 
plainly  show  that  this  expedition  vnA  un- 
dertaken in  the  very  infancy  of  navigation. 
Their  posterity  remained  nearly  thrte  cea> 

XI. 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


tunes  after  this  on  the  African  coast, 
(though  a  commercial  people,)  before  they 
ventured  to  sail  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules ;  and  from  the  time  of  Bratha's  land- 
ing in  Galicia  to  the  conquest  of  Ireland 
by  the  sons  of  Milesius,  included  the  space 
of  a  hundred  and  fift/^eSTs  ;  so  formida- 
ble did  the  venturing  to  launch  into  the 
great  Atlantic  ocean  appear  to  this  people ! 
Nay,  the  circumstance  of  their  being  at 
this  time  furnished  with  reflecting  and  re- 
fracting glasses,  evidently  points  out  the 
progress  they  had  made  in  navigation. 
But  when  we  find  accounts  so  reconcile- 
able  to  reason  wonderfully  strengthened  by 
the  collateral  evidences  of  foreign  nations, 
and  throwing  day  on  the  obscurest  parts 
of  their  different  histories,  can  we  in  jus- 
tice refuse  our  assent  to  them  ?  That  the 
Milesian  ccJony  were  a  learned  and  pol- 
ished people  when  they  landed  in  Ireland, 
the  circumstance  of  their  transmitting  to 
posterity  the  records  of  the  nations  who 
preceded  them  there,  seems  alone  strongly 
to  prove.  Amhergin  was  then  their  high- 
priest.  A  part  of  his  duty,  as  well  as  that 
of  his  successor,  was,  the  care  of  history 
and  genealogy.  We  have  yet  preserved 
in  the  Leabhar-Lecan  part  of  his  writings, 
particularly  a  relation  of  the  landing  of  his 
brethren  and  their  followers  in  Ireland, 
with  the  numbers  who  perished  in  the  at- 
tempt, in  a  beautiful  style  of  poetry.  From 
this  epocha  we  behold  a  regular  succession 
6f  j)rinces,  all  great  encouragers  of  arts 
and  letters,  and  some  highly  celebrated  for 
their  erudition  and  for  their  writings.  We 
trace  the  rise  of  literary  societies,  the  modes 
by  which  adepts  passed  doctors  in  differ- 
ent faculties,  and  the  great  immunities 
which  this  order  of  men  possessed ;  con- 
firmed by  Caesar,  with  respect  to  the  Gauls, 
many  centuries  after.  We  behold  arts, 
manufactures,  and  commerce,  keep  equal 
pace  with  letters,  as  well  as  their  usual 
concomitants,  wealth  and  power  ! 

The  very  form  of  the  Irish  constitution 
shows  to  demonstration,  that  it  could  not 
subsist  without  letters.  We  see,  from  the 
prince  to  the  peasant,  the  nation  divided 
into*  diflferent  classes,  and  all  posts  of  hon- 

XII. 


our,  trust,  and  profit  in  these  different  or- 
ders, hereditary  in  certain  families ; — even 
in  the  hierarchy,  for  above  seven  centuries, 
the  episcopal  order  was  confined  to  cer- 
tain septs.  Though  our  history  had  been 
silent  on  this  head,  yet  we  should  conclude 
that  a  class  of  people  must  have  been  set 
apart  to  preserve  the  genealogies  of  these 
different  families:  how  could  order  or 
subordination  be  otherwise  preserved  ? 
Caesar  tells  us  that  the  Gauls  were  divided 
into  different  classes ;  and  by  way  of  ex- 
plaining this,  does  he  not  at  the  same  time 
proclaim  the  flourishing  state  of  letters 
there,  and  the  great  privileges  granted  to 
this  order  of  men?*  But  modem  skeptics 
affirm,  that  the  Irish  knew  nbt  the  use  of 
letters  till  the  landing  of  St.  Patrick.  But 
if  this  apostle  first  introduced  letters  into 
Ireland,  they  must  undoubtedly  have  been 
the  Roman.  And  did  the  Roman  alphabet 
THEN  contain  no  more  than  seventeen  let- 
ters ?  Were  these  arranged  like  ours,  or 
were  they  of  similar  structure?  If  all 
these  interrogatories  are  to  be  answered  in 
the  negative,  as  they  undoubtedly  must, 
what  will  become  of  our  visionaries  ?  But 
to  remove  for  ever  so  great  an  obstacle  to 
true  history  and  chronology,  Caesar  him- 
self tells  us  that  the  Gaulish  letters  in  his 
days  resembled  the  Greek,  and  such  is  the 
Irish  letter  even  at  this  day!  Now,  as 
from  this  remark  of  Caesar,  it  becomes  evi- 
dent that  the  Gauls  and  Romans  had  differ- 
ent kinds  of  alphabets,  it  must  be  a  cei'tain 
consequence  that  the  Irish  could  not  bor- 
row their  letters  from  ancient  Rome,  and 
our  history  sufficiently  proclaims  them  the 
eternal  enemies  of  that  people. 

But,  besides  all  this,  the  more  critically 
we  examine,  and  the  deeper  we  explore 
the  annals  of  Ireland,  the  more  convinced 
we  shall  become  of  their  genuineness. 
The  monarchy,  in  every  period  of  our 
history,  was  confined  to  the  posterity  of 
the  three  sons  of  Milesius  only,  except  in 
three  instances  in  the  line  of  Ith,  who  were 
in  main  of  the  same  royal  stock.  Though 
all  descended  from  one  common  ancestor, 
yet  they  were  divided  in  interests ;  and  the 
*  Comment  lib.  vi. 


TO   THE   FIRST  DIVISION. 


clearest  head  and  strongest  sword  gene- 
rally gained  the  monarchy.  If  any  doubt 
had  ever  been  entertained  of  the  veracity 
of  Irish  history,  must  it  not  have  come  out, 
some  time  or  other,  in  the  many  bloody 
contests  for  sovereignty  so  disgraceful  to 
our  annals  ?  Would  it  not  even  serve  as 
a  political  stimulus  the  more  to  inflame  the 
contending  parties?  But  no  such  thing! 
Though  of  different  interests,  and  highly 
inimical  to  each  other,  yet  were  they  in 
perfect  unison  as  to  their  being  of  one 
common  stock !  And  nothing  can  more 
fully  prove  this  than  the  very  mode  of  in- 
augurating our  different  princes,  as  well 
monarchical  as  provincial,  which  in  no  in- 
stance was  ever  deviated  from.  After  the 
election  was  declared,  and  before  the  cor- 
onation oaths  were  administered,  the  chief 
senachie,  or  antiquarian,  stepped  forth,  and 
after  bending  the  knee  to  the  throne,  an- 
nounced to  the  people  aloud,  "  That  Brien- 
Boirumhe,  ancestor  to  the  present  earl  of 
Inchiquin,  (for  instance)  the  son  of  Cineidi, 
the  son  of  Lorcan,  the  son  of  Lachtna,  the 
son  of  Core,  son  of  Anluan,  son  of  Mahon, 
the  son  of  Turelach,  the  son  of  Cathil,  the 
son  of  Aodh-Caomh,  the  -son  of  Conal,  the 
son  of  Eochadh,  and  so  on  to  (roUamh  or 
Milesius,  and  from  him  to  Phsenius,  etc., 
was  monarch  of  Ireland  and  Albany." 
And  this  is  the  reason  that  our  antiquari- 
ans have  been  so  careful  to  recite  the  pedi- 
grees, and  note  the  houses  from  which  our 
different  monarchs  came  ;  which,  though 
disgusting  in  many  instances  to  readers, 
yet  we  see  was  observed  for  the  wise  pur- 
pose of  preserving  both  the  constitution  and 
the  history  of  the  kingdom  pure.  In  every 
particular,  except  the  right  of  governing, 
they  were  in  perfect  accord.  The  line  of 
Heber,  or  house  of  Munster,  being  de- 
scended from  the  eldest  son  of  Milesius, 
claimed  a  kind  of  prescriptive  right  to  the 
monarchy;  yet  the  Heremonians,  though 
the  youngest  branch,  gave  infinitely  more 
monarchs  to  Ireland.  The  Heberians 
deemed  this  a  kind  of  usurpation,  and  the 
Heremonians  contended  that,  in  a  country 
where  the  sword  determined  the  dispute, 
power  and  intrepidity,  not  seniority,  justi- 


fied the  claim.  We  have  yet  preserved  a 
poem,  written  by  Toma-Eigeas,  chief  bard 
to  Niall  the  Grand,  in  the  fourth  century, 
reciting  the  bloody  contests  between  him 
and  Core,  King  of  Munster,  for  the  mon- 
archy. In  this,  he  with  great  elegance 
and  delicacy,  lays  before  his  reader  the 
pretensions  of  both  houses,  and  the  argu- 
ments used  by  their  different  advocates, 
and  recapitulates  the  bloody  wars  carried 
on  from  the  days  of  Heber  to  his  own  time 
for  this  object — an  irrefragable  proof  surely, 
even  then,  of  the  authenticity  of  our  ear- 
lier annals.  St.  Patrick  in  the  next  age 
presided  over  the  literati  in  several  con- 
ventions ;  and  our  annals,  such  as  we  now 
find  them,  were  then,  and  in  every  suc- 
ceeding age  to  the  last  century,  never 
called  in  question  by  those  who  had  the 
best  right  to  judge  of  them.  The  uncom- 
mon care  taken  to  preserve  them  pure  and 
uncorrupt,  when  attended  to,  must  satisfy 
the  most  incredulous. 

Every  province  had  its  history ;  every 
powerful  chief,  his  poet  and  antiquarian. 
Their  persons  were  declared  sacred,  and 
their  ample  possessions  unmolested.  The 
different  provincial  records  and  histories 
were  every  third  year  examined  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  national  assembly  ;  and  noth- 
ing was  admitted  into  the  Seanachas-more, 
or  Great  Antiquity — so  called  as  being  the  \ 
national  history — but  what  was  strictly 
true.  The  greatest  punishments  awaited 
such  antiquarians  as  attempted  to  disguise 
truth  or  impose  falsehoods ;  and  no^  in- 
stance is  recorded  of  any  senachie  being 
convicted  of  these  crimes !  These  he- 
reditary bards  and  historians  flourished 
through  every  period  of  our  history.  They 
existed  in  Thomond,  in  Connaught,  and  in 
Ulster,  in  some  degree,  even  to  the  Revolvr 
tion. 

We  are  yet  possessed  of  copies  of  the 
Book  of  Munster.  It  recites  the  travels  of 
the  Gad^titms,  from  their  derelictiod^«f 
Egypt  to  the'eonquest  of  Ireland,  and  notes 
down  with  gitat  precision  the  different 
generations  that  intervened.  From  this 
period  the  history  is  confined  to  the  ex- 
ploits of  this  house  only,  as  kings  of  Leath- 

XIII. 


PRELIMINAEY  DISCOURSE 


Mogha,  or  monarcbs  of  Ireland,  just  as 
they  happened.  The  line  of  Ith,  or  Brig- 
antes  of  Munster,  had  iheir  hereditary  an- 
tiquarians also  ;  and  Forchem,  one  of  our 
most  celebrated  senachies,  was  poet  to 
Conrigh,  the  son  of  Darius,  of  the  Degaids 
of  Munster,  who  was  contemporary  with 
Julius  Caesar. 

The  Book  of  Leinster  begins  with  Jugh- 
aine  the  Great,  (from  whom  Jiggin's-Town, 
near  the  Naas,)  monarch  of  Ireland,  A.  M. 
3587  ;  and  through  his  son  Loagaire-Lorc, 
narrates  the  exploits  and  actions  of  his  suc- 
cessors as  kings  of  Leinster.  The  Book 
of  Leath-Cuin  traces  the  Heremonian  likje 
from  the  conquest  of  Ireland  to  the  reign 
of  Jughaine,  and  then,  through  his  son  Cob- 
thaig,  continues  the  same  subject  to  the 
twelfth  century.  This  psalter  got  the  title 
of  Leath-Cuin,  as  it  treated  of  all  the  stock 
of  the  Heremonians,  in  the  northern  divis- 
ion of  Ireland,  according  to  the  famous 
partition  treaty  in  the  second  century. 
Keating  and  other  writers  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, mention  a  noble  copy  of  this  work  on 
vellum,  with  the  coats  of  arms  of  the  prin- 
cipal chiefs  of  Ulster  and  Connaught,  ele- 
gantly blazoned  on  its  margins.  The  Con- 
naught  book  is  quoted  by  Usher  and  others, 
and  several  extracts  from  it  may  be  found 
in  the  Leabhar-Lecan.  The  house  of 
Emania,  or  line  of  Ir,  which  cut  so  con- 
spicuous a  figure  in  our  annals,  were  great 
protectors  of  the  literati  of  Ireland  on  sev- 
eral occasions,  and  could  not  have  been 
without  their  bards  and  antiquarians ;  and 
to  their  care  it  is  owing,  that  their  exploits 
and  those  of  the  Craobh-Ruadh,  have  been 
so  well  preserved.  As  soon  as  a  new  gov- 
ernment was  established  in  a  part  of  Ul- 
ster, in  the  fourth  century,  on  the  ruins  of 
that  great  house,  we  find  also  a  new  chron- 
icle commenced  under  the  title  of  the  Book 
of  Oirgial,  so  called  from  the  new  name 
given  to  that  territory,  in  which  the  ex- 
ploits of  these  conquerors  and  their  succes- 
sors, with  their  pedigrees,  are  accurately 
noted  down. 

Besides  these  are  the  Book  of  Synchro- 
nisms, in  which  the  provincial  kings  are 
synchronised  with  the  monarchs  of  Ireland, 

XIV. 


and  the  Reim-Riogi-a,  or  Book  of  Reigns, 
which  notes  down  exactly  the  number  of 
years  each  of  these  monarchs  governed. 
From  these  records  principally  are  almost 
all  the  other  books  and  annals  of  the  king- 
dom taken,  with  the  genealogies  of  fami- 
lies. It  is  by  their  means  that  the  Irish  are 
enabled  to  trace  their  pedigrees  so  much 
higher  than  other  nations,  and  that,  as 
Camden  himself  acknowledges,  "  The  an- 
tiquities of  every  other  nation  compared  to 
that  of  Ireland  is  but  as  if  of  yesterday !" 
This  unexampled  protection  afibrded  to 
letters,  and  care  of  their  history  and  an- 
tiquities, made  the  Irish  deem  all  the  neigh- 
bouring states  barbarous.  In  the  life  of 
St.  Fiacre,  in  the  seventh  century,  on  meet- 
ing his  countryman  St.  Chilian,  in  France, 
he  thus  addresses  him :  "  Quid  te  charis- 
sime  frater,  ad  has  barbaras  gentes  de- 
duxit  ?"  No  wonder,  then,  if  a  people  who 
traced  their  pedigrees  from  the  Scythians 
and  Egyptians,  the  noblest  races  of  an- 
tiquity, should  glory  in  their  ancestry,  and 
look  down  with  condescension  and  pity  on 
the  pretensions  of  other  nations  !  If  the 
histoiies  of  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Germany 
cannot  be  traced  higher  than  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, and  that,  beyond  this  era,  no  traces 
even  of  their  princes  can  be  found,  how 
absurd,  then,  to  attempt  to  carry  the  pedi- 
grees of  private  families  higher  ?  But  in 
Ireland,  not  only  the  blood-royal,  but  the 
genealogies  of  the  entire  Milesian  race 
have  been  carefully  preserved,  with  the 
numbers  of  saints'  and  illustrious  men  their 
principal  families  produced.  It  could  not, 
from  the  nature  of  the  constitution,  be  pos- 
sibly otherwise,  since  rank  and  subordina- 
tion depended  on  it.  This  reminds  me  of 
an  anecdote  that  happened  soon  after  the 
late  war  in  Germany.  The  prince  of  Saxe 
Hilburghausen  being  one  day  in  a  large 
circle,  descanting  on  the  high  antiquity  of 
his  house,  and  that  his  ancestors  were 
dukes  in  the  reign  of  Charlemagne,  Gen- 
eral CDonnel,  (descended  from  Niall  the 
Grand,  monarch  of  Ireland  in  the  fourth 
century),  fatigued  with  his  vanity,  coolly 
answered,  "Mon  prince,  vous  6tes  bien 
heureux  d'avoir  Hre  n6  en  Allemagne — si 


TO  tHEFilCS*   01^1^  ION/ 


vous  etiez  chez  moi,  i  peine  auriez  vous 
les  droits  d'un  bourgeois !" 

The  very  names  of  territories,  rivers, 
lakes,  and  mountains,  and  even  the  sur- 
names of  families,  allude  to  different  peri- 
ods of  our  history.  None  dared  impose 
arbitrary  names  on  places  or  people. 
They  were  first  proposed  by  the  antiqua- 
rians, and  afterwards  approved  of  by  the 
national  representatives — at  least  by  the 
literati — and  these  names,  and  the  reasons 
why  they  were  imposed,  were  entered  into 
the  national  records.  From  these  it  is, 
that,  even  at  this  day,  we  know,  for  in- 
stance, why  from  Ealgnait,  or  Ealga,  wife 
to  Partholan,  the  first  invader  of  Ireland, 
the  country  got  the  name  of  Inis-Ealga,  or 
Ealga's  island,  and  that  after  her  children 
different  lakes  and  mountains  were  called. 
The  names  of  almost  all  the  territories, 
rivers,  and  lakes,  through  the  kingdom,  are, 
in  like  manner,  explained  by  our  history. 
As  to  surnames,  when  first  assumed  in  Ire- 
land, they  were  not  arbitrarily  imposed, 
but,  with  great  taste  and  judgment,  were 
directed  to  be  taken  from  some  illustrious 
ancestor  belonging  to  the  family,  to  which 
the  epithets  O'  or  Mac  were  to  be  prefixed, 
which  implied  the  son  or  successor  of  such 
a  man.  Can  the  Greeks  or  Romans  bring 
such  proofs  of  the  authenticity  of  their  his- 
tories and  antiquities  ?  Had  they  men  set 
apart,  endowed  with  uncommon  privileges 
and  immunities,  to  attend  to  these  great 
objects  ?  and  were  their  different  accounts 
examined  from  time  to  time  by  committees 
of  the  national  assemblies  ?  Josephus,  in 
his  Discourse  against  Apion,  upbraids  the 
Greeks  for  their  shameful  ignorance  of 
early  history  and  chronology,  and  accounts 
for  it  by  observing,  that  they  kept  not  pub- 
lic registers,  nor  had  they  hereditary  anti- 
quarians to  superintend  this  department. 
"  Not  so  (says  he)  with  the  Phoenicians, 
the  Chaldeans,  and  with  us  (the  Jews,) 
who  have,  from  remote  antiquity,  fty  means 
of  registers,  and  the  care  of  persons  par-^ 
ticularly  appointed  to  this  office,  preserved 
our  histories  beyond  all  other  nations." 
May  not  this  retort  of  Josephus  on  the 
Greeks  be,  with  equal  propriety,  applied 


by  the  Irish  to  the  enemies  of  their  high 
antiquity — the  only  thing  they  have  now 
left  to  boast  of!    And  is  it  not  a  strong  de- 
fence of  our  history  that  it  has  been  pre- 
served m  the  same  manner?    What  au- 
thorities had  Livy  to  ground  his  early  his- 
tory on  ?     It  is  true,  some  mention  is  made 
of  Pictor  and  Piso,  and  of  registers  kept  by 
the  high-priests ;  but  does  not  Livy  him- 
self confess  that  almost  all  of  these  were 
destroyed  by  the  Gauls  in  their  sacking  of 
Rome,  and    by  others?     And  yet,  who 
doubts  the  veracity  of  this  history,  because 
some  records  must  have  undoubtedly  re- 
mained?    If  we  find  the  genealogies  of 
our  princes  noted  in  the  different  reigns,  is 
not  the  same  method  observed  in  the  Bible, 
the  historical  parts  of  which  were  pre- 
served by  persons  set  apart  for  that  office? 
Our  princes  appeared  in  battle  with  crowns 
of  gold  on  their  heads  ;  and  such  was  the 
established  custom  among  the  Jews.*     In 
the  battle  of  Muirtheimne,  fought  before 
the  Incarnation,  in  that  of  Magh-Lena,  and 
in  subsequent  ones,  to  the  death  of  Ceal- 
lachan  and  Brian-Boirumhe,  it  was  usual 
for  a  prince   or  great  commander  to  la- 
ment, in'extempore  odes,  the  loss  of  heroes 
slain  in  battle.     Instances  of  this  we  fre- 
quently meet  with,  and  yet  the  custom  was 
not  peculiar  to  Ireland,  since  we  find  it  ob- 
served by  the  Jews  also.      Thus  David 
makes  a  song  of  lamentation  for  the  deaths 
of  Saul  and  Jonathan  If 

Too  much  care  cannot  certainly  be  taken 
to  prove  the  veracity  of  our  history  and 
the  certainty  of  our  chronology,  since  both 
are  capable  of  throwing  such  new  and  in- 
teresting lights  on  history  and  antiquity; 
and  while  I  become  thus  a  professed  advo- 
cate in  the  cause  of  my  country,  I  persuade 
myself  that  I  am  pleading  the  cause  of  let- 
ters in  general.  To  pass  by  the  sunshine 
which  our  history  throws  on  that  of  the 
early  Greeks,  and  other  neighbouring  na- 
tions, were  we  to  consider  that  it  is  the 
only  key  to  the  Greek  and  Roman  accounts 
of  the'  legion,  laws,  and  customs  of  the* 
ancient  Celtae,  that  alone  should  entitle  it 

*  2  Sam.  i.  10.     1  ChroD.  xx.  2,  etc. 
t  2  Sam.  i.  17,  etc. 
XV. 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


to  the  particular  attention  of  the  literati  of 
Surope.  CsBsar's.  account  of  the  consti- 
tution of  Gaul,  and  the  Druidical  order,* 
are  only  reconcileable  to  reason  and  truth, 
by  recurring  to  Irish  history :  the  Samno- 
thei,  and  other  orders  of  religious  among 
the  Celtse,  are,  in  like  manner,  elucidated 
by  applying  to  the  same  pure  fountain. 
But  of  all  these  matters  I  have  already 
sufficiently  descanted  in  the  first  part  of 
my  Introduction  to  Irish  History.  The 
moment  the  Romans  acquired  any  certain 
knowledge  of  Ireland,  (which  was  in  the 
days  of  Agricola,)  that  moment  they  pro- 
claimed its  power  and  consequence.  Ta- 
citus tells  us  that  her  ports  were  then  more 
resorted  to,  by  foreign  merchants,  than 
those  of  Britain.f  By  his  relation,  the 
Romans  seemed  well  acquainted  with  its 
value,  and  the  great  advantages  they 
should  derive  by  its  acquisition.  He  even 
expressly  declares  the  impossibility  of 
keeping  Britain  in  due  obedience  to  Rome 
without  the  reduction  of  Ireland — the 
country  which  supplied  the  malcontents 
■with  the  means  of  revolting  on  every  oc- 
casion. From  that  period  to  the  derelic- 
tion of  Britain,  we  shall  behold  Ireland  the 
very  soul  of  all  the  confederacies  formed 
there  against  Rome. 

Though  Ireland  constantly  braved  the 
power  of  Rome,  yet  we  see,  as  early  as 
A.  D.  431,  Palladius  sent  by  Pope  Celestin 
as  apostle  "to  the  Scots  believing  in 
Christ,**  for  so  were  the  Irish  then,  and  for 
many  centuries  after,  called.  The  next 
year  he  consecrated  Magonius,  who  was 
well  versed  in  the  Irish  language,  for  that 
mission ;  and  to  add  greater  dignity  to 
this  embassy,  he  created  him  a  patrician  ; 
for  a  title,  not  a  name,  it  undoubtedly  was. 
Need  it  be  told  that  this  was  an  institution 
of  Constantino  the  Great,  much  more  hon- 
ourable than  that  of  the  patricii  of  heathen 
Rome  ;  and  that  several  kings  of  France 
afterwards  gloried  in  the  title !  Thus  Ire- 
land, exempt  from  Roman  power,  had 
Palladius,  and  after  him  Magonius,  or,  as 
he  is  generally  called,  Patrick,  sent  to  Ire- 

•  Commentar.  lib.  vi. 
t  Vita  Jal.  AgricoL 
XVI. 


land  early  in  the  fifth  century;  whereas 
Britain,  so  long  a  Roman  province,  did 
not  receive  Augustine  for  a  century  and  a 
half  later  !  Long  before  this  period,  our 
writers  notice  numbers  of  Irish  Chris- 
tians labouring  to  spread  its  tenets  through 
the  neighbouring  states;  and,  soon  after, 
all  Europe  proclaimed  the  erudition  and 
piety  of  her  sons,  insomuch  that  through 
them  the  nation,  by  universal  consent^  got 
the  glorious  and  unexampled  titles  of  insu- 
la  SANCTORUM    ET    DOCTORUM  1      It  WaS  UOt 

enough  that  they  sent  their  missionaries, 
and  of  the  purest  blood  in  the  kingdom,  to 
instruct,  in  letters  and  Christianity,  the 
(then)  barbarous  circumjacent  nations,  but 
they  opened  for  them  colleges  in  different 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  on  so  extensive  and 
generous  a  plan,  that  not  only  (says  the 
Venerable  Bede)  were  these  strangers 
supplied  with  meat,  drink,  and  lodging,  hvt 
even  with  books  gratis  !  *  They  were,  at 
this  time,  eminent  in  sculpture,  painting, 
and  music,  and  were  acquainted  with  the 
sciences  in  an  exalted  degree  !  Could  they 
have  borrowed  these  from  Rome  1  They 
had  little  connection  with  her.  Would  not 
the  technical  terms  in  arts  and  sciences 
pavour  of  the  country  from  whence  they 
were  acquired  ?  They  were  all  pure  na- 
tive Irish !  But  if  the  Romans  gave  arts 
and  sciences  to  the  Irish,  why  did  they 
withhold  them  from  the  rest  of  Europe  ? 
Or  why  pitch  on  a  people,  as  the  convey- 
ancers of  them,  so  remote,  and  with  whom 
they  had  no  friendly  correspondence  ? 
The  truth  is,  Rome  had  not  those  arts  and 
sciences,  in  an  eminent  degree,  at  that 
time ;  and  the  inundations  of  different  ene- 
mies pouring  into  the  empire  will  explain 
it. 

If,  then,  Ireland,  in  those  early  days  of 
Christianity,  became  so  renowned  for  arts 
and  sciences,  that  when  a  lettered  man  of 
Britain,  or  of  the  continent,  was  for  any 
time  absent,  it  became  a  common  proverb— 
Amandatus  est  ad  disciplinam  in  Hibemia  ! 
is  it  not  a  strong  presumptive  proof  that 
she  must  have  possessed  them  before  this 
period,  even  though  our  histories  had  been 

*  Hiitor.  Ecclet.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  37. 


TO  THE   FIRST   DIVISION. 


silent  on  this  head,  though  such  was  not 
the  case  ?  But  the  truth  is,  our  history  is 
the  only  means  left  to  arrive  at  any  tole- 
rable knowledge  of  the  ancient  state  of 
Europe,  and  the  true  commentary  to  the 
Greek  and  Roman  accounts  of  it.  Modem 
visionaries  tell  us  that  all  Europe  was  in  a 
state  of  barbarity,  till  reclaimed  and  civi- 
lized by  the  Romans ;  and  yet  the  early 
Greek  writers  confess  that  from  the  Celtee 
they  borrowed  many  things,  both  in  theol- 
ogy and  philosophy,  and  even  adopted  the 
very  terms  of  those  people  !  Caesar,  from 
his  own  knowledge,  proclaims  the  flour- 
ishing state  of  letters  in  Gaul,  and  the 
great  immunities  enjoyed  by  its  literati. 

As  much  have  the  moderns  been  in  the 
dark  with  respect  to  the  feudal  govern- 
ment that  prevailed  over  Europe.  They 
have  represented  it  as  a  barbarous  custom, 
which  originated  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Roman  empire;  but  it  was  certainly 
far  removed  from  this.  By  the  feudal  con- 
stitution, places,  honours,  and  employ- 
ments were  hereditary  in  certain  families, 
and  the  knowledge  of  these  ranks  could 
only  be  preserved  by  letters.  What  gov- 
ernment could  bid  fairer  for  durability, 
than  where  subordination  was  established  ? 
And  had  we  wanted  other  instances,  the 
history  of  Ireland  would  sufficiently  prove 
this,  where  we  behold  it  flourishing  from 
the  reign  of  Heber  to  nearly  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century,  including  a  space  of 
two  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  years;  and  it  continued  in  Thomond, 
and  in  parts  of  Connaught  and  Ulster,  to 
near  the  middle  of  the  la.st  age  !  What  a 
contrast  between  it  and  that  of  ancient 
Rome  under  her  emperors  1  There  we 
behold  often  the  vilest  of  the  people,  with- 
out regard  to  blood  or  rank,  raised  to  the 
purple !  What  were  the  consequences  ? 
intrigues,  conspiracies,  proscriptions,  de- 
struction of  all  subordination,  and,  in  a 
short  time,  a  final  period  put  to  the  most 
powerful .  and  extensive  government  in  the 
world ! 

The  feudal  system  was  neither  barba- 
rous nor  impolitic  :  it  was  revived  on  the 
continent  after  the  annihilation  of  Roman 


B 


tjrranny;  wad  this  furnishes  us  with  a 
strong  proof  how  little  the  Celtae  were  im- 
proved by  the  Romans,  since  neither  their 
laws  nor  customs  were  adopted  by  any 
of  the  nations  subdued  by  them,  which 
shows  in  what  an  abject  state  they  were 
held.  But  though  they  endeavoured  to  re- 
establish that  mode  of  government  which 
their  ancestors  enjoyed  in  happier  days, 
yet  the  destruction  of  their  annals  and  lite- 
rary foundations,  made  it  impossible  for 
them  to  bring  it  to  that  perfection  in  which 
it  flourished  among  a  people  unacquainted 
with  such  hardships.  Such  was  the  Irish 
nation!  Here  feudal  government  flour- 
ished in  full  lustre,  and  arts  and  sciences 
were  eminently  protected.  The  crown 
■was  hereditary  as  to  blood,  but  elective  as 
to  the  person ;  and  this  nomination  was 
confined  to  the  chiefs  of  the  people.  No 
female  could  be  vested  with  supreme  com- 
mand ;  and  the  issue  of  the  female  line 
had  no  pretensions  to  the  succession.  Pub- 
lic employments  of  ever)'^  kind  were  hered- 
itary in  families ;  and  no  overt  act  of  the 
present  possessor  could  injure  the  claims 
of  his  successors.  People  were  set  apart 
to  attend  to  the  genealogies  and  exploits  of 
the  different  great  families,  while  a  higher 
order  took  care  of  the  actions  and  pedigrees 
of  the  blood-royal.  The  literati  preceded 
the  nobility,  and  preserved  always  those 
privileges  and  immunities  which  Caesar 
tells  us  the  literati  of  Gaul  possessed  in  his 
days.  On  the  revival  of  letters  on  the 
continent  and  the  establishment  of  schools, 
we  read  that  doctors  in  diflferent  sciences 
disputed  even  with  the  equestrian  order  for 
precedence,  and  it  was  in  many  instances 
granted  to  them.'  Has  not  this  a  manifest 
allusion  to  earlier  periods?  About  this 
time,  the  kings  of  France  and  emperors  of 
Germany  received  the  equestrian  order 
before  their  coronation ;  and  in  Ireland  a 
prince  was  incapable  of  command,  who 
had  not  been  entered  into  the  military 
school  when  seven  years  old,  and  received 
the  gradh-gaoisge,  an  order  of  knighthood, 
at  eighteen !  Though  it  be  universally 
agreed  on,  that  the  equestrian  orders  of 
Celtic  Europe  were  not  taken  from  the 

XVII. 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


Romans,  yet  writers  are  by  no  means  in 
accord  as  to  their  origin,  some  dating  them 
from  the  Crusades,  others  from  an  earlier 
period  ;  but  all  in  unison,  that  their  com- 
mencement was  after  the  destruction  of 
Rome.  However,  Csesar  is  positive  that 
they  flourished  in  Gaul  in  his  days ;  and 
three  hundred  years  earlier,  Manlius  got 
the  surname  Torquatus,  from  wearing  the 
gold  torques  of  a  Gaulish  knight  whom  he 
killed  in  battle,  and  which  ornaments  our 
Irish  knights,  by  public  decree  many  cen- 
turies prior  to  that  epocha,  constantly 
wore ! 

Thus  the  laws  and  customs  which  pre- 
vailed in  Europe  in  the  middle  ages,  and 
which,  in  some  instances,  operate  at  this 
day,  have  a  manifest  allusion  to  remoter 
periods;  and  the  accounts  which  Csesar 
and  Tacitus  have  given,  prove  they  have. 
But  where  shall  we  look  for  an  elucidation 
of  subjects  so  interesting  ?  not  among  suc- 
ceeding Roman  writers.  This  people,  so 
much  venerated  in  modem  days,  destroyed 
every  other  vestige  of  Celtic  civilization ! 
But  Ireland,  free  from  the  incursions  of 
that  rapacious  and  oppressive  people,  only 
can  illustrate  by  her  history  their  relations, 
and  rescue  the  credit  of  Csesar,  as  a  writer, 
from  the  specious  objections  of  moderns. 
He  says,  that  the  letters  and  religion  of 
the  Gauls  came  from  Britain,  or  more  pro- 
perly the  British  isles  ;*  and  that  in  every- 
thing but  their  Druid  mysteries,  they  used 
a  Greek  letter.  But  most  moderns,  as  if 
better  acquainted  with  these  matters  than 
a  living  witness,  affirm  that  letters  must 
have  been  rather  brought  from  the  ccmti- 
nent  to  the  British  isles ;  though  to  prove 
the  truth  of  the  reverse  we  see  Csesar 
affirm  that,  even  in  his  own  days,  such  as 
chose  to  excel  in  letters,  repaired  thither 
for  further  improvement !  But,  say  mod- 
erns, in  the  days  of  Csesar,  Britain  did 
not  make  a  figure  in  letters  sufficient  to 
justify  his  assertion ;  granted  :  yet  we  are 
not  rashly  to  conclude  that  he  advanced  a 
falsehood ;  we  should  rather  look  for  an 
explanation  of  the  matter.  Now  Ireland 
and  Britain,  from  the  earliest  times,  have 

•     •  De  Bello  Gullioo,  lib.  vi.  cap.  13,  14. 
XVIII. 


been  called  the  British  isles,  so  that  the 
word  Britannia  may  be  as  well  taken  for 
Ireland ;  and  if  its  history  explains  and 
justifies  everything  advanced  by  Csesar 
relative  to  this  matter,  why  attempt  totally 
to  reject  such  authority?  That  it  does, 
upon  a  careful  investigation  of  the  matter, 
cannot  be  controverted.*  Besides,  we  see 
how  satisfactorily  our  annals  account  for 
what  he  says  of  the  Gaulish  letter  being 
Greek ;  as  it  appears  that  to  our  ancestors 
the  Greeks  were  indebted  for  their  alpha- 
bet. Thus  Csesar  is  in  accord  with  Irish 
writers,  that  the  learning  and  religion  of 
the  ancient  Celtse  came  from  Ireland  ;  and 
to  prove  this,  our  history  is  the  clearest 
comment  upon  what  he  and  other  ancient 
writers  have  advanced  on  the  subject. 
And  as  on  the  revival  of  letters  it  is  uni- 
versally confessed  that  Ireland  was  then 
the  grand  emporium  of  learning,  we  may 
safely  presume  that,  had  the  continental 
annals  of  remoter  days  been  preserved, 
they  would  confirm  her  claim  in  as  full  a 
manner.  Thus,  Lucian  tells  us  that  Her- 
cules, among  the  Gauls,  was  represented 
as  an  old  man,  with  a  bald  head  and  long 
white  beard ;  that  through  his  tongue  were 
several  fine  gold  wires,  which  were  again 
fixed  to  the  ears  of  the  people,  who  seemed 
to  follow  him  with  pleasure.  That  by  this 
they  represented  the  powers  of  eloquence, 
not  of  strength  ;  and  on  this  account  they 
called  him  Hercules  Ogmius.  Now  when 
the  reader  is  informed  that  Ogham  was  the 
name  of  the  ancient  hierographic  charac- 
ter, (and  probably  of  the  Gaulish  too,  the 
figure  of  which  is  exhibited  in  the  present 
work,)  he  will  at  once  account  for  the 
Gauls  calling  their  Hercules  Ogmius. 
Again,  Floras,  in  his  relation  of  the  Allo- 
brogian  war,  tells  us  that  among  the  cap- 
tives who  graced  the  triumph,  Bituitus 
appeared  in  his  silver  chariot,  and  his  arms 
of  different  colours,  such  as  he  fought 
with.f  That  the  equestrian  order  in  Ire- 
land fought  in  chariots  in  early  days,  our 
annals  testify ;  that  they  did  so  in  Gaul, 
Pausanius  and  Csesar  declare;  and  these 

*  Introdaction  to  Iriah  History,  part  L  chap.  2,  3. 
■    '  t  Lib.  iii.  cap.  2. 


TO  THE   FIRST   DIVISION. 


chariots  were  highly  ornamented  with 
gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones.  But 
what  can  Florus  mean  by  the  discoloribus 
armis  of  Bituitus?  Metals  were  early 
worked  here  to  great  perfection,  and  they 
took  uncommon  pains  to  ornament  and 
enrich  their  arms.  In  the  reign  of  the 
monarch  Eochaidh,  A.  D.  2909,  the  art 
of  staining  swords  and  javelins,  etc.,  of 
different  colours,  was  first  invented  and 
brought  into  use,  for  which  reason  he  was 
sumamed  Faobhar-glass,  or  of  the  Green 
Edge,  because  his  weapons  were  mostly 
of  this  colour. 

Having  endeavoured  to  remove  from 
the  mind  of  the  candid  and  learned  reader, 
those  prejudices  which  malevolence  and 
ignorance  have  so  long  thrown  on  the 
annals  of  Ireland,  it  remains  that  I  should 
explain  why  a  history  so  highly  interest- 
ing to  letters  should  not  only  be  so  little 
known,  but  be  also  so  shockingly  misrepre- 
sented to  all  Europe  \  Among  the  an- 
cients, Strabo,  Pomponius  Mela,  and  Julius 
Solinus,  have  drawn  horrible  pictures  of 
the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Irish  na- 
tion. But  these  same  writers  are  in  ac-r 
cord,  that  the  country  was  as  bleak  and 
inhospitable  as  the  people  were  savage  and 
barbarous ;  so  that  their  total  ignorance 
of  the  nature  of  the  climate  is  the  best 
apology  for  their  misrepresentation  of  its 
inhabitants.  Besides,  Ireland  was  then, 
and  always  continued,  the  avowed  enemy 
to  Rome ;  no  wonder,  then,  that  her  writers 
should  regard  her  with  an  inimical  eye. 

At  a  very  early  period  Christianity  made 
a  rapid  progress  in  Ireland  ;  and  on  the 
arrival  of  Magonius,  or  (as  he  is  generally 
called)  Patrick,  he  found  a  heirarchy  es- 
tablished, which  for  a  time  seemed  very 
unwilling  to  acknowledge  his  superiority. 
I  strongly  suspect  that  by  Asiatic  or  Afri- 
can missionaries,  or  through  them  by 
Spanish  ones,  were  our  ancestors  first  in- 
structed in  Christianity,  because  their  con- 
nections by  trade  were  greater  with  these 
than  the  Romans,  and  because  they  rigidly 
adhered  to  their  customs,  as  to  tonsuret  and 
the  time  of  celebrating  of  Easter.  I  know 
some  have  advanced  that,  in  these  matters 


of  discipline  the  Irish  differed  from  the 
Asiatics ;  but  without  attempting  to  ex- 
amine further  into  this  matter,  so  uninte- 
resting to  the  public,  it  is  at  least  evident 
that  in  these  customs  they  differed  from 
Rome,  and  that  for  more  than  two  centu- 
ries after  the  death  of  St.  Patrick,  though 
in  matters  of  doctrine  and  faith  both  were 
in  the  most  perfect  unison  !  Add  to  this, 
that  the  Irish  church  preserved  privileges 
and  immunities  peculiar  to  itself.  Arch- 
bishops and  bishops  were  appointed  with- 
out consulting  Rome  ;  bishops  were  multi- 
plied at  the  wills  of  the  metropolitans; 
they  consecrated  bishops  for  foreign  mis- 
sions, and  these  missionaries,  in  many  in- 
stances of  discipline,  opposed  the  mandates 
of  Rome  ;  as  Columba  in  Scotland,  Finian 
and  Colman  in  England,  Coiumbanus  in 
France,  St.  Gall  in  Germany,  etc.  For 
more  than  five  centuries  after  the  death  of 
St  Patrick,  we  scarce  trace  any  vestiges 
of  a  correspondence  between  Rome  and 
Ireland,  and  in  this  interval,  in  many  in- 
stances, we  find  Rome  looked  upon  several 
of  our  missionaries  with  a  jealous  eye. 

Though  these  great  immunities  of  the 
Irish  church,  were  of  the  utmost  conse- 
quence to  the  cause  of  Christianity,  and 
contributed  to  spread  its  doctrine  in  a  most 
rapid  manner,  particularly  in  North  Bri- 
tain, among  the  British  Saxons,  the  Gauls, 
and  the  Germans,  yet  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, when  paganism  was  totally  abolished, 
these  powers  seemed  too  great,  and  to  en- 
danger the  peace  of  the  Church.  Tlie 
Irish  themselves  were  highly  sensible  of 
this ;  and  councils  and  synods  were  held 
from  time  to  time,  in  order  to  bring  the 
church  of  Ireland  to  the  same  subordina- 
tion to  Rome,  as  those  of  every  other 
part  of  Europe. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century, 
the  Irish  archbishops  made  a  surrender  of 
their  exclusive  privileges  to  Rome;  and 
measures  were  taken  to  prevail  on  the 
princes  and  nobility  tp  give  up  their  right 
of  nomination  to  archbishopricks  and 
bishopricks.  St  Malachie,  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  was  a  strenuous  advocate  for 
papal  power.    In  1139  he   took  a  jour- 

XIX. 


:n 


PRELIMINARY  DISCOURSE 


ney  to  Rome  to  consult  with  Innocent  II., 
then  sovereign  pontiff,  on  the  best  means 
of  forming  a  solid  union  between  Rome 
and  Ireland.  He  was  received  with  marks 
of  particular  reverence,  and,  after  some 
delay,  was  dismissed,  with  instructions  to 
prevail  on  the  heads  of  the  nation  to  sur- 
render their  different  rights  of  nomination 
to  bishopricks,  into  the  hands  of  his  holi- 
ness and  his  successors,  as  the  archbishops 
had  already  done  their  power  of  conse- 
crating of  bishops  at  will;  and* the  better 
to  bring  about  this  reformation  he  was  ap- 
pointed legate.  Malachie  was  indefati- 
gable in  his  endeavours  to  bring  about  this 
change,  (says  his  biographer  St.  Bernard,) 
and  succeeded  so  far,  that  in  1 148  he  pre- 
pared, with  ample  powers,  for  a  new  jour- 
ney to  Rome,  to  acknowledge  her  su- 
premacy in  spirituals  in  the  name  of  the 
kingdom,  and  to  demand  palliums  for  the 
Irish  archbishops ;  but  he  died  at  Clair- 
vaux,  on  his  way  to  Rome,  in  the  arms  of 
St.  Bernard.  On  the  death  of  Malachie, 
Christien,  Bishop  of  Lismore,  being  ap- 
pointed legate  in  1150,  repaired  to  Rome 
on  the  same  embassy ;  and  the  following 
year  Pop^  Eugene  sent  Cardinal  Paperon 
to  Ireland  to  distribute  palliums  to  the  four 
archbishops,  as  a  manifestation  of  the  last- 
ing union  between  Rome  and  Ireland.  In 
1152,  the  cardinal  presented  the  palliums 
in  the  presence  of  the  monarch,  the  prin- 
ces, and  twenty-two  bishops,  besides  five 
bishops  elect,  and  numbers  of  abbots  and 
dignified  clergy,  in  the  abbey  of  Kells,  in 
Meath,  with  great  pomp  and  splendour. 

Four  years  after  acts  so  solemn  and 
public,  the  reader  will  no  doubt  be  aston- 
ished to  behold  a  bull  of  Adrian  IV.,  at 
the  request  of  Henry  II.  of  England,  grant- 
ing to  him  the  sovereignty  of  Ireland,  on 
conditions,  that  he  extirpates  vice,  and  es- 
tablishes true  piety,  church  discipline,  and 
wholesome  laws,  among  that  uninformed 
people ;  and  that  he  causes  a  penny  to  be 
paid  annually  out  of  every  house.  He 
will  be  morjB  so,  when  he  finds  this  bull 
confirmed  by  his  successor  Alexander  III., 
in  which  the  Irish  people  are  styled  bar- 
barians, and  Christians  only  in  name  !    No 

XX. 


wonder  then  that  bulls,  which  were  not 
dictated  by  the  spirit  of  truth,  granted  to 
a  prince  who  seemed  to  be  the  least  formed 
in  the  world  for  an  ecclesiastical  champion, 
and  which  made  religion  a  pretence,  to 
promote  temporal  interests,  should  have 
been  at  all  times,  even  to  this  day,  re- 
garded by  pious  Irishmen  as  spurious. 
They  were,  however,  published  by  Henry, 
in  the  lifetime  of  Alexander,  and  soon  after 
complained  of  by  the  Irish  to  his  legate  in 
Ireland,  Cardinal  Vivian ;  they  were  print- 
ed by  Baronius  and  other  Roman  writers, 
and  the  least  doubt  cannot  remain  of  their 
authenticity ! 

But  how  account  for  proceedings  so  ar- 
bitrary, so  unjust,  and  so  unchristian  ?  As 
these  bulls  are  made  the  basis  of  all  the 
charges  so  degrading  to  truth  and  to  Ire- 
land, we  shall  endeavour  to  account  for 
them.  On  the  death  of  Malachie,  St.  Ber- 
nard, charmed  with  his  piety  and  sanctity, 
set  about  writing  his  life.  He  informed 
himself  minutely  of  the  particular  privi- 
leges of  the  Irish  church ;  and  being  en- 
tirely devoted  to  Rome,  the  greater  these 
appeared,  the  more  severely  he  inveighed 
against  them.  The  power  of  consecra- 
ting and  appointing  bishops  to  new  sees, 
he  declared  to  be  new  and  unheard  of ; 
and  the  custom  of  preserving  episcopacy 
hereditary  in  families,  he  pronounced  to 
be  truly  diabolical!  Hence  (said  he)  that 
corruption  of  manners,  and  relaxation  of 
church  discipline  !  But  neither  custom 
was  new  or  wicked,  since  both  existed 
from  the  days  of  St.  Patrick,  and  both 
were  sanctified  by  Rome  !  They  contin- 
ued in  full  vigour  from  his  days  to  the 
middle  of  the  ninth  century,  during  which 
period  Ireland,  by  the  consent  of  all  Eu- 
rope, enjoyed  the  unrivalled  title  of  Insula 
Sanctorum !  They  remained  so  to  near 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  age,  when  Ber- 
nard declared  them  diabolical  innovations  1 
Not  only  were  the  consequences,  which 
he  draws  from  these  privileges,  false  in 
themselves,  but  we  see  these  very  privi- 
leges entirely  relinquished  at  the  time  he 
wrote  this  life  !  Nor  was  there,  at  that 
time,  a  nation  in  Europe  farther  removed 


TO  THE  FIRST  DIVISION. 


from  irreligicm  and  barbarity  than  the 
Irish.  Of  this  Cambrensis  himself  goon 
after  gives  us  a  remarkable  instance.* 
Astonished  at  the  outrages  and  excesses 
committed  by  his  countrymeriy  he  tells  us, 
the  clergy  of  Leath-Cuin  held  a  synod  at 
Armagh  in  1170,  to  inquire  what  unex- 
ampled crimes  the  nation  had  committed 
against  Heaven,  to  bring  on  it  so  terrible 
a  scourge  as  the  present?  After  grave 
deliberation  they  concluded,  that  God  per- 
mitted this  judgment  to  fall  on  them,  for 
the  shameful  custom  so  long  established, 
of  purchasing  from  the  English  their  chil- 
dren and  relations,  and  thus  converting 
Christians  to  slaves  !  Without  comment- 
ing on  so  puerile  a  reason,  which  from 
pious  ecclesiastics,  unacquainted  with  the 
ways  of  the  world,  may  pass,  I  only  intro- 
duce it  here  to  proclaim  the  innocence  of 
the  people,  when  their  own  clergy,  who 
must  be  best  acquainted  with  their  vices 
and  follies,  could  find  no  greater  crime  to 
charge  them  with ! 

Pope  Adrian  was  by  birth  an  English- 
man. It  was  a  flattering  circumstance  to 
be  solicited  by  an  aspiring  young  prince, 
(as  Henry  was  in  his  days,)  for  the  dona- 
tion of  a  kingdom  which  cost  him  nothing ; 
and  it  was,  besides,  a  full  acknowledgment 
of  the  power  assumed  by  Rome  of  dispo- 
sing of  kingdoms  and  empires  at  pleasure. 
The  charges  made  by  Bernard  on  the 
Irish  nation,  were  made  the  pretences  for 
this  donation,  though  we  see  they  could 
not  then  have  a  possibility  of  existence ; 
and  one  would  be  tempted  to  think  that 
the  ministers  of  Alexander  had  also  con- 
sulted Strabo,  Mela,  and  Solinus,  to  glean 
materials  for  his  bull !  Soon  after  the  pub- 
lication of  these  bulls,  Cambrensis,  Bishop 
of  St.  David's,  attended  the  son  of  Henry 
II.  to  Ireland,  and, was  employed  to  write 
some  account  of  the  country.  He  could 
only  hope  to  make  his  court  to  his  master, 
and  to  Rome,  by  villifying  and  misrepre- 
senting the  nation;  and  when  popes  and 
sovereign  princes  had  set  the  example,  we 
could  not  expect  that  a  simple  bishop, 
deeply  interested  in  the  same  cause,  (for 
*  Hibem.  Ezpagn.  lib.  i.  cap.  34. 


many  of  his  relations  were  among  the  new 
adventurers,)  would  presume  to  more  vir- 
tue than  his  betters  !  The  works  of  this 
writer  had  for  centuries  remained  in  the 
oblivion  they  so  justly  merited,  till  the  year 
1602,  when  Camden  caused  them  to  be 
printed  at  Frankfort,  by  which  means  his 
calumnies  were  spread  over  all  Europe. 
But  they  did  not  pass  uncensured:  the 
learned  Dr.  Lynch,  Archdeacon  of  Tuam, 
under  the  title  of  Cambrensis  Eversus, 
published  a  work,  in  which  the  ignorance, 
malevolence,  and  misrepresentations  of  this 
writer  are  so  fully  exposed,  that  he  is 
since,  by  masters  of  the  subject,  never 
quoted  as  authority  to  be  relied  on.  The 
refutation  of  this  work,  in  which  all  the 
calumnies  that  had  ever  been  published 
against  Ireland,  were  collected  in  the 
strongest  point  of  view,  and  in  an  anima- 
ted style,  one  should  think  ought  to  be 
deemed  the  fullest  vindication  of  the  coun- 
try ;  and  yet  this  writer,  whose  want  of 
integrity  and  candour  has  been  so  clearly 
proved,  is  one  of  the  principal  evidences 
produced  by  ill-intentioned  and  worse- 
informed  modems ! 

The  candid  reader  may,  perhaps,  think 
I  have  taken  too  much  pains  in  thus  tracing 
to  their  true  source,  the  causes  by  which 
this  nation  has  been  so  unexampledly 
traduced  and  misrepresented  to  all  Eu- 
rope ;  but  as  our  annals,  properly  consid- 
ered, appear  to  me  so  highly  interesting  to 
letters,  it  seemed  of  the  utmost  consequence 
to  remove  the  most  distant  appearance  of 
doubt  as  to  their  authenticity.  And  now 
for  -some  account  of  the  present  work. 

Though  few  people  possess  a  greater 
affection  and  veneration  for  their  native 
country,  or  have  taken  more  pains  to  be 
early  instructed  in  its  history  and  antiqui- 
ties, than  I  have  in  these  of  mine,  yet  I  lit- 
tle thought  that  this  knowledge  would  one 
day  or  another  engage  me  to  draw  my  pen 
in  its  defence.  So  far  from  it,  that  I  will 
ingenuously  confess  that  my  natural  dispo- 
sition was  totally  averse  to  such  pursuits ; 
but,  as  the  poet  has  it : 

"  Si  natara  negat,  facit  indignatio  vemu !" 

The  duty  I  owed  to  my  much  neglected 

XXI. 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


AND  MUCH  INJURED  COUNTRY,  Superseded 
every  other  consideration,  and  determined 
me  to  publish  an  Introduction  to  Irish  His- 
tory. This  work  met  with  a  more  favour- 
able reception  than  I  dared  have  flattered 
myself  with,  not  only  in  Britain  and  Ire- 
land, but  on  the  Continent ;  and  the  Acad- 
emy of  Inscriptions  and  Belles  Lettres  at 
Paris,  have  expressed  their  approbation  of 
it  in  terms  highly  honourable  to  the  author. 
Here  I  resolved  my  historical  researches 
should  end,  but  I  found  mvself  mistaken. 
Since  that  period  other  writings  on  the 
same  subject  appeared,  in  which  an- 
cient history  and  modem  hypothesis  were 
strangely  assimilated.  It  appeared  to  me, 
that  if  some  generous  attempt  at  a  Gene- 
ral History  of  Ireland  was  not  speedily  un- 
dertaken, the  annals  of  our  country,  so  im- 
portant to  letters,  would  he  lost  for  ever ;  as, 
at  this  day,  few  are  found  hardy  enough 
to  explore  a  subject  so  little  countenanced 
and  so  long  neglected.  But  who  bold 
enough  to  engage  in  so  arduous  a  task? 
That  I  have  attempted ;  but  could  I  have 
foreseen  the  tenth  part  of  the  labours  and 
difliculties  I  had  to  encounter,  in  all  proba- 
bility it  would  never  have  appeared  ! 

In  pursuing  this  work,  I  have  by  no 
means  considered  myself  entitled  (as  most 
moderns  have)  to  obtrude  my  own  opin- 
ions in  the  teeth  of  antiquity,  or  to  take  in- 
finitely more  pains  to  contradict  or  explain 
away  the  sense  of  ancient  authors,  than  to 
elucidate  passages  liable  to  doubts  or  difli- 
culties  in  them.  It  is  for  this  reason  that, 
in  treating  of  the  Irish  colonies  antecedent 
to  the  arrival  of  the  Milesians,  I  have  not 
once  hinted  that  they  were  British  emi- 
grants, because  my  authorities  affirm  the 
contrary.  This  necessarily  led  me  into  a 
defence  of  ancient  history,  and  an  inquiry 
into  the  state  of  ancient  navigation.  It  is 
admitted  that,  in  the  fine  arts,  as  well  as 
in  most  departments  of  science,  the  an- 
cients, if  they  did  not  excel,  at  least  equal- 
led the  most  celebrated  moderns.  Not 
only  sacred,  but  early  profane  history,  pro- 
claims the  ancient  state  of  navigation  and 
commerce ;  yet  because  it  is  not  quite 
clear  that  they  applied  the  use  of  the  mag- 


net to  navigation,  our  modems  will  allow 
them  but  coasting  voyages !  Hence  the 
source  of  the  modem  system  of  population, 
so  subversive  of  truth,  and  so  prejudicial 
to  ancient  history  !  We  have  lost  the  art 
of  making  glass  malleable ;  and  but  lately 
the  art  of  staining  glass  has  been  revived, 
yet  no  one  doubts  the  existence  of  both 
formerly.  Printing,  gunpowder,  and  the 
use  of  the  magnet  in  navigation,  are  said 
to  have  been  known  to  the  Chinese  from 
the  earliest  periods,  though  to  us  modem 
discoveries  ;  and  as  it  is  certain  that  many 
properties  of  the  magnet  were  well  under- 
stood by  the  ancients,  we  should  suppose 
that  its  property  of  pointing  to  the  north 
could  not  be  overlooked.  In  a  word,  we 
should  look  much  more  modest  and  sensi- 
ble in  endeavouring  to  illustrate  and  de- 
fend ancient  historians,  (except  in  things 
impossible  or  highly  improbable,)  than  in 
boldly  contradicting  (and  that  from  reasons 
which  probably  then  could  not  have  ex- 
isted) what  they  have  asserted  for  truths. 
And  this  inquiry  has  enabled  me  to  throw 
fuller  and  clearer  lights  on  the  ancient 
British  colonies,  and  their  very  early  his- 
tory, than  all  the  writers  who  have  pre- 
ceded me  united. 

As  to  the  particular  voyages  of  our  early 
ancestors,  so  carefully  handed  down  from 
age  to  age,  even  to  this  day,  there  appeared 
to  me  nothing  either  improbable  or  impos- 
sible in  them.  I  carefully  examined  the 
mutilated  accounts  left  us  in  the  early  his- 
tories of  the  nations  which  they  then  passed 
through,  and  have  found  new  and  unex- 
pected lights  thrown  on  them,  and  these 
have  supplied  me  with  further  proofs  in 
defence  of  ancient  history. 

As  to  the  domestic  part  of  our  history,  I 
have  "left  nothing  unessayed  to  gain  every 
intelligence  and  every  information  on  this 
head.  Besides  the  numerous  MSS.  in  my 
possession,  and  copies  of  whatever  had  ap- 
peared in  print  on  the  subject,  I,  both  by 
letters  to  particulars,  and  by  repeated  ad- 
vertisements in  the  Dublin  papers,  requested 
that  such  as  were  possessed  of  Irish  MSS. 
would  send  the  titles  of  them  to  Messrs. 
Bonfield  and  Young,  merchants ;  and  that 


XXII. 


■fygF-i*' 


TO  THE  FIRST  DIVISION. 


13:91 


such  as  were  wanted,  would  be  purchased, 
or  ample  securities  given  for  their  safe  re- 
turn. With  concern  I  mention,  that  nei- 
ther my  private  solicitations,  nor  these  pub- 
lic applications,  were  attended  with  great 
success ;  but  I  am  happy,  on  this  occasion, 
to  return  public  thanks  to  my  gallant  coun- 
tryman and  learned  friend,  James  Aylmer, 
Esq.,  colonel  of  the  regiment  of  Ultonia,  in 
the  service  of  Spain,  for  several  curious 
and  interesting  remarks.  Gratitude  also 
calls  upon  me  to  acknowledge  particular 
obligations  to  him,  as  he  not  only  first  re- 
commended me  to  publish  this  work  by 
subscription,  but  even  procured  for  me 
above  a  hundred  subscribers  for  it  in 
Spain.  To  my  learned  friend  Doctor  Mac 
Kenna,  titular  bishop  of  Cloyne,  and  a  suc- 
cessor worthy  the  great  Doctor  O'Brien,  I 
am  indebted  for  a  copy  of  the  Leabhar- 
Lecan,  faithfully  transcribed  from  the  ori- 
ginal in  the  Irish  college  at  Paris.  Doc- 
tor O'Cullinan,  a  clergyman  of  great  eru- 
dition, residing  at  Mallow,  has  favoured 
me  with  a  correct  copy  of  the  Reim-Rigra 
of  Giolla-Caomhain,  and  of  its  continuation, 
by  Giolla-Moduda.  I  am  obliged  to  this 
gentleman  also  for  several  interesting  let- 
ters on  Irish  antiquities.  As  to  the  rest, 
whatever  other  MSS.  are  quoted  in  this 
work,  are  of  my  own  procuring. 

In  treating  of  every  particular  reign,  I 
have  examined  whatever  had  been  ad- 
vanced by  different  writers,  either  in  print 
or  manuscript,  on  the  subject.  Even  Routh, 
Usher,  Ward,  Colgan,  and  other  ecclesias- 
tical writers,  were  explored  for  informa- 
tion ;  and  I  have  rejected  whatever  seemed 
improbable  or  ill-founded.  Frequent  men- 
tion is  made,  in  early  days  of  invasions 
from  Africa,  and  of  transactions  between 
our  ancestors  and  these  people.  As  no 
other  people  of  Africa  but  the  Carthagi- 
nians were  a  maritime  or  commercial  peo- 
ple, I  began  to  suspect  that  these  were  the 
very  Fomharaigs  so  often  spoken  of.  I 
consulted  their  history,  compared  the  eras 
in  question,  and  satisfied  myself,  as  I  hope 
I  shall  the  public,  that  my  suspicions  were 
well  grounded.  This  explained  and  justi- 
fied the  extent  of  our  early  commerce,  the 


improvements  in  arts  and  manufactures, 
the  working  of  our  mines  of  copper,  lead, 
and  iro^  the  great  riches  of  the  country, 
and  thefli?ources  from  whence  they  flowed  ! 
Besides  *their  extensive  commerce,  for 
which  the  Carthaginians  were  so  re- 
nowned, it  is  a  known  fact  that,  in  their 
wars  with  the  Romans,  they  hired  merce- 
naries, not  only  in  Iberia  and  Gaul,  but 
drew  troops  from -the  Atlantic  isles.  To 
illustrate  this,  we  find  mention  made  of  the 
Fine-Fomharaig,  or  African  legions,  in  our 
early  records,  who,  I  take  for  granted,  to 
have  been  Irish  troops  consigned  to  that 
service ;  and  for  this  reason,  that  our  bands 
in  Gaul  were  called  Fine-Gall,  as,  in  a  sub- 
sequent period,  those  in  Scotland  were 
called  Fine-Albin,  just  as  the  Romans  de- 
nominated their  legions  after  the  countries 
in  which  they  served.  But,  to  show  that 
there  is  something  more  than  conjecture 
in  what  is  here  advanced,  it  evidently  ap- 
pears, that  Carthaginian  swords,  found 
near  the  plains  of  Cannae,  and  ancient  Irish 
swords,  so  frequently  met  with,  are,  as  to 
shape,  size,  and  mixture  of  metals,  so  ex- 
actly similar,  that  the  assay  master  of  the 
mint,  who  examined  both,  pronounced  that 
they  were  cast  in  the  same  cauldron  !*  To 
this  let  me  add,  that  the  Psalter  of  Cashell 
positively  asserts,  that  Eochaidh,  King  of 
Munster,  and  afterwards  monarch  of  Ire- 
land, invaded  Greece  with  a  large  fleet; 
and  this  answers  to  the  time  of  the  famous 
sea-fight  between  the  Carthaginians  and 
Phocians.  Our  annals  note  the  time  that 
Joughaine  the  Great  entered  the  Mediter- 
ranean with  a  powerful  fleet,  and  it  ex- 
actly accords  with  the  period  in  which 
Hannibal,  the  son  of  Gisco,  invaded  Sicily. 
That  they  also  aided  the  Gauls,  in  their  in- 
vasions of  Greece  and  Italy,  will  appear 
certain.  In  Gaul,  but  more  particularly  in 
Britain,  they  acted  a  most  conspicuous 
part  against  the  Romans ;  so  much  so,  that 
the  Roman  relations  of  these  transactions, 
in  many  instances,  become  only  reconcile- 
able  to  reason  and  truth  by  the  aid  of  our 

*  Giovernor  Pownal's  Accoant  of  aome  Iriflh  Antiqui- 
ties, read  before  the   Antiquarian  Society,  Feb.  10, 
1774,  and  afterwards  published. 
XXIII. 


* 


PRELIMINARY   OlSCOtlRSE 


history.  Their  accounts  of  the  invasions 
of  Gaul  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries, 
and  the  gradual  progress  of  these  invaders, 
and  their  Gallic  associates,  till  they  (the 
Romans)  were  finally  expelled  from  the 
country,  agrees  so  exactly  with  our  rela- 
tions of  the  incursions  of  Criomthan,  Niall, 
and  Dalthi,  successive  monarchs  in  this 
period,  that  the  reader  must  be  struck  with 
the  lights  which  each  history  throws  on 
the  other ! 

The  rum  of  the  Roman  empire  gave 
peace  to  Europe;  and,  from  this  period, 
all  our  extramarine  expeditions  ceased. 
Ireland,  however,  on  this  occasion,  exhib- 
ited an  appearance,  if  possible,  more  glo- 
rious than  the  former,  in  labouring  to  estab- 
lish arts,  sciences,  and  piety  where  she  had 
already  established  liberty.  Her  mission- 
aries crowded  in  shoals  to  Britain,  Gaul, 
and  Germany,  and  by  their  prayers  and 
exhortations,  but  much  more  by  their  ex- 
amples, converted  thousands !  These  were 
not  persons  of  mean  birth  or  small  capa- 
cities, but  of  the  purest  blood  and  clearest 
heads  in  the  kingdom.  They  retired  to 
the  most  sequestered  and  least  cultivated 
parts  of  Britain  and  Gaul.  They  reclaimed 
and  cultivated  the  land,  lived  by  the  pro- 
duce of  their  own  labour,  and  shared  with 
the  adjoining  poor  the  surplus.  Their  diet 
was  plain  and  simple,  and  their  beverage 
the  limpid  stream.  They  opened  schools 
for  the  instruction  of  the  people,  and  every 
hour  was  devoted  to  one  pious  duty  or  an- 
other I  Bede  is  an  unexceptionable  wit- 
ness of  their  zeal,  piety,  and  charity,  in 
Britain ;  and  the  Gallic  records  prove  them 
not  less  so  in  Gaul.  "  Through  the  labour 
of  their  hands,  (says  Mezeray,)  frightful 
and  uncultivated  deserts  became  soon  con- 
verted to  most  agreeable  retreats ;  and  the 
Almighty  seemed  particularly  to  favour 
ground  cultivated  by  such  pure  and  disin- 
terested hands.  Shall  I  mention  (adds  he) 
that  to  their  care  we  are  indebted  for  what 
remains  of  the  history  of  those  days  !"* 
Such  are  the  people  who  have  been  painted 
by  Hume,  and  others  of  his  stamp,  as  a  dis- 
grace to  Christendom,  as  a  dishonour  to  hu- 

*  Hwtoirede  France,  torn.  i.  p.  118. 
xxiv. 


manity !  From  this  period,  to  the  ninth  cen- 
tury, Ireland  was  deemed,  by  universal  con- 
sent, the  Athens  of  Europe  I  Her  schools 
and  universities  were  opened  for  all  the 
world,  and  from  every  part  of  Europe  were 
they  resorted  to.  Their  beneficence  was 
not  confined  to  instruction :  "  They  supplied 
these  strangers  (says  Venerable  Bede)  not 
only  with  meat,  drink,  clothes,  and  lodging, 
but  even  with  books,  gratis!"  The  fame 
of  the  university  of  Lismore  alone  must 
show  what  must  have  been  the  case  of  the 
other  universities  of  Ireland,  and  which  I 
have  taken  from  Bonaventura  Moronus,*  a 
Tarentin  bom,  in  the  first  Book  of  his 
Cataldiados,  or  Life  of  our  St.  Cataldus, 
Bishop  of  Tarentum,  in  Italy. 

Uudiqne  conveniunt  proceres,  quos  dalce  trabeba^ 
Discendi  studiam,  major  num  cognita  virtns 
An  laudata  foret     Celeres  yastissima  Rheni 
Jam  vada  Teutonici,  jam  desemere  Sicambri : 
Mittit  ab  extremo  Grelidos  Aquilone  Boemos : 
AIbi  et  Avemi  coeunt,  Batavique  freqaentes, 
Et  quicunque  colunt  altiL  sub  rupe  Gebenas. 
Non  omnes  prospectat  Arar,  Rhodanique  flaenta 
Helvetiofl :  maltos  desiderat  ultima  Tbule. 
Certatim  hi  properant  diverBo  tramite,  ad  urbem 
Lismoriam,  juvenis  primos  obi  tranaigit  annos. 

The  depredations  of  the  Danes  highly 
injured,  but  did  not  destroy  letters  among 
us.  They  could  not,  because  the  entire 
kingdom  was  at  no  time  under  their  abso- 
lute sway.  Certain  it  is,  that,  among  other 
excesses,  many  valuable  works  were  de- 
stroyed by  them,  and  others  carried  away. 
Application  was  made,  in  the  late  king's 
reign,  to  the  court  of  Denmark,  for  Irish 
manuscripts,  but  none  could  be  found ;  and 
Dr.  Warner  thinksf  none  were  ever  car- 
ried there.  But  we  have  strong  proofs  to 
the  contrary ;  for  Lombard,  Archbishop 
of  Armagh,  who  flourished  in  the  days  of 
Elizabeth  and  James  I.  tells  us,J  that  many 
volumes  of  Irish  MSS.  were  then  in  the 
royal  library  at  Copenhagen :  that  the  king 
of  Denmark  was  so  solicitous  to  have  some 
of  them  translated,  that,  by  his  ambassa- 
dor, he  applied  to  Elizabeth  to  procure 
him  some  able  Irishman  for  that  purpose. 

•  v.  Usaerii  de  Britan.  Eccles.  Prim.  p.  755. 
t  Introduction  to  his  History  of  Ireland. 
t  Analecta,  p.  562,  3,  4. 


TO  THE   FIRST   DIVISION. 


Donatus  C^Daly,  a  learned  antiquarian, 
confined  at  that  time,  for  his  religion,  in 
the  King's-Bench  prison,  was  pitched  upon 
for  this  business ;  but,  on  a  council  being 
called,  political  reasons  determined  them 
to  forbid  it.  Here  we  see  a  prelate  of 
great  learning  and  sanctity  speak  of  this  as 
a  public  action  well  known  to  have  hap- 
pened in  his  own  days.  He  also  accuses 
English  governors  of  labouring  to  destroy, 
or  carry  away,  every  monument  of  an- 
tiquity they  were  able ;  and  he  particu- 
larly names  Lord  Grey,  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIIL,  Sir  Henry  Sidney,  Sir  George 
Carew,  etc.  He  also  laments  the  vast 
numbers  of  Irish  MSS.,  so  long  shut  up  in 
the  Tower  of  London,  and  consigned  to 
oblivion :  "  works  (says  he)  if  translated, 
would  throw  new  and  interesting  lights  on 
religion  and  letters !" 

Whatever  outrages  were  committed  by 
the  Danes,  whatever  injuries  they  had  done 
to  letters,  were  soon  remedied  by  the  at- 
tention and  munificence  of  the  immor- 
tal Brian  Boirumhe,  and  by  subsequent 
princes.  To  explore  the  true  cause  of  the 
destruction  of  our  annals,  and  the  shameful 
neglect  of  our  history,  we  must  look  nearer 
home.  From  the  first  landing  of  Henry  II., 
the  English  adopted  a  shameful  policy, 
which  was  steadily  pursued  for  many  cen- 
turies. They  laboured  to  represent  the 
Irish  nation  to  all  Europe  as  a  most  bar- 
barous and  savage  race  of  mortals ;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  they  left  nothing  unat- 
tempted  to  get  possession  of  as  many  of 
their  records  as  they  could,  which  they 
either  destroyed  or  conveyed  to  Britain. 
From  age  to  age  quantities  of  vellum  MSS. 
were  sent  out  of  the  kingdom :  they  still 
lie  scattered  in  their  different  public  libra- 
ries ;  but  no  attempt  has  been  ever  made 
to  inform  the  public  of  their  contents  !  In 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  of  James  I.,  of 
Charles  I.,  and  Charles  II.,  and  even  to  the 
Revolution,  hereditary  antiquarians,  poets, 
lawyers,  and  physicians,  were  everywhere 
to  be  found  well  versed  in  their  different 
professions,  and  highly  capable  of  trans- 
lating into  Latin  the  works  in  their  differ- 
ent departments,  yet  no  measure  was  taken 

c 


to  further  these  good  ends !  On  the  con- 
trary, to  write  in  favour  of  Ireland,  or  Irish 
affairs,  was  deemed  a  proof  of  enmity  to 
Britain  ;  and  this  is  the  reason  that  all  the 
works  which  were  published  in  her  favour 
during  that  period,  were  printed  in  foreign 
countries.  Yet  it  evidently  appears  that 
the  early  history  and  antiquities  of  Britain, 
can  only  be  satisfactorily  explained,  by  re- 
curring to  the  history  and  antiquitie&  of 
Ireland.  I  have,  in  a  former  work,  taken 
uncommon  pains*  to  elucidate  this  matter, 
and  I  flatter  myself  that  the  present  one 
will  prove  to  demonstration,  how  deeply 
interested  British  antiquarians  and  histori- 
ans are  in  the  preservation  of, what  remain 
of  our  scattered  annals.  In  what  light 
they  will  consider  my  laborious  researches 
I  am  only  to  conjecture ;  but  I  think,  that 
I  may  vith  some  confidence  affirm,  that 
few  have  taken  more  trouble,  and  no  one 
has  been  more  successful  in  investigating 
the  early  history  and  antiquities  of  Britain 
than  myself. 

In  every  century,  from  the  days  of  St. 
Patrick,  I  have  given  an  account  of  the 
state  of  letters,  and  the  different  writers 
of  Ireland.  In  this  inquiry  I  did  not  trust 
to  Harris,  though  a  valuable  performance,! 
much  less  to  Nicholson; J  but  carefully 
consulted  not  only  Usher,  Ward,  Colgan, 
etc.,  but  Dupin,  Fleury,  and  other  foreign 
writers.  The  reader  will  plainly  see,  that 
I  did  not  impose  this  painful  task  on  my- 
self merely  to  show  the  flourishing  state  of 
arts  and  sciences,  in  these  days  oi freedom 
and  independence.  Objects  of  a  higher 
nature  actuated  me: — mv  wish  to  throw 
some  further  lights  on  the  state  of  religion, 
laws,  and  letters  in  the  middle  ages  ! 

I  have  been  obliged  to  put  down  the 
Irish  quotations  through  this  work,  in  Eng- 
lish characters,  as  no  Irish  type  could  be 
procured  in  London ;  and  this  necessarily 
impels  me  to  request  the  reader's  indul- 
gence for  some  errors  of  the  press,  my 
situation  rendering  it  absolutely  impossible 
for  me  to  attend  to  such  matters.     As  I 

*  Introducdou  to  Irish  History,  particularly  part  ii. 
chap.  8. 
t  Writers  of  Ireland.      X  Irish  Hittcnical  Libraty. 
XXV. 


r<- 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


have  touched  on  this  subject,  it  is  proper 
that  I  should  attempt  to  remove  the  diffi- 
culties attendant  on  pronouncing  the  many 
Irish  names  which  unavoidably  occur  in 
the  course  of  this  work.  Our  alphabet 
contains  but  seventeen  letters,  of  which 
number  five  are  vowels.  The  mutables 
are  nine,  six  of  which,  by  an  adventitious 
H  change  their  native  sound,  as  B,  C,  M, 
P,  3,  T,  while  D,  F,  and  G,  by  the  addition 
of  an  H,  yield  scarce  any  sound.  An  H 
after  a  B,  or  M,  causes  them  to  sound  like 
a  V,  as  abhran,  (avran,)  a  song ;  amhas, 
(avas,)  a  soldier.  The  sound  of  C  before 
an  H,  cannot  be  easily  described,  so  it  may 
be  pronounced  as  it  is  read.  An  H  after 
P,  gives  it  the  exact  sound  of  an  F;  and 
after  S  and  T,  they  sound  as  an  H  only. 
The  other  letters,  viz.  D,  F,  G,  yield  no 
sound.  For  instance,  Seadhna,  a  man's 
name,  should  be  pronounced  Seana,  Lugh- 
adh,  Lua,  and  so  of  words  with  F  before 
H.  The  immutables,  or  those  consonants 
which  in  no  instance  lose  their  native 
sound,  are  L,  N,  and  R.  By  observing 
these  few  rules,  easily  attainable,  the  mere 
English  reader  will  find  little  difliculty  in 
reading  and  pronouncing,  with  tolerable 
ease  to  himself,  Irish  words  as  they  occur. 
However  ambitious  I  have  been  to  res- 
cue my  native  history  from  the  hands  of 
ignorance,  and  to  draw  it  forth  from  that 
oblivion  to  which  it  has  been  so  long  and 
so  shamefully  consigned,  yet  I  am  not  con- 
scious in  any  single  instance  of  aiming  to 
do  it,  at  the  expense  of  truth.     Of  all  the 


Scythic  and  Celtic  states  of  ancient  Eu- 
rope, Ireland  alone  has  preserved  her  his- 
tory and  antiquities,  pure  and  uncorrupted ; 
and  what  renders  them  of  more  universal 
value,  is,  that  they  evidently  appear  to  ex- 
hibit an  epitome  of  those  laws  and  cus- 
toms which  then  everywhere  prevailed. 
If  the  works  of  Caesar  and  Tacitus  are 
justly  held  in  the  highest  estimation ;  and 
that  more  for  the  lights  they  throw  on  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  Britons,  Gauls, 
and  Germans,  in  their  own  days,  than  for 
their  mere  historic  merit,  which,  however, 
is  very  high ;  how  much  more  to  be  prized 
should  not  a  work  like  the  present  be, 
which  is  not  only  the  true  comment  on 
those  writers,  but  also  exposes  the  real 
state  of  Europe,  from  the  remotest  anti- 
quity down  to  the  twelfth  century  ?  In  con- 
fidence that  it  will  be  considered  in  so 
interesting  a  light,  I  offer  it  to  the  public. 

A  work  upon  so  extensive  a  plan,  in  the 
most  masterly  hands,  could  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  be  perfect ;  how  much  less  so 
in  those  of  a  person  who  can  be  only  ac- 
countable for  the  talents  which  the  Author 
of  nature  has  given  him,  and  whose  voca- 
tion must,  in  many  instances,  prevent  him 
from  paying  that  close  attention  to  style 
and  manner,  which  the  reader  may  expect. 
For  inaccuracies  of  this  kind,  when  met 
with,  he  requests  a  favourable  indulgence ; 
for  errors  as  an  historian,  he  has  none  to 
expect. 

S.  O'HALLORAN. 

Limerick,  Jan.  12,  1778. 


XXVI. 


■f* 


■Ti-- 


,!.  >,  y:  .   y 


•:4'  I' 

"•-♦■•■ 


NOTE    TO    THE    READER. 


BY  SYLVESTER  O'HALLORAN. 


Though  the  last  chapter  of  this  history 
contains  the  ancient  names  of  territories 
and  lands  in  an  alphabetical  order,  and  by 
what  families  possessed,  which  may  serve 
as  a  reference  to  the  reader  in  most  in- 
stances in  the  course  of  this  work,  yet  for 
his  greater  ease,  the  following  expressions, 
which  often  occur,  are  here  explained. 

Clana-Baoisgne,  the  knights  of  Leinster, 
so  called  from  this  Baoisgne,  ancestor  to 
the  famous  general  Fion-Mac-Cumhal. 

Clana-Deaghadh,  the  knights  of  Mun- 
ster,  so  called  from  Deagadh,  of  the  Ernian 
race,  who  introduced  a  new  discipline 
among  them. 

Clana-Momi,  were  the  knights  of  Con- 
naught,  who  were  so  called  from  Momi, 
father  to  the  renowned  hero  Goll. 

Curiathe-na-Craobh  (or  rather  Crobh) 
Ruadh,  were  the  knights  of  Ulster — the 
words  Curiathe-na-Craobh-Ruadh,  literally 
signify  the  knights  of  the  Red  Branch ;  but 
I  am  inclined  to  think  it  should  have  been 
written  Crobh-Ruadh,  or  the  Bloody 
Hand,  being  the  ensign  of  these  heroes. 

Dal  Ccas,  or  (as  it  is  pronounced)  Dai- 
Gas,  the  posterity  of  Cormoc,  called  Gas, 
or  the  Well-beloved,  second  son  of  Olioll- 
OUum,  King  of  Munster,  from  whom  all 
the  great  families  of  North  Munster,  or 
Thomond,  are  called  Dai-Gas,  or  Dal- 
Gassians. 

Dal-Riada,  the  posterity  of  Cairbre- 
Riada,  as  well  in  Scotland  as  in  Ire- 
land. 

Degaids,  or  Ernians  of  Munster,  the 
names  given  to  a  tribe  who,  about  a  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  got  large  possessions, 


and  became  a  great  people  in  Munster. 
They  were  named  Degaids  from  their 
leader,  and  Ernians  from  their  first  settle- 
ment about  Loch-Erne,  in  the  North. 

Eogonachts,  the  posterity  of  Eogan, 
eldest  son  of  OlioU-Ollum.  From  him  all 
the  great  families  of  Desmond,  or  South 
Munster,  are  called  Eogonachts.  . 

The  Heberians,  the  descendants  of  He- 
ber,  eldest  son  of  Milesius. 

Heremonians,  the  issue  of  Heremon, 
youngest  son  of  Milesius. 

The  Irians,  or  Irian  race,  so  called  from 
Ir,  fifth  son  of  Milesius. 

The  Ithians,  or  race  of  Ith,  so  called 
from  Ith,  son  of  Breogan,  who  was  grand- 
father of  Milesius.  They  are  named 
Clana-Breoguin,  or  Brigantes. 

Leath-Cuin,  the  northern  half  of  Ireland, 
so  named  from  a  famous  partition  treaty, 
made  in  the  second  century,  between  Con 
of  the  Hundred  Battles,  and  Eogan  the 
Great,  King  of  Munster. 

Leath-Mogha,  the  southern  half  of  Ire- 
land, (a  line  being  drawn  from  Dublin  to 
Gal  way.)  It  was  so  called  from  Mqgha, 
one  of  the  surnames  of  Eogan. 

Milesians,  the  name  by  which  the  an- 
cient Irish  are  generally  distinguished  from 
those  of  later  periods.  In  the  native  Irish 
they  are  called  Clana  Miledh,  or  the  poste- 
rity of  the  Hero.  His  real  name  was 
GoUamh,  but,  as  a  mark  of  pre-eminence, 
he  was  mostly  called  Miledh-Espaine,  or 
the  Hero  of  Spain ;  hence  Milesians.  He 
was  the  father  of  Heber  and  Heremon, 
who  conquered  Ireland  in  the  year  of  the 
world  (according  to  the  Hebrews)  2736. 


\ 


THE 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


BOOK    I. 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  means  by  which  the  very  early  periods  of 
Irish  history  have  been  preserved — The  landing 
of  Partholan  and  his  followers  in  Ireland — A 
colony  of  Africans  said  to  have  preceded  them — 
The  number  of  lakes  and  rivers  then  found  in 
Ireland,  with  a  remark — Names  of  some  places ; 
why  imposed — Death  of  Partholan  and  extinction 
of  this  people. 

In  the  year  of  the  world,  according  to 
the  Hebrew  computation,  2736,  in  the 
month  of  Bel  or  May,  and  the  17th  day  of 
the  moon's  age,  according  to  the  relation 
of  Amhergin,  high-priest  to  this  expedition,* 
Ireland  was  invaded  by  a  numerous  body 
of  select  troops  from  Galicia  in  Spain. 
After  subduing  the  country,  and  establish- 
ing their  government  on  a  permanent  basis, 
as  will  be  related  in  its  place,  they  set  on 
foot  an  inquiry  into  the  history  and  anti- 
quities of  the  people  thus  reduced,  how  long 
they  had  been  in  the  kingdom,  and  what 
colonies  had  preceded  them,  etc.  The  re- 
sult of  their  researches  produced  the  fol- 
lowing relations,  which  have  been  as  care- 
fully transmitted  from  age  to  age  as  those 
of  their  own  particular  exploits,  and  those 
of  their  ancestors. 

In  the  year  of  the  world  1956,  Partholan, 
the  son  of  Seara,  the  son  of  Sru,  the  son 
of  Easru,  son  of  Framant,  son  to  Fathoch- 
da,  the  son  of  Magog,  son  to  Japhet,  the 
son  of  Noah,  landed  in  Ireland,  accompa- 
nied by  his  wife,  Ealga,  or  Ealgnait,  his 
three  sons,  Rughraidhe,  Slainge,  and  Laigh- 
line,  with  their  wives,  and  one  thousand 

*  Leabhat  Lecan. 


soldiers.*  The  Book  of  Invasions,  from 
which  this  relation  is  taken,  fixes  the  time 
of  his  landing  to  be  two  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  years  after  the  Flood ;  but 
Mr.  O'Flaherty  makes  it  thirty-five  years 
later  ;t  differences,  however,  of  little  con- 
sequence in  transactions  so  remote  and  un- 
interesting. The  cause  of  his  flying  from 
his  native  country,  Greece,  we  are  told, 
was  the  inhuman  murder  of  his  father  and 
mother,  with  a  resolution  to  cut  off  also 
his  elder  brother,  in  order  to  possess  him- 
self of  the  supreme  command ;  but  his 
parricide  and  villany  w^ere  so  universally 
detested,  that  he  was  compelled  to  fly  the 
country,  and  seek  new  abodes,  and  at 
length,  as  we  see,  with  his  followers  reach- 
ed Ireland.  The  Book  of  Conquests  men- 
tions— ^but  as  an  affair  not  authenticated — 
that  before  the  arrival  of  Partholem,  Ireland 
was  possessed  by  a  colony  from  Africa, 
under  the  command  of  Ciocall,  between 
whom  and  the  new-comers  a  bloody  battle 
was  fought,  in  which  the  Africans  were 
cut  off. 

It  is  recorded,  that  at  this  time,  there 
were  found  in  Ireland  but  three  lakes  and 
nine  rivers,  whose  names  are  particularly 
mentioned ;  but  from  this  it  appears  proba- 
ble that  the  parts  of  the  country  in  which 
these  lakes  and  rivers  appeared,  were  only 
what  was  then  known ;  and  that  as  their 
successors  began  to  explore  and  lay  open 
other  parts,  the  rivers  and  lakes  then  ap- 

*  Gabhail  Fhartholan  ar  Eire,    t  Ogygia,  p.  10, 163. 


•Cs 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2286. 


pearing,  were  entered  into  the  national 
annals,  as  they  were  discovered;  but  as 
no  previous  mention  could  have  been  made 
of  them,  and  that  the  different  periods  in 
which  they  were  found  out,  were  distinctly 
marked,  succeeding  annalists  have  dated 
the  first  bursting  forth  of  each,  from  the 
time  of  its  discovery.  Our  writers  are 
very  exact  in  the  times  in  which  these  lakes 
and  rivers  appeared :  it  cuts  a  conspicuous 
figure  in  our  history,  and  proves  the  ex- 
treme accuracy  of  our  early  writers ;  but 
a  very  unjustifiable  credulity  in  their  suc- 
cessors, who  could  suppose  the  first  discov- 
ery of  them  to  be  their  first  rise,  though  the 
learned  Dr.  Hutchinson,  Bishop  of  Down 
and  Connor,  has  taken  no  small  pains  to 
defend  it.*  But  as  it  appears  to  me  almost 
a  certainty,  that  (with  a  very  few  excep- 
tions) rivers  and  lakes  are  nearly  coeval 
with  the  creation,  the  reader  will,  I  hope, 
excuse  my  taking  any  further  notice  of  this 
part  of  our  history. 

Soon  after  the  landing  of  Partholan,  his 
son  Slainge  died,  and  was  interred  in  the 
side  of  a  mountain  in  the  present  county 
of  Down,  from  him  denominated  Sliabh- 
Slainge,  sliabh  being  Irish  for  mountain. 
Laighline  also  died,  and  was  buried  near  a 
lake  in  Meath,  from  him  called  Loch-Laigh- 
line ;  and  from  the  place  of  Rughraidhe's 
interment,  the  adjoining  lake  was  called 
Loch-Rughraidhe.  After  a  reign  of  thirty 
years,  Partholan  quitted  this  life,  at  Magh- 
Alta,  in  Meath,  leaving  the  kingdom  be- 
tween his  four  sons,  bom  in  Ireland,  whose 
names  were.  Ear,  Orba,  Feam,  and  Fearg- 
na. 

We  are  surprised  to  find  in  the  retinue 
of  this  prince,  four  men  of  letters,  three 
druids,  three  generals,  a  knight,  a  beatach, 
or  keeper  of  open  house,  and  two  mer- 
chants, whose  names  are  preserved  in  our 
annals.  The  sons  of  Partholan,  we  are 
told,  governed  with  great  wisdom,  as  did 
their  successors  for  some  generations,  till 
at  length  a  violent  plague  broke  out  which 
swept  away  the  greatest  part  of  this  col- 
ony. By  this  means,  the  kingdom,  which 
for  near  three  hundred  years  was  governed 

*  Defeoce  of  Ancient  Historians,  etc. 


by  the  posterity  of  this  prince,  continued 
for  thirty  years  after  in  a  state  of  anarchy. 
The  greatest  number  carried  off  by  this 
contagion  was  at  Ben-Hedir,  now  Howth, 
near  Dublin,  and  the  places  adjacent,  from 
which  circumstance  we  may  infer  that  it 
was  brought  into  the  kingdom  by  some 
ship.  The  mortality  was  so  rapid,  that 
experience  pointed  out  the  utility  (instead 
of  different  burial  places,  which  only  served 
to  spread  the  disorder)  of  fixing  on  one 
common  place,  into  which  the  dead  were 
to  be  thrown  indiscriminately,  and  which 
from  this  circumstance,  says  the  Book  of 
Conquests,  was  ever  after  called  Taimh- 
leacht-Muinter  Phartholan,  or  the  burial- 
place  of  the  posterity  of  Partholan.  After 
the  reception  of  Christianity,  a  monastery 
was  founded  on  this  ground,  to  this  day 
called  Taimhleacht. 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  arrival  of  the  Neimhedians,  or  second  colony, 
in  Ireland — Their  different  battles  with  the  Af- 
ricans, till  their  final  defeat — They  quit  the 
kingdom  in  three  divisions,  two  of  which  sail  to 
Greece,  the  third  to  Brittun. 

It  appears  that  Partholan  did  not  bring 
with  him  to  Ireland  all  his  family.  An  in- 
fant son  remained  in  Greece,  called  Adhla, 
and  Neimheidh,  his  successor,  after  many 
generations,  prepared  with  a  large  fleet 
and  army  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  his  lin- 
eage in  Ireland.  This  armament  consisted 
of  thirty-four  ships,  with  thirty  persons  in 
each  ship,  besides  his  wife  Macha,  and  his 
four  sons,  Stam,  larbhanel,  the  prophet, 
Feargus,  and  Ainnin.  An  African  colony 
had  settled  in  the  north  long  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Neimhedians,  who  were  far 
from  being  so  barbarous  as  represented. 
It  is  recorded  that  Neimheidh  employed 
four  of  their  artizans  to  erect  for  him  two 
sumptuous  palaces,  which  were  so  highly 
finished,  that,  jealous  lest  they  might  con- 
struct others  on  the  same,  or  perhaps  a 
grander  plan,  he  had  them  privately  made 
away  with  the  day  after  they  had  com- 
pleted  their  work !   a  manifest  proof  on 


A.  M.  2286.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


3 


which  side  the  barbarity  lay.*  Soon  after 
this,  Macha,  the  wife  of  Neimheidh,  died, 
and  from  the  place  of  her  interment  it  took 
the  name  of  Ardmacha,  or  Macha's  emi- 
nence. The  Fomharaigh,  or  Africans,  jeal- 
ous of  the  Neimhedians,  prepared  to  en- 
gage them  in  battle ;  they  met  near  Sliabh 
Blama,  in  Leinster,  again  at  Ross  Frao- 
cain,  in  Connaught,  and  a  third  time  near 
the  Tor  Conning,  the  principal  settlement 
of  these  pirates,  in  all  which  battles  the 
Neimhedians  were  victorious.  But  a  fourth 
engagement  taking  place  by  mutual  agree- 
ment, at  Cnamhrius,  in  Leinster,  the  Neim- 
hedians were  entirely  defeated,  and  among 
the  slain  were  the  son  and  nephew  of 
Neimheidh :  shortly  after,  this  prince  him- 
self died  of  grief  and  disappointment 

The  Africans  now  began  to  lord  it  with 
a  high  hand  over  these  adventurers ;  they 
imposed  heavy  taxes  on  them,  which  they 
were  obliged  to  deliver  in  every  first  of 
November,  at  a  place  called  from  this  tax 
Magh-Geidhne,  or  the  plain  of  violence,  in 
the  north.  But  as  violence  and  severity 
are  not  the  means  to  reconcile  a  vanquished 
people  to  their  fate,  the  chiefs  of  the  Neim- 
hedians conspired,  and  the  oppressed  poor 
were  ready  to  engage  in  any  attempt,  how 
desperate  soever,  to  recover  their  liberty. 
The  principal  conspirators  were  Fathach, 
and  Fergus  sumamed  Leath-Dhearg,  or 
Red-side,  sons  of  Neimheidh,  and  Beothach 
his  grandson ;  besides  these,  they  had  three 
heroes  of  especial  note  with  their  followers, 
men  whose  approved  courage  inspired  the 
highest  confidence  in  the  whole  party. 
They  soon  sought  for  and  engaged  the 
Africans  with  a  resolution  equal  to  the  des- 
perateness  of  their  affairs.  In  this  battle 
Conning,  the  son  of  Faobhar  the  African 
chief,  was  slain  with  most  of  his  troops, 
and  their  principal  garrison.  Tor  Conning, 
levelled  to  the  ground.  Soon  after  this. 
More,  the  son  of  Dela,  who  had  been  ab- 
sent with  his  fleet,  endeavouring  to  land  in 
this  northern  qilarter,  (in  island  in  the  pres- 
ent Tir  Connell,)  was  opposed  by  the  Neim- 
hedians, but,  after  a  bloody  conflict,  these 
last  were  defeated  with  great  slaughter, 
*  Gabhafl  Neimheidh  ar  Eirin. 


such  as  escaped  the  sword  perishing  in  the 
water. 

The  afifairs  of  the  Neimhedians  became 
more  desperate  than  ever.  They  had  no 
alternative  but  to  submit  to  the  most  abject 
slavery  or  seek  better  days  in  other  climes. 
The  latter  they  chose :  Simon  Breac,  the 
son  of  Stam,  son  of  NeiYnheidh,  led  a  col- 
ony of  them  back  to  Greece,  where  it  ap- 
pears they  only  changed  climates  not  cir- 
cumstances, being  there  cruelly  oppressed 
by  their  relations.  From  this  people  are 
descended  the  Fir-Bolgs,  of  whom  we  shall 
treat  in  the  next  chapter.  Jobhath,  another 
grandson  of  Neimheidh,  sailed  to  Greece 
also,  as  the  Book  of  Invasions  tells  us,  with 
his  followers ;  and  Briotan,  the  son  of  Fer- 
gus, son  of  Neimheidh,  with  his  people, 
landed  in  North  Britain,  from  whence  his 
posterity  gradually  extended  themselves 
more  to  the  southward :  the  few  that  re- 
mained behind  were  cruelly  oppressed  by 
these  Africans,  till  the  landing  of  the  pos- 
terity of  Simon  Breac,  to  which  no  traces 
of  history  are  met  with.  Writers  are  not 
agreed  as  to  the  time  in  which  this  colony 
ruled  Ireland :  Mr.  CFlaherty  makes  their 
residence  here  to  be  two  hundred  and  six- 
teen years.*  But  this  cannot  be  reconciled 
to  reason  and  chronology,  since  we  have 
seen  that  the  grandchildren  of  this  Neim- 
heidh quitted  the  country ;  so  that  if  we 
allow  one  hundred  years  for  this  space  of 
time,  it  is  as  much  as  in  reason  can  be  de- 
manded :  add  to  this,  that  GioUa  Caomhain 
affirms,f  as  does  the  Book  of  Invasions  and 
Psalter  of  Cashell,  Keating,  Lynch,  etc., 
that  from  the  landing  of  Neimheidh  to  that 
of  his  successors,  the  Belgae  inclusive,  was 
two  hundred  and  seventeen  years:  and 
yet  Mr.  CFlaherty,  in  shortening  the  time 
of  the  Partholanians  remaining  in  Ireland, 
makes  the  rule  of  the  Neimhedian  colony 
there  to  last  two  hundred  and  sixteen 
years ;  and,  to  reconcile  the  whole  to 
his  chronology,  he  fixes  the  coming  in  of 
their  successors,  the  Belgae,  at  four  hundred 
and  twelve  years  later,  contrary  to  every 
evidence  of  antiquity.  In  justice  to  the 
memory  of  this  learned  gentleman,  I  must 

*  Ogygia,  170.       t  Reim-Riogra  Giolla  Caomhain. 


1»- 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2503. 


observe,  that  the  first  mistake  arose  from 
an  opinion  that  Neimheidh  was  grand- 
son to  Partholan;  but  to  reconcile  the 
accounts  handed  down  to  us  from  remote 
antiquity  on  this  head  to  reason,  as  we 
shall  show  them  reconcilable  to  sound  chro- 
nology, we  should  (as  I  have  done)  rather 
suppose  Neimheidh,  though  of  the  same 
line,  to  be  some  generations  later. 

Before  I  close  this  article  on  Neimheidh, 
I  must  observe  that  this  prince  cut  down 
twelve  large  woods,  and  cleared  the  land 
for  tillage. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Of  the  Belgae,  or  third  colony  of  adventurers,  and 
their  arrival  in  Ireland — Their  different  appella- 
tions explained — Of  Slainge,  the  first  Irish  mon- 
arch, and  his  successors,  to  the  reduction  of  this 
people. 

We  observed  in  the  last  chapter  that 
Simon  Breac  led  the  first  embarkation  of 
the  fugitive  Neimhedians  to  Greece,  where 
they  increased  greatly,  insomuch  as  to  be- 
come formidable  to  the  natives,  so  that  in 
their  own  defence  they  reduced  them  to  a 
severe  bondage.  We  are  told  that,  like 
the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  they  were  the  hew- 
ers of  wood  and  drawers  of  waters  to  these 
people ;  that  they  were  compelled  to  dig 
in  the  low  deep  soil,  and  carry  the  earth  in 
leathern  bags  to  cover  and  improve  the 
barren  places.  And  this,  led  me  add,  is  a 
striking  proof  of  the  wisdom  and  industry — 
I  shall  not  say  much  of  the  humanity — of  the 
people  who  employed  them ;  from  this,  it 
is  said,  they  got  the  name  of  Fir-Bolgs,  or 
bag-men. 

Though  groaning  under  these  severi- 
ties it  appears  they  Hved  together — and 
the  country  which  their  ancestors  were 
compelled  to  quit  they  often  discoursed  of. 
It  is  not  improbable  but  that  some  inter- 
course might  have  been,  from  time  to  time, 
kept  up  between  them  and  their  friends  in 
Ireland ;  but  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  agreed 
upon  by  all  our  historians,  that  a  consider- 
able body  of  these  people,  no  less  in  num 
ber  than  five  thousand,  under  five  leaders. 


;l 


the  descendants  of  Neimheidh,  landed  in 
Ireland  A.  M.  2503.  The  names  of  these 
chiefs  were  Slainge,  Rughraidhe,  Gann, 
Geanann,  Seangann.  Their  fleet  was  in 
three  divisions :  the  first,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Slainge,  landed  in  the  Bay  of 
Wexford,  from  him  called  Inbher  Slainge, 
with  one  thousand  men ;  (for  inbher  in  Irish, 
denotes  a  bay ;)  the  second,  led  on  by  Gann 
and  Seangann,  anchored  at  Inbher-Dubh- 
ghlaise,  in  the  north,  with  two  thousand 
men ;  and  the  third,  commanded  by  Gea- 
nann and  Rughraidhe,  at  Inbher-Domh- 
nain,  in  Connaught,  also  with  two  thousand 
men.  They  divided  the  kingdom  into  five 
equal  partitions,  according  to  the  authority 
of  a  most  ancient  poet  quoted  in  the  Book 
of  Invasions.*  Slainge,  the  eldest,  had  for 
his  share  the  province  of  Gailain,  or  Lein- 
ster;  Gann  and  Seangann  had  the  two 
Munsters  allotted  to  them;  Geanann  the 
province  of  Connaught ;  and  Rughraidhe 
that  of  Ulster. 

The  people  themselves  we  find  distin- 
guished by  different  names :  the  Fir-Bolgs,t 
so  called  from  the  leathern  bags  in  which 
they  removed  the  earth;  the  Fir-Domh- 
noins,  from  their  digging  deep  in  the  earth ; 
from  doimhne,  a  depth,  to  which  the  word 
fir,  or  men,  is  joined ;  and  Fir-Gilean,  or 
spear-men,  from  gillain  a  spear,  as  their 
duty  was  to  protect  the  workmen. 

From  this  account  we  reasonably  sur- 
mise, that  the  tale  which  the  new-comers 
gave  of  their  sufferings  to  their  relations 
in  Ireland,  had  more  of  policy  than  truth 
in  it,  in  order  to  excite  their  compassion, 
and  make  their  own  reception  more  cordial. 
From  it  we  should  infer  that  the  country 
allotted  to  them  in  Greece  to  five  was  very 
barren ;  that  their  own  industry  supplied 
this  defect ;  and  that  their  military  guarded 
their  frontiers  from  the  incursions  of  bar- 
barous invaders :  this  is  certainly  the  na- 
tural induction. 

Slainge,  the  eldest,  with  the  dominion 
of  Leinster,  assumed  the  title  of  monarch 
of  the  whole  island,  and  he,  as  GioUa  Caom- 
hain,  and  all  our  antiquari£ins  agree,  was 

*  Gabhail  Fhear-Mblog  ar  Eirion. 
t  Beim-Riogra  Giolla  Caomhain. 


w 


A.  M.  2541.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


the  first  king  in  Ireland.  After  a  reign  of 
one  year  he  died,  and  was  interred  at  the 
side  of  a  mount  in  Leinster,  called  Slainge, 
from  him.  Rughraidhe  was  his  successor ; 
he  ruled  as  monarch  two  years,  and  then 
gave  way  to  his  brothers,  Gann  and  Gea- 
nann,  who  directed  the  government  for 
four  years.  Seangann  was  the  next  mon- 
arch; he  swayed  the  sceptre  five  years, 
when  he  fell  in  battle  by  the  sword  of  Fia- 
cha,  called  Cinn-fionnan,  or  the  Whitehead, 
the  son  of  Rughraidhe.  At  the  end  of  five 
years  more,  i.  e.  A.  M.  2521,  he  met  the 
fate  of  his  predecessor,  by  the  hand  of 
Radhnal,  the  son  of  Geanann. 

Radhnal  reigned  six  years,  and  was  slain 
in  the  battle  of  Craoibhe.  His  successor 
was  Fipdhbhghean,  the  son  of  Seangann ; 
after  a  reign  of  four  years,  he  fell  in  the 
battle  of  Muirtheimhne,  in  the  county  of 
Lowth. 

Eochaidh,  the  son  of  Ere,  the  son  of 
Radhnal,  ruled  Ireland  for  ten  years  in 
great  splendour  and  glory,  at  the  end  of 
which  time,  a  period  was  put  to  his  life, 
and  to  the  government  of  the  Belgian  race 
in  Ireland,  by  new  invaders,  whose  history 
we  will  give  in  the  next  chapter.  His 
queen  was  Tailte,  daughter  of  the  king  of 
Spain ;  and  the  place  of  her  interment  still 
retains  that  name.  All  our  antiquarians 
agree  that  the  Belgians  ruled  Ireland  but 
thirty-seven  years,  the  learned  O'Flaherty 
thinks  it  could  not  be  less  than  eighty;*  but 
I  think  it  more  judicious  to  adhere  to  the 
testimonies  of  antiquity,  than  to  the  conjec- 
tures of  modems,  who  certainly  cannot 
have  had  those  opportunities  of  informa- 
tion which  the  earlier  writers  must  have 
possessed. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Of  the  Damnonii,  or  fourth  colony,  and  why  so 
called — Their  travels  fiom  Greece  to  their  land- 
ing in  Ireland— History  of  the  Liagh-Fail— Of 
the  reigng  of  Breas,  Nuadh,  and  Lnigha — Ori- 
gin of  the  famous  Aonach-Tailtin-JEochaidh, 
Dealbhaoith,  Fiacha,  and  the  three  brothers, 
Eathoir,  Teathoir,  and  Ceathoir,  succeeding 
monarchs  of  Ireland,  etc. 

•  Ogygia,  p.  173. 


In  the  year  of  the  world  2541,  and  the 
tenth  of  the  reign  of  Eochaidh,  son  of  Ere, 
Ireland  was  invaded  by  a  new  colony  who 
were  called  Damnonii;  they  were  also 
descendants  of  Neimheidh,  by  his  grand- 
son Jobhath,  and,  like  their  predecessors, 
the  Fir-Bolgs,  fled  to  Greece  from  the  ty- 
ranny of  the  Africans  who  so  long  lorded 
it  over  Ireland.  Our  antiquarians  assign 
two  reasons  for  their  being  called  Damno- 
nii, or  Tuatha  de  Danans :  the  first,  to  de- 
note their  descent  from  the  three  sons  of 
Danan,  the  daughter  of  Dealbaoith,  son  of 
Eahladh,  son  of  Neid.  The  second  deri- 
vation is,  that  the  people  were  divided  into 
three  classes :  the  nobility,  who  were  so 
called  from  Tuatha,  a  lord;  the  priests, 
from  Dee,  God,  as  devoted  to  the  service 
of  God ;  and  the  Danans,  who  composed 
hymns,  and  sung  the  praises  of  the  Su- 
preme, from  Dan,  a  poem.  These  people  * 
quitted  Greece  on  account  of  a  mighty  in- 
vasion from  Syria,  and,  after  a  variety  of 
adventures,  at  length  landed  in  Denmark, 
where  they  were  received  with  great  hu- 
manity by  the  people,  who  assigned  them 
tracts  of  land  to  cultivate  and  four  cities 
to  inhabit.  In  these  cities  masters  were 
appointed  to  instruct  the  people  in  arts  and 
sciences,  and  the  names  of  these  cities,  or 
rather  universities,  as  well  as  of  the  super- 
intendents of  them  are  yet  preserved.  Af- 
ter spending  a  considerable  time  in  this 
countiy,  but  how  long  is  not  specified,  they 
sailed  for  North  Britain,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Nuadh,  the  twelfth  in  succession 
from  Neimheidh.  Here  they  remained 
seven  years,  when  they  invaded  the  north- 
em  coasts  of  Ireland,  and,  among  other 
curiosities,  brought  with  them  the  famous 
Liagh-Fail,  or  stone  of  destiny,  on  which 
all  our  succeeding  monarchs  were  crowned, 
and  on  which  the  British  princes  have  been 
inaugurated  since  the  reign  of  Edward  L 
who  had  it  conveyed  from  the  abbey  of 
Scone.  On  the  reduction  of  North  Britain 
by  Fergus  the  Great,  the  son  of  Earca,  to 
make  his  possession  of  the  country  more 
solemn,  he  requested  of  his  brother,  the 
monarch  of  Ireland,  the  use  of  this  stone  to 

•  Gabhail  Thuatha.  D.  D. 


6 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2548. 


be  crowned  on ;  for  it  had  been  a  received 
opinion,  that,  in  what  country  soever  this 
stone  should  be  preserved,  there  a  prince 
of  the  Scythian  or  Irish  race  should  gov- 
ern, according  to  the  very  old,  though  well 
known  Rann,  or  verse : 

Mar  abhfaghed  Liag-Fail,  dlighed-flathus  do  ghabhail ; 
Cine-Scuit  saor  an  fhine,  manba  breag  an  Fhaifldine. 

1.  e.  "  the  Scots  shall  give  law  and  rule  to 
whatever  country  this  stone  is  placed  in, 
if  the  fates  are  to  be  credited."  In  respect 
to  antiquity  I  have  given  this  short  account 
of  this  wonderful  stone,  which  tradition 
says,  made  a  strange  noise  when  any  of 
the  true  line  of  Milesians  were  crowned, 
but  otherwise  was  silent.  It  still  remains 
under  the  inauguration  chair  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey,  but  by  the  name  of  Jacob's 
stone. 

On  the  landing  of  the  Danaans  they  set 
fire  to  their  ships,  to  show  their  people  that 
they  had  no  resources  but  in  their  courage ; 
and,  by  the  help  of  a  thick  fog,  got  three 
days  march  of  their  enemies,  before  they 
•  had  a  certainty  where  they  were ;  and 
which  incident  they  had  cunning  enough 
to  impose  on  the  people,  to  have  been 
brought  about  by  their  skill  in  necromancy. 
Here  they  called  a  council,  and  sent  heralds 
to  the  monarch  Eochaidh,  to  resign  the 
kingdom  to  them,  or  determine  the  contest 
in  a  pitched  battle.  The  latter  he  accept- 
ed ;  and  after  a  most  bloody  engagement 
on  the  plains  of  South  Muigh-Tuirreadh, 
in  which  he  fell  by  the  sword  of  Nuadh, 
who  lost  a  hand  in  the  contest,  the  whole 
Belgian  army  was  routed,  having  left  ten 
thousand  men  slain  on  the  spot.  The  re- 
mains of  their  scattered  troops  fled  differ- 
ent ways,  and  retired  to  the  isles  of  Arran, 
Man,  Ha,  to  Britain,  and  the  Hebrides, 
waiting  a  more  favourable  opportunity  to 
recover  that  country  which  the  fate  of  war 
deprived  them  of. 

Nuadh,  the  chief  of  this  colony,  is  not 
placed  in  the  Book  of  Invasions,  as  the  first 
monarch  of  the  Danaan  race.  We  find  his 
cousin,  Breas,  proclaimed  and  first  inaugu- 
rated on  their  famous  stone.  The  reason 
I  conceive  to  be  this :  in  these  early  days, 
and  indeed  in  every  succeeding  period  of 


Irish  history,  any  corporeal  defect  was  a 
sufficient  exclusion  fi-om  the  monarchy. 
This  Nuadh  felt.  We  find  his  hand  healed 
by  the  skill  of  Miach,  his  physician,  and  an 
artificial  one  of  silver,  exactly  fitted  to  the 
stump  by  Credah,  his  goldsmith,  from  which 
he  ever  after  went  by  the  name  of  Airgiod- 
laimh,  or  the  Silver-hand.  Thus  assisted, 
he  reclaimed  the  monarchy  as  his  right,  to 
which  we  see  Breas  obliged  to  assent,  after 
a  reign  of  seven  years. 

Nuadh,  possessed  of  the  monarchy,  reign- 
ed twenty  years ;  during  this  period,  Breas 
ill  bore  the  loss  of  the  diadem.  He  enter- 
ed into  treaty  with  the  Africans,  who  still 
held  some  places  in  the  north.  He  sent 
emissaries  to  the  exiled  Belgians,  who  pri- 
vately, and  in  different  parties,  entered  the 
kingdom ;  and  when  at  the  head  of  a  con- 
siderable party,  he  proclaimed  his  right  to 
the  crown.  Nuadh  prepared  his  army  to 
meet  his  antagonist.  They  engaged  on  the 
plains  of  North  Muigh-Tuirreadh,  in  Con- 
naught.  The  conflict  was  great  and  bloody ; 
and  we  may  judge  of  the  carnage  on  both 
sides  by  the  chiefs  that  fell.  Bale  Beimio- 
nach,  general  of  the  Africans,  the  princi- . 
pal  leaders  of  the  Belgae,  and  Breas,  the 
soul  of  the  whole,  fell  on  one  side ;  while 
Nuadh  himself,  Ogma-Grianan,  and  many 
leaders  of  the  first  rank  among  the  Dana- 
ans, partook  of  the  same  fate.  The  Da- 
naans, however,  gained  the  well-fought 
battle,  and  sorely  oppressed  the  remains  of 
the  Belgae  for  a  considerable  time  after. 

Luigha,  sumamed  Lamh-shada,  or  the 
Long-hand,  a  descendant  of  Neimheidh's, 
was  the  next  monarch.  Besides  his  blood, 
the  uncommon  intrepidity  he  displayed  in 
the  last  battle  (having  with  his  own  hand 
slain  the  African  chief)  seemed  to  call  him 
to  this  dignity.  He  ruled  with  great  pru- 
dence ;  and,  sensible  of  the  utility  of  pub- 
lic shows  and  amusements,  especially  to  a 
fierce  military  people,  he  instituted  the 
Aonach-Tailtean,  so  celebrated  in  every 
subsequent  period  of  Irish  history.  The 
origin  of  this  famous  assembly  is  thus  de- 
livered by  our  senachies. 

Tailte,  daughter  of  a  Spanish  prince,  and 
the  queen  of  Eochaidh,  the  last  monarch  of 


A.  M.  2704.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


the  Belgian  line,  who  fell  in  the  battle  of 
South  Muigh-Tuirreadh,  afterwards  mar- 
ried Deocha-Gharbh,  one  of  the  Danaan 
chiefs ;   and  to  her  care  and  tuition,  the 
present  prince  was  delivered  when  very 
young.     Being  a  lady  of  great  wisdom,  she 
acquitted  herself  of  her  charge  to  universal 
satisfaction ;  and  to  commemorate  her  name 
and  his  gratitude,  he  ordered  solemn  tilts 
and  tournaments  every  first  of  August,  being 
the  day  of  her  death,  at  Tailtean,  in  Meath, 
the  place  of  her  interment.    This  great  as- 
sembly was  proclaimed  fourteen  days  be- 
fore, and  continued  fourteen  days  after  the 
first  of  August ;  during  which  time,  none 
who  attended,  were  to  be  molested  in  their 
persons,  or  properties.     From  this  institu- 
tion,  and   from  this  prince,  the  month  of 
August  is,  to  this  day  called  in  Irish  Lugh- 
nas,  or,  the  anniversary  of  Lugha,  from 
whence   the   English  word   Lammas  for 
August.     It  is  recorded  of  this  prince  that 
he  was  the  first  who  introduced  the  use  of 
cavalry  into  Ireland.     From  the  people  of 
Thessaly's  being  such  expert  horsemen,  be- 
fore their  use  was  known  to  the  neighbour- 
ing nations,  arose  the  fable  of  the  Centaurs. 
After  a  peaceable  reign  of  forty  years,  this 
prince  died,  and  was  interred  at  Caondruin, 
now  Uisneach,  in  Westmeath.    Eochaidh, 
another  branch  of  the  line  of  Neimheidh, 
was  the  succeeding  monarch.     In  some  of 
our  genealogies   he   is   made   brother  to 
Breas,  the  first  Danaan  ruler,   and,  it  is 
generally  agreed,  reigned  nearly  eighty 
years ;  but  this   cannot  be  reconciled  to 
chronology.     But  the  Book  of  Invasi<His 
clears  this  up  by  calling  him  Ealathar,  the 
son  of  Ealathaim;   so  that  he  was  the 
nephew,  not  the  brother  to  Breas,  and  the 
length  of  this  reign,  by  this  means,  cannot 
seem  extraordinary. 

Dealbhaoith,  grandson  to  Ogma-Grianan, 
succeeded  to  the  throne,  which  he  filled  ten 
.years,  when  he  was  slain  by  his  own  son. 

Fiacha,  the  wretched  parricide,  reigned 
ten  years,  and  was  cut  off  in  the  battle  of 
Ard-Breac,  by  Eogan  of  Inbher-more,  who 
pierced  his  body  with  a  javelin. 

Mac  Cuill,  Mac  Ceacht,  and  Mac  Greine, 
the  three  sons  of  Carmada,  son  of  Eochaidh, 


and  last  princes  of  the  Danaan  race,  ruled 
Ireland  alternately  for  thirty  years.     Their 
real  names  were  Eathoir,  Teathoir,  and 
Ceathoir.    We  are  told,  the  reason  why 
the  first  names  were  imposed  on  them,  was, 
because  they  adored  difierent  deities.  That 
Eathoir  worshipped  a  log  of  wood,  hence 
the  name  Mac  Cuill,  from  coill,  a  wood. 
Teathoir  reverenced  a  plougfi-share,  and 
was  called  Mac  Ceacht,  from  cheacta^  a 
plough-share  ;  and  Ceathoir  adored  the  ami, 
and  was  therefore  called  Mac  Greine,  grian 
being  Irish  for  the  sun.  Such  a  stoiy  handed 
down  from  age  to  age,  at  the  same  time  that 
it  shows  a  justly  censurable  credulity,  yet 
proves  what  little  alterations  or  innovations 
were  made  in  our  annals.     Our  records 
agree  that  these  Danaans  were  very  learn- 
ed ;  and,  we  may  venture  to  add,  for  those 
days,  a  very  polished  people.     In  their  fa- 
mous Liagh-Fail,  we  may  trace  the  origin 
of  inauguration ;  since  all  vdse  nations,  for 
political   ends,   will  surely  endeavour   to 
make  it  believed,  that  the  crowning  their 
princes  is  in  itself  a  sacred  act,  to  gain  it 
the   greater  reverence    with  the   public. 
This  colony,  our  annals  declare,  was  the 
first  which  introduced  the  use  of  the  sword, 
the  spear,  and  the  horse,  into  war,  in  Ire- 
land. Besides  these  military  improvements, 
we  find  them  a  commercial  and  maritime 
people.     Oiribhsion,  was  noted  for  his  ex- 
tensiveness  in  trade ;  and  from  Mananan, 
who  reduced  the  Isle  of  Man,  did  it  take  its 
name.     How  absurd,  then,  to  suppose  the 
present  ruling  princes  to  adore  a  log  of 
wood,  or  a  plough-share  for  a  god  ?  Would 
the  most  ignorant  African  in  Guinea  be  con- 
tent with  such  deities  ?    The  plain  and  evi- 
dent meaning  of  these  names  are,  that  the 
first  prince,  Eathoir,  encouraged  the  build- 
ing of  ships  and  houses,  hence  Mac  Cuill, 
as  paying  most  attention  to  woods;  the 
second  promoted  agriculture,  hence  Mac 
Ceacht,  or  of  the  plough  ;  and  the  third,  be- 
ing a  devout  prince,  employed  himself  most- 
ly in  prayer  and  adoration,  hence  Mac 
Greine,  or  the  sun,  the  only  chief  deity  wor- 
shipped by  all  polished  nations  of  antiquity, 
and  which  the  Irish  in  a  particular  manner 
adored,  not  only  at  the  period  in  question, 


8 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2704. 


but  in  every  succeeding  one,  till  their  con- 
version to  Christianity.  It  is  to  be  noticed 
that  the  queens  of  these  princes  were  called, 
Banba,  Fodhla,  and  Eire,  and  which  names 
from  them,  have  been  given  to  Ireland,  but 
more  especially  the  last,  which  it  retains  at 
this  day. 

In  the  year  2736,  the  sons  of  Milesius 
landed  in  Ireland,  and,  after  spilling  much 
blood,  (as  will  appear  in  its  place,)  made  a 
complete  conquest  of  the  kingdom,  which 
their  posterity  governed  with  great  glory 
for  above  two  thousand  four  hundred  years, 
under  one  hundred  and  seventy-one  princes, 
all  the  descendants  of  the  royal  line  of 
Milesius  ! 


CHAPTER  V. 

Remarks  on  the  preceding  relations — Source  of 
historical  systems — Early  emigrations,  conducted 
iBot  by  land,  but  by  water — Supported  by  the 
authorities  of  Moses,  Josephus,  and  of  Tacitus, 
etc. — Ancient  state  of  navigation. 

The  preceding  relations,  extracted,  as 
we  have  seen,  from  the  most  respectable 
pieces  of  Irish  antiquities,  have  been 
strangely  and  unaccountably  commented 
on  not  only  by  foreigners  but  even  by  some 
of  our  modern  domestic  writers ;  and  this 
detail,  in  itself  so  capable  of  illustrating  the 
early  periods  of  Irish  and  British  history, 
as  we  shall  show,  has  only  supplied  them 
with  pretences  and  arguments  to  weaken 
the  authority  of  the  subsequent  parts  of 
our  history.  For,  say  they,  if  tales  such 
as  these  are  to  be  obtruded  upon  us  for 
history,  what  can  we  suppose  the  remain- 
der to  be,  but  ejusdem  farince !  But  the 
Milesian  Irish  transmitted  them  to  posteri- 
ty, on  the  faith  of  the  people  they  subdued, 
and  for  the  authenticity  of  which  they  could 
be  no  way  responsible.  To  bring  our  an- 
nals into  disrepute,  they  should  attack  those 
parts  which  relate  to  the  exploits  of  our 
Milesian  ancestors  only,  not  those  which 
they  could  have  no  hand  in.  Nor  have 
they  had  candour  enough  to  acknowledge 
the  generous  and  liberal  principles  display- 
ed by  them  on  this  occasion  ;  who,  contra- 


ry to  the  barbarous  principles  of  most  other 
conquerors,  ancient  as  well  as  modem,  in- 
stead of  destroying  every  evidence  which 
might  reflect  honour  on  the  legislation  and 
politics  of  the  people  thus  subdued,  care- 
fully transmitted  them  to  posterity  !  Had 
the  old  Romans  acted  on  such  noble  prin- 
ciples, what  funds  of  knowledge  £ind  erudi- 
tion should  we  now  be  possessed  of ! 

To  minds  open  to  conviction,  a  stronger 
proof  of  the  civilization  of  our  early  ances- 
tors could  not  be  offered,  nor  of  the  wis- 
dom and  extensiveness  of  their  plan  of 
government.  The  moment  they  found  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country  unable 
to  injure  them,  that  moment  they  ceased 
to  consider  them  as  enemies ;  and  they 
only  studied  how  to  make  them  useful 
members  of  society.  Unlike  our  modern 
LEGISLATORS,  they  laboured  not  to  destroy 
and  discredit  their  antiquities  as  if  no  glory 
could  arise  from  the  conquest  of  a  brave  and 
polished  people:  they,  on  the  contrary, 
transmitted  to  posterity,  the  genealogies, 
the  exploits,  and  the  principal  actions  of 
these  people.  But  let  us  now  consider 
how  far  these  accounts  may  be  supported 
and,  fabulous  as  they  have  been  represen- 
ted, what  lights  they  may  not  be  capable 
of  throwing  on  early  history,  and  particu- 
larly on  that  of  Britain. 

That  spirit  of  Pyrrhonism  which  the  Re- 
formation introduced,  was  not  confined 
simply  to  religion ;  it  affected  the  sciences  \ 
men,  now  accustomed  to  think  for  them- 
selves, saw  how  genius  was  shackled  by 
the  subtleties  of  the  schools,  an^jphilo- 
sophical  inquiries  obstructed  by  too  implicit 
adherence  to  ancient  dogmas.  Had  they 
confined  their  doubts  within  proper  bounds, 
mankind  would  undoubtedly  be  the  better 
and  wiser  for  their  inquiries ;  but  certain 
barriers,  as  well  in  religion  as  in  govern- 
ment, when  once  broken  through,  the  future 
limits  of  either  cannot  afterwards  be  easily 
circumscribed.  In  this  general  rage  of  re- 
formation, it  appears  to  me  that  history 
suffered  not  a  little,  since  the  authorities  of 
ancient  historians  were  as  much  called  in 
question  as  those  of  ancient  divines  and 
philosophers.    Thus,  instead  of  adhering 


A.  M.  2704.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


to  the  relations  of  remote  annalists,  the  mo- 
dems have  freely  contradicted  them  in 
many  instances,  and  have  opj)osed  specious 
modem  arguments  to  invalidate  ancient 
facts.  The  strongest  and  the  most  danger- 
ous instance  of  this  innovation,  is  the  pres- 
ent acknowledged  system  of  population, 
which  at  once  destroys  the  credit  of  ancient 
history. 

Population,  says  modem  historic  hypo- 
thesis, originating  from  the  East,  countries 
must  receive  inhabitants  in  proportion  to 
their  proximity  to  this  great  reservoir  only. 
Continents  must  necessarily  be  inhabited 
before  islands,  and  these  last  in  proportion 
to  their  vicinity  to  those  continents.  Thus, 
Britain  must  be  peopled  after  Gaul,  the 
northern  parts  from  the  south;  and  from 
both,  and  after  both,  Ireland ;  and  as  neither 
North  or  South  Britain  furnish  any  traces 
of  history  before  the  Roman  invasion,  Ire- 
land must,  of  course,  be  involved  in  the  same 
barbarous  chaos,  in  spite  of  every  evidence 
to  the  contrary !  But  for  the  sake  of  truth, 
and  to  endeavour  to  restore  to  history  part 
of  that  dignity  which  conjecture  has  robbed 
it  of,  let  us  examine  on  what  foundations, 
in  reason  and  truth,  this  curious  hypothesis 
is  supported. 

Moses  tells  us,*  that  by  the  posterity  of 
Japhet,  "the  isles  of  the  Gentiles  were 
divided  in  their  lands ;  every  one  after 
HIS  TONGUE,  aftpr  their  families,  in  their 
nations."  Now,  all  the  interpreters  are 
unanimous  that  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles 
mean  those  of  Europe ;  and  to  such  as  may 
dispute  the  divine  authority  of  this  legisla- 
tor, I  "^hall  observe  that  on  this  occasion  I 
shall  introduce  him  as  an  historian  only, 
recording  a  fact  well  known  in,  and  before 
his  days ;  and  a  more  respectable  one  anti- 
quity cannot  surely  produce.  Here  then, 
to  demonstration,  we  see  the  European 
islands  inhabited  by  different  people,  and 
speaking  different  languages,  long  before 
the  year  of  the  world  2453,  at  which  time 
Moses  conducted  the  Israelites  out  of 
Egypt.  He  even  shows,  contrary  to  mo- 
dem visionaries,  that  the  separation  of 
these  different  septs  did  not  proceed  from 

•  Genesis,  x.  5. 

2 


too  great,  an  increase  of  inhabitants ;  be- 
cause it  SKpened  at  so  early  a  period  after 
the  Flood,  i.  e.  in  the  days  of  Phaleg,  that 
it  could  not  possibly  be  the  case.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  Flood,  Noah  is  commanded 
to  be  fruitful,  to  multiply,  and  to  replenish 
the  earth !  The  moment  the  confusion  of 
languages  began,*  that  moment  did  they 
begin  to  iscatter  and  disperse  over  the  face 
of  ALL  THE  EARTH !  Though  wc  should  not 
even  allow  inspiration  to  this  writer,  yet, 
as  philosophers,  we  sorely  must  agree  that 
a  better  reason  could  not  be  assigned  for 
the  dispersion  of  mankind  than  diversities 
of  languages.  The  earlier  we  admit  of  the 
difference  in  tongues,  the  earlier  we  must 
acknowledge  the  necessity  of  mankind's 
separating.  Could  this  be  effected  easier 
by  land  than  by  water?  It  undoubtedly 
could  not:  immense  woods  must  be  cut 
through,  rivers  passed,  and  still  greater 
dangers,  from  the  unknown  tracts,  appre- 
hended. How  would  women  and  children, 
subsistence,  etc.,  be  conveyed  ?  But  what 
space  of  time  would  it  not  take  to  fill  the 
continent,  without  noticing  islands?  and 
yet  it  is  evident,  that  these  last  were  peo- 
pled before  it  was  possible  for  the  continent 
to  be  overstocked,  if  it  ever  was,  which  I 
much  doubt.  We  know  that,  for  three  and 
four  centuries  past,  European  colonies  have 
emigrated  to  different  parts  of  the  globe  ; 
that  these  settlements  have  been  effected 
by  ships  ;  and  that  in  all  these  instances, 
a  redundancy  of  inhabitants  was  never 
pleaded  as  a  pretence.  Curiosity,  interest, 
or  convenience,  stimulated  the  "first  people, 
and  their  success  encouraged  other  adven- 
turers. But  besides  the  evidences  of  Moses 
and  of  reason,  we  have  others  to  offer  in 
defence  of  truth  and  antiquity. 

Josephus  is  positive  that  the  posterity  of 
Noah  passed  by  sea  to  many  places  ;t  and, 
indeed,  it  were  hard  to  say  how  else  they 
could  be  conveyed.  TacitusJ  is  so  clear 
in  the  necessity  of  marine  emigrations,  that 
he  gives  ais  a  reason  why  the  natives  of 
Germany  must  have  been  aborigines  of 
that  country  (and  the  continent  too)  the 

*  Genesis,  zi.  8.        t  Lib.  i.  cap.  5,  etc, 
X  De  Morib.  Gierm. 


10 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2704. 


impossibility  of  early  navigators  venturing 
into  so  tempestuous  and  swelling  a  sea; 
for,  says  he,  "  the  first  settlers,  travelled 
not  by  land,  but  went  in  fleets."  Must  we 
not  grant  that  they  had  better  opportuni- 
ties of  information  than  we  modem  specu- 
lists,  so  very  many  ages  after  them  ?  The 
ancients,  less  pre-occupied  with  absurd 
opinions  of  lazy  philosophers  than  the 
modems,  gave  free  scope  to  clear  sense 
and  reason.  The  facility  of  conveying 
themselves  from  place  to  place  by  means 
of  water  must  have  struck  the  most  igno- 
rant people  from  the  bare  floating  of  tim- 
ber ;  the  spreading  of  their  clothes  must 
have  pointed  out  to  them  the  means  and 
advantages  of  collecting  wind ;  and  a  very 
little  experience  must  have  shown  them 
how  to  weather  points,  and  double  capes 
and  headlands.  We  know  from  remotest 
antiquity  that  the  poor  on  the  seacoasts  of 
most  countries  used  boats  made  of  wicker 
baskets,  covered  with  cowskins,  in  which 
they  braved  the  most  tempestuous  seas; 
and  such  are  at  tjiis  day  successfully  used 
in  the  west  of  the  county  of  Clare.  If, 
then,  poor  and  uninformed  people,  incapa- 
ble of  procuring  better  materials,  have  per- 
formed voyages  and  successfully  crossed 
the  seas,  in  such  wretched  vehicles,*  what 
might  not  be  effected  by  persons  of  more 
refined  sense  and  extensive  power  ? 

Whether  the  early  ancients  understood 
the  use  of  the  compass  in  sailing  I  shall  not 
inquire,  though  confidently  affirmed  by 
some  modems ;  and  that  this,  with  the  pur- 
ple dye  of  the  Tyrians,  the  malleability  of 
glass,  etc.,  were  afterwards  lost.  Nothing, 
however,  can  be  fuller  than  the  proofs  they 
offer  of  sea  expeditions  ;  witness  the  Phoe- 
nician commerce ;  witness  the  mighty  fleets 
of  the  Egyptian  Sesostris,  whom  chronolo- 
gists  have  placed  earlier,  by  near  three 
centuries,  than  the  taking  of  Troy.  One 
of  these  armaments,  antiquity>»ffirms,  sailed 
through  the  Straits  of  Babel-Mandel,  from 
the  Arabian  Gulf,  to  India ;  and,  doubling 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  returned  through 
the  straits'  mouth,  and  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  We  see  long  before  the  days  of  Ho- 
*  Triaa  Thaumal.  paaom. 


mer,  the  European  islands  well  known  to 
the  Greeks :  how  else  could  he  introduce 
Ireland  into  the  Odyssey,  as  we  see  he  has, 
and  determine  its  distance  to  be  about  ten 
days'  sail  from  the  straits  ?  In  the  days  of 
Solomon,  voyages  to  India  were  frequent, 
and  we  find  took  three  years.  If,  then,  the 
ancients  knew  not  the  use  of  the  compass, 
they  certainly  must  of  some  other  instru- 
ment equally  useful,  besides  the  polar  stars 
at  night,  and  the  sun  in  the  day.  All  which 
collected,  must  have  given  an  air  not  only 
of  possibility,  but  of  probaWlity  to  the  fore- 
going relations. 

But  besides  the  above  proofs,  plain  sense 
and  reason  should  point  out  to  us  the  dan- 
gers attending  on  modem  hypothesis  in 
history.  "  In  many  instances  (says  Bayle) 
historical  truths  are  not  less  impenetrable 
than  physical  ones:"  because  we  cannot 
satisfactorily  explain  many  phenomena  in 
nature,  must  it  follow  that  the  facts  are 
also  to  be  rejected  ?  What  avails  it  that, 
in  considering  the  days  of  old,  the  years  of 
many  generations,  Moses  recommends  us 
"  to  inquire  of  our  fathers,  and  they  will 
tell  us :  to  consult  our  elders,  and  they  will 
show  us ;"  or,  that  Cicero  should  declare, 
that  "  history  is  the  witness  of  times  past, 
the  height  of  truth,  the  life  of  memory,  the 
guide  of  life,  and  herald  of  antiquity."  Be- 
hold modem  visionaries  oppose  their  lazy 
indigested  reveries  to  the  evidence  of  an- 
tiquity !  And  if  any  thing  can  more  fully 
justify  the  necessity  of  these  remarks ;  it 
is  the  attempts  lately  made  by  the  two 
Mac  Phersons.*  These  men  have  laboured 
to  establish  a  system  of  Scottish  history, 
contrary  to  the  voice  of  antiquity  and  even 
to  the  evidence  of  modem  times ;  and  of 
two  distinct  people  at  this  day  speaking 
different  languages,  and,  till  about  thirty 
years  ago,  governed  by  different  laws,  to 
make,  from  all  antiquity,  but  one  nation — I 
mean  the  Picts  and  Scots !  Thus  encour- 
aged by  the  success  of  shodern  historical 
theorists,  they  have  boldly  thrown  off"  every 
restraint,  and  even  the  appearance  of  re- 
spect to  ancient  facts,  though  affirmed  by 

*  Dissertation  on  the  Ancient  Caledonians,  etc. — In- 
troduction to  the  History  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 


A.  M.  2704.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


11 


so  respectable  a  writer  as  the  venerable 
Bede,  and  of  facts  he  speaks  to,  from  his 
own  knowledge ! 


CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Britons  early  in  possession  of  letters — Their 
supposed  fabulous  history  explained — Annals  of 
Ireland — Llhuid's  apothesi§  examined,  and  the 
close  affinity  between  the  Welch  and  Irish 
proved — Evidences  that  the  first  Biltish  colonies 
passed  from  Ireland — A  mistake  of  Bede's  cor- 
rected, and  the  ancient  name  of  Brittany  pointed 
out. 

When  Caesar*  tells  us  that  the  Celtic 
arts,  religion,  and  letters,  originated  in  the 
British  isles,  or  rather  in  Ireland;!  ^^^ 
that,  even  in  his  own  days,  such  on  the 
continent  as  chose  to  excel  in  them  repaired 
directly  to  us — to  deny  such  people  the 
early  use  of  history  must  be  wholly  absurd. 
Annals  the  Britons  must  have  undoubtedly 
had  in  his  days,  as  well  as  the  Gauls; 
though  Caesar  is  silent  on  this  head  with 
respect  to  both.  It  cannot  be  denied  but 
that  the  Roman  policy  was,  while  they  in- 
troduced their  laws  and  customs  among 
the  people  they  subdued,  they  at  the  same 
time  laboured  to  destroy  every  vestige  of 
the  former  state  of  such  people ;  so  that, 
absorbed  in  veneration  at  the  power  of 
their  conquerors  they  forgot  their  own  ab- 
ject state.  The  earliest  writer  of  British 
history  on  record  is  Nennius,  an  author  of 
the  seventh  century.  His  work  I  have  not 
seen ;  but  it  is  agreed  upon,  that  from  it 
Geoffrey,  Archdeacon  of  Monmouth,  a  Ben- 
edictine monk,  and  afterward  Bishop  of  St. 
Asaph,  in  the  twelfth  century,  took  the 
principal  materials  for  his  history  of  Brit- 
ain. And  yet  this  work,  fabulous  as  it  has 
been  deemed  when  compared  with  the 
preceding  relations,  will  show  that  the 
Britons  retained  some  faint  traditional 
memory  of  their  real  origin ;  but,  like  the 
Scots  in  the  reign  of  t^he  first  Edward, 
when  they  attempted  the  outlines  of  their 
history,  so  deformed  it  with  absurdities  and 
anachronisms  as  to  make  it  appear  rather 

*  Commentaries,  lib.  \n. 

t  Introductioa  to  LKSh  history,  p.  i.  c.  2  aad  3. 


a  romance  than  a  history.  It  is  the  pecu- 
liar glory  of  Irish  history,  to  be  able  with 
precision  to  illustrate  the  history  and  chro- 
nology of  other  nations.  In  this  chapter 
we  shall  confine  our  inquiries  to  that  of 
Britain.  In  the  next  book  we  shall  show 
what  the  Greeks  and  Egyptians,  etc.,  owe 
to  our  ancestors ;  and  these  annals,  which 
Hume,  and  others  of  his  stamp,  have  so 
infamously  misrepresented,  far  from  ap- 
pearing a  heap  of  indigested  falsehoods, 
will,  I  trust,  be  acknowledged  as  the  comer- 
stone  of  true  history  and  true  chronology. 
G^eoffrey  tells  us  that  Brutus,  who  first 
landed  in  Britain,  was  obliged  to  fly  his 
country  for  parricide,  impatient  to  succeed 
his  father  before  his  time ;  and  our  annals 
inform  us  that  Partholan  fled  from  Greece 
to  Ireland  for  a  similar  crime  !  He  says 
from  this  Brutus  Britain  took  its  name;' 
and  our  antiquarians  are  unanimous  that  it 
was  so  called  from  Briotan,  the  son  of  Fer- 
gus !  Henry  of  Huntington*  fixes  the  ar- 
rival of  the  Britons  in  England  to  be  in  the 
third  age  of  the  world,  and  that  of  the  Scots 
in  Ireland  in  the  fourth.  We  have  seen 
that  Briotan  fled  thither  from  Ireland,  A., 
M.  2380 ;  and  that  the  Scots  landed  Tiere^ 
A.  M.  2736 !  Geoffrey  says  that  Brutus 
landed  in  Cornwall  about  twelve  hundred 
years  after  the  Flood ;  but  our  annalists, 
as  we  have  seen,  have  fixed  the  landing 
of  Briotan  at  a  much  earlier  period.  But 
the  Tuatha  da  Danaans,  or  Damnonii,  cer- 
tainly landed  there  from  Ireland,  and  about 
the  period  he  assigns.  The  earliest  name 
of  Britain  was  Albion,  and,  to  prove  it  not 
a  Greek  but  a  radical  Irish  word,  it  was  so 
called  from  Eile,  another,  and  Ban,  an  old 
name  for  Ireland ;  and  Scotland  to  this 
day,  has,  in  Irish,  no  other  name !  It  is 
pretty  remarkable  that  British  writers  agree 
that  England  and  Ireland  were  peopled  by 
the  same  race  of  men ;  and  in  the  ^mvs  of 
the  Romans,f  Tacitus  declares  theiii  cus- 
toms and  manners  very  similar.  Caesar 
(lib.  V.  c.  10)  says  that  the  Britons  wore 
long  hair,  and  had  their  beards  shaved, 
except  the  upper  lip.  These  customs  were 
continued  in  Ireland  till  lately;  the  hair 


*  Histor.  lib 


t  '  iui  Jul.  Agricola. 


la- 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2704. 


was  called  glib,  and  the  whisker  crom-heal, 
British  writers,  from  conjecture  and  hypo- 
thesis, affirm  Britain  to  be  the  mother 
country  ;  but  Irish  writers,  from  the  earli- 
est records,  confirmed  by  facts,  dedare 
Ireland  to  be  the  great  hive. 

Llhuid,  the  best  informed  antiquarian  in 
Britain,  and  the  most  proper  judge  of  the 
matter,  because  a  master  of  the  old  Irish 
as  well  as  of  the  old  British  language, 
confesses  "  that  the  most  ancient  names  of 
places,  rivers,  mountains,  and,  we  may  add, 
of  cities,  too,  in  Britain  are  pure  Irish ; 
that  both  the  Welch  and  Cornish  are  re- 
plete with  Irish,  nay,  that  they  are  nearly 
of  the  same  genus,  and  that  part  of  many 
of  their  compound  words  are  pure  Irish."* 
To  account  for  these  facts,  he  has  formed 
an  hypothesis — for  as  such  only  he  offers 
it — finding  the  Irish  called  Gadelians  as 
well  as  Scots,  he  presumes  the  Gadelians 
were  a  branch  of  the  ancient  Celtae,  inhab- 
itants of  Britain,  and  who  retired  to  Ire- 
land to  make  way  for  new  invaders,  and 
that  the  names  of  these  places,  such  as  they 
found  them,  these  last  retained.  But  though 
this  may  be  received  with  regard  to  the 
names  of  the  places,  yet  it  will  never  ex- 
plain why  these  new  settlers  should  retain 
in  their  tongue  so  much  of  the  Irish  lan- 
guage. Besides,  Mr.  Llhuid,  in  the  dedi- 
cation of  his  Welch  Dictionary  to  his 
countrymen  strongly  recommends  to  them 
the  study  of  the  Irish  language  and  history; 
he  even  aflirms  "  that  it  is  clear  that  the 
Irish  language  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
those  who  would  write  of  the  isle  of  Brit- 
ain.** He  has  not  once  asserted  that  the 
British  is  a  necessary  help  to  investigate 
the  antiquities  of  Ireland !  He  also  de- 
clares "  that  he  could  have  no  reason  to 
doubt  but  that  the  Gadelians  (the  Irish)  had 
formerly  lived  all  over  this  kingdom." 
The  very  learned  Bishop  of  Cloyne  em- 
braces this  hypothesis  of  Llhuid,t  and  he 
even  attempts  to  demonstrate  mathemat- 
ically the  time  of  the  emigration  of  the  Ga- 
delians to  Ireland  from  the  difference  in 
language  between  the  old  Britons  and  Irish. 

*  Archffilog.  passim. 

t  Prefiwe  to  O'Brien's  Irish  Dicdooaiy. 


Thus  the  Highland  Scots  became  a  dis- 
tinct people  from  Ireland,  the  mother-coun- 
try, suppose  a  thousand  years  ago,  though 
the  emigrations  began  much  earlier ;  and  if 
we  grant  that  the  affinity  of  the  Highland 
Erse  with  the  Irish  language  be  in  the  ratio 
of  three  to  one  with  the  affinity  between 
the  Welch  and  the  Irish,  then  the  quantity 
of  time  elapsed  since  the  separation  of  the 
Welch  and  Irish  should  be  in  the  inverse 
ratio  of  three  to  one  with  the  former ;  so 
that  fixing,  at  a  medium,  the  separation  of 
the  Highlanders  from  the  Irish  at  one  thou- 
sand years,  that  of  the  Welch  from  the 
Irish  must  be  at  three  thousand  years, 
which  approaches  very  near  the  time  point- 
ed out  by  our  historians  for  the  first  inva- 
sion of  Britain. 

But  besides  the  close  affinity  in  lan- 
guages between  the  old  British  and  old 
Irish,  their  customs,  manners,  and  inclina- 
tions, seem  to  indicate  them  originally  one 
people.  The  Welch,  like  the  Irish,  are 
brave,  humane,  and  hospitable,  glorying  in 
the  nobleness  of  their  ancestry,  and  great 
lovers  of  music  and  poetry.  Their  ancient 
form  of  government  was  according  to  the 
Irish  modus,  and  to  us  their  bards  and  mu- 
sicians repaired  for  instruction,*  hence  that 
elegant  alliteration  in  their  poetry,  and 
hence  that  softness  and  harmony  in  their 
music,  and  their  particular  attachment  to 
the  harp.  Mr.  Warton  tells  us  that,  so 
late  as  the  eleventh  century,  "  the  Welch 
bards  received  their  instructions  in  Ireland, 
and  brought  with  Ihem  to  Wales  divers 
cunning  musicians,  who  devised  in  a  man- 
ner all  the  instrumental  music  that  is  now 
used  there f  as  appeareth  as  well  by  the  books 
written  of  the  same,  as  also  of  the  tunes  and 
measures  used  among  them  to  this  dayJ" 

Here,  then,  is  every  reasonable  evidence 
that  can  be  demanded,  that  the  old  British 
and  old  Irish  were  from  one  common  stock: 
the  difficulty  lies  which  to  determine  to  be 
the  parent  country.  The  best  informed 
Britons  assert,  from  conjecture  only,  that 
it  is  Britain ;  but  to  this  many  objections 
can  be  made.     According  to  their  theory,-}- 

*  Warton's  English  Poetry,  Dissertation  the  First. 
t  Camden,  Llhuid,  Rowland,  Whitaker,  etc. 


A.  M.  2704.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


IS 


the  Gadelians,  giving  way  to  new  invaders 
from  Gaul,  at  length  retired  to  Ireland. 
But  did  these  invaders  also  speak  the  Irish 
language  ? — if  they  did,  then  must  the  first 
European  settlers  have  had  a  language  in 
common,  which,  though  asserted,  no  man 
of  sense,  at  least  none  but  an  hypothetical 
historian,  should  credit.  Again,  if  Britain 
was  the  parent  country,  how  came  it  so 
much  inferior  to  Ireland  in  rank  and  power 
in  these  early  as  well  as  in  subsequent  times  ? 
In  the  days  of  Caesar,  Ireland  was  well- 
known  to  the  Romans,  and  in  those  of  Do- 
mitian,  we  find  it  the  very  soul  of  the  Brit- 
ish confederacies.*  Tacitus  likewise  con- 
fesses it  much  better  known  for  commerce ; 
and,  in  the  subsequent  periods,  till  the  der- 
eliction of  Britain  by  the  Romans,  it  is 
well  known  that  Ireland  was  the  primum 
mobile  of  all  the  attempts  to  expel  the  Ro- 
mans from  that  country.  In  the  days  of 
Christianity  they  supported  the  same  pre- 
eminence. At  the  Council  of  Constance, 
A.  D.  1417,  the  English  were  not  allowed 
to  vote  as  a  nation;  the  canonists  there 
being  clear  that  they  were  included  in  the 
nation  of  Germany,  as  they  were  not  gov- 
erned by  their  own  princes,  but  subdued  by 
Germans,  who  were  themselves  tributary 
to  the  emperor.  But  they,  setting  forth 
that  their  king  was  also  monarch  of  Ire- 
land, which  kingdom  always  held  the  third 
rank  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  these 
ecclesiastics,  on  this  account,  were  decreed 
to  precede  those  of  France.f  Thus  op- 
posing argument  to  argument,  though  we 
should  not  call  in  the  aid  of  history,  it 
must  be  admitted  that,  from  plain  reason, 
we  must  recur  to  Irish  history  to  elucidate 
the  early  periods  of  that  of  Britain. 

However  the  Milesian  Irish  might  be 
imposed  on  in  the  relations  of  the  first  in- 
vaders of  Ireland,  they  could  not  certainly 
be  with  respect  to  the  people  they  them- 
selves subdued.  The  Damnonii,  whom 
they  subdued,  had  long  governed  the  king- 
dom, and  the  Belgae,  though  greatly  de- 
pressed, but  still  numerous  and  powerful, 


*  Vita  Jul.  Agricol. 
t  Act.  Cone.  Const, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  42,  etc. 


See  also  an  English  translation, 


actually  aided  these  invaders.  From  their 
own  knowledge  of  both  people,  our  sena- 
chies  have  assured  us  that  they  had  a  lan- 
guage in  common  with  the  Milesians,  and 
were  descended  firom  one  common  stock, 
all  deriving  their  pedigree,  through  Magog, 
from  Japhet — the  Milesians  being  descend- 
ed from  Baath,  eldest  son  of  Magog,  and 
all  tl^  preceding  colonies  from  Fathocta, 
his  third  son.  That  their  language  was 
the  same,  not  only  the  v<mce  of  antiquity, 
but  even  of  modern  times  declares.  Dr. 
Creagh,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  who  was 
confined  for  his  religion  in  the  Tower  of 
London — where  he  died  A.  D.  1587,  in  his 
Irish  Grammar,  aflirms  "  that  the  Irish  lan- 
guage was  the  only  one  spoke  by  the  na- 
tives, from  the  coming  of  Partholan,  three 
hundred  years  after  the  Flood,  to  this  day.** 
CSullivan,  who  figured  about  the  same 
time,  asserts  the  same.*  Dr.  Keating  and 
Grat-Lucius  are  equally  positive  ;f  and 
O'FIaherty  admits  that  it  has  been  always 
a  received  opinion — ^"  Harum  quatuor  co- 
loniarum  duces  (says  he)  cum  Milesiis  di- 
cuntur  agnovisse  patrem  Magog,  Noachi 
ex  Japheto  nepotem,  et  linguam  Scoticam 
omnibus  in  usu  fuisse."X  They  are  equally 
positive  that  the  first  invaders  of  Britain 
were  the  followers  of  Briotan,  sumamed 
the  Bald,  and  that  from  this  prince  the 
country  assumed  the  name  of  Britain,  as 
the  people  did  that  of  Britons ;  and  since 
they  must  have  originated  from  some  col- 
ony, where  can  they  trace  a  more  honour- 
able source  ?  Thus  a  very  ancient  chro- 
nological poem,  beginning  with  "Fuarius 
a  Salter  Chasil,"  informs  us,  "  that  Neim- 
heidh  and  his  children  lEinded  in  the  lovely 
island  of  Ireland,  and  that  from  him  the 
Fir-Bolgs  and  Tuatha  da  Danaans  are  de- 
scended." Thus  he  sings — "  Taine  Neim- 
heach,  gona  Chloin-alfidh  Inis  ard  Ibhin, 
nas  nata  do  ghein  Tuatha  De,  agus  Fir- 
Bholg  a  haonchre." 

It  could  not  be  vanity  that  made  Irish 
writers  assert  that  Briotan  led  a  colony  of 
Neimhedian  Irish  into  Albion,  since  the 
Picts,  who  were  a  more  numerous  and 
warlike  people,  and  to  whom  our  ancestors 

*  Histor.  Ibem.        t  Cambr.  Evers.        X  Ogygia. 


14 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2704. 


also  assigned  settlements  in  Britain,  are 
confessed  by  them  to  be  a  colony  of  stran- 
gers. But  as  the  duty  of  an  historian  is  to 
investigate  truth  above  all  things,  and  to 
conceal  from  his  readers  nothing  that  may 
help  to  disguise  or  render  facts  doubtful,  I 
must  acknowlege  that  the  Venerable  Bede 
asserts  that  the  early  Britons  came  from 
Brittany,  and  that  from  them  Britain  took 
its  name.*  This  is  undoubtedly  a  mistake, 
but  one  he  mayibe  well  excused  for.  The 
Britons  and  Saxons  were  in  a  continual 
state  of  warfare  ;  so  much  so,  that  he  com- 
plains that  the  hatred  of  the  former  to  the 
Saxon  name  was  such,  that  though  they 
were  themselves  early  Christians,  yet  they 
refused  to  send  missionaries,  or  take  the 
least  pains  to  instruct  them  in  the  faith. 
Hence  they  had  recourse  to  the  Irish  Scots 
for  teachers  and  preachers.  This  being  by 
himself  confessed  to  be  the  case,  we  may 
presume  that  Bede  gave  himself  little  trou- 
ble about  British  antiquities,  and  took  his 
account  from  hearsay.  For  nothing  is 
more  certain  than  that  the  ancient  native 
name  of  Brittany  was  Leta,  Letania,  or 
Letavia ;  nor  was  it  even  very  long  before 
the  days  of  Bede  that  it  was  changed  for 
that  of  Brittany,  being  so  called  from  the 
invasion  of  Conon-Bertrand  D'Argentree. 
A  celebrated  civilian  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury is  positive  that  it  was  so  called,  from 
the  clearest  evidence,  and  Mezeray  is  cer- 
tain that  it  retained  that  name  in  the 
fourth  ;t  and  we  can  prove  that  it  was  so 
called  in  the  fifth  century.  St.  Fiech, 
Bishop  of  Slepty,  and  among  the  first  of 
St.  Patrick's  converts,  in  his  life  of  this 
apostle,  in  thirty-four  stanzas,  tells,  rann 
the  fifth :— 

Do  fardh  tar  Ealpa  uile 
De  mhuir  ba  hambra  reatha ; 

Conidh  far  gaibh  la  German 
Aa  deaa  an  deiaciort  Leatha. 

i.  e.  "  Patrick  having  passed  over  all  Al- 
bion, (for  Ealpa  is  here  understood  in  that 
light,  not  for  the  Alps,)  crossed  the  sea  hap- 
pily, and  remained  with  Germanus,  in  the 
southern  parts  of  Letania.**     Here    is    a 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  cap.  i. 

t  Histoire  de  France,  t.  i.  p.  357. 


further  proof  of  what  French  writers  have 
affirmed,  and  it  at  the  same  time  shows  the 
antiquity  and  authenticity  of  that  poem. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Britons ;  their  first  landing  in  Albion,  and  why  so 
called — The  true  meaning  of  the  word  Kimri — 
Of  the  landing  of  the  Belgae,  or  second  colony  in 
Britain — The  arrival  of  the  Damnonii,  or  third 
colony — Of  theBrigantes,  or  fourth  people — Mis- 
takes of  British  antiquarians  with  respect  to  these 
different  emigrants  explained — Had  a  language 
in  common  with  the  Irish — Not  to  be  confounded 
with  the  Caledones — Their  different  names  ex- 
plained by  the  Irish  language — Remarks  of 
Llhuid  elucidated. 

Briotan  Maol,  the  son  of  Fergus,  son 
of  Neimheidh,  a  descendant  of  Magog,  by 
his  son  Fathocta,  retired  from  Ireland  to 
North  Britain,  from  the  rage  of  the  Afri- 
cans, about  A.  M.  2380,  and  as  his  poster- 
ity increased,  they  extended  more  to  the 
southward.  Of  this  colony  our  annals 
furnish  no  other  accounts  but  that  they 
were  the  aborigines  of  Britain,  that  from 
their  leader  the  country  took  its  name,  and 
that  they  spoke  the  Scythian  or  Irish  lan- 
guage. From  the  "Welsh,  or  old  Britons, 
being  called  in  their  native  language  Kimrit 
the  authors  of  the  Universal  History  sup- 
pose them  the  posterity  of  Gomer.  Mac 
Pherson  derives  them  from  the  Cimri  of 
Germany  ;*  and  Mr.  Whitaker  brings  them 
from  the  Cimmerii  of  Gaul.f  All  these 
conjectures  proceed  from  an  ignorance  of 
the  Irish  history  and  the  Irish  language. 
The  posterity  of  Briotan,  when  they  settled 
in  Wales,  called  themselves  Kimri,  as  in- 
habiting a  country  full  of  hills  and  valleys, 
from  the  Irish  eumar,  a  valley,  hence  cu- 
maraic,  the  inhabitants  of  a  country  full  of 
hills  and  dales,  and  which  a  district  in  the 
county  of  Waterford  still  retains :  and  to 
prove  more  fully  the  truth  of  this  deriva- 
tion, the  Brigantes,  another  colony  from 
Ireland,  which  emigrated  near  four  hun- 
dred years  later  than  the  Britons,  and  who 
first  inhabited  Cumberland,  and  from  thence 
extended  themselves  by  degrees  into  Dur- 

•  Introductioo  to  British  and  Irish  History,  p.  28. 
f  History  of  the  Britons,  p.  51. 


A.  M.  2704.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


15 


ham,  York,  Westmoreland,  etc.,  were  also 
called  Kimri,  from  their  first  settlement. 

The  next  colony  to  the  Britons  came  the 
Fir-Bolgs,  or  Belgie.  Numbers  of  these 
we  see  retired  to  Britain  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  Damnonii  of  Ireland,  from  the  year 
of  the  world  2541,  to  2580.  These  also 
spoke  the  Irish  language  and  appear  to 
have  been  an  intrepid  race  of  men,  having 
made  some  noble  efforts  to  recover  their 
country  from  these  new  invaders.  Mac 
Pherson  transports  them  from  Gaul,  and  so 
does  Whitaker,  They  possessed  them- 
selves of  Kent,  Middlesex,  and  extended 
to  Hampshire  and  Wiltshire,  etc.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  the  Damnonii,  or  Tua- 
tha  da  Danaans,  in  their  turn  felt  also  the 
force  of  power  and  oppression.  Unable 
to  resist  the  superior  power  and  discipline 
of  the  Scottish  invaders,  or  Milesians,  such 
of  them  as  could  not  stoop  to  servitude,  or 
acknowledge  new  masters,  retired  also  to 
Britain,  or,  more  properly,  had  settlements 
appointed  for  them  there  by  the  victors,  as 
we  see  they  bestowed  soon  after  others  on 
their  tributaries,  the  Picts,  and  on  their  re- 
lations, the  Brigantes.  These  Damnonii 
occupied  Cornwall,  Devonshire,  and  the 
places  adjacent ;  and  this  colony  began  to 
get  existence  in  Britain  about  A.  M.  2736, 
and  greatly  increased  afterwards.  In  fine, 
the  Brigantes,  or  Clana  Breogan,  began  to 
get  footing  there  a  very  few  years  after. 
Mr.  Whitaker  supposes  the  aborigines  of 
Britain  and  the  Belgae  to  be  the  only  prin- 
cipal colonies  of  that  island ;  and  that  they 
were  afterwards  indiscriminately  called 
Cimbri,  Gael,  Welsh,  Brigantes,  Caledones, 
etc.  He  supposes  them  called  Cimbri,  to 
denote  their  source  from  those  of  the  con- 
tinent, and  the  country  Britain,  importing 
their  being  separated  from  their  brethren 
there — derivations  extremely  stretched  and 
far-fetched.  Brigantes  comes  under  the 
same  explanation,  and  Caledones  imports 
such  of  them  as  lived  in  a  woody  country. 

Far  from  censuring  on  this  occasion,  I 
highly  honour  Mr.  Whitaker's  ingenious 
attempts  to  illustrate  the  ancient  history 
of  his  country.  Destitute  of  proper  mate- 
rials— ^indeed   of  any   materials,   but  the 


names  of  these  different  colonies — where 
could  he  seek  for  information  but  from 
the  accounts  of  nations  of  corresponding 
names  on  the  continent?  These  he  has 
happily  introduced,  and  made  as  much  of 
the  subject  as,  in  a  case  so  obscure,  could 
be  well  made.  How  could  it  be  other- 
wise ?  Britain,  a  theatre  of  war  between 
the  Romans,  Irish,  and  Picts,  for  above 
four  centuries ;  involved  in  great  misery 
through  the  tyranny  of  the  Saxons,  and, 
after  them,  of  the  Danes  and  Normans ; 
could  the  more  refined  works  of  peace  be 
attended  to  in  such  scenes  of  distress  and 
confusion?  We  see  similar  causes  pro- 
duce like  effects  with  regard  to  the  Alba- 
nian Irish,  who  not  only  lost  those  records 
which  they  possessed,  at,  and  after  the  days 
of  the  Venerable  Bede,  but,  even  through 
disuse,  the  very  letter  of  the  language !  so 
that  in  an  after  period,  i.  e.  about  the  reign 
of  Edward  I.  when  a  knowledge  of  history 
appeared  necessary  to  them  to  support 
their  independence^  and  letters  began  to 
revive,  they  adopted  the  Roman  instead 
of  the  Irish  alphabet !  Similar  to  this  is 
case  of  the  Irish  at  this  day.  In  the  last 
century  the  English  tongue  was  confined 
to  a  narrow  space ;  and  though  many  of 
our  great  men  spoke  it,  yet,  like  the  French 
and  Italian,  it  was  acquired.  Very  few 
understood  and  studied  their  native  lan- 
guage, and  the  quantity  of  vellum  MSS. 
which  was  cut  up  and  destroyed  after- 
wards was  amazing.  In  a  word,  thirty  or 
forty  years  ago  there  were  many  schools 
for  the  Irish  language,  but  at  this  day  it  is 
little  attended  to  :  and,  what  is  more  ex- 
traordinary, very  few  even  of  our  gentry 
now  know,  or  pretend  to  know,  any  thing 
of  their  native  history ! 

All  British  antiquarians,  from  Camden, 
Llhuid,  and  Rowland,  to  Whitaker,  and — 
shall  I  class  him  among  such  respectable 
names — Mac  Pherson,  however,  are  unani- 
mous that  the  British  colonists  spoke  the 
same  language  in  the  main,  though  differing 
in  many  things.  The  British  and  Cornish, 
Mr.  Llhuid  shows,  come  nearer  to  each 
other  than  to  the  Irish.  The  British  of  the 
Brigantes  of  Cumberland,  he  observes,  is 


1« 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A..M.  2704. 


much  nearer  the  native  Irish ;  and  that  of 
the  Albanitui  Scots  is  known  at  this  day  to 
be  a  dialect  of  the  Irish,  as  is  that  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Isle  of  Man.  Now  all 
these  variations  serve  but  as  additional 
proofs  of  the  truth  of  our  records.  Though 
both  British  and  Irish  are  the  descendants 
of  Magog,  yet  we  see  an  early  separation 
in  the  issue  of  his  sons.  The  Neimhedian 
Irish  must  have  differed  from  that  of  the 
BelgaB.  A  separation  of  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  years  must  produce  some  differ- 
ence in  language.  The  Damnonii  were 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  years  cut 
off  from  any  intercourse  with  their  Irish 
brethren,  and  of  course  the  difference  was 
greater.  If  a  well-bred  Englishman  should 
go  to  the  barony  of  Fort,  in  the  county  of 
Wexford,  he  would  with  difficulty  under- 
stand the  English  spoken  there,  which  is 
the  very  same  as  spoken  by  the  English 
colony  first  planted  there  in  the  days  of 
Henry  II.  That  the  language  of  the  Bri- 
gantes  should  approach  still  nearer  the  Irish 
cannot  be  wondered  at ;  they  were,  as  we 
will  observe  in  its  place,  of  the  same  blood 
with  the  sons  of  Milesius,  being  all  great- 
grandsons  of  Breogan,  and  for  that  reason 
called  by  our  antiquarians  Clana  Breogan, 
to  distinguish  their  issue  from  those  of  the 
Clana  Miledh,  or  sons  of  Milesius.  These, 
it  will  appear,  highly  polished  their  lan- 
guage; and  being  separated  from  their 
ancestors  of  the  line  of  Fathocta,  at  a  very 
early  period,  of  course  the  greater  the  dif- 
ference in  dialect.  In  fine,  the  language 
of  the  Albanian  Irish  is,  at  this  day,  almost 
the  same  with  the  mother  tongue. 

Though  I  would  not  wish  or  pretend  to 
form  an  historical  basis  on  the  derivation 
of  words,  howsoever  well  founded,  yet, 
as  auxiliaries  to  history,  I  think  them  in 
many  instances  admissible.  The  Britons, 
the  Belgae,  the  Damnonii,  and  Brigantes, 
we  find  were  different  British  colonies, 
though  from  the  same  source,  and  their 
names  I  hope  I  have  fairly  and  naturally 
accounted  for.  The  Caledones  were  a 
very  different  people  from  all  these,  and 
spoke  a  different  language.  Venerable 
Bede  informs  us  that  in  his  time  the  lan- 


guages of  South  Britain  were  the  British 
and  Saxon.  We  see  though  the  Britons 
were  of  different  tribes,  yet  he  confesses 
their  language  the  same ;  but  he  is  positive 
that  the  Picts  or  Caledones  had  a  language 
of  their  own.  He  could  not  be  deceived ; 
he  was  on  their  borders,  and  intimately 
acquainted  with  some  of  their  most  emi- 
nent people.  How  could  moderns  get 
over  this  assertion,  or  make  them  and  the 
Britons  one  people  ?  Here  again  the  util- 
ity of  Irish  history  becomes  conspicuous. 
These  people,  as  Bede  testifies,  landed  in 
Ireland  soon  after  its  conquest  by  the  sons 
of  Milesius  ;  they  were  called  Picts,  from 
painting  their  bodies,  and  Caledones,  from 
Cathluan,  the  son  of  Gud,  who  was  their 
leader  to  North  Britain;  for  Cathluan  is 
with  us  pronounced  Caluan,  and  Don  is 
used  to  denote  the  posterity  of  any  person. 
Thus  Caledone,  the  explanation  of  which 
has  cost  so  much  trouble  and  given  rise  to 
such  various  conjectures,  implies  no  more 
than  the  posterity  of  Caluan.  Even  the 
names  of  places  and  people  in  Roman  Brit- 
ain show  their  Irish  origin.  I  shall  not 
take  any  trouble  to  refute  those  of  Whita- 
ker  and  Mac  Pherson,  because  I  know  of 
no  language  that  can  justify  them.  One 
part  of  this  people  the  Romans  called  Silu- 
res,  from  Siol,  the  issue,  and  Eire,  Ireland, 
as  glorying  more,  and  perhaps  being  clo- 
ser connected  with  the  mother  country 
than  the  rest.  The  people  in  and  about 
Kent  they  called  Cantii.  It  is  evident  that 
in  the  native  British,  however,  they  must 
have  been  called  Cantiri,  because  the  capi- 
tal of  Kent  is  still  called  Canterbury. 
Cean-tire,  is  Irish  for  headland,  and  such 
was  the  name  they  gave  to  a  similar 
headland  in  Scotland.  Some  were  deno- 
minated Trinobantes,  from  trian,  hero,  and 
obarif  sudden.  I  suppose  these  were  a  set 
of  warriors,  as  we  know  in  Ireland  certain 
counties  were  better  known  for  soldiers 
than  others.  The  Durotrigae  inhabited  the 
seacoasts,  from  dur^  water,  and  treid,  a 
quarrel — I  suppose  pirates,  or  powerful  at 
sea.  Dobuni,  such  as  lived  in  low  situa- 
tions, from  domlain,  deep,  hollow ;  for  it 
is  to  be  noticed,  that  B  and  N  are  in  the 


-iir 


>-i}^:^ 


A.  M.  2704.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


17 


Irish  sometimes  substituted  for  each  other, 
and  that  with  an  auxiliary  H  both  carry 
the  same  sound.  Cape  Cornwall  was  called 
Belerium,  and  heal  is  Irish  for  a  mouth,  and 
Eire  Ireland;  being  the  place  where  the 
first  fugitive  Damnonii  landed.  The  inhab- 
itants of  South  Wales  were  named  Di- 
mataB ;  Dimtu  implies  protection,  and  Ath 
just.  The  ordovices,  from  ord  lofty,  and 
amhas  (pronounced  avas)  a  soldier,  or  the 
warriors  of  the  hills.  The  Isle  of  Man 
was  so  called  from  Mannan,  who  we  see 
first  opened  a  trade  to  it  from  Ireland. 

Thus  the  different  British  tribes,  the  Picts 
excepted,  were  to  demonstration,  not  Cel- 
tic but  Scythian  colonies,  not  the  descend- 
ants of  Gomer,  but  of  Magog.  But  that 
the  smallest  doubt  should  not  remain  in  an 
affair  so  important  to  British  antiquities, 
Llhuid  himself  shall  be  my  testimony. 
"  The  next  thing  I  have  to  make  out  (says 
he)  is,  that  part  of  the  Irish,  called  Gade- 
lians,  have  once  dwelt  in  England  and 
Wales.  There  are  none  of  the  Irish, 
that  /  know  of,  among  all  their  historical 
writings,  that  mention  they  were  possessed 
of  England  and  Wales  ;  and  yet  whoever 
takes  notice  of  a  great  many  of  the  names 
of  the  rivers  and  mountains  throughout  the 
kingdom  will  find  no  reason  to  doubt  hut  the 
Irish  must  have  been  the  inhabitants,  when 
these  names  were  imposed  on  them.**  But 
Irish  writers,  we  see,  have  said  that  colonies 
from  Ireland  first  inhabited  and  even  gave 
the  name  to  Britain.  They  most  assuredly 
held  all  North  Britain  under  subjection; 


since  we  shall  find  them  assign  it  as  a  set- 
tlement to  the  Picts.  That  a  part  of  South 
Britain  was  so  circumstanced,  we  must  con- 
clude from  the  settling  of  the  Brigantes  in 
Cumberland,  etc.  To  show  still  further 
how  much  consideration  and  attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  preceding  records, 
I  shall,  by  way  of  closure  to  this  very  long 
chapter,  just  remind  my  reader  that,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  chapter,  we  are  told 
that  the  Damnonii  resided  for  some  time  in 
Denmark  instructing  the  people  in  arts  and 
letters ;  and,  in  confirmation  of  this,  it  is 
highly  remarkable  that  Wormius  declares,* 
that  the  most  ancient  alphabet  used  by  the 
northern  nations  of  Europe  was  called 
Irlandorum  Literae.  These  nations  had 
also  an  occult  manner  of  writing,  described 
by  Celsius,!  (when  compared  with  our 
ogham,  or  hierographic  character,  exam- 
ples of  which  may  be  seen  in  CFlaherty'sp 
Ogygia,  Mac  (Jeoghegan's  History,  Ware, 
Mac  Curtin's,  and  Valiancy's  Grammars^ 
etc.)  the  curious  inquirer  will  be  con- 
vinced that  both  the  Runic  and  Irish  were 
on  the  same  plan.  Add  to  this,  that  this 
ogham  of  the  northern  nations,  like  the  Irish, 
had  but  sixteen  letters !  The  very  expres- 
sion of  Runic,  which  they  gave  this  species; 
of  writing,  and  which  name  their  later 
writers  have  not  been  able  to  explain,  is: 
pure  Irish.  The  word  run,  with  us  at  this 
day  signifies  secresy,  mystery,  etc.,  and  was 
justly  applicable  to  this  alphabet. 

*  Litera  Runica,  cap.  5. 
t  Valiancy's  Irish  Grammar,  p.  6,  7. 


BOOK    II. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Origin  of  the  Milesian  Irish  from  Phsnius,  the  in- 
ventor of  letters — When  he  flourished — Of  Niul 
and  his  journey  to  Egypt — Of  Gadel,  and  the 
mistakes  of  some  modern  Irish  writers  corrected 
— The  names  of  Phaenians,  Gadelians,  and  Scots 
imposed  on  the  Irish,  and  why — Of  Easru  and 
Sru. 

Wb  must  naturally  conclude  that  the 
people  who,  with  such  care  and  philan- 
thropy, transmitted  to  posterity  the  pre- 
ceding records,  were  uncommonly  attentive 
to  preserve  their  own  transactions  and  those 
of  their  ancestors.  I  even  figure  to  myself 
that  the  curious  antiquarian  will  express 
some  degree  of  avidity  to  see  what  they 
have  to  say  for  themselves ;  and  I  shall 
gratify  this  curiosity,  but  with  a  scrupulous 
attention  to  our  annals.* 

Phaenius,  the  inventor  of  letters,  is  claimed 
as  the  founder  of  the  Irish  or  Milesian  race. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  the  son  of  Baath, 
the  son  of  Magog,  the  son  of  Japhet,  the 
son  of  Noah ;  but  if  we  admit  of  this  gene- 
alogy, we  shall  at  the  same  time  see  the 
necessity  for  supposing  that  several  genera- 
tions must  have  intervened  between  Phae- 
nius and  Noah  to  account  for  the  great,  in- 
crease of  mankind  in  his  days.  Without 
entering  into  a  discussion  of  this  kind, 
neither  entertaining  or  interesting,  I  shall 
commence  the  chronology  of  the  Milesian 
race  with  this  prince  Phaenius.  He,  it  is 
agreed  on  by  all  parties,  was  our  great  an- 
cestor :  zealous  Christians  might  have 
traced  him  by  an  imaginary  genealogy  up 
to  Japhet,  to  whose  posterity  Scripture  tells 
us,  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles  (Europe)  were 
given  as  an  inheritance  ;  and  this  it  is,  that 
has  furnished  modems  with  specious  argu- 
ments to  suppose  the  very  early  Irish  chro- 

"*  Gabhail   Chlana  Mile,    Leabhar  Muimhuin,    Cion 
Drom-Sneachta,  etc. 


nology  to  have  been  invented  about  the 
time  of  the  introduction  of  Christianity 
among  them. 

With  Phaenius  our  Ethnic  historians  be- 
gan their  history,  and  so  shall  I.  He  is 
sumamed  in  our  annals  Farsaidh,  or  the 
Sage ;  and  is  highly  celebrated  for  his 
wisdom,  and  for  being  the  first  inventor  of 
letters.  Desirous  to  be  informed  of  the 
different  languages  which  then  prevailed, 
he  appointed  seventy  learned  men  to  dis- 
perse themselves  through  different  quarters 
of  the  world,  and  to  return  at  a  certain  day 
marked  out,  after  the  expiration  of  seven 
years.  He  supplied  them  with  shipping 
and  attendance,  and  whatever  else  was 
judged  necessary  for  so  great  an  enterprise. 
In  the  interim,  he  himself  went  to  the  plains 
of  Senaar,  where  schools  had  been  long 
established,  to  receive  every  information  he 
could,  towards  forwarding  his  great  design 
of  establishing  arts  and  sciences  in  his  do- 
minions. On  the  return  of  these  linguists, 
schools  were  erected ;  but  as  events  trusted 
entirely  to  memory  and  tradition  might  be 
liable  to  misconception  and  misrepresenta- 
tion, a  medium  was  found  out  by  fixing  on 
certain  signs,  for  certain  sounds,  and  thus 
by  degrees  was  the  first  alphabet  formed, 
which  consisted  of  no  more  than  sixteen 
letters.  In  this  were  to  be  recorded  what- 
ever related  to  history,  philosophy,  and 
other  sciences,  such  as  they  then  possessed ; 
but  for  matters  of  religion,  a  particular 
alphabet  was  invented,  to  be  studied  by 
none  but  the  sacred  order.  I  am  sensible 
that  our  modern  skeptics  will  turn  their 
eyes  to  more  modem  times,  when  they  read 
of  schools  on  the  plains  of  Senaar,  and  will 
look  for  an  explanation  from  the  early 
Irish  Christians.  To  obviate  the  objection 
makes  me  thus  stop  short.     But  Herodotus. 


A.  M.  1931.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


19 


called  the  father  of  history,  and  who  flour- 
ished centuries  before  Christ,  tells  us*  that 
the  Egyptijuis  derived  the  knowledge  of 
letters,  geometry,  astronomy,  etc.,  from  the 
Babylonians  ;  and  that  they  possessed  at 
the  same  time  a  sacred  character,  and  a 
letter  for  common  occurrences.  Senaar  is 
near  Babylon ;  and  the  Egyptians,  as  we 
shall  see,  received  letters  from  thence 
through  the  son  of  Phaenius.  Senaar  might 
or  might  not  have  been  knovra  to  Herod- 
otus, but  it  must  have  been  to  Phaenius 
who  visited  it. 

The  principal  persons  concerned  with 
Phaenius  in  the  above  great  invention,  were 
his  preceptor  Gadel,  the  son  of  Eathoir,  and 
Caoih,  called  sometimes  Gar  the  Hebrew. 
From  Phaenius  a  branch  of  our  tongue  is 
yet  called  Bearla  Phaeni,  or  the  language 
of  Phaenius ;  but  it  is  more  generally  named 
Gaoidhealag,  or  (as  pronounced)  Gailag, 
from  the  above  Gadel.  Of  the  numerous 
issue  of  this  great  prince  the  names  of  two 
only  have  been  handed  down,  Neanuil,  his 
successor,  and  Niul,  the  high-priest,  and 
superintendent  of  the  literati.  This  Phae- 
nius is  in  our  history  styled  king  of  Scythia ; 
but  from  the  expanded  settlements  of  the 
Scythians  in  the  interior  parts  of  Asia  in 
times  posterior  to  this,  modems  have  looked 
for  his  residence  there.  Every  circum- 
stance and  every  fact  that  can  be  collected 
unite  in  fixing  it  on  the  Syrian  coast  bor- 
dering the  Mediterranean,  and  to  be  the 
ancient  Phcenicia,  so  renowned  in  history. 
As  to  the  era  in  which  he  flourished  we 
shall  offer  the  best,  and,  what  appears  to 
us,  the  least  exceptionable  rules  to  fix  it  on 
with  some  degree  of  precision.  A  cer- 
tainty in  chronology  is  of  the  utmost  con- 
sequence to  history ;  and  as  the  history  of 
almost  every  other  nation  of  the  world  has 
been  broken  in  upon  and  interrupted  by  new 
invaders,  ours  should  be  looked  upon  as  a 
kind  of  polar  star  to  direct  future  chrono- 
logists  in  their  pursuits. 

Our  annalists  count  twenty-three  genera- 
tions from  Phaenius  to  his  lienal  successors, 
the  sons  of  Milesius,  landing  in  Ireland. 
This  latter  period  by  the  Psalter  of  Cashell 

•  Euterpe,  seu  lib.  ii. 


and  the  Book  of  Conquests,  is  fixed  at  one 
thousand  three  hundred  years  before  Chrisf- 
The  most  exact  chronology  makes  it  thirty- 
six  years  later,  L  e.  A.  M.  2736,  if  we  reck- 
on according  to  the  Hebrew  computation ; 
though  I  do  not  mean  to  become  an  advo- 
cate for  it  against  that  of  the  Septuagint, 
or  any  other ;  yet  for  the  facility  of  reck- 
oning, I  shall  for  the  future  count  from  it. 
If  we  suppose  thirty-five  years  to  have  in- 
tervened between  each  of  the  above  twenty- 
three  generations — and  I  think  it  a  reason- 
able conception — it  will  then  appear  that 
eight  hundred  and  five  years  must  have 
elapsed  from  the  days  of  Pha;nius  to  the 
conquest  of  Ireland  by  the  sons  of  Milesius  ; 
and  that  he  died  in  the  year  of  the  world 
1931,  or  2071  years  before  the  incarna- 
tion. 

On  the  death  of  this  great  prince,  the 
founder  of  arts  and  sciences,  and  the  father 
of  the  Irish  nation,  his  son  Neaniul  was 
proclaimed  king  of  Phoenicia,  and  his 
brother  assumed  the  office  of  high-priest. 
The  fame  of  the  piety,  wisdom,  and  learn- 
ing of  Niul  spread  far  and  wide,  insomuch 
that  Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt,  sent  ambas- 
sadors to  conduct  him  to  his  court.  Thi- 
ther he  repaired,  by  his  brother's  permission, 
with  a  numerous  and  splendid  retinue,  and 
was  most  honourably  received.  Lands  were 
assigned  them  for  their  support,  and  in 
order  to  induce  Niul  to  settle  in  the  coun- 
try, Pharaoh  bestowed  on  him  his  daughter 
Scota  for  a  wife.  This  establishment  of 
Niul,  whose  history  and  that  of  his  suc- 
cessors we  are  to  pursue,  we  may  presume 
happened  in  the  year  1941.  From  Niul's 
being  thus  prince  and  high-priest,  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  his  posterity  retained  the 
name  of  the  Sacred  Generation ;  and  Ire- 
land, their  ultimate  settlement,  the  Holy 
Island;  since  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  Ireland  was  so  called  long  before  the 
Christian  era. 

Gadel,  the  eldest  son  of  Niul  by  the 
princess  Scota,  was  also  the  successor 
to  his  dominions  in  Egypt.  He  was  so 
called  from  his  father's  preceptor,  to  which 
the  epithet  Glas  was  added,  on  account  of 
the  brightness  of  his  armour.     Some  of 


20 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2006. 


our  writers  entertain  us  with  a  story  that 
Niul  and  Moses  were  contemporaries ;  that 
he  greatly  assisted  this  Jewish  leader  in  his 
retreat  from  Egypt ;  that  his  son  Gadel, 
being  then  a  youth,  was  bit  by  a  snake, 
which  Moses  cured  by  a  touch  of  his  wand ; 
and  that  in  return  for  the  humanity  shown 
the  Israelites,  Moses  predicted  that  the 
country  which  his  posterity  would  possess 
should  be  free  from  all  venomous  animals. 
The  glaring  anachronism  in  this  tale  alone 
renders  it  ridiculous.  Had  such  an  inter- 
course happened  either  between  Niul,  or 
any  of  his  posterity  in  Egypt,  and  Moses, 
no  doubt  the  early  Christians  would  not 
have  forgot  a  circumstance  so  honourable 
to  their  country,  and  to  the  new  religion. 
But  St.  Fiech,  one  of  St.  Patrick's  earliest 
disciples,  and  who  published  a  life  of  this 
great  apostle  immediately  after  his  decease, 
(and  who  died  A.  D.  493,)  though  in  it  he 
calls  Ireland  Tuatha  Phaeni,  or  the  country 
of  the  Phaenians,  and  the  people  Scots,  yet 
takes  no  notice  of  this  tale.  What  is  more 
remarkable,  the  scholiast,  on  this  poem  of 
St.  Fiech,  while  he  tells  us  that  Ireland 
was  called  Tuatha  PhsBni,  from  Phaenius, 
and  the  people  Scots,  from  Scota,  the 
mother  of  Gadel-glas,  yet  never  once  hints 
at  the  above  story.  Could  a  more  favour- 
able time  offer  for  introducing  it  had  it  any 
foundation  in  truth?  St.  Patrick  himself, 
during  his  apostleship,  twice  presided  over 
the  literati  in  their  revisions  of  the  national 
records,  and  yet  we  find  no  mention  of 
Moses ;  and  no  doubt  in  his  days,  the  his- 
tory of  the  voyages  and  exploits  of  the 
Gadelians  was  much  more  full  and  circum- 
stantial than  what  we  find  it  now.  St. 
Cormoc,  in  his  Psalter,  wrote  in  the  tenth 
century,  so  far  fi*om  sjmchronizing  Moses 
and  Niulus,  tells  us  in  his  relation^of  these 
travels,  that  the  time  the  Gadelians  quitted 
Egypt  was  four  hundred  and  seventy  years 
after  the  deluge,  i.  e.  A.  M.  2126,  three 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  years  before 
Moses  quitted  Egypt.  Upon  the  whole, 
the  reader  must  be  convinced  that  this 
story  is  an  interpolation  of  later  times,  and 
by  no  means  to  be  connected  with  genuine 
Irish  history;   and  yet  Dr.  O'Brien  tells 


us*  that  it  is  mentioned  by  the  above  schol- 
iast on  St.  Fiech,  who  flourished  in  the 
sixth  century,  than  which  nothing  is  falser, 
as  may  be  seen  by  consulting  the  work  it- 
self.f  I  should  not  be  so  severe  on  this 
gentleman  had  not  he,  by  adopting  this 
falsehood,  made  it  a  plea  for  attacking  the 
veracity  of  his  native  history. 

This  prince,  Gadel-glas,  I  conceive  wr.s 
highly  renowned  in  his  days,  because,  as 
from  his  grandfather  we  have  retained  the 
name  of  Phaenians,  so  from  him  we  are 
called  Gadelians,  and  from  his  mother, 
Scots.  All  this  is  confirmed  by  the  follow- 
ing ancient  rann  or  verse : 

Phseni  o  Phmnins  adbhearta,  brigh  gan  dochta. 
Gaoidhel  o  Gaoidhal-glas  garta,  Scuit  o  Scota. 

i.  e.  "  beyond  question  we  are  called  Phae- 
nians from  Phaenius,  Gadelians  from  Gadel- 
glas,  and  Scots  from  Scota."  It  is  ridicu- 
lous enough  to  observe  how  much  this 
simple  explication  of  these  names,  which 
we  yet  retain,  offends  our  delicate  modem 
commentators,  while  at  the  same  time,  out 
of  their  great  inventive  store,  they  make 
no  attempts  at  giving  us  better,  or  more 
rational  ones ;  but  modem  scholiasts  glory 
in  being  the  ignes  fatui  of  ancient  writers  ! 
Easru  succeeded  his  father  Gadel-glas, 
A.  M.  2006.  Of  this  prince  nothing  either 
material  or  interesting  is  related,  and  after 
a  reign  of  thirty  years  he  made  way  for 
his  son  Sru.  In  the  administration  of  Sru 
were  great  commotions  and  revolutions  in 
Egypt.  Another  Pharaoh  arose,  who  knew 
not  the  children  of  Gadel-glas.  Unable  to 
oppose  so  great  a  power,  Sru  prepared  his 
ships  to  escape  fi-om  this  land  of  bondage ; 
but  so  close  was  he  pressed  that  four  ships 
only  could  be  collected.  In  these  were 
embarked  his  principal  nobility,  with  their 
ladies,  and  most  valuable  effects.  It  is  re- 
corded in  a  very  ancient  poem,  that  twenty- 
five  chiefs  with  their  wives  were  lodged  in 
each  ship.  With  these  he  proceeded  to  sea, 
and  directed  his  course  to  Crete ;  but  be- 
fore we  proceed  any  further  in  our  history, 
it  seems  highly  proper  to  offer  our  proofs 
and  illustrations  of  the  preceding  account. 

*  Irish  DicticHiaiy.  remarks  on  the  letter  A. 
t  Triaa  Thaamatarga,  p.  2,  5,  etc. 


A.  M.  2036.] 


HISTORY   OP    IRELAND. 


21 


This  inquiry  is  the  more  interesting,  as  I 
flatter  myself  that  new  and  important  lights 
will  be  thrown  on  history  and  chronology 
in  general  from  it ;  and  here  follow  the 
reasons  for  this  supposition. 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  foregoing  relation  defended — The  Phoenician 
and  Irish  alphabets  the  same — Historical  proofs 
and  iUustrations  of  the  above — Migration  to 
Egypt — Of  the  Atalantic  isle  of  the  Egyptians, 

■   and  the  Ogygia  of  Homer,  etc. 

It  is  certainly  greatly  to  be  regretted 
that  the  further  we  push  our  inquiries  into 
ancient  history  the  more  we  find  it  absorb- 
ed in  fable.  This  observation  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  history  of  Greece :  nations  in- 
finitely more  ancient  and  earlier  civilized, 
as  the  Babylonian,  Chaldean,  Assyrian,  and 
Egyptian  states,  bear  ample  testimony  to 
this  melancholy  truth.  Beyond  a  certain 
period  every  thing  appears  a  perfect  chaos ! 
kings  descended  from  gods  and  demi-gods ; 
reigns,  revolutions,  and  interesting  events 
recorded  without  order,  time,  or  place ! 
Not  so  in  the  preceding  relation.  We  be- 
hold a  regular  succession  of  rulers  without 
any  thing  of  the  fabulous  or  even  the  mar- 
vellous. It  carries  too  great  an  air  of  truth 
and  simplicity  to  suppose  it  the  work  of 
invention,  had  we  even  wanted  collateral 
evidence  to  support  it 

The  Scythians,  of  whqm  the  Irish  are  a 
branch,  were  accounted  the  greatest  and 
most  intrepid  nation  of  antiquity ;  nor  were 
they  less  renowned  for  their  justice,  hu- 
manity, and  hospitality.  Though  their 
mode  of  worship  is  not  well  known,  yet  it 
is  agreed  on  all  hands  that  they  worship- 
ped in  woods  and  groves  as  did  our  ances- 
tors. The  remoteness  of  their  ancestry 
was  held  in  such  veneration  by  even  the 
ancients  themselves,  that  Sytharum  gens 
antiquissima  became  with  them  a  common 
proverb,  as  Justin  observes.  Josephus  so 
far  agrees  with  our  annaUsts  in  declaring 
the  Scythians  the  descendants  of  Magog ; 
and  places  them,  as  I  have,  on  the  borders 
of  the  Mediterranean,  whence  he  conducts 


them  by  sea^  to  different  places.*  Indeed, 
so  strongly  were  the  ancients  possessed 
with  the  notion  that  all  early  emigrations 
were  effected  by  water,  that  Tacitus  gives 
for  a  reason  the  Germans  being  the  pure 
origin  of  that  country,  and  derived  from  no 
other  source,  the  difficulty  if  not  the  im- 
possibility of  ships  venturing  into  such 
boisterous  and  swelling  seas.f  Pliny  tells 
us,  that  Hieropolis,  or  the  Holy  City,  (so 
called  because  dedicated  to  the  Dea  Syria,) 
was  called  also  Magog,  as  being  his  ancient 
residence  ;  and  we  read  of  another  city 
near  Damascus  named  Scythopolis,  or  the 
Scythian  city.  Ancient  tradition  and  the 
testimony  of  BerosusiJ  declare,  that  Tyre 
was  built  soon  after  the  Flood,  by  Tiras 
the  son  of  Japhet ;  and  may  not  the  Scy- 
thopolis of  the  Greeks  be  the  Sidon  of  the 
Scots  or  Phaenians?  from  Scuit  and  Don 
the  Scythian  fortress. 

By  fixing  the  cariy  seats  of  these  emi- 
grants in  Phoenicia,  lare  may  plainly  see 
how  Phaenius  became  acquainted  with  the 
schools  of  Senaar,  as  well  as  Herodotus, 
without  the  aid  of  the  Christian  system ; 
and  every  evidence  of  history  concurs  in 
this  point.  An  informed  people  could  not 
long  possess  a  maritime  coast  without  avail- 
ing themselves  of  the  use  of  this  element. 
The  bare  floating  of  timber  would  point 
out  to  them  the  facility  of  joining  boards 
and  making  rafts ;  and  the  spreading  out 
of  their  very  clothes  would  furnish  hints 
for  sailing.  By  universal  consent  the  Phce- 
nicians  were  allowed  to  be  the  first  ship- 
builders and  navigators,  according  to  the 
poet: 

Prima  ratem  ventis,  credere  docta  Tyros. 

They  were  also,  it  is  agreed  upon,  the  first 
inventors  of  letters : 

Phoenices  primi  (famae  si  credimus)  aoai 
Mausuram  rudibus  vocem  siguare  figuris. 

Their  alphabet,  in  its  original  state,  con- 
sisted of  but  sixteen  letters,  and  it  is  re- 
markable that  ours  at  this  day  contains  but 
seventeen ;  one  of  which  I  am  persuaded 
was  an  interpolation  of  later  times,  namely, 

*  Antiq.  lib.  i.  cap.  6.        t  De  Morib.  German.  *.  ff. 
t  Theatr.  Terrae  Sanctae,  p.  11.  '' 


92 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2036. 


the  letter  F ;  as  the  P  with  an  H  added  to 
it  answers  every  sound  for  which  F  was 
intended,  except  its  total  aspiration.  Niul- 
us  by  our  history  was  appointed  high-priest 
and  chief  of  the  literati ;  and  the  same  post 
Amhergin,  the  son  of  Milesius  filled  in  Ire- 
land on  its  reduction  by  his  brothers.  Thus 
the  tale  is  told : 

Primus  Amerginut  {Genu-Candidug)  Author  Irene; 
Historicus,  Index  lege,  Poeta,  Sophus. 

The  Phoenician  history  informs  us  that 
Sichaeus  was  appointed  high-priest  by  his 
brother  Mettinus ;  but  that  Pygmalion  his 
successor  made  away  with  him  for  his 
riches,  etc. :  the  story  may  be  seen  in  Vir- 
gil, and  it  is  here  only  barely  hinted  at  to 
show  the  correspondent  customs  of  the 
Phoenicians  and  Irish ;  to  this  may  be  ad- 
ded, that  their  deities  were  the  same.  They 
both  adored  Bel,  or  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
the  stars.  The  house  of  Rimmon*  which 
the  Phoenicians  worshipped  in,  like  our 
temples  of  Fleachta,  in  Meath,  was  sacred 
to  the  moon.  The  word  Rimmon  has  by 
no  means  been  understood  by  the  different 
commentators;  and  yet  by  recurring  to 
the  Irish  (a  branch  of  the  Phoenician)  it  be- 
comes very  intelligible ;  for  Re  is  Irish  for 
the  moon,  and  Muadh  signifies  an  image ; 
and  the  compound  word  Reamhan,  signi- 
fies prognosticating  by  the  appearances  of 
the  moon.  It  appears  by  the  life  of  our 
great  St.  Columba,  that  the  Druid  temples 
in  Ireland  were  decorated  with  figures  of  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  stars.  The  Phoenicians 
under  the  name  of  Bel-Samen,  adored  the 
Supreme ;  and  it  is  pretty  remarkable  that 
to  this  very  day^  to  wish  a  friend  every 
happiness  this  life  can  afford,  we  say  in 
Irish,  "  the  blessings  of  Samen  and  Bel  he 
with  you  r  that  is,  of  all  the  seasons,  Bel 
signifying  the  sun,  and  Samhain  the  moon. 
Neptune  was  alike  adored  by  the  Phoeni- 
cians and  Irish ;  and  it  is  w^orthy  of  notice 
that  the  Irish  language  only  explains  the 
attributes  of  this  deity,  though  common  to 
other  countries,  from  naomh,  or  naoph, 
sacred,  and  ton,  aware  ! 

We   have  already  noticed  the  schools 
said  to  have  been  established  by  Phtenius 

*  2  Kings  V.  18. 


after  his  return  from  Senaar  ;  and  this  we 
find — indeed  with  wonder — confirmed  by 
holy  writ ;  for  Joshua  tells  us  that  the  city 
of  Debir,  which  his  army  destroyed,  was 
in  remoter  days  called  Kiriath-Sephir,* 
which  literally  signifies  the  city  of  books 
or  letters.  From  this  text  the  learned 
Goguet  gathers  that  arts  and  letters  were 
publicly  taught  here  soon  after  the  Flood.f 
In  the  fragments  of  Sanconiathon,  pre- 
served by  Porphyry  and  Eusebius,  Phae- 
nix  is  second  in  the  list  of  their  kings  ;  and 
if  we  suppose  him  the  son  of  Baath  it  will 
correspond  with  our  annals.  Indeed,  the 
various  revolutions  that  country  under- 
went, as  well  by  Joshua  as  other  inva- 
ders, and  the  neglect  and  destruction  of  an- 
nals ever  attendant  on  such  misfortunes, 
might  encourage  succeeding  writers  to  mix 
fable  with  tradition,  and  conjecture  with 
history.  It  was  the  anachronisms  and  ab- 
surdities found  in  this  fragment,  that  made 
Mr.  Dodwell  labour  to  prove  that  no  such 
author  ever  existed,  and  that  it  was  fabri- 
cated by  some  early  Greek.  J  But  it  would 
be  hard  to  say  for  what  end  such  imposi- 
tion could  be  offered.  Materials,  I  take  it 
for  granted,  must  have  been  had  to  work 
on ;  and  these  very  probaby  (like  some  of 
our  modems)  they  formed  to  their  own 
ideas.  Theodoret  conjectures  that  the  word 
Sanconiathon  signifies  Philalethes,  or  a  lover 
of  truth.  For  my  part,  I  think  writers  have 
rather  mistaken  the  title  of  the  work ;  and 
as  letters  were  hereditary  in  families,  as 
well  in  Phoenicia  as  in  Ireland,  the  word 
Sanconiathon  was  the  title  of  the  national 
history,  from  seanachas,  antiquity,  and 
aithne,  knowledge,  just  as  the  grand  digest 
of  our  history  was  called  Seanachas-more, 
or  the  great  antiquity. 

But  to  prove  to  conviction  the  origin  of 
the  Irish  nation,  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  the 
Carthaginians,  who  were  confessedly  a 
Phoenician  colony,  were,  like  the  Irish, 
called  also  Poeni.  That  they  spoke  the 
Phoenician  language  will  not  be  doubted ; 
and  if  it  should  appear  that  the  Bearla- 

*  Joshua,  XV.  15. 

t  Origine  des  Arts  et  des  Scieiiecx,  toui.  iv.  ^^.  84. 

t  A  Discourse  on  Sanconiathon's  Phoenician  Histoi  v 


A.  M.  2036.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


23 


Pheni,  or  Irish,  is  the  same  with  the  Car- 
thaginian, demonstration  can  go  no  further. 
This  the  learned  Colonel  Valiancy  has 
proved  beyond  a  doubt  in  a  late  publica- 
tion ;*  and  in  the  course  of  the  present 
history  it  will  appear  that  a  close  connec- 
tion and  correspondence  was  constantly 
kept  up  between  the  two  states.  Both 
were  renowned  for  their  fleets  and  for 
commerce,  and  were  alike  attentive  to  the 
encouragement  of  arts,  sciences,  manufac- 
tures, and  agriculture. 

If  we  consult  modem  writers  we  shall 
find  their  ideas  of  ancient  navigation  ex- 
tremely confined.  Scarce  will  they  allow 
them  more  than  coasting  voyages,  as  if 
they  were  not  as  capable  of  consulting  the 
great  book  of  nature,  and  their  own  par- 
ticular interests,  as  the  modems.  Scrip- 
ture affords  sufficient  proofs  of  an  early 
knowledge  of  astronomy,  navigation,  and 
commerce  ;  and  it  is  agreed  upon  that,  be- 
fore the  days  of  Abraham,  the  Phoenicians 
were  a  commercial  people,  and  carried 
on  a  considerable  traffic  with  the  Greek 
islands.  Nay,  Herodotus  assures  us  that 
they  carried  on  about  this  time  an  exten- 
sive trade,  monopolizing  all  the  commerce 
of  Egypt  and  Assyria,  and  making  distant 
voyages  ;  that  it  was  in  one  of  these,  while 
exposing  their  goods  for  sale  at  Argos,  that 
they  carried  off  the  famous  lo,  daughter  of 
Inachus;  that  during,  or  soon  after  the 
days  of  Abraham,  a  colony  from  Egypt  in- 
vaded and  possessed  themselves  of  Greece 
the  voice  of  antiquity  declares:  but  yet, 
when  it  is  considered  that  the  early  Egyp- 
tians held  mariners  in  great  detestation — 
which  their  religion  inculcated — Typhon, 
or  the  sea,  being  the  enemy  of  Osiris ;  that 
their  priests  vowing  celibacy,  would  touch 
neither  salt  nor  fish,  and,  of  course,  consid- 
ered that  element  and  those  trading  thereon 
as  impure  ;  and  that  not  till  the  days  of  Se- 
sostris  had  they  ideas  of  maritime  affairs — 
it  will  be  difficult  to  reconcile  this  account 
to  reason  without  recurring  to  Irish  history. 
There  we  behold  the  son  of  the  great  Phae- 
nius  married  to  a  daughter  of  Egypt,  and 
large  possessions  granted  to  him  and  his 

*  Collation  of  the  Irish  and  Punic  languages,  etc. 


followers.  We  see  Gadel-glas  and  Easru 
peaceably  succeed  to  these  territories ; 
and  when  we  consider  how  close  to  the 
vocation  of  Abraham,  Sru  possessed  him- 
self of  Crete,  we  shall,  I  conceive,  be  struck 
with  the  great  light  our  history  throws  on 
this  whole  relation. 

If  from  this  we  recur  to  the  history  of 
Egypt,  however  obscured  by  fable,  we 
shall  see  further  evidences  in  support  of 
our  history.  There  we  may  behold  among 
their  first  princes  a  Nilus,  or  Niulus,  regis- 
tered, and  the  only  one  of  the  name.  We 
learn  that  the  ancient  name  of  the  Nile  was 
Abantri,  or  the  father  of  rivers ;  and  ab  in 
old  Irish,  as  well  as  in  some  of  the  Oriental 
tongues,  is  father,  and  ouen  a  river.  We 
also  read  that  this  name  was  changed  for 
that  of  Nilus,  in  honour  of  this  prince,  who 
by  canals  and  aqueducts  conveyed  its  wa- 
ter to  distant  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Now 
the  name  Niulus  was,  and  still  is,  peculiar 
to  the  Irish  nation;  by  it  many  of  our 
princes  were  formerly  called,  and,  to  com- 
memorate this  great  ancestry,  the  chiefs  of 
the  Heremonian  line  glory  in  the  name  of 
O'Neill  at  this  day.  But  besides  these, 
which  are  something  more  than  presump- 
tive proofs,  we  find  a  memory  of  these 
early  and  some  subsequent  events  preserved 
by  the  Egyptians  themselves,  though  shame- 
fully defaced  by  exaggerations  and  anach- 
ronisms. 

In  those  early  days,  when  nations  were 
thinly  inhabited,  an  inconsiderable  body  of 
men  w^ere  sufficient  to  subjugate  extensive 
countries.  We  may  judge  by  the  fame  of 
the  Argonautic  expedition  what  trifling  ex- 
ploits were  made  to  swell  to  mighty  deeds. 
The  story  I  allude  to  is  this :  Plutarch,  in 
the  life  of  Solon,  tells  us  that,  when  study- 
ing in  Egypt,  he  was  informed  by  the 
priests  of  Sais  of  the  famous  Atlantic  isle. 
The  relation  was  so  singular  and  striking 
that  he  formed  the  idea  of  an  epic  poem  on 
it,  but  was .  prevented  by  old  age.  The 
story  was,  that  these  islanders  became  so 
powerful  by  sea  as  to  reduce  Africa  and 
Greece,  and  were  meditating  new  conquests 
till  checked  by  the  superior  power  of  the 
Athenians;   that  this   famous   island  was 


^  :^r 


84 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  S03«. 


placed  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  in 
the  Atlantic  ocean;   and   that  its  inhab- 
itants, nine  thousand  years  before  Solon, 
despotically  ruled  over  Libya,  as  far  as 
Egypt,  as  well  as  over  Greece.     But  that 
the  power  of  these  islanders  should  appear 
adequate  to  the  extent  of  their  conquests, 
these   priests  assured   Solon  that  it  was 
larger  than  Europe  and  Asia ;  and  because 
it  was  known  that  no  island  of  such  extent 
existed,  they  affirmed  that  in  an  after  period 
it  suddenly  disappeared.     Plato,  a  descend- 
ant from  Solon,  in  his  Dialogues  of  Timseus 
and  Ctisias,  resumed  this  work ;  the  trans- 
lator of  which  entitles  them,  Prisci  Mundi 
Historia;   to  which   may  be  added,  that 
Lord  Bacon,  in  his  New  Atalantis,  deems 
the  whole  relation  to  be  founded  on  facts. 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  has  taken  some  pains  to 
elucidate  this  account*     He  fixes  the  time 
of  these   exploits   at  four  hundred  years 
earlier,  but  remarks  that  the  Egytian  priests 
so  magnified  the  time — as  indeed  they  did 
the  story — that  instead  of  four  hundred 
they  made  it  nine  thousand  years.     The 
size  of  the  island,  we  may  add,  they  mag- 
nified in  the  same  ratio,  since  they  affirmed 
it  to  be   larger  than  Europe   and  Asia, 
though  by  them  confessed  to  be  a  Euro- 
pean ISLAND  ! 

We  see  evidently  that  it  was,  by  way 
of  pre-eminence  to  all  other  islands  in  that 
sea,  called  the  Atalantic  Isle,  and  it  only 
remains  to  ascertain  the  place,  and  all  the 
other  difficulties  will  disappear.  Homer 
tells  us  in  the  Odyssey  that,  immediately 
after  the  taking  of  Troy,  which  was  A.  M. 
2767,  Ulysses  found  Calypso,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Atlas,  seated  in  this  isle,  which,  on 
account  of  its  great  antiquity,  he  also  calls 
Ogygia.  He  tells  us  that  it  was  about  ten 
day's  sail  from  the  Pillars  of  Hercules, 
at  least  that  Ulvsses  was  so  long  in  his 
passage  to  it ;  and  that  it  was  named  the 
Woody  Island  likewise.  Ireland  being 
always  called  Ogygia,  as  well  as  Inis  na 
Bhfiodhbhaidhe,  or  the  Woody  Island,  and 
its  distance  from  the  straits'  mouth  agree- 
ing so  exactly  with  Homer,  would  tempt 


Chronology. 


i 


one  to  pronounce  it  at  once  the  happy 
island  alluded  to.  Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of 
Sertorius,  throws  new  lights  on  this  mat- 
ter. This  great  commander,  he  tells  us, 
determined  to  make  it  his  retreat  from  the 
persecution  of  his  enemies;  and  he  de- 
scribes so  exactly  its  soil  and  cUmate,  and 
its  distance  from  Africa  to  be  about  1200 
miles,  that  no  other  country  could  be  found 
to  answer  the  description,  though  M.  Da- 
cier,  in  his  translation  of  this  writer,  affirms 
it  to  be  Andalusia,  and  on  the  continent 
TOO !  But  lest  what  is  said  may  not  be 
thought  sufficient  to  identify  the  place, 
Plutarch  in  another  work  tells  us,  that  this 
Ogygia,  this  famous  Atalantic  Isle,  is  oppo- 
site to  the  CeltsB,  and  but  four  days  sail 
from  Britain !  * 

The  country  being  thus  I  apprehend 
ascertained^  we  will,  by  the  help  of  our 
annals,  easily  distinguish  the  history  from 
the  allegory  and  from  the  fable.  The  his- 
Xory  comprehends  a  great  space  of  time. 
It  alludes  to  their  fii-st  settlement  in  Egypt, 
and  to  their  subsequent  exploits  in  Greece 
and  Africa,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 
Neptune,  who  was  supposed  to  preside 
over  the  sea,  was  the  father  of  Atlas ;  this 
last,  by  his  knowledge  in  astronomy  and 
invention  of  the  sphere,  greatly  improved 
and  extended  navigation;  hence  the  strength 
and  power  which  commerce  afford,  are 
alluded  to ;  hence,  by  way  of  pre-emi- 
nence in  maritime  affairs  (which  Tacitus 
many  centuries  after  acknowledged)  this 
country  was  called  the  atalantic  isle  ! 

After  such  proofs  and  such  illustrations 
of  times  so  extremely  remote,  will  any  can- 
did man  of  letters  deny  the  truth  of  our 
early  records  ?  Will  he  any  longer  refuse 
us  the  use  of  letters,  when  it  appears  to 
demonstration,  that  the  very  father  of  let- 
ters, of  arts,  and  of  sciences,  was  our  great 
ancestor  ?  Will  he  deny  us  the  early  use 
of  ships,  when  it  becomes  evident,  that  the 
first  inventors  of  ships  and  of  navigation 
were  our  great  ancestors  ?  But  all  these 
relations  will  acquire  new  dignity  by  pur- 
suing these  emigrants  from  their  derelic- 

*  De  Facie  iu  Orbe  Luiuc. 


A.  M.  2106.] 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


25 


tion  of  Egypt,  till  their  final  settlement  in 
Ireland,  which  I  shall  describe  with  the 
most  exact  fidelity  fi-om  our  annals ;  and 
then,  as  I  have  hitherto  done,  bring  illustra- 
tions and  proofs  from  the  mutilated  re- 
cords of  the  different  countries  they  passed 
through.  It  is  agreed  upon  in  courts  of 
justice,  that  circumstantial  evidences,  and 
by  parties  no  way  connected  with  each 
other,  are  preferable  to  positive  state- 
ments; for  in  the  first  instance  no  impo- 
sition can  be  intended.  This  surely  ought 
to  carry  the  greatest  weight  in  history, 
especially  ancient  history,  when  subject  to 
the  smallest  doubt. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Mi^pration  of  the  Gradelian  colony  to  Crete  —  to 
PhoBnicia — Of  the  Syrens — Land  in  Getulia — 
proceed  to  Galicia,  and  found  the  city  Brigan- 
tium — Of  GoUamh  or  Milesius,  and  his  exploits 
in  Phoenicia  and  Egypt — Of  Heber  and  Here- 
mon,  and  their  resolution  to  quit  Spain. 

The  dereliction  of  Egypt  by  the  Phse- 
nians,  or  posterity  of  Gadel-glas,  happen- 
ing in  the  administration  of  Sru,  we  may 
fix  it  in  the  year  of  the  world  2046,  and 
tenth  year  of  his  reign.  Sru  and  his  son 
Heber-Scot  were  the  conductors  of  this 
colony ;  who  the  high  priest  was  we  are 
not  told,  but  we  suppose  it  to  have  been 
the  famous  Cadmus,  so  celebrated  in  Gre- 
cian history,  and  brother  to  Sru. 

Crete  at  once  yielded  to  them  its  sover- 
eignty. It  appeared  to  the  old  inhabitants 
a  blessing ;  for  instead  of  distressing  and 
hunting  them  down  like  wild  beasts,  they 
introduced  among  them  the  social  arts. 
They  formed  them  into  communities,  they 
instructed  them  in  agriculture,  in  arts,  and 
manufactures.  Cadmus  taught  them  let- 
ters, the  knowledge  of  the  Deity,  the  rever- 
ence due  to  him,  and  the  duties  they  owed 
to  each  other  and  to  society.  The  Deity 
they  worshipped  in  his  attributes ;  and  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars  ranked  fore- 
most in  their  theology.  The  Curetes,  or 
warriors,  instructed  them  in  feats  of  arms, 

4 


and  in  the  warlike  dance.  Virgil  calls 
Crete  ora  Curetum — ^"  Et  tandem  (says  he) 
antiquis  Curetum  allabimur  oris."  Should 
we  suppose  the  name  of  Crete  to  have  ori- 
ginated from  those  Curetes,  as  Virgil  seems 
to  hint,  our  language  would  wonderfully 
explain  it.  Curat  is  Irish  for  a  knight; 
and  the  Curaithe  na  Croabh  ruadh,  or 
knights  of  the  Red-branch,  were  an  here- 
ditary order  of  chivalry,  which  flourished 
through  all  periods  of  our  history.  The 
time  which  this  colony  spent  in  Greece,  it 
is  agreed,  was  just  fifty  years ;  so  that 
according  to  our  mode  of  calculation  Sru 
died  in  Crete,  A.  M.  2071,  and  his  son 
Heber-Scot  sailed  for  Phoenicia,  the  seat 
of  his  ancestors,  A.  M.  2096.  He  was 
received  with  great  affection  by  his  kin- 
dred, and  the  Psalter  of  Cashell  aflirms 
that  he  died  possessed  of  the  supreme 
command  in  Phoenicia,  but  was  killed  in 
battle  by  Naoine,  of  the  posterity  of  Nea- 
nuil,  eldest  son  of  Phaenius. 

Boamhain  succeeded  his  father  Heber- 
Scot,  A.  M.  2106.  Great  contests  arose 
between  him  and  Naoine.  War  and  peace 
succeeded  each  other  for  a  number  of 
years;  at  length  Boamhain  fell  by  the 
sword,  A.  M.  2141.  Oghamhain  took 
command  of  the  shattered  forces  and  shat- 
tered fortune  of  his  father,  and  by  courage 
and  perseverance  arrived  at  the  same 
degree  of  power.  He  also  fell  in  battle, 
A.  M.  2176,  and  so  gave  way  for  his  son 
Tait.  To  him  succeeded  Aghnom,  A.  M. 
2211.  This  prince,  in  battle  engaged  hand 
to  hand  with  Riffleoir,  of  the  progeny  of 
Neanuil,  and  slew  him.  This  so  inflamed 
the  followers  of  his  house,  that  they 
vowed  a  total  extirpation  to  the  progeny 
of  Niul.  Foreseeing  the  impossibility  of 
protecting  themselves  from  the  approach- 
ing storm,  in  a  solemn  council  they  agree 
to  quit  for  ever  this  country  of  their  ances- 
tors, and  having  armed  and  fitted  up  their 
ships  they  proceed  to  sea,  A.  M.  2240, 
under  the  command  of  Aghnoin,  and  his 
brother  Heber  who  presided  as  high-priest. 
Aghnoin  had  three  sons,  Ealloid,  Laimh- 
fionn,  and  Laimh-glas;  and  Heber  had 
Caicer,  and  Cing. 


56 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.M.  2242. 


For  a  considerable  time  was  this  fleet 
tossed  up  and  down ;  sometimes  landing  on 
some   island,  and,  after  refreshing  them- 
selves and  refitting  their  ships,  again  pro- 
ceeding to  sea.  During  this  period  Aghnoin 
died,  A.  M.  2242,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
eldest  son,  Lamh-fionn.     Some  time  after 
they  made  for  the  island   Carenia,   being 
obliged  so  to  do  by  a  violent  storm.     Here 
they  reposed  themselves  for  fifteen  months, 
and  in  this  interval  died  Heber  the  high- 
priest,  and  Lamh-glas  one  of  his  nephews, 
who  we  are  told  were  buried  with  great 
funeral   pomp.     His  son  Caicer  was   ap- 
pointed to  fill  his  place,  and  having  pre- 
pared every  necessary  for  a  long  voyage, 
and  sacrificed  to  the  gods,  particularly  to 
Neptune,  Caicer  was  consulted  as  to  what 
the  fates  had  decreed  with  respect  to  them, 
and  whither  they  should  direct  their  course? 
He  answered  they  were  to  steer  to  the 
westward  ;  that  the  land  reserved  for  their 
posterity  was  the  most  western  island  in 
the  world,  but  which  neither  they  nor  their 
issue  for  some  generations  were  to  possess. 
They,  overawed  by  this  prophecy,  directed 
their  course  to  a  country  called  in  all  our 
ancient    MSS.    Gaothlaigh-Meadhonacha. 
But  the  voyeige  to  this  land,  we  are  told, 
was  very  dangerous ;  first,  on  account  of 
latent  rocks,  and  after  this  by  reason  of  the 
enchanting  notes  of  syrens  and  sea  nymphs, 
whose  powers  of  music  were  so  bewitch- 
ing as  to  absorb  all  the  faculties,  and  pre- 
vent the  mariners  from  doing  their  duty,  or 
keeping  clear  of  the  currents  which  insen- 
sibly brought  them  on  these  rocks.     This 
is  related  in  the  Book  of  Conquests,  the 
Psalter  of  Cashell,  and  in  the  Irish  original 
of  Keating,  though  omitted  in  the  English 
translation.     To  avoid  these  dangers,   as 
soon  as   they   approached   these   perilous 
seas,  by  the   advice   of  Caicer,  the   ears 
of  the  crews  of  all  the  fleet  were  stuflfed 
with  wax;   by  which  means  they  could 
the  better  attend  to  the  means  of  avoiding 
these  rocks  and  quicksands.     From   this 
simple  relation  it  is  evident  they  were  near 
the  Sicilian  shores.  The  fable  of  the  Syrens 
is  as  old  as  history,  and   is   undoubtedly 
Phoenician ;  whether  first  invented  to  deter 


other  nations  from  sailing  through  the  Me- 
diterranean, as  they  wished  to  monopolize 
the  trade  of  all  the  world,  or  by  way  of 
caution  to  future  mariners,  in  passing 
through  the  Straits  of  Messina,  or  Syrtes, 
1  shall  not  afiirm.  Certain  it  is  that  the 
early  ancients  looked  upon  this  as  a  danger- 
ous passage,  and  it  is  so  deemed  by  some 
at  this  day.  Homer  forgets  not  in  his 
Odyssey  to  celebrate  the  address  of  Ulysses 
in  avoiding  these  syrens,  who,  if  we  may 
believe  the  poet,  had  power  to  stop  ships : — 

Monstra  maris  Sirenet  erant  quae  voce  Caaone 
Quas  libet  admissas  dednuere  rates. 

And  near  this  place  it  was  that  Juno  pre- 
vailed on  iEolus  to  raise  that  terrible  tem- 
pest against  the  Trojan  fleet  which  Virgil 
so  poetically  describes  in  the  first  ^Eneid. 

After  clearing  these  dangerous  seas,  our 
colony  landed  safely  in  Getulia,  on  the 
African  coasts.  They  returned  solemn 
thanks  to  the  gods,  and  then  proceeded  to 
form  a  regular  and  permjinent  settlement, 
to  explore  the  country  and  its  ancient  resi- 
dents, and  avail  themselves  of  this  know- 
ledge. Lamh-fionn  died  advanced  in  years, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son  Heber, 
called  Glun-fionn,  or  the  White-knee,  A.  M. 
2281.  Our  annals  record  Heber  as  a  prince 
of  great  abilities,  bravery,  and  wisdom,  but 
illustrate  this  character  by  no  particular 
instances.  It  is  only  simply  said  that  his 
son  Adhnoin,  called  Fionn,  was  the  next 
ruler  of  this  people,  who  in  time  made  way 
for  Feabhar-glas.  Next  in  succession  was 
his  son  Neannail ;  he  was  followed  by  Nu- 
aghadh  ;  Alloid  then  took  the  lead.  Ear- 
achda,  Deaghfatha,  and  Bratha  were  the 
succeeding  chiefs.  In  the  reign  of  Bratha, 
the  Gadelians  in  council  took  the  resolution 
of  looking  for  new  settlements,  but  the 
reason  for  this  conduct  is  not  assigned. 
After  much  peril  and  danger  they  at  length 
happily  passed  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and 
landed  in  a  large  and  spacious  haven  in 
Galicia.  They  immediately  fell  to  work, 
and  raised  breastworks  and  entrenchments 
to  secure  themselves  and  their  ships  from 
the  attacks  of  the  natives,  who  were  a  very 
fierce  and  warlike  people. 


A.  M.  2650.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


27 


According  to  our  calculations,  Heber 
assumed  the  command  of  the  emigrants, 
A.  M.  2281 ;  from  which  period  to  the 
death  of  Bratha  were  nine  generations, 
amounting  one»  with  another  to  three  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  years  ;  so  that  his  death 
may  be  reasonably  resolved  into  A.  M. 
2596.  It  was  by  the  dint  of  the  sword  and 
force  of  arms  only,  that  this  colony  gained 
any  footing  in  Spain.  The  Psalter  of  Ca- 
shell  counts  no  less  a  number  than  fifty-four 
battles  fought  between  them  and  the  old 
inhabitants,  during  the  reign  of  Bratha  and 
his  son  Breogan. 

Breogan  assumed  the  command  of  this 
people,  A.  M.  2597.  He  completed  the 
city  began  by  his  father,  surrounded  it  with 
walls,  outside  of  which  deep  ditches  were 
cut,  which  in  honour  to  this  prince,  was 
called  Breogan-sciath,  (pronounced  Breo- 
gan-sci,)  or  the  Shield  of  Breogan,  sciath  be- 
ing Irish  for  a  shield,  and  from  which  came 
the  Latin  Brigantia.  Having  thus  secured 
the  safety  of  his  people,  his  next  care  was  to 
erect  a  pharos  for  the  direction  of  shipping 
from  Ireland  and  Britain,  with  which  he  had 
opened  a  considerable  trade.  This  pharos, 
we  are  told,  was  supplied  with  reflecting 
and  refracting  glasses,  with  globes  and 
other  instruments  for  navigation.  Keating, 
in  his  original  work^  quotes  an  early  French 
writer,  who  aflHrms  that  this  Breogan,  whom 
he  calls  Brigus,  was  the  first  prince  who  rais- 
ed revenues  and  built  castles  in  Spain,  and 
from  whom  the  Spanish,  as  without  doubt 
the  British  and  Irish,  Brigantes  are  derived. 

This  gallant  and  warlike  prince  had  ten 
legitimate  children ;  but  to  his  eldest,  called 
Bille,  was  the  supreme  command  assigned, 
A.  M.  2630.  He  was  not  inferior  to  any 
of  his  predecessors  in  courage  or  abilities, 
having  fought  many  battles  with  bordering 
nations,  and  always  with  victory.  The 
other  sons  of  Bille  were,  Breagha,  Fuadh, 
Muirtheimhne,  Sula,  Cuailgne,  Blath,  Aib- 
hle,  Nar,  and  Ith.  They  arrived  at  great 
power  in  Spain,  subduing  many  provinces, 
and  the  issue  of  these  princes  remaining  in 
that  country  assumed  the  name  of  Glana 
Breoguin,or  the  posterity  of  Breogan,  hence 
the  Brigantes. 


What  other  children  were  bom  to  Bille 
we  are  not  told ;  but  his  son  Gollamh,  called 
by  way  of  pre-eminence  Mile-Espaine,  or 
the  Hero  of  Spain,  cuts  a  most  conspicuous 
figure  in  our  annals.  So  much  so,  that  as 
we  retain  the  names  of  Phaenians,  Gade- 
lians,  and  Scots,  from  his  great  ancestors  ; 
after  him  we  are  called  Clana-Mile,  or  the 
posterity  of  the  hero,  hence  Milesians.  This 
young  hero  had  greatly  distinguished  him- 
self in  feats  of  arms  in  many  campaigns  he 
made  under  his  uncles,  who,  if  we  may 
credit  some  relations,  extended  their  arms 
as  far  as  Castile,  which  from  them  was 
anciently  called  Briga.  Every  thing  giv- 
ing way  to  the  arms  of  these  adventurers, 
and  peace  and  subordination  being  estab- 
lished, Gollamh,  impatient  of  new  laurels, 
solicited  his  father's  permission  to  assist 
their  Phoenician  ancestors,  then  greatly  dis- 
tressed by  continental  wars.  This  proves 
that  a  constant  intercourse  was  kept  up  be- 
tween them  for  the  sake  of  commerce  and 
other  advantages.  To  this  request  Bille 
consented ;  and  with  a  well-appointed  fleet 
of  thirty  ships,  and  a  select  number  of  in- 
trepid warriors,  Gollamh  weighed  anchor 
from  the  harbour  of  Corunna,  for  Syria.  It 
appears  that  war  was  not  the  sole  business 
of  this  equipment,  for  in  this  fleet  were  em- 
barked twelve  youths,  of  uncommon  learn- 
ing and  abilities,  who  were  directed  to  make 
remarks  on  whatever  they  found  new,  either 
in  astronomy,  navigation,  arts,  sciences,  or 
manufactures.  They  were  to  communicate 
their  remarks  and  discoveries  to  each  other, 
and  keep  an  exact  account  of  whatever  was 
worthy  of  notice.  As  this  equipment  was 
made  in  the  reign  of  Bille,  we  may  suppose 
it  to  have  taken  place  A.  M.  2650. 

He  was  received  with  distinguished  hon- 
ours by  the  Phoenicians ;  and  in  order  to 
bind  him  firmer  to  their  interest,  Riffleor 
gave  to  the  young  Spaniard  his  daughter 
Seang  for  a  wife.  We  are  told  that  he  not 
only  repelled  and  defeated  the  invaders  of 
the  country,  but  greatly  increased  their 
borders,  and  procured  for  them  a  lasting 
peace.  During  the  course  of  these  victo- 
ries he  had  two  sons  by  Seang,  Don  and 
Aireach.     His  noble  carriage,  his  success, 


28 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2706. 


and  this  increase  to  his  family,  so  endeared 
him  to  the  people,  that  Riffleoir,  old  and 
suspicious,  became  highly  alarmed  and 
jealous  lest  he  might  attempt,  as  his  ances- 
tors did,  to  wrest  the  crown  from  his  fam- 
ily. A  council  was  called,  and  it  was 
agreed  to  dispatch  GoUamh  privately.  But 
secret  as  this  resolution  was  taken,  he  got 
timely  scent  of  it.  He  feigned  an  indispo- 
sition till  his  fleet  was  made  ready,  which 
was  done  with  great  privacy,  and  then 
with  a  chosen  party  they  broke  into  the 
palace,  putting  to  the  sword  all  opposers, 
and  particularly  the  ungenerous  Riffleoir. 

From  Phoenicia  he  proceeded  to  Egypt, 
and  offered  his  services  to  Pharaoh,  whose 
country  had  been  assailed  on  every  side 
by  different  invaders,  but  particularly  by 
the  Ethiopians.  So  celebrated  a  com- 
mander was  received  with  open  arms.  He 
was  assigned  a  distinguished  part  in  the 
army,  and  by  degrees  attained  the  chief 
command.  His  first  care  was  to  establish 
exact  discipline  among  the  troops,  and  then 
he  led  them  against  the  enemy.  His  meas- 
ures were  so  just,  and  his  orders  so  well 
executed,  that  success  generally  attended 
his  standard.  As  the  highest  mark  of 
gratitude  and  approbation,  Pharaoh  gave 
him  to  wife  his  daughter  Scota — Seang, 
his  first  wife,  being  dead.  By  her  he  had 
two  sons  bom  in  Egypt,  Heber-fionn  and 
Amhergin.  If  we  suppose  that  his  landing 
in  Egypt  was  in  A.  M.  2660,  his  son  He- 
ber  may  have  been  bom  in  2665.  He  re- 
mained in  Egypt  for  a  considerable  time 
after,  and  it  is  particularly  noted  that 
the  literati  in  his  train  were  instructed  in 
all  the  wisdom  and  learning  of  the  Egyp- 
tians. 

But  his  long  absence  from  Spain  with  so 
large  a  force,  and  the  great  age  of  his  fa- 
ther, encouraged  the  borderers  to  renew 
their  hostilities.  The  country  was  in  the 
utmost  distress,  and  he  was  conjured  to 
hasten  his  departure.  After  taking  leave 
of  Pharaoh  and  his  court,  he  proceeded  to 
Spain,  where  he  at  length  happily  arrived. 


but  found  the  greatest  disorder  prevailing 
everywhere.  The  report  of  his  return 
gave  new  courage  to  his  people,  and  in 
some  time  he  restored  peace  and  happiness 
to  the  land.  He  commenced  his  command 
over  Spain  A.  M.  2670,  and  died  at  an  ad- 
vanced age,  leaving  eight  legitimate,  and 
twenty-four  illegitimate  children,  besides 
those  already  mentioned ;  the  remainder 
of  his  lawful  issue  were  Ir,  Colpa,  Arra- 
nan,  and  Heremon. 

In  A.  M.  2706,  Heber-fion,  the  firstborn 
in  Egypt,  was  called  to  the  succession. 
Some  time  after  he  associated  with  him  in 
the  supreme  command  his  youngest  brother 
Heremon,  and  Amhergin  was  announced 
high-priest.  These  princes  govemed  with 
great  prudence,  and  highly  encouraged 
science  and  commerce ;  but  powerful  com- 
binations of  different  people  had  distressed 
them  sorely,  and  to  these  were  added  great 
calamities  by  uncommon  droughts  and 
famine.  Their  territories  were  gradually 
subdued  till  at  length  they  were  confined 
to  a  narrow  tract.  •  In  this  distress  a  sol- 
emn council  of  all  the  chiefs  was  summoned 
to  determine  whether  they  should  make 
new  efforts  to  recover  the  coimtry,  or  seek 
some  more  beneficent  soil.  On  consulting 
the  Sacred  Books,  Amhergin  reminded  them 
of  the  prediction  of  his  predecessor,  Caicer. 
Ireland  was  the  most  westerly  situation ; 
with  it  they  carried  on  an  extensive  trade, 
and  this  he  assured  them  was  the  promised 
land,  and  at  this  time  the  prophecy  was  to 
be  fulfilled.  These  assurances  of  the  high- 
priest  determined  their  resolution,  and 
filled  them  with  hope  and  confidence. 
But  an  attempt  like  this  was  not  to  be  made 
on  vague  reports.  Ith,  the  son  of  Breo- 
gan,  was  pitched  on  to  visit  the  country 
and  explore  its  strength,  and  from  his  re- 
port were  they  to  be  directed.  But  before 
we  proceed  further  in  our  narrative,  it  is 
proper,  in  an  age  like  this,  to  call  upon  the 
testimonies  of  Grecian,  Carthaginian,  and 
Spanish  histories  in  support  of  what  is  here 
advanced. 


A.  M.  2706.] 


HISTORY  OF  Ireland: 


39 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  uncommon  care  taken  at  all  times  to  preserve 
the  history  of  the  voyages  of  the  Gadelians — Il- 
lustrated by,  and  illustrating  the  early  Greek  his- 
tory— Letters  of  the  primitive  Greek  alphabet — 
Objections  answered — Introduced  into  Greece 
long  before  the  days  of  Moses. 

The  foregoing  narrative,  faithfully  ex- 
tracted from  the  most  respectable  of  our 
records,  is  the  earliest  account  of  coloniza- 
tion extant,  emd  I  think  the  best  supported. 
It  has  not  only  been  carefully  handed  down 
from  age  to  age  by  our  antiquarians,  but 
honoured  by  the  pens  of  our  ancient  princes, 
such  as  Ethorial,  Ollamh-Fodhla,  Cormoc, 
etc.  Ireland,  as  well  in  her  Christian  as  in 
her  Ethnic  state,  deemed  it  the  most  pre- 
cious monument  of  her  glory  and  of  her 
antiquity.  In  the  severest  scrutinies  our 
annals  underwent,  as  in  the  days  of  Ol- 
lamh-Fodhla, Tuathel,  Cormoc,  and  St. 
Patrick,  these  truths  were  never  doubted. 
St.  Fiech,  this  apostle's  earliest  disciple, 
mentions  them,  as  well  as  his  schoUast.* 
The  Cion-Drom-Sneachta,  written  a  little 
later,  minutely  details  them.  Ceann-Foala, 
contemporary  with  St.  Columba,  confirms 
the  same.  St.  Cormoc  has  carefully  pre- 
served them;  Giolla-Caoimhain  has  done 
the  same.  In  a  word,  no  writer  of  Irish 
history  has  since  omitted  them  ;  and  if  we 
can  procure  foreign  evidences  to  confirm 
these  relations,  it  will  set  them  forth  in  the 
highest  pomt  of  view,  and  make  the  Irish 
chronology  a  kind  of  medium  to  settle  with 
more  precision  ancient  eras. 

It  is  a  point  universally  agreed  upon, 
that  the  early  Greeks  were  in  a  state  of 
savage  barbarity,  in  the  most  extensive 
meaning  of  the  word,  for  a  considerable 
time,  until  a  set  of  people  fi-om  Egypt  came 
to  settle  among  them.  With  these  strangers 
came  arts,  agriculture,  letters,  legislation, 
and  rehgion ;  but  though  these  luminaries 
came  from  Egypt,  yet  it  is  agreed  that  they 
were  not  an  Egyptian,  but  a  Phoenician 
colony ;  and  we  have  in  the  second  chapter 
of  this  book  assigned  the  reason  of  it.  There 
is  no  fact  in  ancient  history  better  ascer- 
tained than  that  the  first  polishers  of  Greece 
were  these  Phoenicians,  and  that  the  alphabet 
*  Colgan  Trias  Thaumat. 


they  communicated  to  them  consisted  of  no 
more  than  sixteen  letters.*  But  though  this 
is  imiversally  admitted,  yet  the  Grecian 
historians  are  by  no  means  in  unison  as  to 
the  time  of  this  reformation.  The  sub- 
stance of  what  they  have  delivered,  may 
be  reduced  to  this.  Agenor  and  Belus, 
whose  antiquity  is  so  remote  that,  accord- 
ing to  their  fabulous  manner  of  writing, 
they  have  made  them  the  sons  of  Neptune, 
or  the  sea,  early  agreed  to  separate.  Be- 
lus  resided  in  Egypt,  and  married  the 
daughter  of  Nilus,  by  whom  he  had  chil- 
dren. Agenor  settled  in  Phoenice,  and  be- 
came the  father  of  a  numerous  race,  among 
whom  were  Cadmus,  Phoenix,  and  Cilix. 
Cadmus  emigrated  into  Asia  Minor,  Crete, 
Greece,  and  Lybia,  with  a  numerous  reti- 
nue of  Phoenician  followers,  in  all  which 
places  he  founded  colonies,  and  introduced 
among  them  letters,  music,  poetry,  and 
other  sciences. 

Here  we  see  a  great  number  of  facts 
collected  in  one  point  of  view;  but  for 
want  of  proper  attention  to  chronology,  of 
which  the  early  Greeks  were  grossly  igno- 
rant, they  are  so  confounded  and  jumbled 
together  that  no  writer  has  been  found 
hardy  enough  to  attempt  to  reduce  them 
to  any  historical  order.  Indeed  Josephus 
treats  their  pretences  to  history  and  anti- 
quity with  the  highest  contempt;  for  though 
(says  he)  "it  is  acknowledged  that  they 
received  their  first  letters  from  the  Phoeni- 
cian Cadmus,  yet,  for  want  of  public  reg- 
isters, they  are  not  able  to  produce  any 
testimonies  of  this,  or  indeed  of  any  other 
point  of  high  antiquity,  which  might  be 
depended  on.  Not  so  (continues  he)  with 
the  Phoenicians,  the  Chaldeans,  and  with 
us,  (the  Jews,)  who  have  fi-om  remote  an- 
tiquity, by  means  of  registers,  and  the  care 
of  persons  particularly  appointed  to  this 
office,  preserved  our  histories  beyond  all 
other  nations  !"t 

It  is,  then,  manifest  that  this  relation  of 
the  polishing  of  the  first  Greeks  must  have 
been,  through  the  neglect  of  these  publie 

*  Herodot.  in  Terpsicore.     Plin.  Hist.  Nat.  lib.  viL 
Joseph,  contra  Apion.    Tacit.  Annal.  zL  etc. 
t  Josephos  contra  Apion. 


30 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.M.  2706. 


registers,  preserved  by  tradition  only ;  and 
that  in  after  periods,  when  the  Greeks, 
in  imitation  of  other  poHte  nations  of  an- 
tiquity, began  to  cultivate  history,  they 
committed  these  relations,  such  as  they 
found  them,  to  writing ;  but  unable  to  trace 
the  precise  periods  of  these  transactions, 
they  gave  them  the  best  form  they  could. 
Our  history  will,  however,  I  think  to  uni- 
versal satisfaction,  clear  up  these  difficul- 
ties, and  prove  that  even  tradition  itself  in 
history  is  not  to  be  despised. 

We  see  the  two  brothers,  Agenor  and 
Belus  agree  to  separate ;  Belus  marries 
the  King  of  Egypt's  daughter,  and  settles 
there,  while  Agenor  remains  in  Phoenice. 
Can  any  thing  come  nearer  to  the  relations 
by  our  historians  of  Niulus,  the  second  son 
of  Phaenius,  settling  in  Egypt,  and  marry- 
ing the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  and  of  his 
elder  brother's  ruling  in  Phoenicia  ?  We 
see  even  the  names  of  Phaenius  and  Niulus 
preserved  also  by  them,  though  misplaced 
by  gross  anachronism  !  Cadmus,  too,  is 
made  brother  to  Phaenius,  though  it  is 
manifest  that  he  flourished  near  three  hun- 
dred years  after !  Thus  the  traditions  of 
the  remote  Greeks  are  in  the  main  founded 
in  truth,  and  the  glory  of  illustrating  them 
reserved  for  Irish  historians.  Phaenius, 
the  inventor  of  letters,  was  born,  A.  M. 
1850 ;  his  second  son  Niulus  settled  in 
Egypt  A.  M.  1941,  and  Sru,  great-grand- 
son to  Niulus,  with  his  people,  quitted  Egypt 

A.  M.  2046,  twenty-three  years  after  the 
vocation  of  Abraham,  according  to  the 
Hebrew  computation.  Every  other  rela- 
tion which  the  Greeks  give  of  these  nearly 
luminaries  most  wonderfully  corresponds 
with  our  annals.  Nothing  can  better  prove 
the  great  antiquity  of  the  era  in  question, 
than  the  number  of  letters  then  promulga- 
ted, which  consisted  by  universal  consent 
of  but  sixteen,  and  in  our  alphabet  at  this 
day  we  have  but  seventeen.  These  orig- 
inal letters,  by  the  consent  of  Pliny,  Euse- 
bius,  Plutarch,  etc.,  were  the  following :  ^, 

B,  r,  J,  J?,  H,  /,  K,  A,  M,  N,  O,  77,  R,  2,  T, 
every  letter  of  which  we  possess,  except 
the  H ;  and  indeed,  durst  I  venture  an 
opinion  on  this  head,  it  would  be  that  the 


H  was  not  one  of  these  original  letters. 
In  the  rude  state  of  languages  it  were  ab- 
surd to  suppose  six  vowels  in  sixteen  let-" 
ters ;  but  that  one  of  these  should  be  a 
short,  and  the  other  a  long  E  ought  not  to 
be  credited ;  for  the  additional  E,  like  the 
additional  O,  must  have  been  introduced 
in  the  more  polished  and  luxurious  state 
of  the  language.  Instead  of  the  long  E,  I 
judge  the  T  must  have  been  substituted, 
it  being  a  letter  absolutely  necessary  in 
every  state  of  a  language.  This  being 
granted,  and  I  think  a  most  just  concession, 
we  shall  clearly  see  that  the  early  Greek 
letters,  which  they  called  Phoenician,*  to 
distinguish  them  from  the  additional  ones 
afterwards  introduced,  and  those  used  by 
us  at  this  day  are  the  same ;  for  I  am  sat- 
isfied that  our  alphabet  originally  consisted 
of  but  sixteen  letters,  the  F  being  a  mani- 
fest interpolation  of  later  times,  the  P  an- 
swering every  purpose  for  which  it  is  used, 
except  its  total  aspiration. 

But  before  we  proceed  further,  and  to 
be  certain  of  the  ground  we  go  on,  it  is 
highly  proper  to  advert  to  some  very  spe- 
cious modem  objections  to  the  voice  of 
antiquity,  on  the  small  number  of  the  orig- 
inal Greek  letters.  Messrs.  Le  Clercf  and 
GoguetJ  seem  to  ridicule  this  opinion,  and 
to  laugh  at  the  accounts  of  the  additional 
letters  of  Palemedes,  of  Simonides,  and  of 
Epicharmus.  For,  say  they,  all  these  let- 
ters must  have  been  adopted  at  the  same 
time ;  because  original  Greek  words,  as 
old  as  the  very  language  itself,  cannot  nor 
could  not  be  wrote  without  these  supposed 
additional  letters.  But  when  these  gentle- 
men shall  be  instructed,  that  there  is  at 
this  day  a  nation  in  Europe  (I  mean  Ire- 
land) whose  entire  alphabet  consists  but 
of  seventeen  letters,  and  that  very  many 
words  cannot  be  pronounced  by  these  let- 
ters, without  changing  their  sound,  which 
is  produced  by  an  auxiliary  H  after,  or  a 
dot  (•)  over  such  consonant,  what  will  be 
come  of  their  objections  ?     And  yet  had 

*  Heredot.  in  Terpsicore. 
t  Bibl.  Choifl.  torn.  ii.  p.  39. 

\  L'Origin  des  Loix,  des  Arts,  et  des  Sciences,  torn 
iv.  p.  68. 


A.  M.  2706.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


31 


we  not  so  glaring  a  proof  to  the  contrary, 
I  own  I  think  it  hard  that  the  evidence  of 
all  antiquity  should  be  rejected  by  plausi- 
ble cavils  of  modem  skeptics  ! 

For  want  of  fixing  with  precision  the 
time  of  Cadmus's  introducing  letters  into 
Greece,  many  mistakes  have  happened. 
The  very  learned  Jones*  is  greatly  at  a 
loss  to  account  for  Cadmus's  alphabet  hav- 
ing but  sixteen  letters ;  whereas,  (says  he,) 
in  the  days  of  Moses,  who  preceded  him, 
(Cadmus,)  the  Hebrews  had  then  twenty- 
two  !  It,  however,  appears  evident  by  our 
annals,  that  Cadmus  was  prior  to  Moses 
by  above  four  centuries ;  after  which  pe- 
riod, it  is  not  improbable  but  that  the  Phoe- 
nicians might  have  augmented  their  alpha- 
bet; while  the  first  emigrants  and  their 
posterity,  even  to  this  day,  religiously  pre- 
served the  pure  original  one.  It  appears 
from  history,  that  not  only  the  Greeks,  but 
most  European  nations,  borrowed  from  us 
their    alphabet.      Wormius   tells    us,   his 

*  De  Studio  vene  Theolog.  p.  296. 


countrymen's  alphabet  was  called  Ira-Letiu*, 
or  Irlandorum  Literae  ;*  and  to  this  day  the 
Germans,  and  all  the  northern  nations  call 
a  letter  Buchtat,  and  Bogstav,  which  names 
are  accounted  for,  because  every  letter  of 
our  alphabet  is  the  name  of  some  particu- 
lar tree.  The  early  Britons  and  Cornish 
adopted  our  letters,  and  after  them  the 
Saxons.  Nay,  the  northern  Scots,  who 
still  speak  and  write  the  Irish,  like  all  these 
others  we  have  mentioned,  in  time  changed 
their  alphabet,  for  the  one  now  generally 
received,  and  freely  adopted  all  its  letters ; 
while  the  Irish,  steadfast  and  immovable, 
never  suffered  the  least  innovation  in  theirs ! 
But  besides  the  small  number  of  letters  in 
our  alphabet,  the  ancient  order  in  which 
they  were  placed,  differing  from  that  of  all 
other  nations,  is  a  still  greater  proof  of 
their  originality  and  of  their  antiquity. 
The  Phoenician  letters  of  the  Greeks,  and 
the  Irish,  in  their  original  order,  will  appear 
in  the  next  chapter. 

*  Li  terse  Runicae,  cap.  5. 


CHAPTER    V. 


The  Cadmean  letters  of  the  Greeka  and  the  Irish,  in  their  original  ordef— The  Greeks  supposed  to 
possess  an  occult  manner  of  writing— Figure  of  the  Irish  Ogham— Proofs  and  reasons  offered  to  show 
that  the  Gadehan  colony  were  the  first  reformers  of  Greece. 


The  Beth-Luis-Nion,  or 
Letters. 

Irish  Letters. 

Name. 

The  Phoenician, 
Letters. 

or  Greek  Letters. 

Name. 

hb 

Beith. 

*,i? 

Beta. 

%l 

Luis. 

A,i, 

Lambda. 

Kn 

Nuin. 

N,v 

Nu. 

ftp 
S,f 
bA 

Poth. 

Sail. 

Duir. 

Phi. 

Sigma. 
Delta. 

^>ir 

Tinne. 

^y^ 

Tail. 

Co 
tU/ttt 

Colt. 

Muin. 

Gort 

Kappa. 

Mu. 

Gamma. 

R.i*' 

Ruis. 

Py(f 

Rho. 

0,0 

Ailim. 
On. 

A,  a 

OyO 

Alpha. 
Omicron. 

Uillean. 

Eadha. 

Jodha. 

/, »     (probaby  the  . 

ancient) 

Upsilon. 

Eta. 

Iota. 

Besides  this  alphabet,  the  early  Greeks,  we  have  reason  to  suspect,  had  also  an 
occult  manner  of  writing,  like  our  ogham,  or  sacred  character.  For  Pausanias  says, 
that  the  coffer  of  Cypselus,  preserved  in  the  city  of  Elis,  had  on  it  inscriptions  in  old 
characters,  and  straight  lines.  We  shall  exhibit  a  scheme  of  our  ogham,  corres- 
pondent with  the  alphabet ;  as  it  may  probably  elucidate  this  remarkable  passage  of 
Pausanias. 


AO 


A.  M.  2706.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


33 


In  this  character  the  ancient  Druids 
committed  their  mysteries  to  writing,  and 
some  MSS.  are  yet  preserved  in  this  style. 
The  reader  vsdll  easily  perceive  that  the 
letters  placed  over  these  different  figures, 
are  only  for  the  instruction  of  learners  in 
this  ogham,  and  not  used  by  adepts  in  it. 
Mac  Curtin,  an  hereditary  antiquarian,  of 
the  county  of  Clare,  about  forty  years  dead, 
tells  us,  in  his  Irish  Grammar,  that  he  has 
met  with  no  less  than  thirty-two  ways  of 
writing  this  ogham,  so  common  and  well 
known  was  it  even  then.  The  Irish  had, 
besides  this,  occult  manners  of  writing  by 
fixing  on  one  or  two  consonants,  and  form- 
ing from  them  a  new  alphabet.  A  great 
pity  it  is,  that  they,  and  other  learned  na- 
tions of  antiquity,  did  not  study  perspicuity 
in  writing,  rather  than  obscurity.  The 
Greeks  made  use  of  another  manner  of 
writing  which  they  borrowed  from  the 
Phoenicians,  and  called  BovsgoqirjSov ;  the 
meaning  of  which  is,  ploughing  with  oxen ; 
as,  like  the  ridges  of  a  plough,  it  went  in 
parallel  lines  from  right  to  left,  and  fi"om 
left  to  right.  The  Cionn  fa  Eite,  or  head 
of  the  ridge,  and  Cor  fa  Chasem,  or  reapers' 
path,  still  met  with  in  numbers  of  old  Irish 
parchments,  seem»  to  have  been  formed  on 
exactly  the  same  plan,  and  vwote  after  the 
same  manner;  so  that  we  may  presume 
that  the  early  Greeks  borrowed  this  mode 
of  writing  also  from  our  ancestors. 

In  old  Greek,  as  well  as  in  old  Irish,  a 
single  letter  stood  for  an  entire  word,  a  cir- 
cumstance, as  far  as  I  know,  not  to  be 
found  in  other  languages.  A,  among  the 
Greeks  signified  greatness,  and  in  Irish  it 
imports  a  hill,  or  ascent.  The  Greek  H 
denoted  length,  and  I  supJ)ose  E  shortness. 
In  Irish,  E  is  understood  for  wretchedness. 
The  Greek  O  meant  roundness  ;  in  Irish, 
an  ear,  also  a  son.  I,  in  Irish  is  frequently 
used  for  an  island,  as  I  CoUum-Cille,  or  the 
present  Ionia ;  it  signified  also  an  art,  or 
science.  In  ancient  Greece  the  laws  were 
recorded  in  verse,  as  best  retained,  hence 
JV6/tog,  which  signifies  a  law,  denotes  also 
a  song.  Not  only  the  antiquities  and  laws, 
but  the  druidical  mysteries  of  the  Irish 
were  preserved  in  verse.     If  the  Greeks 


had  their  Isthian  and  Olympic  games,  the 
Irish  had  theirs  also,  at  Tailtean,  in  Meath, 
but  I  judge  with  infinite  more  splendour ; 
and  they  continued  with  us  from  the  earliest 
periods  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Irish  mon- 
archy in  1175. 

It  was  a  Greek  custom  to  entertain  their 
guests  for  many  days,  before  they  inquired 
even  their  names.  Thus  Telemachus  and 
his  companions  were  entertained  by  Mane- 
laus ;  and  Paris  and  his  associates  remain- 
ed with  him  ten  days  before  he  inquired 
who  he  was.  But  Cretan  hospitality  was 
highly  celebrated.  In  their  public  assem- 
blies were  two  apartments,  the  first  of 
which  was  for  the  entertainment  of  stran- 
gers, who  were  served  before  the  king  or 
his  nobles.  It  is  unnecessary  to  remind 
our  readers  that  here  our  ancestors  princi- 
pally resided  during  their  stay  in  Greece. 
As  to  Irish  hospitality,  it  was  so  celebrated 
as  to  become  proverbial.  It  became  an 
object  of  state  policy,  and  laws  and  regu- 
lations were  made  by  the  national  council 
for  its  conduct.  Lands  in  every  part  of 
the  kingdom  were  allotted  for  its  support ; 
and  the  beatachs,  or  keepers  of  houses  of 
hospitality,  were  the  third  order  in  the 
state.  Each  beatach  must  possess  seven 
tovm  lands,  each  of  which  comprehended 
seven  plough  lands.  He  was  obliged  to 
have  seven  ploughs  at  work  in  the  seasons, 
and  to  be  master  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  herds  of  cattle,  each  containing  one 
hundred  and  twenty  cows.  He  was  to 
have  four  roads  to  his  house ;  a  hog,  beef 
and  mutton  were  always  to  be  ready  for 
the  traveller  and  stranger ;  and  of  which 
houses  no  less  than  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  belonged  to  the  two  Munstersl 
In  the  present  age  of  Pyrrhonism,  all  these 
facts  might  be  well  doubted,  had  we  not 
modem  evidences  to  corroborate  them; 
for  Sir  John  Davis,  attorney-general  in  the 
reign  of  James  I.,  in  his  account  of  the 
blessed  reforms  made  in  the  lands  of  the 
Irish,  in  the  counties  of  Monaghan,  Fer- 
managh, and  Cavan,  in  those  precious  days, 
by  the  inquisition  then  taken  it  appeared 
that  the  county  of  Monaghan  alone  con- 
tained one  hundred  balle-beatachs,  to  the 


34 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2706. 


support  of  which  were  allotted  by  Mac 
Mahon,  lord  of  the  soil,  ninety-six  thousand 
acres  of  land !  Even  at  this  day  individ- 
uals keep  up  this  spirit  of  hospitality ;  and 
tjijioh  reader  will  be  enabled  to  judge  what 
tM  dispositions  of  our  people  are,  from 
wfett-  is  now  the  practice  of  the  middling 
and  poorer  Irish,  in  Munster  andConnaught. 
Their  houses  are  open  for  all  poor  stran- 
gers. As  soon  as  one  enters  and  places 
himself  by  the  fire,  he  looks  upon  himself 
and  the  people  look  upon  him  so  much  as 
one  of  the  family  that  he  will  rise  to  wel- 
come the  next  comer.  Whatever  the  house 
affords  they  freely  partake  of.  In  some 
places,  in  cold  wet  nights,  a  door  is  left 
open,  and  a  large  fire  burning  for  the  use 
of  any  distressed  passengers !  I  mention 
these  facts  because,  in  all  probability,  the 
very  remembrance  of  them  will  be  forgot 
by  the  next  generation. 

Hesychius  tell  us  that  Bila  in  old  Greek, 
signified  "HUo;  or  the  sun ;  and  that  in 
Crete  they  worshipped  this  planet  under 
the  name  of  Abelius ;  how  near  to  our 
Bel,  or  the  sun!  But  besides  what  has 
been  advanced,  we  have  other  evidences 
to  direct  us,  who  these  luminaries  of  the 
Greeks  were ;  for  Diodorus  tells  us,  that 
very  many  words  of  these  people  were 
preserved  in  the  Greek  language  even  to 
his  day,  but  particularly  with  regard  to 
their  religion.  Of  this  I  have  given  some 
instances  in  my  Introduction^  and  in  Dr. 
O'Brien's  Irish  Dictionary  are  many  more. 
The  gods  of  these  strangers,  he  tells  us, 
they  called  Cabiri,  which  they  worshipped 
in  groves ;  and  Cohhar  is  Irish  for  aid  or 
assistance.  In  their  groves  they  gave  out 
oracles ;  and  most  probably  on  the  recep- 
tion of  Christieuiity,  when  Druidism  fell  into 
disrepute,  the  word  Cabaire,  which  before 
denoted  a  divine  inspiration,  was  then  first 
applied  to  signify  an  idle  prating  fellow, 
and  as  such  it  stands  in  our  dictionaries  at 
this  day.  Add  to  this,  that  some  places  in 
Ireland  yet  retain  the  name,  as  Caraba, 
near  Duljin,  etc.  He  tells  us  also  that  the 
warriors  of  these  strangers  were  called 
Curetes ;  and  Curat  is  Irish  for  a  knight, 
a  most  renowned  order  of  which  flourished 


in  Ulster  for  very  many  centuries,  called 
Curaithe  na  Craocbh-ruadh,  or  Knights  of 
the  Red-branch.  Plato  in  Cratyl.  tells  us, 
that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  were  the 
deities  of  the  first  reformers  of  Greece  ; 
and  in  a  former  chapter  we  have  so  abun- 
dantly proved  this  worship  to  be  that  of 
our  ancestors,  that  it  would  be  but  mere 
tautology  to  say  more  on  that  head  here. 

Not  only  the  Greeks,  but  most  other 
ancient  writers,  among  whom  is  Josephus, 
are  unanimous,  that  the  Phoenician  Cadmus 
was  the  first  improver  of  Greece.  We 
have  not,  however,  from  Irish  history  any 
records  of  this  name.  It  appears  that  the 
conductors  of  the  Gadelian  colony  from 
Egypt  to  Greece  were  Sru,  and  his  son 
Heber.  That  Sru  must  have  had  more 
children  cannot  be  doubted ;  and  that  the 
next  to  the  heir  of  the  crown  was  the  high- 
priest,  who  was  also  chief  of  the  literati, 
we  know  was  a  rule  observed  by  our  ances- 
tors from  the  days  of  the  great  Phaenius. 
Cadmus,  I  suppose — ^nay,  I  must  conclude 
— was  a  second  son  of  Sru,  and  of  course 
filled  his  station ;  and  as  it  was  a  constant 
custom  to  bestow  on  our  ancestors  some 
epithet  expressive  of  their  greatest  talents, 
so  it  is  more  than  probable  that  they  called 
this  prince  Cadmus,  or  the  first  adviser  or 
instructor,  from  Cead  first,  and  Meas  ad- 
vice, in  commemoration  of  his  having  first 
advised,  instructed,  and  reformed  these 
people. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

History  of  the  Hyperborean  island — Ireland  the 
country  alluded  to — Of  Abaris  the  Hyperborean 
— Great  lights  thrown  on  these  relations — Objec- 
tions to  them  removed. 

Having,  I  flatter  myself,  proved,  in  as 
clear  a  manner  as  the  nature  of  the  inquiry 
will  admit  of,  that  our  ancestors  were  the 
first  reformers  and  improvers  of  Greece, 
and  having  from  this  investigation  deter- 
mined some  controverted  points  in  Grecian 
chronology,  as  well  as  illustrated  some 
fabulous  and  obscure  parts  of  their  history, 
and  also  demonstrated  that  this  country 


A.M.  2706.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


35 


was  well  known  to  their  early  poets,  I  shall 
now  show  that  their  remote  historians 
were  well  acquainted  with  these  facts,  not- 
withstanding the  hyperbole  of  which  these 
writers  were  so  fond. 

Aelian  tells  us,*  that  Hecateus  of  Ab- 
dera,  a  very  ancient  writer,  compiled  the 
History  of  the  Hyperboreans,  which  work 
is  also  cited  in  the  Scholiast  upon  ApoUo- 
nius ;  and  Diodorus  Siculus,t  from  Heca- 
teus, gives  us  the  following  description  of 
that  country.  "  It  is  (says  he)  a  large 
island,  little  less  than  Sicily,  lying  oppo- 
site the  Celtae,  and  inhabited  by  the  Hyper- 
boreans. The  country  is  fruitful  and  plea- 
sant, dedicated  to  Apollo,  and  most  of  the 
people  priests  or  songsters.  In  it  is  a  large 
grove,  and  in  this  a  temple  of  a  round 
form,  to  which  the  priests  often  resort  with 
their  harps,  to  chaunt  the  praises  of  their 
god  Apollo.  They  have  a  language  pecu- 
liar to  themselves  ;  and  some  Greeks  have 
been  to  visit  this  country,  and  to  present 
valuable  gifts  to  their  temples,  with  Greek 
.  inscriptions.  From  this  famous  island 
came  Abaris  to  Greece,  who  was  highly 
honoured  by  the  Delians.  They  can  show 
the  moon  very  near  them,  and  have  disco- 
vered in  it  large  mountains,  and  the  priests 
and  rulers  which  preside  over  their  sacred 
temple  they  call  Boreades." 

Critics  and  commentators  have  formed 
varieties  of  conjectures  on  the  above  pas- 
sage, nor  are  they  less  agreed  in  opinion 
where  to  fix  this  Happy  island ;  and  yet 
the  description  appears  to  me  so  clear, 
that  I  only  account  for  these  diversities  in 
opinions  from  want  of  a  well  written  his- 
tory of  Ireland.  It  being  by  Hecateus 
placed  opposite  the  Celtse,  makes  it  evi- 
dently in  the  Atlantic  ocean,  since  Europe 
was  given  as  a  possession  to  the  sons  of 
Japhet,  and  that  no  other  island  can  be 
found  to  answer  its  size  and  description 
but  Ireland;  and  this  likewise  evinces, 
what  we  have  already  observed,  that  the 
Irish  boast  their  descent  from  the  Scythi- 
ans, since  we  now  see  clearly,  that  Heca- 
teus placing  these  islanders  opposite  the 

*  De  Nat.  Anim.  lib.  ii.  cap.  i. 
t  Lib.  iii.  cap.  ii. 


Celtae,  shows  they  were  a  different  people 
from  the  Celtae  ;  these  being  the  descend- 
ants of  Gomer,  but  the  Scythians  of  Ma- 
gog. And  here  I  will  introduce  some 
other  proofs  of  the  early  Greeks'  know- 
ledge of  this  distinction.  Suidas,  under  the 
word  Abaris,  tells  us  very  particularly, 
that  this  famous  priest  came  from  Scythia 
to  Greece,  and  from  thence  to  the  Hyper- 
borean Scythians.  From  this  account  it 
is  very  singular,  that  he  makes  the  Hyper- 
boreans a  Scythian  colony;  a  distinction 
which  we  have  always  made :  "  Scoti 
fumus,  non  Galli,"  was  the  answer  of  our 
ancestors  to  such  as  attempted  to  make 
them  and  the  Gauls  one  people  !  and  here 
we  must  indeed  with  astonishment  remark, 
how  wonderfully  our  history  elucidates  the 
above  otherwise  seemingly  obscure  pas- 
sages, which  could  not  be  possibly  made 
but  by  a  people  among  whom  a  memory 
of  our  antiquities  remained  ! 

We  see,  then,  by  Hecateus,  that  this 
Hyperborean  island  was  fruitful  and  pleas- 
ant, and,  on  account  of  its  temperature,  de- 
dicated to  Apollo ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by 

Pindar,  who  calls  them — ^afiof  '  YnegSogeav 
^yinoXhavog  QiganovTa — "the  servants  of  the 

Delphic  god,"  whose  country  he  assures 

us,  was — Xdova  Ilvoiag  onidev  Boqia  "  a  land 

placed  beyond  the  chilling  northern  blast." 
And  Callimachus  calls  them  'leqov  rdvoc,  or 
the  sacred  nation !  Herodotus,  too,  who 
is  sometimes  called  the  father  and  prince 
of  historians,  tells  us,*  that  on  account  of 
their  humanity  and  goodness  they  were 
held  as  sacred  by  all  their  neighbours. 
How  well  Ireland,  even  at  this  day,  an- 
swers these  encomiums,  notwithstanding  the 
inexpressible  hardships  which  her  ancient 
children  have  long  groaned  under,  need 
not  be  told ;  how  much  better  it  did  in 
days  of  justice  and  sound  legislation, 
the  following  picture  of  it,  drawn  about 
one  thousand  four  hundred  years  ago,  by 
D.onatus,  Bishop  of  Tiesoli,  near  Florence, 
will  show ; — 

Finibus  Occidais,  describitur  optima  tellas 
Nomine  et  Antiquis,  Scotia  scripta  libris. 
Insula  Dives  Opum  Gemmarum,  vestis,  et  Auri  : 
Commoda  Corporibua  Aire,  Sole,  Solo. 

*  Lib.  iv.  seu  Melpomene. 


36 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2706. 


Melle  flait  polchris,  et  lacteis  Scotia  Cam^is 

Vestibufl,  atque  Armis,  frugibus,  Arte,  vins. 

Ursorum,  Rabies  nulla  est  ibi ;  sacra  leonum 

Seraina,  nee  unquam  Scotica  terra  tulit. 

Nulla  Yenena  nocent,  nee  Serpens  serpit  in  herbi ; 

Nee  conquesta  Canit,  garrula  rana  lacu ; 

In  qu&  Scotorum  Grentes,  habitare  merentur : 

Indtyta  Grens  Hominum,  Milite,  Pace,  Fide ! 

A  great  mistake  has,  however,  risen 
from  the  name  given  by  Hecateus  to  this 
island,  it  being  supposed  from  it  to  imply 
a  northern  people;  hence  some  modems 
have  placed  it  under  the  arctic  pole,  and 
beyond  the  Riphsean  mountains ;  yet  though 
the  later  ancients  seemed  to  consider  the 
meaning  of  the  word  in  this  sense,  it  is 
nevertheless  very  curious  that  they  still 
considered  Ireland  as  the  country  alluded 
to.  Hence  they  have  supposed  it  is  called 
Hibemia,  ab  Hibemo  Acre,  from  its  cold- 
ness ;  and  this  will  explain  why  Claudian 
in  his  panegyric  on  Stilichon,  tell  us,  that, 

Scotonun  Cumulus  flevit  Olaeialit  leme  ; 

and  in  another  line  in  the  same  poem, 
where  he  mentions  the  numbers  of  Irish 
who  invaded  Britain  at  that  time — 

Fregit  Hyperboreat,  remis  Audacibus  Undas ! 

from  which  we  may  safely  affirm,  that 
when  even  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of 
the  climate  was  lost,  still  a  remembrance 
of  the  people  alluded  to  imder  this  title 
was  preserved.  Indeed  the  analysis  of 
the  word  will  plainly  prove,  that  Hecateus 
meant  by  it  a  country  peculiarly  blessed 
by  nature  ('  Ynsg  BoQiuv)  beyond  the  northern 
blasts,  or  out  of  their  reach.  Thus  Or- 
pheus called  it  ^Uqve,  or  the  Holy  Island ; 
Homer,  Ogygia,  or  the  most  Ancient 
Island;  Solon  and  Plato,  Atlantis,  or  ex- 
celling all  other  islands  in  that  immense 
ocean ;  and  Hecateus,  Hyperborea,  or  the 
most  temperate  of  islands  !  all  poetical  and 
figurative  appellations,  and  all  evidently 
alluding  to  the  same  country. 

By  the  large  grove  in  which  they  wor- 
shipped, and  their  temple  being  circular, 
we  clearly  see  the  Druid  rites  pointed  at, 
and  the  circular  stone  pillars  in  these 
groves,  of  which  many  are  yet  to  be  seen, 
and  some  so  near  to  Limerick  as  Bruflf. 


He  says,  most  of  the  people  were  priests 
or  songsters.  That  there  were  vast  num- 
bers of  the  first,  we  may  judge  from  the 
great  number  of  religious  here  in  the  dawn 
of  Christianity;  insomuch  that  then,  and 
for  many  centuries  after,  they  were  more 
active  in  planting  the  new  doctrine  abroad, 
than  all  the  rest  of  Europe  combined.  As 
to  their  bards,  no  nation  ha  the  world  in- 
dulged them  more  than  the  Irish.  Every 
family  had  one  or  more;  every  general 
was  attended  in  the  field  by  his  bard ;  every 
prince  had  a  number ;  lands  were  allotted 
to  them  by  the  states.  In  all  wars  and 
dissensions,  their  houses,  their  persons,  and 
their  effects  were  inviolate  ;  they  were 
exempt  from  public  taxation,  and  any  other 
hardship  which  might  seem  to  clog  or  re- 
strain their  genius.  These  great  privileges 
at  length  induced  so  many  idlers  to  enlist 
under  their  banners,  that,  in  one  or  two 
instances,  the  state  wisely  reduced  their 
number,  but  never  attempted  to  suppress 
the  order.  As  to  music,  the  ancient  Irish 
excelled  all  others  in  it.  Cambrensis  him- 
self bestows  the  greatest  applause  to  their 
powers  in  harmony ;  and  as  for  the  harp, 
need  I  say  more  on  it  than  this,  that  they 
became  so  fond  of  it  as  to  make  it  the  arms 
of  Leinster.  As  to  the  Greek  inscriptions, 
many  such,  as  well  as  Hebrew  ones.  Sir 
James  Ware  acknowledges  to  have  met, 
and  numbers  still  are  dispersed  through 
the  kingdom.  Their  being  able  to  bring 
the  moon  near  to  them,  and  show  In  it 
many  mountains,  plainly  points  out  the  use 
of  the  telescope,  and  highly  illustrates  the 
account  we  have  already  given  of  the  Tor 
Breogan,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
ancients. 

Abaris,  says  Hecateus,  came  from  the 
Hyperboreans  to  visit  Greece ;  and  though 
a  barbarian  in  dress,  as  Himerus  the  Sophist 
(apud  Photium,  p.  1136)  observes,  yet  he 
spoke  Greek  with  so  much  eloquence,  that 
you  would  have  thought  you  had  heard  an 
orator  in  the  midst  of  the  Lyceum.  Now 
it  is  certain  that  the  dress  of  the  Scythians 
as  described,  exactly  agreed  with  our  an- 
cient one ;  and  as  he  was  highly  celebrated 
for  his  great  skill  in  divination,  one  of  the 


A.  M.  3706.] 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


37 


excellences  of  our  ancient  Druids,  and  that 
his  name  is  pure  Irish  and  peculiar  to  this 
country,  I  think  it  gives  the  highest  proof 
to  the  whole  relation,  for  Heber  has  been 
from  the  earliest  times  a  name  peculiar  to 
our  princes  and  great  men.  Heber-Scot 
led  the  Phoenician  colony  from  Greece  to 
Scythia  ;  several  others  of  the  name  were 
his  successors.  Heber  was  the  first  mon- 
arch in  Ireland  of  the  Milesian  race.  An- 
other of  the  name  preceded  St.  Patrick  in 
the  Irish  mission,  and  even  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge Patrick  as  apostle  of  Ireland  for 
a  time ;  for,  says  the  great  primate  Usher,* 
**lbarus  vero  nulla  ratione  consentire  S. 
Patricio,  neque  et  subjectus  esse  voluit. 
Nolebat  enim  patronum  HiBERNiiE  de  alia 
gente  habere ;  Patricius  enim  de  gente  Bri- 
tonum  natus  est."  See  then  how  easy  the 
converting  the  name  Heber  into  Abaris  ! 

We  have  no  records  in  Irish  history  to 
determine  at  what  time  this  famous  embassy 
of  Abaris  occurred ;  and  the  Greeks  by  no 
means  agree  as  to  the  period.  Without 
entering  too  minutely  into  an  inquiry  so 
little  interesting,  we  may,  I  think,  safely 
affirm  that  it  must  have  been  at  a  very 
early  date.  Vossius,t  who  seemed  to  be- 
stow no  small  time  and  trouble  to  settle  this 
matter,  places  him  before  the  days  not  only 
of  Pythagoras  but  even  of  Solon.  "  Antiqui 
omnes  (says  he,)  de  Abari  a  loquuntior,  ut 
non  Pythagora  modo,  sed  Solon  etiam  an- 
tiquior."  If  this  be  admitted — and  indeed 
I  think  it  ought — ^we  may  be  better  enabled 
to  explain  Solon's  account  of  the  famous 
Atlantic  island ;  which  might  probably  be 
preserved  by  the  Athenians,  with  whom  it 
is  known  Abaris  long  resided,  and  that  in 
Egypt  this  legislator  might  have  continued 
his  inquiries  after  these  famous  islanders. 
But  after  all  that  has  been  said,  it  may  justly 
be  demanded,  if  the  ancient  Irish  were  these 
extraordinary  luminaries  so  celebrated  by 
antiquity,  but  particularly  by  the  early 
Greeks,  how  can  this  be  reconciled  to  the 
picture  given  of  them  by  their  successors  ? 
Strabo  tells  us  that  the  Irish  were  the 
most  abominable  and  detestable  of  people  ; 

*  Britan.  Eccles.  Antiq.  p.  801. 
t  De  Poet  Grsec.  cap.  3. 


that  they  devoured  human  flesh,  even  that 
of  their  parents,  committed  incest,  etc.* 
Among  the  Latins,  Mela  and  Solinus  are 
equally  severe  in  the  short  accounts  they 
have  left  of  this  people.  But  the  account 
they  give  of  the  country  itself  is  the  best 
defence  of  its  inhabitants ;  for  they  tell  us, 
it  is  cold,  bleak,  and  inhospitable,  scarce 
afibrding  trees  or  vegetation,  much  less 
milk  or  honey ! 

However  celebrated  the  Greeks  may 
have  been  at  a  remote  period  for  commerce 
and  navigation,  yet  it  is  certain  after  their 
conquest  by  the  Romans,  they  were  no 
longer  considered  in  that  light.  Indeed  the 
Carthaginians,  possessing  all  the  avidity  for 
commerce  and  gain  of  their  Phoenician  an- 
cestors, seemed  to  have  monopolized  the 
most  considerable  part  of  the  then  trade  of 
Europe,  as  indeed  they  did  of  the  rest  of 
the  world.  Nor  does  it  appear  that  the 
Romans  themselves,  after  the  destruction 
of  Carthage,  gave  much  attention  to  com- 
merce ;  nay,  so  little  did  they  know  even 
of  Britain,  notwithstanding  Caesar's  con- 
quest of  it,  and  the  different  Roman  generals 
who  afterwards  governed  there,  that  it  was 
not  till  the  reign  of  Domitian  that  they  ob- 
served it  to  be  an  island  !  So  little  informed 
of  a  country  in  their  possession  for  more 
than  a  century,  we  must  not  be  surprised 
if  subsequent  writers  grossly  misrepresented 
a  nation  the  avowed  enemies  of  Rome. 
Instructed  that  every  thing  should  submit 
to  Roman  power,  they  represented  what- 
ever opposed  this  darling  opinion  in  the 
most  unfavourable  light  If  the  ancient 
Irish  were  the  savage  nation  these  writers 
describe  them  to  be,  we  should  be  able  to 
trace  some  remains  of  it.  But  even  at  this 
day,  though  doubled  by  the  hard  hands  of 
oppression  and  tyranny^  the  very  common 
people  display  more  innate  virtue,  bravery, 
and  hospitality,  than  those  of  any  other 
nation  of  Europe ! 

But  we  shall  be  less  surprised  at  this  ac- 
count from  these  writers  when  we  reflect 
on  the  treatment  we  have  received  from 
British  writers,  even  in  this  enlightened  age. 
We  see  our  historians  have  affirmed  that 
*  Lib.  ii. 


38 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2706. 


the  Welch  are  the  descendants  of  our  Breo- 
tan,  as  the  people  of  Devon  and  Cornwall 
are  of  our  Tuatha  da  Danaans,  and  the 
Brigantes  from  Breogan  grand-father  to 
Milesius.  The  Venerable  Bede  extols  in 
the  highest  manner  the  learning,  sanctity, 
and  munificience  of  the  Irish  nation,  and 
acknowledges  that  by  them  the  Saxons 
were  converted  to  Christianity  and  in- 
structed in  letters.  Nor  is  Camden  less 
diffusive  in  his  acknowledgment  of  the 
bounty  and  humanity  of  our  ancestors  ;  yet 
this  Camden,  the  moment  he  enters  upon 
that  part  of  their  history  in  which  they 
oppose  English  tyranny  and  oppression,  de- 
clares them  a  cruel  and  barbarous  people, 
though  still  adhering  to  the  same  laws  and 
customs  which  made  them  so  conspicuous 
in  times  of  freedom  and  independence ! 
Nor  have  subsequent  British  writers  blush- 
ed at  pouring  out  the  most  illiberal  and  un- 
just abuses  on  our  country  and  her  gallant 
sons.  This  being  the  case  with  the  South 
Britons,  what  shall  I  say  of  their  northern 
neighbours?  This  people,  though  con- 
fessedly an  Irish  colony,  protected  and  sup- 
ported by  the  mother  country  in  times  of 
distress,  and  at  length,  through  her  means, 
arriving  at  the  supreme  command  of  that 
country — the  Irish  the  vernacular  tongue 
through  the  whole  state  two  or  three  cen- 
turies ago,  and  still  the  language  of  one 
half — vet  North  British  writers  have,  with- 
in  a  century  past,  been  even,  if  possible, 
more  scurrilous  and  severe  than  their  south- 
em  neighbours.  Thus  much  I  hope  will 
suffice  for  an  eternal  answer  to  all  the 
arguments  drawn  from  Strabo,  Mela,  and 
Solinus. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Mistakes  of  later  Irish  writers  with  respect  to  the 
voyages  of  their  ancestors — The  names  of  places 
and  passages  still  so  well  preserved  as  to  point  out 
the  exact  line — Their  landing  in  Cyprus — The 
fable  and  name  of  the  Syrens  explained — Settle- 
ment in  Getulia  before  the  days  of  Joshua — 
Called  a  Scythian  colony — Of  Carthage — Retire 
to  Galicia — Of  the  ancient  Brigantium,  and  the 
Spanish  histoiy  of  it. 


From  the  landing  of  the  Gadehan  colony 
in  Phoenicia,  the  seat  of  their  ancestors^  till 
the  final  quitting  it  by  their  successors, 
affording  us  no  opportunity  of  illustrating 
ancient  history  or  chronology,  we  shall  pass 
by,  but  shall  pay  a  proper  attention  to  their 
expeditions  from  thence  to  their  final  dere- 
liction of  Spain. 

Having  constantly  in  their  thoughts  the 
Scythian  origin  of  the  Irish  nation,  our 
senachies,  or  antiquarians,  have  fallen  into 
great  mistakes  in  their  manner  of  conduct- 
ing them  from  this  Scythia  to  Spain.  That 
the  descendants  of  Magog  by  degrees  ex- 
tended themselves  over  almost  illimitable 
tracts  of  ground  both  in  Europe  and  Asia 
cannot  be  doubted ;  but  at  the  very  early 
period  of  which  we  now  speak,  it  were 
absurd  to  suppose  them  numerous  enough 
for  such  extension.  Yet  our  later  writers, 
though  treating  of  times  so  remote,  kept 
still  before  their  eyes  the  interior  seats 
which  their  successors  many  centuries  after 
possessed,  and  thus,  by  false  reasoning  and 
false  geography,  brought  them  into  Europe 
by  ways  impassable :  to  prove  this,  I  only 
refer  to  Dr.  Keating,  who  has  taken  un- 
common pains  to  prove  the  practicability 
of  these  wonderful  travels. 

But  while  they  have  so  grossly  mistaken 
the  voyages  which  the  Gadelian  emigrants 
pursued,  it  is  very  singular  that  they  never 
once  attempted  to  alter  or  corrupt  the  names 
of  the  different  places,  which  the  earlier  and 
better  informed  writers  tell  us  our  ancestors 
landed  at  in  their  passage  to  Spain,  and  by 
this  means  have  enabled  us  with  precision 
AT  THIS  DAY  to  determine  them.  And  first, 
we  are  told  they  landed  in  the  island  of 
Cherena,  where  they  remained  a  year  and 
nine  months,  in  which  time  two  of  their 
chiefs  died.  Now  it  is  very  singular,  and 
proves  in  the  highest  degree  the  exactness 
of  these  very  early  relations,  to  find,  by 
Josephus,*  and  other  ancient  writers,  that 
the  old  name  of  Cyprus  was  Cherine,  and 
this  of  course  proves  that  their  passage  was 
through  the  Mediterranean.  Here  follow 
more  proofs.  After  quitting  Cherena,  and 
being  tossed  about  the  seas  for  a  consider- 

*  Lib.  i.  cap.  6. 


A.  M.  2706.] 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


39 


able  time,  they  prepared  oblations  to  Nep- 
tune, and  consulted  the  oracles  through 
their  chief-priest,  Caicer,  to  know  where 
they  should  direct  their  course  ;  and  he  di- 
rected them  to  the  most  western  part  of 
the  world.  Soon  after  this,  we  are  sur- 
prised with  the  relation  of  a  dangerous  pas- 
sage, occasioned  by  the  artful  notes  of  sy- 
rens and  sea-nymphs,  which,  by  lulling  the 
people  to  sleep,  endangered  the  safety  of 
the  whole  fleet,  and  to  prevent  the  effects 
of  which,  by  the  advice  of  Caicer,  their 
ears  were  stuflfed  close  with  wax.  This 
clearly  alludes  to  their  sailing  by  Sicily, 
a  passage,  by  the  consent  of  all  the  an- 
cients, deemed  highly  dangerous.  Some 
have  endeavoured  to  account  for  the  origin 
of  the  fable  of  the  syrens  from  the  number 
of  caverns  on  the  adjacent  shores,  and  the 
different  vibrations  and  passages  of  the 
winds  producing  a  strange  kind  of  melody, 
not  unlike  the  iEolian  harp.  It  is  agreed 
that  the  fable  of  the  syrens  is  Phcenician 
as  well  as  the  name.  Should  we  derive 
this  last  from  the  Irish,  sigh,  a  fairy,  abh- 
ran,  (aran,)  a  song,  it  will  support  the  as- 
sertion ;  and  should  we  advance  that  this 
relation  gave  rise  to  the  fable,  I  persuade 
myself  it  may  be  well  defended.  Not 
only  Scylla  and  Charybdis,  but  the  Syrtes 
on  the  African  coast  were  very  formidable 
to  the  ancients.  The  stopping  the  people's 
ears  with  wax,  for  fear  of  their  being  lulled 
to  sleep  by  the  voice  of  these  syrens,  was 
an  excellent  expedient  to  prevent  any  part 
of  the  crews  of  the  different  ships  from 
sleeping  till  they  cleared  these  dangerous 
coasts.  This  was  a  politic  and  simple  ex- 
pedient :  soon  after  which  we  read  of  their 
safe  arrival  in  Getulia. 

From  what  has  been  delivered  in  the 
two  preceding  chapters,  it  has,  I  think,  been 
clearly  proved  that  the  verj^  early  Greeks 
were  well  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
these  voyages  and  conquests  of  our  ances- 
tors, though  we  see,  according  to  their  man- 
ner, immersed  in  fable  and  invention.  We 
may  from  thence  presume  that  they  fur- 
nished Homer  with  the  ground- work  of  his 
Odyssey,  as  well  as  Orpheus  with  that  of 
the  Argonauts ;  since  both  of  them  send 


their  heroes  towards  Ireland,  a  country 
seemingly  very  remote  from  the  scenes  of 
their  heroes.  Jason,  (this  last  tells  us,)  with 
his  followers,  sailed  by  it  ;  and  Homer, 
after  a  passage  of  ten  days,  reposes  his 
hero  in  it,  with  Calypso.  The  relation  of 
Ulysses's  passing  by  Sicily  is  highly  im- 
proved from  the  original,  and  most  poet- 
ically embellished  by  the  bard.  Upon  the 
whole,  it  appears  to  me  that  this  relation 
of  our  ancestors  is  a  most  valuable  piece 
of  antiquity,  not  only  with  respect  to  Irish 
history,  but  with  regard  to  the  wonderful 
light  it  throws  on  the  remote  histories  of 
other  nations,  infinitely  more  so. 

The  country  in  which  these  emigrants 
arrived  after  the  above  passage,  though 
supposed  by  our  antiquarians  to  be  (Goth- 
land, yet  we  find  it  in  all  the  old  MSS. 
spelled  Gaothluighe  Mheadhonacha.  This 
Gaothluighe  by  no  means,  as  the  learned 
O'Flaherty  observes,  corresponds  in  sound 
with  Gothia.  It  is  evident,  then,  it  must  be 
the  Getulia  bordering  on  Carthage,  whose 
inhabitants  in  the  days  of  Dido,  Virgil  thus 
describes : — 

Hinc  Getulae  gentes  genus  insuperabile  Bello. 

The  learned  Heylin  is  positive  (and  he  pro- 
duces his  authorities)  that  Carthage  was  a 
flourishing  Phoenician  colony  long  before 
the  sacking  of  Troy;*  but  what  is  still 
more  to  our  purpose,  we  are  told  that  No- 
nus,  a  Greek  poet,  (from  authorities  which 
have  been  long  since  lost,)  asserts  that  Cad- 
mus made  a  successful  expedition  into  this 
part  of  Africa  ;t  and  this,  by  the  bye,  is  a 
further  proof  from  the  early  Greeks  of  our 
history.  It  is  agreed  upon  by  all  writers 
that,  in  the  days  of  Joshua,  numbers  of 
Canaanites  fled  from  his  sword  to  Africa ; 
however,  if  credit  is  to  be  given  to  our  his- 
tories— and  I  think  none  deserve  more — it 
is  evident  that  it  was  peopled  by  our  ad- 
venturers at  a  much  earlier  period  than  the 
days  of  Joshua.  Numidia  Proper  is  called 
by  many  ancient  writers  Terra  Metagoni- 
tis.  May  we  not  then  presume  that  the 
Getulia  of  our  ancestors  was  called  in  these 

*  Cosmograph.  lib.  iv.  p.  879. 

t  Universal  Hist.  vol.  xvi.  p.  558,  octavo. 


,.,-;4>'-.., 


40 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.M.  2706. 


early  days  Getulia  Metagonitis  ?  We  have 
seen  how  exactly  our  Cherena  and  the 
Cherine,  or  Cyprus,  of  Josephus  agree,  as 
well  as  our  name  of  Letania,  in  the  days 
of  St.  Patrick,  with  the  ancient  one  of 
Brittany.  By  admitting  this  as  the  ancient 
name  of  the  territory  in  question,  it  will 
prove  still  fuller  the  accuracy  of  our  early 
geographers.  Had  we  not  the  collateral 
evidences  of  Josephus,*  and  of  D'Argen- 
tre,f  with  regard  to  the  ancient  names  of 
Cyprus  and  Brittany,  it  would  not  make  the 
relations  of  our  early  writers  less  true  in 
themselves,  however  doubted  by  the  critic, 
and  the  reflection  that  Numidia  Proper  was 
also  called  Terra  Metagonitis  is  a  sanction 
to  the  Gaothluighe  Mheadhonachuagh  of 
our  ancestors  being  by  ancient  geographers 
called  Getulia  Metagonitis. 

It  being  the  voice  of  antiquity  that  both 
Carthage  and  Numidia  were  very  early  in- 
habited by  Phoenician  colonies,  and  no  two 
writers  agreeing  in  the  time  of  these  set- 
tlements— the  records  of  these  flourishing 
states  being  long  since  destroyed  by  the 
Romans — "  whose,  virtue,  generosity  of 
soul,  and  love  of  truth,  thought  proper  to 
deny  to  posterity  such  information," — as 
the  writers  of  the  Universal  History  re- 
mark,J  should  we  not  gladly  embrace  any 
reasonable  account  that  might  help  to  set 
us  right  in  these  inquiries?  Such  is  the 
one  before  us,  of  a  PhoBnician  colony  ar- 
riving in  Africa  about  A.  M.  2279,  forming 
a  regular  settlement,  and  there  residing  for 
nearly  three  hundred  years ;  and  the  wri- 
ters of  the  Universal  History  think  it  prob- 
able that  long  before  the  days  of  Joshua, 
Phoenicians  settled  in  Africa!  The  Car- 
thaginian colony  have  been  by  ancient 
writers  called  Sidonians ;  and  we  now  see 
with  what  justice,  since  they  must  have 
settled  there  long  before  the  building  of 
Tyre.  Pliny  and  Mela  tell  us  that  Cirta, 
the  capital  of  the  Terra  Metagonitis,  or 
Numidia  Proper,  was  also  called  Sittian- 
orum  Colonia ;  but  this  name  is  explained 
by  supposing  it  so  called  from  a  colony 

*  Lib.  i.  cap.  6. 

i  Histoire  de  Bretagne. 

t  Vol.  xvii.  p.  12,  octavo. 


settled  there  by  P.  Sittius.*  The  candid 
reader,  will,  however,  naturally  suppose 
that  the  GadeUan  emigrants  must  have 
greatly  increased  in  two  hundred  and 
eighty  years,  and,  being  a  commercial,  as 
well  as  a  warlike  people,  that  they  might 
have  planted  colonies,  hence  Sittianorum, 
or  rather  Scytianorum  Colonia ;  for  had  it 
been  so  called  from  this  P.  Sittius,  it  would 
be  more  properly  named  Sittii  Colonia,  not 
Sittianorum.  The  names  of  places  an- 
swering exactly  to  the  ancient  Irish  lan- 
guage strengthen  these  conjectures.  Cirta, 
the  capital  of  Numidia,  was  so  called  as 
being  the  chief  city ;  cathair  is  Irish  for  a 
city.  From  this  Cirta  we  learn  that  Car- 
thage took  its  name,  as  it  was  a  younger 
city ;  the  adjunct  oghe  is  Irish  for  a  maid 
or  virgin.  The  plain  surrounding  Car- 
thage was  called  Magaria ;  mugh  is  Irish 
for  a  plain,  and  arbhar  (arar)  com.  So 
that  from  this,  we  should  conclude  that 
Magaria  was  not  a  part  of  the  city,  but  a 
territory  annexed  to  it  for  the  supply  of 
the  citizens,  so  as  not  to  lie  exposed  to  the 
caprice  of  the  native  Africans.  The  cita- 
del built  by  Dido  was  called  Byrsa ;  bir  is 
Irish  for  water,  hence  Birra,  in  King's 
County,  was  so  called  on  account  of  the 
number  of  springs  about  it.  So  that  we 
reasonably  suppose  that  this  fortress  was 
surrounded  by  water,  and  which,  we  shall 
see  was  the  first  security  given  to  such 
places  in  Ireland.  Byrsa,  then,  may  be 
rendered  from  the  Irish  language,  shielded 
BY  WATER,  from  bir,  water,  and  seigh,  a 
shield.  In  fine,  the  harbour  of  Carthage 
was  called  Cohon,  and  cuan  is  Irish  for 
harbour.  And  here  let  me  once  for  all  re- 
mark, that  etymologies  in  general  should 
be  very  cautiously  admitted,  as  in  them- 
selves of  no  great  force  in  forming  induc- 
tions from  ancient  history;  nor  should  I 
produce  them  so  often  on  this  and  other 
occasions,  but  that  I  am  first  warranted  hy 
the  evidence  of  history. 

After  remaining  in  Getulia  for  eight 
generations,  the  Gadelian  colonists  were 
led  forth  to  make  new  settlements  under 
the  conduct  of  Bratha,  and,  after  a  long 

*  Univ.  Hist.  vol.  xvii.  p.  543,  octavo. 


A.  M.  2706,] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 


41 


coasting  voyage,  they  at  length  cast  anchor 
in  the  Bay  of  Corunna,  in  GaUcia,  where 
they  made  an  immediate  lodgment,  and 
soon  after  a  regular  settlement.  The  capi- 
tal, which,  after  Breogan,  the  son  of  Bra- 
tha,  they  called  Cathair  Breoguin,  we  see 
the  Romans  afterwards  denominated  Bri- 
gantium.  From  this  Roman  name  some 
have  imagined  Brigantium  a  Roman  col- 
ony ;  but  we  here  see  it  was  founded  long 
before  Rome  had  an  existence.  Breogan 
himself  built  a  pharos,  which  after  him  was 
called  Tor  Breogan,  or  Breogan's  Tower; 
and  besides  a  direction  to  shipping  it  served 
as  an  observatory,  in  which  both  reflect- 
ing and  refracting  glasses  were  deposited. 
To  suppose  the  ancients  ignorant  of  the 
use  of  such  glasses,  would  be  to  give  the 
lie  to  all  antiquity;*  our  ancestors,  as  a 
maritime  people,  must  have  been  particu- 
larly attached  to  the  study  of  astronomy. 
Hecateus  confessed  that  by  means  of  glas- 
ses, they  could  bring  the  moon  seemingly 
very  near  them.  Our  own  writers  have 
asserted  that  by  their  use  they  first  dis- 
covered the  Irish  coasts  —  some  indeed 
have  said  from  this  famous  pharos — but 
that  must  be  understood  as  the  descrying 
ships  at  a  great  distance  in  sailing  from 
thence. 

But  that  this  relation  upon  the  whole 
must  have  had  a  foundation  in  truth,  I 
collect  from  the  following.  Ludovicus 
Nonius  tells  us,  "that  the  Flavium  Brigan- 
tium of  the  ancients  is  the  modem  Corunna ; 
and  that  the  natives  affirm  Hercules  to  be 
the  founder  of  it,  as  well  as  of  the  tower, 
on  the  top  of  which,  by  wonderful  art,  a 
reflecting  glass  was  placed,  by  which  ves- 
sels at  sea  and  at  a  great  distance  might 

*  Origin  of  Discoveries  attribated  to  the  Modems. 

6 


be  easily  seen."*  It  is  true  he  ridicules 
the  story,  affirming  that  ignorance  of  lan- 
guage gave  rise  to  the  mistake,  and  that 
invention  supplied  the  rest;  specula  (says 
he)  which  is  Latin  for  a  tower,  they  rend- 
ered into  speculum — ^^Nam  cum  Turris  ilia 
Specula  dicatur.  Speculum  illud,  miran- 
dum  sine  opifice  uUo  confinxere."  But  I 
think  the  explication  will  not  make  in  favour 
of  Nonius  ;  since  those  who  had  Latin 
enough  to  know  that  speculum  signified  a 
reflecting  mirror,  could  not  mistake  specula 
for  any  thing  else  than  a  tower ;  besides, 
here  is  Irish  history  to  confirm  both  the 
history  and  tradition  of  the  country.  Such 
relations  as  this  are  far  firom  being  rare  in 
ancient  history.  We  are  told  that,  by 
means  of  a  mirror  placed  on  the  Colossus 
at  Rhodes,  ships  going  to  Syria  and  Egypt 
could  be  easily  descried.  Who  has  not 
heard  of  Archimedes's  burning-glasses,  by 
which  he  set  fire  to  the  Roman  fleet?  or 
of  another  recorded  by  Leo,t  erected  on 
a  round  tower  at  Alexandria  by  one  of  the 
Ptolemies,  which,  upon  being  uncovered 
before  the  sun,  could  burn  ships  at  a  dis- 
tance. So  that  we  may  affirm  that  our 
senachies  were  well  authorized  to  declare 
that  glasses  were  used  in  the  Tor  Breogan, 
and  that  Ireland  was  first  seen  by  some  of 
them,  brought  for  that  purpose  by  Ith,  in 
his  voyage  thither.  And  to  justify  the  arts 
and  sciences  they  brought  with  them  here, 
we  have  only  to  remind  our  reader  that 
Milesius,  in  his  expedition  to  Phoenicia  and 
Egypt,  had  in  his  retinue  twelve  youths  of 
the  greatest  abilities,  to  be  instructed  in 
the  arts,  learning,  and  manufactures  of 
PhcEnicia  and  Egypt. 

*  In  Hispan.  p.  196. 
t  Descrip.  Afric.  p.  356. 


I 


BOOK    III. 


CHAPTER   [. 

Ith  lands  in  Ireland  to  explore  the  country — Is  ap- 
pointed umpire  between  its  princes,  and  is  highly 
caressed — Suspected  for  a  spy — Is  attacked  and 
mortally  wounded,  and  most  of  his  party  cut  off 
—The  remainder  return  to  Spain. 

We  observed  in  chapter  the  third  of  the 
last  book  that  in  a  solemn  council  held  in 
the  Tor  Breogan,  by  the  sons  of  Milesius, 
it  was  unanimously  resolved  by  them  to 
invade  Ireland  with  all  their  power,  and 
to  subdue  the  country;  and  that  Ith  was 
first  to  proceed  on  discoveries,  and  to 
make  remarks  on  the  strength  of  the  na- 
tives, their  different  positions,  and  the  best 
place  for  landing  troops.  Accordingly, 
early  in  the  next  year,  in  a  stout  large  ship, 
well  equipped  for  such  an  expedition,  with 
one  hundred  and  fifty  select  men  com- 
manded by  his  son  Luaghaidh,  besides  the 
crew  to  work  her,  he  set  sail  from  Brigan- 
tium  or  Corunna,  with  a  fair  wind  for  Ire- 
land, and,  after  coasting  the  country,  he  at 
length  landed  at  a  place  called  Daire-Cal- 
gach,  (the  present  Derry,)  in  the  north. 
My  reason  for  determining  this  the  place 
of  landmg  is,  because  the  people  on  inquiry, 
told  me  that  the  Danaan  princes,  who  then 
ruled  Ireland,  were  at  Oileach  Neid,  not 
far  distant.  Now  this  was  a  very  ancient 
palace  of  the  kings  of  Ulster,  in  the  penin- 
sula of  Inis-oen,  probably  the  Tor  Conn- 
ing of  the  Africans,  and  not  fax  from 
Derry.  After  landing  his  troops,  he  imme- 
diately sacrificed  to  Neptune,  the  favourite 
marine  god  of  his  people.  For,  as  we 
before  observed,  the  very  name  is  Irish, 
from  naoph,  or  naomh^  sacred,  and  ton,  a 
wave.  The  omens  were  not  propitious, 
but  he  was  not  to  be  discouraged.  Num- 
bers of  the  inhabitants  went  out  on   his 


landing  to  know  who  this  adventurer  was, 
and  what  his  business.  He  immediately 
answered  them  in  the  Irish  language,  that 
he  and  they  were  from  one  common  stock, 
being  both  the  descendants  of  Magog;  that 
distress  of  weather  and  want  of  provisions 
threw  him  on  their  coast ;  and  that  the 
laws  of  afiinity  as  well  as  of  hospitality 
pleaded  in  his  cause  and  that  of  his  fol- 
lowers. 

Here  we  see  to  demonstration  the  Mile- 
sian adventurers  well  acquainted  with  the 
country,  its  inhabitants,  and  their  ancestry; 
and  probably  corresponded  privately  with 
the  oppressed  Belgae,  who  certainly  assist- 
ed them  afterwards.  We  also  find  them 
speaking  the  same  language  ;  nor  is  there 
in  history  a  fact  better  ascertained  than 
this,  notwithstanding  the  flippant  assertions 
of  some  modems,  who  will,  on  their  bare 
authorities,  have  it,  that  all  the  colonies, 
previous  to  the  Milesian  expedition,  came 
from  Brit£iin. 

Ith  and  his  attendants  were  invited  into 
the  country ;  and  in  this  excursion  he  took 
care  to  inform  himself  very  minutely  of 
every  thing  necessary  for  him  to  know. 
Being  told  that  the  three  sons  of  Cearmada 
Moir-bheoil,  who  then  jointly  ruled  Ireland, 
were  at  Oileach-Neid  in  order  to  agree 
about  an  equal  partition  of  the  crown  jew- 
els, he  resolved  to  pay  his  respects  to  these 
princes.  To  this  purpose  he  waited  on 
them  at  the  head  of  one  hundred  of  his 
men  ;  and  conducted  himself  before  them 
with  such  discretion  and  wisdom  that  they 
agreed  to  make  him  umpire  between  them 
— for  it  was  apprehended  that  this  dispute 
would  end  in  a  civil  war.  In  the  distribu- 
tion of  these  jewels  he  displayed  such  re- 


A.M.  2735.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


43 


gard  to  justice  and  impartiality,  that  the 
brothers  became  quite  reconciled  to  each 
other  and  highly  pleased  with  him.  Upon 
taking  his  leave  he  strongly  recommended 
a  lasting  love  and  union  among  them,  ex- 
tolling to  the  skies  the  beauty,  and  fertility, 
and  temperature  of  the  clime,  he  wondered 
how  princes  blessed  with  the  rule  of  such 
a  country  could  harbour  any  thing  in  their 
breasts  but  joy  and  festivity. 

After  his  departure  they  began  to  reflect 
on  the  high  encomiums  he  bestowed  on  the 
country.     They  were  no  doubt  sufficiently 
informed  by  him  of  the  situation  of  his  own 
people  in  Spain ;  and  from  these  and  other 
suspicious    circumstances  —  probably   his 
tampering  with  the  Belgae — ^they  became 
convinced  that  his  landing  in  Ireland,  and 
exploring  the  country  so  closely,  and  with 
such  a  large  body  of  men,  must  proceed 
from  very  different  motives  to  those  he  as- 
signed, in  short,  that  he  came  as  a  spy ; 
and  that  if  he  returned,  he  would  make 
such  a  report  as  would  induce  his  friends 
on  the   continent  to  invade  the  country. 
They  therefore  judged  their  security  de- 
pended on  cutting  him  off  with  his  whole 
party,  before  they  reached  their  ship.    This 
resolution  was  no  sooner  taken  than  put  in 
execution.     Mac  Cuill,  or  Eathoir,  was 
immediately  despatched  with  one  hundred 
and  fifty  chosen  men  to  cut  off  his  retreat. 
Better  acquainted  with  the  country,  he  soon 
overtook  Ith  and  his  party,  and  directly 
commenced  the  attack.    But  Ith  judging, 
that  if  he  formed  for  a  regular  engage- 
ment, his  whole  party  would  be  cut  off  by 
fresh  troops  pouring  in,  made  dispositions 
for  a  retreat,  which  he  continued  as  well 
as  he  could  till  he   came  near  his  ship. 
Here  he  made  a  desperate  attack  upon  the 
enemy;    but  nothwithstanding  his  intre- 
pidity, and  that  of  his  followers,  after  the 
loss  of  the  flower  of  his  troops,  and  himself 
mortally  wounded,  with  great  difliculty  the 
remains  of  his  shattered  troops  retreated 
to  their  ship,  carrying  their  general  with 
them.     The  plain  where  this  battle  was 
fought  was  from  him  called  Mugha  Ith,  or 
the  Defeat  of  Ith. 

Under  the  command  of  his  son  Lughaidh, 


they  proceeded  for  Spain,  and  in  theic 
passage  several  of  the  wounded  died,  as 
did  Ith  himself,  but  his  body  was  preserved 
till  they  landed  at  Brigantium.  Here  it 
was  carried  on  shore  in  great  funeral 
pomp,  and  exposed  to  the  view  of  his 
friends  and  kinsmen,  the  better  to  excite 
their  pity  and  resentment.  Lughaidh  then 
gave  an  ample  detail  of  the  country  he  left, 
and  the  different  inhabitants  of  it,  assuring 
them  of  the  certain  success  that  must  at- 
tend on  their  arms  in  this  expedition,  from 
their  own  known  bravery,  and  from  the 
supports  they  would  find  there.  There 
needed  not  further  inducements  to  a  people 
already  determined  on  invading  Ireland; 
but  they  solemnly  vowed  to  sacrifice  the 
three  sons  of  Cearmada  to  the  manes  of  the- 
renowned  hero  Ith. 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  Milesians  prepare  to  invade  Ireland — Namesr 
of  the  principal  leaders  in  this  expedition — Land 
in  Kerry — Consent  to  re-embark  and  put  to  sea — 
The  loss  they  sustained  in  re-landing — Attacked 
by  the  Danaans  in  their  intrenchments,  and  re- 
pulse them — Advance  into  Meath,  and  engage 
the  whole  Danaan  army,  which  they  defeat 
with  great  slaughter,  and  possess  themselves  of 
the  country. 

The  sons  of  Milesius  stimulated  by  glory, 
by  revenge,  and  by  conquest,  were  inde- 
fatigable in  their  preparations  for  the  Irish 
expedition.  Every  thing  being  now  in 
readiness,  with  a  large  and  well-appointed 
fleet,  consisting,  says  the  Book  of  Inva- 
sions,* of  seventy-five  ships,  transports  in- 
cluded, with  a  large  body  of  select  troops 
on  board,  under  the  command  of  forty  cap- 
tains of  approved  intrepidity,  they  set  sail 
from  Brigantium.  The  Book  of  Munster 
does  not  specify  the  number  of  ships  em- 
ployed on  this  occasion,!  content  to  observe 
it  was  a  large  fleet.  Bruodin  makes  the 
number  of  ships  to  be  sixty-eight,J  Mac 
Geoghegan  sixty,||  and  the  Leabhar  Lecan. 
(fol.  28)  one  hundred  and  fifty !     From  the 

*  Gabliail  Clana  Mile.        t  Psailter  CashioL 
t  Propngnact,  lib.  v.  cap.  9. 
Il  Histoire  d'Irlande,  p.  68. 


44 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2735. 


whole  we  may  conclude  it  a  respectable 
fleet  at  any  time,  but  a  very  great  one  at 
such  a  period  as  the  present  The  names 
of  these  different  leaders  have  been  care- 
fully preserved  in  our  annals,  and  we  shall 
mention  them,  as  many  considerable  places 
in  the  kingdom  yet  commemorate  them. 
These  were  the  sons  of  Milesius :  Donn 
and  Aireach,  born  in  Phoenicia ;  Heber- 
fionn  and  Amhergin,  bom  in  Egypt ;  and 
Ir,  Colpa,  Aranann,  and  Heremon,  bom  in 
Spain.  The  sons  of  Breogan,  grandfather 
to  these  princes,  who  attended  this  expedi- 
tion, were  Breagha,  who  gave  the  name  of 
Magh-Breagha  to  his  settlement  in  Meath ; 
Cuala,  from  whom  Sliabh  Cuala ;  Cualgne 
gave  name  to  Sliabh  Cualgne,  in  the  county 
of  Down ;  from  Bladh  was  Sliabh  Blama, 
in  Leinster,  called;  from  Fuadh,  Sliabh 
Fuadh ;  Muirtheimhne  gave  name  to  that 
plain  so  famous  for  the  defeat  and  death 
of  the  renowned  Cucullain,  in  the  county 
of  Down ;  Nare  to  Ros  Nare ;  Eibhle  to 
Sliabh  Eibhle,  in  Munster ;  Lughaidh,  grand- 
son to  Breogan,  to  Correa-Luidhe,  in  the 
county  of  Cork.  The  four  sons  of  Heber 
were  Er,  Dorba,  Fearon,  and  Feargna ;  and 
the  four  sons  of  Heremon  were  Muimhne, 
Luighne,  Laighne,  and  Palp.  The  other 
ctommanders  were  Buas,  Breas,  Buaighne, 
Fulman,  Mantan,  Caicer,  Suirge,  En,  Un, 
Eatan,  Sobhairce,  Seadna,  Goistean,  Bille, 
Lui.  Besides  these  were  many  ladies  of 
the  first  quality,  among  others  Scota,  the 
widow  of  Milesius ;  and  many  noble  Span- 
iards who  went  as  volunteers  on  this  oc- 
casion. 

The  first  land  they  made  was  Kerry; 
and  here  it  was  agreed,  in  council,  that  the 
troops  under  the  command  of  Heber  should 
land,  while  those  under  his  brother  Here- 
mon should  sail  to  and  disembark  on  the 
Leinster  coasts,  the  more  to  distract  and 
divide  the  enemy.  Their  landing  was  ef- 
fected at  Inbher  Sceine,  now  the  Bay  of 
Bantry,  and  which  was  so  called  from 
Sceine,  the  wife  of  Amhergin,  who  was 
here  drowned.  From  thence  they  marched 
to  Sliabh-mis,  where  they  encamped.  Here, 
on  consultation,  they  agreed  to  send  am- 
bassadors to  the  ruling  princes  of  Ireland, 


requiring  their  speedy  submission,  other- 
wise denouncing  against  them  war  with  all 
its  horrors ;  and,  as  on  such  occasions  per- 
sons of  the  first  quality  were  always  chosen, 
Amhergin,  the  chief-priest,  was  by  his  bro- 
thers appointed  for  this  embassy. 

Attended  by  some  noblemen  of  the  first 
quality,  Amhergin  announced  the  business 
of  this  embassy  to  the  sons  of  Cearmada. 
These  princes,  after  consultation,  returned 
for  answer,  that  they  had  no  previous 
knowledge  of  this  hostile  attempt,  and  of 
course  were  not  prepared  for  it;  that  it 
was  contrary  to  the  rules  of  war  to  take 
them  thus  by  surprise ;  but  if  they  would 
give  them  proper  time  to  collect  their 
troops,  they  would  then  put  the  fate  of  the 
kingdom  to  the  issue  of  a  battle.  After 
much  altercation  the  following  terms  were 
agreed  to :  namely,  that  Amhergin  and  his 
attendants  were  speedily  to  return;  that 
their  whole  forces  were  to  re-embark,  and 
their  ships  to  weigh  anchor,  and  clear  the 
coasts.  After  which,  if  they  made  good 
their  second  landing,  the  Damnonii  would 
deem  it  an  equitable  invasion,  and  either 
submit  or  oppose  them  as  they  found  most 
convenient. 

I  shall  make  no  comments  on  this  extra- 
ordinary agreement,  but  observe  to  my 
readers  that  it  was  faithfully  adhered  to  by 
the  Milesian  chiefs.  They  conveyed  all 
their  troops  and  provisions  on  board,  and 
put  to  sea  with  their  whole  fleet  When 
they  had  all  cleared  the  land,  and  were 
fairly  in  the  main  ocean,  they  then  tacked 
about  to  reach  the  coasts  they  had  left; 
but  at  this  very  critical  time,  a  violent 
storm  of  wind  at  west  arose,  owing,  say 
our  annals,  to  the  magical  powers  of  the 
Damnonii.  But  let  that  pass  as  one  of  the 
many  instances  of  pitiable  credulity  in  our 
annalists,  though,  at  the  same  time,  of  their 
great  dread  to  alter  the  least  iota  in  the 
national  records ;  since  nothing  can  be  more 
absurd  than  recurring  to  pretematural 
causes  in  accounting  for  facts  which  we 
know  may  happen,  and  often  do  happen, 
as  the  westerly  is  a  kind  of  trade-wind  on 
our  coasts.  The  wind  increasing,  and  the 
want  of  sufficient  sea-room  were  the  sources 


A.  M.  2736.] 


HISTORY  OF*  IRELAND. 


45 


of  dreadful  calamities.  The  galley  com- 
manded by  Domi  ran  into  the  Shannon, 
and  was  dashed  to  pieces  beyond  the 
Caahell,  at  a  place  which  at  this  day  yet 
retains  his  name,  and  every  soul  on  board 
perished !  Besides  this  chief,  we  are  par- 
ticularly told  that  twenty-four  common  sol- 
diers, twelve  women,  four  galley-slaves, 
fifty  select  warriors,  and  five  captains,  be- 
ing all  on  board,  shared  his  fate !  The 
galley  commanded  by  Er  met  the  same 
fate  on  the  Desmond  coast.  The  remain- 
der of  this  fleet,  though  much  damaged, 
stood  off  to  sea  till  the  storm  abated,  and 
then  relanded  at  Inbher  Sceine ;  but  Arra- 
nan,  a  most  experienced  seamem,  in  the 
height  of  their  distress,  mounting  the  mast 
to  secure  some  sails,  which  none  other  had 
the  hardiness  to  attempt,  was,  by  the  vio- 
lence of  the  wind,  dashed  down  on  the 
deck,  where  he  died.  The  place  of  his  in- 
terment yet  goes  by  the  name  of  Cnoc  Ar- 
ranan,  though  vulgarly  called  Cnoc  Arrar, 
bordering  on  the  Shannon,  in  Kerry.  The 
squadron  commanded  by  Heremon  felt  part 
of  this  storm,  though  most  of  them  landed 
safely  at  Inbher  Colpa,  or  Drogheda,  so 
called  from  Colpa  who  perished  here,  as 
did  likewise  Aireach.  Thus,  by  this  high 
point  of  honour,  of  the  eight  sons  of  Mile- 
sius  five  perished  in  this  storm,  besides 
many  ladies  and  captains  of  special  note, 
and  numbers  of  soldiers. 

The  second  landing  was  effected  on  the 
17th  day  of  the  mcmth  Bel,  or  May,  and  in 
the  year  of  the  world,  according  to  the 
Hebrew  computation,  2736.  The  troops 
of  Heber  immediately  took  possession  of 
their  former  camp  at  Sliabh-mis :  nor  were 
the  Damnonii  in  the  meantime  idle,  since 
we  find  they  collected  so  considerable  a 
force  as  to  attack  his  entrenchments  the 
third  day  after  his  landing.  The  attack 
was  long  and  bloody ;  but  the  Danaans  at 
length  gave  way  to  superior  courage,  hav- 
ing one  thousand  of  their  best  troops  killed 
in  the  trenches.  The  loss  of  the  Milesians 
was  also  considerable ;  three  hundred  brave 
fellows  fell  by  the  sword  of  the  enemy, 
with  two  Druids,  who  animated  them  by 
their  prayers ;  and  two  ladies,  Scota,  widow 


of  Milesius,  and  Fais,  wife  to  Un.  The 
next  day  the  remains  of  these  Amazons 
were  interred  vnth  great  funeral  pomp. 
Scota  was  buried  in  a  vale,  to  this  day 
fi-om  her  called  Glean-Scota,  near  Tralee, 
where  a  royal  mtHiument  was  erected  to 
her  memory.  The  beauty  of  this  place 
has  been  celebrated  by  antiquity ;  but  at 
present  it  appears  a  dreary  uncultivated 
waste,  the  fatal  consequences  of  depopula- 
tion and  neglect  of  tillage !  Fais  was 
buried  in  another  valley  near  Sliabh-mis, 
which  yet  retains  the  name  of  Glean-Fais. 
Encouraged  by  this  first  defeat  of  the 
enemy,  the  Milesians,  in  good  order,  pro- 
ceeded towards  Inbher-Colpa,  or  Drogheda, 
to  join  their  associates  commanded  by  He- 
remon ;  and  we  cannot  doubt  but  that  in 
their  route  they  were  joined  by  many  male- 
contents,  but  particularly  by  the  Belgae. 
This  junction  was  happily  effected,  £uid 
now  united,  they  sent  a^econd  summons  to 
the  sons  of  Cearmada  to  surrender  the 
kingdom,  or  to  appoint  a  day  to  put  its  fate 
to  the  issue  of  the  sword.  These  princes 
returned  a  resolute  answer,  that  they  would 
die  as  they  had  lived,  mcmarchs  of  Ireland, 
and  that  they  would  meet  them  on  the 
plains  of  Tailten,  in  Meath,  where  the 
longest  sword  and  strongest  arm  should 
determine  the  contest.  At  the  time  agreed 
on  the  two  armies  met,  resolved  on 
victory  or  death.  Their  numbers  were 
nearly  equal,  as  were  the  commanders : 
the  three  sons  of  Milesius,  to  wit — Heber, 
Heremon,  and  Amhergin,  headed  the  in- 
vaders, while  the  Damnonii  were  lead  on 
by  the  three  sons  of  Ceannada.  The  fight 
soon  began,  and  continued  with  astonishing 
obstinacy  from  sunrise  even  to  sunset,  as 
the  Book  of  Invasions  notes.  The  op- 
posing princes  eagerly  sought  for  each 
other  through  numbers  of  wounded  and 
dying  enemies.  At  length  they  met.  The 
fate  of  Ireland  now,  like  that  of  Rome  in 
the  days  of  the  Horatii,  hung  on  the  swords 
of  these  contending  brothers  !  At  length 
Mac  Cuill  fell  by  the  hand  of  Heber-fionn, 
Mac  Ceacht  was  slain  by  Heremon,  and 
Mac  Greine  by  Amhergin.  The  Danaans, 
deprived  of  their   chiefs,  gave   way  on 


46 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2736. 


every  side ;  but  this  had  more  the  air  of  a 
regular  retreat  than  a  precipitate  flight. 
The  victors  wisely  considering  that  if  the 
enemy  now  escaped,  it  would  be  the  source 
of  fresh  devastations,  closely,  but  in  good 
order,  pursued  them.  The  Danaans  made 
a  gallant  effort  at  Sliabh-Cualgne,  so  called 
from  Cualgne,  the  son  of  Breogan,  who  fell 
in  this  battle ;  a  second  stand  they  made  at 
Sliabh-Fuadh,  so  named  from  Fuadh,  bro- 
ther to  Cualgne,  who  here  was  slain.  But 
more  enraged  than  intimidated  at  these 
checks,  the  Milesians  continued  the  pur- 
suit, putting  to  the  sword  all  the  enemy 
they  met,  and  so  effectually  broke  them, 
that  they  were  never  after  able  to  make  the 
least  disturbance  in  the  kingdom ;  and  such 
as  did  not  passively  submit  to  the  new  gov- 
ernment retired  to  Britain,  possessing  them- 
selves of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  and 
carrying  with  them  their  name  and  tongue. 
Thus  after  ruling  Ireland  for  one  hundred 
and  ninety-five  years,  under  nine  princes, 
were  the  Danaans  completely  conquered. 
From  their  history  it  is  evident  that  they 
were  a  very  learned  as  well  as  a  warlike 
people. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  policy,  and  humanity  with  which  the  Mile- 
sians treated  their  new  subjects,  contrasted  with 
the  opposite  conduct  pursued  since  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  the  effects  of  both — Partition  of  Ireland 
by  the  conquerors,  and  their  attention  to  its 
improvement — Heber  and  Heremon  engage  in 
battle,  in  which  Heber  is  slain. 

The  victorious  Milesians  by  this  last 
battle  acquired  the  sovereignty  of  the  whole 
island,  and  their  mode  of  legislation  proved 
them  worthy  of  it.  To  contrast  their  con- 
duct on  that  occasion,  with  that  pursued 
by  the  later  Irish,  since  the  Revolution, 
must  be  to  pay  the  highest  compliment  to 
their  justice  and  sound  policy,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  modem  times.  We  hinted  in  the 
last  chapter  that  the  Milesians  were  greatly 
aided  in  this  war  by  the  remains  of  the 
Fir-Boigs,  or  Belgse,  and  the  event  proves 
they  were.      For  we  find  Criomthan,  a 


man  of  great  consequence  among  them, 
appointed  to  the  government  of  Leinster, 
where  they  were  most  numerous;  and  it 
is  evident  that  the  Damnonii  were  still  a 
very  powerful  people  in  Ireland,  and  even 
governed  the  province  of  Connaught,  till 
the  middle  of  the  third  century!  Many 
noble  families  from  both  stocks  yet  remain 
in  the  kingdom,  and  are  often  confounded 
with  later  people.  By  this  policy,  the 
nation,  far  from  being  depopulated,  be- 
came more  thickly  inhabited.  The  cruel 
hand  of  oppression  did  not  reduce  them  to 
despair.  They  were  under  no  necessity 
of  flying  from  their  fire-sides  and  household- 
gods,  to  seek  protection  in  foreign  climes, 
and  fight  the  battles  of  the  enemies  of  their 
country !  Though  it  appears  that  this 
people  were  completely  subdued,  and  of 
course  not  in  a  condition  to  propose  any 
terms,  but  were  obliged  to  accept  of  such 
as  the  conquerors  were  pleased  to  impose 
on  them,  yet  sound  policy  pointed  out  to 
these  last  the  utility  of  making  them  easy 
and  happy  under  the  new  government. 
The  Belgae  were  a  kind  of  counterpoise  to 
the  power  of  the  Damnonii;  and  thus  by 
the  old  maxim,  Divide  and  conquer,  they 
peaceably  governed  the  whole.  Not  only 
this,  but  we  see  they  preserved  with  the 
same  care  they  did  their  own  records,  the 
history  of  these  people  ! 

How  happy  for  Ireland.  What  millions 
of  money,  and  thousands  of  lives  might 
have  been  saved  to  Britain,  had  such  prin- 
ciples of  equity  and  sound  policy  governed 
Irish  counsels  for  eighty  years  past !  At 
the  Revolution,  the  Irish  submitted  to  the 
new  government  on  terms  which  they 
purchased  by  the  points  of  their  swords. 
Never  was  treaty  more  solemnly  recog- 
nized than  that  of  the  capitulation  of  Lim- 
erick, by  which  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
were  secured  in  their  civil  and  religious 
liberties  !  It  was  signed  by  Ginkle,  King 
William's  general,  with  three  other  general 
officers,  and  by  Porter  and  Coninsby,  lords- 
justices  of  Ireland  of  his  appointment, 
October  13th,  1691.  It  was  confirmed 
in  the  fullest  manner  and  most  extensive 
meaning  of  the  words,  by  Kmg  William 


A.M.  2736.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


47 


and  Queen  Mary,  for  themselves  and  for 
their  successors,  on  the  24th  of  February 
following.  The  entire  capitulation,  both 
civil  and  military,  with  the  signatures  of 
all  parties,  and  the  king  and  queen's  pro- 
clamation ratifying  the  whole,  was  then 
published  in  London  by  royal  authority. 
Not  only  every  article  of  this  capitulation 
was  shamefully  broken  through,  without 
the  least  pretence  whatever,  but  'penal 
laws  of  the  severest  nature  were  imposed 
on  the  people !  The  most  determined 
enemies  to  Britain  could  not  more  effec- 
tually serve  France  than  her  pretended 
Irish  friends  did  by  these  proceedings. 
The  nobility,  the  gentry,  and  the  common- 
alty of  Ireland,  now  crowded  by  thou- 
sands to  France;  and  it  appears  by  re- 
searches and  calculations  made  at  the 
war-office  there,  that  from  1691  to  1745 
inclusive,  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Irish  died  in  her  services  !*  It  is  the  pecu- 
liar privilege  of  history  to  draw  instruc- 
tions as  well  from  the  bad  policy  as  from 
the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors.  By  the 
moderation,  equity,  and  sound  policy  of 
the  sons  of  Milesius,  in  the  year  of  the 
world  2736,  the  conquest  of  Ireland  added 
new  strength  and  dignity  to  the  kingdom. 
Since  its  reduction  in  A.  D.  1691,  arts, 
manufactures,  industry,  and  population, 
have  sensibly  decreased  ;  objects  highly 
worthy  the  attention  of  modern  times. — 
But  from  a  digression  intended  for  the 
most  salutary  purposes : — 

We  have  observed  that  after  the  death 
of  Milesius,  the  supreme  command  of  the 
province  of  Galicia,  and  whatever  other 
territories  belonged  to  it,  were,  by  unan- 
imous consent,  invested  in  his  two  sons 
Heber  and  Heremon,  in  exclusion  of  the 
rest.  In  like  manner  did  the  supreme 
command  in  Ireland  devolve  on  them. 
The  learned  Dr.  Keating  and  some  other 
writers  are  of  opmion  that  the  kingdom 
was  divided  into  three  shares ;  to  Heber 
fell  the  two  Munsters ;  to  Heremon,  Leins- 
ter  and  Connaught ;  and  to  Eimher,  the  son 
of  their  brother  Ir,  lost  on  the  coast  of  Des- 
mond, Ulster.     This  I  cannot  agree  to: 

*  Histoire  d'Irlande,  torn,  iii,  p,  754. 


and  as  it  will  assist  in  forming  a  clear  idea 
of  our  history,  I  shall  be  the  more  explicit 
in  it.  It  is  most  certain  that  all  our  annals 
agree  that  the  kingdom  was  divided  be- 
tween the  two  brothers,  Heber  and  Here- 
mon, and  that  Amhergin  was  appointed 
high-priest  and  chief  of  the  literati ;  that 
Heber,  as  the  elder,  chose  the  southern 
half,  a  line  being  drawn  from  Galway  to 
the  Bay  of  Dublin ;  so  that  the  provinces 
of  Leinster  and  Munster,  including  the 
present  county  of  Clare,  fell  to  his  share, 
while  those  of  Ulster  and  Connaught  were 
the  property  of  Heremon.  This  is  so  true, 
that  in  every  succeeding  period  of  our 
history,  when  the  house  of  Heber  lost  the 
monarchy,  they  eagerly  contended  for  this 
partition.  Nor  was  it  in  the  days  of  Con, 
of  the  hundred  battles,  that  it  was  first 
made,  as  has  been  supposed,  but  only  de- 
termined with  more  precision.  The  Book 
of  Invasions,  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  the 
Poem  of  GioUa  Coamhain,  of  Toma  Eigis, 
a  writer  of  the  fourth  century,  etc.,  are 
unanimous  that  the  island  was  thus  divided. 
The  Heberean  half  was,  in  those  remote 
days,  called  Leath-dheas,  or  the  southern 
partition,  and  that  of  Heremon  was  named 
Leath-thuaidh,  or  the  northern ;  as  it  has 
been  since  the  days  of  the  above  Con,  called 
Leath-Cuin,  and  Leath-Mogha,  or  Con  and 
Mogha's  shares.  After  this  general  parti- 
tion of  the  kingdom,  it  is  true  that  it  suffer- 
ed a  subdivision ;  Heber  assigning  to  Lug- 
haidh,  the  son  of  Ith,  a  considerable  terri- 
tory in  the  present  counties  of  Cork  and 
Kerry,  as  did  Heremon  large  possessions 
in  Ulster  to  his  nephew  Eimher.  These 
princes  as  well  as  the  Belgian  and  Danaan 
rulers,  were  feudatories  to  the  chiefs. 

Certain  it  is,  and  it  will  appear  through 
the  course  of  this  history,  that  some  of  the 
posterity  of  Ith,  and  very  many  of  those 
of  Ir,  were  monarchs  of  Ireland,  in  times 
succeeding  the  present  period ;  but  this  will 
not  invalidate  what  has  been  advanced. 
For  it  also  is  certain,  that  on  every  access 
of  power,  the  future  kings  of  Munster  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  the  supreme  command 
oi  south  Ireland ;  nor  have  I  any  doubt  but 
that  in  the  present  partition,  with  it  Heber 


m 


48 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2736. 


had  the  title  of  monarch  conferred  on  him. 
This  question  has  been  matter  of  contest 
between  Irish  hterati,  in  very  remote  as 
well  as  in  later  times.  "We  have  a  poem 
written  in  the  fourth  century  by  Toma 
Eigis,  chief-poet  to  Niall  the  Great,  con- 
tending for  the  pre-eminence  of  the  north- 
em  line.  In  the  days  of  James  I.,  Teige 
Mac  Bruodin,  hereditary  historian  of  the 
O'Briens  and  of  North  Munster,  wrote  in 
vindication  of  the  claims  of  the  southern 
line,  and  was  replied  to  by  Lugha  O'Clery, 
hereditary  annalist  to  O'Neal  and  to  Ulster. 
All  these  poems  (in  my  possession)  are  in 
relation  to  the  disputes  no  way  important ; 
but  the  knowledge  they  display  of  different 
periods  in  our  history  make  them  well 
worth  preserving. 

The  nobility,  the  military,  and  the  fol- 
lowers of  these  two  princes  had  estates  and 
lands  assigned  to  them  in  proportion  to  their 
different  ranks ;  but  0*Naoi,  a  celebrated 
musician,  and  Mac  Cis,  a  bard  of  the  first 
eminence,  had  like  to  have  produced  much 
trouble,  each  prince  wishing  to  retain  both 
in  his  service.  It  was,  however,  determined 
by  lot,  when  the  musician  fell  to  the  share 
of  Heber,  and  the  bard  to  that  of  his  brother 
Heremon — an  early  index  of  that  protec- 
tion which  the  Irish  nation  ever  after  af- 
forded to  poetry  and  music !  nor  were  arts, 
agriculture,  and  manufactures  less  attended 
to.  It  is  necessary  to  remind  my  readers 
that  when  Milesius  sailed  for  PhoBnicia  and 
Egypt,  in  his  train  were  twelve  youths  of 
remarkable  abilities,  who  were  chiefly  em- 
ployed in  learning  whatever  new  arts  and 
sciences  were  there  found,  in  order  to  diffuse 
them  among  their  countrymen  on  their  re- 
turn to  Spain.  Many  of  the  successors  of 
these,  as  well  as  twenty-four  farmers  of  the 
best  abilities,  arrived  in  this  fleet.  To  each 
farmer  a  certain  tract  of  ground  was  allot- 
ted for  cultivation ;  and  the  plains  thus  re- 
claimed, at  this  day  bear  the  names  of  their 
first  improvers ;  as  high  a  proof  of  wisdom 
as  can  be  supposed,  since  by  tfiis  distinction 
they  showed  they  knew  how  to  prize  and 
honour  the  arts  of  peace  as  well  as  thoseof 
war.  Nor  should  it  be  forgot  to  the  credit 
of  our  literati  that,  while  many  important 


actions  of  our  ancestors  have  been  lost,  yet 
the  names  of  such  princes  as  most  remark- 
ably attended  to  and  encouraged  agriculture 
have  been  carefully  handed  down  from  age 
to  age.  Ireland  was  undoubtedly  formerly, 
what  China  is  at  this  day,  one  continued 
scene  of  tillage.  The  summits  of  the  most 
dreary  mountains  at  this  day,  and  most  of 
the  bogs  in  the  kingdom  when  seen  to  a 
certain  depth,  exhibit  lively  traces  of  the 
plough  and  the  harrow.*  In  short,  the 
ancient  Irish,  like  the  Chinese  and  all  other 
polished  nations,  ancient  as  well  as  modem, 
deemed  tillage  the  primum  mobile  of  arts, 
manufactures,  and  industry. 

But  the  present  pleasing  dawn  was  soon 
clouded  by  ambition,  for,  rara  concordia 
fratrum !  like  Pompey  and  Caesar,  Heber 
could  not  brook  an  equal  nor  Heremon  a 
superior,  as  Lucan  expresses  it, 

Nulla  fides,  regni  sociis ;  omnitque  potetttu 
Impatiens  eonsortis  est. 

Our  writers  tell  us  that  the  ambition  of 
the  queen  of  Heber  gave  rise  to  a  war,  in 
which  this  prince  lost  his  diadem  and  his 
life.  On  the  confines  of  their  different  ter- 
ritories were  three  lovely  vales,  two  of 
which  were  the  property  of  Heber,  the  third 
that  of  his  brother.  Tea,  the  queen  of 
Heremon  (we  must  suppose,  to  account  for 
this  quarrel)  began  to  lay  this  out  in  great 
taste;  and  the  other  lady,  mortified,  re- 
quested the  possession  of  it  also.  Heber, 
it  appears,  in  compliance  to  his  queen,  so- 
licited— but  solicited  in  vain — this  favour 
firom  his  brother.  However  easy  it  may 
be  sometimes  to  reconcile  men,  yet  disputes 
among  t^e  fair  are  not  so  soon  compro- 
mised !  The  ladies  on  both  sides  grew  posi- 
tive; each  engaged  her  husband  in  her 
cause ;  and  this  dispute,  in  itself  of  so  httle 
consequence,  was  the  source  of  the  most 
dreadful  calamities,  and  laid  a  foundation 
for  those  bloody  wars  which  for  near  three 
centuries  after  distracted  Ireland !  These 
altercations  produced  indifference  on  both 
sides;  this  was  succeeded  by  coldness; 
hatred  soon  followed ;  and  revenge  and  war 
were  the  certain  consequences.     What  a 

*  Introdacdoa  to  Irish  Histoiy,  pp.  132  to  136. 


A.M.  2737.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


49 


lesson  of  instruction!  The  contending 
princes,  no  longer  restraiaed  by  prudence 
or  fraternal  love,  agreed  to  put  their  cause 
to  the  issue  of  a  general  engagement.  Both 
armies  met  on  the  plains  of  Geisiol,  in  Lein- 
ster ;  and  Heber,  besides  the  loss  of  three 
of  his  best  commanders,  and  numbers  of 
gallant  soldiers,  fell  also  in  this  battle,  a 
sacrifice  to  folly  and  vanity ! 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Hermon  proclaimed  monarch — Landing  of  the 
Picts,  and  history  of  that  people — Remarkable 
alliance  between  Heremon  and  them — He  grants 
them  settlements  in  Britain — Landing  of  the 
Brigantes  there— Death  and  character  of  Here- 
mon. 

By  this  decisive  battle  with  the  northern 
half  of  Ireland,  (for  the  children  of  Heber 
possessed  the  southern  half,)  Heremon  be- 
came sole  monarch,  being  solemnly  inaugu- 
rated on  the  famous  Liagh-Fail.  He  con- 
firmed Criomthan,  of  the  Belgic  line,  in  his 
government  of  Leinster  ;  and  Un,  the  son 
of  Vighe,  and  Eadan,  who  attended  him 
from  Spain,  superintended  the  administra- 
tion of  Connaught.  Er,  Orbha,  Fearon,  and 
Feargna,  the  sons  of  Heber,  succeeded  to 
the  command  of  the  two  Munsters,  Con- 
maol,  a  fifth  son,  being  yet  too  young. 
After  this  we  read  of  an  elegant  palace 
erected  in  Meath  by  Heremon,  which,  in 
honour  to  his  queen,  and  I  suppose  to  com- 
memorate this  bloody  battle,  he  called 
Teamhuir,  or  the  palace  of  Tea ;  and  which 
ever  after  was  the  principal  residence  of 
the  Irish  monarchs.  But  though  the  defeat 
and  death  of  Heber  weakened,  yet  they  did 
not  intimidate  his  faction.  Caicer,  a  prin- 
cipal commander  of  his,  collected  fresh 
troops  and  gave  battle  to  the  Heremonians, 
in  which  he  fell,  and  his  party  were  defeated. 
The  next  year  gave  rise  to  the  battle  of 
Bile-tene,  in  East  Meath,  in  which  the  high- 
priest  Amhergin  was  slain,  and  Irial,  sur- 
named  the  Prophet,  was  appointed  his  suc- 
cessor. We  are  surprised  to  read  that  in 
seven  years  after,  Un  and  Vighe,  governors 

of  Heremon's  own  appointment,  invaded 

7 


Leinster,  and  were  both  cut  off,  and  their 
army  defeated  by  him  at  the  battle  of 
Comhrar,  in  Meath. 

In  the  reign  of  this  Heremon,  and  about 
the  present  period,  it  is  universally  agreed 
that  the  Picts  first  landed  in  Ireland ;  not 
in  the  north,  as  Bede  has  afiirmed,  but  in  the 
Bay  of  Wexford.  The  Leinster  coasts  had 
been  frequently  annoyed,  and  the  country 
sometimes  despoiled  by  British  invaders, 
probably  some  of  the  exiled  Damnonii ;  and 
these  new-comers  being  a  warlike  people, 
Criomthan,  the  Leinster  general,  by  advice 
of  Heremon  engaged  them  in  his  service  to 
repel  those  bold  invaders,  which  they  effec- 
tually did  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Ard- 
Leamhnachta.  Encouraged  by  this  suc- 
cess, they  requested  of  the  monarch  an 
asylum  in  Ireland  from  all  their  distresses 
and  calamities ;  but  this  could  not  be  grant- 
ed them,  as  the  kingdom  was  not  even  then 
sufficient  to  contain  them,*  and  the  other 
inhabitants.  Finding  the  country  fruitfiil 
and  lovely,  they  formed  a  design  to  gain  by 
treachery  and  force  what  they  could  not 
effect  by  fair  words.  They  entered  into 
private  treaty  with  the  malecontents,  which 
new  governments  never  want ;  but  however 
secret  they  imagined  they  carried  on  their 
schemes,  Heremon  was  early  apprised  of 
them,  and  formed  the  resolution  to  cut  them 
off  in  time,  before  they  came  to  too  great 
a  head.  Unable  to  oppose  the  impending 
storm,  they  sued  for  peace  on  such  terms  as 
should  be  imposed  on  them ;  requested  that 
settlements  might  be  allotted  to  them  in 
Britain ;  observing  that,  by  this  means,  they 
would  effectually  secure  their  own  coasts 
for  the  future  from  foreign  insults,  as  they 
would  be  always  ready,  with  arms  in  their 
hands,  to  cut  out  so  much  work  for  the 
malecontents  at  home  that  they  would  never 
after  attempt  to  disturb  the  present  Irish 
government.  To  prove  the  sincerity  of 
their  intentions,  and  their  future  dependence 
on  Ireland,  they,  at  the  same  time,  requested 
wives  from  Heremon,  engaging  in  the  most 
solemn  manner  that,  not  only  then,  but  for 
ever  after,  if  they,  or  their  successors, 
should  at  any  time  have  issue  by  a  British, 
*  Histor.  Eccles.  Brit.  cap.  i. 


50 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2746. 


and  again  by  an  Irish  woman,  that  the  issue 
of  this  last  only  should  be  capable  of  suc- 
ceeding to  the  inheritance  !  and  ^yhich  law 
continued  in  force  to  the  days  of  Venerable 
Bede,  i.  e.  about  two  thousand  years !  a 
mark  of  such  striking  distinction,  that  it 
cannot  be  paralleled  in  the  history  of  any 
other  nation  under  the  sun  !  The  principal 
leader  of  this  people  on  their  landing  here 
was  Gud  ;  but  he  dying,  this  compact  was 
made  with  his  son  Cathluan,  from  whom 
the  Picts  were  also  called  Caledones,  i.  e. 
the  posterity  of  Cathluan ;  for  Don  in  Irish 
signifies  a  family.  The  Leabhar-Lecan 
(B.  i.  p.  14)  gives  us  the  names  of  his  two 
sons,  his  principal  warriors,  his  poets  and 
his  harpers.  The  name  of  his  chief  com- 
mander was  Cruithneachem,  from  whom  we 
reasonably  conjecture  the  Picts  were  after- 
wards called  Cruithnhegh  by  our  writers. 
Heremon  gave  for  wife  to  Cathluan  the 
widow  of  Breas,  one  of  his  deceased  gen- 
erals ;  and  the  other  Pictish  chiefs  had 
assigned  to  them  for  wives  the  widows  of 
other  officers  slain  in  war.  He  also  en- 
gaged to  support  them  in  their  new  pos- 
sessions in  Britain  against  all  enemies  what- 
ever. Such  was  the  rise  of  these  people 
whose  posterity  made  so  brilliant  a  figure 
in  British  history.  They  were  invincible 
not  only  against  the  Britons,  but  even 
against  the  Romans,  while  supported  and 
protected  by  the  fostering  hand  which  first 
gave  them  power  and  consequence;  and 
they  still  might  have  continued  to  be  so  had 
they  steadily  adhered  to  those  who  only 
could  support  them.  But  freed  at  length 
from  foreign  and  domestic  enemies,  they  had 
the  temerity  not  only  to  attack,  but  for  a 
time  to  expel  the  Irish  colony  from  their 
settlements  in  North  Britain  ;  by  which  acts 
national  indignation  was  raised  to  so  high 
a  pitch  against  them  that,  in  two  or  three 
centuries  after,  they  were  so  effectually  de- 
stroyed that  the  smallest  vestige  of  this 
people  or  their  language  could  not  possibly 
be  traced. 

Some  modern  writers,  too  often  ready 
to  oppose  their  private  opinions  to  the 
voice  of  antiquity,  suppose  that  this  land- 
ing of  the  Picts  in  Ireland  must  have  been 


at  a  later  date  than  our  annals  set  forth, 
imagining  the  country  not  then  so  populous 
as  Bede  has  asserted  for  us.  But  when 
it  appears  from  our  records,  that  it  was  in- 
habited seven  hundred  and  ninety  years 
before ;  that  almost  every  century  gave  it 
a  new  access  of  power  by  swarms  of  new- 
comers, as  the  Africans,  whose  posterity 
remained  in  the  north,  the  Neimhedians, 
the  Belgians,  the  Damnonii,  arid  the  present 
Milesian  settlers — when  we  reflect  that  the 
Milesian  fleet  was  also  for  some  years  em- 
ployed in  transporting  new  settlers  from 
their  acquisitions  in  Spain,  to  strengthen 
their  power  in  Ireland,  we  must  be  con- 
vinced of  the  truth  of  the  above  account. 
Nay,  we  see  it  further  confirmed  by  the 
Clana  Breoguin,  or  Brigantes,  soon  after 
petitioning  Heremon  for  permission  to  set- 
tle in  Britain,  which  he  also  agreed  to  ; 
assigning  to  them  Cumberland,  or  the  coun- 
try of  hills  and  valleys,  from  which  they, 
as  well  as  the  Welch,  were  called  Cumeri. 
Thus  it  appears  evident  that  the  Britons, 
the  Belgae,  the  Damnonii,  the  Picts,  or  Cal- 
edones, and  the  Brigantes  were  distinct 
British  colonies,  by  no  means  to  be  con- 
founded with  each  other,  as  most  British 
antiquarians  have  done.  The  Britons,  or 
followers  of  Briotan,  first  landed  there  about 
A.  M.  2380 ;  the  Belgae,  or  second  colony, 
about  2541;  the  Danmonii,  2736 ;  the  Picts 
or  Caledones,  about  2744 ;  and  the  Brigantes 
very  soon  after.  This  last  migration  cer- 
tainly commenced  in  the  reign  of  Here- 
mon; he  reigned  sole  monarch  thirteen 
years,  so  that  we  may  safely  fix  it  at  A.M. 
2749.  All  these  different  people,  the  Picts 
excepted,  were  originally  of  one  common 
stock,  and  in  the  main  spoke  the  same  lan- 
guage, making  reasonable  allowance  for 
different  people  totally  separated  from  each 
other,  and  the  alterations  which  may  be 
adventitiously  introduced  by  strangers  into 
their  dialects  in  the  different  countries  they 
passed  through.  The  Picts  were  a  people 
who  had  a  language  peculiar  to  themselves. 
The  venerable  Bede  with  surprising  accu- 
racy confirms  all  this.  He  tells  us  posi- 
tively, that  the  languages  of  South  Britain 
were  the  British  and  Saxon  in  his  own  days. 


t 


'W*".*  T'""- . 


.'^"C^JT- 


A.  M.  2750.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


61 


and  that  of  the  North  the  Pictish  and  the 
Irish. 

After  a  glorious  reign  of  thirteen  years 
Heremon  died,  leaving  his  crown  to  his 
three  sons,  Muimhne,Luighne,and  Laishne. 
He  was  a  prince  endowed  with  great 
abilities,  as  well  for  the  field  as  the  cabinet, 
and  what  added  lustre  to  these  qualities 
was  his  exemplary  justice.  The  unnatural 
war  in  which  he  was  involved  with  his 
brother,  it  appears  was  not,  on  his  part,  a 
war  of  choice  but  of  necessity.  He  made 
no  direct  use  of  the  power  which  the  de- 
feat and  death  of  his  brother  gave  him ;  his 
nephews  succeeded  peaceably  to  the  terri- 
tories of  their  father,  and  peace  and  sub- 
ordination were  established  over  the  king- 
dom. His  speedy  defeat  of  the  Pictish 
plot,  but  above  all,  his  converting  them 
into  the  unalterable  friends,  instead  of  the 
determined  enemies,  of  his  country,  de- 
serves the  greatest  applause.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  pass  by  this  most  remarkable 
LEAGUE,  especially  at  this  time,  without  ad- 
verting to  it.  South  Britain,  inhabited  by 
different  colonies  inimical  to  each  other, 
could  not  be  formidable  to  Ireland  except 
in  times  of  public  confusion.  If  they  were 
not  the  tributaries  of  the  Irish,  which  one 
would  be  apt  to  think,  by  these  last  assign- 
ing to  the  Picts,  and  afterwards  to  the  Bri- 
gantes,  settlements  there,  they  must  cer- 
tainly have  dreaded  their  power.  By  es- 
tablishing these  two  colonies,  they  at  least 
proved  what  they  could  do.  The  Pictish 
league,  we  see,  was  a  stronger  tie  than  that 
of  blood ;  since  the  Brigantes,  though  of 
the  same  blood  with  the  Milesians,  by  de- 
grees became  reconciled  to  the  Roman 
dominion,  which  the  Picts  would  never 
hear  of.  Had  this  famous  compact  between 
the  Picts  and  the  Irish  been  confmed  to  the 
issue  of  the  first  women  only,  no  doubt  but 
in  a  generation  or  two,  the  affinity  would 
be  so  far  weakened,  that  they  would  neces-^ 
sarily  unite  with  the  other  British  colonies 
in  asserting  their  independence.  But  no 
such  thing  !  The  same  laws  were  to  be 
observed  in  all  future  marriages.  Britons 
could  have  no  temptations  to  form  alliances 
with  these  people  when  the  issue  of  such 


contracts  might  be  left  destitute,  and  the 
family  and  fortune  devolve  on  strangers. 
The  Picts  necessarily  sought  for  wives  in 
Ireland,  and  these  cherished,  in  the  rising 
generation,  that  love  and  reverence  for  the 
mother  country  which  they  themselves  so 
strongly  felt  Hence  we  see  that  the  uni- 
ted powers  of  South  Britain  and  of  Rome 
could  not  shake  their  firmness,  or  dissolve 
the  league  which  they  formed  with  Ireland ; 
and  we  shall  also  see  that  by  the  constant 
aid  from  thence,  they  were  enabled  not 
only  to  repel  but  to  invade,  and  in  fine  to 
destroy  the  Roman  provinces  of  Britain. 
Without  this  clue  of  Irish  history,  it  would 
be  hard  to  conceive  how  this  colony  could 
singly  remain  opposed  to  the  united  powers 
of  Rome  and  Britain  for  near  five  centuries ; 
not  only  this,  but  during  most  of  that  period, 
to  act  rather  on  the  offensive  than  defensive ! 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  reigns  of  Muimhne,  Luighne,  and  Laishne — 
Of  Er,  Orba,  Fearon,  and  Feargna — Of  Irial — 
Eithrial — Conmaol — Of  Tighernmas — He  insti- 
tutes the  law  of  colours — Mines  worked  to  great 
perfection — Adores  an  idol. 

The  three  sons  of  Heremon  succeeded 
to  the  monarchy ;  but  instructed  by  the 
unhappy  difference  between  their  father 
and  uncle,  they  agreed  that  each  should 
govern  a  year  about.  Muimhne,  as  eldest, 
enjoyed  it  the  first  year.  Luighne  suc- 
ceeded, in  whose  administration  Muimhne 
died ;  and  in  that  of  Laishne,  the  sons  of 
Heber  raised  a  mighty  army,  with  which 
they  engaged  the  imperial  troops  in  the 
battle  of  Ard-Ladhran,  in  the  county  of 
Wexford.  In  this  engagement  the  sons  of 
Heremon  fell,  and  their  army  received  a 
complete  defeat. 

Er,  Orba,  Fearon,  and  Feargna,  govern- 
ed the  kingdom  but  one  year  ;  for  (I  sup- 
pose) their  not  being  well  united,  enabled 
the  Heremonian  faction,  conducted  by  Irial, 
sumamed  the  Prophet,  suddenly  to  attack 
and  defeat  them. 

Irial  the  Prophet,  appointed  high-priest 
by  his  father  on  the  death  of  Amhergin, 


58 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2815. 


ascended  the  throne.  Prudence  and  justice 
directed  his  counsels.  Twelve  extensive 
tracts  of  ground  were  cleared  of  woods, 
and  laid  open  for  tillage,  and  took  new 
names  from  the  husbandmen  who  reclaim- 
ed them.  He  constructed  several  places 
of  strength,  erected  many  elegant  public 
works,  and  successfully  defeated  some 
powerful  invasions,  particularly  of  the  Af- 
ricans, whose  army  he  defeated,  and  cut 
off  their  chief  commander.*  After  a  reign 
of  ten  years,  he  died. 

Eithrial,  the  son  of  Irial,  was  his  suc- 
cessor. Instructed  by  the  precepts  and 
example  of  so  good  a  father,  it  was  impos- 
sible but  he  must  become  a  good  prince. 
Seven  more  expanded  tracts  of  land  became 
obedient  to  the  husbandman  through  royal 
bounty,  and  peace  and  plenty  smiled  over 
the  kingdom.  With  his  own  hand  Ethrial 
recorded  the  history  and  exploits  of  his  an- 
cestors, from  the  great  Phaenius;  and  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  during  his  admin- 
istration the  famous  embassy  of  Heber,  or 
Abaris,  the  Hyperborean  Scythian,  to  the 
Athenians  took  place.  It  may  be  even 
supposed  that,  at  the  same  time,  he  sent 
them  a  copy  of  this  famous  work.  We 
know  soon  after  this,  that  the  mighty  Se- 
sostris  caused  maps  to  be  drawn  of  the 
different  countries  he  had  subdued — copies 
of  which  he  sent  to  distant  countries — 
even  to  the  Scythians,  says  my  author.f 
That  such  an  embassy  was  sent  cannot  be 
doubted.  It  was  a  wise  measure  in  him  to 
renew  friendship,  extend  commerce,  and 
the  glory  of  his  people  over  Greece  and 
Asia ;  and  this  will  explain  why  the  mem- 
ory of  these  transactions  was  preserved, 
even  in  Egypt,  in  the  days  of  Solon,  as  we 
have  already  noted.  Heber,  or  Abaris,  the 
son  of  Tighernmas,  was  in  all  appearance 
this  ambassador ;  and  we  know  the  blood- 
royal  only  were  in  Ireland  employed  in 
such  service.  But  neither  the  learning  or 
abilities  of  Eithrial  could  secure  him  from 
that  violent  death  which  seemed  to  be  the 
fate  of  most  of  his  successors — being  cut 
off  in  the  battle  of  Rahonen,  in  Leinster. 

*  Leabhar-Lecan,  book  i.  p.  19. 

t  EoBt.  ia  fine  Epist.  ante  Dionja.  Pcrieg. 


by  Conmaol,  after  a  reign  of  twenty 
years. 

Conmaol,  the  youngest  son  of  Heber, 
and  an  infant  at  the  time  of  his  father's 
death,  was  solemnly  crowned  on  the  Liagh- 
Fail,  or  stone  of  destiny.  The  Psalter  of 
Cashell  seems  to  dwell  with  pleasure  on 
the  exploits  of  this  prince ;  a  proof,  even 
m  the  tenth  century,  how  warmly  these 
party  disputes  were  supported.  "He  it 
was  (says  Cormoc)  that  killed  with  his  own 
hand  Eithrial,  the  son  of  Irial  the  Prophet, 
in  revenge  for  the  blood  of  his  father.  He 
it  was,  that  fought  forty-five  battles  against 
the  posterity  of  Heremon.  He  it  was,  that 
slew  his  surviving  son  Pailp,  and  acquired 
the  name  of  Conmaol,  or  the  Prince  of 
Chiefs,  for  he  was  superior  to  all  others  of 
his  time  !"  The  Belgae,  who  supported  the 
line  of  Heremon,  he  severely  chastised ; 
but  finally  fell  in  the  battle  of  Aonach- 
Macha,  by  the  sword  of  Heber  the  cele- 
brated ambassador  to  the  Grecian  states, 
after  a  bloody  and  disturbed  reign  of  thirty 
years.  His  burial-place  yet  goes  by  the 
name  of  Feart-Conmaol,  feart  being  Irish 
for  a  burial-ground. 

Tighernmas,  the  son  of  Follain,  son  of 
Eithrial,  son  of  Irial  the  Prophet,  son  of 
Heremon,  son  of  Milesius,  succeeded  to 
the  monarchy.  Nothwithstanding  that  his 
government  was  frequently  disturbed  by 
the  posterity  of  Heber,  having  fought  them 
in  twenty-seven  different  battles,  yet  we 
find  arts,  sciences,  and  manufactures  en- 
couraged. He  prevented  those  disorders 
frequently  attendant  on  people  w^ho  diverge 
far  from  their  sphere  of  life,  by  a  most 
wholesome  though  simple  sumptuary  law.* 
By  this  law,  which  his  successors  were 
sworn  to  maintain,  and  which  was  called 
Ilbreachta,  the  peasantry,  soldiers,  and 
lower  order  of  people,  were  to  have  their 
garments  of  but  one  colour ;  military  ofli- 
cers  and  private  gentlemen,  two;  com- 
manders of  battalions,  three;  beatachs, 
brughnibhs,  or  keepers  of  houses  of  hospi- 
tality, four ;  the  prime  nobility  and  military 
knights,  five ;  and  the  ollamhs,  or  doctors 
learned  in  different  sciences,  six,  being  one 

•  Leabhar-Lecan,  book  i.  p.  19. 


A.  M.  3815.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


S3 


less  than  the  chief  rulers.  This  custom  of 
making  various  colours  in  clothes  honour- 
able we  find  to  be  extremely  ancient. 
Thus  we  read  in  Genesis,  that "  Israel  loved 
Joseph  more  than  all  his  children,  because 
he  was  the  son  of  his  old  age,  and  he  made 
him  a  coat  of  many  colours  T  This  same 
law  we  find  established  in  China  from  the 
most  remote  antiquity. 

During  the  interval  of  this  reign,  mines 
of  copper,  lead,  and  iron,  were  worked 
with  great  success;  and  a  considerable 
gold  mine  was  discovered  on  the  banks  of 
the  LifTey,  which  Uachadan,  of  Cualgne, 
brought  to  great  perfection.  Cups  and 
goblets  of  massy  gold  were  fabricated  by 
this  famous  artist,  and  a  variety  of  elegant 
colours  for  the  apparel  of  the  nobility 
found  out ;  among  others,  purple,  green,  and 
blue.  Notwithstanding  the  great  fame  of 
this  prince,  he  greatly  debased  his  charac- 
ter by  idolatrous  worship.  Before  his  time, 
the  people  worshipped  the  sun,  the  moon, 
and  stars  as  types  of  the  Deity.  He  erected 
a  famous  idol  in  a  large  plain  in  Brefihi, 
called  Crom-Cruadh,  where,  attending  to 
sacrifice  on  the  eve  of  Samhain,  or  No- 
vember, we  are  told  that  he  and  most  of 
his  attendants  were  destroyed  by  lightning. 
In  commemoration  of  this  great  event,  that 
plain  is  yet  called  Maigh-Sleachta,  or  the 
field  of  worship. 

Writers  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  length 
of  this  prince's  reign.  Mr.  CFlaherty  will 
have  it  but  twenty-three  years,*  while  Grat. 
Lucius  makes  it  fifty-four. f  I  shall,  however, 
adhere  to  what  appears  to  me  the  most  ra- 
tional and  best  authorized  on  this,  as  well 
as  every  succeeding  occasion,  where  I  find 
our  writers  disagree  in  their  chronology. 
For  the  famous  Giolla  Caomhain,  a  writer 
of  at  least  eight  hundred  years  standing, 
in  his  poem,  fixes  it  at  fifty  years ; J  and 
in  this  he  is  followed  by  Keating  and 
others. 


*  Ogygia,  p.  196,  etc. 

t  Cambrens.  Eversus,  p.  59. 

t  Eeim  Eiogra,  MS.  p.  4.  quarto. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Of  Bel  and  Samhain,  the  principal  deities  of  ancient 
Ireland,  and  of  those  of  an  inferior  order — The 
transmigration  of  souls  part  of  their  doctrine — 
The  reigns  of  Eochaidh,  Cearmna,  and  Sobhairce, 
Eochaidh  II.,  Fiacha,  Eochaidh  III.,  Aongus, 
Sana,  Rotheachta,  Sttdhna,  Fiacha  II.,  Muin- 
heamhoin,  and  Aldei^id. 

Having  had  occasion  to  mention  the  idd 
of  Tighemmas,  this  seems  a  proper  place 
to  sketch  out  to  the  reader  some  ideas  of 
our  national  Ethnic  worship.  The  ancient 
Irish,  like  most  poUshed  nations,  adored  the 
Deity  in  his  attributes.  They  worshipped 
the  sun  by  the  name  of  Bel,  sometimes  by 
that  of  its  native  name,  hence  the  Apollo 
Grannius,  an  inscription  found  in  Scotland, 
or  Apollo,  the  sun,  uniting  as  it  were  in 
this,  his  Irish  and  Roman  names.  Next  to 
the  sun  was  the  moon,  which  the  Irish  un- 
doubtedly adored.  Some  remains  of  this 
worship  may  be  traced  even  at  this  day,  as 
particularly  borrowing,  if  they  should  not 
have  it  about  them,  a  piece  of  silver  on  the 
first  sight  of  a  new  moon,  as  an  omen  of 
plenty  during  the  month,  and  at  the  same 
time  saying  in  Irish,  "  as  you  have  found 
us  in  peace  and  prosperity,  so  leave  us  in 
grace  and  mercy.**  This  planet  was  un- 
doubtedly worshipped  by  the  name  of  Sam- 
hain ;  and  as  the  feast  of  Bel,  or  the  sun, 
was  proclaimed  by  fires  and  other  public 
rejoicings  on  May  eve,  so  was  that  of  Sam- 
hain, or  the  moon,  the  eve  of  November. 
The  great  temple  of  Samhain  was  erected 
at  Tlachta,  in  Meath,  and  that  of  Bel,  at 
Uisneach.  The  stars  they  also  adored. 
When  Jughaine  the  Great  prevailed  on  the 
national  estates  to  swear  allegiance  to  him- 
self and  to  his  posterity,  in  exclusion  of  the 
other  branches  of  the  royal  family,  the 
oath  they  took  was — ^"By  the  sun,  the 
moon,  and  stars."  The  same  was  taken 
to  Tuathal  and  to  his  issue;  and  it  was 
"  By  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,"  that  Loa- 
gaire  vowed  to  exonerate  the  province  of 
Leinster  from  a  heavy  tribute,  long  paid  by 
them.  They  had  likewise  their  river  and 
mountain  deities ;  those  who  presided  over 
hills,  and  those  who  ruled  the  valleys ;  but 
next  to  the  sun  and  moon,  Neptune  was 
their  principal  deity.     The  oak  was  a  tree 


54 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2869. 


particularly  sacred  to  them;  hence  their 
priests  were  called  in  general  Druids,  from 
rfcir,  an  oak ;  however,  the  votaries  of  Sam- 
hain,  or  the  moon,  seem  to  have  had  priests 
particularly  appointed  for  this  worship. 
They  were  called,  by  both  Greeks  and 
Latins,  Samnothei,  probably  from  the  Irish 
Samhain-Dia,  as  being  votaries  of  the  god- 
dess Samhain.  Whoever  will  take  the 
trouble  to  examine  Plutarch's  treatise  De 
Facie  in  Orbe  Lunse,  will  find  abundant 
reasons  for  supposing  the  worship  of  the 
moon  highly  cultivated  here.  The  trans- 
migration of  souls  and  their  immortality 
were  carefully  inculcated.  Ruanus  is  said 
in  our  ancient  mythology  to  have  lived 
many  centuries.  Modhruith,  employed  by 
Fiacha  Muilleathan,  the  Psalter  of  Cashell, 
from  remote  authority,  tells  us,  remembered 
the  reigns  of  nineteen  successive  monarchs 
of  Ireland;  and  the  dialogue  between 
Oisin  and  St.  Patrick  inculcates,  (though 
born  in  the  second  century,)  that  he  was 
contemporary  with  this  apostle,  a  thing  im- 
possible ;  and  therefore  I  suppose  some  im- 
postor, an  old  man,  in  his  days  pretended 
that  he  was  Oisin,  none  being  alive  to  con- 
tradict him. 

In  a  word,  the  ancient  mode  of  worship 
adopted  by  the  Celtic  and  Scythian  nations 
of  Europe,  seems  evidently  to  have  origi- 
nated in  Ireland.  Thus  much  at  least  is 
certain,  that  the  religion  of  the  Gauls,  as 
delivered  by  Caesar,*  an  indisputable  au- 
thority, and  such  accounts  as  other  writers, 
Greek  and  Roman,  have  furnished  us,  is  in 
the  fullest  manner  elucidated  and  confirmed 
by  Irish  history.  On  these  matters  I  appre- 
hend I  have  been  so  explicit  in  the  first 
part  of  my  Introduction  to  Irish  History, 
that  to  it  I  must  refer  such  as  choose  fur- 
ther information  on  a  subject  so  essentially 
necessary  to  the  investigation  of  ancient 
European  history. 

Annalists  are  divided  in  opinion  in  the 
present  era  of  our  history.  Some  will  have 
it  that  there  was  an  interregnum  of  seven 
years,  when  a  son  of  Conmaol  ascended  the 
throne.  Of  this  opinion  are  the  learned 
Lynch  and  O'Flaherty ;  but  as  neither  the 

*  Comment  lib.  vi. 


regal  list  of  Giolla  Caomhain,  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell,  or  the  Bruodin  Chronicle  take  any 
notice  of  such  an  hiatus  in  the  constitution, 
I  think  myself  well  authorized  to  reject  it ; 
for,  when  we  reflect  on  the  nature  of  the 
succession — that  the  nation,  from  the  prmce 
to  the  peasant,  was  divided  into  classes — 
that  honour  and  dignities  were  hereditary 
in  families — and  that  in  times  of  the  greatest 
distress,  particularly  during  the  Danish 
wars,  and  those  that  succeeded  the  Norman 
invasion,  almost  to  our  own  times,  these 
customs  prevailed — in  fact  the  constitution 
ceased  as  soon  as  they  were  discontinued — 
we  must  doubt  the  probability  of  such  in- 
terregnum. Add  to  this,  that  after  the  death 
of  Brien-Boru,  when  faction  only  gained 
the  monarchy,  and  that  such  as  were  ap- 
pointed were  obeyed  only  by  their  own 
party,  still  elections  went  on;  but  those 
elected  were  not  acknowledged  by  our 
historians  as  monarchs,  or  Ard-Righs :  they 
found  out  a  more  expressive  name ;  and 
they  were  called  sometimes  Gafra  Sabh- 
rach,  or  monarchs  obtruded  against  the 
sense  of  some  province.  Whatever  can 
give  the  most  comprehensive  idea  of  our 
history  and  constitution,  I  shall  not  deem 
a  digression.  Eochaidh  Edgathach,  son 
of  Darius,  of  the  line  of  Ith,  son  of  the  re- 
nowned Breogan,  succeeded  Tighernmas. 
He  was  sumamed  Edgadhach,  or  of  the 
many-coloured  garments,  because  he  first 
adopted  that  regulation  made  by  his  pre- 
decessor. He  was  slain  in  the  battle  of 
Tara,  by  Cearmna,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  son  of 
Milesius,  after  a  short  reign  of  four  years. 
From  the  epithet  Edgadhach  given  this 
prince.  Dr.  Lynch  as  well  as  Mr.  O'Fla- 
herty, and  from  them  later  writers  have 
asserted  that  the  sumptuary  law  of  colours 
was  first  promulgated  by  him.  But  a  short 
reign,  full  of  confusion  and  trouble,  was 
not  the  time  for  establishing  and  giving 
permanency  to  so  wholesome  a  regulation ; 
and,  therefore,  by  the  authority  of  the_ 
Leabhar-Lecan,  of  Dr.  Keating,  and  Bruo-" 
dinus,  I  place  it  in  the  administration  of 
his  predecessor. 

Cearmna  and  Sobhairce,  of  the  race  of 
Ir,  agreed  to  rule  the  kingdom  alternately. 


A.  M.  2953.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


55 


The  southern  half  from  Inbher  Colpa,  or 
Drogheda,  to  Limerick,  was  possessed  by 
Cearmna:  and  the  northern  by  his  brother. 
Each  built  a  magnificent  palace  in  his  par- 
tition ;  and  these,  as  GioUa  Caomhain  notes, 
were  the  first  Irish  monarchs  of  the  north- 
ern line.  Their  government  was  often 
disturbed  by  attempts  from  both  the  Hebe- 
rean  and  Heremonian  lines.  At  length, 
after  a  reign  of  forty  years,  they  were  both 
cut  oflT  in  battle ;  Sobhairce  fell  by  the 
sword  of  Eochaidh  Mean,  and  Cearmna 
by  that  of  a  son  of  Conmaol,  in  the  battle 
of  Dun-Cearmna,  now  Dun-Patrick,  in  the 
county  of  Cork. 

Eochaidh  II.,  son  of  Conmaol,  son  of 
Milesius,  assumed  the  reins  of  government. 
He  was  sumamed  Faobharglas,  or  the 
green-edge,  because,  in  his  days,  the  art 
of  giving  different  colours  to  swords  and 
arms  was  found  out,  and  we  are  told  that 
the  points  of  his  javelins  and  blades  of  his 
swords  were  coloured  green.  In  the  Psal- 
ter of  Cashell  he  is  called  Faobhar-Dhearg, 
or  the  bloody-edge,  to  denote  the  execution 
he  committed  on  his  enemies.  The  Picts 
who  had  aided  the  house  of  Ir,  or  the 
northern  line,  in  their  late  assumed  power, 
he  severely  punished.  He  transported  a 
considerable  army  into  Albany,  with  which 
he  reduced  this  people  to  great  distress.* 
At  length  a  peace  was  made ;  they  engag- 
ing themselves  by  oath,  and  giving  host- 
ages as  gi  eater  security,  no  more  to  inter- 
fere in  Irish  elections.  He  also  defeated 
the  Heremonians  in  several  engagements ; 
but  these  military  employments  did  not 
make  him  forget  the  arts  of  peace.  Among 
other  proofs  of  this,  we  find  he  caused  seven 
considerable  woods  to  be  cut  down,  re- 
claimed, and  laid  open  for  tillage.  Good 
fortune  at  length  forsook  him,  for,  after  a 
glorious  administration  of  twenty  years, 
he  was  slain  in  the  battle  of  Gorman,  in 
Leinster. 

Fiachadh  Labhruine,  a  descendant  of 
Tighernmas,  of  the  Heremonian  line,  was 
his  successor.  He  was  called  Labhruine, 
from  the  river  of  that  name,  which  first  ap- 
peared in  his  reign.    Loch  Erne  at  the 

•  Keating,  p.  i. 


same  time  burst  forth  from  its  bounds, 
covering  a  considerable  tract  of  land,  the 
property  of  the  Emains,  of  the  Belgic  tribe, 
and  from  whom  it  took  its  name.  The 
plain  adjoining  was  the  ancient  Maigh- 
Geaneim  ;  and  here  it  was  that  the  Afri- 
cans, in  the  days  of  the  Partholanian  and 
Neimhedian  colonies,  had  their  principal 
settlements.  He  defeated  the  Heberians 
in  four  pitched  battles  ;*  nor  was  he  less 
successful  in  Albany,  where  he  sent  his 
son  with  a  large  body  of  troops  to  quell 
some  disturbances  there.  He  was  at  length 
slain  in  the  battle  of  Belgadin  by  his  suc- 
cessor, after  a  reign  of  twenty-four  years. 

Eochaidh  III.  was  the  son  of  Mofeibhis, 
son  of  Eochaidh,  son  of  Conmaol,  of  the 
race  of  Heber.  He  was  called  Mumho,  on 
account  of  his  great  power  and  strength; 
and  the  Psalter  of  Cashell  tells  us  that  from 
this  surname  Munster  took  its  name.  He 
fell  in  the  battle  of  Cliach,  having  reigned 
twenty-two  years. 

Aongus,  sumamed  01-Bhuadhach,  or  the 
all- victorious,  son  to  Fiacha  Labhruine,  of 
the  progeny  of  Heremon,  was  the  next 
monarch.  The  reign  of  this  prince  is  re- 
plete with  mighty  deeds.  He  reduced  the 
Damnonii  of  Connaught  to  obedience,  who 
had  begun  to  raise  troubles  in  the  state ; 
and  some  attempts  of  the  Heberian  line 
were  rendered  fruitless  through  his  activity 
and  courage.  The  Clana  Bolg,  or  Belgse 
of  Britain,  who  with  the  Picts  had  asso- 
ciated with  the  enemies  of  his  house,  he  chas- 
tised, having  for  that  purpose  transported 
a  powerful  army  to  Britain.f  In  short, 
that  whole  island  was  reduced,  and  obliged 
to  pay  homage  and  tribute  to  the  Irish 
monarch.  The  English  translator  of  Keat- 
ing tells  us  that  with  other  colonies  of  Bri- 
tain, this  prince  brought  into  subjection  the 
warlike  nation  of  the  Scots,  who  were 
before  this  a  free  people.  I  must,  however, 
in  justice  to  the  memory  of  that  profotmd 
antiquarian,  and  to  prevent  any  mistakes 
of  future  writers,  assure  the  public,  that  no 
such  assertion  is  to  be  found  in  the  authen- 
tic Irish  copies  of  that  work ;  for  the  name 

•  Bruodin  de  Reg.     Hibem.  p.  860. 
t  Ogygia,  p.  206.     Keating,  etc- 


56 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3070. 


of  Scot  was  not  even  mentioned  as  there 
residing  for  many  centuries  after.  This 
prince,  besides  his  great  exploits  in  war, 
forgot  not  to  cultivate  the  arts  of  peace, 
having  caused  ten  large  woods  to  be  cut 
down  and  reclaimed  for  tillage.  But  in 
the  eighteenth  year  of  his  government,  a 
period  was  put  to  his  life  at  the  battle  of 
Carman,  in  Leinster. 

Eadhna  Airghtheach,  son  of  Eochaidh 
Mumho,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  was  the  suc- 
ceeding prince.  The  epithet  Airghtheach, 
or  silver,  was  bestowed  on  him  as  bemg 
the  first  Irish  prince  that  caused  shields 
and  targets  of  pure  silver  to  be  fabricated 
at  Airgidros,  which,  with  chariots  and  fine 
horses,  he  bestowed  on  the  most  intrepid 
of  his  soldiers  as  the  reward  of  merit. 
This  mode  of  honour  was  not  peculiar  to 
the  Irish  nation;  since  we  read  that  Solo- 
mon caused  three  hundred  targets  of  beaten 
gold,  and  thirty  shields  of  the  same  metal, 
to  be  made  for  similar  purposes.* 

Certain  it  is  that  the  Irish  military — in- 
deed, like  all  true  sons  of  the  blade — placed 
their  greatest  glory  in  the  splendour  and 
richness  of  their  arms.  This  Solinus,  other- 
wise no  admirer  of  the  Irish,  fully  con- 
fesses.f  That  they  also  fought  in  chariots 
highly  ornamented  cannot  be  doubted ;  be- 
cause our  history  abounds  with  accounts 
of  them,  and  the  beauty,  spirit,  and  even 
names  of  the  very  horses  employed  with 
them,  are  not  forgot.  We  have  seen  when 
different  coloured  blades  were  introduced 
by  Eochaidh ;  and  this,  and  the  account 
of  our  carbads,  or  chariots  of  war,  will 
fully  explain  the  description  which  Florus 
gives  us  of  Bituitus,  in  the  AUobrogian 
war, "  who  added  splendour  to  the  triumph, 
being  drawn  in  his  silver  chariot  with  his 
arms  of  different  colours,  such  as  he  fought 
with.";t  According  to  the  Poem  of  Giolla 
Caomhain,  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  Keating, 
and  Mac  Bruodin,  this  prince  reigned 
twenty-seven  years,  and  then  fell  in  the 
battle  of  Raighne. 

Rotheachta,  son  of  Moin,  son  of  Aongus, 
(01-Bhuacadh,)  of  the  race  of  Heremon, 
assumed  the  monarchy.     Of  him  nothing 

*  Chron.  ix.  15.       t  Cap.  xiv.       t  Lib.  iii.  cap.  2. 


furtlicr  is  related  but  that  after  a  reign  of 
twenty-five  years  he  was  slain  in  the  battle 
of  Cruachan  by  his  successor. 

Seadhna,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  son  of  Mile- 
siusj  after  a  reign  of  five  years  was  cut  off 
by  his  own  son,  aided  by  some  African 
pirates. 

Fiachda  II.,  the  wretched  parricide,  as- 
cended the  throne.  He  was  sumamed 
Fionsgothach,  from  fion,  wine,  and  sigoth, 
a  flower,  as  wine  made  of  flowers  was 
then  much  used.  I  should  rather,  with 
Bruodinus,  attribute  it  to  the  great  plenty 
of  wine  then  in  Ireland ;  for  to  me  it  seems 
clear  that  wine  was  formerly  made  among 
us.  The  Venerable  Bede  afllirms  their  use 
among  us ;  *  and  should  it  want  further 
support,  we  find  Irish  words  for  every  thing 
relative  to  this  precious  fruit,  as^w-amAMiw, 
a  vineyard,  fion-dioSf  a  wine-press,  Jion- 
chaor,  a  grape,  etc.,  so  that  it  is  with  some 
reason  I  aflirm  that  about  this  time  the 
culture  of  vines  was  much  improved  in 
Ireland.  After  an  administration  of  twenty 
years,  he  was  slain  in  battle  by  his  suc- 
cessor. 

The  victorious  Muinheamhoin,  of  the 
line  of  Heber,  is  acknowledged  as  the  next 
monarch.  He  was  so  called,  says  the 
Book  of  Munster,  from  instituting  the  mili- 
tary order  of  the  Golden  Chain,  by  which 
knights  were  for  the  future  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  rest  of  the  prime  nobility. 
For,  says  my  author,  muince  signifies  a 
collar  of  gold.  He  caused  also  helmets 
and  armour  to  be  made,  and  ornamented 
with  pure  gold.  The  gold  in  the  front  of 
the  helmet  was  in  form  of  a  crescent,  and 
ductile.  Many  of  these  I  have  seen,  and 
had  one  in  my  possession  weighing  two 
ounces,  for  a  considerable  time.  The  cors- 
lets were  also  cased  with  pure  ductile  gold. 
A  silversmith  of  the  city  of  Limerick  bought 
one  of  these  from  a  farmer  near  Tulla,  in 
the  county  of  Clare,  a  few  years  ago ;  it 
weighed  nine  ounces ;  and  many  more 
were  supposed  to  be  found  at  the  same 
time. 

Coats  of  mail  studded  and  ornamented 
with  gold  we  find  in  very  early  use,  and 

*  Histor.  Eecles.  Brit.  lib.  i.  cap.  1. 


--'^^K- 


A.  M..3075.] 


HISTOBY  OF  IRELAND. 


57 


even  among  nations  not  highly  civilized ; 
thus  Virgil — 

Loricam  consertam  hamis,  Auroqae  trilicem; 

and  again- 
Nee  duplici  sqaama  Lorica  fidelis  et  anro. 
And  the  great  antiquity  of  chains  of  gold 
round  the  neck,  and  of  rings  on  the  fingers, 
will  appear  by  Pharaoh  ordering  both  to 
be  presented  to  Joseph,  od  interpretmg  his 
dream.*  We  find  also  in  the  army  of 
Moses,  that  the  chief  commanders  wore 
chains  of  gold  round  the  necLf 

The  very  great  plenty  of  gold  in  Ireland 
in  these  early  days,  and  in  times  much 
nearer  our  own,  will  not  be  disputed  but 
by  such  as  shut  their  ears  to  the  voice  of 
truth.  They  acquired  it  from  native  mines, 
and  they  extracted  both  it  and  silver  from 
their  mines  of  copper  and  lead.  They  ac- 
cumulated quantities  of  gold  by  their  trafiic 
with  Spain  and  with  Africa ;  hence  their 
shields  of  pure  silver ;  hence  their  helmets 
and  corslets  cased  with  gold ;  hence  the 
numbers  of  swords  of  mixed  metal  with 
gold  handles,  to  this  day  found  in  bogs  and 
morasses ;  hence  the  hostages  detained  at 
the  courts  of  our  monarchs,  having  their 
shackles  of  pure  gold  ;  hence  the  very  har- 
nesses for  horses  were  ornamented  with 
gold !  Lord  Straflford  presented  to  Charles 
I.  the  bit  of  a  bridle  found  in  Ireland  of 
solid  gold,  weighing  ten  ounces  ;t  nay,  long 
after  the  Norman  invasion,  we  find  an  act 
of  the  Little  Parliament  of  the  Pale,  prohib- 
iting the  use  of  gold  in  horse  furniture,  ex- 
cept to  persons  of  a  certain  rank !  But  should 
further  doubts  remain  as  to  this  matter,  I 
have  but  to  refer  my  reader  to  more  ample 
proofs.f 

Aldergoid  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
monarchy.  As  Muineamhoin  distinguished 
the  knights  firom  the  other  nobility,  by 
chains  of  gold  round  the  neck,  so  this  prince 
directed  that  the  ollamhs,  or  doctors  in 
different  sciences,  should  constantly  wear 
a  gold  ring ;  hence,  says  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell,  he  was  called  Aildergoid,  from 
failge,  or  fain,  a  ring,  otr,  gold,  and  doid, 

*  Genesis  xli.  42.  t  Numbera  xxxi.  50. 

t  Warner's  Introduction  to  Irish  History,  p.  49. 

11  lutrodaction  to  Irish  History,  from  page  206  to  215. 

8 


the  hand.  This  continued  ever  after  a  cus- 
tom in  Ireland,  and  when  Charlemagne 
founded  the  universities  of  Pavia  and  Paris, 
in  the  eighth  century,  Claude  Clement  and 
John  Scott,  both  Irishmen,  were  appointed 
regents,  and  then  for  the  first  time  intro- 
duced on  the  continent  the  birede,  biretrum, 
or  doctor's  cap,  and  the  gold  ring,  as  the 
insignia  of  doctors,  and  by  which  they 
preceded  all  ranks  but  the  nobility.  After 
a  reign  of  twelve  years,  he  fell  in  battle  by 
the  arm  of  his  successor.  He  is  called  by 
GioUa  Caomhain,  Aldergoid  a  Ndoid,  or 
Aldergoid  of  the  Hand,  from  this  insti- 
tution. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Mistakes  with  respect  to  Irish  history  corrected — 
Their  mode  of  succession  no  proof  of  barbarity — 
Possessed  arts  and  sciences  in  an  eminent  degree 
in  those  early  days — Their  fiequent  feuds  no 
proof  to  the  contrary. 

Before  we  proceed  further  in  our  his- 
tory, it  becomes  necessary  to  advert  to, 
and  refute  some  specious  objections  made 
against  our  early  annals.'  The  few  foreign- 
ers who  have  touched  on  our  history,  but 
particularly  British  writers,  represent  it  as 
that  of  a  barbarous  nation,  in  the  perusal 
of  which  nothing  new  or  interesting  is  to 
be  met  with,  but  shocking  recitals  of  princes 
murdering  each  other,  and  by  this  means 
succeeding  to  the  throne.  From  prejudiced 
people,  and  a  people  ignorant  of  the  lan- 
guage and  antiquities  of  the  country,  such 
suggestions  may  pass ;  but  when  I  behold 
a  gentleman  of  Mr.  O'Connor's  abilities, 
joining  in  the  cry,  I  cannot,  I  own,  sup- 
press my  feelings.  In  his  dissertation  pre- 
fixed to  Ogygia  Vindicated,  being  a  pos- 
thumous work  of  the  learned  CFlaherty, 
and  in  his  notes  on  this  work,  he  represents 
the  ancient  state  of  Ireland  very  different 
from  what  it  was.  He  says  that,  being  orig- 
inally peopled  by  Celtic  and  Scytho-Celtic 
colonies  from  North  and  South  Britain, 
they  retained  the  same  barbarous  customs ; 
and  as  in  this  assertion  he  contradicts  all 
the  antiquities  of  his  country,  he  chooses 


58 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3075. 


rather  to  accuse  their  authors  of  imposition 
and  ignorance  than  himself  of  wilful  error. 
Though  in  one  place  he  confesses  that  the 
Phoenicians,  who  instructed  our  ancestors 
in  the  art  of  narigation,  must  have  also 
communicated  letters  to  them,  yet  in  another 
he  affirms  that  it  was  not  till  the  fifth  age 
of  Christianity  that  letters  were  introduced 
among  them,  by  the  Roman  missionaries, 
when  they  laid  aside  their  Beth-Luis-Nion, 
and  their  ogham !     It  happens,  however, 
unluckily  for  the  assumption,  that  this  very 
Beth-Luis-Nion,  which   he  tells   us   they 
then  laid  aside,  was  the  letter  they  then 
used,  and  the  letter  we  use  at  this  day  1 
Will  any  man  advance,  that  in  the  fifth 
century,  the  Latin  alphabet  consisted  of  no 
more  than  seventeen  letters  ?     But  what 
makes  it  the  more  extraordinary  is,  that  we 
have   reason  to   believe,  except  in  what 
might  regard  church  discipline,  the  Roman 
alphabet  was  seldom  used.     In  my  copy 
of  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  in  a  copy  of  Hippo- 
crates, and  in  many  early  records  on  vel- 
lum, I  find  the  Latin  written  in  Irish  charac- 
ters.    True  it  is  that  in  the  days  of  St. 
Patrick  they  altered  the  arrangement  of 
their  letters ;  instead  of  the  consonants,  as 
in  the  scheme  I  have  already  given,  they 
commenced  with  the  letter  Ailim,  or  A ; 
but  surely  it  cannot  be  inferred  from  this 
alteration  that  they  took  a  new  alphabet ! 
Nor  can  he  be  justified  when  he  tells  us 
that  our  "  ancient  monarchs  were  chiefly 
employed  in  distressing  and  killing  each 
other,  and  that  they  seemed  to  have  lost  in 
Ireland  those  arts  they  brought  from  the 
continent."     Other    private   opinions,  ob- 
truded in  the  teeth  of  ancient  history,  I 
shall  pass  by,  as  they  must  fall  of  them- 
selves.    But  it  becomes  my  indispensable 
duty  as   an  historian,  to   animadvert  on 
whatever  seems  to  carry  a  specious  ap- 
pearance of  reason  and  probability. 

Constitutional  pride,  joined  to  innate 
bravery,  seem  to  have  been  ever  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  Irish  nation.  This  pride, 
constantly  fed  by  the  poems  of  the  bards, 
and  by  the  reflection  of  their  high  antiquity 
and  noble  blood,  made  them  at  all  times — 
even  to  our  own  days — ready  to  sacrifice 


every  other  consideration  to  it  The  un- 
happy differences  that  first  broke  out  ia 
Ireland,  in  the  very  infancy  of  the  Milesian 
government,  were  constantly  kept  alive 
from  the  same  cause.  The  line  of  Heber, 
as  being  the  elder  branch,  imagined  they 
had  an  exclusive  right  to  the  monarchy. 
The  other  branches  contended  that  in  a 
government  where  superior  abilities  were 
ever  preferred  to  lineal  succession,  their 
claims  were  unexceptionable.  As  is  often 
the  case  in  private  quarrels  between  people 
equally  brave  and  proud,  neither  will  re- 
cede, so  with  these,  it  would  be  deemed  in- 
famy in  any  successor  to  recede  in  the 
least  from  the  pretensions  of  his  house,  or 
to  omit  any  opportunity  of  enforcing  them. 
Yet  even  in  these  civil  commotions  (gen- 
erally the  most  sanguinary)  there  was  ob- 
served a  conduct  peculiarly  striking  which 
seemed  to  elevate  their  characters  beyond 
the  neighbouring  nations. 

To  outlive  a  general  defeat — ^to  exist 
after  the  loss  of  a  diadem,  was  to  entail  an 
eternal  disgrace  on  the  family.  It  was 
acknowledged  by  the  princes ;  it  was  con- 
stantly practised  by  them ;  and  in  this  they 
were  imitated  by  the  knights  and  the  great 
nobility.  Is  buane  blath,  na  Saoighal — 
"  Glory  is  preferable  to  the  world,"  was  a 
constant  maxim  among  our  heroes.  It 
was  the  answer  of  Cucullain,  when  re- 
quested by  his  officers  to  avoid  engaging 
in  the  fatal  battle  of  Muirtheimhe,  till  the 
arrival  of  Connal  Ceamach.*  And  he  fur- 
ther observed,  that  his  vows  as  a  knight 
obliged  him  to  decline  no  engagement. 
When  Eugene  the  Great,  in  the  second 
century,  fell  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Magh- 
Lena,  his  body,  pierced  by  a  thousand 
wounds,  was  raised  on  the  shields  of  his 
enemies,  and  brought  toGaull,the  monarch's 
general — "  Lay  down  the  body  of  the  King 
of  Munster,  (says  he,)  for  he  died  as  a  hero 
should !"!  In  a  word,  not  to  multiply  in- 
stances, but  a  single  example  occurs  in  the 
Irish  history  of  a  prince's  surviving  the  loss 
of  his  diadem,  and  this  was  Malachy  II.,  in 
the  commencement  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Thus  the  death  of  the  unsuccessful  com- 

*  Catha  Maigh-Muirtheimhe.  I  lonsidhe  Magh-Lena. 


A.M.  3075.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


59 


petitor,  instead  of  being  a  stain  on  our  an- 
nals, only  higher  blazons  the  national  char- 
acter of  our  princes !  Add  to  this,  that 
ancient  history,  in  general,  shows  that  few 
princes  died  peaceable  deaths,  which  gave 
occasion  to  the  remarks  of  Juvenal,  Sat.  X : 

Ad  generam  Cereris,  sine  csfide  et  vulnere  pauci 
Descendunt  reges,  et  sicca  morte  Tyraani. 

Nor  should  the  remarkable  saying  of  Ves- 
pasian be  forgotten  on  this  occasion — 
"  Stantem  (says  he)  imperatorem  mori  op- 
portet !"  But  if  the  violent  deaths  of  these 
different  princes,  instead  of  being  a  stain  on 
our  annals,  demonstrate  only  their  romantic 
bravery  and  exalted  notions,  the  behaviour 
of  the  victors  is  the  highest  proof  of  Mile- 
sian beneficence,  the  eternal  concomitant  of 
real  bravery.  On  the  death  of  the  defeated 
prince — for  he  reserved  his  life  till  he  saw 
all  lost,  and  then  rushed  into  the  midst  of 
the  enemy — the  marshal  who  attended,  to 
show  where  he  was,  struck  his  standard, 
which  was  the  signal  for  retreat,  when  all 
carnage  immediately  ceased,  and  the  de- 
feated party  returned  home.  No  estates 
were  confiscated;  nothing  was  forfeited; 
no  advantages  taken  of  the  widow  and  the 
orphan !  The  children  or  dependants  of 
the  deceased  prince  were  not  seized,  or 
their  territories  or  estates  usurped.  The 
glory  of  monarchy  alone  stimulated  their 
ambition ! 

From  this  account,  we  plainly  see  that 
the  violent  deaths  of  our  different  princes 
in  battle  should  not,  and  ought  not,  to  be 
attributed  to  cruelty  or  barbarity ;  and  up- 
on retrospection  it  will  appear  (contrary  to 
what  Mr.  O'Connor  asserts)  that  they  were 
employed  in  something  more  rational  than 
«  distressing  and  killing  each  other."  The 
very  alliance  formed  between  our  first 
prince  Heremon  and  the  Picts,  is  as  clear 
a  proof  of  wisdom  and  policy  as  the  annals 
of  history  can  produce.  Nay,  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Damnonii  we  find  ob- 
jects highly  worthy  of  attention.    If  the 


northern  nations  of  Europe  boast  the  early 
use  of  arts  and  letters,  does  not  the  history 
of  our  people  justify  and  explain  this? 
From  this  history  also  we  can  trace  the 
origin  of  solemnly  inaugurating  our  princes, 
the  use  of  the  sword  and  javelin,  and  of  the 
horse  in  war.  In  the  preceding  account  of 
our  Milesian  princes,  every  proof  is  exhib- 
ited of  a  wise  and  polished  people.  The 
nation  classed,  by  which  every  rank  in  life 
was  ascertained,  and  that  by  a  simple 
sumptuary  law,  must  proclaim  an  adminis- 
tration of  wisdom !  Mines  explored  and 
worked  to  perfection — gold  and  silver  bla- 
zoning on  the  arms  of  the  military — ^beau- 
tiful colours  invented — and  the  celebrated 
dye  of  the  Tyrians  improved,  surely  dem- 
onstrates a  flourishing  commercial  people. 
Lettered  men  preceded  the  first  nobility — 
for  as  in  China  at  this  day,  they  seem  to 
have  been  also  the  ministers  of  state — and 
even  the  form  of  passing  doctors,  as  now 
everywhere  practised,  being  at  so  remote 
a  period  established  among  us,  will  incon- 
testably  proclaim  a  learned  people !  To 
conclude,  is  it  possible  to  show  stronger 
proofs  of  unbounded  humanity  than  the 
establishment  of  houses  of  hospitality  for 
the  relief  of  the  stranger  and  the  distressed ; 
assigning  to  their  support  large  tracts  of 
land  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom,  and 
ranking  the  beatachs,  or  keepers  of  such 
houses,  next  to  the  prime  nobility !  All 
which  plainly  shows — ^  that  they  did  not 
lose  in  Ireland  those  arts  they  brought 
from  the  continent  T'  In  countries  where 
the  fine  arts  are  protected,  war  will  not  in- 
jure, much  less  destroy  them.  The  reign  of 
Francis  I.  was  one  continued  scene  of  war, 
yet  he  first  introduced  letters  into  France. 
The  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  was  long  and 
bloody,  and  still  learning  was  never  more 
flourishing  there.  Britain  and  GJermany, 
equally  involved  in  war,  yet  still  protected 
letters  ;  while  Ireland,  in  peace  for  near  a 
century,  for  want  of  countenancing,  science 
has  in  a  manner  fairly  left  her ! 


BOOK    IV. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  reign  of  Ollamh-Fodhla — Reforms  the  consti- 
tution, and  establishes  the  famous  Feis'Tamh- 
rach — Their  manner  of  assembling,  and  the  ob> 
jects  of  their  deliberations — Other  assemblies  of 
an  inferior  nature — Of  Fion,  Slanotl,  Geide, 
Fiach  III.,  Beamgal,  and  OlioU,  succeeding 
monarchs. 

EocHAiDH,  the  son  of  Fiachadh,  son  of 
Seadhna,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  after  the  battle 
of  Tara,  was  solemnly  inaugurated,  on  the 
Liagh-Fail,  monarch  of  Ireland.  The  reign 
of  this  prince,  and  the  great  reforms  he 
made  in  the  constitution,  form  a  memorable 
epoch  in  Irish  history.  In  the  preceding 
reigns  the  reader  must  have  perceived  the 
gradual  advances  to  politeness  and  sound 
legislation.  The  completion  of  this  grand 
system  was  reserved  for  the  present  time. 
Eochaidh  was  a  prince  of  great  erudition, 
and  on  this  account  he  got  the  name  of  Ol- 
lamh-Fodhla, or  the  Learned  Doctor,  or 
Legislator ;  and  as  he  is  better  known  by 
this,  than  his  real  name,  by  it  we  shall  for 
the  future  call  him.  As  Mumhain,  or 
Munster,  took  its  name  from  Eochaidh- 
M umbo,  so  did  Ulladh,  or  Ulster,  by  inflec- 
tion, from  Fodhla:  hence  it  would  seem 
that  Munster  was  so  called,  from  its  supe- 
rior power,  (Mumho  importing  power  and 
strength,)  and  Ulster  from  its  learning. 

Fraught  big  with  the  mighty  projects  of 
destroying  national  feuds,  and  transmitting 
the  monarchy  to  his  own  immediate  suc- 
cessors, in  exclusion  of  the  other  branches 
of  the  royal  line,  he  began  this  great  re- 
form by  establishing  a  triennial  parliament 
at  Tara,  to  form  general  laws  for  the  whole 
kingdom ;  and  during  which  meeting  the 
provincial  kings  and  feudatory  lords  were 
considered  as  counsellors  to  the  monarch 


onlv.  To  avoid  the  least  confiision  or 
cause  of  complaint,  the  arrangement  of  the 
people  was  such  as  announced  the  highest 
degree  of  politeness.  The  Miodh-Cuarta, 
where  the  chief  assembly  met,  was  three 
hundred  feet  long,  thirty  cubits  high,  fifty 
in  width,  and  had  fourteen  doors.*  The 
monarch's  throne  was  elevated  in  the  cen- 
tre of  this  room,  with  his  face  to  the  west. 
The  King  of  Leinster  had  his  at  a  proper 
distance,  but  lower,  and  fronting  the  mon- 
arch ;  the  Munster  king  was  on  his  left 
hand ;  the  King  of  Ulster  on  his  right ;  and 
the  King  of  Connaught  behind  him.  The 
reason  why  this  last  place  was  assigned 
the  Conacian  prince,  was  his  being  of  the 
Belgic  race.  Long  seats  were  placed 
for  the  other  orders  in  the  state.  In  the 
first  row  were  placed  the  oUamhs,  or  doc- 
tors in  sciences,  and  which  rank  the  Chris- 
tian bishops  afterwards  held.  The  heredi- 
tary marshal,  standard-bearer,  and  treas- 
urer, had  places  allotted  to  them ;  next 
came  the  chief  of  the  nobility,  at  the  head 
of  whom  were  placed  the  knights ;  after 
these  the  beatachs,  and  representatives  of 
towns  and  cities.  Deputies  from  the  Picts 
and  Brigantes  of  Britain  had  also  seats  al- 
lotted them  in  this  assembly. 

This  most  august  convention  met  three 
days  before  the  great  feast  of  Samhuin  (i.  e. 
before  the  first  of  November.)  The  two 
first  days  were  spent  in  visits  and  friendly 
intercourse;  the  third  in  celebrating  the 
feast  of  Samhuin,  or  the  moon  in  the  tem- 
ple of  Tlachta;  just  as  their  Phoenician 
ancestors  met  in  the  house  of  Rimmon,t 
i.  e.  of  the  moon,  from  re,  the  moon,  and 

*  Dinacbeanchas-Ward,  p.  359;    Keating,  p.  1,  etc. 
t  2  Kings  y.  18. 


A.  M .  3110.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


61 


miiadhf  an  image;  hence  reamhan^  pro- 
phecying  by  the  moon!  The  assembly 
was  announced  by  sacred  odes,  set  to  a 
grand  variety  of  musical  instruments.  In 
the  days  of  St.  Patrick  this  meeting  in  the 
presence  of  Loagaire  the  monarch,  was 
compared  for  grandeur  and  magnificence 
to  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  King  of  Babylon, 
on  the  plains  of  Dura.*  The  Druids  hav- 
ing finished  their  rites  and  mysteries,  the 
great  fire  of  Samhuin  was  lighted  up,  and 
the  deities  solemnly  invoked  to  bless  the 
national  councils.  The  three  succeeding 
days  were  spent  in  entertainments  and  fes- 
tivities, after  which  the  national  business, 
in  all  its  departments,  commenced.  We 
read  with  astonishment  of  the  wonderful 
order  and  regularity  observed  in  these  great 
festivals.  First,  notice  was  given  by  sound 
of  trumpet,  when  the  esquires  of  the  nobility, 
and  of  the  other  orders  of  the  state,  pre- 
sented themselves  at  the  door  of  the  grand 
hall,  and  gave  in  the  shields  and  ensigns  of 
their  different  masters  to  the  deputies  of  the 
great-marshal  of  the  crown ;  and,  by  direc- 
tion of  the  king-at-arms,  they  were  ranged 
according  to  the  qualities  of  the  difierent 
owners.  A  second  blast  of  trumpet,  at  a 
proper  distance  of  time,  gave  notice  to  the 
target-bearers  of  the  general  officers  to  de- 
liver up  their  insignia  also ;  and  on  the 
third  sound,  the  princes,  the  nobility,  etc., 
appeared,  and  were  immediately  seated 
under  their  diflferent  arms,  without  the  least 
disorder  or  confusion. 

The  proper  business  of  this  first  assem- 
bly was  the  police  of  the  kingdom,  foreign 
alliances,  peace  and  war,  and  a  most  strict 
examination  of  the  national  records.  Was 
any  nobleman  or  other  treated  unjustly  by 
his  prince,  here  was  his  sovereign  appeal. 
Did  any  prince  act  contrary  to  the  laws, 
or  unjustly  oppress  a  weaker  power,  to  this 
great  assembly  they  appealed  for  justice, 
and  had  it !  Princes  who  seemed  refrac- 
tory were  soon  brought  to  order,  as,  in 
such  cases,  not  only  the  monarch,  but  every 
order  of  the  state  were  to  send  proportion- 
able forces  to  reduce  the  delinquent  to  rea- 
son.   Here  the  records  of  the  nation  under- 

•  Triaa  Thaumat  Vita  SL  Eumold.  Prim.  Eel.  Brit.,  etc. 


went  a  severe  scrutiny,  and  the  transac- 
tions of  the  difierent  provincial  kings  were 
carefully  compared  with  each  other.  The 
most  severe  punishments  awaited  such 
senachies  as  should  be  convicted  of  the 
least  falsehood  ;  but  in  every  other  respect, 
their  persons  and  properties  were  inviola- 
ble. In  the  most  violent  civil  dissensions 
their  houses  were  asylums,  and  their  lands 
and  flocks  free  from  depredation ;  and  it  is 
most  unexampled,  that  in  ev6ry  revolution 
the  nation  experienced,  even  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  last  century,  a  single  instance 
does  not  occur  of  a  senachie's  being  con- 
victed of  misrepresentation,  or  this  law  be- 
ing violated.  Nay,  even  at  periods  when 
the  number  of  bards  became  a  real  burden 
to  the  kingdom,  and  their  insolence  drew 
on  them  national  resentment,  they  were 
punished  by  banishment,  and  by  a  reduc- 
tion of  their  number  only.  In  the  present 
assembly  it  was  decreed  that,  for  the  future, 
the  number  of  ollamhs  or  doctors  in  differ- 
ent sciences  should  not  exceed  two  hundred 
of  each  order.  All .  the  difierent  records 
of  the  kingdom  were  here  examined ;  and 
this  was  the  first  rise  of  the  famous  Psalter 
of  Tara,  being  an  epitome  of  unerring  facts, 
drawn  from  the  other  records  of  the  king- 
dom, and  which  it  was  looked  upon  as 
criminal  to  form  the  least  doubt !  Here  it 
was  that  this  great  prince  delivered  in  the 
origin,  the  exploits,  and  migrations  of  the 
Milesian  race  till  their  landing  in  Ireland, 
all  written  with  his  own  hand,  and  entered 
into  the  Senachas  More^  the  Great  Antiqui- 
ty, or  Psalter  of  Tara,  so  called  from  this 
place  of  their  meeting.  In  order  to  have 
the  national  history  carried  on  in  the  most 
clear  and  unexceptionable  manner,  it  was 
agreed  that  for  the  futuje  each  province 
should  have  its  history  apart,  and  that 
nothing  should  be  deemed  authentic  but 
what  was  contained  in  said  annals,  which 
were  to  be  laid  before  this  parliament  every 
third  year ;  hence  the  Psalter  of  Cashell, 
or  Book  of  Munster ;  the  psalters  of  Ard- 
mach,  and  Tuam;  the  books  of  Leath- 
Cuin;  and  from  these,  the  books  Drom- 
sneachta,  Gleandaloch,  of  Conquests,  of 
Gioalla-Caomhain,  etc.  And  could  we  sup- 


62 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3176. 


pose  our  national  records  to  want  further 
proofs  of  authenticity,  the  consideration 
that  the  kingdom  was  for  the  most  part 
unhappily  divided  into  parties,  and  yet  all 
agreeing  as  to  facts,  without  a  single  dis- 
sent, should  be  deemed  irrefragable. 

Assemblies  of  an  inferior  nature  met  also 
at  Tara..  A  court  of  justice  was  establish- 
ed, where  appeals  from  the  provinces  were 
heard  and  determined;  this  was  called 
Realta  na  Fhileadh.  Even  merchants  and 
artizans  formed  laws  for  the  expanding  of 
commerce,  and  the  improvement  of  manu- 
factures. But  as  nothing  contributes  more 
to  soften  the  manners  of  a  proud  and  war- 
like people  than  an  easy  converse  with  the 
fair,  this  great  object  was  not  overlooked 
by  our  present  great  reformer.  The  ladies 
made  a  conspicuous  figure  at  these  meet- 
ings. The  provincial  queens  and  their  at- 
tendants held  public  assemblies,  and  the 
place  of  their  meeting  was  called  Grianan 
na  Ninghean,  or  the  palace  of  the  ladies. 
The  smallest  insult  offered  to  any  one, 
especially  the  women,  during  the  whole 
session,  was  punishable  by  death,  and  out 
of  the  power  of  the  monarch  to  pardon. 
Besides  all  these  reforms,  this  great  legis- 
lator founded  a  university  at  Tara,  which 
for  rank  and  dignity  preceded  all  others  of 
the  kingdom,  and  which  he  called  Mur- 
Ollamhan,  or  the  college  of  doctors;  as 
such  as  took  this  last  degree  here,  preceded 
all  others  of  the  same  rank  in  other  parts 
of  the  kingdom.  Something  like  this  St. 
Patrick  practised  when  he  fixed  upon  Ar- 
magh as  the  primacy  of  Ireland,  by  found- 
ing at  the  same  time  a  university  there,  the 
doctors  of  which  took  precedence  of  rank 
of  all  others.  Thus  did  this  great  prince 
by  a  code  of  laws,  founded  on  the  strictest 
principles  of  justice,  lay  the  foundation  of 
a  mighty  monarchy,  and  of  a  general  re- 
formation, by  destroying  all  party  distinc- 
tions. Greece,  Italy,  in  short  no  other 
polite  nation  of  antiquity  can  boast  so  per- 
fect a  legislator ;  and  though  party  and 
faction,  as  we  shall  see,  from  time  to  time, 
suspended  the  force  of  these  laws,  yet  the 
nation  never  lost  sight  of  them.  At  every 
future   period  in  which  the  people  were 


blessed  with  a  monarch  of  abilities,  his  first 
object  was,  the  revival  of  these  great  trien- 
nial meetings,  or  Feis-Tamhrah.  This  re- 
nowned legislator  long  enjoyed  the  fruits 
of  his  labour  and  sound  policy,  and  after  a 
peaceable  and  glorious  reign  of  forty  years 
died,  leaving  the  succession  to  his  eldest  son. 

Fion  was  inaugurated  with  great  solem- 
nity. He  is  called  by  all  our  writers  Fion- 
nachta ;  but  the  adjunct  Nachta,  or  Sneach- 
ta,  was  added  to  his  real  name,  and  signifies 
snow,  as  an  unusual  quantity  fell  every  win- 
ter during  his  administration.  We  find 
nothing  particular  recorded  of  him  except 
his  liberality,  noticed  in  the  Book  of  Reigns ; 
but  we  must  suppose  on  account  of  the 
length  of  his  governing,  and  the  peaceable- 
ness  of  his  exit,  that  he  steadily  pursued 
the  maxims  of  his  father.  He  was  taken 
off  by  a  fever  in  his  palace  of  Tara,  after  a 
reign  of  twenty  years. 

His  brother  was  his  successor.  He  is 
distinguished  by  the  epithet  of  Slanoll,  or 
All-healthy,  on  account  of  the  very  few 
who  died  in  his  administration.  He  died 
in  the  house  of  Moidh-Cuarta,  after  a  reign 
of  seventeen  years.  We  are  told  that, 
forty  years  after  his  decease,  his  body  was 
dug  up  by  his  son  Olioll,  and  found  pure 
and  uncorrupted. 

Geide,  sumamed  Oll-Golhach,  or  the 
Strong  Voice,  and  youngest  son  of  Ollamh- 
Fodhla,  was  the  next  monarch.  But  his 
nephew  could  not  patiently  bear  this  double 
exclusion  of  what  he  thought  his  right,  and 
therefore  raised  great  disturbances  in  the 
state.  Being  more  active  and  vigorous 
than  the  monarch,  he  ceased  not  his  at- 
tempts till  he  at  length  slew  him  in  battle, 
and  thus  attained  the  summit  of  his  wishes 
and  ambition. 

Fiachadh  III.,  the  son  of  Fionnachta,  son 
of  Ollamh-Fodhla,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  succeed- 
ed his  uncle,  and  reigned  twenty  years, 
according  to  the  Book  of  Reigns.  His 
government  was  frequently  disturbed  by 
the  son  of  his  predecessor.  Many  bloody 
battles  were  fought,  and  feats  of  great 
prowess  performed ;  but  at  length  he  fell 
in  battle,  a  sacrifice  to  the  manes  of  his 
uncle. 


A.  M.  3244.] 


HISTORY  OF  lEELAND. 


«3 


Bearagall,  the  son  of  Geide,  reigned 
twelve  years.  He  made  fierce  war  on  the 
posterity  of  Ith,  whose  chiefs  he  banished 
the  kingdom;  but  at  length  the  sword  made 
way  for  his  successor. 

OlioU,  the  son  of  Slanoll,  son  of  Ollamh- 
Fodlah,  reigned  ten  years,  and  was  slain  by 
Siorna,  of  the  Ime  of  Heremon ;  and  thus 
by  unhappy  family  feuds,  were  the  effects 
of  all  the  wise  institutions  of  the  great 
OUamh-Fodhla,  if  not  defeated,  at  least 
suspended  for  a  time,  and  the  monarchy 
wrested  from  his  family.  What  a  lesson 
of  instruction,  and  a  fund  for  reflection ! 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  reign  of  Siorna — Of  Rotheachta,  and  the  rise 
of  military  chariots — Elim — Giallacha — Art,  and 
the  origin  of  fortifications  in  Ireland — Nuadha — 
Breasrigh  —  Eochaidh  IV. — Great  intercourse 
between  the  Irish  and  Carthaginians — Fionn  II. 
— Seadhna — Simon — Duach — Muiredheach. 

The  convulsions  raised  in  the  state  in 
the  infancy  of  the  Milesian  government, 
and  unhappily  fed  and  cherished  by  a  per- 
petual flow  of  maUgnant  humours  for  more 
than  three  centuries,  we  have  seen,  through 
the  astonishing  abilities  of  one  prince,  if 
not  totally  subdued,  at  least  completely 
mastered  for  a  time ;  and  instead  of  a  kind 
of  elective,  an  hereditary  monarchy  estab- 
lished, the  most  likely  to  give  vigour  and 
permanence  to  every  state.  We  now  vnth 
regret  turn  to  fresh  scenes  of  tumult  and 
slaughter,  the  fatal  effects  of  ambition. 
But  the  history  of  nations  is  the  history  of 
morality.  It  is  the  clare  obscure  of  human 
nature ;  and  the  duty  of  an  historian  is  to 
paint  men  and  nations,  not  as  they  should 
be,  but  as  they  really  are.  But  notwith- 
standing the  scenes  of  contention  we  shall 
be  obliged  to  exhibit,  we  can  still  trace 
improvements  in  arts  civil  and  military. 
Indeed,  in  countries  where  an  exact  sub- 
ordination is  established,  they  can  never 
experience  those  dreadful  calamities  gen- 
erally concomitant  on  frequent  changes  of 
government  in  less  polished  states.  It  is 
the  partizans  of  both  sides  only  that  feel 


these  effects.  The  literati,  the  merchant, 
the  artizan,  and  agrarian  uninterruptedly 
pursue  their  different  avocations ;  and  these 
are  the  most  useful  people  in  every  state. 

Siorna,  called  Saoghlach,  or  the  Long- 
lived,  (from  having  reached  the  age  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty,)  the  son  of  Dein,  grand- 
son of  Rotheachtingh,  (says  the  Leabhar- 
Lecan,)  of  the  house  of  Heremon,  was 
solemnly  crowned,  on  the  Laigh-Fail,  mon- 
arch of  Ireland.  The  better  to  insure  to 
himself  the  crown,  he  marched  an  army 
into  Ulster,  and  attacked  and  defeated  the 
Irians  at  Aras  Keilter,  now  the  city  of 
Downpatrick.  Some  branches  of  the  Belgae, 
leaguing  vnth  that  people,  he  also  chastised. 
Loagaire,  the  son  of  Ludhadh,  of  the  race 
of  Heber,  who  had  called  in  to  his  assist- 
ance the  Fomharaigh  Africans,  or  rather 
Carthaginians,  he  also  defeated ;  and  killed 
the  African  chief,  named  Ciasral,  the  son 
of  Dorela.  After  a  glorious  and  triumph- 
ant rule  of  twenty-one  years  he  fell  in  the 
battle  of  Aillin.*  Of  this  prince  Siorna,  the 
Leabhar-Lecan  tells  us  that  he  drew  up  his 
army  to  greater  advantage  than  any  pre- 
ceding prince ;  and  that  by  this  means,  in 
the  battle  of  Montrogadh,  he  defeated  the 
troops  of  Lugar  the  African,  which  con- 
sisted of  coige-cathOf  that  is,  fifteen  thous- 
and men. 

Rotheachta  II.,  conqueror  of  the  race  of 
Heber,  was  proclaimed  monarch.  In  his 
days  the  use  of  carhuds,  or  chariots,  was 
first  introduced  into  Ireland.f  These  char- 
iots were  of  two  sorts :  the  first  used  by 
princes,  by  the  nobility,  and  by  the  ladies, 
highly  ornamented,  and  for  conveyance 
only;  the  other,  called  scarbud-scarradh, 
was  employed  in  war.  To  the  sides  and 
wheels  of  this  last  scythes  and  hooks  were 
fixed,  such  as  we  read  most  great  nations 
of  antiquity  used,  and  such  as  Caesar  tells 
us  were  employed  in  Britain  in  his  days. 
After  a  reign  of  seven  years  this  prince 
was  killed  by  li^tning  at  Don-Sobhaire. 
It  is  worthy  notice  that  in  the  year  of 
Rome  456,  the  Gauls  for  the  first  time  used 
these  armed  chariots  against  the  Romans. 

His  son  Elim  succeeded  him ;  but  his 

*  Ogygia,  p.  247.  t  Leabhar-Mnmhain. 


64 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3296. 


reign  was  short  and  turbulent,  being  cut  off 
in  the  first  year  of  his  administration  by 
his  successor. 

Giallacha,  of  the  house  of  Heremon,  held 
the  sceptre  for  nine  years,  when  the  sword 
made  way  for  his  competitor. 

Art,  the  son  of  Elim,  of  the  Heberian 
line,  was  the  next  monarch.  In  his  days, 
we  read  for  the  first  time  of  fortifications 
being  constructed  in  Ireland.  Around  the 
different  stations  in  which  he  garrisoned 
his  troops,  he  cut  deep  trenches,  and  raised 
high  breast-works  of  earth,  which  he  lined 
with  stone.  Into  these  trenches  he  con- 
veyed water,  by  subterranean  passages,  to 
a  considerable  depth,  and  the  entrances 
were  by  a  kind  of  wooden  bridges,  which, 
being  taken  up  at  night,  secured  them  from 
sudden  attacks.  He  completed  seven  of 
these  stations ;  but  in  after  periods,  partic- 
ularly in  the  Danish  wars,  these  duns  or 
fortifications,  were  amazingly  increased,  in- 
somuch that  several  parts  of  the  kingdom 
are  yet  encumbered  with  them.  Modems 
have  attributed  these  to  the  Danes,  but  we 
see  how  unjustly.  The  Psalter  of  Cashell 
tells  us  that  in  memory  of  this  invention  he 
got  the  epithet  Imlioch,  or  surrounded  by 
Stagnant  Water,  as  the  word  imports. 
He  was  a  very  warlike  prince,  and  defeat- 
ed the  Heremonians  in  several  battles,  but 
at  length  fell  in  that  of  Rathlin,  having 
reigned  twelve  years. 

Nuadha  Fionn-Fail,  of  the  house  of  He- 
remon, succeeded.  In  the  fourteenth  year 
of  his  administration  he  was  slain  in  battle 
by  the  hand  of  his  successor. 

Breasrigh,  the  son  of  Art,  son  of  Elim, 
of  the  line  of  Heber,  was  the  next  mon- 
arch. The  Psalter  of  Cashell  tells  us  that 
he  governed  the  kingdom  with  great  glory 
and  prudence,  and  defeated  the  Africans 
(who  we  see  were  employed  to  assist  the 
pretensions  of  his  house,  about  fifty  years 
earlier)  in  many  bloody  battles.  But  the 
career  of  his  glory  was  closed  by  the 
sword  of— 

Eochaidh  IV.,  the  son  of  Fin,  of  the  line 
of  Ith,  uncle  to  Milesius,  who  was  pro- 
claimed monarch.  His  reign  was  short, 
and  marked  by  a  most  fatal  plague  which 


carried  off  numbers  of  people,  fi-om  which 
he  got  the. surname  of  Apthach,  or  the 
Plague.  But  the  rapidity  of  this  disorder 
could  not  damp  the  fixe  of  ambition,  and 
we  read — ^indeed  with  astonishment— of 
his  falling  in  battle  in  the  first  year  of  his 
reign ! 

From  the  very  beginning  of  our  history 
we  find  the  Fomharaigh,  or  (as  it  literally 
signifies)  pirates,  frequently  mentioned ; 
and  nothing  is  clearer  than  that  these  peo- 
ple were  always  considered  as  Africans. 
This  is  expressed  as  full  as  words  can 
make  it,  by  all  our  antiquities,  as  the  Book 
of  Conquests,  of  Munster,  etc.  And  this  I 
think  the  more  proper  to  remark,  as  some 
modems  mention  them  as  Scandinavians ; 
whereas  the  real  time  of  the  invasion  of 
these  last  people  is  as  exactly  noted  by  our 
writers  as  that  of  the  Africans.  By  these 
Africans  it  is  manifest  no  other  people 
could  be  meant  but  the  Carthaginians,  as 
no  other  nation  of  Africa  was  then  known 
as  a  commercial  or  maritime  state.  And 
this  I  find  pointed  out  in  a  most  evident 
manner,  in  a  very  ancient  poem,  sometimes 
quoted  by  Dr.  Keating,  beginning  with 
"  Fuaruis  a  Saltar  Chasil,"  where  he  more 
than  twice  mentions  these  Afi'icans  by  the 
name  of  Fine-Fomharaice — ^i.  e.  the  Phoeni- 
cian Africans ;  words  which  clearly  point 
out  their  descent,  as  different  from  their 
country — ^not  as  indigenous,  but  as  a  trans- 
planted people.  Diodorus  tells  us  that  af- 
ter building  Gades,  near  the  Pillars  of  Her- 
cules, the  PhoBnicians  extended  their  dis- 
coveries along  the  African  coasts ;  but  one 
of  their  ships  being  driven  far  into  the 
ocean,  by  a  storm  that  lasted  many  days, 
they  at  length  landed  on  an  island  in  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  unparalleled  for  its  fertility 
and  temperature.  Aristotle  says  it  was 
discovered  by  the  Carthaginians,  that  it 
was  a  most  fertile  land,  and  many  days'  sail 
from  the  continent.  Strabo  tells  us  that 
this  Atlantic  isle  was  partly  possessed  by 
the  Carthaginians  ;  and  Herodotus  affirms 
that  they  drew  such  quantities  of  gold,  and 
other  commodities  from  it,  as  to  cause  them 
to  declare  it  death  to  discover  to  strangers 
its  situation,  or    this    gainful   commerce. 


A.  M.  3818.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


65 


What  lights  does  not  our  history  reverber- 
ate on  all  these  passages ! 

We  have  already  noticed  the  great  im- 
provements of  our  ancestors  in  arts,  manu- 
factures, and  commerce;  and  in  Africa 
and  in  Spain,  we  now  behold  the  great 
vent  for  their  commodities.  We  shall  find 
many  other  instances,  besides  the  last,  of 
the  plague's  breaking  out  in  Ireland — a 
disorder  at  all  times  unknown  in  Europe, 
except  when  communicated  from  Africa  or 
the  Levant.  The  history  of  Carthage  par- 
ticularly notes  the  times  at  which  this  dis- 
order raged  with  greatest  violence  among 
them ;  and  as  none  others  but  they  carried 
on  traffic  from  Africa,  it  is  evident,  I  think, 
that  from  thence  we  must  have  received  it. 
Add  to  this,  that  the  Gadelian  colony  when 
coming  from  Africa,  through  the  Streiits  to 
Galicia,  left  a  part  of  their  people  in  Ge- 
tulia,  who,  history  informs  us,  when  Dido 
landed  there,  spoke  to  her  in  the  Phoenician 
tongue,  and  of  course  must  have  informed 
this  commercial  people  of  this  great  mi- 
gration. Masters  of  the  sea,  and  of  part 
of  Spain,  Ireland  could  not  be  unknown  to 
them ;  and  the  reciprocation  of  advan- 
tages arising  from  commerce  to  both  peo- 
ple we  must  suppose  soon  confederated 
them.  Hence  every  new  improvement  in 
arts,  civil  or  military,  on  the  continent, 
found  its  way  to  Ireland  ;  hence  the  beau- 
tiful colours,  particularly  the  purple,  green, 
and  blue,  introduced  by  Tighemmas ;  hence 
the  discovery  of  mines,  and  the,  elegant 
fabric  for  arms  of  all  sorts;  hence  the 
amazing  plenty  of  gold  and  silver.  The 
products  of  these  manufactures  are  clearlv 
accounted  for ! 

But  that  no  possible  doubt  should  remain 
of  this  close  intercourse  between  the  Irish 
and  Carthaginians,  it  appears  that  Cartha- 
ginian swords  found  near  the  plains  of  Can- 
na?,  and  now  in  the  British  Museum,  and 
the  old  Irish  swords,  so  frequently  found  in 
bogs  and  morasses,  are,  as  to  make,  form, 
and  mixture  of  metals,  so  exactly  similar 
as  to  appear  to  have  come  out  of  the  same 
mint !  Governor  Pownal  compared  some 
Irish  swords  (in  the  possession  of  Lord 
Milton)  found  in  the  bog  of  Cullen,  in  the 

9 


county  of  Tipperary,  with  those  in  the 
British  Museum,  and  was  surprised  at  their 
similarity.*  He  requested  the  assay-mas- 
ter of  the  Mint  to  analyze  both.  He  did 
so,  and  found  the  proportion  of  mixture  of 
metals  so  exactly  corresponding,  that  he 
declared  they  must  have  been  cast  in  the 
same  furnace.  "  They  are  both  (says  he)  a 
mixture  of  copper,  of  iron,  and  perhaps  of 
some  zinc.  They  take  an  exquisite  fine 
polish,  and  carry  a  very  sharp  edge,  and 
are  firm  and  elastic.  They  are  so  pecu- 
liarly formed,  as  to  resist  any  kind  of  rust, 
as  appears  when  taken  out  of  bogs,  after 
lying  in  them  for  ages  T  Upon  the  whole, 
the  learned  governor  takes  it  for  granted 
that  our  Irish  swords  were  from  Carthage, 
and  brought  here  in  the  course  of  traffic ; 
but  as  our  annals  particularly  remark  the 
plenty  of  our  mines,  and  the  very  flourish- 
ing state  of  our  fabrics  for  arms,  the  can- 
did reader  will,  I  believe,  agree  with  me, 
that  from  us  they  were  supplied  veith  these, 
as  well  as  many  other  useful  articles  in 
commerce.  I  have  dwelt  the  more  partic- 
ularly on  this  fact,  as  this  correspondence 
will  greatly  contribute  to  elucidate  many 
passages  in  the  Irish  history,  as  well  as  in 
that  of  Carthage,  and  show  the  close  con- 
nection between  both  states.  The  most 
ancient  ofiensive  weapons,  next  to  sticks 
and  stones,  were  undoubtedly  of  brass — 
thus  Lucretius,  lib.  v. : — 

Arma  antiqua  manus,  ungues,  dentesque  fuere ; 
Et  lapides,  et  item  silvanim  fragmina,  rami. 
Posterius  ferri  vis  est,  serisque  reperta  : 
Sed  prior  aeris  quam  ferri,  cognitas  usus. 

Fion  II.,  son  of  Bratha,  a  descendant  of 
the  great  Ollamh-Fodhla,  of  the  race  of  Ir, 
by  right  of  conquest,  swayed  the  Irish 
sceptre  twenty-one  years.  Of  this  prince 
I  find  nothing  particular  mentioned,  but 
that  he  fell  as  usual  by  the  sword  of  his 
successor. 

Seadhna  II.,  son  of  Breasrigh,  son  of  ^ 
Art,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  ascended  the 
Irish  throne.  To  the  native  intrepidity  of 
the  Milesian  race  he  added  prudence  and 
policy.  He  wrote  a  code  of  laws  and  dis- 
cipline for  the  military,  which  was  a  stan- 

*  An  account  of  some  Irish  antiquities  read  before  the 
English  Autiquariaa  Society,  Feb.  10th,  1774. 


66 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3355. 


dard  for  many  succeeding  ages.  To  pre- 
vent oppression,  he  also  regulated  their 
pay,  from  the  colonel  to  the  common  sol- 
dier ;  and  to  prevent  the  occasion  of  dissi- 
pation, so  destructive  of  military  discipline, 
this  pay  was  part  in  money,  in  clothes, 
and  in  food,  as  practised  at  this  day.  From 
this  regulation  he  was  called  lonaruidh,  or 
the  Military  Stipend.  This  great  prince 
died  in  a  manner  unheard  of  before  in  Ire- 
land, for  his  limbs  were  torn  asunder  by 
command  of  his  successor.  Though  this 
is  the  earliest  account  extant  of  a  treatise 
on  tactics,  yet  we  find  it  well  considered 
by  succeeding  writers,  as  Mago,  among 
the  Carthaginians,  Arrian,  etc.,  among  the 
Greeks. 

The  cruel  Simon  Breac,  or  the  Speckled, 
of  the  house  of  Heremon,  after  a  turbulent 
and  factious  rule  of  six  years,  was  taken 
prisoner  by  Duach,  the  son  of  Seadhna, 
and  put  to  the  same  cruel  death  he  inflicted 
on  his  father. 

This  Duach,  called  Fionn,  or  the  White, 
held  the  reins  of  government  ten  years, 
and  then  resigned  both  life  and  crown  to 
the  superior  power  of — 

Muiredheach  Balgrach,  the  son  of  Si- 
mon. He  reigned  but  one  year,  and  was 
slain  by  Eadhna,  who  became  his  con- 
cessor. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  reign  of  Eadhna,  and  the  rise  of  mints  in  Ire- 
land— Lugha,  Sior-Laimh,  Eochaidh  Y.,  and  the 
difference  between  the  currachs  and  ships  of  the 
Irish — Eochaidh  invades  Greece — Eochaidh  VI., 
Lugha  II.,  Conning,  Art  II.,  Fiachadh  IV.,  Air- 
geadmhar,  Duach  II.,  Lugha  III. 

Eadhna  II.,  called  Dearg,  or  the  Red, 
the  son  of  Duach,  of  the  race  of  Heber, 
assumed  the  reins  of  government.  In  this 
reign  we  read  for  the  first  time  that  a  mint 
was  erected  and  money  coined  at  Airgiod- 
Ros,  on  the  banks  of  the  Suir,  where,  at 
our  earlier  periods,  shields  and  targets  of 
pure  silver  were  fabricated.  Before  this, 
gold  and  silver  were  disposed  of  as  mere 
buUion.    The  learned  foreigner  will,  no 


doubt,  reasonably  demand  why  are  not 
some  of  these  coins  preserved,  so  neces- 
sary to  the  illustration  of  our  history,  as 
we  know  numbers  belonging  to  other  pol- 
ished nations  have  been  ?  To  this  I  shall, 
for  answer,  observe,  that  in  A.  D.  1639,  a 
large  quantity  of  Irish  coins  were  discov- 
ered by  some  countrymen  at  Gleandaloch, 
in  the  county  of  Wicklow,  a  parcel  of 
which  fell  into  the  hands  of  Sir  James 
Ware.  Mr.  Harris  confesses  them  to  be 
of  great  antiquity,*  and  both  Ware,  Har- 
ris, and  Simon,!  ^'^ve  given  us  figures  of 
some  of  them ;  and  they  all  agree  as  to  the 
very  early  use  of  money  in  Ireland  !  We 
find  before  the  Incarnation,  that  the  bons, 
or  pieces  of  four-pence  value,  the  scrubalj 
or  three-penny  pieces,  and  the  pinghin,  or 
penny,  were  common  through  the  kingdom ; 
but  larger  pieces  of  money,  though  carry- 
ing the  impress  of  the  monarch,  or  provin- 
cial king,  were  here  then,  as  at  this  day  in 
China,  estimated  by  weight  only.  In  a 
commercial  country  where  mines  of  all 
kinds  were  worked — where,  in  times  of 
Catholicity,  the  church-plate  through  the 
kingdom  was  mostly  of  gold — ^where  such 
quantities  of  it  have  been  from  time  to 
time,  and  still  are  found  in  bogs  and  mo- 
rasses— to  doubt  of  their  wanting  so  essen- 
tial an  article  as  money,  though  our  writers 
had  been  even  silent  on  the  subject,  would 
be  absurd.  It  is  but  too  melancholy  a 
truth,  that,  from  the  first  introduction  of 
the  Normans  into  Ireland,  they  established 
a  savage  poUcy,  which  seems,  even  at 
THIS  day,  to  operate  on  too  many.  They 
represented  the  aborigines  as  barbarians  in 
the  eyes  of  Europe,  and  their  emissaries 
Jiere  were  but  too  successful  in  their  en- 
deavours to  destroy  and  efface  every  evi- 
dence to  the  contrary  !  To  preserve  med- 
als, coins,  or  whatever  could  contradict 
this,  was  not  the  way  to  make  court  to  the 
great;  but,  to  destroy  them — ^nay,to  impose 
them  on  the  public  as  the  coins  of  even  the 
barbarous  Dane — was  admissible  !  I  have 
heard,  and  been  assured,  that  quantities  of 
gold  coins  have   frequently  been  found, 

*  Antiquities  of  Ireland,  p.  206. 
t  Simon  on  Irish  coins. 


A.  M .  3392.J 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


67 


even  within  these  last  twenty  years  past,  in 
bogs  and  grounds ;  that  they  have  been 
conveyed  to  Dublin  and  elsewhere,  sold 
privately,  and  immediately  melted  down, 
by  which  means  many  poor  families  have 
suddenly  become  opulent 

We  have  in  the  last  chapter,  I  think, 
fully  proved  that  these  Africans,  so  fre- 
quently mentioned  in  our  history,  were 
none  others  but  the  Carthaginians ;  and  a 
little  retrospection  will  plainly  show  that 
the  customs  and  policy  adopted  in  the  one 
state  were  soon  introduced  in  the  other. 
The  Tyrian  dye,  and  the  manufactures  of 
arms,  so  early  established  here,  with  the  use 
of  armed  chariots  for  war,  seem  to  pro- 
claim this.  Byrsa,  the  citadel  of  Carthage, 
so  called,  as  we  have  already  noted,  from 
its  being  surrounded  by  water,  explains 
from  whom  Art  Imlioch  borrowed  this 
kind  of  fortification.  The  Carthaginians, 
beyond  a  doubt,  brought  this  science  to 
great  perfection ;  since  we  find  by  their 
first  alliance  with  the  Romans,  about  A.  M. 
3452,  they  were  particularly  interdicted 
building  forts  in  the  country  of  Latium.  If 
the  Irish,  some  centuries  before  the  Romans, 
introduced  a  regular  discipline,  and  a  con- 
stant pay  among  the  military,  so  did  the 
Carthaginians ;  and  it  is  singular  enough 
to  find  by  Justin,  that  much  about  this  time 
both  should  be  introduced  by  Mago  into 
Carthage  !*  In  fine,  the  Irish  coins,  given 
by  Ware  and  copied  by  Harris  and  Simon, 
have  on  the  face  a  human  head,  encircled 
with  a  cap  or  helmet,  and  on  the  reverse 
of  some  a  horse — and  we  find  some  an- 
cient Carthaginian  coins  in  the  same  style  ! 
The  present  prince  Eadhna,  on  whose  ac- 
count we  have  thus  digressed,  died  of  the 
plague,  after  a  reign  of  twelve  years,  as 
did  great  numbers  of  the  people. 

Lughaidh,  sumamed  Jardhon,  or  the 
Colour  of  Iron,  on  account  of  the  odd  co- 
lour of  his  hair,  peaceably  succeeded  his 
deceased  father.  Invading  Ulster  with  a 
considerable  army,  he  was  slain  by  his  suc- 
cessor at  Rath-Clochar,  after  a  bloody  con- 
test. 

The  victorious  Sior-Laimh,  the  son  of 

•  Lib.  six  cap.  1. 


Fin,  of  the  house  of  Ir,  was  proclaimed 
monarch.  This  name  was  metaphorically 
given  him  to  denote  the  great  extent  of  his 
power  and  command — Sior-Laimh,  signify- 
ing Long-handed.  He  was  a  great  enemy 
to  the  house  of  Heber,  and  sorely  oppres- 
sed them  ;  but  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  his 
reign  he  fell  in  battle,  and  so  gave  way  to 
his  successor. 

Eochaidh,  called  Uarcheas,  the  son  of 
Lughaidh,  of  the  race  of  Heber,  seized  on 
the  crown.  The  reason  of  the  epithet 
Uarcheas  was  this.  So  great  was  the 
power  of  Sior-Laimh,  and  so  much  did  he 
dread  the  known  abilities  of  that  prince, 
that  he  could  not  think  himself  in  security 
till  he  was  totally  reduced.  Unable  any 
longer  to  oppose  the  monarch  in  the  field, 
he  took  the  resolution  of  trusting  to  his 
fleet.  He  collected  a  fleet  of  thirty  large 
ships,  which  he  manned  with  the  bravest 
and  most  faithful  of  his  followers,  with 
which  he  put  to  sea.  In  order  to  enable 
him  to  make  sudden  landmgs  in  the  most 
tempestuous  weather,  we  are  told  he  had  a 
great  number  of  cribs  made  of  wattles, 
and  covered  with  hides,  in  which  his  men 
frequently  annoyed  the  coasts  of  his  enemy. 
For  ceas  is  Irish  for  a  crib,  or  large  basket 
of  wattles,  and  fuare  denotes  cold,  as 
being  used  in  bad  weather  only ;  and  in- 
deed it  is  astonishing  in  what  rough  weather 
people  will,  at  this  day,  run  out  to  fetch  in 
such  craft.  But  to  prove  that  the  sole  use 
of  these  craft,  for  insular  or  continental  in- 
vasions, was  to  land  men  in  rough  weather, 
we  find  Caesar  to  have  successfiilly  used 
them  to  cross  a  river  in  Spain  on  a  similar 
occasion.*  From  us,  we  may  presume, 
the  Britons,  and  most  of  the  neighbouring 
states,  took  the  method  of  using  such  ves- 
sels. But  writers  have  strangely  erred  in 
affirming,  as  many  have,  that  our  invasions 
of  Britain  were  in  this  sort  of  currachs, 
or  boats.  Thus,  Gildas :  "  The  rude  droves 
•of  Scots  and  Picts  throng  hastily  out  of 
their  currachs,  in  which  they  were  con- 
veyed across  the  Scythian  channel."f  And 
Solinus  affirms,  "  that  the  sea  between  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland  is  rough  and  tempestuous ; 

*  De  Bello  Civili.  lib.  i.     1  De  Excid  Britan. 


«8 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3416. 


yet  they  pass  it  in  wicker  boats,  encompas- 
sed with  a  swelling  covering  of  ox-hides."* 
It  is  evident,  from  what  has  been  said, 
that  Ireland  was  very  early  an  extensive 
commercial  country.  Should  we  want 
foreign  evidence,  Tacitus  is  clear  and  full 
in  this  matter. f  Could  commerce  be  car- 
ried on  in  such  barks  as  the  above  ? — 
surely  not.  Were  they  fit  to  transport 
armies,  ammunition,  etc.,  across  the  sea  1 — 
they  undoubtedly  were  not.  Our  histori- 
ans dedarej — and  the  Psalter  of  Cashell 
is  explicit  in  it — that  their  use  was  solely  to 
land  troops,  in  rough  tempestuous  weather, 
or  re-embark  them  when  necessary.  The 
poet  Claudian,  in  celebrating  the  glory  of 
his  patron  Stilico,  is  very  clear  that  our 
invasions  of  Britain  were  from  large 
ships : — 

Me  qaoque  vicinis  pereantem  gentibas,  inqait, 
Manivit  Stilico.     Totam  cum  Scotus  lernem 
Movit,  et  infetto  gpumavit  remigc  Thetyt. 

In  fine,  the  venerable  Bede  tells  us  that  the 
Scots  and  Picts  crossed  that  arm  of  the 
sea  only  which  divided  England  from  Scot- 
land, in  their  boats  ;§  nor  can  we  be  sur- 
prised that  the  Irish  carried  them  in  their 
ships  for  this  purpose,  when  Caesar  tells  us, 
in  the  above  recited  place,  that  he  had 
them  conveyed  twenty-two  miles  over 
land  to  answer  a  similar  purpose. 

It  is  very  singular  that  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell  should  tell  us,  that  with  this  fleet 
Eochaidh  invaded  Greece,  and  was  success- 
ful in  all  his  attacks.  To  explain  this,  we 
must,  I  think,  agree — and  it  will  hereafter 
appear  more  evident — that  the  Irish  con- 
federated with  the  Carthaginians,  and  fre- 
quently assisted  them  in  their  wars  ;  nor 
need  we  here  insist  much  on  what  is  con- 
fessed, and  at  the  same  time  censured  by 
ancient  writers,  as  Polybius,  Diodorus, 
Livy,  etc.,  namely,  that  the  Carthaginian 
armies  were  mostly  composed  of  merce- 
naries of  different  nations,  and  speaking 
different  languages.  We  have  seen  Lud- 
hadh,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  call  in  these 
Africans  to  his  assistance,  and  in  many 

*  Cap.  35.  t  Vita  Jul.  Agricol. 

t  Ogygia,  p.  250,  etc. 
$  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  L  cap.  12. 


other  instances  we  find  them  employed 
among  us.  Why  not  suppose  the  present 
prince  to  apply  to  them  for  succour  ?  In 
the  second  century  of  Christ,  we  read  that 
Eugene  the  Great,  of  this  same  house,  fled 
to  Spain  for  succour,  and  by  his  allies  de- 
feated his  enemies  and  recovered  his 
crown.  It  is  undoubtedly  curious  to  find 
that,  much  about  the  present  time  the  Car- 
thaginians are  confessed  to  have  made  a 
briUiant  figure  by  sea,  and  to  have  had 
strongholds  in  Sicily  and  Sardinia.  About 
this  time  also  we  may  place  their  famous 
engagement  with  the  Phocaeans,  one  of  the 
most  formidable  maritime  powers  then  in 
the  world,  and  whose  fleet  they  entirely 
destroyed. 

Eochaidh,  by  means  of  his  allies,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  proclainied  monarch ;  but 
we  are  furnished  with  no  other  particulars 
of  him  after  this,  but  that,  in  the  twelfth 
year  of  his  reign,  he  was  cut  off  by  his 
successors. 

Eochaidh,  smuamed  Fiadh-Mhuine,  or 
the  Deer  Hunter,  and  his  brother  Conning, 
called  Beg-Oglach,  or  the  Intrepid,  of  the 
line  of  Heremon,  became  joint  monarchs. 
They  divided  the  kingdom,  the  first  choo- 
sing the  southern,  the  other  the  northern 
half.  Eochaidh  was  successfully  attacked 
by  Luighadh  Laimh-Dearg,  and  slain  in 
battle ;  and  Conning,  unable  to  oppose  the 
torrent,  fled  the  kingdom,  but  where  he 
retired  to  we  are  not  told.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  it  was  to  France,  and  that  by  the 
aid  of  the  Gauls  he  was  afterwards  re- 
stored. 

Luighadh,  son  of  the  renowned  Eo- 
chaidh, of  the  Heberian  race,  was  pro- 
claimed monarch.  He  was  called  Laimh- 
Dearg,  or  the  Bloody  Hand,  as  that  was 
the  ensign  of  his  arms,  and  which  is  still 
the  crest  of  his  posterity.  His  antagonist, 
having  raised  a  considerable  army,  attack- 
ed and  defeated  him,  after  a  reign  of  seven 
years. 

Conning,  instead  of  a  partition,  now  saw 
himself  sole  monarch  of  Ireland.  Our 
annals  speak  of  him  as  a  prince  in  whose 
administration  the  glory  of  Ireland  was 
raised  to  a  very  high  pinnacle  by  his  feats 


■~»3ej«?; 


A.  M.  3490.} 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


«9 


of  arms,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
exemplary  justice  administered  to  his  sub- 
jects. But  neither  his  virtue  or  intrepid- 
ity could  shield  him  from  the  vengeance 
of  his  successor.  It  is  remarkable  that,  in 
the  beginning  of  this  prince's  reign,  we 
read  for  the  first  time  of  the  irruptions  of 
the  Gauls  into  Italy.  For  my  own  part  I 
do  not  entertain  the  least  doubt  but  that 
the  Irish  were  deep  in  these  schemes,  and 
that  this  prince  in  particular  greatly  assist- 
ed the  invaders. 

Art,  the  son  or  brother  of  Luighadh,  an 
Heberian,  claimed  the  monarchy,  and,  as 
usual  with  his  predecessors,  the  sword  put 
a  period  to  his  life  in  the  sixth  year  of  his 
reign. 

Fiacha,  the  son  of  Muireadhach,  son  of 
Simon  Breac,  of  the  race  of  Heremon, 
after  a  sway  of  ten  years  gave  way  to  the 
sword  of  his  successor. 

Olioll,  the  son  of  Art,  an  Heberian,  as- 
sumed the  reins  of  government,  and  fell  in 
the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign  by  the  sword 
of  Airgeadmhar,  of  the  line  of  Ir. 

The  Heberians,  however,  flocked  to  the 
standard  of  his  son,  by  which  means  the 
regicide  and  his  party  were  obliged  to  fly 
the  kingdom,  and  Eochaidh  VII.,  the  son  of 
Olioll,  was  saluted  monarch.  In  the  seventh 
year  of  his  sway,  Airgeadmhar,  invaded 
the  kingdom,  and  being  joined  by  Duach, 
the  son  of  Fiacha,  and  other  malecontents, 
attacked  and  defeated  the  monarch,  at 
Klnoc-Aine,  near  Limerick. 

Airgeadmhar,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  was  now 
placed  on  the  throne.  Giolla-Caomhain 
allows  him  a  reign  of  thirty  years,  and  in 
this  he  is  followed  by  Archdeacon  Lynch.* 
Dr.  Keating  makes  it  twenty-three,  and 
Mr.  CFlaherty  but  ten  years.  We  will 
suppose  he  ruled  twenty  years.  In  gene- 
ral I  am  not  fond  of  departing  from  the 
Reim-Riogra ;  but  reason  justifies  it  in  the 
present  instance.  But  the  impetuosity  of 
his  former  associate,  Duach,  strengthened 
by  the  arms  of  Lughadh,  of  the  Ime  of 
Heber,  deprived  Airgeadmhar  of  life  and 
crown. 

Duach,  the  son  of  Fiacha,  of  the  house 
*  Grat  Luc,  p.  62. 


of  Heremon,  reigned  ten  years.  He  was 
called  Laighrach,  which  signifies  Sudden 
or  Hasty,  because  he  allowed  of  very  httle 
interval  between  the  condemning  and  pun- 
ishing of  criminals.  His  former  ally, 
Luaghadh,  disappointed  in  a  partition  of 
the  monarchy,  long  meditated  and  at 
length  gratified  his  revenge  by  the  defeat 
and  death  of  Duach. 

Lughadh  III.,  the  son  of  Cobthach,  son 
of  Eochaidh,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  was 
proclaimed  monarch,  and  was  cut  oflf  in 
battle  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

The  union  of  the  principal  branches  of  the  house 
of  Ir  to  preserve  the  monarchy  in  their  family — 
The  reigns  of  Aodh,  of  Dithorba,  and  Ciomb- 
haoth — Building  of  the  palace  of  Emania — The 
earliest  account  of  stone  buildings  in  Ireland — 
The  mistakes  of  writers  with  respect  to  the 
reigns  of  the  above  princes  rectified — Of  Macha, 
Mong-Ruadh — Reachta  becomes  monarch — The 
nature  of  his  war  with  the  Picts  explained. 

AoDH  RuAH,  or  the  Red,  son  to  Bad- 
hum,  son  to  Airgeadmhar,  an  Arian,  be- 
came monarch.  This  revolution  was 
brought  about  by  three  cousin-germans, 
grandsons  to  Airgeadmhar,  to  wit:  the 
present  Aodh ;  Dithorba,  the  son  of  De- 
main,  of  Uisneach;  and  Ciombhaoth,  the 
son  of  Fiontan,  of  Fionabhar,  all  young 
princes  of  great  intrepidity,  and  nearly  of 
an  age.  To  prevent  the  fatal  efiects  at- 
tendant on  disunion,  they  made  a  solemn 
agreement,  in  case  of  success,  that  each 
should  rule  in  rotation  twenty-one  years, 
Aodh,  the  eldest,  to  be  the  first  appointed, 
and  so  of  the  others  ;  and  that  they  should 
support  to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  and 
obey  each  prince,  according  to  this  com- 
pact. Of  the  present  prince  we  read  no 
more  but  that  about  the  period  assigned 
for  his  resignation  he  was  drowned,  pass- 
ing a  cataract  in  a  river  in  Tirconnel,  from 
him  since  named  Eas-Ruadh,  or  Red-falL 

Dithorba  succeeded,  according  to  the 
original  agreement,  and  died  of  a  malig- 
nant fever. 

Ciombhaoth  was  peaceably  proclaimed 


70 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3560. 


monarch,  and  has  been  greatly  celebrated 
for  his  prudence,  his  fortitude,  and  his 
moderation.  He  married  Macha,  called 
Mong-ruadh,  or  the  Red-haired,  daughter 
to  his  cousin  Aodh.  This  prince  revived 
all  the  wise  institutions  of  his  great  prede- 
cessor, OIIamh-Fodhla,  and  founded  the 
splendid  palace  of  Emania,  next  to  Tara 
the  most  magnificent  public  structure  in 
ancient  Ireland.  The  remains  of  this 
building  near  Armagh  may  yet  be  traced, 
occupying  (as  I  am  assured)  an  uncom- 
mon scope  of  ground.  This  palace  has 
been  celebrated  by  succeeding  writers  for 
its  sumptuousness,  the  splendour  and  hospi- 
tality of  its  princes,  and  the  intrepidity  of 
its  troops.  The  house  of  Craobh-Ruadh, 
adjoining  to  this  great  building,  the  seat  of 
the  hereditary  knights  of  Ulster,  whose 
fame  and  glory  have  been  so  often  sung 
by  our  bards  and  recorded  by  our  sena- 
chies,  was  proportionably  grand.  This 
noble  structure  got  the  name  of  Emania, 
or  Eamhuin-Macha,  we  are  told,  from  the 
Empress  Macha,  who  with  the  brooch  or 
gold  pin  of  her  handkerchief,  drew  its  area 
on  a  proper  scale.  For  ea  is  Irish  for  a 
pin  or  bodkin,  and  muin,  the  neck.  A 
very  ancient  poem  on  this  building  begins 
thus,  "  Eamhuin  a  luin  aras  UUadh,"  i.  e., 
"  Lovely  Emania,  the  seat  of  Ulster 
kings."  From  this  palace  the  succeeding 
princes  of  Ulster  were  called  kings  of 
■  Emania. 

From  the  Venerable  Bede's  account  of 
the  church  of  Lindisfar,  which  though  ele- 
gant, he  adds — ^"  tamen  more  Scotorum,  non 
de  lapide,  sed  de  robore  secto  totam  com- 
posuit ;"  and  from  a  similar  relation  of  St. 
Bernard,  of  an  oratory  built  by  St.  Mala- 
chy,*  people  have  supposed  the  early  build- 
^'^  ings  of  Ireland  to  have  been  mostly  of 
*'  wood.  It  is  certain  that  in  a  country 
originally  covered  with  woods,  prudence 
would  point  out  the  necessity  of  a  speedy 
consumption  of  part  of  it,  the  sooner  to 
clear  the  ground,  and  correct  the  moisture 
of  the  air.  I  therefore  take  it  for  granted, 
that  for  a  very  considerable  time,  most  of 
the  buildings  were  of  timber ;  but  it  is  by 
*  vita  St  Malach.  Episcopi. 


no  means  a  consequence  that  no  other  ma- 
terials were  used.  The  superb  remains  of 
stone  structures  yet  standing,  and  many  of 
them  in  the  most  sequestered  places,  suffi- 
ciently prove  the  contrary.  We  can  even 
trace  when  stone  buildings  were  first  in- 
troduced into  Ireland ;  and  this  St.  Cor- 
moc  tells  us,  in  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  was 
when  Failbhe  Foalcorthach,  grandfather  to 
the  monarch  Roth6achta,  ruled  Munster, 
i.  e.  about  A.  M.  3150 !  But  of  these  mighty 
buildings  of  Tara  and  Emania,  and  indeed 
of  much  later  times,  we  may  with  the  poet 
exclaim — 

Non  indignemur,  mortalia  corpora  solvi ; 
Cemimns  ezemplis,  oppida  posse  mori ! 

We  have  hitherto  related  the  union  be- 
tween the  branches  of  the  Irian  line  as  we 
have  found  it  recorded  by  antecedent  wri- 
ters. A  little  reflection  will,  however,  show 
that  there  must  have  been  some  mistake  in 
this  account.  For  at  the  time  of  this  con- 
federacy these  different  princes  must  have 
been  at  least  twenty-five  years  old  each, 
if  not  more,  to  entitle  them  to  head  armies, 
much  less  to  sway  the  sceptre.  Ciomb- 
haoth,  by  this  calculation  was  sixty-seven 
years  old  when  called  to  the  monarchy ;  a 
very  unlikely  period  for  such  election,  es- 
pecially in  a  country  where  activity  and 
bravery  were  two  essential  qualifications 
for  a  candidate.  Mr.  O'Flaherty,  sensible 
of  these  objections,  allows  to  each  of  these 
three  princes  a  reign  but  of  seven  years ; 
but  in  this  he  is  contradicted  by  all  preced- 
ing annalists.  The  truth  of  the  matter 
must  be  this.  The  three  houses  confeder- 
ated, and  were  to  rule  alternately,  not  for 
a  certain  numbdt  of  years,  but  during  the 
natural  life  of  each  elector;  just  as  we 
know  Munster  was,  for  some  centuries, 
governed  by  two  houses,  according  to  a 
similar  agreement ;  so  that  we  may  affirm 
that  Ciombhaoth  was  not  the  son,  but  the 
grandson  of  Fiontan.  The  Book  of  Reigns 
allows  this  prince  to  have  ruled  twenty- 
eight  years,  others  but  twenty,  or  twenty- 
one. 

On  the  death  of  this  prince,  the  son  of 
Aodh  Ruadh  should  have  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  according  to  agreement ;   but  he 


A.  M.  3587.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


71 


having  no  issue  male,  those  of  Dithorba  put 
in  their  claim.  There  was  neither  law  nor 
precedent  in  Ireland  for  a  woman's  gov- 
erning, yet  Macha,  the  queen  of  Ciomb- 
haoth  and  daughter  of  Aodh,  possessed  of 
a  masculine  spirit  and  great  power,  insisted 
upon  the  succession  as  her  right,  and  sup- 
ported her  pretensions  by  the  sword.  The 
sons  of  Dithorba  raised  a  mighty  army, 
and  were  opposed  by  the  imperial  one, 
headed  by  this  Amazon  in  person,  and  the 
insurgents  put  to  a  shameful  flight.  The 
disgrace  of  having  the  Irish  sceptre  sway- 
ed by  a  woman  caused  numbers  again  to 
enlist  under  the  banners  of  the  sons  of 
Dithorba;  and  a  much  more  formidable 
army  than  the  former  was  raised.  Heralds 
were  sent  to  Macha  requiring  her  peace- 
ably to  relinquish  the  crown,  or  try  the  fate 
of  a  fresh  battle.  She  chose  the  latter,  and 
gained  a  decisive  victory  over  her  com- 
petitors. We  are  told  that  the  sons  of  Di- 
thorba were  taken  prisoners,  and  that  the 
conditions  of  their  liberty  were  a  formal 
resignation  of  their  rights  to  the  crown,  and 
the  building  of  the  famous  palace  of  Emania. 
But  we  have  no  other  instances  of  such  tame 
resignations,  even  to  men.  That  this  palace 
was  built  by  Ciombhaoth  himself,  is  evi- 
dent, because  our  early  annalists  call  him 
Ceadfhlath  na  Heamhna,  or  the  first  king 
of  Emania.  We  must  conclude  that,  find- 
ing by  this  battle  all  lost,  they  fell  also  in 
it.  After  a  reign  of  seven  years  this  in- 
trepid empress  died. 

Reachta,  called  Righ-Dhearg,  or  the 
Bloody  Arm,  of  the  house  of  Heber,  was 
the  succeeding  monarch.  We  are  told 
that  he  was  the  son  of  Lughaidh-Laighe, 
but  this  must  be  evidently  a  mistake,  since 
we  see  seventy  years  elapsed  smce  the 
death  of  this  Lughaidh.  He  must  be,  there- 
fore, grandson  to  this  prince ;  as  we  have 
shown  that  he  was  not  the  son,  as  supposed, 
but  the  grandson  to  Eochaidh.  He  trans- 
ported a  mighty  army  into  Albany  under 
command  of  Fere  and  Iboth,  the  sons  of 
Irial  Glunmhuir,  of  his  house,  with  which 
he  effectually  reduced  the  Picts  ;*  and  he 
is  therefore  styled  in  the  Psalter  of  Cashell, 

*  Grat.  Luc.  p.  63. 


monarch  of  Ireland  and  Albion.  But  as  it 
is  certain  that  North  Britain  was  tributary 
to,  and  dependent  on,  Ireland  from  the  be- 
ginning, this  necessarily  requires  some  ex- 
planation. On  account  of  the  contiguity 
of  Ulster  to  Scotland,  the  alliances  by 
marriages  and  otherwise  were  much  closer 
cemented  with  them  than  with  the  other  Irish 
provinces.  Hence,  in  all  contests  for  the 
monarchy,  the  house  of  Ir  was  sure  of  sup- 
port from  the  Picts,  so  that  humbling  them 
was  the  sure  way  to  weaken  the  Irian  line. 
After  a  reign  of  twenty  years  this  warlike 
prince  resigned  his  crown  and  life  to  the 
superior  arm  of  his  successor. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Reign  of  Jughaine  the  Great — Fits  out  a  consider- 
able fleet  for  the  Mediterranean — Attacks  the 
Baleares,  and  unites  with  the  Carthaginians — 
Assists  Brennus  in  his  irruption  into  Italy — 
Transactions  of  the  Gauls  misrepresented — ^A 
mistake  in  Plutarch  pointed  out. 

Jughaine,  called  More,  or  the  Great,  the 
son  of  Eochaidh  Buadhaigh,  the  son  of 
Duach  Laighreach,  of  the  house  of  Here- 
mon,  was  enthroned  monarch.  His  em- 
press was  daughter  to  the  French  king, 
and  called  Csesaria,  sumamed  Crotach,  or 
the  Lovely.  He,  like  his  predecessor, 
compelled  the  Picts  to  acknowledge  his 
sovereignty  and  pay  their  usual  tribute. 
He  acquired  the  title  of  the  Great  on  ac- 
count of  the  glory  he  gained  by  his  con- 
quests in  foreign  countries.  Our  annals 
inform  us  that  he  equipped  a  mighty  fleet, 
with  which  he  sailed  into  the  Mediter- 
ranean, landed  in  Afi*ica,  and  from  thence 
sailed  to  Sicily,  and  other  Islands,  and  for 
his  great  success  was  saluted  with  the 
glorious  titles  of  Monarch  of  Ireland  and 
Albany,  and  of  all  the  Western  Isles  of 
Europe!  But  before  his  departure  he 
summoned  the  estates  of  the  kingdom  at 
Tara,  and  laid  before  them  the  plan  of 
his  intended  operations;  and  such  was 
his  power  and  influence,  that  he  exacted 
fi-om  them  a  most  solemn  oath,  which  was, 
"  By  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  by  Nep- 


^*Jf^ 


:-..j-JiUc^iU.v:-.  ■ 


72 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3587. 


time,"  to  bear  trae  allegiance  to  him  and 
to  his  posterity,  in  exclusion  of  the  other 
royal  houses  of  Ireland.  And  this,  by  the 
bye,  is  the  first  instance  for  above  two 
centuries,  of  the  meeting  of  the  Feis- 
Tamhrach,  or  general  convention  of  the 
estates  of  the  kingdom  at  Tara,  except 
such  a  one  was  appointed  by  Ciombhaoth, 
which  I  have  not  sufficient  authority  posi- 
tively to  affirm. 

Pity  it  is  that  our  senachies  have  not 
been  more  minute  in  their  accounts  of  the 
transactions  of  this  reign  ;  but  the  duty  of 
an  historian  is  to  elucidate,  not  to  offiiscate, 
and  as  Horace  says — 

"  Non  fumom  ex  folgore,  sed  ex  fumu  dare  lucem." 
We  have,  I  think,  already  shown  the  con- 
nections between  the  Irish  and  Carthagin- 
ians ;  and  there  is  a  passage  in  Plutarch's 
Life  of  Timoleon,  who  was  nearly  contem- 
porary with  this  prince,  which  is  worthy 
attention.  He  tells  us  that,  at  the  siege  of 
Syracuse,  the  Greek  mercenaries  in  the 
Carthaginian  army,  in  times  of  truce,  fre- 
quently met  and  conversed  with  their 
countrymen  under  Timoleon.  That  one 
of  the  Corinthians  addressed  his  country- 
men in  the  opposite  army  thus — "Is  it  pos- 
sible, O  Grecians,  that  you  should  be  so 
forward  to  reduce  a  city  of  this  greatness, 
and  endowed  with  so  many  great  advanta- 
ges, into  a  state  of  barbarism,  and  lend 
your  aid  to  plant  Carthaginians  so  much 
nearer  to  us,  who  are  the  worst  and  bloodi- 
est of  men  ?  Whereas  you  should  rather 
wish  that  there  were  many  more  Sicilies 
to  lie  between  them  and  Greece.  Have 
you  so  little  sense  as  to  suppose,  that  they 
came  hither  with  an  army  from  Hercules's 
RUars  and  the  Atlantic  Sea  to  hazard  them- 
selves for  the  establishment  of  Icetes?" 
From  the  ivhole,  I  think,  we  may  reason- 
ably conclude,  that  the  Carthaginians  pro- 
cured powerful  assistance  from  Ireland,  as 
well  as  from  Spain  and  Gaul,  in  their  wars 
with  the  Romans ;  nor  do  I  think  I  should 
be  censured  of  rashness,  if  I  were  to  offer 
a  conjecture  that  the  sacred  cohort^  the  de- 
jecta and  sacra  cohors  of  the  Carthaginians, 
mentioned  by  Diodorus,  Curtius,  etc.,  was 
a  select  body  of  Irish  troops,  whose  fidelity 


and  intrepidity  could  always  be  depended 
on,  and  who  were  kept  in  constant  pay.  If 
in  those  days  of  distress  and  persecution 
which  followed  the  Reformation,  the  Irish 
kept  up  a  large  body  of  troops  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Spain,  as  we  know  they  did  in  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  long  after ;  and  if, 
since  the  year  1691,  a  most  respectable 
corps  has  been  kept  up  both  in  France 
and  Spain,  whose  incorruptible  fidelity  and 
unexampled  bravery  added  new  laurels 
to  their  drooping  country,  why  doubt  the 
probability  and  possibility  of  their  lending 
their  troops  to  the  Carthaginians  in  days 
of  splendour,  especially  when  the  country 
was  so  full  of  inhabitants  ?  Nay,  I  per- 
suade myself  that  it  was  a  useful  piece  of 
state  policy  in  the  victorious  prince,  to  en- 
gage a  restless  military  in  foreign  wars,  to 
preserve  domestic  tranquillity ;  and  this 
will  explain  why  this  body  were  honoured 
with  the  title  of  sacra  cohors,  as  being 
denizens  of  the  Infula  Sacra.  To  strengthen 
this  conjecture,  as  our  legions  in  Gaul  were 
called  Fine-Gall,  and  in  Albany  Fine-Al- 
bin,  we  may  well  suppose  that  the  Fine- 
Tomharaig,  or  African  legions,  so  often 
met  with  in  old  MSS.  meant  no  other  than 
the  Irish  cohorts  in  that  service. 

That  the  Carthaginians  were  a  learned 
as  well  as  a  most  powerful  people  will  not 
be  disputed ;  nay,  from  the  great  numbers 
of  their  historians,  poets,  and  philosophers, 
we  may  safely  affirm  that  they  were  a 
much  more  polished  people  than  the  Ro- 
mans themselves.  Unhappily  for  arts  and 
letters,  the  Romans  adopted  the  wretched 
policy  of  the  Greeks,  in  representing  all 
their  enemies  as  barbarous ;  and  this  fact 
cannot  be  more  melancholily  proved  than 
by  their  accounts  of  these  very  Carthagin- 
ians. In  destroying  their  city,  they  took 
care  with  it  to  destroy  their  archives,  and 
all  their  writings ;  in  short — "  almost  every 
thing  they  wrote  that  had  any  appearance 
of  literature  or  true  history,"  as  the  writers 
of  the  Universal  History  observe.*  On 
this  account  many  relations  of  their  ex- 
ploits, and  those  of  their  allies,  are  strangely 
mutilated,  and  often  without  dates.     Thus 

*  Vol.  xvi.  p.  661,  octavo. 


A.M.  3587.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


7S^ 


we  read,  that  the  Carthaginians  conquered 
Sardinia,  the  Baleares,  now  called  Majorca 
and  Minorca,  with  other  islands  in  the 
Mediterranean.  Port  Mahon,  in  the  latter, 
we  are  told,*  was  so  called  from  Mago,  a 
Carthaginian  general  and  a  brother  to 
Hannibal ;  but  in  a  case  uncertain  as  this 
is  on  one  side,  I  scruple  not  to  affirm  that 
it  was  so  called  from  our  monarch  Jug- 
haine,  who  is  called  in  Latin,  Hugonius, 
and  who  we  see  was  the  friend  and  ally  of 
Carthage,  and  assuredly  assisted  them  in 
their  wars  in  Sicily,  as  the  Irish  did  them 
under  Hannibal  in  Italy ;  or  what  would 
have  brought  Irish  swords  there  ?t  Add 
to  this,  that  from  the  uncommon  expertness 
of  the  people  in  slinging  stones,  these 
islands  got  the  name  of  Baleares ;  and  it 
is  pretty  remarkable,  that  in  our  ancient 
armies  were  always  a  large  body  of  sling- 
ers ;  and  so  sure  were  they  of  hitting  an 
object  with  the  greatest  certainty,  that  they 
scarce  ever  failed  of  execution,  when  within 
the  force  of  their  machines,  then  called 
cran-tubal.  This,  with  the  sword,  the 
javelin,  and  the  broad-axe,  were  the  wea- 
pons of  our  military.  Thus  we  may  sup- 
pose, that  Jughaine  subdued  these  islands 
about  A.  M.  3590  ;  and  that  he,  after  this, 
united  with  Hannibal,  the  son  of  Gisco,  in 
his  expedition  to  Sicily,  in  which  he  de- 
stroyed the  cities  of  SeUnus,  Himera,  etc., 
and  this  exactly  corresponds  with  the  time 
in  which  these  last  exploits  were  achieved. 
Soon  after  his  return  from  this  glorious 
expedition,  we  find  the  Gauls  prepared  for 
an  irruption  into  Italy,  and  Brennus  ap- 
pointed general  in  this  expedition.  It  is 
something  more  than  a  mere  presumption 
to  suppose  that  a  nation  so  warlike,  and 
so  fond  of  extra-marine  expeditions,  as  we 
see  the  Irish  were,  would  not  remain  idle 
spectators  in  this  war,  especially  when  we 
reflect  on  the  close  affinity  between  the 
Irish  and  French  monarchs  at  this  time. 
I  therefore  take  it  for  granted  that,  if  not 
principals,  the  Irish  were  a  party  in  this 
famous  expedition;  and  this  is  the  true 
reason  why  this  prince  is  called,  in  the 

*  Liv.  lib.  xxviii.  n.  37. 
t  See  chap.  ii.  of  this  book,  p.  65. 


Book  of  Reigns,  Joughaine  More,  Maitk* 
Gall,  i.  e.  Jughaine  the  Great,  a  chief 
friendly  to  the  Gauls.  Indeed,  the  false 
lights  which  the  transactions  of  these  re- 
mote days  have  been  thrown  into  by  the 
Romans,  and  so  viewed  by  all  succeeding 
writers,  would  seem  to  damp  every  g«Qier- 
ous  attempt  to  restore  part  of  that  dignity 
to  the  Celtic  and  Sythic  nations  of  Europe, 
which,  with  their  liberty,  they  were  robbed 
of  by  the  Romans.  Thus  Voltaire  delivers 
himself  on  the  present  subject: — "If  we 
read  that  three  hundred  and  sixty  years 
after  the  foundation  of  Rome,  the  Gauls 
spread  desolation  over  all  Italy,  and  besieg- 
ed even  the  capitol,  is  it  not  to  the  Romans 
we  are  indebted  for  the  information  ?  If, 
a  century  after,  others  of  them  invaded 
Greece,  to  who,  but  to  these,  are  we  indebt- 
ed for  the  account  ?  There  rest  no  monu- 
ments of  these  emigrations  among  us.  It 
proves  only,  ^at  we  were  very  numerous, 
and  very  uncivilized.*^*  But  had  M.  Vol- 
taire given  himself  time  to  reflect  on  this 
very  war,  as  a  philosopher  and  an  historian 
should  do ;  did  he  but  consider  the  spirit 
and  moderation  displayed  by  Brennus, 
when  he' discovered  that  the  Roman  am- 
bassadors sent  to  him,  on  the  part  of  the  Clu- 
sians,  instead  of  being  ministers  of  peace, 
so  far  disgraced  their  characters  as  to  be- 
come active  partners  in  the  war ;  not  to 
mention  the  uncommon  address  and  abili- 
ties necessary  to  unite  different  nations, 
and  speaking  different  languages,  in  one 
common  cause,  he  certainly  would  alter 
his  sentiments,  and  not  hold  forth  to  public 
view  so  disgraceful  a  picture  of  ancient 
Europe.  He  tells  us  that  to  the  Romans 
only  we  are  indebted  for  the  account  of 
this  war.  But  were  the  Gauls  so  barbar- 
ous and  illiterate  as  not  to  be  able  to 
transmit  to  posterity  any  records  of  these 
times  ?  They  surely  were  not.  Caesar 
will  be  my  w^itness,  that  arts,  sciences  and 
letters  were  highly  cultivated  by  them.f 
To  whose  fault  is  this  silence  of  the  Gauls 
to  be  attributed  then  ?  to  the  Romans — the 
poUshed    Romans    themselves !    as    they 

*  Avant  d  propoB  a  VHiatoire  Universelle. 
t  Lib.  vi. 


74 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3587. 


treated  the  Carthaginians,  and  indeed  as 
they  treated  all  other  learned  nations  who 
had  the  unhappiness  to  fall  under  their 
yoke,  so  they  treated  the  Gauls.  They 
destroyed  all  their  records  whatever;  and 
they  made  it  penal  to  study  in  any  other 
language  but  their  own,  and  by  this  means 
made  it  almost  impossible  for  future  wri- 
ters, how  well  inclined  soever,  to  contra- 
dict them.  But,  fortunately  for  letters,  the 
Irish  nation,  by  their  valour  and  generous 
love  of  independence,  not  only  preserved 
themselves  a  free  people  at  home,  but  held 
forth  their  arms  to  support  every  struggle 
for  liberty  in  the  neighbouring  states,  and 
their  history  alone  proves  how  different 
the  ancient  state  of  Europe  really  was 
from  what  is  generally  supposed. 

Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Camillus,  tells  us, 
as  soon  as  the  account  of  Rome's  being 
taken  by  the  Gauls  reached  Greece,  that 
Heraclides  of  Pontus,  who  lived  at  the  very 
time,  (though  our  author  says,  soon  after,) 
in  his  book  De  Anima  relates,  "  that  *a  cer- 
tain report  came  from  the  West,  that  an 
army  of  Hyperboreans  had  taken  a  Greek 
city  called  Rome,  seated  somewhere 
on  the  Great  Sea.'  But  I  do  not  won- 
der (says  Plutarch)  that  so  fabulous  a 
writer  should  embellish  his  account  of  the 
taking  of  Rome  with  such  turgid  words  as 
Hyperborean  and  Great  Sea."  And  yet 
for  these  remarks  Plutarch  is  himself  cen- 
sured by  Dacier,  Dryden,  and  other  trans- 
lators. For  nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  the  ancients  called  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  Mare  Magnum,  as  conveying  passen- 
gers to  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Euxine,  and  other  adjoining 
seas.  Nor  is  Plutarch's  remark  on  the 
Hyperboreans  better  founded,  since  they 
were,  at  that  time,  and  long  before  and 
after  it,  a  great  and  powerful  people.  Nor 
are  these  commentators  on  our  author  to 
be  at  all  justified  when  they  affirm  that  the 
Greeks  called  all  northern  nations  indis- 
criminately Hyperboreans.  It  is  evident 
that  by  Hyperboreans,  the  early  Greeks 
understood  the  inhabitants  of  a  single  isl- 
and only,  which  island  I  have  shown  in  the 
present,  as  well  as  in  a  former  work,  to 


be  Ireland.*  As  then  Rome  was  seated  on 
the  Great  Sea,  and  the  Hyperboreans  at 
this  time  a  powerful  maritime  state,  we 
may  conclude  that  Heraclides  was  better 
informed  in  these  matters  (especially  being 
a  contemporary)  than  our  author  supposes, 
and  that  the  Irish  made  a  distinguished 
figure  in  this  war. 

This  monarch  had  twenty-five  children, 
of  which  twenty-two  were  sons.  As  he 
laboured  to  secure  the  succession  to  his 
own  family,  it  was  an  act  of  prudence  to 
weaken  the  power  of  the  provincial  kings. 
The  mode  of  taxation  before  this,  for  na- 
tional exigencies,  was  directed  by  each 
prince  in  his  own  province.  Jughaine  di- 
vided the  kingdom  into  twenty-five  parts, 
in  honour  of  his  issue,  and  himself  appoint- 
ed the  tax  upon  each  portion,  and  the 
officers  who  collected  it ;  and  this  manner 
of  cessing  remained  in  force  for  three  hun- 
dred years.  Of  the  numerous  issue  of  this 
mighty  prince,  two  only  are  handed  down 
to  us  as  the  chief  supporters  of  the  Here- 
monian  line,  namely  Laoghaine  Lore,  and 
Cobhthaigh-Caolmbreag,  and  from  whom 
all  the  succeeding  branches  of  this  illus- 
trious line  claim  their  origin.  The  Book  of 
Reigns  says  this  prince  ruled  Ireland  forty 
years;  but  the  generally  received  opinion 
is  that,  after  a  reign  of  thirty  years,  he 
was  inhumanly  murdered  by  his  own  bro- 
ther; who,  surviving  him  but  a  day  and  a 
half,  has  not  been  placed  in  the  list  of  Irish 
monarchs.  Roigne,  called  Rosg-athach, 
or  the  Learned  in  Poetry,  a  son  of  Jugh- 
aine, is  highly  celebrated  in  our  annals  for 
an  excellent  code  of  laws  written  and  pub- 
lished by  him  in  the  life-time  of  his  father. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Loagliaire  proclaimed  monarch — Murdered  by  his 
own  brother,  who  succeeds  him — Maon,  grand- 
son to  Loaghaire,  is  conveyed  to  France,  and 
soon  arrives  at  the  supreme  command  of  the 
Gallic  troops— Invades  Ireland,  and  gains  the 
monarchy — A  curious  remark  of  Cenau  explain- 
ed— Of  Meilge,  Modh-Chorb,  and  Aongus,  suc- 
cessive monarchs  of  Ireland. 

*  Introdacdun  to  Irish  History,  p.  1. 


A.M.  3617.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


75 


LoAGHAiBE  II.,  son  of  Jughame,  imme- 
diately headed  a  select  body  of  troops, 
surprised  the  regicide,  dispersed  his  party, 
and  caused  him  to  be  put  to  an  ignomin- 
ious death.  His  courage  and  activity 
made  him  thought  worthy  to  reign,  and'  he 
was  saluted  monarch  in  exclusion  of  his 
elder  brother.  Cobhthaigh  with  conster- 
nation beholds  himself  not  only  precluded 
from  the  monarchy  for  the  present,  but  his 
future  expectations  destroyed,  by  the  great 
merit  and  valour  of  his  nephew.  Desti- 
tute of  support,  he  dared  not  proclaim  his 
pretensions  and  his  injuries,  and  seemingly 
applauded  the  government  he  so  much  de- 
tested. But  this  concealed  spirit  sensibly 
affected  his  constitution,  which  increased 
on  hearing  of  the  birth  of  a  grand-nephew ; 
and  he  became  at  length  so  emaciated  as 
to  take  to  his  bed.  The  monarch,  sensibly 
afflicted  at  the  melancholy  situation  of  a 
brother  whom  he  tenderly  loved,  paid  him 
a  visit;  and  then  it  was  that  the  cruel 
Cobhthaigh  saw  the  possibility  and  took  the 
resolution  of  assassinating  his  brother. 
He,  therefore,  very  artfully,  while  he  ac- 
knowledged the  honour  of  this  visit,  kindly 
complained  that  he  came  not  with  the  af- 
fection of  a  brother,  but  with  the  state  of 
a  great  prince,  attended  by  his  nobility 
and  his  guards;  and  he  requested,  when 
next  he  visited  him,  it  might  be  as  a  bro- 
ther and  unattended,  as  it  would  afford  the 
highest  proof  of  his  love.  The  credulous 
monarch,  charmed  with  this  feigned  mark 
of  affection,  assured  his  brother  of  his 
compliance  ;  and  accordingly  in  his  next 
visit,  totally  unattended,  and  conversing 
carelessly  with  him  at  the  bedside,  he 
suddenly  stabbed  him  to  the  heart  with  a 
dagger  he  had  provided  and  concealed  for 
that  purpose.  But  we  cannot  be  bad  by 
halves !  more  murder  must  follow  to  se- 
cure the  succession!  Oilliol-Aine,  the 
bi-ave  son  of  the  deceased,  was  privately 
made  away  with;  and  the  life  of  his  grand- 
son, Maon,  (like  that  of  Louis  XV.  in  his 
minority)  was  only  saved,  being  supposed 
of  so  weak  a  frame  as  to  be  incapable  of 
raising  any  future  disturbances.  Yet  the 
fallibility  of  human  wisdom,  and  the  small 


degree  of  happiness  that  arises  from  grati- 
fying the  ambition  of  the  wicked,  cannot 
be  more  fully  exemplified  than  in  the  pres- 
ent instance,  where  we  shall  behold  this 
youth,  whose  tender  age  and  imbeciUties 
the  tyrant  despised,  in  his  turn  depose  and 
kill  the  murderer  of  his  father  and  grand- 
father, and  govern  the  kingdom  with  great 
splendour  and  glory. 

Cobhthaigh,  by  these  horrid  assassina- 
tions, gained  the  crown.  He  was  called 
Caol-Breag,  from  caol^  which  imports  lean 
or  emaciated,  and  Breag,  from  Magh- 
Breag,  in  the  county  of  Wicklow,  where 
he  committed  these  foul  murders.  Not- 
withstanding the  atrociousness  of  his 
crime,  yet  we  find  he  reigned  peaceably 
for  thirty  years.  But  the  friends  of  the 
young  Maon  took  care  to  convey  the 
prince  far  from  the  reach  of  the  monarch, 
fearing  the  capriciousness  of  his  temper. 
The  King  of  South  Munster  received  him 
with  great  humanity,  and  had  him  bred  up 
in  his  court ;  and  here  the  soft  passion  of 
love  found  a  way  to  his  tender  heart,  the 
object  being  the  lovely  Moriat,  daughter 
of  his  protector.  His  friends,  anxious  for 
his  safety,  did  not  trust  him  long  here,  but 
had  him  conveyed  privately  to  France, 
with  only  nine  attendants  in  his  retinue. 
The  French  king  received  him  with  all  the 
honours  due  to  his  blood,  and  to  the  close 
affinity  between  them.  He  soon  rose  in 
the  army ;  his  valour  and  prudence,  much 
beyond  his  years,  acquired  him  the  su- 
preme command  of  the  Gallic  troops  be- 
fore he  was  twenty-five.  He  wanted  not 
for  partizans  at  home  to  trumpet  his  fame ; 
and  the  greatness  of  his  exploits  soon  re- 
vived in  the  breast  of  the  fair  Moriat  senti- 
ments of  a  much  warmer  nature  than  what 
she  had  supposed.  Love  is  full  of  expe- 
dients, and  she  found  out  a  method  to  re- 
mind this  prince  of  their  former  amity. 
Craftine,  a  musician  of  her  father's  court, 
was  her  confidant  She  sent  him  privately 
to  France,  with  a  letter  and  a  rich  present 
of  jewels  to  Maon.  After  delivering  his 
credentials,  he  played  on  his  harp,  and 
sung  to  it  an  ode,  in  which  Maon  was 
praised  with  great  delicacy,  and  his  prin- 


f 


76 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3668. 


cipal  actions  boldly  recorded,  concluding 
with  a  wish  that  he  would,  for  the  future, 
exert  his  power  to  recover  his  country,  and 
revenge  the  blood  of  his  father  and  grand- 
father.    He  inquired  who  the  author  of 
this  ode  was.     To  be  praised  by  the  fair  is 
the  highest  gratification   to    a    generous 
.mind:  Craftine  told  him  it  was  the  lovely 
Moriat  herself.     At  once  all   his  former 
tenderness   revived,  and   love  and  glory 
now  only  employed  his  thoughts.     He  sent 
back  the  harper  with  private  instructions 
to  his  friends,  and  solicited  the  aid  of  the 
monarch  of  France  to  support  his  preten- 
sions to  the  throne  of  Ireland.    His  request 
was  granted,  and,  with  a  select  body  of 
Gauls,  he  invaded  both  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land.   He  himself  landed  in  the  harbour  of 
Wicklow,  and  being  informed  that  Cobh- 
thaigh  kept  his  court  at  Dindrigh,  near  the 
Barrow,  in  Leinster,  thither  he  immediately 
marched  his  troops,  attacked  this  fortress 
sword  in  hand,  and  put  the  garrison  to  the 
sword,   with    the  monarch    himself,   and 
thirty  princes  who  were  with  him  there 
assembled.     For  this  I  have  the  authority 
of  a  very  ancient  historian  ;  and  Forche- 
irethen,  a  celebrated  antiquarian,  and  con- 
temporary with  Connor,  King  of  Ulster, 
before  the   birth  of  Christ,  gives   us  the 
names  of  these  different  princes,  in  a  poem 
preserved    in    the   Leabhar-Lecan,*   and 
taken  from  the  Book  of  Leinster.     The 
words  of   the  historian  are  these — "Ase 
an  Labhra  so  do  dheacuidh  tar  muir  go 
Ngallach-buine,  do  cum  Nalban  agus  Eirin, 
is  leis  ro  ort  Dind-righ  for  Cobhthach  agus 
fighrigh  the  uime."  i.  e.  It  is  this  Labhra 
that  crossed  the  sea,  with  bands  of  Gauls, 
to  Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  with  them 
destroyed  the  royal  fortress,  with  the  mon- 
arch Cobhthach,   and  thirty  princes  sur- 
rounding him. 

From  the  same  authority  I  find  it  affirm- 
ed that  no  Irish  prince  extended  his  power 
further  than  this  Labhra.  For  this  reason 
it  is,  that  he  is  called  in  the  Book  of  Reigns 
Laoch  ro  Cath,  i.  e.  the  Hero  first  in  Battle. 
That  besides  his  conquests  in  Britain,  he 
became  also  a  king  in  Gaul ;  and  it  is  sin- 

•  Book  iii.  p.  43,  etc. 


gular  enough,  and  I  apprehend  highly  worth 
attention,  what  Cenau,  or  Cenalis,  Bishop 
of  Avranches,  in  a  learned  work  on  the 
French  nation,  asserts,  which  is,  "  that  at 
an  early  period,  a  people  called  Hermioni- 
ens,  but  rather  Heremonians,  possessed  the 
seacoasts  of  Brittany."     To  commemorate 
this  event  and  their  ancestry,  he  tells  us, 
**  that  the  dukes  of  Bretagne  placed  ermines 
in  their  arms."*     To  strengthen  this  rela- 
tion, I  have  but  to  remind  the  reader,  how 
careful  our  antiquarians  have  been  to  dis- 
tinguish from  which  branch  of  the  three 
houses  or  the  royal  line  of  Ireland  each 
monarch  descended ;  and  that  the  present 
prince,  his   grand-uncle,   his    grand,   and 
great-grandfather,  who  successively  ruled 
Ireland,  were  all  Heremonians: — add  to 
this,  that  about  the  period  in  question,  the 
Gauls  and  their  allies  invaded  Italy  with  a 
powerful  army.    The  fair  Mamonian  Moriat 
was   this   prince's    consort.     The    reason 
why  he  is  better  known  by  our  annalists 
by  the  name  Labhra  than  his  original  one, 
M aon,  is  this :  as  soon  as  he  had  surprised 
and  cut  off  his  predecessor,  a  Druid,  who 
was  witness  of  the  action,  and  in  his  inter- 
est, cried  out  hastily,  Does  he  speak  ?  on 
which  account  he  went  by  the  name  of 
Labhradh,  which  signifies  speech ;  to  which 
the  epithet  Luingseach,  or  the  Navy,  was 
added,  from  luingios,  a  fleet.     But  though 
this  question  of  the  Druid  is  mentioned  to 
explain  the  cause  of  this  name  only,  yet  it 
evidently  imports  much  more,  and  ought 
to  be  adverted  to.     By  the  Irish  constitu- 
tion, it  was  not  enough  that  every  candidate 
for  the  monarchy  should  be  of  the  royal 
line  of  Milesius,  yet  he  must  be  also  per- 
fect, not  only  in  all  his  faculties,  but  in  his 
make.     It  had   been  reported   of  Maon, 
when  a  youth,  that  he  was  dumb  ;  so  that 
the  question  was  pointing  out  to  the  people 
that  the  report  was  groundless.     He  first 
introduced  into  Ireland    the    use   of  the 
laighean  or  Gaulish  spear,  and  as  it  was 
mostly  confined  to  the  province  of  Gaillian, 
it  ever  after  was  distinguished  by  the  rest 
of  the  nation  with  the  name  of  Coige-Laig- 
hean,  or  the  Province  of  the  Spears.     After 

•  Mezeray,  Origine  dea  Francais,  p.  357. 


A.M.2767.] 


HISTOHY  OF  IRELAND. 


77 


a  glorious  reign  of  nineteen  years  he  fell 
in  battle  by  the  arm  of  his  successor. 

Meilge,  the  son  of  Cobhthach,  was  pro- 
claimed monarch.  He  was  called  Molbh- 
thach,  or  the  Praiseworthy,  on  account  of 
his  just  administration.  The  division  be- 
tween the  two  branches  of  the  Heremonian 
line,  animated  the  posterity  of  Heber,  and 
after  several  conflicts,  this  prince  at  length 
was  cut  off",  and  his  army  defeated. 

Modh-Chorb  was  the  first  prince  who 
had  spirit  and  power  sufficient  to  break 
through  oaths  sworn  to,  and  the  national 
decree  passed  in  favour  of  Jughaine  the 
Great  and  his  posterity,  in  exclusion  of  the 
other  royal  houses.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  the  son  (but  I  think  with  more  truth 
the  grandson)  of  Cobhthaigh-Caom,  son  of 
the  monarch  Reachta,  of  the  line  of  He- 
ber. He  is  called  in  the  Psalter  of  Cashell 
Modh-Chorb-Claire,  as  his  chief  palace  and 
principal  residence  was  in  Clare,  instead 
of  being  at  Tara.  He  was  slain  in  battle, 
in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign,  by  Aongus. 

Aongus  II.,  called  OUamh,  or  the  Doctor, 
the  son  of  OilioUa,  son  of  Labhra,  of  the  race 
of  Heremon,  was  saluted  monarch.  Of 
this  prince  the  Book  of  Reigns  says — 
"Aongus  OUamh,  a  hoct-deag,  do  rad  a 
Socht  Sluah  saor  Ghreig^*  i.  e.  Aongus, 
for  eighteen  years,  led  his  armies  against 
the  Greeks.  When  we  compare  this  rela- 
tion with  the  accounts  given  us  by  Greek 
and  Roman  writers  of  the  irruption  of  the 
Gauls  into  Greece,  and  note  how  exactly 
the  reign  of  the  present  monarch  accords 
with  the  time  of  this  remarkable  invasion, 
we  must,  I  apprehend,  be  convinced  that 
our  annals  deserve  the  highest  credit.^ — 
During  this  foreign  war,  probably  en- 
couraged to  rid  the  kingdom  of  so  many 
turbulent  spirits,  Aongus's  enemies  were 
not  idle.  Jarereo  raised  a  potent  army, 
cut  off  his  enemy,  and  as  usual  became 
his  successor. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  reigns  of  Jarereo,  Feftrcorb,  Conla,  OilioU  III., 
Adamar,  Eochaidh  VIII.,  Feargus — Of  Aongus 
III. — He  pssistB  the  Carthagininiis — The  sources 
from  ■whence  King  George  III.  is  descended — 
Of  Conall,  Niadh,  Seamhuin,  Eanda,  Criomthan, 
Ruighruidh  the  Grand,  Jondhabhar,  Breasal, 
Lu^midh  IV.,  Congall,  Duach,  and  of  the  Clana 
Deagha ;  Fachtna,  Eochaidh  IX.,  and  of  the 
different  partitions  of  Ireland — Power  of  the 
Heremonians,  and  origin  of  tiie  palace  of  Cm- 
achan. 

Jabebeo,  the  son  of  Meilge,  son  of  Cobh- 
thach, son  of  Jughaine,  of  the  blood  of 
Heremon,  reigned  seven  years,  and  was 
slain  by  his  successor.  He  was  sumamed 
Gleo-fathach,  as  being  a  prince  of  great 
wisdom  and  accomplishments,  as  the  words 
denote.  • 

Fearcorb,  the  son  of  Modh-Corb,  of  the 
line  of  Heber,  ascended  the  throne.  His 
reign,  the  Book  of  Munster  tells  us,  lasted 
but  jive  years,  when  the  sword  of  his  suc- 
cessor cut  his  way  through  him  to  the  Irish 
throne. 

Conla,  the  son  of  Jarereo,  son  of  Meilge, 
reigned  five  years,  and  died  a  natural  death 
at  his  palace  of  Tara. 

OilioU  III.,  sumamed  Caish-fhiaclach,  or 
the  Bad  Teeth,  the  son  of  Conla,  weis  then 
his  successor.  Though  he  reigned  twenty- 
five  years,  yet  we  find  nothing  remarkable 
of  him  in  our  records,  but  that  he  fell  in 
battle,  and  a&  usual,  by  the  sword  of  his 
successor. 

Adamar,  called  Foltchaoin,  or  the  Smooth 
Hair,  the  son  of  Fearcorb,  of  the  race  of 
Heber,  ascended  the  throne.  The  Psalter 
of  Cashell  tells  us  that  his  empress  was 
of  the  Danaan  race,  and  named  FUdhis. 
He  was  slain  by  Eochaidh. 

Eochaidh  VIII.,  the  s<mi  of  OilioU,  son  of 
Conla,  an  Heremonian,  by  the  death  of  his 
antagonist  satisfied  his  revenge  for  the  loss 
of  his  father,  and  his  ambition  by  the  ac- 
quisition of  sovereignty  ;  but  was  himself 
obliged  to  give  way  to  the  superior  arm  of 
his  successor. 

Feargus,  called  Forteamhuil,  or  the 
Strong,  the  son  of  Breasal-Breac,  son  of 
Aongus-OUamh,  son  of  OilioU,  son  of  Labh- 
ra, of  the  second  branch  of  the  Heremonian 
line,  reigned  eleven  years.    He  was  re- 


78 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  2808. 


markably  intrepid ;  in  his  reign,  we  read 
that  the  Gauls  made  an  irruption  into  Italy 
with  fifty  thousand  foot,  and  twenty  thous- 
and horse,  and  were  joined  by  the  Gessatse. 
I  certainly  conclude,  that  the  different  Irish 
monarchs  heartily  promoted  these  frequent 
invasions  of  Italy,  in  order  to  thin  the  king- 
dom of  those  turbulent  and  daring  factions, 
never  happier  than  in  the  midst  of  conten- 
tion and  carnage  ;  to  this  I  shall  add,  that 
the  Irish  infantry  were  called  coisighe. 
He  fell  by  the  sword  of  Aongus. 

Aongus  III.,  the  son  of  Eochaidh,  of  the 
elder  branch  of  the  Heremonian  line,  by 
Jughaine,  was  proclaimed  monarch.  His 
reign  was  long  and  prosperous  ;  and  in  it 
the  second  Punic  war  broke  out,  so  destruc- 
tive to  the  Romans,  and  in  the  end  so  ruin- 
ous to  Carthage.  That  the  Irish,  far  from 
idle  spectators  of  this  war,  were  deeply 
engaged  in  it  as  allies  to  the  Carthaginians, 
I  have  not  the  least  doubt ;  and  this,  per- 
haps, will  best  account  for  the  length  of  his 
reign,  and  the  internal,  peace  of  the  king- 
dom, during  it.  We  have  already  observed 
that  the  Carthaginians  fought  their  battles 
by  means  of  their  allies  and  their  merce- 
naries ;  among  the  former  of  whom  the 
Irish  must  certainly  be  placed.  I  have  al- 
ready offered  my  reasons,  why  I  supposed 
their  celebrated  Sacra  and  Dilecta  Cohors 
were  a  brigade  of  Irish ;  and  the  Cartha- 
ginian swords,  found  near  the  plains  of 
Cannae,  and  presented  by  Sir  William 
Hamilton  to  the  British  Museum,  being 
found  in  figure,  texture,  and  length,  exactly 
similar  to  our  ancient  Irish  ones,  adds 
strength  to  my  conjectures.  It  has  been 
remarked  by  Roman  writers  that  the  swords 
of  the  Gauls  were  of  bad  metal,  frequently 
bent,  and  easily  broken  and  battered ;  but 
by  the  report  of  the  assay-master  of  the 
mint,*  the  Carthaginian  and  Irish  swords 
were  of  mixed  metal,  highly  elastic  and 
polished,  bore  a  very  sharp  edge,  and  so 
formed  as  to  suffer  no  injury  by  time.  Here 
then  is  Roman  evidence,  even  in  the  make 
of  their  arms,  to  distinguish  the  Carthagin- 
ians and  Irish  from  the  other  confederates, 
and  enemies  of  Rome.     But  notwithstand- 

*  Governor  Fowoal's  Letter,  already  quoted. 


ing  the  glory  of  this  reign,  it  was  greatly 
tarnished  by  an  act  of  incest :  for,  being 
overtaken  in  liquor,  we  are  told,  Aongus 
violated  the  chastity  of  his  own  daughter  ; 
and  the  consequence  of  this  act  was  a  son ; 
and  from  which  he  was  called  Tuirmheach, 
or  the  Shameful.  The  better  to  conceal 
this  crime,  the  infant  was  exposed  in  an 
open  boat ;  but  in  case  he  was  found,  care 
was  taken  by  his  dress,  to  denote  him  of 
royal  blood ;  for  he  was  dressed  in  purple 
ornamented  with  gold,  and  some  jewels. 
Some  time  after  the  boat  was  found  by 
fishermen,  the  child  acknowledged,  and 
given  out  to  nurse.  He  was  called  Fiacha, 
to  which  the  epithet  Fear-Mara,  or  the 
Sea-Man,  was  annexed ;  and  from  this 
prince  the  royal  line  of  Scotland  is  de- 
scended. 

As  his  posterity  have  made  a  most  dis- 
tinguished figure  in  the  histories  of  Ireland 
and  Britain,  and  as  from  him,  by  the  female 
line.  King  George  III.  is  descended,  it 
may  be  here  proper  to  note,  that  Aongus 
procured  for  Fiacha  large  possessions  in 
Ulster,  to  which  his  son  Olioll  Aron  suc- 
ceeded ;  and  that  (as  we  shall  see)  many 
of  his  successors  became  kings  of  Munster, 
and  some  of  them  monarchs  of  Ireland. 
Indeed,  upon  a  close  investigation  of  the 
matter,  it  appears  that  children  got  out  of 
wedlock  were  formerly  very  far  from  be- 
ing held  in  a  disrespectful  light.  We  be- 
hold Agamemnon  encouraging  Teucer  to 
pursue  the  heroic  steps  of  his  brother  Ajax  ;* 
for  though  not  the  legitimate  son  of  Tela- 
mon,  he  was  not  less  dear  to  him.  Ulysses 
confessed  himself  the  son  of  a  concubine  ;f 
and  though  Gideon  had  seventy  children  by 
different  wives,  yet  Abimelech,  the  issue 
of  a  concubine,  and  even  his  servant,  was 
chosen  king  of  Sechem  !J  The  children 
of  Jacob  begot  on  the  bodies  of  his  wives' 
handmaids  are  ranked  with  his  legitimate 
ones.  The  celebrated  Count  de  Dunois 
was  better  known  by  the  name  of  the  Bas- 
tard of  Orleans ;  and  the  letters-patent  of 
William  the  Conqueror  to  Alain,  Count  of 

*  Iliad,  lib.  viii.  ver.  281. 
t  Odyssey,  lib.  iv.  ver.  202. 
X  Judges,  chap.  viii.  and  iz. 


A.  M.  3896.] 


HISTOEY  OF  IRELAND, 


79 


Bretagne,  begin  thus — "Guillaume,  dit  le 
Batard,  roi  d'Angleterre,  etc."  Thiery,  a 
natural  son  to  Clovis,  ranked  as  his  other 
children.*  In  Ireland,  m  the  present  and 
in  many  succeeding  instances,  we  shall  see 
illegitimate  children  enjoy  every  rank  and 
dignity  in  the  state  which  their  blood  en- 
titled them  to ;  and  some  of  the  most  illus- 
trious families  in  the  kingdom,  derive  their 
blood  from  similar  sources ;  as  O'Connor 
Kerry,  O'Connor,  Corcumruadh,0'Loghlin, 
O'Ferral,  Mac  Rannel,  etc  Besides  the 
above  Fergus,  Aongus  had  a  legitimate  son 
called  Eanda,  from  whom  the  SioU-Cuin  in 
general  are  descended.  A  period  was  at 
length  put  to  the  life  of  Aongus  by  the 
sword,  at  Tara. 

Connall  Callamhrach,  son  to  Eidersgeoil, 
brother  to  Aongus,  and  son  of  Eochaidh, 
of  the  same  house,  mounted  the  throne,  and 
was  cut  off  in  battle  by  his  successor. 

Niadh  Seamhuin,  the  son  (but  I  think  the 
grandson)  of  Adhainhar,  son  of  Fearchorb, 
of  the  line  of  Heber,  reigned  seven  years. 
The  Book  of  Munster  says  that  his  mother 
was  deeply  versed  in  magic  and  sorcery, 
and  by  this  means  procured  for  her  son 
the  crown ;  but  the  sword  of  his  successor, 
like  that  of  Alexander,  soon  cut  through 
this  Gordian  knot 

Eanda,  called  Aighneach,  or  the  Munifi- 
cent, the  son  of  Aongus  Tuirmheach,  of  the 
house  of  Heremon,  after  a  reign  of  twenty 
years,  fell  in  battle. 

Criomthan,  called  Cosgrach,  or  the 
Slaughterer,  (on  account  of  his  execution 
in  battle,)  the  son  of  Feidhlim,  son  of 
Feargus,  second  branch  of  the  Heremo- 
nians,  after  ruling  Ireland  four  years,  was 
cut  off  in  battle. 

Ruighruidhe,  called  the  Great,  the  son  of 
Sithrighe,  son  of  Dubh,  son  of  Fhpmhar, 
of  the  house  of  Ir,  was  proclaimed  mon- 
arch. This  was  the  first  prince  of  his 
house  who  attempted  to  break  through 
the  oath  sworn  to  by  his  ancestors,  for 
themselves,  and  for  their  posterity,  to  bear 
true  allegiance  to  Jughaine  the  Great,  and 
to  his  issue.  During  his  administration, 
the  war  between  Masinissa  and  the  Car- 

*  Soldeu's  Titles  of  Houour,  p.  535. 


thaginians  broke  out,  which  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  the  third  Punic  war,  and  by  the 
total  destruction  of  that  mighty  republic 
by  the  Romans.  Engaged  deeply  in  sup- 
port of  their  allies,  as  the  Irish  were  in 
these  wars,  we  presume  was  one  reason 
why  the  reign  of  this  prince  was  so  long, 
and  (at  home)  so  peaceable,  as  great  num- 
bers of  turbulent  spirits  were  far  removed. 
Some  allow  him  to  have  ruled  seventy 
years ;  but  thirty  is  what  is  mostly  admit- 
ted. From  him,  his  posterity  were  after- 
wards known  by  the  name  of  Clana-Ruigh- 
ridhe. 

Jonadhbhar,  son  of  Niadhsamhuin,  of  the 
house  of  Heber,  was  proclaimed  monarch. 
He  humbled  the  Picts,  and  obliged  them  to 
pay  a  heavy  tribute.  Keatmg,  0*Flaherty, 
etc.,  allow  him  but  a  reign  of  three  years  ; 
but  Giolla  Caomhain  and  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell  afiirm  that  he  was  monarch  for 
nine  years. 

Breasal,  the  son  of  Ruighridhe  the  Great, 
of  the  line  of  Ir,  by  the  death  of  his  prede- 
cessor, reached  the  throne.  He  was  called 
Bodhiabha,  because  in  his  reign  a  fatal  pes- 
tilential disorder  affected  cows  and  oxen, 
not  unlike  what  has  been,  for  above  thirty 
years  past,  so  fatal  in  Holland  and  G^er- 
many.  He  fell  in  battle,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  conqueror. 

Lughaidh  IV.,  the  son  of  Jonadhmhar, 
an  Heberian,  was  proclaimed  monarch. 
The  Book  of  Munster  tells  us  he  was 
called  Luighne,  because  educated  at  the 
court  of  Leinster.  It  also  informs  us  that 
Criomthan,  his  eldest  son,  was  his  Righ- 
Damhna,  or  declared  successor,  till  cut  off 
in  battle  by  Conghlas,  or  Conall  Clairin- 
gneach.  The  very  learned  Dr.  O'Conry,* 
a  Catholic  clergyman  of  the  diocese  of 
Cloyne,  in  a  posthumous  work,  judges  that 
the  Taniste  was  general  of  the  national 
troops,  as  well  as  chief  of  the  laws ;  and 
he  instances  the  case  of  Mac  Con,  and  Ol- 
ioU-OUum,  in  the  third  century.  From  the 
present  authority,  and  happening  at  so  early 
a  period,  I  am  inclmed  to  think  that  the 
Righ-Damhna  was  the  presumptive  heir  to 
the  crown ;  and  the  Taniste  the  heir  to  a 

•  Collectanea,  No.  iii.  p.  270. 


c^MiiMtaLe.^A^.  . 


80 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3938. 


lordship,  or  confined  territory,  and  of  course 
that  the  law  of  Tanistry  regarded  the  suc- 
cession to  estates  only. 

Congall,  brother  to  Breasal,  and  son  of 
Ruighridhe,  of  the  house  of  Ir,  by  the  de- 
feat and  death  of  Lughaidh,  became  mon- 
arch. He  invaded  Munster,  says  the  Psal- 
ter of  Cashell,  with  a  potent  army,  (Cairbre 
Luisg  being  then  king,)  raised  heavy  con- 
tributions on  the  country,  and  carried  away 
hostages.  But  the  son  of  Cairbre  had  his 
revenge,  having  in  a  bloody  battle  defeated 
the  imperial  army,  and  with  his  own  hand 
cut  off  the  monarch. 

Duach,  son  to  Cairbre,  the  son  of  Lug- 
haidh, of  the  house  of  Heber,  by  this  deci- 
sive blow,  raised  himself  to  the  throne.  He 
had  a  younger  brother  called  Deaghadh, 
both  of  whom  the  Book  of  Munster  de- 
clares to  be  as  gallant  and  intrepid  heroes 
as  Ireland  then  produced.  The  same  au- 
thority acquaints  us  that  violent  disputes 
arose  between  them  about  the  succession, 
Deaghadh  aiming  unjustly  to  supplant  his 
elder  brother.  By  this  censure  of  St.  Cor- 
moc,  we  plainly  perceive  that  when  abili- 
ties were  equal,  the  senior  branch  was  al- 
ways judged  most  worthy  to  rule.  Duach, 
though  well  informed  of  the  underhand 
proceedings  of  Deaghadh,  yet  invited  him 
to  court  as  if  totally  ignorant  of  his  designs. 
As  soon  as  he  arrived  he  was  seized,  and 
his  eyes  taken  out ;  and  this,  as  St.  Cormoc 
observes,  was  the  first  instance  in  Ireland 
of  this  kind  of  punishment.  His  mother, 
Eithne,  hearing  the  melancholy  fate  of  her 
darling  son,  ceased  not  weeping  and  la- 
menting till  she  died;  and  for  this  she 
got  the  appellative  Gubha,  or  the  Sorrow- 
ful. Hence  Duach  was  called  Dalta-Deag- 
hadh,  or  the  Blinder  of  his  brother  Deag- 
hadh. 

The  learned  CFlaherty  treats  the  above 
story  as  a  fable ;  he  says  that  Duach  had 
no  brother,  and  that  he  got  the  epithet 
Dalta-Deaghagh  from  the  generous  recep- 
tion he  afforded  to  the  exiled  Deaghadh, 
and  from  his  adopting  him  as  his  child. 
But  neither  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  nor  the 
Book  of  Lecan,  which  he  quotes  on  this 
occasion,  justify  his  assertion ;  to  the  re- 


verse, the  first  is  my  authority  for  what  has 
been  said. 

The  adopted  Deaghadh  was  the  son  of 
Suin,  the  son  of  OlioU-Aron,  or  rather 
Erne,  so  called  from  the  lands  surrounding 
this  lake,  given  at  the  expense  of  the  an- 
cient Belgic  inhabitants  to  his  father  Fi- 
acha,  by  the  monarch  Aongus,  the  son 
of  Fiacha-fear-muire,  the  son  of  Aongus 
Tuirmheach,  of  the  Ime  of  Heremon.  The 
line  of  Ir,  and  kings  of  Emania  were  highly 
jealous  of  these  new  settlers,  and  of  the 
overgrown  power  of  the  line  of  Heremon. 
They  therefore  made  war  on,  and  at  length 
expelled  Deaghadh  from  Ulster.  To  the 
monarch  Duach,  under  whose  eye  he  was 
educated,  he  applied  for  aid,  and  was  re- 
ceived by  him  with  the  affection  of  a  pa- 
rent. So  great  was  the  Irian  line  at  this 
time,  that  not  satisfied  with  expelling  Deag- 
hadh from  their  province,  they  made  war 
on  the  monarch  who  had  appointed  him  his 
Righ-Damhna,  or  successor,  and  in  a  bloody 
engagement  defeated  the  imperial  army, 
and  slew  Duach.  Deaghadh,  by  his  pru- 
dent conduct,  had  so  far  gained  on  the  af- 
fections of  the  Mamonians  as  to  be  elected 
King  of  the  two  Munsters  in  his  stead  ; 
and  his  posterity,  for  some  generations 
after,  continued  in  conjunction  with  the 
true  or  Heberian  line,  to  govern  that  prov- 
ince. It  is  here  to  be  noticed  that,  wher- 
ever the  Emains,  or  Deagaids  of  Munster 
are  mentioned  in  succeeding  periods  of  our 
history,  they  are  to  be  understood  as  the 
issue  of  this  branch  of  the  Heremonian 
line  only. 

The  Ultonians,  on  the  defeat  and  death 
of  Duach,  proclaimed  Fachtna,  of  the  house 
of  Ir,  monarch.  He  was  the  son  of  Cais, 
son  of  Ruighridhe  the  Great,  who  was 
the  eleventh  generation  from  Argeadmhar. 
He  bears  a  high  character  in  our  annals 
for  his  prudence  and  wisdom,  for  which 
he  acquired  the  epithet  Fathach.  He  fell 
by  the  sword  of  his  successor,  having 
reigned  sixteen  years. 

Eochaidh  IX.,  the  son  of  Finn,  the  son 
of  Finlogha,  son  of  Easamhuin,  the  son  of 
Labhra-Luire,  son  of  Eanda  Aighneach, 
son  of  Aongus,  of  the  house  of  Heremon, 


A.M.  3938.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


81 


was  elected  monarch.  His  mother  was 
Benia,  daughter  of  Criomthan,  son  of  the 
monarch  Lughaidh.  He  was  called  Feidh- 
lioch,  or  of  the  Heavy  Sighs,  being  subject 
to  great  dejections  on  account  of  the  loss 
of  three  of  his  sons,  princes  of  great  in- 
trepidity, who  fell  m  the  battle  of  Dromch- 
riadh.  His  queen.  Cloth,  was  called 
Fionn,  or  the  Fair ;  and  these  sons  she  had 
at  one  birth,  hence  they  were  called  the 
three  Fincamhna,  as  if  saying  the  issue  of 
Fionn,  or  the  Fair,  at  one  birth. 

Ireland  suffered  several  poHtical  divi- 
sions, according  to  the  interests  of  the  dif- 
ferent houses  that  governed  it.  The  first 
partition  of  the  country  from  the  landing 
of  the  Milesians,  was  between  Heber  and 
Heremon,  into-  two  parts  ;  Heber  and  his 
posterity  possessing  themselves  of  the 
southern  half,  and  the  Heremonians  of  the 
northern.  One  hundred  and  thirty-three 
years  after,  a  similar  partition  took  place 
between  the  two  sons  of  Eibhrie.  Ju- 
ghaine  the  Great,  to  insure  the  succession 
to  his  own  race,  divided  the  kingdom  into 
twenty-five  parts,  and  allotted  the  assess- 
ments for  each  tract.  The  present  mon- 
arch formed  the  whole  into  five  provinces, 
viz.,  Munster,  Leinster,  Connaught,  Ulster, 
and  Meath ;  this  last  to  be  always  the 
domain  of  the  reigning  monarch. 

There  is  no  period  of  our  remote  history 
fuller  of  great  domestic  convulsions,  nor 
better  attested,  than  from  the  present  era 
to  the  Incarnation.  But  though  we  are 
still  in  possession  of  the  relations  of  those 
days  of  heroism  and  chivalry,  yet  neither 
the  precise  times,  nor  the  real  nature  of 
those  intestine  broils  have  been  delivered 
to  us  with  the  precision  both  merit !  For 
instance,  Connor,  King  of  Ulster,  and 
Connal  Ceamach,  both  of  the  house  of  Ir, 
are  supposed  to  have  outlived  the  crucifix- 
ion, though  both  great-grandsons  of  Ruigh- 
ridhe  the  Great,  who  was  inaugurated 
monarch,  as  we  have  seen,  A.  M.  2845. 
Again,  the  celebrated  Meibhe,  Queen  of 
Connaught,  and  daughter  to  the  present 
monarch,  about  one  hundred  years  old,  is 
said  to  have  been  killed  by  the  son  of  Con- 
nor, and  in  his  father's  life-time  too.    A 

10 


little  attention  to  the  old  MSS.  will,  how- 
ever, reconcile  the  whole  account  to  reason 
and  chronology.  Placing  the  reign  of  this 
King  of  Emania  in  the  present  period  will 
do  this ;  for,  though  Feargus,  the  son  of 
Leighe,  is  said  to  have  been  King  of  Ulster, 
by  Eochaidh's  appointment,  and  that  on 
his  death  Feargus,  the  son  of  Roigh,  was 
his  successor,  yet  we  see  Connor  compel- 
led the  latter  to  fly  his  country,  and  seek 
an  asylum  in  Connaught,  at  the  very  time 
in  question.  At  the  same  time  Feargus, 
called  Fairge,  or  the  Sea,  on  account  of 
his  navies,  was  King  of  Leinster ;  and 
Daire,  the  son  of  Deaghadh,  the  northern 
exile,  King  of  Munster. 

Such  was  the  situation  of  affairs  at  this 
time.  Eochaidh,  reflecting  on  the  great 
power  of  his  house — himself  monarch,  one 
of  his  line  King  of  Leinster,  the  other  rul- 
ing Munster — presented  to  him  a  pleasing 
prospect  of  reducing  the  entire  kingdom  to 
his  power.  Connaught,  though  paying  its 
proportion  of  the  national  taxes,  was  yet 
still  governed  by  its  ancient  princes  of  the 
Danaan  line ;  and  Eochaidh  formed  the 
plan,  and  in  part  succeeded,  of  making  this 
province  also  more  dependent  on  him.  To 
this  purpose  he  resolved  to  erect  a  more 
stately  and  a  more  central  palace  than 
Tara,  and,  as  usual  in  great  events,  con- 
sulted his  Druids.  After  performing  the 
ceremonies  usual  on  such  occasions,  they 
announced  that  Druim  na  Ndruidh  (a  place 
in  Connaught  celebrated  for  its  great  cave 
and  Druid  mysteries)  was  the  only  proper 
place  for  this  great  work.  He  summoned 
the  princes  who  then  governed  the  prov- 
ince, to  alienate  certain  portions  of  land, 
and  to  contribute  otherwise  to  this  great 
work.  Two  absolutely  refused  to  comply 
till  it  was  agreed  to  by  a  national  assembly, 
to  be  convened  for  that  purpose  at  Tara ; 
but  Tinne  III.,  more  complaisant,  or  per- 
haps previously  engaged,  declared  himself 
ready  to  do  whatever  was  required  to 
please  the  monarch.  Eochaidh,  pleased 
at  this  mark  of  submission,  bestowed  on 
him  his  daughter  Meibhe  as  a  wife ;  and 
soon  after,  by  the  destruction  of  the  other 
princes,  he  appointed  him  absolute  king  of 


82 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


[A.  M.  3950. 


the  province.  However,  his  reign  was 
not  of  long  duration,  since  he  was  some 
time  after  killed  at  Tara,  by  MacCeacht, 
when  Meibhe  reigned  singly  and  unopposed 
Queen  of  Connaught.  The  palace  of  Eo- 
chaidh  was  now  finished  with  great  splen- 
dour ;  and  its  proximity  added  weight  to 
the  administration  of  Meibhe.  After  him  it 
was  called  Rath-Eochaidh,  or  Eochaidh's 
palace;  but  in  honour  to  his  empress  he 
named  it  Rath-Cruachan,  Cruachan  being 
her  name,  and  by  which  it  is  known  at  this 
day.  We  find  this  palace  celebrated  in  the 
days  of  St.  Patrick  as  one  of  the  royal 
houses  of  Jjoaghaire.  In  the  height  of  his 
great  design  he  quitted  this  world,  of  a 
natural  death,  at  Tara,  in  the  twelfth  year 
of  his  reign. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Eochaidh  X. — Singular  terms  of  his  niece's  mar- 
riage— Invasion  of  Ulster — National  assembly  at 
Cruachan,  and  the  Ulster  war  renewed — Battle 
of  Muirtheimhne — Deirdre  carried  off  by  the 
sons  of  Uisneach,  and  the  fatal  consequences — 
Death  of  Meibhe — Insolence  and  banishment  of 
the  bards — The  ancient  mode  of  interment — 
The  King  of  Ulster's  life  saved  by  the  operation 
of  the  trepan — Remarks  on  the  early  state  of 
physic — Of  Eidersgeoil,  and  Nuadha  II. 

iHis  brother,  who  was  called  Eochaidh, 
peaceably  succeeded  to  the  throne,  and 
steadily  pursued  the  system  adopted  by  the 
deceased.  The  Conacians,  uneasy  under 
the  rule  of  a  female,  he  gratified  by  mar- 
rying his  niece  Meibhe  to  OlioU-more,  bro- 
ther to  Cairbre,  now  King  of  Leinster,  who 
were  both  Heremonians.  By  this  mar- 
riage he  reconciled,  in  some  measure,  the 
Damnonii  to  the  new  government,  since 
Olioll,  by  his  mother  Matha-Muireasg,  was 
of  that  blood.  It  is  singular  enough  what 
has  been  handed  to  us  in  relation  to  this 
marriage.  We  are  told,  that  Olioll  being 
advanced  in  years,  a  preliminary  article 
was,  that  she  should,  when  so  inclined,  be 
free  to  indulge  herself  in  illicit  pleasures ; 
and  we  find  she  made  use  of  this  privilege. 
In  the  present  reign  Cuire,  or  Conraoi,  the 
son  of  Daire,  succeeded  his  father  in  the 


government  of  North  Munster,  and  Eo- 
chaidh Abhruadh  in  the  South. 

Feargus-Roigh,  become  compelled  by 
the  superior  power  of  Connor,  the  son  of 
Neassa,  and  his  cousin,  to  fly  Ulster,  ap- 
plied at  Cruachan  for  the  protection  of  the 
monarch,  who  had  nothing  so  much  at 
heart  as  weakening  the  northern  line  by 
opposing  its  princes  to  each  other.  Nor 
was  Feargus  less  solicitous  to  gain  the 
support  of  the  Conacians,  which,  through 
Meibhe,  he  effectually  secured  ;  for  being 
a  prince  of  uncommon  bravery  and  of 
great  gallantry,  he  soon  found  the  way  to 
her  heart  of  tinder,  and  she  bore  to  him 
three  sons  at  one  birth,  who  were  the 
sources  of  most  illustrious  families ;  to 
wit,  Ciar,  ancestor  to  O'Connor  Kerry, 
from  him  so  called;  Coro,  from  whom 
O'Connor,  Corcumruidh,  CLoghlin,  etc., 
and  Cormac,  who  is  ancestor  to  the  OTer- 
rals,  Mac  Rannels,  etc. 

Secure  of  the  support  of  the  monarch 
through  interest,  and  of  his  niece  through 
affection,  Feargus  soon  raised  a  mighty 
army  in  which  some  of  the  most  intrepid 
knights  of  Ireland  went  volunteers.  In 
the  relation  of  this  famous  invasion,  yet 
preserved,  called  Tain-bho-Cuailgne,  or 
the  Spoils  of  Cattle  at  Cualgne,  in  the 
county  of  Lowth,  we  are  entertained  with 
the  order  of  the  march  of  the  troops. 
They  were  led  on  by  Feargus :  the  Queen 
of  Connaught,  seated  in  an  open  chariot, 
with  her  asioUy  or  crown  of  gold,  on  her 
head,  followed ;  her  retinue  were  placed 
in  four  more  chariots,  so  disposed  at  the 
sides  and  rear,  that  the  dust  and  foam  of 
the  cavalry  should  not  stain  her  royal 
robes ;  and  here  it  is  necessary  to  observe, 
that  our  ancient  princes  never  appeared  in 
public  without  their  ensigns  of  royalty. 
But  though  these  troops  could  not  force  the 
Ulster  army  to  a  general  engagement,  nor 
yet  gain  their  end,  which  was  the  dethrone- 
ment of  Connor,  yet  they  miserably  wasted 
the  country,  and  brought  back  with  them 
an  immense  booty  in  cattle  and  other  rich 
effects,  notwithstanding  the  utmost  efforts 
of  the  Ultonians,  though  headed  by  the 
renowned  Conall,  and  all  the  champions  of 


A.  M.  3950.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


83 


Craobh-Ruadh.  This  prey  gave  rise  to 
several  succeeding  invasions,  and  many 
bloody  battles  were  fought  in  which  the 
knights  in  both  armies  acquired  glory  and 
immortality,  as  the  battle  of  Fion-Corratha, 
of  Bos  na  Righ,  near  the  Boyne,  etc. 

The  repeated  engagements,  and  the  losses 
being  pretty  near  equal,  gradually  lessened 
the  desire  of  extermination  on  both  sides  ; 
and  Conall  Cearnach,  grand-master  of  the 
knights  of  Ulster,  seized  this  opportunity 
with  a  select  body  of  troops,  to  go  on  a 
foreign  expedition,  in  which  wealth  and 
glory  were  the  objects.  We  are  not  in- 
formed to  what  place  this  armament  was 
directed  ;  but  it  was  most  probably  to  as- 
sist the  Britons  or  Gauls,  now  greatly  dis- 
tressed by  Caesar.  The  amorous  Meibhe 
thought  this  a  favourable  opportunity  to 
renew  the  war  in  favour  of  her  beloved 
Feargus.  An  assembly  of  the  chiefs  of  the 
Heremonians  was,  by  order  of  the  monarch, 
convened  at  Cruachan.  At  this/ei5,  Meibhe 
appears  to  have  taken  an  uncommonly  ac- 
tive part.  On  the  part  of  the  monarch  ap- 
peared Eare,  the  son  of  Cairbre,  with  his 
knights,  and  a  select  body  of  nobility  and 
others.  Lugha,  the  son  of  Conraoi,  with 
his  Clana  Deaghadh,  or  Munster  knights, 
and  Mac  Nead,  the  son  of  Fin,  and  Connor, 
the  son  of  Rossa,  with  the  Clana  Boisghne, 
or  Leinster  champions,  composed  this  great 
assembly. 

Meibhe  opened  the  debates  by  deplor- 
ing the  unhappy  state  of  the  kingdom  in 
general — the  province  of  Connaught  in  par- 
ticular— was  reduced  to,  through  the  ambi- 
tion of  Connor,  and  the  intrepidity  of  the 
Craobh-Ruadh,  or  Ulster  knights,  and  that 
the  national  tranquillity  depended  on  his 
overthrow.  She  then  addressed  herself  to 
Lugha,  and  reminded  him  of  the  death  of 
his  father,  the  celebrated  Conraoi,  by  Cu- 
chullain,  captain  of  the  Ulster  knights,  and 
of  the  distresses  his  ancestors  were  reduced 
to  by  the  house  of  Ir,  being  forced  to  aban- 
don their  possessions  in  Ulster  as  we  have 
already  observed,  and  take  refuge  in  Mun- 
ster. Her  generals  and  captains  she  re- 
minded of  the  loss  of  a  father,  a  brother,  or 
a  son,  in  the  former  wars ;  that  now  the 


occasions  for  ample  revenge  offered,  which 
she  doubted  not,  but  that  they  would  gladly 
embrace,  and  thus  gratify  their  private  at 
the  same  time  they  did  the  public  resent- 
ment. So  animating  a  speech  delivered  by 
any  one,  but  especially  by  a  fine  woman, 
who  spoke  from  her  feelings,  could  not  fail 
of  producing  all  the  effect  she  wished.  A 
considerable  force  was  soon  levied  and 
marched  into  Ulster,  under  the  command 
of  Lugha;  of  which  proceedings,  Connor, 
having  timely  notice,  raised  all  the  power 
the  shortness  of  the  time  would  allow  him 
to  collect,  and  sent  an  express  to  Cuchullain, 
the  second  in  command,  at  Dun-Dalgan,  to 
head  them,  but  with  strict  orders  (if  possi- 
ble) not  to  engage  the  enemy  till  the  arrival 
of  Conall,  who  was  daily  expected  to  re- 
turn from  Britain  or  Gaul. 

For  six  days  Cuchullain  remained  shut 
up  in  his  camp,  notwithstanding  all  the  en- 
deavours of  Lugha  to  force  him  to  battle ; 
but  on  the  seventh,  spurred  on  by  his  own 
personal  courage,  he  rashly  engaged  them, 
in  which  battle  he  fell  by  the  sword  of 
Lugha,  and  his  army  suffered  a  complete 
defeat.  The  plain  on  which  this  bloody 
battle  was  fought  was  called  Muirtheimhne, 
in  the  county  of  Lowth  ;  and  the  relation 
of  it  has  for  title  Bruislioch-more-Mhuir- 
theimnhe,  or  the  Great  Defeat  at  Muir- 
theimnhe.  While  we  admire  tlie  style  and 
spirit  with  which  this  work  is  written,  we 
are  a  good  deal  distressed  at  the  supersti- 
tion and  credulity  which  must  have  then 
prevailed.  We  read  of  the  Ceardaibh  na 
Druadh,  or  Druid  exorcisms  of  magic  spells, 
and  Cea-Dreachd,  or  Druid  divinations,  all 
uniting  with  the  Heremonians  to  destroy 
the  redoubtable  Cuchullain  and  his  army. 
In  this  battle  we  find  war-chariots  were 
used,  and  numbers  of  them  destroyed  in 
the  conflict,  which  was  very  bloody.  Not 
only  in  the  history  of  this,  but  of  all  the 
other  wars  antecedent  to  Christianity,  we 
see  the  incantations,  magic,  and  spells  of 
the  Druids  introduced,  and  scarce  a  battle 
gained  without  their  assistance.  From  this 
recital,  what  shall  we  think  of  the  candour 
of  Mac  Pherson,  who  boldly  affirms  that 
in  all  the  relations  of  the  early  bards,  not 


P4 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3950. 


the  least  mention  of  religious  ceremony  is 
to  be  found.*  Shall  we  affirm  that  these 
are  his  own  suggestions,  not  the  dictates  of 
truth ;  and  shall  we  apply  to  him  what  the 
great  Usher  says  of  his  countryman  and 
fellow-labourer,  Dempster?  —  "  Tam  sus- 
pectaj  fidei  hominem  ilium  fuisse  comperi- 
mus,  et  toties  tesseram  fregisse,  ut  ocula- 
tos  nos  esse  oporteat,  et  nisi  quod  videmus, 
nihil  ab  eo  acceptum  credere."t 

Scarce  were  these  battles  fought,  when 
new  misfortunes  afforded  fresh  fuel  to  the 
flames  of  war.  The  beautiful  Deirdre, 
daughter  of  Feidhlim,  the  son  of  Doill,  who 
was  first  minister  to  the  King  of  Ulster, 
was  educated  in  the  palace  of  Emania ; 
and  among  the  numbers  of  illustrious  youths, 
companions  of  the  Craobh-Ruadh,  who  at- 
tended the  court,  were  the  three  sons  of 
Uisneach,  whose  names  were  Naois,  Ainle, 
and  Ardan.  We  may  judge  of  the  personal 
accomplishments  of  the  first  of  them,  who 
loved,  and  was  beloved  by  Deirdre,  by  the 
strong  terms  in  which  she  expressed  them. 
Attended  by  her  confidant  one  snowy  day, 
she  beheld  a  butcher  at  a  distance  killing  a 
calf,  and  some  time  after,  a  raven  came  to 
feed  on  the  blood.  The  whole  woman  ab- 
sorbed in  love,  turns  to  her  governess : 
"Behold  (says  she)  the  whiteness  of  that 
snow,  such  is  the  skin  of  my  hero  !  his 
cheeks  are  more  blooming  than  the  blood 
scattered  round  it ;  and  his  hair  is  smoother 
and  blacker  than  the  feathers  of  the  raven 
that  feeds  on  it!"  Similes  inexpressibly 
bold  and  strong  !  After  such  declaration, 
we  may  judge  it  did  not  require  much  im- 
portunity to  prevail  upon  her  to  elope  with 
her  paramour.  To  carry  off  a  lady  from 
court,  under  the  protection  of  the  king  and 
queen,  was  not  only  in  itself  dangerous,  but 
even  deemed  a  sacrilege.  But  what  action 
is  not  love  capable  of  inspiring  ?  The  in- 
fatuated Naois  unbosomed  himself  to  his 
brethren,  who  agreed  to  assist  him  in  car- 
rying off  the  prize,  or  to  perish  in  the 
attempt.  A  ship  was  provided  on  the 
coast,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  select 
soldiers,  men  of  approved  valour,  and 
friends  to  the  family,  were  employed  on  this 

*  Fingal  and  Temora.     tPrimord.  Eccles.  Brit.  p.  37.'). 


service.  So  well  did  they  execute  their 
orders,  that  scarcely  was  this  outrage 
known  to  Connor  when  they  had  embarked 
for  Albany.  But  such  was  his  influence  at 
the  Pictish  court  that  the  fugitives  were 
soon  obliged  to  take  to  their  ships,  and  with 
difficulty  escaped.  Finding  little  protec- 
tion abroad,  they,  through  the  mediation 
of  friends,  implored  their  pardon.  Connor 
seemed  at  length  to  relent ;  and  to  prove 
the  sincerity  of  his  intentions,  he  delivered 
to  the  friends  of  the  young  knights  his  na- 
tural son,  Cormoc  Conloingios,  and  his 
cousin  Feargus,  as  hostages  for  their  safety. 
On  these  securities  Naois  and  his  follow- 
ers landed ;  and  by  way  of  doing  them 
honour,  than  which  nothing  was  less  in- 
tended, Connor  sent  Eogan,  an  officer  in 
whom  he  placed  the  highest  confidence, 
with  a  proper  guard,  to  conduct  them  to 
court.  But  his  private  instructions  were, 
at  a  convenient  opportunity,  to  cut  off*  the 
whole  party ;  and  so  well  did  this  com- 
mander discharge  his  trust  that  not  one  of 
them  escaped ;  even  Fiachadh,  son  of  Fear- 
gus, one  of  the  hostages  who  was  of  their 
party,  was  not  spared.  So  flagrant  a  vio- 
lation of  public  faith  excited  general  indig- 
nation, and  the  very  hostages  thought  them- 
selves so  basely  used  that  they  raised  a 
considerable  body  of  troops,  with  which 
they  suddenly  attacked  the  palace  of  Em- 
ania, plundered  it  of  its  most  valuable 
eflfects,  and  put  to  the  sword  all  they  met, 
not  sparing  even  the  ladies  !  But  this  out- 
rage was  soon  chastised  by  Connor ;  and 
they  fled  for  protection  to  Connaught,  where 
they  were  received  with  open  arms.  The 
war  became  now  more  acrimonious  and 
bloody ;  and  in  one  of  the  many  actions 
fought  on  this  occasion,  Olioll,  King  of  Con- 
naught,  fell  by  the  sword  of  Conall-Cear- 
nach,  who,  in  his  retreat,  was  so  closely 
pursued  by  the  Conacians,  that  his  intrepid 
soul  could  see  no  alternative  but  in  victory 
or  in  death.  His  resolution  being  fixed,  in 
a  short  speech  he  animated  his  soldiers,  and 
though  very  unequal  for  the  combat,  they 
undauntedly  began  the  attack,  but  were 
punished  for  their  temerity,  being  all  cut  off 
to  a  man. 


A.  M.  3950.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


85 


The  death  of  so  many  heroes  depressed 
the  courage  of  the  Ultonians  in  proportion 
as  it  elevated  their  antagonists.     In  this 
dilemma  Forbhuidbe,  son  and  Righ-Damh- 
na  or  presumptive  heir  to  Connor,  formed 
the  resolution  of  cutting  off  the  Queen  of 
Connaught;  at  any  time  detestable,  but  in 
these  days  of  chivalry  infinitely  more  so. 
Meibhe,  advanced  in  years,  after  the  death 
of  her  paramour  Feargus,  and  her  husband 
Olioll,  retired  to  Inis-Clothron,  near  Loch- 
Ribh,  where  she  lived  more  retired.     It 
was  her  custom,  on  summer  mornings,  to 
bathe  herself  in  that  fine  lake,  of  which 
Forbhuidhe  was  well  informed.    He  caused 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  lake  to  be 
measured,  and  particularly  the  place  where 
she  bathed.     Thus  instructed,  he  fixed  up 
a  mark  near  Emania,  and  with  a  cran-tuhal 
or  sling,  he  constantly  practised  at  it  every 
day,  till   he  became  almost  certain  of  hit- 
ting it  with  a  ball  as  often  as  he  pleased. 
At  this  time  a  convention  was  proposed 
between   the   rival  powers,  who  met   at 
Loch-Ribh ;  and  this  the  infamous  Forbh- 
uidhe thought  would  aflford  him  an  unsus- 
pected opportunity  of  executing  his  infer- 
nal   scheme.      Accordingly  he  took    his 
stand  one  morning,  and  just  as  the  queen 
was  plunging  into  the  water,  he  darted  a 
ball  with  such  force  and  direction  as  to 
hit  her  on   the  skull,  which  immediately 
depriving  her  of  sense,  she  sunk   to  the 
bottom,  to  rise  no  more  ! 

This  most  base  action,  though  in  its  ef- 
fects so  happy,  by  restoring  peace  to  the 
nation,  we  can  hardly  suppose  to  be  car- 
ried on  without  the  consent,  if  not  advice, 
of  Connor,  who  we  have  seen  violated 
public  faith  himself,  in  the  most  flagrant 
manner,  by  the  murder  of  the  sons  of  Uis- 
neach.  Remote  as  we  are  from  these 
scenes  of  action,  we  can  only  judge  from 
events ;  but  had  we  been  better  acquaint- 
ed with  their  real  motives,  they  would  not 
perhaps  appear  in  so  detestable  a  light  as 
they  now  do.  For  Connor  was  undoubt- 
edly a  prince  of  great  abilities,  as  well  as 
of  uncommon  intrepidity ;  otherwise  he 
could  not  so  manfully,  as  we  see  he  did 
for  years,  oppose  the  whole  power  of  the 


monarch  and  his  allies,  aided  by  a  consid- 
erable party  in  his  ovm  territories.  He 
was  besides  a  great  protector  of  arts  and 
sciences  :  to  him  we  are  in  a  great  meas- 
ure indebted  for  what  records  and  history 
we  possess  of  these  remote  days.  For  the 
power  and  insolence  of  the  bards,  and  of 
the  literati,  had  at  this  time  rose  to  so  high 
a  pitch,  that  scarce  any  thing  they  de- 
manded dared  be  refused  them.  Protected 
in  their  persons  and  possessions  by  the 
laws,  they  abused  this  trust  in  the  most 
flagrant  manner,  by  libelling  whoever  dis- 
obliged them.  Besides  their  colleges  and 
munificent  foundations,  like  modem  mendi- 
cants they  were  perpetually  craving  one  fa- 
vour or  other,  till  their  vast  properties,  their 
immunities,  and  the  numbers  of  their  fol- 
lowers— such  as  Caesar  tells  us,  was  at 
THIS  VERY  TIME  the  casc  with  Gaul* — 
became  alarming  to  the  state. 

But  most  reformations  are  carried  on 
with  more  zeal  than  prudence,  with  more 
violence  than  good  sense  !  Such  was  the 
general  resentment  against  this  body  of 
men,  that  instead  of  distinguishing  between 
the  use  and  abuse  of  them,  by  a  national 
decree  of  the  estates  at  Cruachan,  they 
were  deprived  of  their  immunities,  and 
banished  the  kingdom.  In  this  humiliating 
state  they  found  a  generous  protection  in 
Ulster ;  and  Connor,  though  waging  war 
for  ten  years  with  the  Heremonians,  yet 
forgot  not  what  he  owed  to  his  country, 
and  to  the  fine  arts.  A  thousand  oUamhs, 
or  doctors  in  sciences,  did  he  support  and 
protect  for  seven  years ;  and  when  peace 
became  restored,  and  the  voice  of  sense 
and  prudence  could  be  distinguished  from 
those  of  faction  and  oppression,  he  clearly 
showed  that  the  total  abolition  of  the  lite- 
rary orders  would  be  to  the  last  degree 
detrimental  to  the  state  ;  but  that  a  proper 
restraint  laid  on  them  would  be  a  most 
useful  and  necessary  step.  The  number 
of  ollamhs,  or  doctors,  was,  therefore,  as 
in  the  days  of  Ollamh-Fodhla,  reduced  to 
two  hundred,  and  a  proper  care  was  taken 
to  prevent  idlers  listing  under  their  auspi- 
ces, as  heretofore. 

*  Comment,  lib.  vL 


86 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3950. 


This  monarch,  Eochaidh,  is  distinguish- 
ed in  our  histories  by  the  epithet  Aremh, 
or  the  Grave,  because  he  first  regulated 
the  different  modes  of  interment.  He  di- 
rected that  the  head  should  be  placed  to 
the  west,  the  feet  to  the  east,  and  a  leacht^ 
or  monument  of  stone,  raised  over  the 
whole.*  Some  of  the  knights  had  graves 
dug ;  the  bottom  of  smooth  marble,  the 
sides  built  with  brick  and  cement,  in  the 
form  of  a  modern  coffin,  and  so  finished  at 
top,  that  a  large  stone  so  exactly  fitted  it 
as  to  leave  no  room  for  dust,  or  adventi- 
tious substances.  In  this  the  corpse  was 
laid,  with  his  armour  on  him,  and  a  sword 
by  his  side.  Inscriptions  were  raised 
round  the  moulding  of  the  coffins,  and  the 
beauty  of  the  letters  at  this  day  proclaims 
the  skill  of  the  sculptors.  Many  such  are 
to  be  seen,  and  particularly  at  Ard-Feart, 
or  the  Lofty  Burial-place,  in  the  county  of 
Kerry.  Foreigners  of  distinction  had  al- 
ways leachts,  or  monuments  of  stone, 
raised  for  them,  as  we  learn  by  a  very 
ancient  rann,  or  verse  ;  and  whoever  died 
by  the  sword  was  sure  to  have  a  leacht,  or 
indeed  rather  a  cam,  raised  to  him,  accord- 
ing to  the  maxims  of  Pythagoras,  who  was 
himself  a  Druid — "  Locus  lapidibus  obru- 
endus,  ubi  fanguis  humanus  sparsus  est.** 
In  the  famous  battle  of  Muir-theimhne, 
already  mentioned,  on  Cuchullain's  being 
mortally  wounded,  he  directs  his  chariot- 
eer, "  to  carry  him  to  yonder  carruig,  (a 
large  stone  pitched  on  one  end,)  to  place 
his  body  standing  against  it,  his  sword  in 
his  hand,  his  shield  raised  up,  and  his  two 
spears  by  his  left  side."  He  was  com- 
pletely armed,  as  his  work  tells  us.  In 
the  Leabhar-Lecan,  book  iii.,  we  are 
told,  that  when  the  Catha-Miligh,  or  hero 
Mar,  the  son  of  Rignet,  was  slain  in  the 
battle  of  Findebhra,  the  son  of  Mac 
Con  caused  a  cam-cloch,  or  monument 
of  the  most  precious  stones  in  Callru- 
idhe,  to  be  raised  over  him.  The  re- 
nowned hero  Eogan,  slain  in  the  battle 
of  Lena,  was  laid  out  completely  armed, 
in  the  same  manner;  and  over  him  a  cam, 
or  heap  of  stones  was  erected.     The  fol- 

*  Tri  bhiorgaoithe  an  bhas,  1.  iii.  halt  8. 


lowing  verse,  in  the  history  of  this  battle 

of  Lena,  shows  Eogan  **  placed  erect,  his 

lance  by  his  shoulder,  his  helmet  on  his 

head,  his  coat  of  mail  on  his  body,  and  his 

sword  in  his  hand." 

Feart  Mhogha-Neid,  ar  mhoige  taalang 

Gona  Ruibhne  re  a  ghualin. 

Gona  luirig  loaghics  goil; 

Is  gona  Chathbhar,  cumb  doid. 

The  ancient  ceremonies  observed  in  in- 
terring the  great  were  these  : — when  the 
corpse  was  laid  in  its  vault,  or  appointed 
burial-place,  the  Druids  performed  all  the 
solemn  rites  prescribed  by  their  religion : 
the  chief  senachie  or  antiquarian,  then  re- 
cited aloud  the  pedigree  of  the  deceased, 
till  he  came  to  its  first  source.  The  Ard- 
Phileadh,  or  chief  poet,  in  a  species  of 
poetry  called  caoine,  or  lamentations,  used 
on  such  occasions,  proclaimed  his  virtues, 
his  bravery,  his  hospitality,  and  how  well 
he  supported  the  honour  of  his  race ;  this 
was  succeeded  by  a  great  cry,  when  every 
one  passing  by  the  grave,  threw  a  stone 
over  it,  hence  the  old  saying,  of  having 
performed  all  duties  to  a  departed  friend — 
Do  rindh  a  hi,  agas  a  leacht — i.  e.  they 
recited  his  apotheosis,  and  raised  his  monu- 
ment. This  custom  the  early  Greeks  bor- 
rowed from  our  ancestors ;  but  their  suc- 
cessors forgetting  the  original  institution, 
instead  of  rendering  to  the  deceased  the 
praises  justly  due  to  them,  often  deified 
them ;  and  from  them  the  Romans  bor- 
rowed the  same  most  absurd  and  most 
disgraceful  custom.  That  all  the  Scythic 
tribes  detested  this  most  infamous  and  un- 
manly adulation,  we  are  furnished  with  a 
striking  example  in  Attila,  King  of  the 
Huns.  Marullus,  a  Calabrian  poet,  waited 
on  him  with  a  copy  of  verses ;  but  as  soon 
as  the  prince  understood  that  he  derived 
his  pedigree  from  the  gods,  he  would  have 
killed  him  but  for  the  respect  due  to  his 
order.  The  reader  will  plainly  see,  that 
this  custom  in  Ireland  was  established  for 
the  wisest  and  best  of  purposes.  At  these 
funerals  all  the  family  and  friends  of  the 
deceased  attended :  it  was  deemed  an  in- 
dispensable duty ;  and  it  is  still  observed 
by  the  remains  of  old  families,  but  wisely 
omitted   by   many  of  our   modern  ones. 


A,  M.  3970.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


87 


The  praises  of  the  deceased  were  the 
strongest  incitements  to  virtue,  courage, 
and  hospitality  in  their  survivors.  As 
jElian  remarks,  "Celtae  hymnorum  suorum 
argumentum  faciunt  viros  qui  in  praeliis 
fortiter  pugnantes,  occubuerunt** 

Connor,  King  of  Ulster,  of  whom  so 
much  has  been  said,  was  the  son  of  Fatch- 
na,  the  son  of  Cais,  son  of  Ruighridhe  the 
Great,  of  the  house  of  Jr.  Pursuing  the 
Conacians,  commanded  by  Ceat,  with  too 
much  impetuosity,  he  received  a  violent 
fracture  on  the  skull  by  a  ball,  darted  from 
a  cran-tubal,  or  sling,  and  of  which  wound 
he  recovered  by  the  operation  of  the  tre- 
pan, performed  by  his  chief  surgeon,  Figh- 
nin,  called  Feathach,  or  the  Skilful.  This 
is  not  the  only  testimony  our  history  bears 
of  the  eminence  of  our  ancient  physicians 
and  surgeons.  In  the  bloody  battle  of  Cri- 
ona,  fought  in  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century,  Teige,  the  son  of  Cein,  the  son  of 
OlioU,  of  the  house  of  Heber,  being  deeply 
wounded,  and  the  barbs  of  some  spears 
lodged  in  different  parts  of  his  body,  pro- 
ducing exquisite  pain,  he  sent  to  Munster 
for  the  celebrated  surgeon  Finighn,  called 
Feath-glic,  or  the  Learned  and  Dexterous, 
who  with  his  three  daltadh,  or  eleves,  soon 
relieved  him,  by  removing  these  extraneous 
bodies.*  It  appears  that  physic,  like  the 
*  Leabhar-Lecan,  lib.  iii. 


other  learned  professions,  was  hereditary 
in  families ;  and  that  the  most  celebrated 
of  this  body  attended  the  army.  So  much 
superior  in  knowledge  to  the  rest  of  their 
brethren  were  these  military  surgeons 
deemed,  that  to  this  day,  to  express  an  in- 
curable, we  say,  "Ni  thogfiodh  leagha  na 
bhfionn,  e! — the  physician  of  the  royal 
militia  could  not  raise  him  T 

Eidersgeoil,  after  violent  struggles,  was 
by  all  parties  proclaimed  monarch  of  Ire- 
land. He  was  the  son  of  (^Hiar,  called 
in  the  Leabhar-Lecan,  King  of  Munster, 
the  son  of  the  exiled  Deaghadh,  of  the  line 
of  Heremon.  He  was  a  prince  of  great 
talents  and  of  a  very  enterprizing  disposi- 
tion. Early  in  life  he  led  a  select  body  of 
troops  into  Ulster  in  revenge  for  the  expul- 
sion of  his  ancestors  from  thence  by  the 
house  of  Ir.  In  marching  through  Meath, 
he  met  with  the  beautiful  Measbuchuail, 
the  daughter  of  Eassa,  daughter  to  the 
then  reigning  monarch  Eochaidh,*  by 
whom  he  had  his  son  Conaire.  This  prince 
fell  by  the  sword  of  his  successor. 

Nuadha-Neacht,  a  descendant  of  Criom- 
than-Cosgrach,  of  the  line  of  Heremon,  did 
not  long  enjoy  the  monarchy,  his  army 
being  defeated,  and  himself  slain  in  the 
battle  of  Cliach,  by  the  son  of  his  predeces- 
sor, in  the  sixth  month  of  his  reign. 

*  Leabhar-Lecan,  lib.  iii.    O'Flaherty,  etc. 


'*-'■•     ■ '  ■■-''  -  .^.- 


BOOK    V. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Antiquity  of  chivalry  in  Europe — Utility  of  Irish 
history  in  such  inquiry — Five  equestrian  orders 
in  Ireland — Knights,  a  particular  order  in  the 
state — Their  education  and  elevated  sentiments 
— Csesar  and  Pausanias  justified,  and  the  cus- 
toms of  knighthood,  in  subsequent  times  on  the 
continent,  explained. 

Having  so  frequently  mentioned  the 
knights  of  ancient  Ireland,  the  curious 
reader  will,  no  doubt,  wish  to  be  more 
Yully  informed  of  the  nature  of  this  order 
of  men,  so  celebrated  in  our  history.  He 
will  be  the  more  desirous  of  this  informa- 
tion, as  most  modern  writers  make  the  in- 
stitution of  chivalry  in  Europe  of  a  much 
later  date :  some  deriving  it  from  the 
Moors  of  Granada,  others  from  the  Cru- 
sades ;  but  all  agreeing  that  it  must  have 
originated  after  the  destruction  of  the  Ro- 
man empire.  Yet  Csesar  assures  us  that 
the  second  rank  among  the  Gauls  was  the 
esquires,  or  knights,*  and  surely  a  better 
authority  cannot  be.  Livy,  in  his  history, 
in  more  places  than  one,  mentions  them, 
describes  the  dress  of  one  or  two  of  them, 
and  particularly  notes  the  torques,  or  gold 
breast-plate,  pendulous  from  the  neck. 
Pausanias  describes  them  and  their  char- 
iots ;  and  he  tells  us  that  they  were  called 
Trimarkisian,  from  their  chariots  being 
drawn  by  three  horses  ;  for  says  he,  "  the 
name  of  a  horse  among  the  Gauls  is  known 
to  be  Markan."    K"i  to  8vofia  i'aoi  tig  map. 

KAN  ov  hxo  T(bv  KEATSllV.-f 

Unfortunately  for  letters,  the  early  his- 
tories of  the  Gauls  and  Britons,  and  indeed 
of  every  other  nation  subdued  by  the  Ro- 
mans, are  lost;  these  last  showing  them- 
selves everywhere  as  much  the  enemies  of 

*  Commentar.  lib.  vi.         f  In  Phocic. 


science  as  of  the  liberties  of  mankind. 
Therefore,  destitute  of  proper  guides,  later 
\yriters  suppose  the  origin  of  chivalry  in 
Europe  to  have  commenced  at,  or  very 
near  the  time  in  which  they  first  find  any 
mention  of  it  by  Celtic  writers  !  For  it  is 
a  point  agreed  on,  that  they  took  their  rise 
from  the  knights  of  ancient  Rome.*  Ire- 
land, however,  being  free  from  any  attempt 
of  the  Romans,  preserved  her  ancient  his- 
tory ;  and  it  is  the  more  valuable,  as  it 
plainly  appears  to  be  the  only  key  to  the 
laws  and  customs  of  the  ancient  Celtae,  as 
handed  down  to  us  by  Greek  ^nd  Roman 
writers.  So  extremely  ancien*  has  the  in- 
stitution of  chivalry  been  among  us,  that 
we  scarce  know  where  to  trace  its  origin. 
We  find  our  ancestors  had  it  in  Greece; 
and  the  curetes,  or  knights,  among  the  first 
reformers  of  Greece,  are  mentioned  with 
particular  honour,  and  such  is  to  this  day, 
the  name  of  a  knight  in  Irish.  Probably  it 
originated  in  Egypt,  from  whence  they 
brought  it  first  to  Crete.  Certain  it  is,  that 
from  the  foundation  of  the  Milesian  mon- 
archy, this  order  of  men  has  been  par- 
ticularly attended  to,  and  their  rank,  their 
dress  and  their  insignia  determined. 

There  were  five  equestrian  orders  in 
Ireland — the  first  was  the  Niag-Nase,  or 
Knights  of  the  Golden-Collar ;  and  this 
order  was  peculiar  to  the  blood-royal,  as 
without  it  no  prince  could  presume  to  be- 
come a  candidate  for  the  monarchy.  Of 
the  truth  of  this  we  are  furnished  with  a 
striking  instance  in  the  fourth  century. 
While  the  different  competitors  were  put- 
ing  in  their  claims  for  the  monarchy, 
Eochaidh,  King  of  Leinstcr,  aspiring  to 

*  Selden's  Titles  of  Honour. 


A.  M.  3970.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


89 


the  same  honour,  seized  on  the  palace  of 
Tara  during  the  election,  hoping  by  this 
means  to  strengthen  his  claim ;  but  upon 
the  remonstrances  of  the  Druids  and  law- 
yers of  his  own  court,  who  represented  to 
him  how  criminal  his  behaviour  must  ap- 
pear to  the  whole  kingdom,  to  say  that  he 
should  presume  taking  possession  of  Tara, 
much  less  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
monarchy,  who  had  not  yet  received  the 
Gradh-Gaisge,  or  order  of  chivalry !  he  relin- 
quished  his  claim,  and  surrendered  the  im- 
perial palace  to  Nial,  sumamed  the  Grand. 
Of  the   other   orders    of  chivalry,  the 
Curaithe  na  Craobh-ruadh,  or  knights  of 
Ulster,  for  numbers,   prowess,  and  disci- 
pline, seem  to  rank  foremost  in  our  history. 
Why  they  have  been  always  distinguished 
by  the  name  of  Craobh-ruadh,  or  the  Red 
Branch,  is  not  said.     Should  we  suppose 
it  alluded  to  the  arms  of  Ulster,  which  are 
"  Luna,  a  hand  sinister,  couped  at  the  wrist. 
Mars," — then  should  they  be  called  Craobh- 
ruadh,  or  the  Bloody  Hand,  which  perhaps 
was  their  real  title.     The  Clana-Deagha, 
or  Munster  knights,  were  a  most  intrepid 
order  of  men.     This  name  they  took  from 
Deagha,  who  was  expelled  from  Ulster 
about  A.  M.  3920,  and  new-marshalled  this 
body.     For  I  can  by  no  means  admit  that 
he  was  the  founder  of  them,  or  that  Bao- 
isgne  instituted  suclv'an  order  in  Leinster, 
as  we  know  that  this  class  of  people  always 
flourished  among  us.     Daire,  the  son  of 
Deagha,  succeeded  his  father  in  the  com- 
mand of  these  knights ;  and  as  from  the 
father  they  were  called  Clana-Deagha,  so 
from  the  son  they  in  particular  were  called 
Righ  Daire,  or  heroes  formed  by  the  arm 
of  Daire,  righ  being  Irish  for  arm.   Through 
the  protection  of  Duach,  and  the  intrepidity 
of  these  knights,  Deagha  from  an  exile  be- 
came King  of  Munster,  in  exclusion  of  the 
Heberian  or  true  line  ;  and  it  is  on  this  ac- 
count that  these  knights  bore  for  their  en- 
sign the  arms  of  Munster,  i.  e.  "  Saturn,  a 
kmg  enthroned  in  majesty."     The  Leinster 
knights  were  called  Clana-Baoisgne,  from 
Baoisgne,  an   ancestor  of  the  celebrated 
Fion,  who  reformed  and  gave  new  laws  to 
them.     Their  ensign  was  the  same  of  the 

12 


same  province,  i.  e.  "  Jupiter,  a  hajrp,  Sol, 
stringed  Luna."  The  knights  of  Connaught, 
in  these  early  days,  were  of  the  Danaan 
race,  and  yielded  not  the  palm  in  point  of 
courage  and  discipline  to  any  heroes  in 
Europe.  Their  arms  were  "Jupiter,  a 
cavalier  completely  armed;"  for  such  I 
take  for  granted  the  insignia  of  Connaught 
to  be,  being  the  reverse  of  the  coins  of 
Roderic  and  Turelogh  O'Connor,  the  two 
last  monarchs  of  Ireland,  when  kings  of 
Connaught  onl]/. 

The  rank  the  knights  supported  in  the 
state  was  very  early  settled,  for  they  pre- 
ceded all  other  classes  of  people,  giving 
way  to  none  but  the  oUamhs,  or  doctors  in 
different  sciences,  and  to  the  blood-royal. 
By  the  law  called  Ilbreachta,  or  of  col- 
ours, established  A.  M.  2820,  knights  were 
allowed  five  colours  in  their  garments. 
Eadhna,  A.  M.  2996,  decreed  them  silver 
shields  and  targets,  and  the  privilege  of 
fighting  in  chariots,  before  this  reserved  to 
the  princes  or  generals  only.  Soon  after 
this,  Muinheamhoin  decreed  that  knights 
for  the  future  should  wear  a  torques,  or 
collar  of  gold,  pendulous  from  the  neck ; 
and  this  last  both  Strabo  and  Livy  declare 
was  constantly  worn  by  the  Gaulish  knights. 
This  collar  was  used  long  after  the  Nor- 
man invasion,  and  the  wearer  was  called 
Fleasgach,  from  Jleasg,  a  torques ;  but  these 
invaders  wishing  to  abolish  all  ancient  cus- 
toms, so  far  ridiculed  this,  that  the  name, 
though  so  honourable  in  itself,  became  in 
time  an  epithet  of  contempt  and  derision. 

Not  only  their  rank  was  ascertained, 
but  the  utmost  care  taken  of  their  educa- 
tion, and  of  their  military  rules.  Acade- 
mies were  founded  for  them  at  the  national 
expense  (like  the  royal  military-school  of 
Paris)  at  Tara,  Emania,  Cashell,  Cruachan, 
Naas,  etc.  The  candidate  was  entered  at 
seven  years  old,  when  a  slender  lance  was 
put  in  his  hand,  and  a  sword  by  his  side. 
From  this  to  fourteen  they  were  instructed 
in  letters  and  in  military  discipline,  when 
they  took  their  first  vows.  They  w^ere 
now  exercised  every  day  in  casting  a  jave- 
lin at  a  mark,  at  which,  in  time,  they  be- 
came so  expert,  as  to  be  certain  of  trans- 


90 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3970. 


fixing  an  enemy  with  it  when  within  its 
force.  The  cran-tubal,  or  sHng,  was  an- 
other instrument  very  much  used  in  ancient 
times,  from  which  they  darted  balls  with 
great  force  and  direction.  At  the  use  of 
the  sword  and  target  they  were  uncom- 
monly skilful ;  and  they  fought  on  foot,  on 
horseback,  or  in  chariots,  according  to 
their  situation  and  circumstances. 

At  eighteen  they  took  their  last  vows ; 
and  from  the  accounts  of  this  order  of  men, 
STILL  pretty  well  preserved,  we  are  sur- 
prised how  elevated  their  sentiments  were, 
and  their  ideas  of  honour  and  heroism. 
To  swear  by  their  knighthood  was  the 
most  sacred  oath,  as  it  at  once  reminded 
them  of  all  their  vows.  In  the  battle  of 
Ventry,  in  Kerry,  called  Catha  Fiontragha, 
one  of  the  knights  in  Fion's  army  says — 
"  Luigheamsi  fam  bhriathar,  agas  fam  Ara- 
ms-ibh-Gaisge — i.  e.  I  affirm  on  my  word, 
and  on  the  arms  of  chivalry,"  etc. 

At  the  battle  of  Muirtheimhne,  fought 
before  the  Incarnation,  when  Cuchullain 
was  deterred  by  his  officers  from  fighting 
the  imperial  army,  he  at  length  cried  out, 
"  Since  the  days  that  my  first  arms  were 
put  into  my  hands,  (i.  e.  since  I  received 
the  honour  of  knighthood,)  I  have  not  de- 
clined a  battle,  nor  shall  I  this.  Their 
common  saying  was — "  Is  fear  blath  na 
Seaghail — i.  e.  Glory  is  preferable  to  life." 
When  Conall,  general  of  the  knights  of 
Ulster,  slew  Misgreadha,  a  celebrated  Co- 
nacian  hero,  in  battle,  not  satisfied  with 
this,  he  singly  attacked  Ceat,  the  Connaught 
general ;  but  though  in  this  last  action  he 
slew  his  antagonist,  yet  he  purchased  vic- 
tory at  a  very  dear  rate,  being  desperately 
wounded,  and  left  on  the  field  of  battle  for 
dead.  In  this  situation  he  was  found  by 
Belchu,  of  Breifni,  another  Connaught 
knight,  who  could  not  forbear  insulting 
Conall  in  his  distresses,  accusing  him  of 
being  the  cause  of  the  torrents  of  blood 
then  shed  in  Ireland.  The  afflicted  knight 
upbraided  Belchu  with  baseness  and  cow- 
ardice in  thus  insulting  an  enemy  unable  to 
revenge  himself,  telling  him  he  would  act  a 
more  generous  part  in  killing  him  outright, 
as  then  he  would  have  the  glory  in  dying. 


to  have  it  told  that  three  knights  of  Con- 
naught were  at  once  engaged  in  killing  him. 
Belchu,  stung  by  these  reproofs,  told  him 
he  scorned  so  base  an  act ;  and  had  him 
brought  to  his  own  house  to  be  taken  proper 
care  of,  when  on  his  recovery  he  engaged 
to  fight  him. 

In  the  bloody  battle  of  Maigh-Lerfa,  in 
King's  county,  fought  in  the  second  century, 
it  was  proposed  by  some  of  the  officers  in 
the  imperial  army,  to  attack  the  troops  of 
Munster,  or  indeed  rather  of  Leath-Mogha, 
at  night,  by  a  kind  of  coup  de  main ;  but 
Gaull,  the  son  of  Morni,  and  chief  of  the 
knights  of  Connaught,  made  this  heroic 
answer — ^*  On  the  day  that  I  received  the 
honour  of  knighthood,  I  vowed  never  to 
attack  an  enemy  at  night,  by  surprise,  or 
under  any  kind  of  disadvantage  !"*  In  the 
third  century,  Mac  Con,  an  exile,  invaded 
Ireland ;  but  instead  of  immediately  at- 
tacking his  enemy,  as  yet  unprepared,  he 
sent  ambassadors  to  Art,  the  then  monarch, 
notifying  his  arrival  and  his  intentions. 
Their  demands  and  his  answer  are  worth 
reciting.  "  We  come  (said  they)  from 
Mac  Con  to  you  Art  Mac-Cuin,  requiring 
you  in  his  name,  to  divide  Ireland  with 
him,  or  to  meet  him  on  the  plains  of  Moi- 
cruimhe,  where  he  will  wait  for  you  with 
thirty  battalions."  "  I  will  never  consent 
to  divide  the  kingdom,  (replied  Art,)  nor 
will  I  decline  the  battle.  He  is  unworthy 
a  crown  who  declines  the  fight  My  father 
waded  to  the  monarchy  through  torrents  of 
blood,  and  the  sword  only  shall  deprive 
me  of  it !"  The  next  question  was  as  to 
the  time  of  fighting.  Art  demanded  twelve 
months,  to  enable  his  allies  to  join  him. 
But  the  numbers  of  foreigners  in  the  army 
of  Mac  Con  made  it  impossible  to  grant 
this  request.  By  mutual  agreement  it  was 
fought  in  a  fortnight ;  and  a  most  bloody 
and  decisive  battle  it  proved !  for  in  it  fell 
Art  by  the  sword  of  Mac  Con,  the  King 
of  Connaught  by  that  of  Beine-Briot,  Prince 
of  Wales,  seven  sons  of  the  King  of  Mun- 
ster, and  many  heroes  of  prime  note,  fell 
that  day,  as  is  particularly  related  in  the 
history  of  this  war.f 

*  lounsuidhe  Magha-Leana.  t  Catha  Maigh-Muicruimbe. 


■J 


A.  M.  3970.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


91 


The  mode  of -chivalry  in  Ireland  was  as 
follows :  in  every  military  academy,  a  coat 
of  mail  and  a  shield  were  suspended  under 
a  handsome  arch  before  the  great  court,  to 
denote  them  always  ready  for  battle.  At 
all  public  festivals,  and  particularly  when 
the  young  knights  took  their  last  vows, 
numbers  repaired  to  be  witnesses  of  the 
ceremony.  Such  foreign  knights  as  chose 
to  enter  the  lists,  struck  the  shield  three 
times  with  their  lances,  when  each  cried 
out — "  sgreadaim  sgiath,  and  sarim  comh- 
pach,  i.  e.  I  strike  the  shield,  and  demand 
the  fight."  Their  names,  quality,  and  proofs 
of  knighthood  were  then  demanded,  and 
the  terms  of  the  tournament  adjusted. 
From  this  old  custom  comes  the  common 
saying,  even  at  this  day,  of  calling  a  riotous 
and  quarrelsome  person  a  buillim  sgiath, 
i.  e.  a  shield-beater. 

Thus  we  see  to  demonstration,  that  Csb- 
sar,  Pausanias,  and  Tacitus,  were  right 
when  they  mentioned  the  equestrian  order 
among  the  Gauls  and  Germans;  and  we 
may  venture  to  affirm  that  from  us  both 
they  and  the  Britons  borrowed  the  custom ; 
for  the  Trimarkisian  of  Pausanias  is  radical 
Irish,  denoting  three  horses.  It  is  true  the 
word  marc,  for  a  horse,  is  not  now  used  by 
us,  but  it  is  seen  in  our  compounds  ;  thus 
marcach  signifies  a  horseman,  marc-sluagh, 
cavalry,  luath-mharc,  a  race-horse,  etc. 
Caesar  says  the  equites  in  Gaul  ranked  next 
the  literati ;  and  we  see  the  same  in  Ireland. 
The  Germans  call  a  knight  Htter,  and  we 
call  him  ridaire.  But  to  prove  that  the 
Irish  did  not  borrow  this  custom  from  other 
nations,  we  are  furnished  with  a  striking 
anecdote.  When  Richard  IL,  in  1395, 
made  a  royal  tour  to  Ireland,  he  was  met 
in  Dublin  by  the  four  provincial  kings, 
whom  he  intended  knighting ;  but  they  de- 
clined this  compliment,  each  having  re- 
ceived that  honour  from  his  father  when 
seven  years  old.*  In  Germany,  about  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  (and  most  prob- 
ably earlier,)  we  see  orders  of  knighthood 
conferred  by  the  emperors  of  Germany ; 
and  such  as  had  not  received  this  honour 
before,  accepted  it  from  the  hands  of  some 

*  Froissart.     SelJen's  Titles  of  Honour,  etc. 


prelate.  Henry  III.  was  knighted -by  the 
Archbishop  of  Bremen.  In  1247,  the  Ean 
of  Holland,  intended  king  of  the  Romans, 
was  first  knighted ;  and  Louis  XI.  of  France, 
just  before  his  coronation,  received  this 
honour  from  the  hands  of  Philip,  Duke  of 
Burgundy.*  As  then  it  is  a  point  agreed 
upon,  that  orders  of  chivalry  in  Europe 
originated  not  from  the  Romans,  and  though 
the  contrary  has  been  asserted,  yet  we  see 
clearly  from  Caesar  and  Tacitus,  that  they 
existed  in  these  isles  long  before  the  Ro- 
mans became  acquainted  with  them,  where 
can  we  trace  their  rise  but  in  Ireland  ?  If 
the  German  emperors  and  French  monarchs 
found  it  necessary  to  be  knighted  previous 
to  their  coronation,  in  the  middle  ages,  are 
we  not  struck  with  the  case  of  Eochaidh, 
King  of  Leinster,  in  the  fourth  century, 
who,  as  we  have  shown,  was  obliged  to  re- 
linquish his  claim  to  the  Irish  monarchy, 
not  having  been  knighted.  There  are 
more  reasons  still  to  support  my  assertion. 
Our  histories  of  chivalry,  yet  well  pre- 
served, tell  us  that  the  knights  of  Ireland, 
in  very  early  days,  frequently  traversed, 
the  continent,  where  they  gained  glory  and 
honour ;  and  so  celebrated  were  they  in 
Europe  that  they  were  called,  by  way  of 
pre-eminence,  the  heroes  of  the  western 
ISLE  !  Add  to  this,  what  Llhuid  has  long 
since  demonstrated,  i.  e.  that  the  names  of  the 
principal  commanders,  who  opposed  Caesar 
in  Gaul  and  Britain,  are  pure  Irish  Fatin- 
ized.f  Shall  we  conjecture  that  some  of 
our  knights  headed  and  disciplined  these 
troops?  I  own  I  have  no  doubt  of  it. 
Can  we  suppose  that  those,  whom  we  have 
seen  so  manfully  assist  both  the  Cartha- 
ginians and  Gauls  in  their  invasions  of  the 
Roman  empire,  would  remain  idle  specta- 
tors when  these  Romans  were  coming  so 
near  their  own  home  ?  They  undoubtedly 
would  not !  We  have  observed  that  La- 
bhra,  in  A.  M.  3652,  acquired  a  principal- 
ity in  Gaul :  and  I  suspect  that  Ambiorix, 
King  of  the  Eburones,  so  inimical  1o 
Caesar,  was  an  Irishman,  and  these  Ebu- 
rones, the  Heberian  or  Irish  colony.  For 
Ambiorix  I  derive  from  amhas-orereic,  i.  e. 


Selden. 


t  Arcli.cologia. 


^.\ia^^i.  •u.A . 


i.^.;»utf&i!2iddijidiiiu 


92 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3970. 


a  renMraed  hero ;  as  I  do  Cassilbillanus, 
who  80  manfully  opposed  Caesar  on  his 
second  landing  in  Britain,  and  particularly 
when  fording  the  Thames,  from  cassil,  a 
fortification,  &i7/e,  a  billet  of  wood,  and 
aun,  water.  For  Caesar  tells  us  that,  to 
retard  this  passage,  Cassilbillanus  caused 
billets  of  wood  charged  with  iron  spikes  to 
be  sunk  in  the  water. 


CHAPTER    II. 

Of  the  literary  order,  and  their  rank  and  privileges 
in  the  state — The  duties  of  the  bards  similar  to 
■what  was  in  later  periods  adopted  on  the  conti- 
nent— Obliged  to  attend  their  chiefs  to  battle — 
The  customs  of  the  Huns,  and  other  Scythic 
states,  in  these  matters,  similar  to  those  of  the 
Irish. 

The  literati  making  so  conspicuous  a 
figure  in  our  history,  I  conceive  that  to 
give  a  clearer  idea  of  the  nature  and  pow- 
er of  this  body  of  men  will  greatly  eluci- 
date our  annals.  The  Irish  constitution, 
from  the  beginning,  seemed  founded  on  a 
very  extensive  plan,  as  well  for  war  as 
letters — tarn  marte,  quam  Minerva;  and, 
singular  to  be  told,  each  promoted  the 
other.  The  whole  body  of  the  literati  had 
but  one  chief,  and  he  was  the  arch-druid. 
As  this  was  a  place  of  the  highest  trust,  it 
was  conferred  on  some  branch  of  the  blood- 
royal  only.  We  see  it  in  the  case  of  our 
great  ancestor  Niulus  himself,  and  with 
most  of  his  successors,  as  it  was  the  custom 
both  at  Sidon  and  Tyre.  This  body  of 
men  were  exempt  from  all  civil  jurisdiction, 
and  acknowledged  no  power  but  that  of 
the  arch-druid,  and  his  delegates.  Large 
estates  were  settled  on  them  and  their  pos- 
terity, (for  all  employments  were  heredita- 
ry,) and  their  persons  and  properties  were 
inviolable.  Whoever  became  protected 
by  the  literary  order  feared  not  the  ravages 
and  devastations  in  intestine  commotions, 
for  it  was  sacrilege  to  molest  them.  If  the 
senachie  in  his  history,  or  the  bard  in  his 
ode,  passed  the  Rubicon  of  truth,  to  his 
order  only  was  the  injured  party  to  com- 
plain, though  it  were  even  the  monarch 


himself,  and  by  their  tribunal  only  was  he 
to  be  judged !  Possessed  of  such  power, 
and  such  privileges,  can  we  be  surprised 
if  we  read  of  their  being  sometimes  alarm- 
ing to  the  states,  and  that  measures  should 
be  taken,  from  time  to  time,  to  circumscribe 
their  power  and  influence  ? 

The  duties  of  the  ard-fhileadh,  or  chief 
bard,  was  to  celebrate  in  verse  the  achieve- 
ments of  his  chief,  and  of  his  house.  He 
made  birth-day  odes,  and  wept  over  the 
manes  of  the  illustrious  dead.  Did  he  im- 
mortalize any  other  hero?  one  verse  at 
least  was  sacred  to  his  own  tribe.  He  was 
particularly  interdicted  satire  and  misrep- 
resentation, and  proper  amercements  await- 
ed the  violating  this  law.  When  we  read 
this  account,  and  compare  it  with  the  pre- 
cepts issued  forth  when  doctors  in  poetry 
were  first  instituted  on  the  continent,  but 
particularly  in  Germany,*  we  are  astonish- 
ed to  see  how  exactly  the  laws  in  the  last 
place  coincide  with  those  in  the  first.  The 
poems  were  set  to  music,  and  a  large  com- 
pany was  always  assembled  on  these  oc- 
casions. We  find  by  Marcellinus,  that  the 
bards  on  the  continent  always  sung  their 
odes  to  the  modulations  of  the  harp  ;t  and 
how  much  the  Irish  excelled  all  other  na- 
tions in  composition  and  execution  in  music, 
I  have  but  to  refer  to  the  confession  of 
Cambrensis,J  who  certainly  must  have 
been  acquainted  with  the  best  masters  in 
this  science,  either  in  Britain  or  Gaul,  in 
his  days.  He  nevertheless  owns,  that  the 
Irish  excelled  all  other  nations  in  this  ac- 
complishment ;  and  Polydore  Virgil,  a  wri- 
ter of  the  sixteenth  age,  declares — "Hibemi 
sunt  musicae  peritissimi !" 

In  early  days,  all  the  sciences  were  con- 
veyed in  verse ;  and  in  the  bard  was  com- 
prehended the  historian,  the  judge,  the  poet, 
and  philosopher,  according  to  a  very  old 
rann  or  verse,  on  Amhergin,  brother  to 
Heber,  the  first  monarch  of  Ireland,  and 
who  was  himself  arch-druid.  It  has  been 
thus  Latinized  by  Mr.  O'Flaherty : — 

"  Primus  i4»icrc'tnM«-Gena-Candidu8,  author  leme : 
Historicus,  index  lege,  poeta,  sophus." 

•  Acta  Caesar.  Argent.     Selden's  Titles  of  Honour,  etc. 
t  Lib.  V.  t  Topograph,  vi.  11. 


A.  M.  3970.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


The  same  custom  the  early  Greeks  adopted, 
and  Orpheus,  Amphion,  Linus,  and  Musaeus, 
united  under  the  same  heads  the  poet,  the 
legislator,  and  philosopher.*  Thales,  the 
Cretan  legislator,  conveye4  his  precepts  in 
verse,  and  sung  them  to  his  lyre  ;t  but  in 
process  of  time,  these  sciences  were  found 
too  complex  for  one  man.  The  study  of 
the  laws  was  therefore  confined  to  certain 
families,  as  were  those  of  history,  divinity, 
philosophy,  and  poetry.  But  besides  the 
above  recited  duties  of  the  bard,  the  Irish 
ones  had  another  duty  imposed  on  them, 
nowhere  else  to  be  found.  It  was  to  at- 
tend their  patrons  to  the  field  of  battle ;  to 
animate  them  in  the  height  of  the  engage- 
ment by  their  verse  and  by  their  music,  and 
to  bear  witness  to  their  exploits  and  to  their 
success. 

The  ode  composed  on  this  occasion  was 
called  Rosg-Catha,  or  the  Eye  of  Battle, 
as  being  recited  in  the  midst  of  slaughter. 
Numbers  of  these  odes  are  yet  preserved, 
many  of  which  are  in  my  possession. 
They  are  beautiful,  and  to  the  last  degree 
animating,  and  seem  evidently,  by  the 
measure,  to  have  been  set  to  martial  music. 
We  are  amazed  at  the  elevation  of  style, 
dignity  of  expression,  and  boldness  of  the 
metaphors  in  them.  One  of  these,  addressed 
by  the  poet  Feargus,  the  son  of  Finn,  to 
Gaull  Mac  Morni,  at  the  battle  of  Cnucha, 
in  which  the  famous  Cuinhal  fell  by  the 
sword  of  this  hero,  begins  thus — "Gaull 
vigorous  and  warlike :  chief  of  the  intrepid. 
Unboundedly  generous :  the  delight  of  ma- 
jesty. A  wall  of  unextinguished  fire :  rage 
unremitting.  A  champion  replete  with 
battles ;  directing  the  rage  of  heroes."  But 
in  the  midst  of  all  this  fire,  the  bard  does 
not  forget  his  own  particular  interest.  In 
another  stanza,  he  addresses  himself  to 
Gaull  thus — "  Lover  of  constant  desolation : 
son  of  the  great  Moma.  Generous  to  poets : 
respite  to  warriors.  A  tribute  on  nations: 
the  downfall  of  foreigners."  This  poor 
literal  attempt  at  translation,  falls  infinitely 
short  of  the  original,  which  I  have  here  in- 
serted : — 

*  Plato  de  Republ.  lib.  ii. 
t  Strabo,  Geograph.  lib.  x. 


"  Goll  mear  Mileata :  Ceap  na  Crodbachta.^ 
Laimh  f  hial  arrachta :  mian  na  Mordhachtlt. 
Mur  lein  Ian  teinne  :  Fraoch  nach  bhfuarthear 
Laoch  go  Ian  ndeabhna :  reim  an  readh  Churraibh." 

"  Scearc  na  sior  f  hoghla :  mac  mear  mor  Mhoma. 
Fial  re  Filidhaibh  :  figis  ar  Curradhuibh. 
Cios  ar  Chineadhuibh :  dith  ar  Danaraibb." 


In  what  reverence  this  great  order  of 
men  were  held,  and  how  sacred  their  per- 
sons, even  in  the  midst  of  slaughter,  may 
be  collected  by  the  following  anecdote,  re- 
corded in  the  Leabhar-Lecan,  and  taken 
from  the  Book  of  Leinster.  In  the  fourth 
century,  Eochaidh  the  monarch  was  de- 
feated by  Eana,  King  of  Leinster,  at  the 
battle  of  Cruachan.  In  this  battle  Eana 
killed  Cetmathach,  a  poet-laureat  to  the 
monarch,  "  although  (says  my  author)  he 
fled  for  refiige  under  the  shields  of  the 
Leinster  troops."  For  this  foul  action  he 
got  the  epithet  of  Cinsealach,  and  which 
name  descended  to  his  posterity :  it  denotes 
the  foul  or  reproachful  head.  If  this  had 
not  been  deemed  an  unexampled  instance 
of  barbarity,  no  doubt  it  would  not  have 
been  transmitted  to  posterity  in  the  manner 
we  see  it.  What  power  the  poet  had  over 
his  auditory  in  those  days  of  heroism,  we 
may  collect  from  the  following.  Whea 
the  famous  Attila,  King  of  the  Huns,  and 
who  was  called  the  Scourge  of  God,  ad- 
mitted Leo  I.  and  his  retinue  into  his  pres- 
ence, after  entertaining  them  nobly,  two 
Scythian  bards  were  admitted,  and  advan- 
cing towards  Attila,  they  recited  a  poem 
in  which  his  military  achievements,  and 
those  of  his  followers  were  celebrated. 
The  Huns  were  in  raptures,  some  exuhing^ 
with  joy,  at  the  remembrance  of  their  former 
exploits;  others  lamenting  their  inability 
to  gain  fresh  laurels ;  but  all  affected  be- 
yond description.  We  see  his  humanity 
equal  to  his  bravery,  by  granting  that  peace 
at  the  request  of  this  prelate,  which  aH  the 
powers  of  Italy  could  not  procure  from 
him.  The  life  of  this  prince  furnishes  us 
with  a  striking  instance  of  his  great  good 
sense  and  moderation,  and  how  much  the 
Scythic  nations  detested  flilsome  adulation. 
After  laying  waste  a  considerable  part  of 
Italy,  he  was  presented  with  a  copy  of 
verses  by  Marullus,  a  Calabrian  poet ;  but 


94 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  M.  3970. 


when  l^f  understood  that  this  contemptible 
parasite  attempted  to  derive  his  pedigree 
from  the  gods,  and  even,  after  the  polite 
Roman  manner,  to  deify  him,  he  lost  all 
patience,  and  commanded  the  poem  to  be 
burnt,  and  would  have  made  the  poet  share 
the  same  fate,  but  for  the  reverence  in  which 
he  held  the  poetic  tribe. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Of  Conaire  the  Grand — Mistakes  in  the  genealogy 
of  this  house  corrected,  and  the  national  annals 
defended — Its  different  branches  pointed  out — 
Imposes  a  tribute  on  the  people  of  Leinster — 
His  other  acts  to  his  death — Of  Lughaidh,  Con- 
nor, and  Criomthan,  his  successoi-s. 

Persuaded  that  the  curious  reader  will 
be  far  from  considering  the  two  last  chap- 
ters as  digressions  from  my  subject,  I  again 
resume  the  historic  part. 

Conaire,  by  the  defeat  and  death  of 
Nuadha,  was  proclaimed  monarch.  He 
was  the  son  of  Edeirsgoil,  of  the  Erenochs 
of  Munster,  a  branch  of  the  ro/al  line  of 
Heremon,  from  whom  the  Dalriada  of  Scot- 
land, and  of  course  his  majesty,  King  George 
III.,  are  descended.  In  our  annals  he  is 
called  More,  or  the  Great,  and  in  the  Book 
of  Reigns,  Conaire  na  N'or  Sgiath,  or  Con- 
aire of  the  Golden  Shield,  as  he  used  none 
other  in  battle. 

The  generations  allowed  from  Fiacha, 
the  son  on  Aongus,  to  this  prince,  are  cer- 
tainly too  many ;  but  a  certain  modem 
writer,  instead  of  labouring  to  explain  or 
correct  this  mistake,  boldly  advances  from 
it,  that  the  whole  of  our  early  history  is 
bardish  invention !  An  assertion  so  rash 
and  inconsiderate  merits  no  serious  animad- 
version ;  since,  if  it  were  to  have  any 
weight,  we  must  at  the  same  time  give  up 
as  a  fable  the  early  histories  of  all  the  na- 
tions in  the  world,  not  even  excepting  the 
Jews !  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  Aon- 
gus had  acquired  for  his  son  Fiacha  large 
possessions  in  Ulster ;  and  there  it  was  that 
OlioU,  the  son  of  Fiacha,  settled,  and  from 
those  lands  was  he  surnamed  Aron.  Later 
writers  have  not  with  precision  attended 


to  the  differences  between  the  Irish  righ, 
and  airrigh  ;  the  first  denoting  a  king  in 
the  full  meaning  of  the  word,  the  other  a 
feudatory  prince.  What  number  of  chil- 
dren Olioll  had,  we  are  not  told.  It  is  more 
than  probable  that  he  had  a  good  many, 
each  of  which  retained  the  title  of  airrigh. 
This,  it  is  to  be  presumed,  was  again  the 
case  of  his  eldest  son  and  successor,  Suin. 
Deaghadh  was  driven  out  of  these  posses- 
sions of  his  ancestors,  and  so  highly  pro- 
tected in  Munster  by  Duach,  as  to  succeed 
him  to  that  crown.  In  a  considerable  time 
after,  the  successors  of  this  Deaghadh  were 
expelled  from  Munster  by  force  of  arms, 
and  at  length  settled  in  North  Britain. 

Now,  though  these  undoubtedly  had  their 
bards  and  antiquarians  as  well  as  the  other 
great  families — and  that  we  know  to  a  cer- 
tainty, that  the  celebrated  poet  Forchern, 
who  wrote  the  Rules  for  Poetry,  and  Tracts 
upon  the  Laws,  was  the  antiquarian  of 
Conraoi,  nephew  to  Hiar,  and  grandson  of 
Deaghadh — yet  succeeding  bards,  not  dis- 
tinguishing between  the  words  righ,  and 
airrigh,  made  of  the  different  children  of 
each  prince  so  many  kings,  and  by  this 
means  unnecessarily  multiplied  the  genera- 
tions. Thus  Deaghadh,  the  fourth  in  de- 
scent from  Aongus,  who  reigned  monarch 
of  Ireland  from  A.  M.  2778  to  2808,  is,  in 
some  genealogies,  made  eleven  generations 
from  him,  though  the  distance  between  the 
death  of  Aongus  and  the  reception  of 
Deaghadh  in  Munster  is  but  one  hundred 
and  eight  years  !  Again,  Edeirsgeoil,  who 
was  the  grandson  of  Deaghadh,  and  con- 
stantly called  Mac  ui  Jar,  or  the  son  of 
O'Hiar,  is  placed  as  great-grandson  to  this 
O'Hiar,  the  son  of  Deaghadh !  The  same, 
or  very  near  the  same  degree  of  inaccuracy 
we  experience  in  the  genealogy  of  the 
house  of  Ir,  before  the  birth  of  Christ.  The 
power  of  this  last  house,  was  nearly  anni- 
hilated in  the  fourth  century,  as  was  that 
of  the  Clana  Deaghadh  a  little  earlier.  Are 
we  to  expect  then,  that  their  genealogies 
should  be  preserved  with  the  same  accura- 
cy as  the  Heberian  and  Heremonian  lines, 
who  may  be  said  to  exist  even  at  this  day? 
Surely  not ! 


A.  M.  3970.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


95 


It  is  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Munster, 
that  in  the  third  century  OlioU  Flan-more, 
who  succeeded  his  father  in  that  kingdom, 
having  no  issue  of  his  own,  left  the  crown 
to  his  brother,  on  condition  that  he  should 
be  placed  in  the  regal  list,  not  as  his  brother 
but  as  his  father.  May  not  the  same  spirit 
have  actuated  other  princes  (and  I  am  cer- 
tain it  has)  to  act  a  similar  part,  in  order 
to  extend  the  chronology  of  their  different 
families  ?  And  would  not  such  be  a  more 
natural  supposition,  than  to  reject  entirely 
one  of  the  best  preserved,  and  the  most 
ancient  histories  in  the  world,  for  a  few  in- 
accuracies, and  these  in  the  genealogies 
of  one  or  two  families  only,  whose  power 
ceased  soon  after  the  birth  of  Christ. 

The  Septuagint  translation  of  the  Bible 
makes  Cainan  the  father  of  Sala,  and  in 
this  it  is  followed  by  the  Evangelist  St. 
Luke,  and  by  St.  Augustin ;  whereas  the 
Hebrew  text  makes  Sala  the  son,  not  the 
grandson,  of  Arphaxad,  and  this  is  support- 
ed by  the  authority  of  St.  Jerome,  and  by 
the  Council  of  Trent.  If,  then,  we  see  this 
discordance  in  the  four  first  generations 
from  Noah,  shall  we  be  surprised,  that  a 
family  driven  from  their  first  possessions 
in  Ulster,  in  a  couple  of  centuries  after, 
are  said  to  retire  back  to  the  North  again, 
from  their  tenures  in  Munster,  and  fi-om 
thence  looking  for  new  settlements  in  North 
Britain  ?  Shall  we,  I  repeat  it,  be  surprised 
that  mistakes  should  rise  in  their  genealo- 
gies, and  that  brothers  and  contemporaries 
should  be  taken  for  sons  and  successors  by 
antiquarians  no  ways  interested  in  the  in- 
quiry ? 

As  this  sept  has  been  distinguished  from 
the  other  branches  of  the  Heremonians,  by 
the  names  of  Ernains,  and  Deaghades,  so 
the  successive  race  of  this  Conaire,  are 
sometimes  called  Siol  Conaire,  as  from  a 
successor  of  his  they  are  called  Dalriada. 
Another  branch  are  called  Dal-Fiatagh; 
but  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  in  the  person  of 
Suin  this  last  sept  began,  he  having,  besides 
Degadh,  another  son  called  Eocha,  who 
was  the  ancestor  of  Fiataigh,  from  whom 
this  family  took  the  name.  The  reader 
will  perceive  that  I  have  taken  great  pains 


to  clear  up  this  part  of  our  history,  so 
honourable  to  his  present  majesty  (Greorge 
III.)  and  to  the  North  British  Scots. 

The  first  act  of  Conaire's  reign  was  an 
unexampled  punishment  on  the  people  of 
Leinster  for  the  murder  of  his  father.     He 
ordered  that  every  first  of  November,  three 
hundred  swords  mounted  with  gold,  three 
hundred  cows,  three  hundred  purple  cloaks, 
and  three  hundred  steeds  should  be  deliv- 
ered in  at  his  palace,  as  an  eric  from  that 
province.     From  this  it  becomes  evident, 
that  his  father  was  murdered  by  a  party, 
not  killed  in  battle ;  since  there  was  no  law 
or  precedent  to  justify  this  impost  other- 
wise.    In  revenge  for  this,  we  read  soon 
after  of  his  own  palace  in  Meath  being 
burnt  to  the  ground,  and  he  himself  with 
difficulty  escaping.     Barring  this,  our  an- 
nals loudly  proclaim  the  uncommon  bless- 
ings of  this  reign.     We  are  told  that  uni- 
versal peace  and  tranquillity  became  estab- 
lished over  the  kingdom  ;  that  the  seasons 
were  uncommonly  mild  and  fertile;   and 
that  Ireland  had  not  beheld  such  halcyon 
days !     He  did  not  alter  the  pentarchy  es- 
tablished by  Eochaidh,  except  lopping  off 
a  considerable  tract  of  land  from  the  prov- 
ince of  Leinster  and  joining  it  to  that  of 
Munster.  This  mutilated  part  extended  from 
Goran  to  Grein-Airbsin ;  and  Aongus  sur- 
named  Aimhas-righ,  or  the  King's  Guard,  its 
inheritor  being  of  his  blood,  he  freed  from 
all  future  dues  to  the  kings  of  Munster,  ex- 
cept the  honour  of  composing  their  body- 
guards.    From  this  the  country  took  the 
name  of  Aimhas-righ,  commonly  called 
Ossory. 

But  though  we  read  of  no  intestine  com- 
motions, yet  it  is  positively  asserted  by 
Bruodinus,  hereditary  historian  of  Munster, 
that  this  prince  for  several  years  carried 
on  a  fierce  war  both  in  Britain  and  Gaul.* 
Hence,  from  his  great  success  in  these  ex- 
peditions, he  was  styled  Chonaire  na  Creich, 
is  na  Lann,  i.  e.  Conaire  of  the  Tributes 
and  Swords.  It  is  highly  probable  that 
these  reiterated  attempts  were  in  favour 
of  the  discontented  in  both  kingdoms ;  since 
Ireland,  which  had  on  so  many  former  oc- 

•  De  Regibos  Hibernis,  p.  875. 


96 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  25. 


casioM  shown  its  dislike  of  the  Roman 
greatness,  must  no  doubt  have  been  highly 
alarmed  to  see  them  such  near  neighbours ; 
and  at  what  times  could  these  invasions  be 
most  successful  but  when  these  Romans 
were  divided  among  themselves  ?  But  be 
this  as  it  may,  it  is  agreed  upon  that  some 
malecontents  whom  he  had  banished  from 
the  kingdom,  and  particularly  Haingteil, 
who  had  married  a  British  princess,  at  the 
head  of  these,  and  numbers  of  Britons, 
suddenly  invaded  the  kingdom,  and  march- 
ed directly  to  his  palace,  which  they  at- 
tacked, and  put  all  to  the  sword,  particu- 
larly the  monarch,  who  was  the  principal 
object  of  their  resentment. 

The  Book  of  Reigns  gives  to  this  prince 
a  reign  of  seventy  years,  as  is  adopted  by 
Gratian,  Lucian,  and  O'Kennedy.*  CFla- 
herty  admits  it  to  be  sixty ;  and  Keating 
and  Bruodinus  but  thirty.  In  a  constitu- 
tion conducted  as  ours  then  was,  a  reign  of 
seventy,  or  even  sixty  years,  for  very  ob- 
vious reasons,  seems  too  long.  By  admit- 
ting him  an  administration  of  forty  years, 
we  bid  fair  for  reconciling  all  parties  ;  and 
if  we  suppose  with  many  that  the  birth  of 
Christ  was  in  the  year  of  the  world  4000, 
it  will  then  appear'  that  the  death  of  Co- 
naire  happened  in  the  tenth  year  of  our 
Salvation. 

The  shock  the  nation  felt  at  the  death  of 
this  great  prince  cannot  be  better  expressed 
than  by  observing  that  so  unsettled  were 
the  people,  that,  it  is  universally  agreed  on, 
for  five  years  after  his  decease,  no  fixed 
rule  of  government  was  adopted !  At 
length  Lughaidh,  the  son  of  Fineamhnhas, 
the  son  of  Eochaidh  Feidh-lioch,  an  Here- 
monian,  was  by  universal  consent  pro- 
claimed monarch.  He  had  two  wives : 
the  first  was  a  Pictish  princess,  the  next,  a 
daughter  of  Denmark.  On  the  death  of 
this  last,  he  was  so  afflicted  as  to  fall  upon 
the  point  of  his  own  sword,  and  thus  dis- 
patched himself  From  Clothra,  this  prince's 
mother,  an  island  in  Loch-Ribh  got  the 
name  of  Innis-Clothra. 

Connor,  called  Abhra-ruadh,  or  the  Red 
Eyebrows,  was  his  successor.     He   was 

*  History  of  the  House  of  Stuart,  p.  84. 


the  son  of  Feargus,  named  Fairghe,  or  the 
Sea,  on  account  of  his  large  navy,  King  of 
Leinster,  the  son  of  the  monarch  Nuadha, 
another  branch  of  the  Heremonian  line. 
His  reign  lasted  little  longer  than  that  of 
his  grandfather,  being  cut  off  in  battle  by 
Criomthan  in  the  very  first  year  of  it. 

Criomthan,  son  of  the  above  Lughaidh, 
ascended  the  imperial  throne.  He  was 
sumamed  Niagh-nar,  or  the  Hero,  on  ac- 
count of  his  great  exploits  in  war.  He 
also  made  several  successful  expeditions 
into  Britain  and  Gaul,  greatly  distressing 
those  people  most  attached  to  the  Romans, 
and  always  returned  enriched  with  the 
spoils  of  his  enemies.  This  was  not  all : 
for,  from  their  manner  of  fighting,  he  in- 
troduced a  new  and  more  perfect  disci- 
pline among  his  troops ;  but  in  the  midst 
of  his  mighty  projects  and  designs,  he  was 
killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  near  his  own 
palace,  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  his  reign. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Of  the  Attachotic  war,  and  the  usurpation  of  Cair- 
bre — Moran  refuses  the  diadem,  and  brings  back 
the  people  to  their  duty — Of  Fearaidach  the  Just, 
and  of  Moran's  famous  collar — Some  passages  of 
Tacitus  illustrated — Of  Fiachadh. 

We  have  seen  Ireland  for  thirteen  hun- 
dred and  five  years,  that  is,  from  the  first 
landing  of  the  Milesians  to  the  death  of 
Criomthan,  governed  by  a  succession  of 
princes  all  of  the  royal  blood  of  Milesius ; 
but  the  immature  death  of  Criomthan  en- 
abled a  set  of  conspirators  to  overturn  the 
constitution,  sooner  and  easier  than  they 
expected.  As  the  cause  of  this  revolution 
has  not  been  satisfactorily  explained,  we 
shall  endeavour  to  elucidate  it. 

In  the  last  book,  I  noticed  the  great 
power  and  unbounded  ambition  of  the  He- 
remonian line ;  that  they  not  only  obtruded 
a  considerable  branch  of  their  house  on  the 
Mamonians,  but  even  wrested  the  crown 
from,  and  for  a  time  divided  that  province 
with  the  Heberian  or  Munster  house. 
The  like  attempts  they  made  both  against 


A.D.  46.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


97 


Connaught  and  Ulster ;  opposing  the  troops 
and  heroes  of  each  province  to  the  other, 
in  hopes  by  weakening  each  party  to  make 
an  easier  conquest  of  the  whole.  Haing- 
teil  was  a  Damnonian  prince,  expelled  from 
the  province  of  Connaught  by  Conaire, 
and  who,  as  we  have  seen,  amply  revenged 
this  injury;  and  the  long  confusion  that 
followed  the  death  of  that  monarch,  I  per- 
suade myself  was  owing  to  the  power  and 
influence  of  these  people. 

This  was  called  the  Attachotic,  or  ple- 
beian war,  which  Dr.  Keating  and  Bruodi- 
nus  place  in  the  reign  of  Fiacha,  but  which 
the  Book  of  Reigns,  and  from  it  Grat.  Lu- 
cius and  O'Flaherty  determine  to  have  hap- 
pened at  the  present  time.     The  authority 
of  GioUa  Caomhain  fixes  me  to  this  last 
opinion.    The  Damnonii  plainly  seeing  their 
ruin  intended,  privately  leagued  with  the 
Belgae  of  Leinster,  and,  not  improbably, 
with  some  of  the  Roman  commanders  in 
Britain  and  Gaul ;  for  the  conspiracy  was 
very  complex,  and  for  a  long  time  carried 
on  with  great  secrecy.     The  princes  and 
nobles  of  the  kingdom  being  assembled  at 
Tara  to  elect  a  successor  to  the  monarchy, 
and   according   to   the   established   mode 
public  banquets  being  appointed  three  days 
before  and  after  the  election,  the  conspira- 
tors thought  this  the  most  favourable  and 
least  suspected  opportunity  of  putting  their 
detestable  scheme  into  execution.     They 
accordingly  moved  off  by  small  parties,  so 
ordered  as  to    assemble  at   Tara  much 
about  the  same  time.     With  these  Cairbre, 
called  Cean-Cit,  or  the  Cat's  Head,  with 
M onarcha  and  Buan,  two  Belgians  of  qual- 
ity, suddenly  attacked  the  unsuspecting  Mi- 
lesian chiefs  and  their  followers,  whom  they 
made  an  easy  conquest  of,  putting  to  the 
sword  all  they  met,  and  then  proclaimed 
Cairbre  monarch.     The  reign  of  this  D&m- 
nonian  prince  lasted  but  five  years;  and 
had  its  continuance  been  as  sanguinary  as 
its  commencement,  no  doubt  the  crown 
might  have  continued  in  his  family;  but 
we  do  not  read  of  more  bloodshed.     There 
is  no  doubt  but  during  his  reign,  as  rnany 
evidences  as  could  be  come  at  of  Mfl^sian 
history  and  chronology  were  destroyed, 

13 


and  we  must  suppose  among  those  many 
works  of  great  value. 

On  his  death,  his  followers  elected  his 
son  Moran  to  succeed  him  ;  but  he  with  an 
unexampled  heroism  and  constancy  refused 
the  crown.  Not  only  this,  but  so  great 
was  his  power  and  influence  over  these 
people,  and  in  such  animated  eloquence  did 
he  lay  before  them  the  heinousness  of  their 
transgressions,  and  the  impossibility  of 
supporting  the  revolution  they  had  under- 
taken, that  they  consented  to  restore  the 
royal  line  of  Milesius.  For  though  many 
princes  of  Ireland  had  been  cut  off*  in  the 
above  massacre,  and  others  had  fled  from 
the  kingdom,  yet  the  people  were  every- 
where in  arms,  attacking  the  Belgse  and 
Damnonii  wherever  to  be  met,  and  putting 
to  the  sword  such  as  fell  into  their  hands. 

Fearaidhach,  son  of  the  hero  Criomthan, 
was  therefore  called  to  the  succession  by 
unanimous  consent ;  for  every  thing  was 
expected  from  his  great  wisdom,  justice, 
and  firmness.  To  this  prince  the  rebellious 
Belgae  swore  allegiance, "  by  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,"*  and  to  his  successors  of  the 
Milesian  line.  Through  the  remonstrances 
of  Moran  a  general  amnesty  for  past  of- 
fences was  passed;  and  this  truly  great 
man  he  appointed  to  the  superintendence 
of  the  literati,  or  chief-priest,  the  next 
place  to  the  monarch,  and  a  post  filled  by 
the  blood-royal  only.  To  him,  and  to  his 
court,  all  appeals  from  inferior  courts  were 
made,  as  well  religious  as  civil. 

No  prince  ever  better  merited  the  epi- 
thet of  Fionfachtnach,  or  the  Most  Just, 
which  was  bv  universal  consent  bestowed 
on  him,  than  Fearaidhach.  The  study  of 
his  administration  was  to  restore  to  the 
laws  of  the  land  that  force  and  dignity 
which  the  Attachotic  war  had  deprived 
them  of.  -From  his  known  clemency  and 
strict  regard  to  his  promise,  the  multitude 
had  nothing  to  fear  for  what  was  passed  ; 
and  his  justice  and  fortitude  showed  them 
what  they  were  to  expect  from  a  relapse. 
In  all  these  great  designs,  so  worthy  a 
legislator,  he  was  powerfully  seconded  by 
Moran,  and  mutual  confidence,  peace,  and 

•  Grat.  Luc.  p.  67. 


•  ii'm  nlafl 


ifib 


96 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.D.  59 


order  became  soon  restored  through  the 
land.  "  With  such  a  monarch,  and  such  a 
minister  at  the  same  time,  (says  the  learned 
Dr.  Warner,)  the  reader  will  soon  conceive 
what  must  be  the  happiness  of  the  people ; 
he  will  see  misrule  giving  place  to  har- 
mony, insurrection  subsiding  into  tranquil- 
lity, and  order  arising  out  of  confusion. 
Such  was  the  state  of  Ireland  at  the  end  of 
the  first  plebeian  war,  and  under  such  gov- 
ernors IT  COULD  not  be  OTHERWISE."*      So 

great  was  the  reputation  of  Moran  for  wis- 
dom and  justice,  that  the  gold  collar  he 
wore  round  his  neck  was  used  by  all  his 
successors ;  and  so  wonderful  were  the 
efiects  attributed  to  it,  that  the  people  were 
taught  to  believe  that  whoever  gave  a 
wrong  decree  with  this  round  his  neck,  was 
sure  to  be  compressed  by  it  in  proportion 
to  his  diverging  from  the  line  of  truth,  but 
in  every  other  instance  it  would  hang  loose 
and  easy. 

The  supposed  virtue  of  this  collar  was  a 
wonderful  preservative  from  perjury  and 
prevarication ;  for  no  witness  would  ven- 
ture into  a  court  to  support  a  bad  cause,  as 
he  apprehended  the  effects  of  it  if  placed 
round  his  neck.  This  cannot  be  better  il- 
lustrated than  by  observing  that,  even  at 
this  day,  to  swear — "  Dar  an  Joadh-Mho- 
ran,  i.  e.  by  the  collar  of  Moran,**  is  deem- 
ed a  most  solemn  appeal. 

Internal  peace  being  restored,  we  cannot 
suppose  that  so  able  a  prince  and  minister 
would  remain  tame  spectators  of  the  Ro- 
mans re-entering  Britain.  I  therefore  take 
it  for  granted  that  they  exerted  their  efforts 
as  powerfully  as  such  unsettled  times  would 
permit,  to  retard  the  progress  of  the  Roman 
arms  there.  Already  had  part  of  Britain 
been  reduced  to  a  Roman  province,  and  a 
colony  of  theirs  established  there.f  Cogi- 
dunus,  a  British  prince,  was  gained  over  to 
the  Roman  party,  says  my  author,  and 
every  thing  bade  fair  for  a  total  conquest. 
I  must  here  remark  that  this  name  Cogidu- 
nus,  is  evidently  Irish,  and,  like  a^  our  epi- 
thets, expressive  of  the  chief  excellence 
of  its  owner — from  cogadh,  war,  and  dun, 

*  History  of  Ireland,  vol.  i. 
t  Tacit,  in  Vita  Jul.  Agricola. 


a  stronghold  or  fortress.  Caractacus  too, 
notwithstanding  his  military  skill,  and  the 
great  trouble  he  gave  the  Romans,  was  at 
last  defeated,  taken  prisoner,  and  carried 
to  Rome,  where  his  sensible  and  manly  be- 
haviour gained  him  the  esteem  of  that 
cruel  people,  who  instead  of  putting  him 
to  death  restored  him  to  his  liberty.  This 
name  likewise  seems  Irish,  from  cahir,  a 
city,  eacht,  an  exploit,  and  cios,  tribute — 
words  which  express  his  abilities,  both  in 
conducting  an  offensive  as  well  as  a  defen- 
sive war. 

In  the  reign  of  Nero,  Seutonius  Paulinus 
was  appointed  the  Roman  lieutenant  in 
Britain,  and  after  subduing  mighty  nations 
there,*  and  establishing  his  garrisons,  he 
prepared  for  the  conquest  of  Mona,  or  An- 
glesey, being  a  place  which  supplied  the 

REVOLTERS  WITH  SUCCOURS.      But  COUld  Au- 

glesea,  merely  considered  in  itself,  be  of 
such  consequence  as  to  make  the  power  of 
Rome  over  Britain  to  be  doubtful  till  they 
had  reduced  it  ?  It  surely  could  not.  Small 
in  extent,  thin  of  inhabitants,  and  destitute 
of  fortresses,  it  was  impossible ;  and  yet 
Tacitus  assures  us — ^"  that  it  was  an  island, 
powerful  in  its  inhabitants,  and  the  recep- 
tacle of  the  disaffected."!  But  did  Angle- 
sea,  in  the  invasion  of  Paulinus,  or  in  that 
of  Agricola  afterwards,  show  any  resist- 
ance which  could  justify  this  description  of 
the  people,  or  this  importance  of  the  island  ?. 
We  see  Agricola  did  not  think  his  conquests 
in  Britain  secure  without  the  acquisition  of 
it ;  and  in  both  this  and  Paulinus's  expedi- 
tion, the  people  displayed  no  kind  of  courage, 
but  fled  before  the  invaders.  How,  then, 
can  this  account  be  reconciled  to  reason 
but  by  supposing  what  was  really  the  case, 
i.  e.  that  this  island  was  a  medium  to 
convey  succours  to  Britain  ?  Behold  then 
the  promimity  of  the  harbours  of  Dublin, 
Wicklow,  and  of  all  the  Leinster  coast ! — 
see  all  Britain  take  the  alarm !  Cut  off  en- 
tirely from  their  friends  and  allies,  nothing 
but  slavery,  without  a  possibility  of  redemp- 
tion, presented  itself  to  their  eyes  should 
Paulinus  succeed  in  this  expedition ;  and 
we  see  it  was  the  case  as  soon  as  Agricola 
*  Vita  Jul.  Agricola.  t  Tacit.  Annal.  xiv. 


A.D.  69.] 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


99 


became  possessed  of  it.  They  therefore 
everywhere  flew  to  arms,  and  Paulinus 
was  hastily  obliged  to  withdraw  all  his 
troops  from  this  place  to  face  the  insur- 
gents. Had  we  wanted  the  evidence  of 
Irish  history  to  support  this,  plain  reason 
would  point  it  out  to  us ;  and  if  this  insur- 
rection of  the  Britons  was  more  universal 
than  the  former  under  Caractacus,  we  must 
attribute  it  to  the  more  settled  state  of  Ire- 
land at  that  time.  When  so  powerful  a 
state  as  Rome  established  her  arms  so  near 
her,  Ireland  must  surely  take  the  alarm — 
"  proximus  ardet  Ucaligon  T  Agricola 
then  formed  the  design  of  attacking  M ona 
at  a  time  when  the  Irish  garrison  was  called 
home  on  a  sudden  emergency ;  and  this 
will  account  for  Tacitus's  relation  of  its 
capture,  which  we  clearly  see  was  by  a 
coup  de  main,  since  Agricola  would  not 
wait  for  ships  or  transports  to  convey  his 
troops,  but  caused  his  men  and  horses  to 
swim  across  the  ford.  That  it  was  garri- 
soned by  Irish,  we  have  at  this  day  a  strik- 
ing proof,  since,  by  the  confession  of  Mr. 
Rowland,  the  remains  of  old  fortifications 
on  the  summits  of  Anglesea  are  yet  called 
Cytter  Gioedelod,  which  strictly  imports 
the  Irish  city  or  fortress  ;*  the  ancient 
names  of  other  places  being  also  Irish  are 
still  stronger  in  our  favour.  The  landing- 
place  from  North  Wales  into  Anglesea  is 
called  Port-atha-bhine,  or  the  landmg  of 
the  yellow  ford ;  and  the  adjacent  territory 
is  named  Tain-datha-bhine,  or  the  territory 
on  land,  of  the  yellow  ford. 

After  a  glorious  and  humane  reign  of 
twenty  years,  Feraidhach  resigned  this 
life  for  a  better  at  his  palace  of  Tara. 

Fiachadhfion,  by  his  address  and  popu- 
larity so  far  gained  on  the  electors,  that  by 
a  large  majority  he  was  saluted  monarch 
of  Ireland.  He  was  the  son  of  Daire,  son 
of  Dluthig,  son  of  Deitfin,  son  of  Eochaidh, 
who  was  brother  to  the  famous  Deaghadh, 
King  of  Munster,  of  the  line  of  Heremon. 
From  this  prince  his  posterity  assumed  the 
general  name  of  Dal-Fiathach.  In  the  third 
year  of  his  administration  he  fell  by  the 
sword  of  his  successor. 

•  Mona  Autiqua,  p.  27. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Of  Fiachadh — The  insurrections  in  Britain,  and 
battle  on  the  Grampian  Hills — A  revolution  in 
favour  of  Elim — Succeeded  by  the  famous  Tua- 
thal — The  great  reforms  made  in  the  state  by 
this  prince — Exploits  in  Britain — Conduct  of  Eo- 
chaidh, King  of  Leinster,  the  cause  of  the  Boi- 
rimhe-Laighen — Impolitic  conduct  of  other  Lein-  . 
ster  princes  particularly  injurious  to  their  coun- 
try— Remarks  on  the  Leinster  tribute. 

Fiachadh,  the  son  of  the  great  Feraid- 
hach, WEis  proclaimed  monarch  of  Ireland 
the  same  year  that  Vespasian  was  saluted 
emperor  of  Rome  by  his  army.  Soon 
after  this,  we  are  told  that  Petilius  Cerialis 
attacked  with  fire  and  sword  the  Brigantes, 
deemed  the  most  numerous  of  the  prov- 
inces of  Britain  ;*  so  that  such  parts  as  he 
was  not  able  to  conquer  he  laid  waste. 
We  have,  in  the  first  and  third  books  of 
this  history,  shown  that  the  Brigantes  set- 
tled in  South  Britain  soon  after  the  Picts 
landed  on  the  northern  parts,  and  that  they 
were  of  the  same  blood  with  the  Milesians. 
No  wonder,  then,  if,  by  aid  from  home, 
they  should  appear  so  formidable  to  the 
Romans.  But  for  Julius  Agricola  was  the 
entire  conquest  of  Britain  reserved.  Yet 
we  see  it  in  a  manner  commenced  by  the 
capture  of  Mona,  so  formidable  to  the  Ro- 
mans ;  and  though  no  defence  was  made, 
yet  Tacitus  is  careful  to  tell  us,  that  by  its 
acquisition  Agricola  got  the  character  of  a 
consummate  general,  and  justly.  For  by 
this  means,  as  he  advanced  more  northerly, 
he  feared  not  fresh  enemies  in  his  rear. 
Wherever  he  went  he  fixed  new  stations ; 
and  the  numbers  of  these,  and  fixed  in 
places  most  accessible  to  Irish  invasions, 
proclaim  sufficiently  the  enemies  he  most 
dreaded. 

The  successes  of  Agricola,  far  fi*om  in- 
timidating, rather  added  a  new  stimulus  to 
the  counsels  of  Fiachadh.  Fresh  forces 
were  poured  into  North  Britain,  led  on  by 
Cormoc,  called  Gealta-Goath,  and  grand- 
father to  Cathoir-more,  whom  Tacitus  calls 
Galgacus,  and  to  his  standard  all  the  dis- 
affected in  Britain  were  invited.  The  bat- 
tle on  the  Grampian  Hills  was  fierce  and 
bloody ;  but  the  superior  discipline  of  the 
Roman  legions  made  it  decisive  in  their 

*  vita  Jul.  Agricola. 


100 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.D.  86. 


favour.  Yet  we  should  be  apt  to  think  it 
not  quite  so  complete  as  Tacitus  represents 
it,  since  we  find  so  Httle  use  made  of  it  by 
his  father-in-law.  But  what  further  inten- 
tions Fiachadh  might  have,  in  conjunction 
with  his  Pictish  and  British  allies,  we  find 
them  defeated  by  the  machinations  of  his 
enemies  at  home.  Elim,  King  of  Ulster,  a 
descendant  of  the  great  Ruighruidhe,  of  the 
house  of  Ir,  leagued  with  several  princes, 
and  entered  into  particular  treaty  with  the 
Irish  Belgae  and  Damnonii,  and  now  se- 
cure of  powerful  support,  declared  war 
against  the  monarch.  Both  armies  met  on 
the  plains  of  Muigh-Boli,  where  the  impe- 
rial army  was  put  to  the  rout,  and  its  chief 
slain  by  the  sword  of  his  antagonist. 

By  his  defeat  Elim  was  proclaimed  mon- 
arch; while  the  son  of  Fiachadh,  with 
numbers  of  his  followers,  were  conveyed 
to  North  Britain  from  the  rage  of  the  victor. 
This  revolution  in  favour  of  Elim,  has  been 
represented  by  our  writers  as  a  usurpation, 
and  as  a  usurpation  conducted  and  sup- 
ported chiefly  by  the  Belgae  and  plebeians. 
To  me  it  does  not  appear  in  this  light,  since 
Elim  was  of  the  royal  line  of  Milesius,  and 
as  we  have  seen,  as  legally  entitled  to  the 
monarchy  as  any  Heberian  or  Heremonian. 
The  fact  I  believe  is — the  provincial  kings 
became  highly  jealous  of  the  power  of  the 
Heremonians,  and  apprehended  a  total  ex- 
clusion from  the  monarchy  should  they 
longer  prevail.  They  therefore  leagued 
together  to  bring  about  the  present  revolu- 
tion, and  it  is  not  improbable,  invited  the 
discontented  Belga;  and  Damnonii,  smart- 
ing for  their  former  rebellion,  to  be  of  their 
party.  This  will  reconcile  the  whole  re- 
lation to  truth  ;  since  it  is  an  acknowledged 
fact  that,  from  the  days  of  Heber  and  Here- 
mon,  to  those  of  Roderic  inclusive,  com- 
prehending a  space  of  two  thousand  four 
hundred  and  thirty-nine  years,  no  instance 
occurs,  except  that  single  one  of  Cairbre, 
called  Cin-Ceat,  of  any  person,  but  of  the 
pure  blood  gf  Gadelus,  possessing  the  Irish 
throne. 

Elim  is,  however,  represented  by  our 
writers  as  a  cruel  prince,  and  a  prince  who 
did  not  seem  to  study  much  the  good  of  his 


country.  The  jealousy  therefore  conceived 
by  Domitian  against  Julius  Agricola,  and 
his  recall  from  Britain,  before  these  violent 
party  disputes  broke  out  in  Ireland,  was  a 
most  happy  circumstance;  otherwise,  in 
all  appearance,  what  with  intestine  broils 
and  external  enemies,  she  would  soon  share 
the  fate  of  the  other  states  of  Eurof)e.  For 
it  is  manifest  from  Tacitus,  that  Agricola 
meditated  a  descent  upon  Ireland. 

The  partizans  of  the  house  of  Heremon 
were  not  idle.  Possessed  of  territories  and 
power  in  almost  every  part  of  the  kingdom, 
they  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to 
bring  about  a  fresh  revolution.  They  in- 
vited the  son  of  Fiachadh  (an  exile  in  North 
Britain)  home ;  and  as  the  seasons  had  not 
been  fruitful  for  some  years,  they  even  la- 
boured to  make  God  of  their  party — re- 
solving a  fact  arising  from  natural  to  super- 
natural causes.  At  the  head  of  his  followers, 
and  of  a  select  body  of  troops  given  him 
by  his  grandfather,  the  Pictish  king,  he 
landed  at  Jorras-Domhnoin,  in  Connaught, 
where  he  was  joined  by  a  large  body  of 
troops,  commanded  by  Faichadh  Caisin. 
With  these  he  proceeded  to  Tara,  where 
the  chiefs  of  his  house  attended,  and  saluted 
him  monarch  of  Ireland.  The  Leabhar- 
Lecan  (fol.  18)  says,  that  among  these  were 
three  hundred  and  sixty  knights.  The 
partizans  of  Elim  were  far  from  being  idle 
spectators  of  this  invasion.  At  the  head 
of  a  well-appointed  army,  Elim  met  his 
competitor  at  Aide,  where  his  army  was 
put  to  the  rout,  and  himself  left  among  the 
slain.  Eochaidh,  King  of  Leinster,  another 
of  his  party,  was  soon  after  defeated ;  and 
this  was  followed  by  a  number  of  other 
battles  equally  bloody  and  decisive  in  fa- 
vour of  the  invader.  He  pursued  his  ene- 
mies through  all  the  provinces,  and  effec- 
tually humbled  the  rebellious  Belgae  and 
Damnonii,  active  partizans  in  this  war. 

But  though  Tuathal  (for  such  was  this 
prince's  name)  waded  through  seas  of 
blood  to  the  throne — for  he  fought  eighty- 
five  battles  in  pursuit  of  this  object — yet 
his  administration  was  wise  and  glorious. 
His  first  public  act  was  a  general  conven- 
tion of  the  states  at  Tara.     At  this  meet- 


A.D.  86.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


101 


ing,  he  deplored  the  unhappy  situation  of 
Ireland  through  the  variety  of  competitors 
for  the  monarchy ;  and  we  must  suppose 
pointed  out  the  necessity  and  utiUty  of  con- 
fining them  to  one  house,  since  through 
their  own  dissensions,  they  must  in  the  end 
fall  a  sacrifice  to  the  power  of  Rome. 
Reasons  like  these  must  be  offered  to  in- 
duce the  estates  to  swear,  as  they  solemnly 
did — "by  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars" — to 
bear  true  allegiance  to  him  and  to  his  pos- 
terity, of  the  house  of  Heremon.  His  title 
being  thus  recognized,  in  the  same  manner 
as  were  those  of  his  great  ancestors  Jug- 
haine  and  Heremon,  his  next  care  was  to 
revive  and  improve  upon  all  the  wise  in- 
stitutions of  the  immortal  Ollamh-Fodhla. 
To  add  more  dignity  and  power  to  the 
monarch,  the  estates  granted  considerable 
tracts  of  land  to  the  royal  domain  of  Tara, 
taken  from  the  adjoining  provinces,  and  for 
ever  after  to  be  unalienable  from  it,  and 
which  are  comprehended  in  the  present 
county  of  Meath.  This  territory  was  given 
to  add  greater  splendour  to  the  royal  table ; 
and  was  therefore  called  Fearon  Buird 
Righ  Erion,  i.  e.  the  mensal  lands  of  the 
monarch  of  Ireland.  Having  thus  aug- 
mented his  own  power,  his  next  care  was 
to  add  fresh  solemnity  to  religion,  to  secure 
the  Druids  to  his  interest.  In  Ethnic  Ire- 
land the  deities  of  the  first  class  were  the 
sun  or  Bel,  who  presided  over  the  summer, 
and  Samhain,  or  the  moon,  who  directed 
the  winter.  Neptune,  or  the  god  of  the 
sea  (which  the  word  in  Irish  signifies)  was 
adored  in  all  seasons  by  the  mariner.  Be- 
sides these,  they  had  deities  of  inferior 
orders,  even  to  the  genii  that  presided  over 
hills  and  vales,  woods  and  mountains,  rivers 
and  lakes.  As  Tuathal  had  revived  the 
Feis-Feamhrach,  and  with  more  splendour 
than  before  his  time,  it  was  an  act  of  the 
highest  policy  to  establish  here  also  the 
prime  seat  of  religion.  The  great  Ollamh- 
Fodhla  by  a  decree  gave  the  univeriity  of 
Tara  a  precedency  over  all  others  in  the 
kingdom ;  and  Tuathal  made  all  the  Druid 
priests  of  the  kingdom  subordinate  to  those 
of  Tara.  It  was  the  custom  on  the  eves  of 
Samhain   and  Bel,  or  of  November  and 


May,  for  the  priests  to  light  up  holy  fires 
through  the  kingdom;  all  culinary  fires 
whatever  were  to  be  then  extinguished,  nor 
to  be  re-kindled  but  by  some  of  these  new 
ones.  All  these  were  for  the  future  to  be 
transferred  to  Tara. 

In  that  portion  of  the  imperial  domain 
taken  from  Munster,  he  erected  a  magnifi- 
cent temple  called  Tlachta,  sacred  to  the 
fire  of  Samhedn,  and  to  the  Samnothei,  or 
preists  of  the  moon.  Here,  on  every  eve 
of  November,  were  the  fires  of  Samhain 
lighted  up,  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony, 
the  monarch,  the  Druids,  and  the  chiefs  of 
the  kingdom  attending ;  and  from  this  holy 
fire  and  no  other  was  every  fire  in  the  land 
first  lighted  for  the  winter.  It  was  deemed 
an  act  of  the  highest  impiety  to  kindle  the 
winter  fires  from  any  other ;  and  for  this 
favour  the  head  of  every  house  paid  a 
scrubal  (or  three  pence)  tax  to  the  Arch- 
Druid  of  Samhain.  In  like  manner,  on 
every  May  eve  was  the  fire  of  Bel  lighted 
up  in  the  temple  of  Uisneach,  added  to  the 
royal  domain  from  the  province  of  Con- 
naught,  and  munificently  constructed  by 
this  prince.  But  in  order  to  make  the 
meetings  of  the  nobility  more  frequent,  and 
by  gayety  and  friendly  intercourse  to  soften 
the  manners  of  a  proud  and  independent 
people,  he  revived  the  meetings  on  the 
plains  of  Tailtean,  in  Meath,  with  uncom- 
mon splendour.  These  aonachs,  or  meet- 
ings, as  we  observed  in  the  first  book,  were 
instituted  by  Luigha,  called  Lamh-Fiahda, 
or  the  Long-Hand,  in  honour  of  Tailte,  a 
Spanish  princess,  who  superintended  his 
education.  The  first  day  of  August  was 
the  grand  feast,  but  the  fair  was  opened 
for  fourteen  days  before,  and  continued 
fourteen  days  after  this.  It  consisted  in 
horse-racing,  charioteering,  feats  of  arms 
and  dexterity.  Temporary  amphitheatres 
were  erected  for  the  more  easy  viewing 
of  the  different  exhibitions  ;  and  to  the  la- 
dies were  assigned  the  most  conspicuous 
places.  At  these  meetings  n^arriages  and 
alliances  were  formed  between  the  nobility, 
and  every  method  studied  to  promote  har- 
mony and  ease.  The  triennial  meetings 
of  the  estates  at  Tara  were  carefully  at- 


102 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.D.  118. 


tended  to  during  this  reign.  The  national 
records  were  diligently  revised  and  cor- 
rected, and  arts  and  sciences  were  highly 
protected.  Besides  the  above  meetings, 
two  others  were  particularly  convened ; 
one  at  Cruachan,  to  examine  the  laws  and 
police  of  the  kingdom,  and  make  their  re- 
port to  the  estates  of  Tara,  what  laws 
wanted  to  be  revised,  what  exploded,  and 
what  new  ones  to  be  added  to  the  national 
code.  The  meeting  at  Emania  had  for  its 
sole  object  a  retrospection  to,  and  a  re- 
formation of  the  laws  relative  to  mechanic 
arts,  trade,  and  commerce ;  for  great  abuses 
had  crept  into  all  departments  of  the  state 
since  the  usurpation  of  Cairbre,  notwith- 
standing the  endeavours  of  the  just  Fere- 
dach ;  and  this  last  institution  shows  clearly 
how  well  informed  Tacitus  was,  when  he 
declared  the  commerce  of  the  Irish  in  his 
days  to  be  much  more  extensive  than  that 
of  the  Britons.* 

The  establishment  of  internal  peace  and 
economy  gave  vigour  to  the  arms  of  the 
Irish  in  Britain,  who,  in  conjunction  with 
their  Pictish  allies,  reduced  the  Romans 
and  their  British  friends  to  a  state  of  great 
distress  and  misery.  So  much  so,  that 
Adrian  himself  came  into  Britain  to  pre- 
vent the  total  loss  of  the  island ;  and  yet 
after  exerting  his  utmost  efforts,  we  see 
them  end  in  forming  a  wall  from  the  river 
Eden,  in  Carlisle,  to  the  river  Tyne,  near 
Newcastle,  to  prevent  these  invasions  and 
incursions,  which  he  was  unable  to  oppose. 

But  neither  the  great  abilities  of  Tuathal 
as  a  statesman  and  a  general  could  secure 
him  from  domestic  affliction.  His  eldest 
daughter  he  had  married  to  Eochaidh,  King 
of  Leinster,  and  her  sister  attended  her  to 
the  Leinster  court.  Eochaidh  being  of  an 
amorous  cast^  paid  his  court  privately  to 
his  sister-in-law,  and  gained  her  affections. 
The  queen,  when  informed  of  this  illicit 
correspondence,  upbraided  her  sister,  who, 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  shame,  and  re- 
morse, fell  into  convulsions,  which  only 
ended  with  life.  The  queen,  shocked  at 
the  perfidy  of  her  husband,  and  the  sudden 
death  of  her  sister,  soon  after  followed  her. 


•  Id  Vita  Jul.  Agricola. 


The  monarch,  informed  of  these  transac- 
tions, convened  an  extraordinary  meeting 
of  the  national  estates  at  Tara,  and  there 
related  the  above  facts.  Eochaidh  was 
immediately  put  under  the  ban  of  the  em- 
pire ;  and  the  different  provinces  sent  in 
their  quotas  of  troops  to  enforce  this  decree. 
The  King  of  Leinster,  unable  to  oppose 
such  combined  forces,  offered  the  most  ab- 
ject submission,  and  requested  the  monarch 
to  propose  any  terms,  to  which  he  would 
submit. 

Peace  was  concluded,  and  he  was  re- 
stored to  his  dignity  on  his  sending  hostages 
to  secure,  for  his  own  life,  the  payment  of 
the  following  tribute  every  second  year, 
and  the  estates  of  Leinster  bound  them- 
selves by  a  most  solemn  oath — i.  e.  "  By 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars" — for  themselves, 
and  for  their  successors,  to  have  this  tribute 
for  ever  after  continued.  It  consisted  of 
three  thousand  cows,  three  thousand  ounces 
of  pure  silver,  three  thousand  mantles  rich- 
ly embroidered,  three  thousand  hogs,  three 
thousand  sheep,  and  three  thousand  copper 
cauldrons.  This  tribute  is  the  famous  Bo- 
roimhe  Laighene,  or  Leinster  tax,  the  source 
of  much  blood  and  confusion  to  the  king- 
dom ;  and  from  which  the  reader  may  con- 
ceive some  idea  of  the  wealth  and  power 
of  ancient  Ireland.  As  an  acknowfedg- 
ment  for  the  assistance  granted  to  the 
monarch  on  this  occasion,  a  part  of  this 
tribute  was  paid  to  the  kings  of  Emania, 
and  after  the  ruin  of  that  great  house,  to 
the  people  of  Orgial ;  a  second  to  the  kings 
of  Connaught;  a  third  to  the  people  of 
Munster  ;  and  the  remainder  into  the  im- 
perial coffers. 

This  is  not  the  first  instance  in  which  the 
conduct  of  the  kings  of  Leinster  has  been 
injurious  to  their  own  state.  We  have 
seen  a  heavy  tax  imposed  on  them  by  Con- 
aire  the  Great,  for  the  murder  of  Eidercoil, 
his  father.  The  present  fine  was  attended 
with  still  more  fatal  consequences.  By 
the  ill  conduct  of  Moalmordha,  King  of 
Leinster,  in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
century,  Ireland  was  near  becoming  a 
province  of  Denmark ;  and  the  lewdness 
and  irrascibility  of  Mac  Murroch,  in  the 


:^'^i:- 


-** 


A.D.  137.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


103 


decline  of  the  next  age,  for  ever  deprived 
her  of  her  liberty,  and  entailed  afflictions 
and  distresses  on  her  sons  and  on  their 
posterity  sensibly  felt  even  at  this  day ! 

On  the  imposition  of  this  famous  tribute, 
the  learned  Dr.  Warner  makes  reflections, 
which  proclaim  a  clear  head,  and  a  good 
heart.*  By  the  law  of  Eric,  or  retribution, 
if  murder  or  any  uncommon  outrage  was 
committed,  the  friends  and  relations  of  the 
culprit  were  taxed.  If  the  criminal  was 
obscure,  it  was  raised  upon  the  community 
at  large ;  but  the  prince  being  the  father 
of  all  his  people,  and  they  all  equally  re- 
lated to  him,  it  seemed  just,  that  they  should 
alike  advance  their  proportions  of  the  fine. 
Had  this,  like  the  tribute  imposed  by  Con- 
aire,  continued  during  the  life  of  the  party 
aggrieved  only,  it  had  been  happy  for  the 
nation ;  and  yet,  after  all,  the  resentment 
shown  seems  to  reflect  honour  on  the  na- 
tional virtue.  For  in  the  present  instance 
there  was  double  murder,  aggravated  by 
the  crime  of  incest ;  and  every  violence 
offered  to  females  was  always  punished 
exemplarily. 

After  a  glorious  reign  of  thirty  years, 
Tuathal,  who  was  sumamed  Teacht-mhar, 
or  the  Wished-for,  fell  by  the  sword  of 
Mai,  a  second  branch  of  the  house  of  Ir, 
descended  through  the  renowned  Conall 
Ceamach,  firom  Ruighruidhe  the  Great. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Of  Mai — Feidhlimdh,  the  Law-giver — Different 
attempts  made  towards  a  reformation  of  the 
laws  and  constitution — The  Lex  Talionis  substi- 
tnted  for  the  law  called  Earc,  or  Eric— Of  Ca- 
thoir  the  Great— His  remarkable  will,  and  the 
principal  families  descended  from  him. 

Notwithstanding  the  oath  sworn  by  the 
national  estates  to  bear  due  allegiance  to 
Tuathal,  and  to  his  posterity  only,  in  ex- 
clusion to  the  other  royal  houses  of  Ireland, 
yet  we  find  Mai,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  solemnly 
recognized  as  monarch,  so  necessary  is 
power  to  enforce  allegiance  !     This  revo- 

*  Hiatory  of  Ireland,  vol.  i. 


lution,  and  the  confusion  arising  from  it, 
accounts  well  for  the  Romans  extending 
their  bounds,  as  they  did  at  this  time  in 
Britain,  under  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius, 
and  securing  it  by  a  new  wall.  The  sword 
of  his  successor  put  a  period  to  the  life  of 
Mai,  after  swaying  the  Irish  sceptre  four 
years. 

Feidhlimdh,  the  son  of  the  great  Tuathal, 
of  the  line  of  Heremon,  was  proclaimed 
monarch.  His  mother,  Baine,  was  daugh- 
ter of  Sgaile-Balbh,  a  British  prince. 
Haying  established  peace  and  subordina- 
tion at  home,  (and  finding  the  Romans  sat- 
isfied with  the  dominion  they  held  in  Brit- 
ain, without  a  wish  to  extend  their  con- 
quests,) and  being  besides  of  a  peaceable 
disposition,  he  turned  his  thoughts  on  re- 
vising and  amending  the  national  code  of 
laws. 

Many  attempts  were  made  at  a  reforma- 
tion of  the  laws  by  several  of  his  prede- 
cessors, but  of  no  great  duration.  From 
the  beginning  the  monarchy  was  heredit- 
ary and  elective ;  that  is,  hereditary  with 
regard  to  blood,  as  none  could  be  chosen 
but  such  as  were  of  the  royal  line  of  Mile- 
sius ;  but  elective  with  respect  to  the  per- 
sons of  that  blood.  But  the  royal  blood 
being  very  numerous  in  the  different  great 
houses,  was  the  source,  as  we  have  seen, 
of  almost  continual  wars  between  the  dif- 
ferent competitors:  the  moment  a  prince 
of  uncommon  talents  filled  the  throne,  he 
at  once  saw  how  destructive  this  mode  of 
election  was  to  the  nation,  and  laboured 
to  lessen  the  number  of  candidates  by  con- 
fining them  to  his  own  line.  This  was  the 
case  with  that  prince  of  legislators,  Ollamh- 
Fodhla,  with  Jughaine-More,  with  his  own 
father  Tuathal,  and  now  with  himself. 
He  recommended  this  great  object  to  the 
confederation  of  the  national  estates,  and 
they  observed  it  as  long  as  he  held  the 
power  of  enforcing  it. 

But  though  the  laws  of  the  land  were 
executed  with  great  impartiality  during  the 
administration  of  the  above-recited  great 
princes,  yet  in  the  revolutions  that  inter- 
vened many  abuses  crept  in.  So  much 
so,  that  in  the  reign  of  Eochaidh-Aremh, 


104 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  150. 


the  entire  body  of  the  literati  were  ban- 
ished from  the  kingdom,  though  protected 
in  Ulster.  Their  great  patron,  Connor,  saw 
the  necessity  of  a  reformation,  and  under 
his  auspices  Forchem,  Neid,  and  Athami,* 
formed  a  digest  of  the  laws,  and  rules  for 
judging  in  difficult  cases,  which  was 
founded  on  such  strict  equity  as  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  posterity  under  the  name  of 
Breatha-Nimhe,  or  Celestial  Judgments. 
Similar  attempts  were  made  centuries  be- 
fore, renewed  by  the  celebrated  Moran, 
under  Feredach,  and  revived  by  Tuathal. 
So  exact  were  these,  that  even  the  cain,  or 
impost,  raised  on  conquered  lands  was  de- 
termined! But  the  principal  reformation 
made  by  Feidhlimidh — and  a  great  one  it 
must  be  confessed  it  was,  as  it  operated 
sensibly  on  the  manners  of  the  people — 
was  to  abolish  the  law  of  earc,  or  amerce- 
ment, and  in  its  place  to  substitute  the  Lex 
Talionis.  By  this  new  law,  crimes  were 
no  longer  punished  by  fines.  Murder  was 
to  be  atoned  for  by  the  death  of  the  perpe- 
trator only  ;  the  loss  of  a  limb,  an  eye,  an 
ear,  etc.,  were  punished  by  similar  pains 
inflicted  on  the  delinquents,  in  the  most 
public  manner.  The  loss  of  cattle,  and 
other  property,  was  to  be  made  good  by 
the  defrauder  only ;  or  if  unable  to  make 
such  restitution,  some  other  punishment 
adequate  to  his  crime  was  pronounced,  and 
the  public  at  large  made  good  the  loss  to 
the  individual.  This  most  salutary  law 
had  all  the  good  effects  that  were  expected 
from  it,  and  eased  the  subjects  from  great 
oppressions.  Before  this,  the  most  atro- 
cious of  crimes,  a  very  few  excepted,  were 
punished  here,  as  in  every  other  part  of 
Europe,  by  fine  only;  and  this  fine  was 
raised  on  the  estates  of  the  relations  of  the 
delinquents  ;  or,  if  unable  to  pay  it,  on  the 
county  or  barony  at  large.  From  this 
wholesome  law,  he  got  the  epithet  Reacht- 
mhar,  or  the  Law-giver.  The  candid  rea- 
der, when  he  peruses  this  account,  will  be 
convinced  upon  what  slight  foundations 
English  writers  have  upbraided  the  Irish 
as  the  only  nation  of  Europe  who  punished 
murder  and  robbery  by  fine  only.     The 

*  Ogygia,  p.  217.     Cambr.  Evers.  p.  157,  etc.,  etc. 


fact  however  is,  that  this  very  method  was 
what  was  adopted  by  the  old  Britons,  the 
Saxons,  the  Franks,  etc.  But  in  Ireland, 
from  the  days  of  Ollamh-Fodhla,  violence 
offered  to  women,  or  insult  to  any  individ- 
ual, during  the  sessions  at  Tara,  were  pun- 
ishable by  death,  out  of  the  power  of  the 
monarch  to  pardon,  and  of  course  were 
exceptions  from  this  general  law. 

One  would  be  tempted  to  infer  from  this 
law,  that  Feidhlimidh,  in  his  intended  re- 
formation, had  consulted  the  code  of  Ro- 
man laws ;  or  had  perused  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, where,  in  Kings,  we  find  the  law  of 
retaliation  established.  But  be  this  as  it 
may,  so  much  was  this  prince  revered  and 
feared,  that  -the  state  received  no  kind  of 
disturbance  during  his  reign  ;  and  he  died 
peaceably  at  Tara,  a  fate  reserved  for 
very  few  of  his  predecessors. 

On  the  convention  of  the  estates  at  Tara, 
to  choose  a  successor  to  the  crown,  after 
much  intrigue  the  election  at  length  was 
declared  to  be  in  favour  of  Cathoir-More, 
grandson  to  the  renowned  Goalta-Gooith, 
or  Galgacus,  as  Tacitus  calls  him,  who  so 
bravely  opposed  Julius  Agricola  in  Britain, 
and  of  the  line  of  Heremon.  To  support 
this  election,  short  as  his  reign  was,  we 
find  him  engaged  in  bloody  wars.  In  the 
third  year  of  his  administration,  before  he 
headed  his  troops  to  the  fatal  battle  of 
Moigh-acha,  in  Meath,  he  made  his  will, 
satisfied  that  he  should  not  survive  that 
day's  encounter.  Part  of  the  heads  of  this 
curious  will  are  delivered  by  Mr.  O'Fla- 
herty,  from  an  authentic  copy  ;*  and  I  find 
it  more  minutely  detailed  in  the  third  Book 
of  Lecan.  I  shall  give  the  heads  of  it 
entire,  not  only  as  a  piece  of  great  anti- 
quity but  as  proving  the  great  riches  and 
splendour  of  the  kingdom  in  those  days. 
"  To  his  beloved  son  Rosa,  called  Failge, 
or  the  Rings,  he  bequeaths  his  kingdom  of 
Leinster,  to  which  he  adds  ten  shields 
richly  ornamented,  ten  swords  with  gold 
handles,  ten  gold  cups,  and  wishes  him  a 
numerous  and  warlike  posterity,  to  govern 
Tara.  To  his  second  son  Daire-Barach, 
he  bequeaths  Tuath  Laighean  "  (this  must 

*  Ogygia,  p.  311. 


■•^V/!^^'^' 


A.D.  150.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


105 


certainly  mean  the  present  Fingal,  and 
part  of  the  county  of  Wicklow ;)  "  and  he 
wishes  him  to  become  a  successful  hero, 
and  always  to  rule  over  the  Gilean-glas," 
(part  of  the  ancient  Belgae.)  "  To  this  he 
adds  one  hundred  and  fifty  spears  orna- 
mented with  silver,  fifty  shields  ornament- 
ed and  embossed  with  gold  and  silver,  fifty 
swords  of  exquisite  workmanship,  fifty 
rings  of  the  purest  gold,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  cloaks  of  rich  manufacture,  and  seven 
military  standards.  To  his  third  son, 
Breasal,  seven  ships  of  burden,  fifty  shields, 
richly  ornamented  with  gold  and  silver, 
five  swords  with  gold  hilts,  and  five  char- 
iots with  harnesses  and  horses.  To  these 
he  adds  the  lands  on  the  hanky  of  the  river 
Amergin,  and  charges  him  to  watch  over 
the  old  inhabitants,  who  will  be  otherwise 
troublesome  to  him.  To  Cetach,  the  fourth, 
he  leaves  possessions,  thinking  it  a  pity  to 
separate  him  fi'om  his  brothers,  though  it 
were  on  fi'ee  lands  (Saor-fobra.)  To 
Feargus-Luascan,  the  fifth,  he  left  noth- 
ing ;"  but  his  brothers  assigned  to  him 
ample  possessions.  *'  To  Olioll,  the  sixth, 
his  backgammon-tables  and  men,  saying, 
that  neither  the  possession  of  lands  or 
towns  would  be  of  any  use  to  him,  as  he 
never  attended  to  any  study  but  gaming. 
To  his  son  Aongus,  the  seventh,  he  gave 
nothing ;"  but  this  defect  his  brothers  sup- 
plied. "  To  Eochaidh-Timhin,  the  eighth, 
he  left  his  benediction  only,  wishing  his 
posterity  may  adhere  to  their  blood  ;  and 
calls  him  Treath-Fear,  or  a  weak  man ; 
for  he  was  so  far  imposed  on  as  to  give 
away  a  tract  of  land,  claimed  as  a  promise 
in  his  sleep.  To  his  son  Criomthan,  the 
ninth,  he  leaves  fifty  brass  balls,  with  brass 
maces  to  play  with,  ten  backgammon- 
tables  of  curious  workmanship,  find  two 
chess-tables ;  and  to  his  youngest  son 
Fiacha,  the  tenth,  called  Baiceadh,  or  the 
Lame,  whom  he  praises  for  his  bravery  and 
spirit,  and  for  the  universal  love  he  gained, 
he  leaves  the  country  about  Wexford :  re-- 
commends  him  to  support  his  brother,  and 
bequeaths  him  besides  fifty  large  vessels 
made  of  yew,  fifty  drinking  cups,  and  fifty 
pied  horses  with  brass  bits.     To  his  ne- 

14 


phew  Tuathal  he  gives  ten  chariots  with 
horses  and  harnesses,  five  pair  of  back- 
gammon-tables, five  chess-boards  with 
ivory  men,  thirty  shields  embossed  with 
gold,  and  fifty  swords  highly  polished.  To 
Mogh-Chorb  one  hundred  black  and  white 
cows  with  their  calves,  coupled  two  and 
two  with  brass  yokes ;  one  hundred  shields ; 
one  hundred  javelins  coloured  red;  one 
hundred  polished  spears ;  fifty  saffron-col- 
oured cloaks;  one  hundred  horses  of  dif- 
ferent colours  ;  one  hundred  gold  pins  for 
cloaks  ;  one  hundred  goblets  elegantly  fin- 
ished ;  one  hundred  large  vats  made  of 
yew;  fifty  chariots  curiously  finished,  ten 
of  which  were  of  exquisite  workmanship ; 
fifty  chess-tables ;  fifty  playing  tables  of 
different  kinds  ;  fifty  trumpets  ;  fifty  stand- 
ards ;  fifty  copper  cauldrons,  with  the  priv- 
ilege of  being  privy-counsellor  to  the  King 
of  Leinster.  To  the  Prince  of  Leis  he  left 
one  hundred  cows ;  one  hundred  shields ; 
one  hundred  swords ;  one  hundred  spears, 
and  seven  spotted  ensigns." 

As  he  himself  had  foretold,  Cathoir  was 
slain  in  this  battle,  and  his  army  routed. 
From  the  issue  of  this  prince  most  of  the 
great  houses  in  Leinster,  of  the  race  of 
Heremon,  claim  their  origin,  except  the 
princely  line  of  Fitz-Patrick,  the  O'Dwy- 
ers,  and  CVBrenans,  who  claim  a  still 
earlier  origin.  The  different  spreading 
branches  from  this  royal  source  are  most 
minutely  detailed  in  the  third  Book  of  Le- 
can.  The  principal  chiefs  are,  from  Rosa, 
eldest  son  of  Cathoir,  O'Connor  Faly,  or 
more  properly  Failge,  an  epithet  yet  pre- 
served by  the  family  to  denote  their  de- 
scent from  Rosa  Failge.  This  house  has 
been  ever  remarkable  for  their  attachment 
to  the  liberties  of  their  country,  and  were 
dispossessed  of  most  of  the  territory  of  Hi 
Failge  in  the  reign  of  Philip  and  Mary. 
The  O'Dempsies,  lords  of  Clanmaherh,  and 
the  O'Duns  are  also  of  this  race.  From 
Dairc-Barach  are  CGorman,  CMallone, 
O'Moony,  etc.,  descended.  The  issue  of 
Fiachadh,  the  youngest  son,  gave  more 
kings  to  the  throne  of  Leinster  than  those 
of  all  his  brothers  united.  From  him  are 
descended  the  royal  family  of  Mac-Mur- 


106 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  155. 


roch  Cavanagh,  kings  of  Leinster ;  the 
noble  families  of  0'Toole,0'Byrne,  CMur- 
phy,  CDowling,  O'Maoil-rain,  O'Cinselagh, 
etc.,  etc. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Of  Con  of  the  Hundred  Battles — The  bloody  bat- 
tle of  Cnucha,  and  death  of  the  famous  Cumhal 
— Eogan  flies  to  Spain,  and  weds  the  daughter 
of  Eimhir  the  Great — Returns  to  Ireland  with 
a  body  of  Spaniards,  and  recovers  the  territories 
of  his  ancestors — Wages  war  with  the  monarch, 
which  terminates  by  a  famous  partition  treaty — 
Con  attacks  the  Laghenians — A  renewal  of  the 
war  between  him  and  Eogan — Battle  of  Lena, 
and  death  of  Eogan — Con  invades  Ulster — His 
death. 

Con,  called  Cead-Chatha,  or  the  Hun- 
dred Battles,  the  son  of  Fiedhllmidh  the 
Law-giver,  by  Una,  a  daughter  of  Den- 
mark, the  son  of  the  great  Tuathal,  of  the 
race  of  Heremon,  succeeded  to  the  mon- 
archy. He  was  a  prince  of  great  abilities, 
as  well  for  the  field  as  the  cabinet ;  and  he 
had  occasion  for  all  these  virtues  to  keep 
the  crown  on  his  head  as  long  as  he  did. 
His  reign  is  replete  with  great  events,  and 
I  have  taken  uncommon  pains  to  explore 
them,  and  to  represent  this  period  of  our 
history  in  its  proper  light. 

It  appears  by  a  most  respectable  piece 
of  antiquity  called  Chatha-Cnucha,  or  the 
Battle  of  Cnucha,  that  at  the  time  of  the 
present  revolution,  Cumhal,  the  son  of 
Frenmor,  grandson  to  the  celebrated 
Baoisgne,  (from  whom  the  Leinster  knights 
were  called  Clana  Baoisgne,)  the  son  of 
the  monarch  Nuadha,  the  hereditary  gen- 
eral of  Leinster,  was  in  Albany,  medita- 
ting designs  against  the  Romans  and  their 
British  allies.  Con,  the  better  to  secure 
the  province  of  Leinster,  had  appointed 
his  dalta,  or  tutor,  Criomthan,  the  son  of 
Niachorb,  to  the  government  of  that  prov- 
ince ;  which  Cumhal  being  informed  of,  as 
well  as  that  he  was  labouring  to  distress 
and  reduce  the  children  of  Cathoir-More, 
he  hastened  over  with  his  troops,  and  his 
body-guards — consisting  of  one  hundred 
and   fifty  select  knights — "  to  revisit  the 


verdant  plains  of  Ireland,  and  to  possess 
and  valiantly  protect  the  sanguine-handed 
kingdom  of  Leinster."  Criomthan  was 
soon  compelled  to  quit  his  charge,  and 
Cumhal,  in  conjunction  with  the  children 
of  Cathoir-More,  and  the  Heberians  of 
Munster,  headed  by  the  celebrated  Eogan, 
formed  the  design  of  attacking  and  de- 
throning the  monarch.  Con,  well  instruct- 
ed in  their  designs,  summoned  the  estates 
to  Tara.  As  he  suspected,  all  the  disaf- 
fected were  absent ;  and  it  was  proposed 
to  put  them  under  the  ban  of  the  empire. 
But  this  Con  would  not  agree  to.  Instead 
of  this  he  despatched  ambassadors  to  the 
Naas,  called  Naas-Laighean,  (as  being  the 
metropolis  of  Leinster,  where  their  parUa- 
ment  met,  and  were  then  deliberating  on 
this  matter,)  requiring  the  attendance  of 
Cumhal  and  the  nobles  of  the  province  at 
Tara,  otherwise  denouncing  war  against 
them.  The  latter  they  accepted ;  and  the 
time  and  place  of  meeting  was  agreed  on. 
Cumhal  despatches  messengers  to  his  dif- 
ferent allies.  The  sons  of  Cathoir  were 
indefatigable  in  their  endeavours  to  promote 
the  levies  in  revenge  for  the  death  of  their 
father  ;  and  Eogan,  the  King  of  Munster, 
had  his  own  reasons  for  being  an  active 
partizan  in  this  war.  Almost  the  entire 
kingdom  of  Munster  was  at  this  time  gov- 
erned by  the  posterity  of  Deaghadh,  of  the 
line  of  Heremon  ;  so  that  from  exiles  they 
became  rulers  of  the  province  which  had 
with  such  hospitality  received  their  ances- 
tors when  expelled  from  the  north.  A  rev- 
olution like  the  present  must  have  been 
ardently  wished  for  by  him.  Thus  private 
interest  and  revenge  (as  it  often  happens) 
added  new  vigour  to  the  ambitious  views 
of  Cumhal.  The  levies  from  all  parts,  of 
both  parties,  hastened  to  the  scene  of 
action,  eager  for  the  fight.  The  adjacent 
hills  became  soon  covered  with  the  tents, 
standards,  and  military  array  of  the  differ- 
ent armies.  The  generals  on  each  side 
remarked  the  dispositions  of  the  enemy's 
troops;  and  each  chief  was  allotted  his 
ground,  and  the  troops  he  was  to  attack. 
We  are  surprised  with  what  minuteness 
this  is  detailed :    but  particularly  in  the 


A.D.163.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


107 


battle  of  Lena,  where  every  commander 
was  assigned  his  particular  service : — a 
proof  that  in  ancient  times,  neither  gene- 
ralship nor  miUtary  abilities  were  neg- 
lected. 

The  battle  was  fierce  and  bloody  as 
usual,  and  well  maintained  for  some  hours ; 
but  the  superior  abilities  of  Gaul,  the  son 
of  Momi,  master  of  the  knights  of  Con- 
naught,  and  general  of  the  imperial  army, 
with  the  number  and  bravery  of  his  knights, 
at  length  prevailed ;  the  allied  troops,  being 
closely  pressed,  gave  way  on  every  side, 
when  Cumhal,  seeing  all  lost,  at  the  head 
of  his  guards  attacked  Gaul  sword  in  hand. 
He  fell  by  the  hand  of  that  invincible 
leader,  and  every  one  of  his  knights  shared 
the  same  fate ! 

O'Flaherty  tells  us  that  Eogan,  after  la- 
bouring in  vain  to  recover  the  kingdom  of 
Munster  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Deaghaidhs, 
was  obliged  to  fly  to  Spain,  where  he  re- 
mamed  an  exile  for  some  years ;  when  he 
returned  with  a  large  reinforcement  of 
Spaniards.*  Neither  Keating,  nor  the  late 
translator  of  the  Book  of  Munster  take  any 
notice  of  this  flight  of  Eogan,  though  all 
agree  that  he  married  a  Spanish  princess. 
My  copy  of  this  most  valuable  piece  of 
antiquity,  which  I  had  transcribed  from 
one  written  in  the  year  1713,  (as  he  him- 
self tell  us  in  it,)  by  Dermod  O'Connor,  the 
translator  of  Keating,  and  which  he  took 
from  the  copy  of  the  Mac  Bruodins,  he- 
reditary historians  of  North  Munster,  pos- 
itively affirms  that  Eogan  did  retire  to 
Spain,  where  he  married  Beara,  the  lovely 
daughter  of  Eimhir  the  Great,  the  son  of 
Mioghna,  King  of  Spain ;  though  no  writer 
has  assigned  the  true  cause  of  Eogan's 
flight,  nor  even  taken  the  least  notice  of 
this  remarkable  battle  of  Cnucha,  which 
throws  such  light  on  the  whole.  And  here 
I  must  once  for  all  observe  that  this  rela- 
tion is  highly  worthy  of  perusal.  There 
is  a  noble  style  of  native  simplicity  which 
runs  through  it ;  much  good  sense  is  dis- 
played ;  and  we  are  surprised  with  the  po- 
lite and  elegant  language  which,  in  the  dif- 
ferent councils,  each  party  and  chief  ex- 

*  Ogygia,  p.  315. 


presses  for  his  intended  antagonist ;  for 
each  chief  commander  was  assigned  his 
place  of  action. 

Con,  by  this  decisive  battle,  acquired 
new  power  and  popularity,  and  pursued 
his  enemies  very  closely,  particularly  the 
young  Eogan,  whose  enterprising  genius 
and  abilities  he  dreaded,  and  therefore  de- 
termined to  blast  them  in  the  bud.  Eogan, 
instead  of  friends,  finding  the  Deaghaidhs 
of  Munster  his  avowed  enemies,  hastily  re- 
tired to  the  court  of  Nuaghadh  Dearg, 
prince  of  part  of  South  Munster,  and  of 
the  race  of  Ith.  From  thence  he  fled  to 
Spain,  and  was  most  graciously  received 
by  the  monarch  Eimhir,  whose  daughter 
he  married.  Here  he  kept  up  a  close  cor- 
respondence with  his  friends  in  Ireland ; 
and  the  race  of  Heber  finding  themselves 
likely  to  be  totally  subdued  by  the  Deag- 
haidhs and  by  Con,  exerted  every  sinew  to 
invite  him  back. 

A  Druid  of  the  first  quality  repaired  to 
Spain,  to  inform  him  of  the  true  state  of 
Ireland.*  His  father-in-law  engaged  to 
grant  a  supply  of  Spaniards,  with  his  own 
son  Fraoich  to  head  them,  with  transports 
and  stores;  and  Mac  Neid,  the  son  of 
Lugha,  of  the  race  of  Ith,  and  Conaire,  the 
son  of  Mogha  Lamha,  with  a  select  body 
of  brave  Mamonians,  impatiently  awaited 
his  arrival. 

The  first  use  he  made  of  his  troops  after 
landing  was  to  attack  the  usurpers  of  his 
crown.t  Lugha  Allathach  and  Aongus, 
of  the  Deaghaid,  or  Enmain  race,  met  him, 
and  were  defeated  in  three  different  battles ; 
in  the  last  of  which,  at  Samhdoire,  Lugha 
fell.  Aongus,  unable  singly  to  oppose  the 
victorious  Eogan,  repaired  to  the  monarch 
Con,  to  request  his  assistance,  observing 
that  in  supporting  him  he  added  greater 
weight  to  the  race  of  Heremon,  now,  in  his 
house,  like  to  be  subverted  by  their  com- 
mon enemy  the  Heberians.  Con,  deter- 
mined by  these  reasons,  sent  him  back  with 
a  reinforcement  of  (Chuigh-Catha)  fifteen 
thousand  men.  With  these  he  returned, 
and  at  Ibh  Leathan,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 

*  lonnsuidbe  Mhuighe-Leana. 
t  Leabhar  Muimhuin. 


108 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  181. 


the  two  armies  met,  where,  after  a  most 
bloody  battle,  the  imperial  auxiliaries  were 
routed,  and  Aongus  fell  by  the  sword  of 
Eogan. 

Having  thus  reduced  the  usurpers  of  his 
crown,  and  recovered  the  inheritance  of  his 
ancestors,  Eogan  now  thought  of  revenging 
himself  on  the  monarch,  and  of  raising,  in 
hifi  own  person,  the  line  of  Heber  to  their 
ancient  dignity.  But  to  succeed  in  this 
project,  required  not  only  uncommon  mili- 
tary abilities,  but  great  caution,  wisdom, 
and  circumspection  also.  All  these  Eogan 
possessed  in  an  eminent  degree.*  He  sent 
his  ambassadors  (always  Druids,  as,  on  ac- 
count of  their  profession,  held  in  great  rev- 
erence by  the  people)  to  his  allies.  The 
one  to  Fiacadh,  the  son  of  Cathoir,  and 
now  King  of  Leinster,  he  charged  to  re- 
mind this  prince  of  their  ancient  amity ;  to 
acquaint  him  of  his  success ;  and  that  now 
is  the  time  to  be  revenged  on  Con, — **  who 
killed  his  father  at  the  battle  of  Maigh- 
acha,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  himself 
the  epithet  Baiceda."  Those  sent  to  Breas 
Mac  Broin  and  Eochadh  Cobha,  kings  of 
Ulster,  among  other  instructions  to  induce 
them  to  enter  into  the  present  league,  were 
required  to  recapitulate  all  the  injuries  their 
ancestors  received  from  the  line  of  Here- 
mon ;  but  particularly — ^"  that  it  was  Feidh- 
limidh,  the  father  of  Con,  who  had  killed 
their  father  in  battle,  and  deprived  them 
of  that  succession." 

On  a  review  of  his  army,  Eogan  found 
it  to  consist  of  (Naoi-Catha)  twenty-five 
thousand  fighting  men ;  and  with  these  he 
attacked  and  defeated  the  monarch  in  ten 
different  pitched  battles.  His  allies  now 
join  him  in  numbers — the  troops  of  Lein- 
ster at  Ibh  Leathan,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 
and  those  of  Ulster  at  Fion-Carn.  Nor 
was  the  monarch  idle ;  he  summoned  his 
friends  and  allies  to  attend  him  at  the  palace 
of  Cruachan,  in  Connaught,  not  thinking  it 
prudent  to  remain  any  longer  at  Tara,  sur- 
rounded as  he  was  with  such  a  variety  of 
enemies.  Here  he  was  waited  upon  by 
Conall,  king  of  the  province,  by  the  re- 
nowned  hero  GoU   Mac   Momi  and   his 

*  lonnsuidhe  Muigh-Lena. 


knights,  with  other  dependants:  and  this 
retreat  made  Eogan  exultingly  say  to  his 
generals:  "As  Con  pursued  me  through 
Ireland  to  Munstcr,  I  will  now  in  return 
pursue  him  through  Ireland  to  Connaught." 
Eogan  accordingly  put  his  army  in  motion; 
and  in  a  day's  march  from  Cruachan,  a 
council  of  war  was  held  ;  and  it  was  de- 
termined to  send  ambassadors  to  Con,  an- 
nouncing their  intent.  By  advice  of  his 
friends  he  entered  into  negotiation  with 
Eogan,  and,  after  much  altercation,  a  peace 
was  agreed  on,  by  which  Con  consented 
to  divide  Ireland  into  two  equal  partitions, 
viz.  into  northern  and  southern,  (just  as  the 
partition  was  originally  made  by  their  two 
gi-feat  ancestors,  Heber  and  Heremon ;)  the 
southern  half  to  be  for  the  future  denom- 
inated Leath  Mogha,  or  Eogan's  half,  (Mo- 
gha  being  one  of  his  names ;)  and  the  north- 
em  half,  Leath  Cuin,  or  Con's  half. 

By  this  partition,  from  Galway  to  Eisgir- 
riada,  or  the  Long  Mountains,  through 
Cluan  Mac  Nois  and  Cluanard,  to  Dublin, 
was  a  deep  trench  cut,  and  high  walls 
made,  strengthened  from  place  to  place 
with  redoubts,  which  were  to  be  protected 
by  nine  thousand  men ;  and  the  southern 
division  was  to  acknowledge  the  line  of 
Heber  as  their  sovereigns,  while  the  north- 
ern half,  with  the  title  of  monarch,  was  re- 
served for  the  descendants  of  Heremon. 
This  is  that  famous  division  of  Ireland,  to 
this  day  called  Leath  Mogha  and  Leath 
Cuin. 

Scarce  was  this  peace  ratified  when  the 
enterprising  spirit  of  Con  led  him  into  new 
wars  and  new  diflSiculties.  Recollecting 
the  assistance  given  to  his  great  opponent 
Eogan  by  the  people  of  Leinster,  he  sent 
ambassadors  to  the  Naas,  demandihg  the 
boroimhe  laighean,  or  tribute,  exacted  from 
that  people  by  his  grandfather  Tuathal ; 
and  which  the  then  estates  solemnly  swore 
for  themselves,  and  for  their  successors,  to 
continue  to  him  and  to  his  posterity.  But 
oaths  we  find  were  as  little  binding  in  days 
of  antiquity  as  in  these  our  more  polished 
times.  The  Lagenians  bade  defiance  to 
the  monarch ;  and  by  the  dint  of  the  sword 
only  was  it  exacted  twice.   The  third  year, 


A.  D.  181.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


109 


the  Lagenians,  better  provided,  met  the 
imperialists  at  Maistean,  and,  after  a  bloody 
contest,  gained  a  complete  victory  over 
them,  obliging  the  monarch  to  quit  the 
palace  of  Tara,  which  they  held  for  four 
years  after.  Con  made  great  levies,  and 
the  fifth  year  drove  the  Lagenians  out  of 
Tara ;  compelled  them  to  pay  the  tribute 
and  arrears,  and  carried  off  hostages  to  se- 
cure the  future  payment  of  this  tax. 

We  are  furnished  vvrith  no  further  par- 
ticulars of  this  prince  till  the  year  181, 
when  we  find  the  war  between  him  and 
Eogan  renewed.  The  pretence  was  this : 
Eogan,  on  a  royal  tour  through  his  domin- 
ions, visited  Dublin,  which,  even  in  those 
days,  we  find  called  Atha-Cliath-Dubhline, 
which  imports  the  passage  over  the  ford 
of  the  black  pool.  He  found  a  greater 
number  of  ships  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Lifiey  than  on  the  south  side ;  and,  of  course, 
the  revenues  of  the  monarch  here  was  much 
greater  that  his  own.  This  relation  of  the 
trade  of  Dublin  will  be  less  doubted,  when 
we  recollect  the  evidence  of  Tacitus,* 
about  a  century  earlier ;  and  to  these  we 
shall  add,  that  in  the  days  of  St.  Patrick 
we  find  it  celebratedf  "for  its  extent  and 
magnificence,  the  number  and  riches  of  its 
inhabitants,  the  grandeur  of  its  edifices,  and 
the  greatness  of  its  commerce,"  etc. 

Glad  of  this  pretence,  Eogan  insisted 
that  the  division  of  Ireland  made  with  Con 
implied  an  equal  distribution  of  the  revenues 
in  the  ports  of  Dublm  and  Galway ;  and 
that  the  surplus  which  Con  had  received 
for  fifteen  years  past  should  be  accounted 
for,  otherwise  denouncing  war  against  him. 
The  monarch,  sensible  of  his  inferiority, 
would  gladly  have  compromised  the  mat- 
ter ;  but  it  was  evident  that  Eogan  medi- 
tated nothing  less  than  the  monarchy  of 
Ireland.  Both  sides  prepared  for  battle  ; 
and  at  Maigh-Lena,  in  King's  County,  was 
the  fate  of  Ireland  to  be  determined  between 
these  heroes. 

The  evening  before  the  day  of  battle, 
Con  held  a  council  of  war ;  and,  after  hear- 
ing the  diflferent  opinions,  he  observed  that 
the  army  of  Eogan  was  superior  to  his  in 

t  Trias  Thaumat. 


*  Vita  Jul.  Agricol. 


number  and  discipline,  (consisting  of  twenty- 
seven  thousand  national  troops,  besides  two 
thousand  Spaniards,  and  one  thousand  other 
auxiliaries,)  and,  therefore,  that,  instead  of 
meeting  him  in  the  field  next  day,  he  judged 
it  more  prudent  to  surprise  them  that  very 
night,  or  before  the  day-break  of  next 
morning.  To  this  the  council  agreed,  ex- 
cept Goll  Mac  M omi,  the  monarch's  gen- 
eral, and  chief  of  the  knights  of  Connaught, 
who,  rising  up,  said : — ^  On  the  day  that 
my  first  arms  were  put  into  my  hands,  I 
solemnly  vowed  never  to  attack  an  enemy 
at  night,  by  surprise,  or  under  any  kind  of 
disadvantage :  to  this  day  I  have  religiously 
adhered  to  this  promise,  nor  shall  I  now 
break  it."  The  attack  was  however  agreed 
on,  but  Goll  declared  he  would  not  be  in 
the  field  before  day-light.  In  this  attack 
the  Munster  troops,  though  surprised,  be- 
haved with  great  intrepidity ;  and  Eogan, 
and  his  brother-in-law  Fraoch,  dealt  death 
on  every  side,  followed  by  their  select 
bands.  In  this  distress  Con  called  upon 
Goll,  (for  it  was  now  clear  day,)  with  his 
knights,  to  engage  the  King  of  Munster. 
This  great  hero,  already  grievously  wound- 
ed in  many  places,  soon  fell  a  victim  to 
the  hero  of  Connaught,  and  his  brother-in- 
law,  the  prince  of  Spain,  experienced  the 
same  fate.  The  body  of  Eogan,  pierced 
by  a  thousand  wounds,  was  raised  up  on 
the  shields  of  the  sol(fiery,  and  exposed  to 
the  view  of  both  armies  ;  which  G^oll  per- 
ceiving, cried  out — "  Lay  down  the  body 
of  the  King  of  Munster,  for  he  died  as  a 
hero  should  die  P*  Thus  ended  this  mighty 
contest,  as  fatal  to  Eogan  as  a  similar  one 
had  been  formerly  to  his  great  ancestor 
Heber. 

I  confess  that  the  Psalter  of  Cashell  de- 
clares Eogan  to  have  been  killed  in  his 
bed  by  Con ;  but  besides  the  infamy  attend- 
ing the  action,  it  would  not  be  the  way  to 
intimidate  the  Munster  army.  The  dis- 
honour of  attacking  an  enemy  by  surprise, 
and  that  some  hours  before  the  time  ap- 
pointed— an  act  before  this  period  unheard 
of  in  Ireland — reflects  sufficiently  on  the 
character  of  Con,  without  adding  to  it, 
what  seemed  both  improbable  and  impossi- 


^T-Ai^-i' 


110 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  183. 


ble  too,  in  those  days  of  heroism.  The 
issue  of  Eogan  were  two  sons  and  two 
daughters;  but  Olioll,  his  eldest  son,  at  his 
father's  decease,  not  being  arrived  at  suffi- 
cient age  to  govern  MuBSter,  Mac  Niad, 
who  so  valiantly  assisted  in  restoring  this 
prince's  father  to  the  throne  of  his  ances- 
tors, was  unanimously  invested  with  the 
command  of  Leath-Mogha.  This-  done, 
the  people  called  loudly  on  their  new  chief 
to  lead  them  once  more  against  the  perfid- 
ious Con.  All  this  Con  foresaw,  and  with 
great  policy  evaded.  He  sent  ambassa- 
dors to  Mac  Niad,  demanding  a  cessation 
of  arms  ;*  and  to  give  greater  weight  to 
this  negotiation,  offered  him  privately  his 
daughter  Sadhbha  in  marriage,  with  a  full 
acknowledgment  of  his  right  to  govern 
Leath-Mogha.  The  terms  of  peace  were, 
to  give  to  the  people  of  Munster  one  thou- 
sand steeds,  two  hundred  chariots,  two 
hundred  ships,  two  hundred  spears,  two 
hundred  swords,  two  hundred  slaves,  two 
hundred  hounds,  but  what  was  still  more 
mortifying,  his  own  torques,  his  sword,  and 
his  shield !  Peace  was  thus  proclaimed ; 
Mac  Niad  married  the  princess  Sadhbha ; 
the  limits  of  the  Eisgar-Riadha,  and  the 
absolute  independence  of  Leath-Mogha 
were  acknowledged  in  the  fullest  manner. 
Secure  of  the  friendship  of  Munster, 
the  restless  monarch  turned  his  thoughts 
on  the  Ultonians,  who  embraced  every 
opportunity  of  disturbing  his  government. 
He  invaded  Ulster  with  a  large  army,  in 
which  battles  were  fought  with  various 
successes.  At  length,  says  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell,  he  fell  by  the  sword  of  Tubraidhe- 
Tireach,  two  years  after  the  battle  of 
Lena.  The  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters 
say  he  was  slain  the  battle  of  Tuath-Aimh- 
rios;  Keating,  and  O'Flaherty,  that  he 
was  murdered  at  Tara.  But  this  last 
death  is  so  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  he- 
roism of  those  days  that  I  can  by  no  means 
agree  to  it.  By  this  relation  it  appears 
that  Con  reigned  exactly  thirty  years ; 
years  of  great  trouble  and  anxiety  to  him, 
it  must  be  confessed,  as  well  as  of  infinite 
distress  to  the  kingdom. 

*  Leabhar-Muimhan. 


We  observed  in  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter  that  the  celebrated  Cumhal  fell  in 
the  battle  of  Cnucha.  He  left  behind  him 
but  one  son,  who  was  then  a  child,  but  who, 
as  soon  as  he  had  attained  the  age  fit  for 
command,  which  was  soon  after  the  parti- 
tion peace  between  Con  and  the  King  of 
Munster,  this  last  appointed  him  general  of 
all  the  forces  of  Leath-Mogha.  This  was 
the  famous  Fion,  so  celebrated  by  our 
bards. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

Conure,  the  son  of  Mogha-Lamha,  proclaimed 
monarch — Remarks  on  this  election — The  settle- 
ments of  the  three  Carbres,  his  sons — Olioll, 
King  of  Munster,  demands  the  Leinster  tribute 
— Death  of  Conaire,  and  election  of  Art,  the  son 
of  Con — Mac  Con  applies  to  him  for  protection, 
and  is  refused — Raises  a  large  army  of  foreign- 
ers, with  which  he  invades  the  kingdom — The 
general,  Fion,  deserts  the  imperial  standard — 
An  account  of  the  battle  of  Muicruimhe — The 
first  regular  Scottish  or  Irish  settlement  in  Alba- 
ny— Will  of  Olioll,  King  of  Munster,  etc. 

On  the  death  of  Con,  the  estates  proceed- 
ed to  the  election  of  a  successor,  and, 
after  much  policy  and  canvassing,  the  ma- 
jority of  suffrages  were  announced  to  be 
in  favour  of  Conaire,  the  son  of  Mogha- 
Lamha,  a  lineal  descendant  of  Conaire  the 
Grand,  of  the  Degaids  of  Munster,  and 
line  of  Heremon.  The  reader,  who  has 
already  seen  the  power  of  this  house  so 
humbled  by  Eogan,  King  of  Munster,  will 
no  doubt  be  surprised  to  find  the  grandson 
of  Lugha-Allatach,  who  fell  by  the  sword 
of  Eogan,  raised  to  the  dignity  of  monarch, 
and  this  at  a  time  when  the  Heberians 
were  so  powerful  I  It  merits  an  elucida- 
tion. 

Eithne,  the  mother  of  Conaire,  was  sis- 
ter to  Mac  Niad,  of  the  race  of  Ith.  This 
house  was  established  in  Munster  by 
Heber  himself,  and  of  course  had  a  more 
natural  attachment  to  his  race,  than  to 
those  of  Heremon  or  Ir.  Mac  Niad  was 
not  only  himself  active  in  the  cause  of 
Eogan,  but  also  detached  the  young  Co- 
naire from  the  interests  of  his  family,  in 
the  same  cause,  as  we  have  already  ob- 


A.D.215.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


Ill 


served.  This  alliance  of  Conaire  was 
made  still  stronger  by  his  marrying  the 
second  daughter  of  the  deceased  Con. 
By  this  means  the  pretensions  of  the  line 
of  Ir  were  defeated,  and  Conaire  pro- 
claimed monarch. 

An  undisturbed  peace  being  established 
at  home,  the  politics  of  Conaire  were 
turned  towards  Britain,  and  the  aggran- 
dizement of  his  own  family.  In  the  first 
he  succeeded  so  well,  that  the  Britons  were 
up  in  arms  everywhere ;  and  had  his  reign 
continued  longer,  in  all  probability  the 
Roman  power  over  that  country  would 
have  been  totally  annihilated :  nor  was  he 
less  happy  in  his  second  attempt.  He  had 
by  his  queen,  Seraid,  daughter  to  Con, 
three  sons,  princes  of  great  valour  and 
abilities ;  and  these  were  called  by  old 
writers,  Carbre  Muse,  Carbre  Baisean,  and 
Carbre  Riada,  from  the  different  principal- 
ities assigned  them.  The  first  was  called 
Muse,  and  from  his  establishment  at  Muse- 
ry,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  so  called  to  this 
day.  The  name  of  Baisean  was  given  to 
the  second,  from  the  barony  of  Corca 
Bhascin,  in  the  county  of  Clare ;  and  the 
settlement  of  the  third  Carbre  (the  eldest 
brother)  was  in  Kerry,  and  about  Loch- 
Lene.  He  found  other  opportunities  of 
extending  the  power  of  his  race.  Oga- 
man,  a  descendant  of  Fiatach,  (from  whom 
this  branch  took  the  name  of  Dal-Fiatach,) 
of  the  same  line,  he  had  address  enough, 
on  the  death  of  Tiobradh,  King  of  Ulster, 
of  the  race  of  Ir,  to  have  elected  to  the 
government  of  Ulster,  and  by  this  means 
had  the  ancient  claims  of  his  family  to  the 
hereditary  patrimony  in  that  province  es- 
tablished. The  new  king  of  Ulster  grant- 
ed, moreover,  to  the  eldest  Carbre,  a  great 
part  of  the  preset  county  of  Antrim,  fi-om 
him  called  Riada,  and  since  contracted  to 
Route.  But  the  further  views  of  this 
prince  were  prevented  by  an  immature 
death,  being,  it  is  said,  murdered  in  the 
ninth  year  of  his  reign,  though  some  wri- 
ters affirm  he  fell  in  battle,  as  usual. 

In  the  administration  of  Conaire,  and  on 
the  death  of  Mac  Niad,  OlioU,  the  son  of 
the  great  Eogan,  was  called  to  the  throne 


of  Munster ;  and  we  are  surprised  to  find 
that  he  claimed,  and  obliged  the  Lagenians 
to  pay  the  Eric  ui  Dreisgoil,  being  the  fine 
imposed  on  that  province  by  Conaire  I.  for 
the  murder  of  his  father.  One  would  think 
that  this  fine  was  rather  the  property  of 
the  family,  and  of  course  belonged  to  Con- 
aire, than  to  the  Heberians ;  but  perhaps 
he  assigned  it  to  them  on  consideration  of 
their  supporting  him  in  the  monarchy. 
This  will  explain  why  if.  afterwards  was, 
for  very  many  years,  paid  into  the  Heber- 
ian  line,  kings  of  Munsicr ;  and  why  they 
united  with  the  sons  of  Conaire  to  revenge 
the  murder  of  their  father. 

Neimhdidh,  the  son  of  Sruibhihin,  the 
regicide,  was  of  the  same  blood  of  Conaire, 
and  was  instigated  to  this  base  act  by  the 
love  he  bore  to  the  empress,  and  the  hopes 
of  possessing  her ;  but  Olioll,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  three  Carbres,  pursued  him 
so  closely  that  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Cin- 
nefebha  he  was  slain  by  the  sword  of  Car- 
bre Riada.  Mac  Con,  the  son  of  Mac 
Niad,  who  also  assisted  Neimheidh,  re- 
ceived a  deep  wound  in  his  leg,  from  Car- 
bre Muse,  and  the  whole  parly  was  de- 
feated. 

On  the  death  of  Conaire,  Art,  the  son  of 
Con,  was  elected  monarch  of  Ireland,  to 
whom  Mac  Con  and  his  party  applied  for 
protection,  Olioll  affording  them  none  in 
Munster.  But  the  new  monarch  had  too 
many  obligations  to  the  King  of  Munster, 
to  grant  an  asylum  to  his  enemies ;  they 
therefore  fled  the  kingdom.  Lugha-Leagha, 
brother  to  Olioll,  shocked  at  this  alliance 
between  his  brother  and  the  son  of  the 
murderer  of  their  father,  together  with  the 
Prince  of  Ossory,  determined  to  share  the 
same  fate  with  Mac  Con,  and  accordingly 
quitted  the  kingdom.  The  first  land  they 
made  was  Albany,  or  Scotland ;  and  here 
they  applied  to  the  Pictish  king  for  succours, 
exclaiming  against  the  injustice  of  Olioll,  in 
depriving  the  race  of  Ith  of  their  birthright 
in  Munster,  and  against  his  unnatural  al- 
liance with  the  monarch.  Art.  But  the  Pict, 
though  fond  of  fishing  in  troubled  water, 
yet  prudently  declined  entering  deep  into 
the  schemes  of  the  exiles,  till  they  should 


112 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.D.  221. 


try  what  further  assistance  they  could  pro- 
cure. From  thence  they  removed  to  Wales ; 
and  Beine  Briot,  son  of  the  King  of  Britain, 
and  a  most  renowned  hero,  promised,  in 
the  name  of  his  father,  not  only  large  sup- 
plies, but  at  a  convenient  time  to  head  them 
in  person.  Mac  Con  and  his  party  from 
Wales  proceed  to  Brittany  in  France ; 
where,  by  the  testimony  of  Lecan,  he  had 
ample  possessions,  and  in  them  he  raised  a 
large  body  of  troops.*  We  have  in  Book 
IV.,  p.  76,  remarked  that  the  Irish  monarch 
Labhra  had  a  principality  in  Gaul ;  and 
we  there  showed  that  this  account  threw  a 
new  light  on  what  had  been  related  by 
Cenau  and  Mezeray  on  this  head.  This, 
in  all  probability,  by  descent  or  otherwise, 
might  have  fallen  to  the  share  of  the  house 
of  Ith. 

But  be  this  as  it  may,  with  a  large  body 
of  troops,  Britons,  Gauls,  and  Picts,  he 
landed  in  the  west  of  Connaught,  and  being 
joined  by  his  friends  and  associates  at  home, 
his  whole  army,  on  a  review,  appeared  to 
be  composed  of  thirty  thousand  men.  The 
chiefs  were  summoned,  and  after  much  de- 
bate it  was  agreed  to  send  ambassadors  to 
Art,  and  these  were  Lugha-Leagh,  and 
Nuadh  his  chief  oUamh. 

On  their  appearance  at  Tara,  they  an- 
nounced the  purport  of  their  embassy. 
Their  instructions  were  that  Art  should 
give  up  Leath-Mogha,  or  the  southern  half 
of  Ireland,  with  the  port  of  Dublin,  to  Mac 
Con ;  or  in  case  of  refusal,  to  denounce 
war  against  him.  and  challenge  him  to  bat- 
tle on  the  plains  of  Muicruimhe,  near 
Athonry.  Art,  who  wanted  not  for  policy, 
wished  to  gain  time  by  offering  some  con- 
cessions ;  but  finding  the  ambassadors  reso- 
lute, and  that  an  explicit  answer  was  ex- 
pected, he  spiritedly  told  them — "  that  he 
would  never  consent  to  their  proposals  ; 
that  he  was  unworthy  a  crown  who  de- 
clined fighting  for  it ;  that  it  was  through 
rivers  of  blood  his  father  waded  to  the 
sovereignty ;  and  that  he  would  meet  Mac 
Con  with  his  foreign  mercenaries  at  Muigh- 
Cruimhe."  The  next  point  to  be  consid- 
ered was  the  time  of  action.  Art  demand- 
•  Book  iii. 


ed  a  year,  in  order  to  collect  his  forces,  as 
Mac  Con  had  not  given  him  sufficient  no- 
tice. But  to  this  they  observed,  that  as 
their  army  was  mostly  composed  of  for- 
eigners, who  were  enlisted  but  for  a  limited 
time,  this  could  not  be  granted.  By  mutual 
agreement  the  battle  was  to  be  fought  in 
fourteen  days.  Art  immediately  despatched 
expresses  to  all  parts.  Olioll  sent  him  a 
large  body  of  troops,  headed  by  his  nine- 
teen sons,  seven  of  whom  were  legitimate. 
The  King  of  Connaught  joined  him  like- 
wise with  the  Clana-Momi.  He  went  him- 
self to  Almhuin,  the  seat  of  the  famous 
Fion  Mac  Cumhal,  in  Leinster,  to  demand 
his  assistance,  and  that  of  his  troops ;  but 
the  general  expecting  this  visit,  absented 
himself,  and  drew  off  his  soldiers  from 
thence.  He  then  demanded  of  his  chief 
judge  (Reachtaire)  where  Fion  was  ?  He 
said  that  he  had  absented  himself  on  pur- 
pose, as  he  had  entered  into  treaty  with 
Mac  Con,  and  engaged  not  to  oppose  his 
designs.  This  defection  of  Fion  mortified 
him  greatly.  His  troops  were  the  best 
disciplined  in  the  kingdom,  and  on  their 
intrepidity  he  had  his  greatest  dependence. 
However,  his  army  was  both  powerful  and 
numerous,  being  besides  highly  appointed. 
But  on  leaving  Almhuin,  he  denounced  a 
curse  on  Fion  and  on  his  soldiery,  whom 
he  upbraided  for  their  ingratitude.  "  I  al- 
lowed (said  he)  to  these  military,  cattle, 
clothes,  and  the  privilege  of  quartering  on 
my  people  from  November  to  May.  To 
the  hero  Fion,  I  gave  money ;  and  at  the 
last  assembly  at  Tailtean,  I  presented  him 
fifty  broad  shining  swords,  fifty  shields,  and 
fifty  spears." 

The  opening  of  this  battle  is  highly 
majestic*  "  The  hero  of  Tara,  the  irresisti- 
ble wave  in  enmity,  a^^flujck  as  lightning 
in  defence,  terrible  ib  -feattle,  the  support 
of  mighty  armies,  the  hand  of  liberality, 
the  all-protecting,  the  performer  of  most 
mighty  deeds,  Art,  the  son  of  Con,  the  son 
of  Feilim,  the  son  of  Tuathal,  etc.  arose. 
Warrior-like  was  his  anger,  powerful  his 
voice,  lovely  the  champion ;  his  flaxen  hair 
plaited,  his  shirt  of  silk,  etc.  etc.  In  one 
*  Catha  Muigh-Muicroimhe. 


A.  D.  221.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


113 


hand  he  bears  two  bows,  in  the  other  his 
javeHn,  and  by  his  side  his  dreadful  and 
irresistible  sword."  Eogan,  the  son  of 
Olioll,  and  commander  of  the  Munster 
troops,  is  also  described  going  armed  to 
battle ;  and  we  find  that  fine  silk  was  what 
was  then  worn  instead  of  linen  by  the  great 
men  of  Ireland.  This  battle  was  the  most 
bloody  that  had  been  known  ;  and  we  may 
judge  what  the  loss  must  have  been,  by  the 
number  of  princes  that  fell  that  day.  Art, 
the  monarch,  was  cut  off  by  the  hand  of 
Lugha-Leagha,  in  revenge  for  the  death  of 
his  father.  Eogan  was  slain  by  the  Prince 
of  Wales.  His  six  brothers  died  by  the 
swords  of  other  heroes.  The  King  of  Con- 
naught  and  most  of  his  knights  bravely  met 
the  same  fate.  In  a  word,  it  was  so  re- 
markably bloody  thatj  till  the  reception  of 
Christianity,  and  for  a  long  time  after,  many 
of  our  antiquarians  dated  a  new  era  from 
it! 

History  scarce  furnishes  a  more  un- 
natural war  than  this  we  have  recited; 
Mac  Con  dethroning  his  uncle  and  fighting 
against  his  brothers  (for  Olioll  married  his 
mother  soon  after  his  father's  decease;) 
Lugha  quitting  the  party  of  his  brother 
Olioll,  to  fight  for  his  nephew ;  and,  to  add 
to  the  disgrace  of  these  times,  the  brothers 
of  Con  killing  their  two  nephews,  by  which 
means  Art  got  the  title  of  Aon-Fhir,  or  the 
Solitary,  having  no  brother  left  living.  But 
Art  banished  them  from  Tara,  and  they 
retired  to  the  court  of  Leinster,  where  they 
were  hospitably  received,  and  gave  rise  to 
many  noble  families. 

During  the  reign  of  Art  it  was,  that  the 
eldest  Carbre,  the  son  of  Conaire,  called 
Riada,  or  the  Long  Arm,  on  account  of  his 
settlements  so  remote  from  each  other,  as 
Kerry  and  Antrim,  or  the  Route  as  it  is 
called,  passed  over  to  Scotland,  where,  as 
Bede  tells  us,  "  By  force  or  friendship,  he 
procured  settlements  for  himself."  *  From 
this  leader,  Riada,  says  he,  their  posterity 
are  to  this  day  called  Dal  Reudimh,  dal  in 
their  language  signifying  a  part. 

This  is  certainly  the  first  regular  Scot- 
tish or  Irish  settlement  in  Albany;  not  but 

*  Hist.  Eccles.     Brit.  lib.  i.  cap.  L 

15 


that  numbers  of  Irish  must,  from  the  close 
affinity  between  them  and  the  Picts,  have 
resided  there  from  time  to  time,  for  centu- 
ries before ;  but  still  without  forming  them- 
selves into  a  regular  independent  commu- 
nity. This  is  a  fact  in  which  all  our  wri- 
ters are  unanimous ;  and  to  such  as  can 
harbour  the  smallest  doubt  on  this  matter, 
I  refer  them  (besides  our  ancient  annals) 
to  the  authorities  at  bottom.* 

We  have  observed  that  Olioll,  King  of 
Munster,  lost  seven  of  his  sons  in  the  battle 
of  Muicruimhe.  For  this  great  loss  he 
remained  in  a  manner  inconsolable;  but 
his  greatest  affliction  was  for  his  eldest  son, 
his  Righ-Damhna,  or  presumptive  heir,  as 
he  called  him  ;  and  now  finding  the  hour 
of  death  approach,  he  made  his  last  will, 
in  which  he  left  to  his  second  son,  Cormoc, 
his  crown  during  life ;  and  as  a  further 
proof  of  his  opinion  of  his  courage  and 
virtue,  he  bequeathed  him  also  his  sword^ 
his  shield,  his  spear,  and  his  armour. 
Eogan,  the  eldest,  left  issue  a  son,  but  who 
was  not  born  till  some  months  after  the 
battle  of  Muicruimhe,  who  was  called 
Fiacadh-Muilleathan.  Olioll  therefore  or- 
dered that  on  the  demise  of  Cormoc  the 
crown  should  revert  to  Fiacadh,  and  that 
it  should  for  ever  after  continue  in  alternate 
succession  between  the  issue  of  these  two 
great  houses.  He  gave  them  his  benedic- 
tion, and  assured  them  that  while  they  and 
their  posterity  religiously  adhered  to  this 
bequest,  they  would  continue  a  mighty  and 
a  powerful  race,  the  delight  of  their 
friends,  and  the  terror  of  their  enemies ! 
This  Olioll  got  the  epithet  Olum ;  and  the 
reason  assigned  is  this :  being  of  a  very 
amorous  disposition,  he  once  attempted 
violence  on  a  young  lady  named  Aithne ; 
but  she,  enraged  at  his  insolence,  took  oflf 
a  piece  of  his  ear.  Hence  he  was  sur- 
named  Olom,  from  o,  an  ear,  and  lam, 
naked. 

The  issue  of  these  two  great  houses  are, 

*  Routh's  Hibemia  Resurgus,  Usher's  Primord.  Ec- 
cles. Britan.,  Ward's  Vita  Sti  Rumoldi,  Colgan's  Act. 
Sanct.  Hibem.,  Trias  Thauin.,  Grat.  Lacius,  O'Flaherty's 
Ogygia,  Ogygia  Defended,  O'Kennedie's  Chronology 
of  the  Stuart  line,  Mac  Geoghegan's  Histoire  d'lre- 
lande,  etc.,  etc. 


114 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 


[A.  D.  221. 


to  this  day,  distinguished  into  Eoganachts, 
or  the  posterity  of  this  Eogan,  and  Dal 
Cassians,  from  this  Cormoc  who  was  called 
Cas,  or  the  Beloved.  From  the  first  are 
descended  the  following,  among  many  other 
great  families — the  Mac  Carthies,  O'Calla- 
ghans,  O'Sullivans,  O'Kieffes,  O'Donochoes, 
O'Mahonies,  O'Connells,  O'Donovans,  Mac 
Auliffe,  O'Line,  etc.,  etc.,  as  from  Cormoc 
are  traced  the  O'Briens,  Mac  Mahons, 
Mac  Namaras,  O'Kennedies,  Mac  Clanch- 
ies,  Mac  Cochlins,  O'HifFernans,  etc.,  etc. 
From  Cian,  the  third  son  of  this  Olioll,  are 
descended  the  O'Carrolls,  princes  of  Eli, 
O'Rierdans,  O'Flanagans,  O'Fogerty's, 
O'Haras,  O'Mara,  O'Machair,  O'Casey, 
etc.,  etc.,  besides  we  find  that  the  posterity 
of  Cian  extended  their  patrimonies  both 
in  Leinster  and  Connaught,  and  were  the 
source  of  many  other  great  families.  But 
though  Olioll  decreed  that  the  succession 
to  the  crown  of  Munster  should  continue 
in  the  issue  of  his  two  eldest  sons  only^ 
and  that  in  alternate  succession,  yet  he  dis- 
posed of  the  country  so  as  always  to  pre- 
serve a  kind  of  equality  between   them. 


To  the  posterity  of  Eogan  he  bequeathed 
Desmond,  (Deas-Muimhean,)  or  South 
Munster,  comprehending  the  counties  of 
Waterford,  Cork,  and  Kerry ;  to  Cormoc, 
Thomond,  (Tuath-Muimhean,)  including 
the  counties  of  Clare,  Limerick,  and  the 
country  about  Cashell,  extending  to  Sliabh- 
Blamah,  in  Ossory.  To  Cian,  his  youngest 
son,  he  left  (Shior-Muimhean)  Ormond,  or 
East  Munster,  but  still  as  a  fee  under  his 
brother  Cormoc.  By  this  means,  when 
the  crown  of  Leath-Mogha  came  to  the 
issue  of  Eogan,  the  other  family  were  kings 
of  North  Munster  only;  and  when  these 
last  succeeded,  the  other  family  were  kings 
only  of  South  Munster,  Leath-Mogha,  in- 
cluding the  command  of  the  entire  prov- 
ince. 

The  distresses  and  confusion  occasioned 
by  this  revolution  in  favour  of  Mac  Con 
will  well  explain  why  Severus  extended 
the  Roman  arms  in  Britain,  and  why,  with- 
out much  interruption,  he  was  enabled  to 
build  a  new  wall  to  protect  his  frontiers 
from  the  invasions  of  the  Picts  and 
Irish. 


BOOK    VI. 


.  .^•' 


CHAPTER    I. 

Lughaidh  proclaimed  monarch — Cormoc  Cos  suc- 
ceeds to  the  crown  of  Munster — His  exploits  in 
Britain  and  Ireland,  and  his  liberality  to  the 
bards — Principal  families  of  the  Clana  Itli,  or 
Irish  Brigantes — Cormoc  forms  a  party  to  gain 
the  monarchy — Lughaidh  killed,  and  Cormoc 
disappointed  in  his  schemes  by  Feargus — Raises 
a  very  large  army,  and  attacks  and  defeats  the 
imperialists  in  the  battle  of  Criona — Exploits  of 
Lugha,  and  death  of  Feargus. 

Lughaidh,  called  Mac  Con,  the  son  of 
Mac  Niad,  of  the  race  of  Ith,  from  bein^ 
deprived  of  his  principality,  expelled  from 
Munster,  and  banished  from  the  kingdom 
by  the  estates  of  Tara,  we  now  behold 
placed  on  the  pinnacle  of  glory,  and  dic- 
tating laws  to  that  country  which  some 
years  before  had  proscribed  him !  A  proof, 
among  a  thousand  others  that  could  be 
produced,  how  little  laws  and  justice  avail 
when  opposed  to  power  and  oppression ! 
What  exploits  he  performed  after  being 
proclaimed  monarch  are  not  particularly 
related ;  it  is  however  mentioned  in  the 
third  Book  of  Lecan,  that  he  extended  his 
power  greatly  over  Gaul  and  Scotland. 
Certain  it  is,  that  many  illustrious  houses 
in  North  Britain  trace  their  pedigrees  from 
him,  and  from  his  son,  as  the  Campbells, 
who  to  this  day  are  called  in  the  Erse,  or 
Highland  Irish,  Clana  Mhio  Cuin,  or  the 
posterity  of  Mac  Con,  the  Mac  Aliens, 
etc. 

Cormoc  Cas  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
government  of  Leath-Mogha,  or  Southern 
Ireland.  The  actions  of  this  prince  are 
greatly  extolled  in  the  Book  of  Munster. 
He  married  Samhair,  daughter  of  the  cel- 
ebrated general  Fion,  the  son  of  Cumhal, 
and  was  the  first  prince  of  his  house  who 
established  a  regular  chief  rent,  to  be  paid 


in  to  himself  and  successors,  every  first  of 
November.  It  is  not  improbable  but  that 
Fion,  who  was  a  great  legislator  as  well 
as  warrior,  might  have  directed  this  mea- 
sure. Besides  this,  he  obliged  the  Lage- 
nians  to  pay  the  Eric  ui  Dresgoil.  They 
called  in  to  their  assistance  the  Welch; 
but  he  defeated  their  combined  forces  in 
four  different  pitched  battles.  Not  satis- 
fied with  this,  and  probably  to  be  revenged 
on  the  Britons  for  the  support  they  gave 
to  Mac  Con,  and  for  the  death  of  his  seven 
brothers,  slain  at  Muicruimhe,  he  invaded 
Wales  with  his  fleets  no  less  than  thirty 
different  times,  and  brought  from  it  each 
time  most  valuable  spoils.  He  was  victo- 
rious in  the  battle  of  Cruachan,  fought 
against  the  Conacians ;  in  the  battle  of 
Tara,  against  Fioncha,  the  son  of  Lucha. 
With  like  success  he  engaged  the  Fiomia 
Eirion  at  Tailtean ;  and  he  defeated  the 
Martini  at  Munster,  (a  branch  of  the  Dam- 
nonii,)  in  the  battle  of  Samhna ;  in  which 
fight  he  slew  with  his  own  hand  the  King 
of  Ulster,  who  came  to  their  assistance, 
but  was  himself  so  desperately  wounded, 
that  he  never  recovered  it.  The  issue  of 
Cormoc  were  Moghchorb,  Aoife,  and 
Eadhoin;  but  not  by  Saimhair,  but  a 
Danish  princess,  says  the  Psalter  of  Cash- 
ell.  This  venerable  piece  of  antiquity  also 
highly  extols  the  liberality  of  this  prince, 
insomuch  that  he  had  been  known  to  bestow 
three  hundred  ounces  of  silver  in  a  day  to 
his  bards  and  literati. 

Once  for  all,  let  me  observe  that  the 
house  of  Ith  were  not  Milesians,  but  Gade- 
lians,  and  of  the  same  race  with  the  British 
Brigantes ;  for  Ith  was  the  son  of  Breogan, 
and  brother  to  Milesius.      The  principal 


„ju.ai_)MiMii 


jtm 


MiMHltfiliiMtfai 


m. 


i^jkiia&iiifa 


I       I  jiaMii 


■^tm^tmM 


116 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  222. 


families  from  this  illustrious  line  are,  first, 
O'Driscol,  chief  of  the  entire  Corca-Luighe, 
(the  present  county  of  Cork,)  so  called 
from  Lughaidh,  the  son  of  Ith,  on  whom  it 
was  bestowed  by  Heber-Fionn,  immediate- 
ly after  the  conquest  of  the  kingdom; 
O'Leary,  O'Baire,  Mac  Crothan,  Mac 
Craith,  O'Cowig,  O'Flan-arda,  O'Deada, 
O'Hea,  CKerwic,  O'Keily,  CXCiarain, 
O'Breogan,  etc. 

Mr.  O'Flaherty  allows  to  Mac  Con  but  a 
reign  of  three  years ;  but  in  this,  as  well 
as  in  many  other  instances  of  chronology, 
he  opposes  the  voice  of  truth  and  antiquity ; 
for  nothing  is  more  certain,  than  that  both 
his  successor  Cormoc,  as  well  as  his  con- 
temporary Fiacha  Muilleathan,  King  of 
Leath-Mogha,  were  in  their  mothers' 
wombs  at  the  battle  of  Muicruimhe :  so 
that  at  this  calculation  Cormoc  must  have 
been  called  to  the  throne  at  four  years 
old  ;  and  that  in  a  country  where  no  one 
was  capable  of  filling  any  public  office  till 
after  twenty-five  ;  but  this  learned  gentle- 
man, having  taken  off  above  two  hundred 
years  from  the  antiquities  of  his  country, 
was  necessitated  in  this,  and  other  instan- 
ces, to  curtail  the  reigns  of  many  of  our 
princes ;  however, the  present  was  too  gross 
a  mistake  to  pass  by.  The  learned  author, 
aware  of  what  is  asserted  in  the  Catha 
Muicruimhe,  of  the  birth  of  Cormoc,  as- 
serts that  he  was  not  the  son  of  Eoithne, 
and  that  he  was  begot  long  before  this 
period.  But  if  the  reign  of  Mac  Con  did 
not  exceed  three  years,  and  that  of  his  suc- 
cessor but  one  year  more,  how  shall  we 
reconcile  this  to  Cormoc's  soliciting  the 
support  of  Tiege,  the  son  of  Cian,  the 
youngest  son  of  Olioll-Olum  ?  We  know 
that  in  Ireland  no  prince,  or  even  lord  of 
a  country  could  succeed  to  the  inheritance 
of  the  family  till  twenty-five ;  and  this  is 
the  reason  why  the  uncle,  or  next  in  kin  to 
the  deceased,  precluded  the  immediate  heir 
from  the  inheritance,  if  a  minor.  .Olioll 
did  not  die  for  some  years  after  the  battle 
of  Muicruimhe ;  and  of  his  nineteen  sons, 
Cian,  the  father  of  Tiege,  was  the  young- 
est ;  so  that  the  anachronism  and  the  ab- 
surdity of  his  assertion  become  glaring. 


Add  to  this,  that  the  Book  of  Reigns,  Grat. 
Lucius,  Keating,  Bruodinus,  and  all  our 
annalists,  are  unanimous  that  Mac  Con 
ruled  Ireland  for  thirty,  instead  of  three 
years,  and  we  see  how  agreeable  to  reason 
as  well  as  history. 

The  son  of  Art,  bred  up  in  the  school  of 
adversity,  the  sure  seat  of  wisdom,  to  the 
ambition  of  filling  the  throne  of  his  ances- 
tors, had  the  more  laudable  one  of  wishing 
to  merit  it.  From  the  Uterati  he  informed 
himself  of  every  thing  necessary  to  form 
the  gentleman  and  the  scholar.  Under 
the  Druids  he  studied  the  religion  of  his 
ancestors  ;  and  so  profoundly  as  to  become 
sensible  of  the  absurdity  and  imposition  of 
the  whole.  He  studied  the  art  of  war 
under  the  great  Goll  Mac  Momi ;  and 
was  so  expert  in  the  use  of  arms,  that  he 
was  looked  upon  as  among  the  first  heroes 
of  Ireland  in  those  days  of  chivalry ;  and 
having  now  passed  the  age  of  twenty-five, 
(the  age  requisite  to  arrive  at  in  order  to 
fill  any  public  station,)  he  solicited  his 
friends  and  the  adherents  of  his  house,  to 
support  his  pretensions  to  the  monarchy,  in 
case  of  a  vacancy.  He  paid  a  visit  to  his 
cousin  Fiacha  Muilleathan,  King  of  Mun- 
ster,  at  his  palace  of  Rath-Naoi,  near 
Cashell,  now  called  Knoc-Raffin.  There 
was  something  striking  and  similar  in  the 
cases  of  these  two  young  princes.  Fiacha 
was  the  son  of  Eogan,  eldest  son  of  Olioll- 
Olum;  and  this  Eogan,  as  well  as  Art, 
was  killed  side  by  side  at  the  battle  of 
Muicruimhe :  it  was  within  a  few  days  of 
nine  months  after  this  battle,  and  on  the 
same  day,  that  these  young  princes  came 
into  the  world ;  so  that  Fiacha  could  not 
but  interest  himself  deeply  in  the  cause  of 
this  prince.  Add  to  this,  another  stimulus, 
the  desire  of  revenge,  which  it  must  be 
confessed,  had  but  too  great  a  weight  in 
all  the  Irish  councils.  From  Munster  he 
went  to  Connaught ;  and  was  soon  assured 
of  the  support  of  that  prince,  and  his  cele- 
brated military,  or  Clana  Momi. 

Mac  Con  was  well  informed  of  all  these 
measures,  and  studied  to  circumvent  them. 
After  settling  his  affairs  at  Tara,  he  pro- 
ceeded on  a  royal  tour  to  Munster,  to  so- 


A.D.  253,] 


HISTORY  OF 


IRELAND. 


117 


licit  the  support  of  Leath-Mogha;  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  this  journey  was  at- 
tended with  all  the  success  he  flattered 
himself  with.  On  his  return  through  Lein- 
ster  to  Tara,  as  he  was  one  day  distribu- 
ting gold  and  silver  from  his  chariot,  in  an 
open  plain,  to  the  poets,  antiquaries,  musi- 
cians, and  all  the  adulatory  tribe,  (which 
it  seems  was  a  custom  among  the  princes 
and  great  men  of  Ireland  on  certain  days,) 
an  assassin  (Comain  Eigis)  behind  his 
back  pierced  his  body  with  a  spear,  of 
which  wound  he  instantly  died,  after  a 
reign  of  thirty  years. 

What  Posidonius  says  of  the  custom  of 
distributing  gold  among  the  Celtae,  is  re- 
markable ;  he  tells  us — "  that  Luemus,  a 
Celtic  prince,  throwing  gold  and  silver 
from  his  chariot,  as  was  his  custom,  one 
of  the  bards  cried  out  that  'the  ground 
over  which  his  chariot  passed  instantly 
produced  gold  and  precious  gifts,  to  enrich 
mankind.' "  Our  writers  notice  the  power 
of  Lughaidh  in  Gaul,  where  he  remained 
for  many  years.  Now  this  name  is  by  us 
pronounced  Lua,  the  h  destroying  the 
sound  of  the  g  and  the  d ;  and  the  word 
Emus,  or  Erin,  evidently  denotes  Ireland ; 
so  that  there  is  something  more  than  bare 
probability  that  the  Luemus  of  Posidonius 
was  our  very  Lughaidh,  sumamed  Mac 
Con. 

The  estates  were  immediately  convened 
at  Tara,  to  elect  a  successor ;  and  Cormoc 
publicly  solicited  the  suffrages  of  the  prin- 
ces of  Ulster,  preparing  for  them  a  mag- 
nificent entertainment  (for  it  appears  that 
good  eating  and  drinking  was  not  without 
its  influence  in  those  days,  any  more  than 
in  the  present  times ;)  but  in  the  height  of 
jollity  and  good-humour,  it  was  so  con- 
trived by  Feargus,  King  of  Ulster,  who 
also  aspired  to  the  monarchy,  that  the  beard 
and  hair  of  Cormoc  were  set  fire  to,  and 
he  immediately  retired  in  the  highest  con- 
sternation. 

To  explain  this  matter,  it  is  necessary 
to  remark,  that  not  only  every  prince,  but 
even  every  knight  of  Ireland,  was  obliged 
to  be  perfect  in  all  his  limbs,  so  that  his 
very    person    might    command    respect. 


Their  hair  was  a  principal  ornament  to 
both.  To  cut  off  the  hair  of  an  adversary, 
was  a  mark  of  the  highest  contempt ;  nor 
dared  he  appear  abroad  with  such  a  mark 
of  infamy.  Of  this  our  annals  furnish  a, 
striking  instance  in  the  case  of  CucuUin, 
a  champion  of  the  Craobh-ruadh,  antece- 
dent to  Christianity.  He  and  the  famous 
Conrigh  Mac  Daire,chief  of  the  knights  of 
Munster,  having  a  violent  contest  about  a 
fair  captive,  agreed  to  decide  it  by  the 
sword.  They  met  at  the  place  of  appoint- 
ment ;  and  Conrigh  proving  the  victor,  as 
a  mark  of  greater  reproach  to  his  antago- 
nist, who  had  broken  his  word  to  him,  he 
cut  off  his  hair.  In  this  situation  CucuUin 
remained  hid  from  the  world  for  near 
twelve  months,  at  which  time  he  recovered 
his  hair.  Thus,  in  the  present  case,  by  this 
piece  of  refined  policy,  Cormoc  was  dis- 
abled from  appearing  as  a  candidate  on 
the  day  of  election,  and  Feargus  was  chosen 
monarch,  having  no  competitor. 

Feargus,  the  great-grandson  of  Fiathach, 
for  this  branch  of  the  Heremonians  were 
called  Dal-Fiatachs,  of  the  same  line  with 
the  Deaghaidhs  of  Munster,  was  proclaimed 
monarch.  We  have  observed  in  the  reign 
of  Conaire  II.,  that  by  his  address  he  had 
Ogaman,  grandfather  to  this  present  em- 
peror, elected  King  of  Ulster,  in  exclusion 
of  the  house  of  Ir  ;  and  by  this  means  got 
the  patrimony  of  his  ancestors  about  Loch- 
Erne  restored,  and  the  present  county  of 
Antrim  conferred  on  his  son  Cabre,  or 
Eochaidh,  called  Rida,  which  name  he  gave 
to  this  place,  and  which  it  retains  at  this 
day,  under  the  contracted  name  of  the 
Route. 

As  soon  as  Cormoc  had  by  time  repaired 
the  above  disgrace,  he  solicited  all  his 
friends  in  his  cause.  He  reminded  his 
cousin  Fiacha  of  his  promise,  whom  he 
found  ready  to  fulfil  it.  He  waited  on 
Tiege,  the  son  of  Cian,  the  son  of  OlioU- 
Olum,  to  whom,  by  will,  OlioU  had  left 
large  possessions  in  Ely  and  Oi-mond ;  and 
from  whom  all  the  Milesian  families  of  that 
country  are  descended.  As  Tiege  was  an 
able  general,  and  had  always  a  select  body 
of  resolute  troops  ready  on  any  emergency, 


118 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  254. 


the  better  to  secure  him  to  his  interest,  he 
appointed  him  his  commander-in-chief;  and 
besides  promised  him  large  possessions  in 
Leinster,  in  case  of  success;  To  insure 
this,  Tiege  applied  to  his  grand-uncle,  the 
famous  Lugha-Leagha,  yet  alive,  the  most 
intrepid  champion  of  those  days,  to  assist 
Cormoc  on  this  occasion.  He  represented 
to  him  that  through  his  means  this  young 
prince  was  reduced  to  his  present  humilia- 
ting state,  (he  having  killed  his  father  Art 
at  the  battle  of  Muicruimhe ;)  and  that  as 
some  atonement  for  this  injury,  he  should 
now  support  him.  This  Luagha  not  only 
promised,  but  vowed  to  cut  off  the  head 
of  his  adversary  Feargus,  in  revenge  for 
the  death  of  his  nephew  Cian,  slain  by  him 
in  the  battle  of  Samhna,  some  time  before. 
At  the  head  of  a  very  powerful  army 
(composed,  it  is  said,  of  fifty  thousand  men, 
under  thirty  princes,  and  fifty  great  chief- 
tains,) Cormoc  invaded  Leinster ;  nor  was 
Feargus  behind-hand  in  his  preparations  to 
receive  him.  We  have  yet  extant  the  re- 
lation of  this  bloody  and  decisive  battle, 
called  Catha-Criona,  or  the  battle  of  Criona, 
in  Meath,  where  it  was  fought.  The  en- 
gagement was  fierce  and  bloody ;  but  while 
the  heroes  and  knights  on  both  sides  were 
engaged  hand  to  hand,  Lugha  only  looked 
for  enemies  worthy  his  sword  and  his 
courage.  He  first  engaged  in  single  com- 
bat, Feargus,  called  Folt-Eabhair,  or  the 
Long  Hair,  brother  to  the  reigning  mon- 
arch, whom  he  slew,  and  then  cut  off  his 
head.  His  next  brother,  called  also  Fear- 
gus, surnamedChaisfhiaclach,or  the  Crook- 
ed Teeth,  advanced  to  meet  our  hero,  and 
soon  shared  the  same  fate.  He  now  eagerly 
sought  the  monarch  himself,  whom  he  knew 
by  his  standard,  engaged  and  killed  him 
also.  The  Ultonians  and  their  allies  still 
obstinately  maintained  the  fight ;  and  though 
obliged  to  give  way  to  the  superior  disci- 
pline of  their  antagonists,  yet  they  rallied 
seven  different  times ;  nor  was  the  fate  of 
the  day  certain,  till  the  gallant  Tiege  him- 
self, at  the  head  of  a  select  body  of  troops, 
who  had  not  yet  engaged,  rushed  into  the 
battle  ;  by  which  means  they  were  com- 
pletely broken,  and  their  scattered  remains 


were  pursued  for  many  miles.  Tiege  him- 
self was  grievously  wounded,  and  obliged 
to  be  carried  in  his  chariot  to  Tara,  where 
he  languished  for  a  long  time  in  great  mis- 
ery, the  surgeons  there  not  affording  him 
any  relief.  There  was  a  famous  medical 
university  at  that  time  in  Munster,  and 
thither  Tiege  sent  for  the  celebrated  pro- 
fessor Finighin,  called  Feath-glic,  or  the 
Learned  and  Dexterous,  and  his  three  Dal- 
tadhs,  or  eleves,  who  soon  relieved  and 
cured  him.  There  is  yet  extant,  in  the 
Book  of  Lecan,  a  poem  in  praise  of  the 
superior  abilities  of  this  surgeon,  and  of  his 
eleves,  to  those  of  all  their  contemporaries. 


CHAPTER    IL 

Cormoc  proclaimed  monarch — Remarkable  dream 
of  Cormoc's  mother — Makes  some  reformations 
in  the  national  code,  etc.,  in  a  convention  of  the 
states  at  Tara — Enlarges  the  palace  of  Tara,  etc. 
— The  splendour  of  his  court — Founds  new 
academies  at  Tara — Revenges  the  murder  of  the 
vestals  at  Tara,  and  imposes  an  annual  tribute  on 
the  Lagenians — Ravages  the  coasts  of  Britain  and 
Gaul — His  son  slain  in  his  presence  by  Aongus ; 
whom  he  obliges  to  fly,  and  is  protected  by  the 
King  of  Leath-Mogha  :  against  whom  Cormoc 
wages  war,  but  is  defeated. 

The  victorious  Cormoc  claimed  the 
throne  of  Ireland  as  his  due  by  succession 
and  by  conquest,  and  was  accordingly  pro- 
claimed monarch  with  great  pomp.  He 
was  the  son  of  Art,  the  son  of  Con,  the  son 
of  Feidhlimidh,  the  sonof  Tuathal,  the  son 
of  Fiachadh,  the  son  of  Fearidhach,  the  son 
of  Croimthan,  (all  monarchs  of  Ireland,)  of 
the  race  of  Heremon.  His  first  act  was 
a  donation  of  lands  in  Leinster  to  his  gen- 
eral Tiege ;  and  from  this  branch  of  the 
line  of  Heber  arose  many  great  families  in 
Leinster  andConnaught,  as  CHarajO'Gara, 
O'Connor,  Kineachta,  etc. 

There  is  a  passage  related  in  the  Catha- 
Muicruimhe,  which  I  think  should  not  be 
passed  by  unnoticed.  Joseph  relates  his 
dreams  to  his  brethren  ;*  and  he  explains 
those  of  Pharaoh's  servants,f  as  well  as 
those  of  Pharaoh  himself.  J  Grave  writers 
have  not  forgot  the  dream  of  Calphumia, 

*  Genesis,  chap,  xxxvii.  t  Ibid,  chap.  xl. 

t  Ibid,  chap.  xU.       ., 


A.D.  254.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


319 


the  night  previous  to  the  murder  of  Ceesar; 
and  Artimidorus  makes  Apollo  himself  the 
patron  of  dreams — by  the  bye,  no  very 
honourable  employ  for  the  god  of  wit  and 
day.  In  Ireland  the  explanation  of  dreams 
was  a  part  of  Druid  theology.  The  night 
before  this  fatal  battle,  the  mother  of  Cor- 
moc,  whom  we  may  suppose  was  not  much 
composed,  awoke  in  great  terror,  which 
Art  perceiving,  insisted  upon  knowing  the 
cause,  observing,  that  if  it  was  a  dream 
that  boded  ill  to  him,  it  was  more  proper 
that  he  himself  should  know  it  than  others. 
"  Methought  (said  she)  my  head  was  taken 
off,  and  from  my  neck  sprung  up  a  large 
tree,  whose  extended  branches  covered  the 
kingdom.  This  tree  was  destroyed  by  a 
swelling  sea;  but  from  its  roots  arose 
another,  larger,  and  more  flourishing  than 
the  former,  which  was  withered  by  the 
blasts  of  a  westerly  wind."  Art,  who  was 
versed  in  the  mysteries  of  the  Druids,  ex- 
plained the  dream  thus :  "  Your  head  being 
cut  off,  (said  he,)  denotes  my  death  at  the 
battle  to-morrow ;  for  the  head  of  every 
woman  is  her  husband.  The  tree  that 
arose  from  your  neck  imports  that  you  will 
bear  a  son  for  me  after  my  death,  who  will 
arrive  at  great  power  and  dignity,  and  rule 
Ireland :  this  tree's  being  carried  away  by 
the  sea,  signifies  the  loss  of  his  life  through 
the  means  of  that  element.  The  second 
tree,  proceeding  from  the  roots  of  the 
former,  and  still  more  flourishing,  foretells 
a  successor  to  him,  who  will  arrive  at  still 
greater  power ;  but  the  tree's  being  de- 
stroyed by  a  westerly  wind,  declares  he 
will  fall  by  the  hands  of  the  Fiana-Eirion. 
But  they  themselves  will  be  also  destroyed 
in  that  battle,  never  after  to  arise  ! 

It  is  pretty  remarkable  that  this  predic- 
tion was  fulfilled  in  every  part.  Art  next 
morning,  singled  out  by  Lugha-Leaga,  had 
his  head  taken  off  by  this  champion.  His 
son  Cormoc,  as  we  have  seen,  after  strug- 
gling with  many  difiiculties,  arrived  at  the 
monarchy,  and  lost  his  life  by  the  bone 
of  a  salmon  crossing  the  oesophagus,  while 
at  dinner.  His  son  Carbre  was  also 
monarch  of  Ireland,  and  lost  his  life  in  the 
battle  of  Gabhra,  at  which  time  his  oppo- 


nents the  Fiana-Eirion  were  also  totally 
cut  off. 

Cormoc,  now  in  peaceable  possession  of 
the  throne,  had  every  opportunity  of  dis- 
playing his  great  abilities.  The  greatest 
prmces  of  ancient  Ireland  began  their  refor- 
mations in  the  state  with  the  literati.  He 
convened  the  states  at  Tara,  where  every 
necessary  alteration  and  amendment  found 
wanting  in  the  national  code  was  made. 
The  history  and  antiquities  of  the  kingdom 
underwent  a  severe  scrutiny ;  and  the 
chief  Druids  were  directed  to  examine  the 
state  of  religion.  Hence  in  old  writings 
we  find  him  proclaimed,  "  Budh  righ,  dudh 
phaidh,  budh  file :  budh  e  cean  a  caoimh- 
fine :  i.  e.  He  was  the  king,  the  divine, 
and  the  philosopher :  he  was  the  noble 
chief  of  the  military." 

The  palace  of  Tara  he  enlarged  ;  and 
Miodh-Cuarta,  where  the  king  and  estates 
met,  and  where  foreign  ambassadors  were 
received  and  entertained,  he  highly  deco- 
rated. On  his  side-board,  on  public  festi- 
vals, were  displayed  one  hundred  and  fifty 
cups  of  massy  gold  and  silver ;  one  hundred 
and  fifty  of  the  Clana-Morni,  or  Connaught 
knights,  constantly  attended  on  his  person ; 
and  one  thousand  and  fifty  soldiers  mounted 
guard  every  day  on  all  the  approaches  to 
the  palace,  which  were  five,  to  point  out  to 
the  public  with  greater  dignity  where  the 
monarch  resided.  Besides  his  state  bed 
were  one  hundred  and  fifty  beds,  in  the 
apartments  of  the  palace  only,  to  lodge  such 
as  were  in  immediate  attendance.  An 
open  table  was  constantly  kept  for  fifteen 
hundred  persons ;  and  he  regulated  the 
great  officers  of  his  court,  and  determined 
their  number,  which  was  invariably  con- 
tinued to  the  dissolution  of  the  monarchy 
in  the  twelfth  century :  these  were  first,  a 
prince  of  the  blood  for  a  companion;  se- 
condly, a  chief  judge  to  consult  in  all  critical 
cases  ;  thirdly,  a  chief  Druid,  to  direct  his 
conscience  ;  fourthly,  a  chief  physician,  to 
superintend  his  health  ;  fifthly,  an  antiqua- 
rian, to  consult  in  points  of  history  and 
chronology ;  sixthly,  a  poet,  to  rehearse 
his  praises,  and  those  of  his  ancestors ; 
seventhly,  a  chief  musician  with  his  band, 


120 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  259. 


in  times  of  relaxation ;  and  three  stewards 
of  his  household,  to  see  the  contributions 
from  the  different  provinces  paid  in,  and  to 
superintend  the  economy  of  his  household. 
He  also  added  three  new  foundations  to 
these  already  established  at  Tara.  The 
first,  a  military  academy,  for  instructing 
the  young  nobility  in  feats  of  arms;  the 
second,  an  historic  one,  were  oUamhs,  or 
doctors  in  history,  assembled  from  time  to 
time,  to  examine  the  public  records ;  and 
the  third,  an  academy  for  lawyers  to  meet 
in,  to  superintend,  explain,  and  make  law 
and  justice  compatible — an  object  much  to 
be  wished  for  at  this  day.  Of  all  these 
regulations,  and  of  the  magnificence  of 
Cormoc  and  of  his  court,  we  have  yet  pre- 
served a  poem  of  old  Duvegan's  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty-three  verses,  beginning 
with — "  Teamhair  na  riogh,  rath  Cormoc : 
i.  e.  Royal  Tara,  the  palace  of  Cormoc." 

It  has  been  asserted,  that  from  the  histo- 
ric academy  of  Cormoc,  the  Psalter  of 
Tara  took  its  rise.  It  is,  however,  an 
error.  This  great  work  was  begun  in  the 
days  of  Ollamh-Fodhla,  and  continued  regu- 
larly from  age  to  age  ;  but  always  revised 
and  examined  with  uncommon  attention,  in 
the  most  brilliant  periods  of  our  history. 
It  is  certain,  that  in  the  present  reign,  the 
preceding  monarchs  of  Ireland  were  syn- 
chronized with  these  of  other  ancient  coun- 
tries, as  the  Assyrian,  Egyptian,  Jewish, 
and  Roman  emperors,  examples  of  which, 
taken  from  this  Psalter,  may  be  seen  in  the 
first  book  of  Lecan. 

But  internal  reformation  and  attention  to 
the  fine  arts  were  but  a  part  of  the  views 
of  Cormoc.  He  well  knew  that  foreign 
wars  could  only  be  successful,  by  establish- 
ing domestic  tranquillity.  In  times  of  Pa- 
ganism, we  find  in  Ireland  females  devo- 
ted to  celibacy.  There  was  in  Tara  a 
royal  foundation  of  this  kind,  wherein  none 
were  admitted  but  virgins  of  the  noblest 
blood.  It  was  called  Cluain-Feart,  or  the 
place  of  retirement  till  death,  from  cluan 
and  feart^  a  grave  ;  as  they  never  quitted 
the  precincts  of  the  house  from  their  first 
reception.  The  duty  of  these  virgins,  was, 
to  keep  up  constantly  the  fires  of  Bel,  or 


the  sun,  and  of  Samhain,  or  the  moon, 
which  customs  they  borrowed  from  their 
Phoenician  ancestors.  During  the  contests 
between  Cormoc  and  Feargus,  Dunling,  the 
son  of  Endeus,  with  a  number  of  wretches 
equally  abandoned,  broke  into  this  retreat, 
where  were  thirty  professed  vestals ;  and 
not  being  able  to  violate  them,  basely  put 
them  all  to  the  sword.  This  sacrilege  of 
the  Lagenian  prince,  gave  great  scandal 
to  the  kingdom,  which  Cormoc  severely 
punished,  by  putting  him  to  the  sword, 
with  twelve  of  his  principal  associates. 
He  also,  during  his  life,  obliged  their  suc- 
cessors to  send  to  Tara,  every  year,  thirty 
white  cows,  with  calves  of  the  same  colour. 
Thirty  brass  collars  for  these  cows,  and 
thirty  chains  of  the  same  metal,  to  keep 
them  quiet  while  milking.  This  object 
gained,  he  fitted  out  a  very  large  navy, 
with  which  for  three  years  he  scoured  the 
coasts  of  Britain  and  Gaul,  making  descents 
from  time  to  time,  raising  contributions, 
and  encouraging  the  natives  to  unite  against 
Rome.  What  further  designs  he  might 
have  formed,  we  are  not  told  ;  but  we 
soon  find  that  intestine  commotions  de- 
manded all  his  power  and  authority  to  be 
exerted  at  home. 

About  this  period,  one  of  Cormoc's  fa- 
vourites, a  person  of  great  authority,  fell 
under  the  displeasure  of  the  monarch ;  for 
what  crime  we  are  not  informed.  Great 
interest  and  application  was  made  to  have 
him  restored  to  his  master's  favour,  but 
without  success.  At  length  Aongus,  one 
of  the  sons  of  Fiachadh-Suidhe,  brother  to 
Con,  grandfather  to  the  present  monarch, 
became  an  intercessor.  This  Con  had  two 
brothers,  the  above  Fiachadh,  and  Eochadh- 
Fion.  Fiachadh  had  large  possessions 
about  Tara,  known  by  the  name  of  Deasie- 
Tamharach,  to  which  his  sons,  Aongus, 
Rosa,  and  Eogan  succeeded.  Eochaidh 
acquired  large  possessions  in  Leinster.  But 
to  return ;  through  the  influence  of  Aongus, 
the  culprit's  pardon  was  procured ;  he  was 
admitted  into  the  monarch's  presence,  and 
well  received.  But  Ceallach,  a  son  of  Cor- 
moc's, who  had  a  particular  enniity  to 
this  person,  on  his  return  from  court,  had 


.-^■ 


A.  D.  259.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


m" 


him  seized,  and  his  eyes  put  out,  notwith- 
standing the  pardon  granted.  Aongus, 
enraged  at  this  act  of  perfidy,  with  a  body 
of  select  friends,  suddenly  marched  to  Tsira, 
upbraided  the  young  prince  for  his  inhu- 
manity and  baseness,  and  in  the  presence 
of  Cormoc  killed  him. 

The  monarch,  highly  enraged,  raised  a 
mighty  army,  vowing  vengeance  on  Aon- 
gus, and  on  his  family.  He  attacked  and 
defeated  his  forces,  and  compelled  them 
all  to  fly  Tara.  They  applied  to  the  King 
of  Leinster  for  refuge,  which  he  dared  not 
grant  They  then  retired  to  Ossory ;  but 
this  was  still  too  near  Tara.  They  then 
waited  on  Fiacha,  King  of  Leath-Mogha, 
who  received  them  with  great  humanity, 
and  assigned  them  lands  in  the  county  of 
Waterford,  which,  from  their  former  pos- 
sessions, ever  after  went  by  the  name  of 
the  Deasies.  The  CFealans,  the  posterity  of 
these  princes,  were  lords  of  this  country  till 
the  landing  of  Henry  II.,  when  they  were 
dispossessed  by  the  Le  Poers,  or  Powers. 

To  protect  the  murderers  of  his  son,  was 
in  fact  to  wage  war  with  the  monarch. 
Cormoc  collected  all  the  forces  of  Leath- 
Cuin  to  engage  the  Mamonians.  His 
family  was  very  numerous ;  he  had  two 
sons  besides  the  deceased,  and  ten  daugh- 
ters. The  splendour  of  his  court  far  exceed- 
ing any  thing  seen  before  in  Ireland,  and 
the  expenses  of  these  children  and  their 
retinues  put  him  under  great  necessity;  he 
therefore  gladly  embraced  this  opportunity 
to  oblige  the  Mamonians  to  pay  him  con- 
tributions. By  the  partition  treaty  be- 
tween Heber  and  Heremon,  and  by  the 
latter  one  between  Con  and  Eogan,  King 
of  Munster,  as  well  as  one  of  a  later  date, 
between  the  said  Con  and  Mac  Neid,  the 
successors  to  Eogan,  the  absolute  indepen- 
dence of  Leath-Megha  was  acknowledged 
in  the  fullest  manner.  Princes  never 
want  pretences  to  enforce  what  they  de- 
sire. The  people  of  Leath-Cuin  no  doubt 
thought  it  very  hard  that  they  only  were 
obliged  to  pay  tribute  to  the  monarch,  and 
readily  came  into  his  views.  With  a  well- 
appointed  army  Cormoc  suddenly  invaded 
Munster,  and  reached  as  far  as  Druim-dab- 

16 


haire,  now  Knoc-Long,  in  the  county  of 
Limerick,  where  he  fixed  his  camp.  The 
Mamonians  were  not  in  the  meantime  idle. 
Fiacha-Muilleathan  collected  all  his  troops, 
and  formed  his  camp  at  some  distance  firom 
that  of  the  monarch.  We  are  disgusted 
with  the  superstition  of  those  times.  Cor- 
moc having  a  fine  country  behind  him,  cut 
off  the.  supplies  and  provisions  coming  to 
the  enemy's  camp,  and  the  weather  being 
dry,  -water  became  very  scarce  among 
them.  We  are  told  that  all  these  misfor- 
tunes proceeded  from  the  incantations  and 
magic  spells  of  Cormoc's  Druids  ;  and 
that  in  this  exigency,  to  supply  his  army 
and  cattle  with  fresh  water,  Fiacha  gave 
to  a  famous  Druid,  jfrom  Kerry,  large  pos- 
sessions in  the  county  of  Cork.  This  he 
effected  by  causing  deep  pits  to  be  cut  in 
certain  places,  where  plenty  of  water  was 
found.  In  our  own  times  people  have  been 
found,  both  in  England  and  Ireland,  who 
by  close  remarks  could  to  a  certainty  direct 
where  to  dig  for  water.  Such  was  this 
famous  Druid  Modharuith's  prescience,  and 
no  more. 

The  Mamonian  army  being  refreshed, 
attacked  the  monarch  in  his  intrenchments, 
and,  after  a  gallant  resistance,  compelled 
him  to  quit  the  field.  The  armies  of  the 
Irish  never  dispersed  till  their  chiefs  were 
slain.  The  imperial  army  rather  retreated 
than  ran;  and  it  became  a  constant  scene 
of  contention  between  one  part  or  another 
of  the  two  armies,  till  they  reached  Ossory. 
Here  Cormoc,  closely  pressed,  was  obliged 
to  capitulate.  By  this  agreement  he  en- 
gaged to  make  good  to  the  people  of  Mun- 
ster whatever  losses  they  had  suffered  by 
this  invasion ;  and  for  the  performance  of 
this  covenant  he  gave  as  hostages  some  of 
his- principal  nobility.  He  also  solemnly 
renounced  for  himself,  and  for  his  succes- 
sors, monarchs  of  Ireland,  every  pretence 
or  demand  whatever  of  chiefrie  over  the 
kings  of  Leath-Mogha,  and  he  called  on  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  to  attest  it.  Cormoc, 
sensibly  mortified  at  this  great  disappoint- 
ment to  his  schemes,  vowed  revenge  on  his 
former  benefactor  Fiacha,  and  gratified  it, 
but  in  a  very  dishonourable  mannes. 


123 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  259. 


Conla,  the  son  of  Tiege,  his  old  general, 
was  bred  up  at  the  court  of  Tara,  and  in 
great  favour  with  the  monarch.  He  was 
afflicted  with  a  violent  scurvy,  which  baf- 
fled the  force  of  physic.  Cormoc,  who, 
as  already  observed,  was  deeply  versed  in 
Druidism,  told  him  in  great  confidence, 
that  after  exerting  his  utmost  knowledge, 
he  found  his  disorder  irremediable,  unless 
he  could  wash  himself  all  over  in  the  blood 
of  a  king ;  and  most  probably  pointed  out 
to  him  who  he  was.  But  be  this  as  it 
may,  Conla  repaired  to  the  court  of  Mun- 
ster,  where  he  was  graciously  received  by 
his  cousin  Fiacha.  One  day,  we  are  told, 
this  prince  bathing  and  Conla  looking  on, 
he  recollected  the  prediction  of  Cormoc, 
and  instantly  launched  his  spear  at  him. 
The  wound  proved  mortal,  and  the  regi- 
cide was  instantly  siezed ;  but  the  expiring 
prince  had  life  enough  left  to  order  his 
people  to  spare  and  forgive  the  unhappy 
wretch.  The  story  is  told  as  the  mere 
effect  of  Druidism  ;  but  Cormoc,  who  had 
sense  enough  to  see  into  the  imposture  of 
this  worship,  and  if  not  a  Theist,  certainly 
died  a  Christian,  I  suppose  had  also  cunning 
enough  to  make  it  subservient  to  his  own 
designs.  This  apology  I  thought  neces- 
sary, as  I  have  no  authority  for  explaining 
this  story  in  the  manner  I  have,  and  so 
much  to  the  dishonour  of  Cormoc. 

A  principal  object  of  Irish  history  was 
to  commemorate  the  actions  of  great  fam- 
ilies, and  to  pursue  them  to  their  new  set- 
tlements. This  makes  it  necessary  to  give 
some  account  of  Eochaidh-Fionn,  grand- 
uncle  to  the  present  prince.  His  preceptor 
was  Laighseach-Ceandmar,  a  descendant 
of  the  renowned  Connal-Ceamach,  of  the 
race  of  Ir.  In  the  reign  of  his  nephew  Art, 
Cuchorb,  King  of  Leinster,  was  redufced 
to  great  distresses  by  the  Mamonians.  He 
applied  to  Eochaidh,  who  was  a  powerful 
chief,  for  assistance,  and  he  promised  to 
Laighseach,  his  Dalta,  a  large  reward, 
provided  he  seconded  his  applications. 
Through  the  persuasions  of  this  preceptor, 
Eochaidh  raised  a  large  army — the  Leab- 
har-Lecan  says,  no  less  than  seven  cathas, 
or  twenty-one  thousand  men — Laighseach 


being  also  a  Mac  Fine,  and  himself  a  great 
warrior,  attended  the  campaign.  At  Ath- 
trodan,  or  Athy,  the  two  armies  engaged, 
and,  after  a  bloody  conflict,  the  Mamonians 
gave  way.  In  crossing  the  Barrow  they 
were  again  attacked  by  the  Leinster 
troops,  and  here  Eochaidh  lost  both  a  son 
and  a  grandson.  In  Leix  they  sustained  a 
third  furious  attack,  and  at  Ossory  they 
were  entirely  broken.  Cuchorb,  now  re- 
instated in  his  dominions,  generously  re- 
warded his  new  allies.  On  Eochaidh,  and 
on  his  posterity,  he  settled  the  seven  Foth- 
ortuaths,  from  a  surname  of  this  prince  so 
called,  in  the  county  of  Wexford.  The 
third  Book  of  Lecan  is  minute  in  its  account 
of  the  descendants  of  this  Eochaidh — from 
him  proceeded  the  O'Duns,  O'Locheins, 
and  O'Comains,  the  O'Dermods,  O'Meath- 
us,  O'Luigneach,  etc.  The  O'Nuallans 
were  the  chiefs  of  this  stock  for  many  gen- 
erations. 

Laigseach,  who  was  general  in  this  ex- 
pedition, and  to  whose  conduct  and  bra- 
very the  defeat  of  the  Mamonians  was  in  a 
great  measure  attributed,  was  rewarded 
with  the  country,  after  him  called  Leis, 
or  the  present  Queen's  County:  he  and 
his  successors  were  by  patent  declared 
hereditary  treasurers  of  Leinster;  they 
were  to  be  of  the  privy-council,  and  to 
have  the  fourth  seat  next  the  king.  Seven 
out  of  this  line  were  always  to  be  a  part 
of  the  king's  body-guard ;  but  the  chief  of 
Leis  was  always  to  support  one  hundred 
and  fifty  select  men  for  the  king,  who  were 
to  have  the  honour  of  leading  on  every 
attack,  and  of  forming  the  rear  in  every 
retreat.  Of  this  sept,  says  the  Book  of 
Lecan,  are  the  Clan  Flanigan,  Clan  Eilge, 
(probably  Echlins,)  etc.,  also  O'Maoilfinan, 
O'Kinan,  O'Ruadin;  but  the  hereditary 
chief  was  O'Moora.  CMoore,  of  Bal- 
lyna,  in  the  county  of  Kildare,  is  the  pres- 
ent representative  of  this  most  illustrious 
branch  of  the  line  of  Ir ;  and  the  remark- 
able building  near  Maryborough,  in  the 
Queen's  County,  vulgarly  called  Duna- 
mase,  was  originally  constructed  by  this 
hero,  and  from  him  called  Dun  ui  Laigh- 
seach, or  the  fortress  of  Laighseach. 


A.D.  259.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


129 


The  Annals  of  Tighemach  tells  us,  that 
during  the  reign  of  Cormoc,  no  less  than 
thirty-six  battles  were  fought.  The  distress 
which  the  Munster  invasion  involved  him 
in,  compelled  Cormoc  to  have  the  Boreim- 
he-Laighean,  or  the  Leinster  tribute,  paid 
in  to  him ;  but  this  was  not  sufficient ;  new 
methods  must  be  devised.  The  grandson 
of  his  old  ally,  Connal  Cruachan,  succeed- 
ed to  the  throne  of  Connaught.  Him,  on 
some  pretence,  he  put  under  the  ban  of  the 
empire,  invaded  his  territories,  and,  after 
defeating  him  in  battle,  deposed  him,  and 
in  his  place  substituted  his  half-brother 
Lugna.  But  he  being  some  time  after  cut 
off  by  Aidhe,  Cormoc  again  entered  Con- 
naught  with  sword  and  fire,  destroying 
the  Damnonii  wherever  they  were  to  be 
found,  and  fixed  Niamhor,  brother  to  the 
deceased,  on  the  throne.  Thus  ended,  ex- 
cept in  two  instances  more,  the  power  of 
the  Damnonii  in  Connaught,  after  govern- 
ing the  entire  kingdom  for  one  hundred 
and  ninety-five  years,  and  giving  princes 
to  Connaught  for  no  less  a  space  than  one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  forty  years. 
In  this  last  invasion  of  Connaught  it  must 
be  that  Cormoc  lost  an  eye. 

It  is  singular  enough  that  Cormoc,  not- 
withstanding the  many  improvements  he 
made  in  the  police  of  Ireland ;  notwith- 
standing his  reducing  Connaught  into  an 
Irish  province,  and  transferring  in  a  man- 
ner the  crown  of  it  from  the  Damnonii  to 
his  own  family,  etc.,  yet  still,  by  the  loss  of 
an  eye,  though  in  the  cause  of  his  country, 
he  was  judged  unworthy  of  sovereign  au- 
thority, and  obliged  to  make  a  surrender 
of  the  crown.  His  son  too,  wanting  a 
short  time  of  that  age  which  the  Irish  laws 
judged  necessary  for  government,  was  on 
this  occasion  laid  aside.  But  it  was  not 
enough  that  an  Irish  monarch  should  be  of 
the  blood-royal,  of  the  equestrian  order, 
and  of  proper  age,  he  must  also  be  perfect 
in  all  his  corporeal,  as  well  as  mental  fac- 
ulties, otherwise  he  was  deemed  unworthy 
of  rule.  Yet,  even  in  his  private  capacity, 
if  we  pursue  him,  we  shall  find  Cormoc 
nobly  support  the  dignity  of  the  man,  as 
he  did,  in  his  public  one,  that  of  the  king. 


In  his  retreat  it  was  that  he  is  said  to  have 
wrdte,  with  his  own  hand,  a  copy  of  the 
Psalter  of  Tara.  He  also  supervised  a 
Treatise  on  the  Laws,  and  on  the  Obe- 
dience due  to  Princes,  which  was  wrote 
by  Fiatach.  When  his  son  Carbre  was 
called  to  the  throne,  he  wrote  for  his  par- 
ticular use,  Teagarg  Righ,  or  Advice  to  a 
King.  It  is  by  way  of  dialogue,  in  which 
he  considers  the  duty  of  a  king  as  a  legis- 
lator, a  soldier, a  statesman,  and  a  scholar; 
he  treats  of  the  laws  of  poets,  philosophers, 
antiquarians,  and  Druids.  This  work  has 
been  preserved  entire  in  CVDuvegan's 
book,  a  copy  of  which  i  have. 

Besides  this  attention  to  letters  in  gene- 
ral, he  devoted  a  considerable  portion  of 
time  every  day  to  the  study  of  divinity. 
Aided  by  the  light  of  reason,  and  assisted 
by  some  pious  Christians — for  there  is  no 
doubt,  as  we  shall  show,  but  that  Chris- 
tianity made  some  progress  in  Ireland 
before  this  time — he  soon  became  con- 
vinced of  the  absurdity  of  Druidism,  and 
disclaimed  it.  That  he  died  a  Christian 
we  are  furnished  with  two  strong  proofs : 
first,  though  he  was  choked  by  a  bone  of 
a  salmon  sticking  across  the  oesophagus, 
which  could  not  be  pushed  either  up  or 
down,  yet  he  made  it  a  dying  request  not 
to  be  interred  in  Roilich  na  Riogh,  the 
royal  sepulchre,  as  he  wished  not  that  his 
ashes  should  mix  with  those  of  his  heathen 
ancestors:  secondly,  the  place  of  his  in- 
terment was,  near  three  centuries  after, 
sought  for  and  found  out  by  St.  Columba, 
who  said  thirty  masses  over  it,  and  a 
chapel  was  soon  after  erected  there.  It 
were  absurd  to  suppose  that  this  renowned 
apostle  of  the  Picts,  and  of  his  own  blood, 
would  celebrate  masses  for  the  soul  of 
Cormoc  if  it  were  not  well  known  that  he 
died  a  Christian.  Most  modems  affirm 
that  the  second  wife  of  Fion  Mac  Cubhal 
was  a  daughter  of  Cormoc.  This  seems 
a  manifest  anachronism :  Fion  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  generalship  of  the  militia  by 
Eogan,  A.  D.  173;  his  daughter  married 
Cormoc,  grandson  to  Eogan  ;  so  that  Fion 
was  a  very  old  man  in  the  reign  of  Cor- 
moc ;  and  had  a  connection  so  close  sub- 


124 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  279. 


sisted,  it  would  be  hard  to  account  for  his 
son  and  grandson's  uniting  with  Munster 
against  the  son  of  this  Cormoc,  as  we  shall 

0WV* 


CHAPTER  III. 

Eochaidh  Gonnadh  elected  monarch — Succeeded 
by  Carbre  Liffechaire — Assists  Carausius  against 
the  Romans  in  Britain — Is  defeated  by  the  La- 
genians — Account  of  the  origin  and  constitution 
of  the  Leinster  hereditary  militia,  destroyed  in 
this  reign. 

On  the  abdication  of  Cormoc  the  estates 
met  to  choose  a  successor ;  and  the  ma- 
jority of  voices  were  declared  to  be  in 
favour  of  Eochaidh  Gonnadh,  grandson  to 
the  monarch  Feargus,  of  the  Dal  Fiatach 
race,  and  line  of  Heremon,  who  was  slain 
after  a  short  reign  of  one  year. 

Cerbre,  the  son  of  the  deposed  monarch 
Cormoc,  having  now  attained  his  twenty- 
fifth  year,  was  unanimously  elected  mon- 
arch. As  his  father  got  the  epithet  Folt- 
Fhada,  or  the  Long  Hair,  to  commemorate 
his  first  disappointment,  so  the  son  was 
called  Liffechaire,  being  nursed  near  the 
Liffey.  A  story  is  related,  which,  as  it 
originated  from  the  present  prince,  though 
it  happened  in  the  reign  of  his  father,  we 
shall  introduce  it  here  ;  the  more  so  as  it 
conveys  useful  instruction. 

Among  the  number  of  learned  and  illus- 
trious personages  who  graced  the  court  of 
Cormoc,  was  his  chief-justice,  by  name 
Fiothill.  Deeply  versed  in  the  ways  of 
men  and  kings,  on  his  dying  bed  he  gave  a 
particular  charge  to  his  eldest  son  and 
successor  Flaithrighe,  and  on  whom  he  had 
bestowed  a  most  liberal  education,  carefully 
to  observe  the  four  following  maxims. 
First,  never  to  undertake  the  tuition  of  the 
son  of  a  king  :  secondly,  never  to  commu- 
nicate a  secret  of  importance  to  a  woman : 
thirdly,  not  to  be  instrumental  in  advancing 
a  person  of  low  birth  and  education  to  an 
exalted  station :  and  fourthly,  not  to  entrust 
the  management  of  his  affairs,  or  the  keep- 
ing of  his  money,  to  a  sister. 

The  young  lawyer,  though  he  much 
revered  his  father,  was  resolved  to  put  all 


these  maxims  to  a  trial.  He  therefore  un- 
dertook to  educate  the  young  Carbre,  not- 
withstanding his  father's  injunctions  to  the 
contrary.  When  about  four  years  old, 
Flaithrighe  had  the  child  conveyed  in  the 
most  private  manner  to  a  wood,  by  one  of 
his  fosterers,  there  to  be  concealed,  till  he 
sent  a  certain  token  agreed  on,  when,  and 
not  before,  the  child  was  to  be  produced. 
Having  thus  provided  for  the  child's  secu- 
rity, he  returned  home  exceedingly  dejected, 
which  his  wife  perceiving,  requested  to 
know  the  cause.  His  evasive  answers 
rather  inflamed  her  curiosity,  and  she  be- 
came more  importunate.  He  seemed  to 
relent ;  and  after  binding  her  to  the  most 
solemn  secrecy,  he  told  her,  that  he  had  had 
the  misfortune  to  kill  his  royal  pupil.  The 
poor  woman,  big  with  this  secret,  waited 
the  first  opportunity  of  displaying  her  pru- 
dence and  discretion.  Some  altercation 
arose  between  them  a  little  time  after. 
She  charged  him  highly  with  this  crime, 
had  him  bound  by  his  own  servants,  and 
delivered  up  to  the  proper  judges.  He  had 
already  by  his  interest,  promoted  the  son 
of  a  rustic  to  an  honourable  employment ; 
and  on  the  death  of  his  father,  entrusted 
his  sister  with  considerable  sums  of  money. 

The  death  of  the  young  prince  being 
proved  by  the  depositions  of  his  wife,  he 
was  condemned  to  die.  He  now  solicited 
the  interest  of  his  upstart  dependant,  who 
sought  only  how  to  destroy  the  fostering 
hand  that  protected  and  raised  him,  as  his 
existence  served  only  as  a  constant  me- 
mento of  the  meanness  of  his  own  extrac- 
tion, and  of  his  dependance.  Thus  disap- 
pointed he  applied  to  his  sister  for  a  sum 
of  money  to  raise  friends  among  the  cour- 
tiers ;  but  she  having  a  husband  in  view, 
denied  having  any  property  of  his  in  her 
hands,  and  refused  him  the  smallest  supply. 
Thus  circumstanced,  he  desired  to  be 
brought  before  the  monarch;  had  the  child 
produced  in  perfect  health  ;  and  explained 
to  Cormoc  the  injunction  which  his  dying 
father  laid  on  him,  and  the  means  he  used 
to  examine  the  truth  of  them. 

This  prince  Carbre  seemed  to  inherit  all 
the  virtues  of  his  father ;  like  him,  he  had 


A.  D.  279.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


125 


the  history  and  antiquities  of  his  country 
carefully  revised,  and  like  him  made  great 
reforms  in  the  laws,  and  even  wrote  him- 
self rules  for  decisions  in  certain  difficult 
cases,  which,  from  their  precision,  accuracy, 
and  justice,  got  the  title  of  Breithe-Nimhe, 
or  celestial  judgments !  But  circumscribed 
in  his  power,  as  the  Irish  monarchs  were, 
and  governing  a  warlike,  factious,  and  free 
people,  whatever  great  designs  he  might 
have  formed,  could  only  be  supported  by 
the  suffrages  of  chiefs,  who  had  their  own 
passions,  interests,  and  inclinations  to  grati- 
fv.  Such  as  it  was,  we  find  he  used  it  to 
the  best  purposes.  Thus  Carausius,  a  citi- 
zen of  Menassia,  (placed  by  some  in  Ger- 
many, but  by  the  opinions  of  Usher*  and 
Camden,f  in  Ireland,  Wexford-town  being 
so  called  by  Ptolemy,  the  geographer ;  and 
it  is  so  explained  in  the  notes  upon  the 
geographer  Dionysius,)  an  intrepid  soldier, 
and  highly  versed  in  maritime  affairs,  had 
raised  himself  by  his  exploits  so  much  in 
the  confidence  of  the  emperors  Diocletian 
and  Maximian,  that  he  was  appointed  to 
protect  the  Gallic  and  Belgic  coasts  from 
the  invasions  and  incursions  of  the  Saxons 
and  their  allies.  But  in  this  employment 
he  consulted  more  his  own  interest  than 
that  of  his  employers ;  whatever  spoils  he 
recovered  from  the  enemy,  reserving  to 
himself,  instead  of  restoring  them  to  the 
injured  proprietors.  On  repeated  com- 
plaints of  his  depredations  on  the  people  he 
was  appointed  to  protect,  he  was  declared 
an  enemy  to  the  empire,  and  judged  wor- 
thy of  death.  On  this  he  retired  to  Britain, 
bade  defiance  to  the  Roman  arms,  and,  by 
his  affability  and  generosity,  so  far  gained 
on  the  affections  of  the  people,  as  to  assume 
the  purple.  Here  he  justified  the  charac- 
ter given  him  by  Eutropius,  of  being  vir, 
rei  militaris  expertissimus,  defeating  the 
Roman  armies  sent  against  him,  and  call- 
ing in  (say  Roman  writers)  troops  of  Over- 
mans to  his  assistance.  But  it  is  clear  that 
these  auxiliaries  must  have  been  from  his 
own  country,  which  we  have  shown  was 
Ireland ;  and  should  further  doubts  arise 

*  Primord.  Eccles.  Britan.  p.  585. 
t  Britannia,  onder  the  title  of  Ireland. 


on  this  head,  his  very  name  becomes  an 
additional  proof  of  it ;  being,  like  the  epi- 
thet given  to  all  our  Irish  heroes,  expressive 
of  his  excellence — Carausius,  from  curadh, 
(pronounced  Cura,)  a  hero,  uas,  noble,  and 
cios,  tribute ;  all  which  united  pronounce 
Curasios,  the  other  letters  being  silent. 
We  miay  therefore  rest  assured,  that  an  en- 
terprising prince  like  Carbre,  gave  to  Cu- 
rasios every  assistance  in  his  power;  and 
it  had  this  effect,  that  the  Romans  were 
satisfied  to  let  him  peaceably  enjoy  his 
usurped  power,  rather  than,  by  pushing 
things  too  far,  to  hazard  the  entire  loss  of 
Britain.  Yet  we  see,  they  waited  impa- 
tiently to  cut  him  off;  which  was  at  length 
efiected  by  Alectus,  who  killed  him  some 
years  after. 

Besides  these  auxiliaries  sent  to  Britain, 
Carbre  had  many  wars  to  sustain  at  home. 
To  enforce  the  Leinster  tribute,  he  invaded 
that  province  with  a  large  army.  The 
Lagenians  met  him  at  Cnamhrois,  where  a 
bloody  battle  was  fought.  Carbre  was  de- 
feated "with  the  loss  of  three  of  his  sons, 
and  nine  thousand  chosen  men.  The  La- 
genian  poets  highly  boast  of  this  victory. 
In  his  reign  Eadh,  the  son  of  Garadh,  and 
the  last  of  the  Danaan  race,  succeeded 
Niamhor,  in  the  crown  of  Connaught ;  after 
which  it  became  the  property  of  the  pos- 
terity of  Carbre. 

As  it  was  in  this  reign  that  the  famous 
Fine-Eirion,  or  hereditary  militia  of  Lein- 
ster was  destroyed,  it  becomes  necessary 
to  explain  the  nature  of  this  most  formida- 
ble corps.  From  the  remotest  antiquity 
we  have  seen  the  military  order  distinguish- 
ed in  Ireland  ;  codes  of  military  laws  and 
discipline  established,  and  their  dress  and 
rank  in  the  state  ascertained.  The  learned 
Keating  and  others  tell  us,  that  these  mili- 
tia were  called  Fine,  from  Fion  Mac  Cub- 
hal,  but  it  is  certainly  a  great  error ;  the 
word  Jine  strictly  implying  a  military 
corps.  It  is  on  this  account,  that  in  the 
MSS.  long  before  the  present  era,  we  find 
the  word  fine  applied  to  any  body  of  sol- 
diery— ^thus  we  read  of  the  Fine-Fomharaig, 
or  African  legions,  the  Fine-Gall,  or  foreign 
troops,  etc.    Add  to  this,  that  in  the  Feis 


126 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.D.  279: 


Tighe  Canian,  a  very  old  MS.  now  before 
me,  Conan  puts  the  following  question  to 
Fion  Mac  Cubhal,  from  whom  it  has  been 
asserted  that  these  troops  took  their  name : 
**  Ca  hait  an  deamadh  an  D'ord  Fian,  ar 
ttuis  an  Eirin  ?  i.  e.  At  what  time  was  the 
military  order  first  instituted  in  Ireland  ?" 
and  he  answers,  In  the  time  of  the  Danaans. 
On  the  partition  of  the  island  between 
Heber  and  Heremon,  the  different  orders 
of  people  who  attended  them  from  Spain 
were  also  divided ;  and  the  lands  assigned 
to  the  military,  were  on  condition  of  each 
chief's  supporting  a  stipulated  number  of 
armed  troops  to  attend  the  prince  when 
called  on.  The  land  thus  disposed  of  was 
called  Fearan  an  Cloidheamh,  or  sword- 
land.  Behold  then  the  origin  of  military 
tenures  in  Europe,  and  their  antiquity,  in 
opposition  to  modem  writers  ! 

These  troops  were  divided  into  legions, 
called  catha.  Each  cath,  battle,  or  legion, 
contained  three  thousand  men,  officers  in- 
cluded. Every  one  thousand  of  these  was 
commsmded  by  a  colonel,  called  Fear 
Comhian  Mile,  or  the  commander  of  one 
thousand,  who  had  under  him  ten  captains, 
twenty  lieutenants,  and  forty  sergeants. 
The  captain  was  called  Fear  Comhian  Cead, 
or  the  commander  of  one  hundred  ;  the 
lieutenant.  Fear  Comhian  Caoguid,  or  the 
commander  of  fifty ;  and  so  on.  The  com- 
mander of  the  legion  was  named  Taoiseach 
an  Catha,  or  governor  of  the  legion.  To 
each  cath  or  legion,  was  appointed  a  proper 
number  of  physicians  and  surgeons,  and 
these  were  the  most  eminent  of  the  differ- 
ent universities  in  the  kingdom.  What 
opinion  the  public  held  their  abilities  in,  we 
may  infer  from  the  common  and  well-known 
adage,  used  even  to  this  day,  to  express  the 
situation  of  an  incurable — ^"  Ni  Thogsiodh 
Leagha  na  bhsion  e :"  i.  e.  "  The  physicians 
of  the  army  could  not  raise  him !"  We 
likewise  find  that  each  cath  had  a  band  of 
music  attendant  on  it,  as  well  as  a  number 
of  poets  to  rehearse  their  deeds  and  excite 
them  to  feats  of  glory.  Thus  in  the  battle 
of  Ventry,  when  Oisin  was  hard  set  in  single 
combat,  the  poet  Feargus  animated  him 
aloud,  and  he  killed  his  adversary. 


None  were  admitted  into  these  legions 
but  people  of  large  stature,  without  the 
least  deformity  in  their  limbs — they  must 
be  scholars,  and  informed  in  poetry  and 
history.  They  must  be  perfect  in  the  use 
of  arms,  particularly  the  sword,  the  javelin, 
and  sling;  and  give  proofs  of  their  dexterity, 
as  well  for  offence  as  defence.  Each  sol- 
dier must  be  endowed  with  that  activity 
as  to  clear  at  once  any  wall  as  high  as 
himself,  and  to  run  under  the  branch  of  a 
tree,  as  low  as  his  knee.  He  was  bound 
not  to  fly  singly  from  nine  armed  men ;  and 
as  these  military  were  the  children  of  the 
state,  and  that  it  required  great  interest  to 
become  of  this  body,  another  charge  was, 
that  before  enrolling,  the  parents  and  friends 
of  each  candidate  were  to  swear,  not  to 
revenge  his  death  in  case  he  should  be 
slain,  but  to  leave  the  whole  to  the  general. 

The  numbers  of  these  legions  are  by 
Keating  and  other  antiquarians  determined 
to  be,  in  times  of  peace,  but  three,  or  nine 
thousand  men  ;  but  in  cases  of  foreign 
invasions,  they  were  to  be  augmented  to 
seven  legions,  or  twenty-one  thousands. 
This  is  undoubtedly  a  very  great  mistake. 
For  every  provincial  king  had  his  fine,  or 
regular  military  corps,  and  these  were  sel- 
dom less  than  seven  cathas,  or  legions; 
and  this  explains  what  the  Psalter  of  Cash- 
ell  means,  by  the  Fine-Laighean,  or  Lein- 
ster  troops,  the  Fine  Muimhian,  or  Munster 
ones,  etc.  Add  to  this,  that  when  Fion 
refused  to  march  his  legions  to  the  assist- 
ance of  Art,  the  father  of  Cormoc,  he 
called  in  to  his  assistance  the  Clana  Morni, 
or  Connaught  forces.  From  this  account, 
the  standing  force  of  each  province  was 
twenty-one  thousand  fighting  men ;  so  that 
the  national  land  forces,  if  united,  (which 
was  seldom  the  case)  were  equal  to  one 
hundred  thousand  men ;  that  is,  eighty-four 
thousand  for  the  four  provinces,  and  the 
remainder  for  the  territory  about  Tara,  or 
the  imperial  domain.  The  chief  com- 
mander of  each  provincial  army  was  called 
Righ-Fhine,  or  king  of  the  soldiery,  and  to 
him  they  swore  fidelity  and  obedience. 
The  marshal  or  general  in  chief  was  called 
Tuargna-Catha ;  and  their  pay  was  made 


A.  D  280.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


127 


out  of  clothes,  money,  and  provisions,  as 
had  been  established  by  the  monarch 
Seadhna,  about  seven  centuries  before 
Christ.  From  November  to  May  they 
were  quartered  on  the  country,  each  house 
supplying  a  soldier  with  certain  necessa- 
ries ;  and  this  is  the  meaning  of  "  Buana 
gacha  Tighe,  o  Samhuin  go  Bealtuine." 
From  May  to  November  they  were  ordered 
to  the  different  duns,  or  stations,  to  preserve 
internal  peace,  and  to  give  notice  should 
a  foreign  enemy  approach.  In  the  Catha- 
Fiontragha,  many  of  these  stations  are 
pointed  out,  and  the  names  of  the  leaders 
under  Fion  Mac  Cumhal,  who  then  com- 
manded these  garrisons.  We  find  one 
established  at  the  Sceligs,  one  at  Dun,  one 
at  the  Bay  of  Tralee,  one  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Casin,  (all  in  the  county  of  Kerry,)  one 
at  Inis  Catha,  or  Scattery,  some  in  the 
county  of  Limerick,  etc.  Rath-Conan,  in 
this  country,  still  retains  the  name  of  its 
governor  in  these  days,  to  wit,  the  famous 
Conan-Maol.  Such  soldiers  as  were  not 
on  particular  duty  or  service,  were  em- 
ployed in  great  hunting  matches ;  where 
the  chase  preserved  them  in  health  and 
vigour,  and  supplied  part  of  their  wants; 
the  red  deer,  then  so  numerous  in  the 
mountains,  being  very  large,  fleet,  and 
fierce.  We  have  yet  extant  relations  of 
some  of  these  famous  hunts  about  Killar- 
ney.  A  part  of  these  troops  were  con- 
stantly on  service,  either  in  Scotland,  to 
oppose  the  Romans,  (hence  our  Fine  Albin, 
or  Albanian  legions,)  or  on  some  continen- 
tal invasion.  From  the  landing  of  Caesar 
in  Britain,  to  its  dereliction  by  the  Romans, 
there  was  an  Irish  military  force  constantly 
kept  up  in  Albin,  or  Scotland ;  and  it  is  for 
this  reason  we  find,  that  Cumhal,  the  father 
of  Fion,  as  well  as  Fion  himself,  and  his 
grandson  Osgur,  are  each  called  in  many 
old  MSS.  Righ-Fine  Eirin  and  Albin,  or 
chiefs  of  the  military  of  Ireland  and 
Scotland. 

I  apprehend  that  neither  ancient  nor 
modem  history  can  furnish  a  more  wise 
and  formidable  military  institution  than 
this.  Men  arrive  at  the  highest  degree  of 
military  discipline  at  the  very  instant  of 


their  reception  into  the  army  1  Not  only 
expert  at  annoying,  but  equally  so  in  de- 
fending themselves  from  the  attacks  of  an 
enemy.  Not  only  animated  to  the  fight  by 
their  natural  courage,  but  raised  higher  by 
the  sound  of  music  ;  and,  when  necessary, 
worked  up  to  a  perfect  enthusiasm  by  the 
songs  of  the  bards !  In  fine,  the  most  cele- 
brated of  both  faculties  to  pour  balm  into 
their  bleeding  wounds ;  and  the  exhorta- 
tions of  the  Druids  to  lull  their  souls  to 
rest!  A  military  body  thus  trained  up, 
must  appear  formidable  to  the  most  intre- 
pid. It  is  to  be  noticed,  that  by  discipline 
and  obedience,  not  by  numbers,  nations 
become  invincible.  The  Macedonian 
phalanx,  the  Roman  legions,  struck  terror 
into  their  enemies,  more  by  their  skill  and 
firmness  in  ofiending  and  defending  than 
by  their  numbers.  When  Charlemagne 
warred  with  the  Saxons,  he  forbade  his 
subjects  under  the  severest  penalties  from 
suppljdng  Saxons  with  arms  or  armour,  and 
so  made  an  easy  conquest  of  them.  To 
what,  but  to  their  firmness  and  discipline, 
was  the  Spanish  infantry  in  later  times  so 
formidable  to  their  enemies?  We  have 
seen  in  the  reign  of  Peter  the  Great,  a 
handful  of  Swedes  attack  twenty  times 
their  number  of  Russians,  intrenching  to 
their  teeth,  and  put  them  to  flight;  yet  in  a 
very  short  time  after,  through  the  care  of 
our  great  countryman,  Marshal  Lacy,  (a 
gentleman  of  the  county  of  Limerick,  but 
whom  Count  Algarotti  calls  Lasci,  and 
would  fain  make  a  German  of,*)  these 
very  Russians  become  formidable  to  their 
enemies,  and  make  at  this  day  as  good 
troops  as  any  in  Europe.  In  fine,  it  is  to 
such  superior  discipline  only,  that  Prussia 
is  now  so  formidable  to  all  her  neighbours. 
So  that  this  constant  exercise  of  the  Irish 
militia  will  clearly  explain,  not  only  why 
they  kept  their  own  country  free  from  for- 
eign insults,  but  also  why  they  were  ena- 
bled to  pour  their  troops  on  the  continent ; 
and  why  in  the  days  of  Caesar,  and  after, 
their  generals  led  on  both  the  Gauls  and 
British  troops  against  the  Romans ;  for  we 
have  shown  that  their  names  were  Irish, 
*  Letters  to  Lord  Hervey  on  the  Bussian  Empire. 


128 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  S90. 


and  I  think  we  may  reasonably  presume, 
that  they  really  were  themselves  of  the 
same  country. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Histoiy  of  the  province  of  Leath-Mogha,  or  south- 
ern half  of  Ireland — Reign  of  Moghcorb — In- 
vades Denmark;  defeats  the  king,  and  places 
that  kingdom  under  the  government  of  his  un- 
cles— Attacks  and  overcomes  the  King  of  Mun- 
ster — Is  slain  in  a  battle  with  the  Mamonians — 
The  two  Fathachs  made  joint  monarcfas — Ac- 
count of  the  successes  of  Moghcorb — Munster 
invaded  by  the  monarch  Fiacha,  who  is  slain  in 
an  engagement  with  the  Collas — Colla  Uas  pro-^ 
claimed  monarch,  and  is  succeeded  bj  Muiread  ' 
hach,  son  of  Fiacha,  who  sends  the  Collas 
against  Ulster — They  attack  and  defeat  Fergus- 
Fogha,  King  of  E  mania,  and  plunder  and  destroy 
his  palace — Muirendhach  defeated  by  Colbhadh, 
who  succeeds  him  in  the  monarchy. 

The  province  of  Leath-Mogha,  or  the 
southern  half  of  Ireland,  being,  as  we  have 
seen,  erected  into  a  state  totally  independ- 
ent of  the  monarch,  requires  a  more  par- 
ticular degree  of  attention ;  and  as  I  am 
supplied  with  a  most  respectable  -authority 
for  what  I  shall  advance  on  this  head — I 
mean  the  Psalter  of  Cashell — I  shall  be  as 
detailed  on  it  as  the  nature  of  so  extensive 
a  work  will  permit. 

Fiacha,  whose  death  we  have  already 
related,  left  two  sons,  by  name  Olioll  Flan- 
more,  and  Olioll  F^-beg.  The  first  suc- 
ceeded to  the  command  of  South  Munster; 
but  Moghcorb,  the  son  of  Cormoc  Cais, 
at  the  same  time,  agreeable  to  the  will 
of  their  grand-father,  reigned  king  of 
Leath-Mogha.  The  Psalter  of  Cashell 
highly  extols  this  prince  for  his  bravery, 
hospitality,  and  humanity.  The  mother 
of  Moghcorb  was  a  Danish  princess,  her 
name  Oiruind,  called  Ilchrotach,  or  the 
All  Lovely.  The  first  act  o^h^  reign  was 
raising  the  Leinster  tribti^  qf  -TyDriscol, 
as  a  mark  of  his  sovereignty  over  that 
people.  Soon  after,  liis  two  uncles,  Da- 
nish princes,  by  name  Arid  and  Osna, 
came  to  Ireland  to  claim  his  protection, 
having  been  expelled  from  their  country. 
Influenced  by  his  mother,  he  prepared  a 
large  fleet,  and  with  a  select  body  of 


troops,  taken  out  of  the  Munster  and  Lein- 
ster militia,  he  invaded  Denmark.  The 
Dane  prepared  to  meet  him.  The  battle 
was  fierce,  bloody,  and  well  fought.  The 
superior  discipline  of  the  Irish  at  length 
prevailed :  the  Danes  were  totally  defeat- 
ed ;  and  there  fell  on  their  side,  the  King 
of  Denmark,  his  four  sons  and  four  broth- 
ers, besides  numbers  of  his  nobility,  and 
three  thousand  of  his  choicest  soldiers. 
Moghcorb,  having  now  the  ascendancy, 
caused  his  uncles  to  be  proclaimed  joint- 
kings,  exacted  cain,  or  tribute,  from  the 
country,  and  returned  home  crowned  with 
glory.  My  authority  says  that  the  news 
of  this  great  victory  extended  over  all 
quarters,  and  was  the  theme  of  the  bards 
and  antiquarians,  for  very  many  years 
after. 

The  great  fame  of  Moghcorb  could  not 
be  agreeable  to  Carbre ;  and  besides,  he 
exceedingly  regretted  not  being  able  to 
exact  tribute  from  so  rich  an  extent  of 
Ireland.  The  battle  of  Gabhra  has  been 
represented  as  the  consequence  of  the  re- 
bellion of  the  Fine  Laighean,  or  Leinster 
troops.  The  sensible  reader  will  easily 
perceive  that  this  could  not  be  the  case ; 
and  that  the  sovereignty  of  Leinster  was 
a  part  of  Leath-Mogha,  which  owed,  no 
obedience  whatever  to  the  monarch.  No, 
it  was  the  ambition  of  Carbre,  which,  like 
that  of  his  father,  prompted  him  to  take  up 
arms  against  the  King  of  Munster,  in 
hopes  of  establishing  his  power  over  that 
fertile  province.  Moghcorb  summoned 
Osgur,  the  grandson  of  Fion,  to  attend  his 
standard,  being  righ-fine,  or  general  of  the 
Leinster  forces.  We  have  yet  extant  a 
relation  of  this  battle,  supposed  to  have 
been  related  by  Oisin,  the  father  of  Osgur, 
to  St.  Patrick ;  but  it  were  absurd  to  sup- 
pose that  he,  who  was  advanced  in  years 
at  the  battle  of  Gabhra,  should  be  alive 
near  a  century  and  a  half  later  1  It  is  vis- 
ibly of  a  later  date,  and  intended  to  extol 
the  Fine-Leaghean  at  the  expense  of  truth; 
yet  as  it  preserves  the  names  and  actions 
of  the  principal  heroes  on  both  sides  in  this 
most  bloody  battle,  it  merits  attention. 

The  troops  quartered  in  Britain   and 


A.  D.  296.] 


HISTOEY  OF  IRELAND. 


129 


Scotland  fought  under  the  banners  of 
Moghcorb  in  this  engagement,  as  well  as 
the  tribe  of  the  Fothortuaths  and  Clana 
Baoisigne  ;  and  besides  the  Clana  Momi, 
or  Connaught  troops,  we  find  Carbre's 
army  augmented  by  nine  catha,  or  legions 
from  Ulster.  This  memorable  battle  was 
fought  near  Tara,  in  Meath,  and  is  gene- 
rally called  the  battle  of  Gabhra.  In  the 
Munster  book,  it  is  named  the  battle  of 
Flachta.  It  was  the  most  bloody  that  had 
been  fought.  Glory,  revenge,  and  courage 
conspired  to  make  it  so.  The  Leinster 
and  Connaught  militia,  since  the  days  of 
Con  of  the  Hundred  Battles,  were  enemies 
and  rivals.  The  latter  constantly  fought 
for  the  monarchs,  while  the  former  sup- 
ported the  kings  of  Leath-Mogha.  The 
entire  forces  of  both  provinces  appeared 
imder  arms  that  day ;  and  as  neither  knew 
fear,  or  thought  of  retreating,  it  became  a 
total  carnage  on  both  sides.  Of  the  fine- 
eirin  not  one  escaped  alive  but  Oism,  the 
father  of  Osgur ;  and  the  Clana  Momi,  or 
Conacians,  experienced  the  same  fate ! 
Osgus,  the  general,  after  performing  prodi- 
gies, fell  by  the  sword  of  the  monarch 
Carbre ;  and  he  in  return  met  the  same  fate 
from  the  arm  of  Moghcorb.  The  Clana 
Deagha,  or  Munster  militia,  were  also 
totally  ruined ;  but  a  new  corps  soon  re- 
placed them,  not  their  inferiors  in  bravery 
and  discipline.  After  Cormoc  Gas,  they 
were  called  Dai-Gas ;  and  not  only  submit- 
ted to  the  military  trials  of  probation,  men- 
tioned in  the  last  chapter,  but  by  way  of 
pre-eminence  were  constantly  to  be  the 
van-guard  in  every  battle,  and  the  rear  in 
every  retreat. 

The  only  princes  that  survived  this 
dreadful  carnage,  were  Moghcorb,  and 
Aodh,  King  of  Connaught.  This  last,  the 
year  after,  raised  a  new  army,  engaged 
the  Mamonians  at  Spaltrach,  and  defeated 
their  troops.  In  this  engagement  fell  the 
gallant  Moghcorb. 

The  two  Fathachs,  grandsons  of  Mac 

Con,  of  the  house  of  Ith,  were  proclaimed 

joint-monarchs  ;  but  not  agreeing,  one  fell 

by   the   sword  of  his   brother;    and  the 

friends  of  the  house  of  Heremon  soon 

17 


destroyed  the  other,  so  that  their  reign  did 
not  last  an  entire  year. 

Fiacha,  called  Streabhthuine,  from  the 
place  of  his  education  in  Connaught,  was 
called  to  the  throne.  He  was  the  son  of 
Carbre  of  the  line  of  Heremon.  This 
prince  had  a  brother  called  Eochaidh  Dub- 
lein ;  and  in  them  and  their  posterity  was 
this  branch  of  the  royal  line  of  Heremon 
separated.  From  the  son  of  Fiacha  are 
the  Clana  Neill,  and  their  tribe  in  Con- 
naught descended ;  and  from  the  sons  of 
Eochaidh  the  Orgiallians  boast  their  origin. 

In  Leath-Mogha,  Fearchorb  is  said  to 
have  succeeded  his  father ;  and  that  after 
his  decease  OlioU,  the  son  of  Fiaciha  Muil- 
leathan,  was  proclaimed  sovereign  of 
Leath-Mogha;  but  besides  that  this  is  a 
manifest  anachronism,  it  carries  not  the 
appearance  of  justice.  By  the  will  of 
OlioU-Ollum,  which  it  is  agreed  on  was 
religiously  observed  for  some  centuries, 
the  sovereignty  of  southern  Ireland  de- 
scended alternately  to  the  issues  of  Eogan 
and  Cormoc.  So  that  when  the  chief  of 
one  family  commanded  the  entire,  the  chief 
of  the  other  was  only  king  of  his  province ; 
but  on  the  death  of  the  first,  the  head  of 
the  other  family  succeeded  to  the  supreme 
command.  For  this  reason  OlioU  Flan- 
beg,  the  son  of  Fiacha,  of  the  Eoganachts, 
must  have  swayed  the  sceptre  of  Leath- 
Mogha  after  Moghcorb.  Add  to  this  by 
supposing  him  to  succeed  Fearchorb,  it 
must  have  been  at  so  advanced  an  age 
as  in  itself  would  incapacitate  him  from 
ruling. 

Olioll  was  the  son  of  Fiacha  Muillea- 
than,  and  brother  to  Olioll  Flan-moi-e.  It 
is  singular  that  the  elder  brother,  who  was 
only  King  of  South  Munster,  and  had  no 
children,  was  so  distressed  at  it,  that  he 
lived  not  ||it»y  years ;  and  on  his  death 
requestedrii^  of  Jiis  brother  and  successor 
that  he  might  h»  so  placed  in  the  regal  list 
as  that,  in  future  gsenealogies,  he  might  be 
traced,  not  as  his  brother,  but  as  his  father. 
By  this  means  his  disgrace  would  be  hid 
from  posterity.  He  has  been  accordingly 
so  placed,  and  this  anecdote  at  the  same 
time  preserved,  so  that  all  the  pedigrees 


130 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  3l3i 


from  this  branch  of  the  Heberian  line  pass 
immediately  from  OlioU  Flan-beg  to  his 
father  Fiacha,  without  any  notice  at  all 
of  his  brother,  notwithstanding  his  pains 
to  the  contrary.  Of  this  prince  I  can  trace 
nothing  particular,  so  that  I  conclude  his 
sovereignty  of  southern  Ireland  was  of  no 
great  duration,  and  that  Fearchorb,  the  son 
of  Moghcorb,  of  the  Dal-gas  race,  suc- 
ceeded, not  preceded  him. 

The  Psalter  of  Cashell  is  lavish  in  its 
praises  of  this  prince  for  his  unbounded 
hospitality,  liberality,  humanity,  and  intre- 
pidity ;  and  affirms  that,  in  these  points, 
he  had  not  an  equal ;  and  that  he  never 
sat  to  an  entertainment  with  a  less  number 
than  one  hundred  of  his  nobility.  He 
fought  likewise  several  battles.  The  La- 
genians  cheerfully  paid  their  tribute ;  and 
he  defended  the  present  county  of  Clare 
from  the  invasions  of  the  Conacians,  who 
claimed  it  as  their  territory.  Not  only 
this,  but  he  carried  the  war  into  their  own 
country,  defeated  them  in  several  battles, 
and  dispossessed  many  of  the  ancient  Dam- 
nonii  of  their  estates,  which  he  bestowed 
on  some  of  his  followers  of  the  Deaghaid 
line.  A  principal  reason  why  Fearchorb 
was  so  active  to  secure  his  territories  from 
the  incursions  of  the  Conacians,  was, 
that  North  Munster  was  the  hereditary 
patrimony  of  his  family,  and  of  course 
they  must  be  materially  interested  in  op- 
posing the  attempts  of  the  Conacians.  The 
reign  of  this  prince  was  but  seven  years; 
so  that  after  his  death,  and  during  the  life 
of  Fiacha  the  monarch,  Daire-Cearb,  the 
son  of  Olioll  Flan-beg,  of  the  Eoganachts, 
I  must  suppose  to  have  been  saluted  King 
of  southern  Ireland,  according  to  the  will 
of  Olioll-OUum  ;  and  that  his  cousin  Aon- 
gus,  the  son  of  Fearchorb,  was,  during  his 
life,  confined  to  his  principality  of  North 
Munster.  I  must  here  once  for  all  re- 
mark that  the  exploits  of  the  Dai-Gas,  or 
line  of  North  Munster,  are  what  are  chiefly 
attended  to ;  but  as  we  know  the  alternate 
succession  to  the  supreme  command  was 
religiously  adhered  to,  I  labour  to  supply 
the  defect,  by  thus  supposing  (what  I  think 
was  the  case)  that  the  eldest  branch  of  the 


southern  line  always  succeeded  to  the 
crown,  after  the  death  of  the  last  chief  of 
the  northern  one.  The  battle  which  put 
a  period  to  the  life  of  the  monarch  Fiacha 
must  then  have  happened  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  Daire-Cearb,  King  of  southern 
Ireland. 

The  monarch  Fiacha  (as  his  ancestors) 
saw  with  grief  the  richest  half  of  Ireland 
deny  his  power  and  authority;  and  he 
rightly  judged  that  the  death  of  Fearchorb 
was  a  favourable  period  to  extend  his  power 
over  that  fertile  country.  He  therefore 
summoned  all  the  Cineal-Cuind,  or  posterity 
of  Con,  to  attend  his  standard  ;  and  send 
a  large  body  of  chosen  troops  to  invade 
Munster,  under  the  command  of  his  son  Mui- 
readhach,  while  with  a  respectable  army, 
he  himself  encamped  on  the  plains  of  Tara, 
ready  to  enforce  his  son  when  necessary. 
The  sons  of  his  brother,  who  were  also 
very  powerful,  raised  another  army,  under 
pretence  of  aiding  their  uncle,  but  in  reality 
to  secure  the  succession  to  themselves. 
The  book  of  Orgial  is  very  minute  in  rela- 
ting this  revolution.*  They  were  called 
the  three  CoUas:  the  eldest,  Colla  Uas,  or 
the  Noble ;  from  whom  the  Mac  Donnels, 
(from  Domhnel,  a  successor  of  his  so  called,) 
both  in  Scotland  and  Ireland ;  the  Mac 
Douel,  or  Doyles,  the  Mac  Rorys,  the  Clan 
Tsithigh  or  CSheehies,  the  Clan  Cheirin,  or 
CKerins,  CGniefes,  etc.  From  Colla  dha 
Crioch,  the  second  son  of  Eochaidh,  sprung 
the  Mac  Mahons  of  Orgial,  the  Mac  Gui- 
res  of  Fermanagh,  O'Hanlon,  Mac  Anaigh, 
Mac  Manus,  Mac  Eagan,  O'Kelly,  O'Ma- 
din  or  Madagin,  O'Nealan,  etc  Of  the 
posterity  of  Colla  Mean  I  find  no  record. 

The  CoUas  thus  encamped,  waited  for 
an  opportunity  to  declare  themselves  ;  and 
the  success  of  the  gallant  Muireadhach,  in 
Munster,  convinced  them  that  time  was 
precious,  for  he  carried  every  thing  before 
him  there.  They  therefore  challenged 
their  uncle  to  fight  them,  while  his  son  was 
yet  engaged  elsewhere.  He  consulted  his 
chief  Druid,  as  was  the  custom,  as  to  the 
event  of  the  war.  He  predicted,  that  if 
his  nephews  fell  in  this  battle,  the  sover- 

*  lieabhar-Lecan,  ii. 


.  .  J«"5)P*'^.- 


A.D.  336.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


131 


eignty  of  Ireland  would  descend  to  some 
other  family ;  but  if  the  contrary,  that  it 
would  continue  in  his  own.  The  gallant 
Fiach,  though  disturbed  at  the  report,  yet 
said  that  he  would  cheerfully  resign  his  life, 
to  preserve  the  crown  to  his  posterity. 
He  next  day  led  forth  his  troops  to  battle, 
and  eagerly  pushed  on  to  the  midst  of  the 
fight,  to  sacrifice  his  life  to  the  good  of  his 
posterity ;  for  the  belief  of  the  transmigra- 
tion of  souls,  as  Caesar  observes,  made  the 
Celtae  prodigal  of  life — ^thus  Lucan : — 

"  —  Inde  raendi 
In  ferram  mens  prona  viris,  animsequa  capaces 
Mortis;  et  ignayam  reditone  parcere  vite." 

By  the  death  of  Fiacha,  and  the  absence 
of  his  son,  CoUa  Uas  was  proclaimed 
monarch.  The  son  on  this  news  with- 
drew from  Munster ;  but  his  army  being 
very  inferior  to  thstt  of  his  antagonist,  pru- 
dence dictated  to  him  for  the  present  nego- 
ciation.  The  power  of  the  Damnonii  was 
now  brought  to  a  low  ebb  in  Connaught ; 
and  Colla  promised  to  support  him  in  his 
usurpation  of  that  crown,  provided  he  re- 
linquished his  claim  to  the  monarchy, 
which  he  readily  agreed  to,  as  knowing 
that  in  the  end  this  would  be  the  most 
likely  means  of  bringing  such  a  revolution 
about.  Most  writers  affirm  that,  at  the  end 
of  four  years,  Colla  was  dispossessed  of 
the  crown  by  Muireadhach ;  but  the  Leb- 
har  Lecan  says,  he  then  died,  and  that  the 
son  of  Fiach  was  peaceably  proclaimed 
monarch. 

The  Collas,  the  brothers,  immediately 
left  the  country,  and  repaired  to  the  Pictish 
court,  where  they  were  most  affectionately 
received,  their  mother  being  sister  to  that 
king.  He  ceased  not  his  importunities 
with  the  monarch  Muireadhach  till  he 
obtained  their  pardon.  He  received  them 
at  Tara  with  great  humanity,  and  to  show 
his  sincerity,  he  determined  upon  forming 
a  considerable  establishment  for  them; 
their  former  estates  being  otherwise  dis- 
posed of  on  account  of  their  rebellion. 

Though  the  Heremonians  were  very 
powerful  in  Ulster,  yet  the  Irian  line,  now 
called  Kings  of  Emania  onlyj  still  held  a 


considerable  part  of  their  ancient  inherit- 
ance; fearing  no  attacks  from  Munster, 
that  prince  being  otherwise  engaged.  The 
monarch  judged  the  present  a  favourable 
opportunity  totally  to  depress  this  great 
house.  Princes  never  want  for  pretences 
to  justify  war  and  injustice.  He  alleged, 
that  Feargus,  the  great-grandfather  to  the 
present  King  of  Emania,  had  violated  the 
laws  of  hospitality  in  burning  the  beard 
and  hair  of  his  great-grandfather,  Cormoc ; 
an  insult  never  to  be  forgiven,  as  he  was 
obliged  to  lie  concealed  for  many  months 
after ;  and  to  revenge  that  indignity,  near 
a  century  later,  the  present  monarch  sent 
an  army  of  seven  legions  (twenty-one 
thousand  men)  to  conquer  their  country ! 

The  Collas,  for  whom  this  settlement 
was  intended,  accordingly  invaded  Ulster ; 
and  Feargus  Fohgha,  the  King  of  Emania, 
at  the  head  of  six  catha,  or  legions,  waited 
their  motions  at  Gaelai.  The  two  armies 
soon  engaged ;  and  the  setting  sun  only 
put  a  period  to  the  carnage  of  the  first  day. 
On  the  evening  of  the  second,  the  Irians 
gave  way,  and  retired  to  Glean-raige,  to 
put  their  wounded  in  a  place  of  safety. 
The  third  day  they  returned  to  the  fight 
with  more  rancour  and  animosity  than 
ever.  It  was  again  renewed  on  the  fourth 
and  fifth  4ay ;  but  the  sixth  day  completed 
the  ruin  of  the  Irian  army ;  Feargus,  their 
king,  the  remains  of  the  craobh-ruadh,  and 
most  of  the  nobility  being  cut  off*.  The 
conquerors  eagerly  pursued  their  victory : 
every  thing  gave  way  to  them.  They 
marched  to  Emania  ;  and  after  plundering 
this  superb  palace  of  every  thing  that  was 
valuable,  set  it  on  fire.  But,  though  it  was 
never  after  habitable,  yet  to  this  day,  I  am 
assured  the  extensive  ruins  near  Armagh, 
in  some  measure  justifies  what  antiquity 
has  related  of  this  mighty  fabric.  Thus 
the  bloody  and  decisive  battle  of  Mullach 
Leathdhearg  was  the  ruin  of  the  palace 
and  city  of  Emania,  after  flourishing  the 
theme  of  the  senachies  and  bards,  for  near 
eight  centuries ;  but — 

"  Non  indignemnr  mortalia  corpora  solvi; 
Ceroimiu  exemplis,  e{^ida  po«e  mori ! " 


132 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND. 


[A.D.35D; 


The  land  thus  conquered  they  called 
Orgial ;  because,  by  agreement  with  the 
present  monarch,  for  themselves,  and  for 
their  posterity,  whenever  hostages  were 
demanded  from  them,  if  shackled,  their  fet- 
ters were  to  be  of  pure  gold ;  hence  Orgial, 
from  or,  gold,  gial,  a  hostage.  This  tract, 
commonly  called  to  this  day  Uriel,  com- 
prehends the  present  counties  of  Lowth, 
Monaghan,  and  Armagh. 

To  load  prisoners  of  royal  blood  with 
fetters  of  gold  and  silver  was  a  very  an- 
cient custom,  and  a  mark  of  honour,  to  dis- 
tinguish the  wearer  from  others  of  less 
elevated  rank.  This  ceremony  was  used 
to  Darius;*  Artavasades,  King  of  Arme- 
nia, when  taken  by  Marc  Antony,  by  way 
of  doing  him  honour  caused  his  fetters 
while  in  prison  to  be  of  pure  silver  ;t  and 
on  the  day  of  triumph  they  were  of  gold, 
to  show  the  highest  respect  to  the  royal 
captive.  J  "  Catenis  (says  my  author)  sed 
ne  quid  honori  deesset,  aureis  vinxit." 

Aongus  Tireach,  the  son  of  Fearchorb, 
filled  the  throne  of  Leath-Mogha  for  twelve 
vears.  He  is  called  Taile-Tireach,  or  the 
Taxer  of  Countries,  having,  we  are  told, 
successfully  invaded  Spain,  and  sent  his 
fleets  to  Denmark.  He  is  highly  celebra- 
ted for  his  strict  justice,  and  impartial  de- 
cisions upon  every  appeal. 

Upon  his  decease  Fiodhach,  the  son  of 
Daire-Cearb,  of  the  Eoganachts,  according 
to  alternate  successions,  was  proclaimed 
King  of  Leath-Mogha.  His  daughter  was 
married  to  Eochaidh,  King  of  Connaught, 
and  afterwards  monarch  of  Ireland. 

Caolbhadh,  of  the  house  of  Ir,  had  his 
revenge  of  the  monarch  Muireadhach, 
having  defeated  his  army,  and  killed  him 
in  single  combat,  after  a  glorious  reign  of 
thirty  years. 

This  Caolbhadh,  the  last  king  of  the 
royal  house  of  Ir,  after  the  above  victory 
marched  straightway  to  Tara,  where  he 
was  saluted  monarch ;  but  his  glory  was 
of  a  short  duration,  being  cut  off  in  battle 
at  the  end  of  the  year  by  the  son  of  his 
predecessor. 

•  Curt.  lib.  V.  cap.  12.         t  Dion.  lib.  xlix. 
t  Fatetc.  lib.  ii.  cap.  82. 


CHAPTER   V.       ' 

Eocbaidh  appointed  monarch — Attempts  to  collect 
the  Leinster  tax,  but  is  opposed,  and  his  troops 
defeated  —  Is  succeeded  by  Criomthan  ;  who 
meditates  an  invasion  of  the  Roman  provinces  in 
Britain  and  Craul;  and  appoints  Conall  regent 
during  his  absence — Is  poisoned  after  his  return — 
Niall  elected  emperor — Sails  to  Scotland,  to  sup- 
port the  Irish  colony  against  the  Picts — Makes 
an  irruption  into  the  Roman  territories  in  Brit- 
ain ;  returns  to  Ireland — Invades  Gaul,  and  re- 
turns home  in  great  force ;  and  St.  Patrick  made 
captive  —  Regulates  disorders  in  Ireland ;  and 
undertakes  another  expedition  against  Gaul — Is 
killed  on  the  banks  of  die  Loire. 

Eochaidh,  the  son  of  Muireadhach,  the 
son  of  Fiach,  of  the  house  of  Heremon, 
was  proclaimed  emperor.  When  King  of 
Connaught,  he  married  Munig,  called  Fion, 
or  the  Fair,  daughter  of  Fiadhach,  King 
of  Leath-Mogha,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  and 
race  of  the  Eoganachts.  By  her  he  had 
four  sons,  Brian,  Fiachre,  Fergus,  and 
Olioll.  From  the  two  first  are  descended 
the  succeeding  kings  of  Connaught ;  and 
their  posterity  are  distinguished  by  the 
names  of  Hy-Brunes  and  Hi-Fiachres, 
from  these  two  leaders. 

By  Carinna,  a  princess  of  the  Saxon  na- 
tion, and  the  constant  ally  of  Ireland,  he 
had  the  renowned  hero  Niall,  sumamed 
the  Nine  Hostages.  Eochaidh  was  engag- 
ed in  a  fierce  war  against  the  united  power 
of  Leath-Mogha.  He  wanted  to  raise  the 
Boroimhe  Leaghain,  or  Leinster  tax,  pay- 
able to  the  monarch;  and  Lugha,  called 
Lamh-dhearg,  or  the  Bloody  Hand,  (being 
his  ensign,)  of  the  Dai-Gas  line,  being  then 
King  of  Leath-Mogha,  opposed  the  preten- 
sions of  the  monarch,  and  sent  large  sup- 
plies to  Eana,  called  Cinselach  (from  whom 
CKinsellagh)  a  descendant  of  Cathire- 
more,  then  King  of  Leinster.  He  found 
this  diversion  the  more  necessary,  as  the 
Conacians  were  raising  great  levies  to 
invade  Munster,  and  wrest  the  present 
county  of  Clare  from  that  province  and 
add  it  to  that  of  Connaught. 

Success  attended  the  southern  troops  in 
all  their  enterprises.  Eana  and  his  allies 
defeated  the  imperial  troops  in  fifteen  differ- 
ent battles,  says  the  Psalter  of  Cashell ; 
and,  instead  of  their  being  able  to  raise  the 
Boroimhe-Leaghain,  we  are  told  that  Eana, 
by  the  peace  that  followed,  received  from 


A.D.  367.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


133 


every  hrughy  or  village  in  Leath-Cuin,  or 
Connaught,  and  Ulster,  an  ounce  of  pure 
gold.  Lugha  was  equally  successful  in  his 
invasion  of  Connaught ;  for  he  kept  the  war 
from  his  own  country;  defeating  their 
chosen  troops  in  seven  pitched  battles,  in 
which  many  of  their  princes  and  nobility 
fell,  and  raising  contributions  on  the  coun- 
try. The  Conacians,  reduced  to  great  dis- 
tress, sued  for  peace;  and  the  ancient 
limits  of  North  Munster  were  acknow- 
ledged in  the  most  ample  manner.  The 
better  to  secure  his  frontiers  from  new  ir- 
ruptions of  the  Conacians,  he  made  Fearan- 
Cliomh,  or  sword-land,  of  the  whole  coun- 
try, from  the  borders  of  the  county  of 
Galway  to  Loops-head.  So  great  was  the 
power  of  Lugha  now,  says  my  authority, 
that  he  dictated  to  the  monarch,  and  ex- 
pelled all  foreigners  from  the  kingdom. 
He  invaded  Wales,  and  defeated  the  Welsh 
and  their  allies  in  several  bloody  battles, 
raising  contributions  on  the  country,  and 
bringing  back  with  him  many  of  their 
princes  and  nobility  as  hostages.  He 
poured  his  troops  into  North  Britain ;  and, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Saxons  and  Picts, 
successfully  attacked  the  Britons  and  their 
Roman  masters.  Ammianus  Marcellinus, 
the  historian,*  and  the  poet  Claudian,  who 
flourished  after  the  era  in  question,  bear 
ample  testimonies  of  these  invasions,  and 
of  the  distresses  the  Britons  were  reduced 
to  by  them.  Claudian  celebrates  the  suc- 
cesses which  Theodosius  gained  over  these 
allies,  in  the  following  lines : 

" Madnerunt  Saxone  fuso 


Orcades ;  incalait  Fictoram  sangnine  Thole ; 
Scotorum  Cumolos,  fievit  glaciidis  lerae." 

But  in  this  accoiHJlt,  as  well  as  in  his  rela- 
tion of  the  issue  that  was  to  proceed  from 
the  marriage  of  the  daughter  of  Stilicho 
with  the  emperor  Honorius,  we  may  ven- 
ture to  pronounce  that  he  showed  him- 
self more  the  poet  than  the  historian  or 
prophet ;  since  it  is  certain  that  our  writers 
make  no  mention  of  any  defeat  of  their 
troops  in  Britain  about  this  time ;  on  the 
reverse,  their  successes  are  recorded :  and 
it  is  equally  true,  that  Honorius  had  no 

*  lib.  xzvi.  xxvii. 


issue  by  this  marriage,  notwithstanding  the 
prediction  of  the  bard. 

On  the  decease  of  Eochaidh,  who,  after 
all,  died  peaceably  at  Tara,  Criomhthan, 
the  son  of  Fiachadh,  the  son  of  Daire- 
Cearb,  of  the  race  of  Heber  and  Eugenian 
line,  through  the  great  influence  of  his 
cousin  Lugha,  was  proclaimed  monarch ; 
and  in  return  for  this,  on  the  death  of  Lug- 
ha, which  happened  soon  after,  he  had  his 
son  Conall  Each-Luath  appointed  King  of 
Leaih-M ogha,  to  the  great  prejudice  of  his 
own  family. 

The  Eugenians  could  not  passively  see 
so  great  an  infraction  of  the  will  of  their 
common  ancestor  Olioll-Ollum.  They  re- 
monstrated with  the  monarch  on  his  injus- 
tice, insisting  that  the  right  of  governing 
southern  Ireland,  was  now  in  the  Eugenian 
line.  Afeis,  or  assembly  of  the  estates  of 
Munster  was  convened ;  and  it  was  agreed 
upon,  that  in  the  present  instance  Connall 
was  a  usurper,  and  should  resign  the  crown 
to  Core,  the  son  of  Luigh,  of  the  posterity 
of  Eogan,  (who  was  declared  of  a  proper 
age  to  govern,)  as  the  father  of  Connal,  of 
the  Dai-Gas  race,  had  been  the  last  sove- 
reign of  Leath-Mogha.  This  was  a  most 
just  decision,  and  proved  the  moral  recti- 
tude of  the  estates,  whom  neither  the 
menaces  of  the  monarch,  nor  the  power  of 
Connal,  could  make  swerve  in  the  least 
from  the  line  of  truth.  Nor  should  the 
equity  and  moderation  of  Connal  be  forgot- 
ten ;  on  the  contrary,  both  should  be  held 
up  as  mirrors  for  modem  times ;  since,  in- 
stead of  supporting  his  usurpation  by  the 
law  of  arms,  as  he  certainly  could,  Connal 
peaceably  acquiesced  in  the  decisions  of 
the  estates,  and  surrendered  the  crown  of 
Munster  to  Core. 

This  intricate  affair  being  thus  happily 
and  peaceably  adjusted,  Criomhthan,  who 
is  in  the  Psalter  of  Cashell  styled  monarch 
of  Ireland  and  Albany,  and  leader  of  the 
Franks  and  Saxons,  prepared  a  formidable 
navy,  and  raised  a  large  body  of  troops, 
which  were  transported  to  Scotland ;  there, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Picts  and  Saxons, 
they  broke  through  the  Roman  wall,  and 
carried  desolation  through  all  her  British 


J 


134 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  867. 


provinces.  But  before  he  entered  on  this 
expedition  he  appointed  Connal,  whose  in- 
tegrity he  could  depend  on,  regent  of  Ire- 
land. These  frequent  invasions  and  attacks 
upon  Britain,  or  rather  on  the  Romans,  are 
too  well  attested  by  British  and  Roman 
■writers,  to  be  further  insisted  on.  The 
extreme  vanity  of  the  Scots  of  Albany,  in 
presuming  to  arrogate  to  the  North  Britons 
only  the  glory  of  these  days,  in  exclusion 
of  their  Irish  ancestors,  has  been  so  fully 
exposed  by  the  most  respectable  writers 
of  Britain  and  Ireland,  that  I  should  deem 
it  an  insult  to  the  understanding  of  my 
reader  to  say  any  thing  further  on  this 
head  than  barely  to  remark  that,  to  a  con- 
templative mind,  it  must  appear  very  ex- 
traordinary how  the  North  Britons  should 
in  early  days  acquire  so  great  a  power,  as 
to  be  able  to  attack,  and,  for  near  four 
centuries,  keep  the  whole  power  of  South 
Britain,  aided  by  Rome,  on  the  defensive 
rather  than  the  offensive ;  while  in  subse- 
quent periods,  almost  to  our  own  days, 
they  were  seldom  able  to  oppose  the  British 
Saxons  only  !  Besides,  in  the  first  century, 
Tacitus  positively  declares,  that  the  Ro- 
mans could  never  count  on  the  peaceable 
possession  of  Britain,  till  they  had  conquer- 
ed Ireland,*  the  country,  as  he  observed, 
that  constantly  aided  all  their  efforts  at  in- 
dependence. Rapin  says,  that  Maximus, 
after  defeating  the  Picts,  threatened  Ireland 
with  an  invasion,  but  they  prevented  this 
by  a  peace.f  Our  writers  make  no  men- 
tion of  this. 

From  North  Britain  he  prepared,  in  con- 
junction with  his  Saxon  allies,  to  invade 
the  maritime  coast  of  France.  It  is  curious 
enough,  in  confirmation  of  what  our  histo- 
rians have  delivered,  to  find,  that  in  this 
fourth  century,  the  invasions  of  the  Roman 
provinces  were  so  frequent,  that  Constan- 
tine  and  his  successors  established  a  fleet, 
whose  sole  business  was  to  guard  the  coasts 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  to  lower  Nor- 
mandy, and  which  they  called  Littus  Sax- 
onicum,  as  the  great  coalition  formed  by 
these  people  against  Rome,  was  named  the 

•  Vita  Jul.  Agricola. 

t  Histoiy  of  England,  vol.  L  p.  23. 


Saxon  League.  They  likewise  erected 
forts  and  stations  at  proper  distances,  the 
better  to  oppose  the  landing  of  these  people. 
The  most  powerful  of  all  this  league,*  we 
are  told,  at  this  time,  and  who  mostly  dis- 
tressed the  Romans,  was  M aorian.  Could 
we  suppose  that  by  misplacing  words  they 
could  mistake  Criman  (for  so  should  Cri- 
omhthan  be  pronounced)  for  Maerian,  it 
would  wonderfully  elucidate  this  passage ; 
because  all  our  writers  agree,  that  this 
Criomhthan  was  uncommonly  successful  in 
his  invasions  on  the  continent;  and  because 
Roman  writers  (particularly  Claudian)  are 
clear,  that  the  Saxons  and  Picts,  in  con- 
junction with  the  Irish,  were  the  sworn 
enemies  of  Rome. 

Criomhthan,  after  returning  from  the 
continent,  loaded  with  glory,  and  the  spoils 
of  his  enemies,  was  taken  off  by  poison  by 
his  own  sister,  in  hopes  that  her  son  Brian 
would  succeed  him  in  the  monarchy.  But 
tasting  of  the  liquor,  the  better  to  deceive 
the  monarch,  so  violent  was  its  effects,  that 
she  also  died ;  nor  did  any  of  the  issue  of 
Brian  ever  after  succeed  to  the  monarchy, 
except  Tereldach  and  Roderic,  the  two  last 
emperors  of  Ireland.  On  the  death  of 
Criomhthan,  several  candidates  appeared 
for  the  succession.  Eana,  King  of  Leinster, 
the  better  to  strengthen  his  own  interest, 
forcibly  seized  on  the  palace  of  Tara  ;  but 
soon  after  evacuated  it.  Core,  King  of 
Leath-Mogha,  solicited  the  suffrages  of  the 
princes  and  electors,  but  was  opposed  by 
the  whole  force  of  Leath-Cuin.  These  last 
dreaded  the  power  of  the  Heberians,  who, 
as  kings  of  southern  Ireland,  acknowledged 
no  kind  of  dependence  on  the  monarchs, 
and  united  as  one  man  to  support  the  claims 
of  the  young  Niall,  who  was  accordingly 
elected  monarch.  Core  protested  against 
the  validity  of  this  election,  and  supported 
it  by  the  sword.  Much  blood  was  spilt 
on  the  occasion.  Toma,  the  laureat  of 
Niall,  at  length  interposed :  a  peace  was 
concluded  by  Core's  relinquishing  his  claim, 
acknowledging  Niall's  election,  and  deliv- 
ering up  his  son  Carbre,  with  others  of  his 
nobles  as  hostages.     In  return,  he  received 

*  Origine  des  Fran9aia,  p.  304. 


.•  ■  T'T^-;; 


■'■  /"■ -"T^T 


A.D.883.] 


HISTORY  OF  IR1ELAND. 


135 


as  presents  from  the  monarch  one  thousand 
steeds,  five  hundred  suits  of  armour,  one 
hundred  and  ninety  gold  rings,  and  fifty 
gold  cups.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  Irish, 
in  controverted  elections,  when  a  peace 
was  made,  that  the  acknowledged  monarch 
made  presents  to  his  former  antagonist — 
thus  when  Maolsachlin,  surrendered  the  dia- 
dem to  Brian  Boru,  he  received  from  the 
new  monarch  a  present  of  horses  and 
arms,  and  his  attendants  were  likewise  re- 
warded.* 

Niall  the  Grand,  sumamed  the  Nine 
Hostages,  the  youngest  son  of  the  monarch 
Eochaidh,  of  the  line  of  Heremon,  suc- 
ceeded to  the  throne.  The  Roman  power 
being  long  on  the  decline  in  Britain,  and  the 
Picts  a  good  deal  freed  from  their  appre- 
hensions from  this  quarter,  began  to  look 
with  a  jealous  eye  on  the  Irish  establish- 
ment in  that  country.  They  would  gladly 
reduce  their  power ;  at  least  make  them 
acknowledge  themselves  as  their  tributa- 
ries by  military  tenm'e.  This  the  last 
would  not  agree  to ;  and  the  Picts  pre- 
pared by  force  to  compel  them.  They 
referred  their  complaints  to  the  Irish  mon- 
arch Niall:  and,  with  a  good  fleet  and 
army,  he  landed  in  Scotland.  The  Picts 
were  obliged  to  acknowledge  the  Irish  col- 
ony as  a  people  totally  independent  of 
them,  and  owing  no  allegiance  but  to  the 
monarchs  of  Ireland.  As  a  mark  of  this, 
Niall  called  their  particular  settlements  in 
Albany,  Scotia  Minor,  to  distinguish  them 
from  Ireland,  then  called  Scotia  Major. 
This  transaction  is  attested  not  only  by  our 
natives  but  by  British  writers.f  Nay, 
Hume  himself  confesses,  "that  in  very 
ancient  language,  Scotland  means  only  the 
country  north  of  the  Frith  of  Clyde  and 
Forth.  I  shall  not  make  a  parade  of  lite- 
rature to  prove  it,  because  I  do  not  find 
that  the  point  is  disputed  by  the  Scots  them- 
selves.'^X  For  the  indigenous  name  of 
Cuine  Scuit,  used  even  to  this  day  by  us, 
became,  about  the  period  in  question,  to  be 
adopted  by  the  neighbouring  nations ;  and 

*  Dail  Catha  id  ir  Chore  ajus  Neill. 
t  Cambrens.  Top.  D.  iii.  cap.  16.    Camden's  Britan. 
etc. 
t  History  of  England,  vol.  ii. 


firom  the  name  of  Scots,  yet  retained  by 
the  people  of  North  Britain,  they  have 
vainly  laboured  to  make  it  be  believed, 
that  the  Scots  so  famous  in  these  and  sub- 
sequent times,  were  their  British  ancestors. 
But  the  principal  inhabitants  of  North 
Britain,  at  that  time,  by  the  confession  of 
Roman  as  well  as  Irish  writers,*  were 
the  Picts.  The  Dal-Riada,  or  colony  of 
Highland  Scots,  were  of  so  Uttle  conse- 
quence then^  as  not  to  be  known  as  a  dis- 
tinct people,  except  by  those  who  had  the 
best  right  to  know  it ;  I  mean  the  Irish  and 
Picts.  Thus  Niall  was  the  first  Irish 
prince  who  had  the  Caledonian  Scots  ac- 
knowledged as  a  colony  totally  independ- 
ent of  the  Picts.  That  the  Irish  were  the 
only  people  known  by  the  name  of  Scots 
at  that  period  and  for  many  centuries  after, 
has  been  so  fully  and  clearly  proved  by 
Routh,  Usher,  Ward,  Colgan,  Stillingfleet, 
Keating,  CFlaherty,  Harris,  etc,  that  it 
would  be  only  losing  time  to  enter  into  the 
disquisition. 

After  settling  this  troublesome  affair  in  a 
peaceable  manner,  to  prevent  time  for  re- 
flection, Niall  agreed  with  the  Picts  and 
the  Dal-Riada,  to  prepare  for  an  irruption 
into  Roman  Britain.  He  renewed  the 
league  with  the  Saxons,  who  the  more 
cheerfully  agreed  to  it,  as  his  mother  was 
of  that  nation.  Maximus,  who  soon  after 
the  forming  of  this  new  league,  had  himself 
proclaimed  emperor  in  Britain,  landed,  a 
large  army  in  Gaul  to  support  his  title ;  and 
this  by  the  allies  was  thought  a  favourable 
opportunity  to  commence  their  operations. 
They  therefore  forced  the  Roman  wall, 
and  desolation  and  ruin  followed  their  foot- 
steps. After  reducing  the  poor  Britons 
to  great  extremity,  and  plundering  the 
country  of  every  thing  that  was  valuable, 
they  made  a  regular  retreat ;  and  after  a 
fair  partition  of  the  booty,  the  Irish  fleet 
and  army  returned  home  for  the  present. 

Some  have  ignorantly  asserted,  that 
these  invasions  of  the  Irish  were  from  cur- 
rachs;  but  though  our  own  historians 
might  be  overlooked  on  this  occasion, 
the  testimony  of  Roman  writers  ought  to 

*  Ammian.  Marcellin.,  Claudian,  etc. 


136 


HISTORY  OP   IRELAND. 


[A.D.  389. 


be  decisive  in  our  favour.  How  else  are 
we  to  explain  the  fine  compliment  which 
Claudian  under  the  name  of  Britain  pays 
to  his  patron  Stilicho  ? 

"  Me  quoque  vicinis  pereuntem  gentibas,  inquit, 
Munivit  Stilicho,  totam  cum  Scotis  lemam 
Movit ;  et  intesto  spumavit,  reinig&  Thetys. 
lUius  eSectum  coris,  na  bella  timerem 
Seotiea  nee  Pictum  tremerem,  nee  littore  toto 
ProBpicerem,  dubiis  ventanim  Saxona  ventia." 

At  no  time  were  oars  in  currachs,  but 
all  antiquity  proclaims  that  large  galleys 
and  ships  of  war  were  never  without 
them. 

As  the  Saxons  assisted  the  Irish  and 
Picts  in  this  expedition,  they  now  in  return 
called  upon  Niall  to  make  a  diversion  in 
their  favour  in  Gaul ;  and  in  a  large  fleet 
he  conveyed  a  very  considerable  army  to 
Brittany,  miserably  wasting  the  country, 
and  returning  home,  loaded  with  treasure 
and  captives,  among  whom  was  the  great 
St.  Patrick,  afterwards  Apostle  of  Ireland. 
The  Scots  of  Britain  have  claimed  Pat- 
rick as  their  countryman ;  but  it  is  an 
absurdity  to  suppose  it.  It  is  confessed 
that  he  was  one  of  the  captives  taken  in 
war.  There  was  no  war,  but  peace  and 
union  between  the  Irish  and  Picts.  With 
what  pretence  then  could  the  captains  of 
Niall's  fleet  deprive  Patrick  and  his  two 
sisters,  with  a  vast  number  of  other  peo- 
ple, of  their  liberties,  and  sell  them  as 
slaves  in  Ireland,  and  they  the  subjects  of 
his  friends  and  allies?  It  appears  from 
the  most  authentic  records,  that  Patrick 
was  from  Wales.  The  Book  of  Lecan 
says,  his  mother  was  a  Frank.  She  was 
sister  of  St.  Martin,  Bishop  of  Tours. 
Patrick,  with  his  father,  mother,  brother, 
and  five  sisters,  embarked  from  Wales  for 
Brittany,  probably  to  avoid  the  dangers 
and  distresses  which  a  country  exposed  to 
hostile  invasions  must  ever  be  in.  Brit- 
tany was  at  this  time  called  Letavia,  or 
Letania,  by  the  natives,  and  St.  Fiech,  in 
his  life  of  our  apostle  gives  it  the  same 
name — but, — 

"Incidit  in  Scyllam,  qui  vuU  vitare  Charybdin  !" 

The  Irish  soon  after  invaded  Brittany, 
and  among  the  number  of  captives  they 


made,  was  Patrick  and  two  of  his  sisters. 
This  invasion  of  Brittany  happened  A.  D. 
388,  the  summer  after  Maximus  marched 
his  troops  firom  Gaul  to  Italy,  at  which 
time  St.  Patrick  was  sixteen  years  old. 

Niall  returned  to  Ireland,  on  account  of 
some  disturbances  raised  in  Leinster  by 
Eochaidh,  the  son  of  Eana  Cinselach,  so 
inimical  to  the  monarch  his  father.  On 
the  death  of  Criomthan,  and  while  the 
different  candidates  were  canvassing  for 
the  succession,  this  Eochaidh,  with  a  cho- 
sen band,  took  possession  of  the  palace  of 
Tara,  the  better  to  strengthen  his  own 
claim.  But  it  seems  he  had  not  received 
the  equestrian  order ;  and  his  Druids  and 
council  expostulated  with  him  on  this  no- 
torious violation  of  the  national  laws  :  for 
no  prince  could  become  a  candidate, 
much  less  be  elected  monarch,  though  of 
the  royal  line  of  Milesius,  who  had  not 
received  the  Gradh-Gaisge,  or  order  of 
chivalry.  Their  remonstrances  had  the 
proper  weight  with  Eochaidh,  and  he 
peaceably  evacuated  Tara,  and  relinquish- 
ed all  claims  to  the  monarchy.  The  bold- 
ness and  newTiess  of  the  attempt,  however, 
made  Niall  ever  after  regard  him  with  a 
jealous  eye.  During  his  absence,  Eo- 
chaidh refused  paying  the  Leinster  trib- 
ute. On  the  contrary,  he  wished  to  ex- 
tort the  tax  levied  by  his  father  on  the 
people  of  Leath-Aim. 

Enraged  at  these  pretensions,  but  more 
for  having  killed  the  son  of  his  arch-druid, 
Niall  with  a  potent  army  over-ran  the  king- 
dom of  Leinster,  levied  the  usual  tribute 
on  that  people,  and  declared  he  would  lay 
the  whole  country  in  ashes,  if  Eochaidh 
was  not  delivered  up  to  him.  To  save  it 
from  so  great  a  calamity,  he  voluntarily 
surrendered  himself  to  the  monarch,  who 
caused  a  strong  iron  hoop  to  be  fixed 
round  his  body,  to  which  a  chain  was  at- 
tached, which  was  to  pass  through  a  large 
rock  to  which  he  was  to  be  tied.  Nine 
men  were  ordered  to  see  this  executed ; 
but  with  uncommon  courage  he  attacked 
them  with  only  this  chain,  killed  some,  and 
being  fleet  of  foot,  escaped  the  rest,  and 
fled  to  Scotland,  where  he  was  most  hospit-  ■ 


A.IK396.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRBLAND.' 


137 


ably  received  by  his  cousin  Gabhran,  chief 
of  the  British  Dal-Riada. 

Eanna-Arigithach,  the  son  of  Conal,  of 
the  Dai-Gas  race,  and  house  of  Heber,  by 
the  law  of  alternate  succession,  was  at  this 
time  King  of  Leath-Mogha.  The  mon- 
arch of  Ireland  supported  the  Conacians  in 
their  pretensions  on  the  province  of  Tho- 
mond;  and  the  Dai-Gas  were  so  closely 
pressed,  that  they  found  they  could  not 
protect  this  province,  without  withdrawing 
their  troops  from  South  Munster.  The 
whole  tribe  was  on  this  occasion  assem- 
bled ;  and  it  was  the  unanimous  opinion  to 
give  up  peaceably  to  the  Eugenian  line 
for  ever,  the  entire  command  of  South 
Munster,  they  at  the  same  time  relinquish- 
ing all  chieftanry  over  North  Munster. 
That  Cashel  and  the  domain,  with  its  roy- 
alties, should  belong  to  the  King  of  Leath- 
Mogha,  for  the  time  to  come,  to  be  elected 
out  of  the  two  houses  as  usual ;  but  that 
his  real  authority  should  be  circumscribed 
to  this  domain,  and  his  own  hereditary  ter- 
ritories only.  To  all  this  the  Eugenians 
gladly  agreed  ;  but  thus,  by  dividing  their 
power,  they  ceased  to  be  so  formidable  to 
the  future  monarchs.  It  was,  however,  a 
measure  which  necessity  at  this  time  point- 
ed out  to  the  Dai-Gas ;  and  now  their 
entire  strength  being  collected,  they  were 
not  only  able  to  make  head  against  the 
Conacians  but  even  to  confine  them  within 
their  own  limits. 

Niall  having  established  peace  at  home, 
collected  a  greater  force  than  ever,  to 
over-run  Roman  Gaul.  He  summoned  all 
his  tributaries  to  his  standard.  The  Picts 
prepared  their  auxiliaries ;  and  Gabhran, 
chief  of  the  British  Dal-Riada,  as  a  feud- 
atory prince,  attended  with  his  forces.  On 
their  landing  in  Brittany,  and  finding  no 
very  considerable  army  to  oppose  them, 
they  spread  themselves  over  all  the  coun- 
try. Eochaidh,  the  deposed  King  of  Lein- 
ster,  who  had  taken  shelter  in  Scotland, 
followed  the  standard  of  his  friend  Gabh- 
ran in  this  expedition,  in  hopes  of  making 
his  peace  with  the  monarch  ;  but  the  me- 
diation of  friends  having  proved  fruitless, 
Eochaidh  took  the  resolution  of  destroying 

18 


him.  An  opportunity  soon  offered.  The 
king,  seated  oa  the-  banks  of  the  Loire  one 
day,  received  his  death  by  an  arrow  shot 
at  him,  soon  after  which  the  army  re- 
embarked,  under  the  command  of  Daithi, 
nephew  to  the  deceased,  bringing  with 
them  the  body  of  the  deceased ;  and  he 
was  interred  with  great  funeral  pomp  at 
Roilig-na-RiogL 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Account  of  Niall's  issue — Is  succeeded  iu  the  mon- 
archy by  his  nephew  Daithi,  who  grants  an  asy- 
lum to  refugees  from  Britain,  Gaul,  and  other 
parts  of  Europe — Joins  with  the  Picts,  Saxons, 
etc.,  in  invading  the  Roman  settlements  in  Brit- 
ain  The    Romans    having  withdrawn    their 

troops  from  Britain,  the  Scots  and  Picts  break 
through  the  Roman  wall,  drive  the  Britons  from 
their  defences,  and  plunder  the  country — Daithi 
advances  against  the  Romans  m  Gaul,  as  far  as 
the  Alps,  where  he  is  killed  by  hghtning. 

Niall  the  Grand,  whose  exploits  we 
have  epitomized,  before  he  undertook  his 
last  continental  expedition,  made  his  will, 
and  disposed  of  his  hereditary  principality 
among  his  children.  As  the  posterity  of 
this  prince  made  a  most  distinguished  fig- 
ure in  our  history,  and  that  from  this  house 
for  almost  six  centuries  the  monarchs  of 
Ireland  were  chosen,  a  single  instance  only 
excepted,  it  is  proper  to  give  the  reader 
some  account  of  them.  Niall  had  eight 
sons,  four  of  whom  remained  in  Meath 
and  its  environs ;  the  others  acquired  pos- 
sessions in  the  North.  The  issue  of  these 
eight  sons  have  been  distinguished  by  the 
titles  of  Northern  and  Southern  Hi  Neills, 
from  the  situation  of  their  territories  with 
respect  to  each  other.  Maine,  Loaghaire, 
Connall-Crimthan,  and  Fiach,  with  their 
posterities,  settled  in  Meath,  and  are  called 
the  Southern  Hi  Neill ;  sometimes  Clana- 
Colman,  from  Colman  the  Great ;  some- 
times Cincal  Slaine,  fi"om  Aodh-Slaiije. 
The  posterity  of  Eogan,  Connall-Gulban, 
Carbre,  and  Eana  are  the  Northern  Hi 
Neills. 

By  this  will  he  appointed,  during  his 
absence,  Maine,  Ard-Comhairce  Eirin  Uile, 
or  chief  regent  of  all  Ireland,  and  settled 


138 


HISTOKY  OP  IRELiLNDi 


[A.D.406. 


on  him  a  tract  of  land,  from  Cmachan  to 
Loch-ribh,  as  the  Book  of  Lecan  sets 
forth.  Others  fix  his  seat  in  the  present 
county  of  Longford.  O'Sionach,  or  Fox, 
Lord  of  TafT,  Magauly,  Mag  Caren, 
O  Braoin,  O'Quin,  and  CDaly,  etc,  were 
the  principal  families  from  this  house.  On 
Loaghaire  he  bestowed  land  from  Trim  to 
Tara,  from  him  called  Hi  Loaghaire : 
O'Cuindealbhain,  or  0*Kindelan,  was  the 
chief  of  this  great  house;  the  present 
[1778]  0*Kindelan  is  colonel  of  the  regi- 
ment of  Ireland,  and  governor  of  Zamora, 
in  Spain.  Connall-Crimthan  had  the  terri- 
tory about  M agh-Breogh,  and  the  O'Ma- 
lochlins  were  his  successors.  And  to 
Fiacha  he  gave  a  tract  about  Uisneach, 
in  the  very  centre  of  Ireland :  the  Mac 
Geohagans,  O'Molloys,  etc.,  represent  this 
house. 

Of  the  Northern  Hi  Neills,  Eogon,  or 
Eon,  got  the  country  from  him  called 
Tir-one,  and  whose  descendants  are  the 
O'Neils.  Connal's  tract  yet  goes  by  the 
name  of  Tir-Connell ;  and  the  chiefs  of 
this  house  assumed  the  name  of  O'Donnel, 
from  a  celebrated  ancestor  so  called. 
Cairbre,  who  was  the  eldest  of  Niall's 
sons,  and  his  brother  Eana,  had  tracts  near 
Loch-Erne,  called  Carbre-Gaura  and  Tir- 
Eana. 

The  reason  why  Niall  was  sumamed 
the  Nine  Hostages,  was  because  he  de- 
tained at  Tara  hostages  from  so  many 
provinces ;  as  first,  from  Munster ;  sec- 
ond, from  Leinster ;  third,  Ulster  ;  fourth, 
Connaught ;  fifth,  the  Picts ;  sixth,  Alba- 
nian Scots ;  seventh,  the  British  Brigantes ; 
eighth,  the  Letanians,  or  Armoric  Britons  ; 
and  ninth,  from  Normandy. 

Daithi,  the  son  of  Fiachra,  and  nephew 
to  Niall,  was  his  successor  in  the  empire. 
About  this  time  the  confusions  and  dis- 
tresses in  Britain  and  Gaul  made  numbers 
of  people  from  both  places,  and  other  parts 
of  Europe,  flee  to  Ireland,  as  to  the  only 
country  where  peace,  subordination,  and 
hospitality,  were  then  preserved.  The 
Irish  received  these  strangers  with  their 
accustomed  benevolence;  assigning  them 
towns  to  live  in,  and  lands  to  occupy. 


These  places  yet  retain  the  names  of  differ- 
ent people  on  whom  they  were  then  be- 
stowed. Thus,  in  the  county  of  Limerick, 
we  have  Gall-Baile,  or  the  Gaul's  town ; 
the  remains  of  old  .abbeys,  and  other  pious 
foundations,  at  this  day  proclaiming  its 
former  grandeur :  Baile  na  Francoigh,  or 
the  Frank's  town,  etc.,  and  scarce  a  county 
of  the  kingdom  in  which  you  will  not  find 
some  villages  or  lands  by  the  names  of 
these  different  people,  as  the  British,  Saxon, 
Gaulish  or  Frank  town.  Thus  while  they 
manifested  to  all  Europe  their  humanity 
and  hospitality,  they  enriched  the  country 
by  new  inhabitants,  and  by  foreign  arts  and 
manufactures ;  by  this  means  making  up 
for  the  constant  drains  which  the  British 
and  continental  wars  made  unavoidable. 

But  while  humanity  and  sound  policy 
co-operated  in  encouraging  these  foreign 
refugees,  Daithi  lost  not  sight  of  the  great 
object  of  Irish  counsels  since  the  first  land- 
ing of  Caesar  in  Britain,  namely,  the  giving 
the  Romans  so  much  employ  abroad,  that 
they  would  never  think  of  bringing  the  war 
into  their  own  country.  For  this  purpose 
he  prepared  a  formidable  fleet  and  army, 
to  destroy,  in  conjunction  with  his  tributa- 
ries, the  Dal-Riada  of  North  Britain,  and 
with  his  allies  the  Picts  and  Saxons,  the 
remains  of  the  Roman  power  in  Britain, 
the  safer  after  this  to  make  a  more  power- 
ful invasion  on  the  continent. 

The  distresses  of  the  Romans  on  the  con- 
tinent obliging  them  to  withdraw  their 
troops  from  Britain,  and  with  them  to  carry 
off  as  many  of  the  British  youth  as  were 
able  to  bear  arms,  the  kingdom  had  little 
defence,  save  in  their  walls  and  forts,  which 
were  repaired,  and  in  the  children  of  the 
veteran  Romans  who  remained  behind. 
The  Scots  and  Picts  united,  soon  attacked 
these  walls.  In  vain  did  the  enemy  labour 
to  defend  them.  They  were  shot  dead 
with  arrows,  with  cran  tubals,  or  slings,  or 
dragged  off  the  walls  with  iron  grapples, 
constructed  for  that  purpose,  just  as  the 
Romans  were  in  Gaul  in  the  days  of  Caesar, 
when  the  Gauls  besieged  Cicero.  In  fine, 
they  forced  through  these  boundaries,  and 
nothing  but  carnage  and  ruin  were  seen  on 


A.D.426.) 


HISTVORY  OP   IRELAND; 


139 


every  side.  Roman  writers  say,  this  in- 
vasion was  repelled  by  Constantine,  who 
from  a  common  soldier,  was  raised  to  the 
purple  in  Britain ;  and  that  after  this,  he 
made  peace  with  the  Scots  and  Picts,  in 
order  to  be  more  at  liberty  to  establish  his 
dominion  in  Gaul.  Our  writers,  however, 
take  no  notice  of  any  such  defeat ;  and  if 
he  made  peace  with  them,  which  is  not  im- 
probable, like  Stilicho,  I  am  persuaded  he 
purchased  it  by  force  of  money,  not  of 
arms.  To  prove  this,  as  soon  as  it  was 
known  for  certain  in  Ireland,  that  Constan- 
tine was  cut  off,  Daithi  prepared  for  a 
second  incursion  into  Britain.  In  vain  did 
the  poor  Britons  implore  the  protection  of 
Rome  ;  unable  to  relieve,  they  sent  them 
a  formal  renunciation  of  all  power  and 
sovereignty  over  them  ;  and  they  became 
reduced  to  unheard-of  distresses,  through 
the  cruelty  and  rapacity  of  their  new 
masters. 

Again  they  renewed  their  applications  to 
Rome ;  and  some  successes  enabling  these 
last  to  send  them  relief,  a  legion  was  land- 
ed in  Britain,  which  suddenly  and  unexpec- 
tedly attacking  different  detached  parties 
of  the  Scots  and  Picts,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  country  everywhere  rising  against 
them,  they  were  obliged  to  make  a  precip- 
itate retreat  beyond  the  Roman  wall.  The 
Romans  directed  the  Britons  to  repair  their 
wall,  and  prepare  for  the  future  like  men, 
to  defend  themselves ;  but  these  last,  (says 
Bede,*)  having  among  them  none  skilful  in 
stcme  work,  made  it  up  in  the  best  manner 
they  could  with  earth.  In  the  mean  time, 
the  Roman  legion  quitted  Britain,  and  their 
old  enemies  the  Scots  and  Picts  prepared 
for  a  new  irrupti(«,  to  punish  the  Britons 
for  again  calling  in  the  Romans.  Their 
armies  united,  attacked  and  broke  through 
the  Roman  wall ;  and  looking  on  the  Bri- 
tons as  a  people  lost  to  every  sense  of  lib- 
erty, and  the  avowed  slaves  of  Rome,  they 
treated  them  with  every  mark  of  cruelty 
and  indignity.  Destitute  of  domestic  re- 
source, they  sent  ambassadors  to  Rome, 
imploring  protection  for  a  people  only  per- 
secuted for  their  attachment  to  her.  Their 
*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  i.  cap.  12. 


complaints  were  favourably  heard,  and  a 
fresh  legion  was  sent  to  their  relief.  The 
straggling  parties  of  Scots  were  cut  off; 
the  whole  country  assailed  them,  and  they 
again  preciiritately  retreated  out  of  the  Ro- 
man provinces. 

The  Roman  general  acquainted  the  Bri- 
tons of  the  numberless  enemies  Rome  had 
to  encounter ;  and  tlat  they  must  no  longer 
expect  succours  from  them,  as  they  were 
scarce  able  to  defend  their  new  frontiers. 
They  however  repaired  their  wall  with 
more  strength  and  firmness  than  ever,  add- 
ing fresh  redoubts  at  proper  distances. 
This  wall,  Bede  tells  us,  was  everywhere 
twelve  feet  high,  and  eight  feet  broad.t 
The  coasts  round  about  they  also  fortified 
with  bulwarks  fi-om  place  to  place,  to  op- 
pose the  enemy's  landing  from  their  ships. 
And  now  exhorting  the  Britons  to  acquit 
themselves  manfully,  and  never  desert  the 
alliance  of  Rome,  they  took  an  eternal 
farewell  of  the  country,  after  a  possession 
of  near  five  centuries ! 

The  Scots  and  Picts  hearing  of  this  final 
dereliction  of  Britain,  attacked  the  Roman 
wall  in  different  places.  Their  grappling 
irons,  their  arrows,  and  their  slings  annoy- 
ed the  enemy,  while  with  battering  rams 
they  shook  their  famous  wall  to  the  foun- 
dation !  From  their  currachs,  constructed 
for  this  purpose,  they  landed  fresh  troops 
from  their  fleet  to  attack  the  fortresses 
raised  to  oppose  their  landing.  Their 
hands  thus  full  everywhere,  and  fresh  men 
constantly  pushing  on,  the  Britons  were 
compelled  to  quit  their  works,  and  betake 
themselves  to  a  shamefiil  flight.  And  now 
it  was,  that  they  experienced  all  the  shock- 
ing cruelties  of  lawless  victors,  which  Gil- 
das  and  Bede  so  pathetically  deplore.  So 
great  was  their  rapacity,  and  so  fi'equent 
their  depredations,  that  the  country  was 
reduced  to  the  utmost  misery  and  want  of 
necessaries,  as  well  as  the  apprehensi(Hi  of 
catching  those  epidemic  disorders  incident 
to  cold  and  famine,  forcing  the  Scots  and 
Picts  to  quit  the  country,  but  with  a  resolu- 
tion to  return  at  a  more  proper  season. 

The  distressed  situation  of  the  Roman 

*  Hist  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  i.  cap.  12. 


«.i^^i.i.,i,w<Pf^^qpi^j|ii  \wm 


m^FWKK^mi  iiiiip..!.  Jiiii|iiiii  i 


"    ^T>»7 


140 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.D.  428. 


affairs  in  Gaul,  we  may  presume,  were  no 
more  overlooked  by  the  Irish  than  by  the 
other  enemies  of  that  people ;  however, 
I  am  not  authorized  from  our  annals  to  say 
that  they  made  any  formal  invasion  on  the 
continent  at  this  period,  except  the  one  in 
which  this  Daithi  perished.  The  Britons 
being  reduced  to  the  lowest  ebb,  Daithi 
prepared  a  formidable  army  to  invade  the 
continent.  In  the  two  last  reigns,  the  Irish 
arms  prevailed  only  on  the  maritime  coasts 
of  Gaul,  in  Brittany  and  Normandy ;  in  the 
present  we  see  them  unite  with  their  allies, 
and  carry  terror  and  ruin  to  the  very  foot 
of  the  Alps,  where  Daithi  was  killed  by 
lightning.  The  death  of  this  gallant  prince 
greatly  discouraged  his  troops.  About 
thirty  years  before,  an  army  of  barbarians 
was  ruined  by  tempest  and  lightning,  in  at- 
tempting to  cross  the  Alps  ;  and  this  dis- 
aster, which  probably  might  be  resolved 
into  natural  causes,  was,  by  the  Christians, 
declared  a  miracle  in  favour  of  the  empe- 
ror Theodosius.  The  most  part  of  this 
Irish  army  were  pagans :  they  did  not  want 
for  superstition  and  credulity  ;  and  wished 
not  to  engage  but  with  men.  Their  army 
therefore,  under  the  command  of  Laogaire, 
son  to  the  hero  Niall,  and  cousin-german 
to  the  deceased,  made  a  regular  retreat, 
bringing  home  with  them  the  embalmed 
body  of  Daithi,  who  was  interred  with  great 
funeral  pomp  at  Roilig  na  Riogh. 

When  Daithi,  from  king  of  Connaught, 
was  called  to  the  monarchy,  he  relinquish- 
ed that  crown  to  his  brother  Amalgad,  as 
Criomhthan  before  him  did  the  crown  of 
Leath-Mogha.  A  proof  how  jealous  the 
people  were  of  their  liberty,  and  how 
careful  they  were  to  prevent  the  monarchs 
assuming  too  great  a  power.  The  King 
of  Leath-Mogha  in  this  reign  was  Nafra- 
oich,  the  son  of  Core,  of  the  Eugenian 
line,  and  race  of  Heber.  His  power  ex- 
tended over  South  Munster  and  the  royalty 
of  Cashell  only;  while  Cas,  brother  to 
Eana,  of  the  Dai-Gas,  governed  North 
Munster,  and  Randubh,  the  son  of  Eoch- 
aidh,  the  son  of  Eana,  the  kingdom  of 
Leinster. 

Cas,  King  of  North  Nunster,  had  twelve 


sons,  who  were  the  sources  of  great  fami- 
lies ;  first.  Blood,  his  eldest  and  successor ; 
second,  Casin,  from  whom  O'Casin  ;  third, 
Lugh  Delbhoodh;  fourth,  Seadhna ;  fifth, 
Aongufl  Ceannathrach  ;  sixth,  Cormoc  ; 
seventh,  Carthan ;  eighth,  Caineach ;  ninth, 
Aongus  Ceanaitin;  tenth,  Aoh;  eleventh, 
Loisgean;  and  twelfth,  Nac.  Cas  made 
an  equal  partition  of  his  lands  between 
these  sons.  Lugh  Dealbhoodh  being  an 
excellent  soldier,  and  having  in  his  pay  a 
select  body  of  troops,  lent  these  out.  By 
this  means  he  gained  large  estates  in  Lein- 
ster and  Connaught,  which  after  him  were 
called  Dealvnas. 

These  invasions  from  Ireland,  and  each 
army  extending  its  conquests  beyond  the 
other,  wonderfully  elucidate  the  mutilated 
accounts  delivered  by  Roman  writers,  of 
these  days  of  war  and  anarchy.  Proco- 
pius,  in  the  sixth  book  of  the  wars  of  the 
Goths,  tells  us,  that  the  Germans  endea- 
voured to  reduce  the  Armoricans,  (i.  e.  the 
people  of  Flanders,  Normandy,  and  Brit- 
tany,) on  account  of  their  changing  their 
ancient  love  of  liberty  to  a  veneration  for 
Rome  and  for  slavery,  and  therefore  fi^e- 
quently  invaded  their  territories  ;  till  at 
length,  by  force  or  by  friendship,  they  pre- 
vailed upon  them  to  join  in  the  grahd 
confederacy  against  Rome,  which  was  then 
strengthened  by  marriages  and  other  alli- 
ances. The  alliance  between  the  Irish 
and  Germans,  particularly  the  Saxons, 
Claudian  clearly  attests ;  and  the  first  in- 
vasions of  Normandy  and  Brittany  under 
Criomhthan  and  Niall,  being  mostly  con- 
fined to  the  seacoast,  add  dignity  to  the 
relation.  The  Armoricans  seeing  Rome 
no  longer  able  to  protect  them,  and  finding 
their  trade  lessening,  and  their  country 
exposed  to  frequent  depredations  and  in- 
sults, perceived  the  necessity  of  altering 
their  system  of  politics.  "The  maritime 
and  other  provinces  of  Gaul,  says  Zozimus, 
(lib.  vi.)  intending  to  free  themselves  from 
the  Roman  yoke,  expelled  their  governors 
and  garrisons."  All  these  convulsions  and 
revolutions  in  Britain,  and  the  maritime 
coasts  of  Gaul,  corresponding  so  exactly 
with  the  times  of  the  invasions  of  Criom- 


»i 


A.  D.  428.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


141 


hthan  and  Niall,  leave  not  the  least  doubt 
of  the  invasive  quarter,  or  of  the  primum 
mobile  of  this  conjuration.  The  time  that 
the  Armoricans  united  in  the  grand  con- 
federacy against  Rome,  must  have  happen- 
ed in  the  reign  of  Niall :  and  his  second 
invasion  of  Gaul,  in  which  we  see  he  ad- 
vanced far  into  the  country,  in  all  appear- 


ance was  projected  m  conjunction  with 
these  people,  to  support  them  in  their  at- 
tempts at  expelling  the  Roman  garrisons. 
In  fine,  in  the  present  reign,  we  see  Daithi 
march  to  the  foot  of  the  Alps ;  and 
at  this  time  it  is  known,  that  the  enemies 
of  Rome  triumphed  both  in  Gaul  and  in 
G^ermany. 


END   OP   THE    FIRST   VOLUME. 


•e 


4^ 


'idSW?  ;  ■ 


^  V 


THE 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 

BOOK    VII. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Loghaire  elected  emperor — Successfully  invades 
Britain — Attacks  the  Lagenians,  but  is  defeated 
and  taloen  prisoner — Released  on  conditions 
which  he  refuses  to  observe — New  settlements 
of  the  Heberians  in  Leinster — Of  the  religion 
of  the  Diniids,  and  its  effects  on  the  morals  of 
the  people — The  first  introduction  of  Christian- 
ity into  Ireland,  not  from  Rome,  but  Asia  or 
Africa — The  flourishing  state  of  the  Ix'ish  church 
before  the  landing  of  St.  Pati'ick. 

Immediately  after  the  interment  of  Dai- 
thi,  the  estates  were  convened  to  elect  a 
successor ;  and  Laogaire,  son  of  the  re- 
nowned hero  Niall,  and  governor  of  Tara 
in  his  father's  reign,  was  unanimously 
called  to  the  monarchy.  Acting  under 
the  late  emperor  Daithi,  the  present  prince, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Saxons  and  Armor- 
icans,  or  maritime  states  of  the  continent, 
to  wit:  the  people  of  Flanders,  Picardy, 
Normandy,  and  Brittany,  had  the  honour 
of  displaying  the  banners  of  Ireland,  and 
proclaimed  liberty  even  at  the  foot  of  the 
Alps ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had  settled  the 
internal  police  of  his  country,  he  now  pre- 
pared for  new  expeditions,  in  concert  with 
the  ancient  national  allies. 

About  this  time  Clodion  was  called  to 
the  government  of  Gaul.  He  was  called 
Chevelu,  as  being  the  first  prince  of  the 
ancient  race  of  kings  who,  for  above  four 
centuries,  wore  his  hair  in  long  ringlets 
round  the  back.*  For  it  is  worthy  of 
notice,  that  the  Gauls  under  the  Roman 
government  were  obliged  to  have  (heir 

*  Mezeray,  Histoire  de  Fi-ance,  torn.  i.  p.  10. 


hair  cut  short,  probably  as  a  mark  of  sub- 
jection; or  perhaps  because  the  Romans 
deemed  it  as  a  mark  of  effeminacy ; 
whereas,  in  the  states  it  was  worn  flowing 
down  the  back  in  curls.  The  Irish,  in  par- 
ticular, as  we  have  already  observed,  were 
so  fond  of  this  ornament,  that  no  soldier 
or  officer  dared  appear  without  it ;  nay, 
its  loss  was  a  mark  of  the  highest  con- 
tempt, and  an  indignity  to  be  suffered  only 
by  slaves.  But  to  return  from  this  digres- 
sion, Laogaire  with  a  potent  army  invaded 
Britain,  and  again  were  the  walls  and 
mounds  of  earth  levelled  to  the  ground, 
and  again  the  Britons  experienced  all  the 
miseries  of  a  defenceless  people,  exposed 
to  the  outrages  of  a  cruel  and  exasperated 
enemy  !  At  length,  united  by  despair,  the 
Britons  made  head  against  the  invaders, 
and  gained  some  advantages  over  their 
detached  parties ;  yet,  by  a  large  tribute 
only,  were  they  enabled  to  extricate  them- 
selves from  these  unseasonable  visitors  for 
the  present. 

Flushed  by  this  success,  the  monarch 
raised  new  troops,  determined  to  compel 
the  Lagenians  to  pay  their  usual  tribute, 
which  it  seems  they  had  refused;  but 
Criomthan,  the  son  of  Eana  Cinselach, 
was  too  good  a  politician  not  to  be  sensi- 
ble that  such  refusal  must  necessarily  draw 
on  him  the  indignation  of  the  monarch,  and 
therefore  wisely  prepared  for  the  worst. 
He  applied  to  Nafraoich,  the  son  of  Core, 
of  the  Eugenian  line,  at  that  time  King  of 


■"^W^.-- 


144 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  431. 


Leath-Mogha,  for  his  support,  and  entered 
into  particular  treaty  with  Luig-Dealb- 
hoidh,  the  son  of  Cas,  who  was  an  excel- 
lent commander,  and  always  kept  a  body 
of  select  troops  in  his  pay.  In  the  mean- 
time, Laoghaire  entered  Leinster;  but 
Criomhthan  avoided  a  general  action  till 
the  arrival  of  his  auxiliaries.  As  soon  as 
these  joined  him,  he  bade  defiance  to  the 
monarch,  and  by  mutual  agreement  both 
armies  met  at  Atha-Dara,  in  the  county  of 
Kildare.  The  battle,  as  usual  on  all  these 
occasions,  was  fierce  and  bloody,  and  well 
fought  on  both  sides  ;  but  the  superior  dis- 
cipline of  the  Mamonians  at  length  pre- 
vailed, and  the  imperialists  gave  way  on 
every  side.  In  this  general  rout,  Laog- 
haire was  taken  prisoner,  and  purchased 
his  liberty  by  swearing  to  exonerate  the 
province  of  Leinster  from  all  future  demands 
of  tribute ;  and  which  he  did  in  the  most 
public  manner,  "  invoking  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars,"  as  witnesses  to  this  compact. 

Criomhthan,  as  a  reward  for  the  great 
services  of  Luig  gave  him  large  estates  in 
Leinster,  which  from  his  surname  were 
called  the  Dealbhnas.  Delvin-more  in 
Meath,  was  the  patrimony  of  the  O'Finnal- 
lans,  of  this  race,  till  dispossessed  by  Hugo 
de  Lacy,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  twelfth 
century,  who  conferred  it  on  Gilbert  de 
Nugent,  whose  posterity  became  barons 
of  Delvin,  and  earls  of  West  Meath. 
Delvin,  or  Dealbhna-beg,  in  the  same 
county,  was  the  lordship  of  the  CMael- 
Challains,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  Dealbhna- 
Tean-moi,  was  the  property  of  the  CSco- 
luighs,  or  Scullys;  and  Dealbhna-Eathra, 
in  the  present  King's  County,  was  the  ter- 
ritory of  CCoghlin,  or  Mac  Coghlan,  (for 
I  find  it  wrote  in  old  MSS.  both  ways,) 
and  which  lordship,  or  at  least  a  consider- 
able part,  is  still  preserved  in  that  illus- 
trious line.  The  present  O'Coghlin  [1778] 
wa,s  a  member  in  the  last  parliament. 

Scarce  had  Laogaire  recovered  his  lib- 
erty, when  he  protested  against  all  pro- 
ceedings and  promises  made  during  his 
captivity.  The  Druids  absolved  him  from 
his  oath,  and  he  prepared  again  to  assert 
the  rights  of   his  |ncestors,  by  force  of 


arms,  over  the  Lagenians.  He  likewise 
made  some  fresh  invasions  on  South  Brit- 
ain ;  but  our  historians  in  this  reign  were 
so  taken  up  with  religious  affairs,  that  they 
have  scarce  attended  to  any  other  matters, 
leaving  us  in  the  dark  as  to  the  events  of 
these  last  preparations.  Indeed,  the  intro- 
duction and  establishment  of  Christianity  is 
so  closely  connected  with  the  history  of  the 
nations  in  which  it  prevailed,  that  it  neces- 
sarily becomes  a  part  of  such  works.  The 
remarkable  effect  it  had  on  the  manners 
and  pursuits  of  the  Irish,  deserves  to  be 
particularly  adverted  to. 

Never  was  a  system  of  religion  better 
calculated  to  stir  up  the  soul  to  noble  ac- 
tions than  that  which  prevailed  among  the 
Celtic  and  Scythian  nations  of  Europe 
previous  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity. 
It  seemed  even  to  require  longer  and  se- 
verer trials  of  probation  than  the  new  doc- 
trine ;  for  though  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  was  universally  believed  by  them,  yet 
they  never  allowed  repose  to  it.  They 
taught  that  it  must  pass  from  body  to  body, 
till  by  a  series  of  ages,  and  actions  of  the 
brightest  dye,  it  became  a  pure  emanation 
from  the  Deity,  purged  from  all  terrestrial 
vices,  and  worthy  to  be  returned  from 
whence  it  came.  Was  a  man  addicted  to 
gluttonry,  the  soul,  after  his  decease,  was 
judged  to  animate  a  hog,  or  some  such 
unclean  creature.  The  vices  in  one  ani- 
mation were  punished  after  death  by  that 
soul's  being  tranfused  into  some  quadruped 
most  remarkable  for  such  depravity.  The 
souls  of  the  brave,  the  generous,  and  the 
humane,  after  death,  were  revived  in  other 
bodies,  still  more  noble  and  pure !  In  time 
they  became  pure  aerial  spirits,  and  from 
thence  ascended  to  the  Caslum  iEmpy- 
reum.  Pythagoras  boasted  that  he  remem- 
bered animating  the  bodies  of  Aethalides 
Euphorbus,  Hermotimus,  and  Pyrrhus,  and 
related  the  different  accidents  that  hap- 
pened to  him  in  each  personage.*  It  is 
true  he  tells  us  the  reason  why  he  partic- 
ularly possessed  this  power  of  recollection 
after  death,  not  granted  to  others, — that  in 
the  person  of  Aethalides,  who  was  sup- 

*  Diogeu.  Laertius,  lib.  viii. 


■  >-,  ;■ 


A.  D.  431.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


145 


posed  to  be  the  son  of  Mercury,  he  begged 
of  that  god  to  be  enabled  to  remember 
after  death  whatever  passed  in  the  differ- 
ent bodies  he  animated.  Thus  Ovid  re- 
lates the  tale : — 

"  Morte  careut  animae :  semperque,  priore  relicta 
Sede,  novis  domibus  habitant  vivuntque  receptse. 
Jpse  ego  (nam  memini)  Trojani  tempora  belli 
Fanthoides  Euphorbus  eram  :  cui  pectore  quondam 
Sedit  in  adverso  gravis  hasta  minoris  Atridse. 
Cognovi  clypeum,  levse  gestamina  nostrse 
Nuper  Abanteis  templo  Jiinonis  in  Argis."  * 

Nor  are  we,  even  at  this  day,  destitute 
of  Druid  tales  to  the  same  import.  Fion- 
tan,  says  our  old  legendary  tales,  came  to 
Ireland  before  the  Flood,  with  his  wife 
Ceasair.  They  shared  the  same  fate  with 
the  rest  of  the  antediluvian  world,  except 
Noah  and  his  children.  He  animated  a 
new  body  after  the  Flood,  and  lived  for  a 
considerable  time.  He  related,  that  at  the 
building  the  ark,  he,  with  his  wife's  father, 
Bith,  applied  to  Noah,  for  room  for  his 
family,  but  which  was  refused  him.  They 
consulted  an  oracle,  and  were  advised  to 
build  such  a  machine  as  Noah  was  about; 
to  store  it  with  provisions,  and  when  the 
rain  began  to  cover  the  country,  to  enter 
it,  and  commit  themselves  to  the  mercy  of 
the  winds  and  waves  — "  incerti  quo  fata 
ferunt."  They  did  so,  and  were  thrown 
on  the  Irish  coasts.  Here,  after  some  time, 
they  all  died ;  but  Fiontain,  like  Pythagoras, 
being  endowed  with  the  spirit  of  recollec- 
tion after  death,  on  re-animating  a  new 
body,  related  this  wonderfid  tale,  which  is 
all  the  authority  we  have  for  our  antedi- 
luvian history !  However,  this  tale  proves 
sufficiently  that  the  early  Irish  Druids  were 
well  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the 
Jews  long  before  the  Incarnation ;  and 
that  they  wanted  neither  boldness  nor  in- 
vention, where  the  honour  of  their  religion 
or  the  antiquity  of  their  country  were  the 
objects.  It  is  recorded  in  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell,  in  the  reign  of  Fiacha  Muilleathan, 
that  the  Druid  Modharuith,  (who,  for  find- 
ing out  the  means  of  supplying  his  army 
with  water  in  a  time  of  great  scarcity,  was 
granted  lands  in  the  county  of  Cork,  after- 

*  Metamorph.  lib.  zt. 
19 


wards  the  lordships  of  O'Keefe,  and  now 
called  Roche's  country,  about  A.  D.  260,) 
boasted  to  this  prince  that  he  remembered 
the  reigns  of  nineteen  monarchs  of  Ireland. 
Caioilte  Mac  Roan  is  said  to  have  'lived 
(or  rather  to  have  animated  different  bodies) 
many  hundred  years  before  the  time  of 
St.  Patrick,  and  to  have  given  this  apostle 
several  curious  anecdotes  of  the  country 
and  of  its  ancient  inhabitants  and  religion, 
little  known  to  the  pubUc.  The  dialogue 
between  St.  Patrick  and  Oisin,  still  pre- 
served, in  which  a  minute  relation  is  given 
of  the  bloody  battle  of  Gabhra,  and  of  the 
heroes  that  fell  on  both  sides,  is  another 
proof  of  this.  The  author  asserted  that  he 
was  Oisin,  the  eldest  son  of  the  famous  Fion 
Mac  Cumhal ;  though  this  battle  was  fought 
A.  D.  296,  at  which  time  Oisin  must  have 
been  advanced  in  years,  his  son  Osgur 
being  then  general  of  the  Fionne  Eirion,  or 
Leinster  cohorts ! 

But  though  the  immortality  and  trans- 
migration of  the  soul  were,  as  we  have 
seen,  constantly  inculcated  by  the  Druids, 
yet  their  doctrines  and  tenets  were  calcu- 
lated, in  general,  rather  to  inflame  than 
suppress  the  passions.  Thus,  the  love  of 
glory,  ambition,  and  revenge  were  the 
chief  themes  of  the  bards  and  senachies. 
None  were  spoken  respectfully  of  in  our 
annals,  or  celebrated  by  the  bards,  but  such 
as  indulged  these  passions  to  the  highest 
degree.  Lucan,  who  seemed  well  ac- 
quainted with  their  tenets,  tell  us,  that  the 
chief  employment  of  the  bards  was  to 
celebrate  the  achievements  of  those  who 
fell  in  battle  ;  and,  to  confirm  this,  we  have 
already  observed,  that  in  the  midst  of 
slaughter  the  bards  attended  the  fight  to 
animate  their  patrons  by  their  verse ;  to 
remind  them  of  the  achievements  of  their 
ancestors,  and  the  disgrace  they  must  en- 
tail on  their  posterity  should  they  fall  short 
of  such  glorious  patterns !  Thus  Lucan — 

"  Vos  qnoque  qui  fortes  animas,  belloque  peremptos, 
LaudibuB  in  longnm  vates,  dimittitis  seviun, 
Plurima  securi  fadistis  carmina  bardi." 

The  Christian  religion  pointing  the  road 
to  salvation  by  doctrines  totally  opposite 
•  Phanal.  lib.  i. 


i^ 


146 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  431. 


to  those  of  the  Druids,  we  must  suppose 
produced  a  sensible  alteration  in  the  con- 
duct of  its  votaries  ;  and  it  did  so.  At  a 
very  early  period  Christianity  was  preach- 
ed in  Ireland.  The  constant  enmity  be- 
tween this  country  and  ancient  Rome  pre- 
vented any  kind  of  friendly  intercourse. 
This  doctrine  came  not  immediately  from 
thence  here,  but  from  the  churches  of  Asia ; 
and  this  explains  what  Tertullian  notes — 
"Britannorum  inaccessa  Romanis  loca, 
Christo  vero  subdita."  Mansuetus,  an 
Irishman,  the  first  bishop  and  patron  of 
Toul,  and  canonized  by  Leo  IX.,  is  said  to 
have  been  a  disciple  of  St.  Peter.*  St. 
James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  it  is  affirmed, 
also  preached  the  gospel  in  Ireland.f  To 
me  it  would  seem  that  Mansuetus,  and  the 
other  early  Irish  Christians,  were  rather 
the  disciples  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist ; 
and  I  ground  my  opinion  on  what  the  Ve- 
nerable Bede  relates,  with  regard  to  the 
famous  controversy  about  the  celebration 
of  Easter.  J  He  tells  us,  that  in  defence 
of  the  Irish  time  of  celebrating  this  feast 
in  opposition  to  that  of  Rome,  Colman,  the 
Irish  Bishop  of  Lindisfam,  among  other 
reasons  declared — "  that  he  had  received 
it  from  his  forefathers,  who  sent  him  to 
Northumberland  as  their  bishop ;  and  that 
it  was  the  same  custom  which  St.  John, 
Christ's  especially  beloved  disciple,  with 
all  the  churches  under  him,  observed." 
In  the  reign  of  Con,  in  the  second  century, 
Ireland  sent  forth  the  famous  St.  Cathal- 
dus  §  to  preach  the  doctrine  of  Christ ;  and 
he  became  bishop  and  patron  of  Taren- 
tum,  in  Italy.  In  so  flourishing  a  state 
was  Christianity  soon  after,  that  in  the 
next  age,  Cormoc,  as  great  a  legislator 
and  as  wise  a  prince  as  any  nation  pro- 
duced, before  his  death  became  a  Chris- 
tian, and  died  in  that  faith,  as  we  have 
observed  already;  soon  after  which  it  is 
expressly  said  in  the  Catha-Gabhra,  that 
the  Irish  general  Fion  went  to  Rome.  In 
the  next  reign,  we  read  of  an  Irish  bishop's 
suffering  martyrdom  in  Britain ;  and  it  is 

*  Usher.  Primord.  p.  747,  8.     Braodin.  p.  879,  etc. 
t  Usher,  p.  5.        i  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  25. 
$  Bruodin.  p.  879.  Vita  St  Cataldi,  etc. 


evident  by  the  poem  of  Toma  Eigis,  chief 
bard  to  Niall  the  Grand,  beginning  with — 
"  Dail  Catha,  idir  Core,  and  Niall,"  that  he 
himself  was  a  Christian ;  and  Colgan  offers 
his  reasons  for  thinking  his  master  one 
also.* 


CHAPTER  II. 

Churches  and  schools  founded,  and  bishops  estab- 
lished, before  the  anival  of  St.  Patrick — Pope 
Celestin  sends  Palladius  to  Ireland — A  passage 
in  Prosper  on  this  embassy  explained  and  de- 
fended— Is  succeeded  by  St.  Patrick — His  man- 
ner of  conducting  the  mission — The  number  of 
bishops  consecrated  by  him  accounted  for — Is 
appointed  one  of  the  committee  to  examine  the 
national  records — Remarks  upon  it. 

The  preceding  chapter  has  shown  the 
flourishing  state  of  Christianity  in  Ireland 
before  the  days  of  St.  Patrick ;  and  if  what 
is  generally  taken  for  granted  is  true,  i.  e. 
"  that  the  more  polished  the  nations  were, 
the  speedier  this  doctrine  spread  itself 
among  them" — we  must  rank  this  country 
among  the  most  civilized  stateg^f  Europe, 
and  what  Cambrensis  meant  as  an  insult, 
the  highest  encomium  on  the  people ;  for 
he  upbraided  the  Archbishop  of  Cashell, 
for  that  among  thehumbers  of  saints  and 
confessors  which  Ireland  boasted,  they 
could  not  produce  one  martyr.f  But  per- 
secution and  death  for  religious  tenets 
was  never  the  practice  of  a  truly  polished 
people. 

The  mis8iqp||iigi(k  in  the  fourth  century 
not  only  preaij||BUlj^  but  founded  churches, 
and  opened  colleges  in  Ireland.  Among 
these  was  the  holy  Diana,  whose  name  a 
church  near  Adare,  in  this  coimty,  (Limer- 
ick,) still  bears.  Heber,  or  Ibarus  soon 
after  founded  an  academy  at  a  place  called 
Beg-lire,  in  Leinster,  where,  as  Usher  notes, 
"  he  instructed  very  great  nimibers  of  Irish 
as  well  as  foreigners  in  sacred  and  polite 
letters." J  Colgan  says,  "  that  people  from 
all  parts  crowded  to  his  schools,  to  be  m- 
structed  in  Christianity  and  letters."§     St. 

•  Trias  Thaumat.  p.  175,  N.  28. 

t  Topogr.  Hib.  dist.  iii.  cap.  29. 

t  Usher,  Primord.  p.  801.        $  Vita  St.  Abbani. 


A.D.  431.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


147 


Albe,  Archbishop  of  Munster,  and  his  con- 
temporary, Usher,  tells  us,  after  preaching 
through  the  whole  kingdom,  founded  his 
church  and  schools  at  Emely.  St.  Kieran 
and  St.  Declan  also  preceded  St.  Patrick, 
and  founded  churches ;  and  when  this  apos- 
tle required  their  acknowledging  him  as 
primate  of  all  Ireland,  it  produced  some 
dissensions ;  "  Ibarus  particularly  protesting 
against  giving  the  supremacy  and  patron- 
age of  Ireland  to  any  one  but  a  native." 

The  zeal  and  success  of  the  Irish  mis- 
sionaries in  Britain  and  on  the  continent,  at 
this  time,  sufficiently  proved  to  the  Roman 
pontiff  in  what  a  respectable  state  Chris- 
tianity must  have  been  in  Ireland ;  and 
though,  as  we  have  already  observed,  this 
doctrine  was  not  introduced  among  us  by 
Roman  preachers  any  more  than  among 
the  early  Gauls,  (else  why  would  these  last, 
in  that  terrible  persecution  raised  against 
them  in  the  latter  end  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, prefer  their  complaints  and  paint  their 
distresses,  to  their  brethren  in  Asia  and 
Phrygia,  rather  than  to  the  faithful  in 
Rome?)*  yet  they  naturally  wished  to  es- 
tablish their  authority  here.  To  this  end, 
in  A.  D.  431,  and  in  the  reign  of  the  pres- 
ent Emperor  Loagaire,  Pope  Celestin  sent 
Palladius,  Archdeacon  of  the  Roman  church, 
as  archbishop  and  apostle  of  Ireland,  with 
twelve  Irish  missionaries.  This  is  affirmed 
by  the  Venerable  Bede,  who  tells  us,  **that 
in  the  eighth  year  of  the  Emperor  Theodo- 
sius,  Palladius  was  sent  by  Celestin,  bishop 
of  the  Roman  church,  to  the  Scots  believing 
in  Christ,  to  be  their  first  BisHOP."t  Pros- 
per, treating  of  the  mission  of  Palladius, 
says, "  that  he  was  ordained  by  Pope  Celes- 
tin, and  sent,  the  first  bishop,  to  the  Scots  be- 
lieving in  Christ.^'X  The  great  Primate, 
Usher,  whose  zeal  for  his  country  was  equal 
to  his  erudition,  contended  that  the  word 
primus  was  foisted  into  later  copies  of 
Prosper  ;  and  his  reason  for  supposing  this, 
was  lest  it  might  be  thought  that  there  had 
not  been  Christians  in  Ireland  §  before  this 
period,  a  point  which  he  strenuously  con- 

*  Fleury,  Hist  Eccles.  torn.  i.  p.  433. 

t  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  i.  cap.  13.         %  Chron.lBid  ann.  431. 

$  Prun.  Eccles.  Brit  p.  798. 


tends  for.  That  there  were,  cannot  be 
controverted,  and  yet  it  does  not  neverthe- 
less lessen  the  authorities  of  Bede  and 
Prosper.  The  political  enmity  between 
Rome  and  Ireland  cut  off  all  communica- 
tion between  them.  The  Irish  received 
the  faith  from  the  early  Asiatic,  or  African 
churches ;  and  Palladius  was  therefore  the 
first  bishop  sent  from  Rome  to  establish  the 
Roman  hierarchy  here.  This  becomes 
more  clearly  illustrated  by  what  Prosper 
says  afterwards,  in  speaking  of  Celestin — 
"that  having  ordained  a  bishop  for  the 
Scots  or  Irish;  while  he  endeavoured  to 
keep  the  Roman  island,  (i.  e.  Britain,)  Catho- 
lic, he  made  the  barbarous  island,  (i.  e.  Ire- 
land,) Christian."  The  evident  sense  of 
which  is — ^that  while  he  attended  to  the 
care  of  Britain,  which  always  acknow- 
ledged the  power  of  Rome,  he  forgot  not 
the  same  zeal  and  concern  for  Ireland, 
though  it  never  admitted  of  Roman  juris- 
diction. A  confession  highly  honourable 
to  this  country,  and  a  further  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  our  ancient  history. 

His  mission  was  attended  with  no  great 
success ;  for  we  must  suppose,  by  the  op- 
position given  to  St.  Patrick's  ministry  in 
the  beginning,  that  the  Irish  were  very  un- 
willing to  acknowledge  any  spiritual  supre- 
macy in  a  people  whose  temporal  power 
they  so  manfully  and  successfully  opposed. 
His  stay  was  but  of  a  few  months  in  Ire- 
land, during  which  time  he  founded  three 
new  churches,  and  then  retired  to  Britain, 
where  he  died  soon  after. 

On  the  report  of  his  death  at  Rome,  Ce- 
lestin looked  out  for  a  successor,  and  none 
was  judged  so  proper  for  this  arduous  task 
as  Patrick,  who,  as  we  noted  in  the  life 
of  Niall  the  Grand,  had  been  then  take^ 
among  other  captives,  and  sold  as  a  slave 
in  Ireland,  where  he  remained  for  seven 
years.  After  his  redemption,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  church,  and  to  the  most  sub- 
lime spiritual  exercises.  His  knowledge 
of  the  country  and  language,  his  piety,  wis- 
dom, and  meekness,  but  above  all,  his  own 
seeming  immediate  call  from  God  for  this 
mission,  conspired  to  mark  him  out  for  this 
great  undertaking.     It  is  recorded  in  his 


148 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  431. 


life,  and  affirmed  by  himself,  that  aftet  his 
release  /rom  captivity,  and  return  to  his 
friends,  often  reflecting  on  his  future  pur- 
suits in  life,  in  a  vision  he  saw  a  man  com- 
ing to  him  from  Ireland  with  letters,  the 
beginning  of  which  was,  vox  Hihemigen- 
sium  ;  and  that  while  perusing  it,  he  heard 
the  natives  call  to  him  for  instruction. 
From  this  time  forward  he  determined  for 
the  Church,  and  to  convert  the  Irish.  His 
baptismal  name  was  Succath;  but  at  the 
time  of  his  ordination  by  St.  Germain,  it 
was  changed  to  Magonias.  After  his  con- 
secration, and  to  add  greater  weight  and 
dignity  to  his  embassy,  Celestin  conferred 
on  him  the  patrician  order.  This  was  an 
institution  of  Constantine,  the  first  Christian 
emperor,  and  more  honourable  than  that 
of  the  ancient  order ;  as  these  patricii  rank- 
ed next  to  the  emperors,  or  their  declared 
successors.  To  prove  this,  we  find  Charle- 
magne and  other  kings  of  France  to  have 
retained  the  title  of  Roman  patricians. 
Patricius  was  not  the  real  name  of  our 
apostle,  (though  he  afterwards  retained  it,) 
but  the  title  conferred  on  him. 

It  is  not  my  intent  to  give  a  minute  ac- 
count of  the  piety,  zeal,  and  wisdom  of  this 
great  apostle  during  his  mission.  His  life 
has  been  written,  and  his  actions  celebrated 
by  so  many  different  pens,  that  the  task 
seems  almost  unnecessary.  I  shall  how- 
ever touch  upon  such  parts  as  will  tend  to 
illustrate  the  history  of  the  country.  When 
he  landed  in  Ireland,  he  found  the  nation 
replete  with  holy  and  learned  preachers, 
and  their  votaries  pious  and  obedient.  It 
is  very  probable  that  Palladius  presumed 
too  much  on  his  mission  from  Rome,  and 
wanted  to  extort  a  greater  reverence  and 
obedience  from  the  Irish  clergy  than  they 
thought  him  entitled  to.  Patrick  conducted 
himself  quite  otherwise.  He  rather  gained 
on  them  by  mildness  than  severity ;  and 
we  see  by  Ibarus,  who  opposed  his  authority 
most,  he  insensibly  gained  the  ascendant 
over  and  brought  him  to  be  of  his  party. 
Having  thus  established  his  authority  over 
the  clergy,  he  considered  of  the  most  effec- 
tual methods  of  spreading  the  new  doctrine 
through  the  whole  kingdom.     His  princi- 


pal aim  was  the  conversion  of  the  nobility, 
m  which  pursuit  he  met  with  great  success. 
After  traversing  Leinster  and  Ulster  for 
near  two  years,  everywhere  making  con- 
verts among  the  great,  he  determined  to 
attend  the  national  estates,  soon  to  meet  at 
Tara.  The  eves  of  Bel,  or  May,  and  of 
Samhuin,  or  Noveipber,  were  the  two 
principal  festivals  of  the  Druids.  At  each 
season  all  culinary  fires  were  extinguished 
and  re-lighted  by  the  sacred  fires,  kept 
burning  in  the  temples  of  Uisneach  and 
Flachta.  It  was  deemed  sacrilege  to  have 
any  fire  lighted  on  those  days,  but  from 
these  temples.  St.  Patrick  nevertheless 
determined  to  break  through  this  custom, 
and  sap  the  very  foundation  of  Druidism. 
On  the  eve  of  Bel,  he  had  a  very  large  fire 
kindled  near  the  temple  of  Uisneach.  The 
Druids  and  their  votaries  beheld  with  hor- 
ror this  innovation,  and  preferred  their 
petition  to  the  monarch.  Next  day  St. 
Patrick  was  summoned  to  appear  before 
the  estates. 

The  state  of  Loagaire  is  on  this  occa- 
sion compared  to  that  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
on  the  plains  of  Dura.  The  apostle  ap- 
peared, produced  his  credentials,  and  de- 
fended his  doctrine  with  such  forcible  ar- 
guments, that  numbers  were  converted, 
and  the  empress  of  Laogaire  was  of  the 
number.  This  step  of  Patrick's  was  cer- 
tainly a  very  bold  one ;  but  I  suppose  he 
relied  on  his  public  character  of  a  Roman 
patrician,  or  on  the  number  of  friends  he 
had  already  gained  in  the  council,  for  his 
protection.  He  continued  for  some  time 
after  at  Tara,  in  public  disputations  with 
the  Druids,  and  the  event  proves  with  great 
success.  From  thence  he  proceeded  to 
Tailtean,  where  the  chiefs  of  the  nation 
assembled  every  year  to  attend  the  famous 
exhibitions,  and  here  numbers  were  con- 
verted. In  a  word,  so  great  was  the  suc- 
cess of  this  holy  apostle,  that  in  a  very  few 
years  the  princes  and  chief  nobility  of  the 
kingdom  acknowledged  the  doctrine  of 
Christ.  Not  only  this,  but  so  great  was 
their  zeal,  and  so  pure  their  intentions,  that 
they  did  not  deem  it  sufficient  to  devote 
the  tenth  part  of  their  riches,  their  flocks. 


A.D.431.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


149 


and  their  corn  to  God,  but  bestowed  the 
tenth  .  son  on  the  Church  !  Hence  the 
amazing  number  of  devout  recluses,  and 
holy  bishops,"  of  the  purest  blood  of  Ire- 
land, whose  pedigrees  have  been  preserved 
with  great  care,  many  of  whom  passed 
over  from  time  to  time  to  Britain  and  to 
the  continent,  to  establish  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  by  their  precepts  and  example.  It 
is  recorded  of  Patrick,  that  during  his 
mission  to  Ireland,  he  consecrated  no  less 
than  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  bishops, 
and  ordained  three  thousand  priests,  none 
of  whom  were  received  who  had  not 
given  the  clearest  evidences  of  a  holy  and 
pious  life  and  conversation. 

This  number  of  bishops  may  surprise 
some  readers,  and  therefore  merits  an  elu- 
cidation. Among  the  other  causes  of  Pat- 
rick's great  influence  on  the  people,  one 
was,  his  attention  to  avoid  whatever  could 
alarm  the  national  pride,  or  alter  the  estab- 
lished policy  of  the  kingdom.  As  to  the 
first,  we  find  no  hint  at  a  foreign  suprem- 
acy during  the  whole  of  his  mission ;  nor 
any  disputes  whatever  about  the  tonsure, 
and  time  of  celebrating  the  feast  of  Eas- 
ter ;  though  it  is  most  certain  that  before, 
during,  and  for  two  centuries  after  his 
death,  the  Irish  Church  adhered  most  strict- 
ly to  the  Asiatic  Churches  in  these  modes 
of  discipline.  The  same  prudence  gov- 
erned him  with  respect  to  the  internal  po- 
lice of  the  kingdom ;  and,  provided  reli- 
gion was  not  materially  hurt,  he  passed 
over  small  things*  In  Ireland  all  posts  of 
honour  and  profit  were  hereditary  in  fam- 
ilies. The  priesthood  among  the  Irish,  as 
with  the  Jews,  was  also  hereditary.  Dig- 
nitaries among  the  Druids,  and  the  lands 
to  support  them,  were  the  properties  of 
certain  families.  Not  only  this,  but  besides 
the  present  possessor,  a  coadjutor,  who 
was  also  to  succeed  him,  was  at  the  same 
time  nominated.  Wherever  the  Christian 
bishop  was  elected  to  succeed  the  Druid 
flamen,  he  also  had  his  assistant  and  suc- 
cessor appointed.  It  was  a  wise  measure, 
as  on  a  demise  the  new  pastor  was  well 
acquainted  with  his  flock,  and  with  his 
own  duty.     lie  was  called  a  Comharba,  or 


partner  in  the  Church  lands,  and  ranked 
as  a  bishop.  Of  this  order  of  men,  no  less 
than  four  died  in  the  see  of  Armagh  dur- 
ing the  apostleship  of  St.  Patrick ;  so  that 
he  was  himself  the  first  and  fifth  arch- 
bishop of  that  diocese.  And  when  we 
reflect  on  the  length  of  his  mission,  being 
sixty-one  years,  and  the  number  of  these 
titular  bishops  which  must  necessarily  be 
appointed,  this  great  creation  of  his  will 
appear  neither  improbable  or  surprising. 

Though  St.  Patrick  had  been  preaching 
and  converting  souls  in  other  parts  of  Ire- 
land, since  the  year  432,  yet  he  came  not 
to  Munster  till  448.  Two  reasons  are  to 
be  assigned  for  this :  first,  the  flourishing 
state  of  Christianity  in  this  province  for  a 
considerable  time  before  this  period ;  sec- 
ondly, some  preliminaries  were  to  be  ad- 
justed between  him  and  St.  Albe.  At 
length  Aongus,  the  king,  invited  Patrick  to 
his  court ;  and,  to  do  him  the  greater  hon- 
our, attended  by  his  nobility,  his  prelates, 
and  clergy,  he  met  him  at  some  distance 
from  Cashell.  In  his  suite  were  St.  Albe 
and  St.  Declan.  A  synod  was  soon  after 
called,  at  which  the  king  presided;  and 
it  was  decreed  "  that  St.  Albe  should  rank 
as  a  second  Patrick,  and  patron  and  Arch- 
bishop of  Munster ;  and  that  St.  Declan 
should  be  called  the  Patrick  of  the  Dea- 
sies,  and  their  chief  bishop.  After  this 
they  blessed  the  king  ;  and  giving  the  kiss 
of  peace,  each  returned  to  his  particular 
charge."*  Thus  was  this  difficult  affair 
of  precedency  settled,  in  which  Aongus,  as 
King  of  Leath-Mogha,  was  deeply  inter- 
ested. That  the  supremacy  of  Ireland 
should  be  fixed  in  Leath-Cuin,  was  but 
just,  as  the  monarchs  of  Ireland  were  of 
the  Heremonian  line  ;  and  that  the  arch- 
bishops of  Munster  should  rank  next  to 
those  of  Armagh  is  evident,  for  in  the  days 
of  Patrick,  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh  was 
generally  called  Archbishop  of  Leath- 
Cuin,  or  of  Northern  Ireland ;  and  the 
other.  Archbishop  of  Leath-Mogha,  or 
Southern  Ireland ;  so  that  though  we  might 
admit  Leinster  to  be  raised  to  an  arch- 
bishopric by  St.  Patrick,  yet  it  is  evident 

*  Hanmer's  Ckronicle,  p.  35, 


150 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  450. 


that  it  must  rank  after  Munster,  because 
Leinster  was  always  in  the  southern  divi- 
sion of  Ireland,  and  in  a  great  measure 
dependent  on  it,  as  paying  tribute  to  Mun- 
ster. For  the  same  reason  Tuam  was 
inferior  to  Armagh.  To  give  my  opinion 
of  this  matter,  the  precedency  of  the  Irish 
archbishops  should  be  thus:  Armagh  has 
ever  preserved  to  itself,  and  with  the  high- 
est justice,  the  primacy  of  all  Ireland ;  the 
Archbishop  of  Cashell,  or  of  Munster,  in 
strictness  should  rank  next  to  him  as  pri- 
mate of  Ireland,  on  account  of  the  anti- 
quity of  that  kingdom,  and  of  its  being 
possessed  by  the  Heberian,  or  eldest 
branch  of  the  Milesian  race  ;  and  that 
Leinster  was  always  looked  upon  as  an 
appendix  to  it.  Leinster  should  fill  the 
next  place  on  account  of  its  riches,  and  of 
its  being  ruled  by  Milesian  princes  some 
centuries  earlier  than  Connaught.  Under 
these  archbishops  were  no  less  than  one 
hundred  bishops,  whose  names  are  pre- 
served in  Colgan  and  Ward.*  It  is  cer- 
tain that  in  these  early  days,  bishops  were 
much  more  numerous  than  since.  In  the 
Council  of  Sardis,  A.  D.  374,  it  is  decreed 
that  no  bishop  shall  be  consecrated  for  a 
village  where  a  presbyter  shall  answer ; 
but  a  bishop  may  be  appointed  over  a  city, 
or  to  superintend  many  presbyters. 

Patrick  having  established  Christianity, 
and  his  own  supremacy,  on  the  most  solid 
basis,  nothing  of  moment  was  now  done 
without  his  approbation.  He  even  presi- 
ded as  chief  of  the  clergy  at  a  public  ex- 
amination of  the  national  records ;  though 
it  is  doubted  whether  the  monarch  Laogaire 
was  himself  a  Christian.  A  committee, 
consisting  of  three  arch-druids,  three  chief 
antiquarians,  9nd  three  chief  bards,  were 
appointed  at  Tara  every  third  year,  to  ex- 
amine the  national  records,  to  expunge 
what  seemed  improbable  or  doubtful,  and 
to  transcribe  into  the  Seanachas-More,  or 
Great  Book  of  Antiquity,  whatever  seemed 
most  worthy  to  be  transmitted  to  posterity. 
On  the  present  occasion  this  convention 
was  honoured  with  the  presence  of  the 
monarch,  and  the  kings  of  Munster  and 

*  Trias  Thaamat.  Vita  Sancti  Bamoldi,  p.  158,  etc. 


Ulster.  The  bishops,  who  now  succeeded 
the  Druids,  were  Patrick,  Benin,  and  Cair- 
nach ;  and  the  antiquarians  Dubhthach,  the 
monarch's  prime  senachie ;  Feargus,  and 
Rosa.  This  remarkable  examination  of 
the  national  records  by  St.  Patrick  is  placed 
in  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  in  the 
year  of  Christ  438.  But  this  cannot  be  ; 
for  Benignus,  one  of  the  assistant  bishops 
at  this  meeting,  was  then  but  a  youth  ;  nor 
did  the  King  of  Munster  even  receive  bap- 
tism till  the  year  448.  So  that  by  placing 
it  in  the  year  450,  as  I  have  done,  we  fix 
it  about  the  exact  period. 

We  must  suppose,  and  it  is  affirmed  by 
the  testimony  of  contemporary  and  suc- 
ceeding writers,  that  in  the  present  exam- 
ination, the  history  and  antiquities  of  the 
country  underwent  a  very  severe  scrutiny  ; 
and  this  alone  should  entitle  them  to  some 
degree  of  respect,  even  though  they  had 
wanted  collateral  proofs;  which,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  not  the  case,  ^uch  as  I 
have  delivered  them,  were  they  passed  and 
approved  of  by  the  present  committee ;  and 
could  we  suppose  that  they  received  any 
addition,  it  must  be,  that  of  Patrick's  mak- 
ing Phasnius,  the  son  of  Baath,  the  son  of 
Magog,  the  son  of  Japhet,  in  order  to 
reconcile  our  history  to  that  of  Moses.  For 
our  heathen  ancestors  preserved  their  an- 
nals from  the  days  of  this  Phaenius  only ; 
and  should  we  even  suppose  these  prede- 
cessors, which  Patrick  gave  to  him,  to  be 
imaginary,  yet  it  was  one  of  those  pious 
frauds,  innocent  in  itself,  and  which  helped 
more  to  reconcile  the  public  to  the  new 
doctrine,  than  to  mislead  them.  As  for 
those  writers  who  would  make  the  son  of 
Phaenius  and  Moses  contemporaries,  it  is 
certain  they  had  no  authority,  from  the 
present  reform,  for  such  assertion.  Had 
this  been  the  case,  Patrick's  disciple  and 
first  biographer  Fiech,  when  he  mentioned 
Phaenius  and  Niulus,  could  not  fail  of  men- 
tioning a  circumstance  so  flattering  to  the 
new  Christians ;  but  though  he  had  omitted 
it,  his  scholiast,  who  was  a  century  later, 
certainly  would  not.  But  no  such  thing : 
this  great  apostle  was  too  good  a  scholar, 
and  too  well  versed  in  sound  chronology, 


A.  D.  450.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


151 


• 


to  attempt  so  glaring  an  anachronism. 
Nay,  though  he  had  attempted  it,  the  peo- 
ple were  more  knowing,  and  better  inform- 
ed, than  to  admit  it  on  his  mere  ipse  dixit. 


CHAPTER    III. 

The  manner  in  which  St.  Patrick  spread  Chris- 
tianity over  Ireland — Said  to  have  been  the  first 
introducer  of  letters  there — This  charge  refuted ; 
and  the  great  antiquity  of  our  alphabet  proved — 
Origin  of  the  celebration  of  Easter — The  church- 
es of  Asia  and  Ireland  differed  from  Rome  in  their 
time  of  celebrating  this  feast — CoUumbanus  and 
Colman,  etc.,  zealous  defenders  af  this  mode  of 
discipline — Remarks  on,  and  inferences  drawn 
from,  these  disputes. 

By  the  prudence,  moderation,  and  good 
sense  of  the  Apostle  of  Ireland,  was  the 
whole  kingdom  brought  to  acknowledge 
the  doctrine  of  Christ ;  and  this  wonderful 
reform  was  conducted  with  so  much  wis- 
dom, that  it  produced  not  the  least  disturb- 
ance or  confusion.  The  Druids  and  their 
votaries  were  unmolested ;  and  Christian 
bishops  were  appointed  to  succeed  the 
arch-flamens,  by  those  families  only,  who, 
being  converted,  had  a  right  to  such  nom- 
inations. One  thing  more,  however,  Pa- 
trick did  :  the  university  of  Tara,  as  being 
the  residence  of  the  monarch,  had,  from 
time  immemorial,  a  precedency  over  the 
other  universities  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  the 
ollamhs  or  doctors  of  it  held  a  rank  supe- 
rior to  them.  Patrick  having  made  Ar- 
magh the  primacy  of  all  Ireland,  and  also 
founded  here  an  university,  was  resolved 
that  it  should  be  the  chief  of  all  the  Chris- 
tian seminaries  in  the  kingdom ;  and  which 
rank  it  gloriously  supported  to  the  dissolu- 
tion of  our  monarchy ;  having  at  one  time 
no  less  a  number  than  seven  thousand  stu- 
dents !  Yet  even  this  we  see  did  not  en- 
croach upon  the  Druids,  or  their  privileges. 

I  have  not  once  hinted  at  any  of  the 
many  wonderful  miracles  attributed  to  this 
apostle.  If  ancient  facts,  supported  by  the 
fullest  evidence  of  history,  cannot  stand 
before  modem  critics,  what  chance  can 
ancient  wonders  have  to  gain  credit,  where 
they  have  nothing  but  a  lively  faith  to  sup- 


port them  ?  My  opinion  is,  that,  without 
recurring  at  all  to  miracles,  the  astonishing 
success  of  this  apostle  may  be  accounted 
for  from  natural  causes.  Preaching  to  a 
learned  and  polished  people  a  doctrine  so 
elevated  and  pure  as  that  of  Christ ;  a  doc- 
trine which  taught  its  votaries  to  rule  and 
govern  their  passions,  not  the  passions  them, 
must  have  had  great  weight  The  highest 
perfection  of  former  doctrines  was — ne 
aUeri  feceris,  quod  tibi  fieri  non  vis — ^but 
the  new  religion  went  further :  it  directed 
to  forgive  injuries,  to  do  good  for  evil ;  nor 
let  the  sun  go  down  on  our  wrath.  Such  a 
doctrine  preached,  and  by  religious,  whose 
lives  and  examples  added  new  lustre  to  it, 
needed  neither  miracles  from  above,  nor 
restraining  nor  penal  laws  on  earth  to  sup- 
port it ! 

Bollandus,  Tellemont,  and  even  Fleury, 
in  his  Ecclesiastical  History,  have  asserted 
that  the  Irish  were  unacquainted  with  let- 
ters till  the  days  of  St.  Patrick ;  nor  should 
I  attend  much  to  these  remarks  of  foreign 
writers,  who,  having  no  opportunities  of 
consulting  our  annals,  might  be  well  ex- 
cused for  their  mistakes,  did  I  not  see  the 
same  falsehood  roundly  asserted  by  English, 
and  even  some  modem  Irish  writers  too. 

Wo  admit  this  is  to  annihilate  all  our 
pretensions  to  history  and  antiquity ;  but  it 
will  be  hard  to  reconcile  it  to  the  Christian 
preachers  being  at  the  same  time  the  found- 
ers of  seminaries  for  letters,  and  to  this 
doctrine's  blazing  with  such  superior  lustre 
among  us.  Besides,  since  we  had  Chris- 
tifOn  teachers  from  the  first  century,  who 
founded  churches,  and  made  converts,  must 
we  not  suppose  that  they  must  have  known 
the  use  of  letters  ?  We  undoubtedly  must. 
But  to  bring  it  to  a  point.  If  St.  Patrick 
introduced  any  letters  into  Ireland,  they 
must  have  been  the  Roman  alphabet.  But 
will  any  one  affirm  that  the  Roman  letters 
were  in  the  same  order  or  structure  of  the 
Irish  ?  The  Irish  alphabet  was  arranged 
in  an  order  peculiar  to  itself,  beginning 
with  the  consonants.  It  consisted  of  but 
seventeen  (though  I  think  more  justly  but 
of  sixteen,  the  F  being  an  interpolation) 
letters ;  but  will  any  scholar  advance,  that 


152 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  450. 


in  the  fifth  century  from  Christ,  the  Roman 
alphabet  contained  no  more  ?  Will  he  be 
so  hardy  as  to  say,  that  even  this  number 
of  letters  (seventeen)  were  in  the  same 
structure  with  the  Roman  ones?  If  he 
does,  Julius  Caesar  shall  be  my  witness  of 
his  deception;  for  he  tells  us,  that  the 
British  and  Gaulish  letters,  in  his  days, 
were  like  the  Greek  ;*  and  such  is  the  Irish 
at  this  day !  Now  if  this  letter  was  not 
totally  different  in  figure  from  the  Roman, 
where  is  the  necessity  for  this  remark  of 
Caesar's?  But  as  a  gentleman  of  great 
eminence  in  the  republic  of  letters,  though 
he  admits  the  Irish  to  be  as  early  in  the 
possession  of  letters  as  any  nation  what- 
ever, yet  contends  that  St.  Patrick  abso- 
lutely destroyed  their  original  letter,  and  in 
its  place  substituted  the  present  one,  which 
he  brought  from  Rome;  it  merits  some 
discussion,  more  from  the  reputation  of  the 
author,  than  the  solidity  of  his  arguments. 
He  affirms,  that  St.  Patrick  gave  them  the 
same  number  of  Roman  letters  which  their 
ancient  alphabet  contained,  and  subject  to 
the  same  rules.  We  have  seen  the  Greeks, 
by  degrees,  reject  the  signs  annexed  to 
some  of  their  original  Cadmean  alphabet 
for  new  letters,  and  it  was  a  useful  altera- 
tion ;  the  Saxons  did  the  same,  and  so  did 
the  northern  nations  of  Europe,  who,  like 
them,  took  their  original  alphabet  from  Ire- 
land. But  to  suppose  a  learned  nation  to 
substitute  one  alphabet  for  another,  without 
any  visible  advantages  for  the  better,  as  in 
the  present  case,  is  absurd.  Besides,  by 
the  testimony  of  Caesar,  the  Gaulish  and 
Irish  letters  must  differ  from  the  Roman, 
as  in  effect  they  did.  But  what  confusion 
must  not  arise  in  the  public  records  of  the 
kingdom  from  such  alteration?  Would 
all  the  bishops  in  England  prevail  on  the 
parliament  to  alter  the  present  letter,  with- 
out some  uncommon  advantages  ?  In  Ire- 
land, by  this  hypothesis,  none  was  pretend- 
ed ;  the  great  influence,  the  veneration  for, 
and  miracles  of,  St.  Patrick,  are  held  forth 
by  our  writers  in  a  most  conspicuous  point 
of  view :  every  thing  relative  to  him  has 
been  preserved  with  uncommon  reverence ; 
*  Commeut.  lib.  vi. 


the  officers  of  his  household,  and  even  his 
meanest  domestics,  are  on  record ;  and  yet 
not  the  smallest  notice  taken  of  this  won- 
derful change,  except  the  crude  assertions 
of  ill-informed  foreigners !  It  is  then  an 
uncontrovertible  fact,  that  our  present  let- 
ter is  the  same  we  had  from  the  most  re- 
mote antiquity ;  the  same  the  early  Greeks 
adopted ;  the  same  the  Gauls  used  in  the 
days  of  Caesar  ;  and  what  we  find  the  old- 
est MSS.  in  Europe  are  wrote  in. 

Thus  it  appears  to  demonstration,  that 
in  the  days  of  St.  Patrick,  first,  the  order 
of  the  Irish  letters  was  different  from  that 
of  the  Roman ;  secondly,  that  our  alpha- 
bet had  seven  letters  less  than  theirs  ;  and, 
thirdly,  that  in  structure  they  differed  to- 
tally from  the  Roman  !  It  is  indeed  con- 
fessed that,  before  the  death  of  this  apostle, 
the  Christian  bishops,  in  imitation  of  the 
Romans,  altered  the  old  form  of  our  alpha- 
bet, such  as  we  have  exhibited  in  the  sec- 
ond book  of  this  history  ;  and  instead  of 
beginning  it  with  the  consonants,  like  them 
commenced  it  with  the  letter  A  ;  and  that 
in  process  of  time  the  whole  nation  adopted 
the  same  mode.  It  is  not  improbable  but 
that  St.  Patrick  introduced  among  us  the 
Roman  alphabet ;  and  that  he  gave  copies 
of  it  to  different  churches,  in  order  to 
celebrate  the  rites  of  the  Church  in  Latin ; 
but  it  may  certainly  with  as  much  pro- 
priety be  inferred,  that  because  the  Jesuits 
in  China  made  their  converts,  especially 
the  clergy,  acquainted  with  the  Roman 
alphabet,  that  the  Chinese  were  totally 
illiterate  before  this  period,  as  that  the 
Irish  were  so  before  the  days  of  St. 
Patrick. 

My  account  of  this  great  apostle  shall 
close  with  some  remarks  on  the  celebra- 
tion of  Easter,  because  they  are  curious 
and  historical,  and  display  the  genius  of  the 
people,  the  state  of  the  Irish  Church  at  this 
time  and  for  many  centuries  after,  and 
the  great  good  sense  and  moderation  of 
Patrick. 

We  have  already  noticed  that  the  first 
Irish  converts  were  the  disciples  of  St. 
John;  at  least  that  they  received  Chris- 
tianity from   the   churches  of  Asia,  and 


A.  D.  450.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


153 


adopted  their  mode  of  tonsure,  and  time 
of  holding  the  festival  of  Easter.  The 
Jews  had  their  pascha,  or  passover,  to 
commemorate  their  being  unhurt  on  the 
night  that  the  destroying  angel  killed  the 
first-born  of  man  and  beast  throughout  the 
land  of  Egypt.  The  apostles,  after  the 
death  of  Christ,  judged  that  nothing  could 
be  more  expressive  of  our  deliverance 
from  sin  than  the  institution  of  a  similar 
festival.  The  ievfs  were  commanded  to 
celebrate  their  passover  the  fourteenth  day 
of  the  moon,  of  tJie  first  month,  which  cor- 
responded with  our  March ;  this  being  the 
time  of  the  vernal  equinox,  when  the  sun  is 
in  Aries,  the  days  and  nights  of  equal 
length,  and  the  new  year  beginning  to 
spring.  They  put  Christ  to  death  while 
they  were  celebrating  the'  feast  of  the 
paschal  lamb  ;  and  this  circumstance  de- 
termined the  Christians  to  celebrate  theirs 
at  the  same  time.  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
after  quitting  Palestine,  judged  that  the 
keeping  this  feast  on  the  fourteenth  day  of 
the  first  moon,  was  rather  adopting  the 
Jewish,  than  forming  a  new  festival ;  they 
therefore  transferred  it  to  the  Sunday  after, 
unless  that  Sunday  fell  on  the  fourteenth. 
But  St.  John  and  the  churches  of  Asia 
and  Africa,  adhered  to  the  first  institution. 
It  was  however  a  matter  of  mere  disci- 
pline, in  which  Christians  might  differ  with- 
out sin  or  schism. 

St.  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  and  an 
immediate  disciple  to  St.  John,  came  to 
Rome  A.  D.  158,  on  purpose  to  confer  with 
Pope  Anicetus  on  this  subject.  He  de- 
fended the  Asiatic  custom  on  the  authority 
of  that  saint ;  and  the  pope  defended  the 
Western  Church  on  the  general  tradition 
from  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  But  though 
they  did  not  agree  in  this  matter,  yet  they 
remained  in  peace  and  communion  as  be- 
fore.* In  the  year  196  this  question  was 
agitated  with  great  heat  between  Pope 
Victor  and  the  Asiatic  bishops.  Several 
councils  were  held  ;  and  one  by  the  bishops 
of  Asia,  at  the  request  of  this  pope,  at 
which  Polycrates,  Bishop  of  Ephesus,  pre- 
sided.   But  the  result  was  that  they  were 

*  Fleary,  Histoire  Eccles.,  torn,  i.,  p.  375. 
20 


more  unanimous  in  adhering  to  the  origi- 
nal institution.*  The  Asiatics  and  all  the 
churches  deriving  under  them,  continued 
this  practice  of  celebrating  Easter  till  the 
year  325,  when  the  Council  of  Nice  issued 
a  decree  for  observing  this  feast  every- 
where, on  the  Sunday  immediately  follow- 
ing the  vernal  equinox;  and  this  decree 
was  enforced  by  command  of  the  Emperor 
Constantino.  But  notwithstanding  all  this, 
numbers  in  Asia,  and  the  Church  of  Ire- 
land, with  all  those  deriving  under  it,  as 
the  Britons,  the  Picts,  and  Dal-Riada,  ad- 
hered firmly  to  the  discipline  of  St.  John 
in  this  point. 

What  Patrick's  opinion  on  this  head  was, 
does  not  appear.  We  do  not  even  find 
any  mention  of  it  during  his  mission ;  and 
yet  it  is  most  certain  that  the  Irish  did  then 
observe  this  feast  after  the  Asiatic  manner, 
and  treated  the  decisions  of  Rome  on  this 
point  with  great  respect.  Not  only  this, 
but  such  of  them  as  spread  Christianity, 
and  founded  churches  in  foreign  countries, 
strongly  inculcated  their  mode  of  celebra- 
ting Easter.  Such  was  the  great  Colum- 
ba,  apostle  of  the  Picts ;  Columbanus,  in 
France  ;  St.  Aidanus,  Finian,  Colman,  etc., 
in  Britain,  etc.  The  Venerable  Bede, 
though  he  praises  Columba,  and  his  monks 
of  Huy,  as  well  as  his  successors  to  his  own 
days,  for  their  great  piety  and  virtue,  yet 
censures  them  for  their  obstinacy  in  this 
point  of  Church  discipline.f  In  France, 
Columbanus,  with  all  the  monks  of  his 
house,  followed  it.  He  was  of  the  noblest 
blood  of  Ireland,  and  early  dedicated  to 
the  service  of  God.  Holy  abbots  at  that 
time,  and  for  centuries  after,  erected  their 
retreats  in  the  most  sequestered  places, 
that  nothing  might  disturb  their  prayers 
and  meditations.  Scarce  an  island,  or  sol- 
itary spot  of  ground  in  Ireland,  that  spi- 
ritual retreats  were  not  already  made  in, 
and  churches  and  abbeys  erected,  the  re- 
mains of  most  of  which  are  yet  visible, 
exhibiting  at  once,  the  wonderful  piety  of 
our  ancestors,  and  the  degeneracy  of  tfieir 
successors,  at  least  of  the  present  age. 

*  Fleujy,  torn,  i.,  p.  518. 
t  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  4. 


«%' 


154 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.D.  602. 


Columbanus,  with  a  number  of  disci- 
ples, retired  to  France,*  and,  in  the  year 
590,  founded,  in  the  midst  of  a  desert  in 
Burgundy,  an  abbey  for  himself  and  his 
followers  ;  but  these  became  so  numerous 
that  he  was  obliged  to  raise  two  others. 
The  fame  of  his  piety,  austerity,  charity, 
and  miracles,  drew  after  him  numbers  of 
followers ;  and  this  perhaps  was  the  true 
reason  that  persecutions  were  raised 
against  him.  He,  with  his  monks,  cele- 
brated the  feast  of  Easter  on  the  fourteenth 
day  of  the  first  moon,  without  at  the  same 
time  pretending  to  stretch  this  custom 
beyond  his  own  authority.  The  Gauls 
complained  to  Gregory  the  Great  of  this 
schism.  Several  councils  were  called,  and 
Columbanus  was  cited  to  appear  before 
them.  He  appealed  to  the  pope,  and,  with 
great  learning,  sense,  and  modesty,  defend- 
ed his  opinion,  and  those  of  his  country  and 
ancestors,  on  this  head ;  and  at  the  same 
time  wrote  to  the  GauHsh  bishops  assem- 
bled on  this  occasion. 

He  observed  that  it  was  established  by 
St.  John,  Christ's  especially  beloved  disci- 
ple, by  St.  Philip,  and  the  churches  of 
Asia ;  that  it  was  proved  by  the  calcula- 
tions of  Anatolius,  confirmed  by  St.  Je- 
rome. That  those  of  Victorius  (employed 
by  Leo  the  Great,  in  the  fifth  century,  to 
adjust  the  lunations,  and  the  exact  time  of 
the  equinoxes)  were  vague  and  uncertain. 
He  requested  the  holy  father's  decision  on 
this  matter,  but  adds,  "  that  whoever  oppo- 
ses his  authority  to  that  of  St.  Jerome  will 
be  rejected  as  a  heretic,  by  the  Western 
Churchy  i.  e.  the  Church  of  Ireland ! " 
After  all,  he  observes  to  the  bishops  as- 
sembled, "If  I  am  in  ignorance,  bear  it 
with  charity,  since  I  am  not  the  author  of 
this  discipline.  Let  me  live  in  obscurity 
in  this  desert,  near  the  remains  of  seven- 
teen of  our  brethren  already  dead.  We 
wish  to  adhere  to  the  customs  of  our  ances- 
tors to  our  deaths.  You  should  rather 
console  than  distress  poor,  aged,  and  af- 
flicted strangers.  In  a  word,  if  it  be  the 
will  of  God  that  you  should  expel  me  from 
this  desert,  to  which  I  came  from  so  great 

*  Fleury,  Hist.  Ecclea.,  Umi.  viii.,  p.  18,  ID,  191,  etc. 


a  distance,  for  the  love  of  Jesus  Christ,  I 
shall  only  say  with  the  prophet.  If  I  am  the 
cause  of  this  storm,  let  it  cease  by  my 
being  thrown  into  the  sea." 

In  the  year  664,  a  council  was  held  in 
Northumberland,  to  withdraw  the  Saxons 
and  Britons  from  this  custom,  which  they 
borrowed  from  the  Irish.  St.  Colman,  at 
the  head  of  his  Irish  clergy  (as  Columba- 
nus did)  defended  this  custom  by  the  au- 
thority of  St.  John,  and  the  churches  of 
Asia  ;  by  the  calculations  of  Anatolius,  and 
by  the  practice  of  his  ancestors,  bishops 
and  teachers,  who  being  pious,  learned,  and 
godly  men,  strictly  adhered  to  the  same. 
In  a  word,  finding  the  majority  of  voices 
against  him,  rather  than  swerve  from  the 
discipline  of  his  ancestors,  he  resigned  his 
bishopric,  and  returned  to  Ireland,  bring- 
ing with  him  a  number  of  Saxon  monks, 
for  whom  he  founded  an  abbey  in  an  island 
in  the  county  of  Mayo,  which  was  in  a 
most  flourishing  state  in  the  days  of  the 
Venerable  Bede,  and  for  centuries  after.* 

From  the  remarkable  attachment  of  the 
Irish  to  this  custom,  we  have  still  stronger 
proofs  of  the  uncommon  wisdom  of  Pat- 
rick. He  probably  endeavoured  to  rec- 
oncile the  Irish  clergy  to  the  practice  of 
the  Universal  Church;  and  very  likely 
laboured  also  to  make  them  acknowledge 
the  supremacy  of  Rome.  But  he  saw 
clearly  by  their  firmness  in  these  matters, 
that  should  he  insist  much  on  them,  he 
would  endanger  his  own  authority.  His 
silence  on  these  points  accounts  for  his 
journey  to  Rome,  after  his  establishment 
of  Christianity  here.  He  laid  before  the 
consistory  the  dangers  that  he  apprehended 
from  insisting  on  these  heads ;  and  we 
must  conclude,  had  the  pope's  approbation 
of  his  conduct,  since  we  see,  upon  his  re- 
turn, that  the  pope  presented  him  vith  a 
pallium,  and  that  he  observed  the  same 
prudent  silence  on  these  matters  that  he 
did  before. 

I  as  freely  censure  my  countrymen  for 
their  obstipacy  on  this  occasion  as  any 
man  can.  We  plainly  see  that  the  custom 
was  not  peculiar  to  them,  and  that  they 

•  Hist.  Ecdes.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  12. 


A.  D.  434.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


155 


defended  it  from  its  antiquity,  the  practice 
of  many  of  the  disciples,  the  authority  of 
the  churches  of  Asia,  the  astronomical 
calculations  of  Anatolius,  and  from  its 
being  the  constant  usage  of  their  ancestors. 
They  were  the  last  to  submit  to  the  deci- 
sions of  Rome  on  this  head ;  but  they  sub- 
mitted from  conviction.  These  points  of 
the  Irish  church-discipline,  which,  before 
me,  no  one  has  attempted  to  explain,  con- 
vey facts  of  the  utmost  consequence  to 
Christianity.  They  prove  to  demonstra- 
tion, that  the  Church  of  Christ,  as  estab- 
lished by  his  disciples,  immediately  after 
his  crucifixion,  and  before  they  dispersed 
themselves  into  the  different  quarters  of 
the  globe,  remained  invariably  the  same 
in  the  different  succeeding  ages !  We 
have  seen  in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
centuries,  no  differences  whatever  between 
the  Church  of  Rome  and  the  Asiatic 
churches,  save  about  discipline ;  and  this 
was  confined  to  the  tonsure,  and  the  cele- 
brating of  Easter.  The  Irish,  from  politi- 
cal interest,  and  their  dread  of  a  foreign 
yoke,  were  the  constant  and  avowed  enemies 
of  Rome.  This  hatred  was  as  conspicuous 
in  the  days  of  Christianity,  as  we  have 
seen,  as  in  those  of  Paganism ;  and  it  will 
not  be  now  controverted,  that  they  owed 
not  the  seeds  of  Christianity  to  Roman 
missionaries.  Yet — and  indeed  it  is  won- 
derful to  be  told — we  plainly  see,  that  in 
the  fifth  century,  in  articles  of  faith,  the 
churches  of  Rome  and  Ireland  were  in 
perfect  unison,  though  it  was  the  first  time 
they  met !  We  see  the  same  miraculous 
conformity — I  think  myself  justified  in  the 
expression — in  the  beginning,  and  beyond 
the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  when, 
for  the  second  time,  they  met,  and  not  in 
the  most  friendly  manner.  The  question 
about  Easter  was  agitated  at  this  time 
both  in  England  and  France,  with  great 
warmth.  The  Irish  are  charged  with  per- 
verseness  and  wilful  obstinacy  in  this  mat- 
ter of  discipline,  but  not  the  least  hint  at 
holding  heterodox  opinions,  either  in  them- 
selves or  their  ancestors.  "  If  it  be 
thought  (says  St.  Colmanus,  the  Irish 
Bishop  of  Northumberland,  in  his  defence 


of  his  country)  that  our  most  reverend 
father  Columba,  and  his  successors,  vir- 
tuous and  godly  men,  who  kept  Easter 
after  the  same  manner,  either  believed  or 
lived  contrary  to  the  Scriptures,  especially 
their  piety  being  so  conspicuous,  why  did 
God  confirm  it  by  miracles  ?"*  From  this 
period  to  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century 
Rome  and  Ireland  had  no  connection  or 
correspondence  ;  and  yet  upon  the  land- 
ing of  Cardinal  Papiron  at  that  time,  the 
most  exact  conformity  in  faith  and  disci- 
pline was  found  between  both  churches ! 
Facts  highly  meriting  the  attention  ef 
every  reflecting  Christian.  But  while  I 
remark  this  correspondence  between  the 
different  churches  of  the  Christian  world, 
let  me  not  be  supposed  to  contend,  that 
there  never  were  heterodox  opinions  ad- 
vanced and  opposed  to  the  sentiments  of 
the  Universal  Church.  Every  age  proved 
there  were ;  but  then  these  visionaries 
were  only  few,  from  whose  enthusiasms 
the  flock  was  carefully  guarded. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Civil  history  of  Ireland  resumed — Britain  continues 
to  be  ravaged  by  the  Irish,  who  thereby  make  a 
diversion  in  favour  of  the  Gauls  and  Germans, 
engaged  against  the  Roman  power  on  the  conti- 
nent— Vortigern  elected  chief  of  the  Britons, 
after  they  were  deserted  by  the  Romans — Calls 
in  the  aid  of  the  Saxons ;  who  soon  make  a 
treaty  with  the  Irish,  and  establish  themselves 
in  Britain. 

Absorbed  in  ecclesiastical  history  and 
church  discipline,  the  civil  history  of  Ire- 
land seemed  for  a  good  while  forgotten; 
but  these  matters  being  now,  I  hope,  satis- 
factorily elucidated,  we  can  with  more 
pleasure  return  to  our  main  pursuit.  Not- 
withstanding the  rapid  progress  of  Christi- 
anity, the  lust  of  conquest  did  not  totally 
subside.  New  troops  from  time  to  time 
poured  into  Britain,  as  well  to  subdue  the 
country,  as  to  make  a  diversion  in  favour 
of  the  Gauls  and  Germans,  with  whom  our 
monarchs  had  been  long  in  confederacy, 
to  limit  the  bounds  and  conquests  of  the 

•  Bede,  Hist.  Eccles.,  lib.  iii.  cap.  25. 


%^- 


156 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  434. 


Romans.  At  this  time,  the  superior  abih- 
ties  of  Aetius  restored  in  a  good  measure, 
the  Roman  affairs  in  Gaul.  It  was  a  most 
alarming  circumstance  to  Ireland.  Three 
times  had  the  Romans  been  beaten  out  of 
Britain  by  the  Irish  and  their  Pictish  allies. 
To  prevent  another  visit,  they  exerted 
their  utmost  efforts.  So  devoted  to  Rome 
were  the  Britons,  that  upon  the  least  ap- 
pearance of  domestic  tranquillity,  their 
youth-  repaired  to  the  Roman  standards  in 
Gaul,  at  the  same  time  adding  to  their 
power,  and  improving  themselves  in  mili- 
tary discipline.  The  Irish  councils  had 
two  objects  in  view ;  the  causing  such  a 
diversion  in  Britain  as  would  render  them 
incapable  of  recruiting  the  Roman  armies, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  sending  such  a  force 
to  the  continent  as  would,  in  conjunction 
with  their  allies,  afford  sufficient  employ- 
ment to  the  Romans  there,  without  think- 
ing any  further  of  Britain.  That  their 
troops  did  really  join  Attila  against  Rome, 
Usher  I  think  clearly  proves.* 

How  successful  their  irruptions  into 
Britain  were,  need  not  be  told  :  suffice  it, 
that  it  gave  rise  to  that  remarkable  British 
address  to  Aetius  in  Gaul : — "  We  know 
not  (say  they)  which  way  to  turn.  The 
barbarians  drive  us  to  the  sea,  and  the  sea 
forces  us  back  to  the  barbarians,  between 
whom  we  have  only  the  choice  of  two 
deaths :  either  to  be  swallowed  up  by  the 
waves,  or  butchered  by  the  sword."t  But 
this  general,  so  far  from  being  able  to 
afford  them  relief,  sent  them  word,  to  make 
the  best  terms  for  themselves,  for  so  dis- 
tracted were  his  own  affairs,  that  they 
must  not  expect  from  him  the  smallest 
assistance.  In  this  situation,  they,  partly 
by  money,  arid  partly  by  the  sword,  got 
rid  for  the  present  of  these  daring  invaders. 
Aetius,  still  enterprizing  and  persevering, 
gained  fresh  advantages  over  the  Gauls, 
and  a  complete  victory  over  Gondecaire. 

The  incursions  into  South  Britain  again 
recommenced,  and  numbers  fled  to  Armo- 
ric  Brittany  and  the  coasts  of  Flanders. 
The  remainder,  in  this  extremity,  proceed- 

»  Primord.  Eccles.  Brit.  p.  406—1108. 
t  Ibid.  lib.  i.  cap,  13. 


ed  to  the  election  of  a  chief,  whose  autho- 
rity in  time  of  war  should  be  absolute. 
Vortigern  was  chosen  to  this  high  com- 
mand. Some  place  his  election  in  the 
year  436 ;  Rapin,  in  the  year  445  ;  I  think 
it  may  be  reasonably  fixed  at  439.  But 
be  this  matter  as  it  may,  his  abilities  as  a 
general  were  not  equal  to  public  expecta- 
tions ;  and  if,  from  time  to  time,  he  pro- 
cured some  relaxation  to  his  poor  distress- 
ed country  from  these  cruel  invaders,  it 
was  owing  more  to  the  force  of  gold  than 
iron.  The  people  at  length  growing  des- 
perate, exclaimed  against  his  timidity ;  and 
in  this  dilemma,  he  recommended  them 
the  calling  in  of  the  Saxons.  Assisted  by 
these  new  allies,  the  Britons  successfully 
made  head  against  their  oppressors,  and 
by  degrees  cleared  the  country  of  them. 
Need  it  be  told,  the  Saxon  auxiliaries,  seeing 
the  effeminacy  and  cowai-dice  of  the  Britons, 
formed  the  design  of  possessing  the  whole 
country,  and  certainly  with  the  advice  and 
concurrence  of  the  Irish,  as  history  proves. 
Mindful  of  the  close  affinity  between  the 
two  nations,  and  of  their  ancestors  having 
frequently  in  conjunction  invaded  Britain 
when  the  Roman  power  was  in  its  great- 
est splendour  there,  they  soon  agreed  to  a 
private  treaty.*  This  was  most  probably 
accelerated  by  the  defeat  of  Attila  in  Gaul, 
by  Aetius.  The  Irish  wisely  considered, 
by  promoting  this  treaty  with  the  Saxons, 
that  they  laid  the  seeds  of  constant  dissen- 
sions in  Britain;  and  should  the  Romans 
again  attempt  to  invade  it,  they  added,  by 
the  success  of  the  Saxons,  a  new  and 
more  powerful  barrier  to  their  own  fron- 
tiers. For  their  constant  policy  was,  to 
keep  the  war  out  of  their  own  country  as 
long  as  they  could ;  justly  concluding,  that 
the  moment  the  Romans  re-established 
their  power  on  the  continent,  their  whole 
force  would  fall  heavy  on  them.  Of  what 
.importance  the  acquisition  of  Ireland  would 
be  to  them,  is  evident  by  what  Tacitus  ob- 
serves of  it ;  that  by  its  situation  it  would 
wonderfully  facilitate  the  preservation  of 
their  conquests  in  Spain  and  Gaul.'\ 

*  Bede,  Histor.  Eccles.  lib.  i.  cap.  15. 
t  Vita  Julii  Agricola;. 


A.  D.  458.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


157 


By  this  treaty  between  the  Scots  or  Irish 
and  the  Saxons,  and  the  union  of  their 
armies,  the  poor  Britons  felt  greater  misery 
than  they  had  ever  experienced  before  ; 
and  the  Saxons  soon  cut  out  for  themselves, 
by  means  of  the  Irish,  lasting  settlements 
in  Britain.  This  accounts  for  and  explains 
the  constant  predilection  which  the  Irish 
ever  after  had  for  the  Saxons;  the  care 
they  took  to  reform  their  rude  manners ; 
to  instruct  them  in  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  in  letters;  to  ordain  bishops 
and  priests  on  purpose  for  the  Saxon  mis- 
sion ;  and  to  found  schools  and  seminaries 
for  them  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom ; 
all  which  the  Venerable  Bede,  a  Saxon 
bom,  fully  proclaims,  by  a  variety  of  pas- 
sages in  his  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
Britain. 

After  a  glorious  reign  of  thirty  years, 
Laogaire  was  killed  by  lightning.  Con- 
temporaries with  this  prince  were.  Blood, 
the  son  of  Cas,  King  of  Leath-Mogha; 
but  he  dying  soon  after,  Aongus,  the  son 
of  Nafraoich,  of  the  Eugenian  line,  was 
elected  according  to  the  rule  of  alternate 
succession;  and  Carthan-more  succeeded 
his  father  Blood  as  King  of  North  Munster. 
These  two  last  princes  were  baptized  by 
St.  Patrick.  Dungalach  was  King  of  Con- 
naught  ;  Criomthan,  the  son  of  Eana,  ruled 
Leinster ;  and  Muireadhac  Mimgdearg  suc- 
ceeded to  the  kingdom  of  Ulster. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Oilioll-Molt  elected  monarch — The  Druids  removed 
from  the  assemblies  of  the  states,  and  Christian 
bishops  succeed  them — The  assemblies  of  Emana 
and  Cruachan,  for  the  regulating  ti-ade  and  com- 
merce frequently  called  together — St.  Patrick 
returns  from  Rome — Lughnidh  claims  the  mon- 
archy, and  raises  an  army  to  depose  Oilioll,  who 
is  slain  in  the  battle  of  Ocha. 

The  estates  of  Ireland  were  immediately 
convened  at  Tara  to  elect  a  successor  to 
Laoghaire ;  and  Oilioll-Molt,  the  son  of  the 
hero  Daithi,  was  by  a  plurality  of  voices, 
declared  and  saluted  monarch.  His  queen 
was  daughter  of  Aongus,  King  of  Leath- 


Mogha,  a  circumstance  which  hastened  his 
election.  His  cousin,  Amalgaidh,  was 
King  of  Connaught,  and  was  celebrated  for 
his  courage  and  success,  having  triumphed 
in  nine  sea-fights,  and  in  as  many  engage- 
ments by  land,  but  who  fell  in  the  tenth 
battle.*  The  same  authority  tells  us,  that 
Oilioll  exacted  the  Leinster  tribute  three 
times  without  a  cath,  or  battle ;  owing 
chiefly  to  the  influence  of  Aongus  over  that 
people. 

He  is  highly  praised  for  his  frequently 
assembling  the  national  estates  at  Tara. 
Being  himself  a  Christian,  and  almost  all 
the  princes  and  nobility  of  the  kingdom,  it 
was  decreed,  that  at  these  meetings,  for  the 
future,  the  Christian  bishops  should  fill  the 
seats  of  the  Druid  flamens  ;  and  that  three 
bishops  should  always  compose  a  part  of 
the  committee  for  inspecting  the  different 
provincial  histories,  instead  of  the  three 
arch-druids.  For  this  committee  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  national  assembly  every 
three  years,  and  was  heretofore  composed 
of  three  arch-druids,  three  of  the  imperial 
antiquarians,  and  three  bards.  The  mon- 
arch or  his  delegate  always  presided  at 
these  meetings,  which  were  held  in  a  house 
erected  for  that  particular  purpose.  These 
meetings,  after  the  reception  of  Christianity, 
were  more  regularly  convened  than  before. 
By  the  wisdom  of  St.  Patrick,  we  see  this 
change  in  religion  produced  not  the  small- 
est convulsion  or  confusion  in  the  kingdom ; 
every  engine  of  the  state  moving  as  uni- 
formly as  if  no  such  alteration  had  ever 
happened.  We  should  suppose  that  the 
bishops  were  particularly  attentive  to  the 
national  records ;  nay,  that  could  they  have 
found  any  impositions  introduced  into  them, 
or  false  chronology  foisted  up,  they  would 
be  glad  to  detect  theno,  in  order  to  throw 
an  odium  on  the  Druid  order ;  but  no  such 
thing  has  ever  appeared !  and  this  single 
consideration,  I  apprehend,  ought  to  have, 
and  no  doubt  it  will  have,  greater  weight 
with  the  impartial  public  than  the  crude 
conjectures  of  fastidious  moderns,  too  fre- 
quently opposed  to  ancient  history. 

Besides  the  meetings  of  the  estates  at 

*  Lecan,  book  i. 


158 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  464. 


Tara,  the  conventions  of  Emania  and  Crua- 
chan  were  frequently  assembled  in  this 
reign,  as  they  were  in  the  days  of  Tuathal, 
and  other  great  princes.  These  two  last 
aonachs,  or  assemblies,  had  for  their  objects 
a  close  inspection  into  the  state  of  trade, 
commerce,  and  mechanic  arts.  They  as- 
sembled by  particular  proclamation  from 
the  monarch,  and  made  their  report  of  the 
commerce  and  manufactures  of  the  king- 
dom. Sixty  of  the  best  informed  in  these 
matters  were  ordered  to  disperse  them- 
selves into  the  different  great  cities  and 
manufacturing  towns,  to  see  if  the  exclusive 
privileges  granted  to  them  were  in  any 
manner  abused,  the  monarch  or  provincial 
kings  defrauded  in  the  duties  imposed,  or 
if  persons  not  properly  qualified  were  per- 
mitted to  carry  on  trade  or  manufactures 
to  the  dishonour  and  injury  of  the  kingdom. 
In  all,  or  any  of  the  above  cases,  on  making 
report  to  these  conventions,  which  were 
adjourned  from  week  to  week,  they  had 
immediately  full  power  granted  them  to 
prohibit  unqualified  persons  from  meddling 
in  trade ;  and  to  make  what  other  reforms 
they  judged  would  best  promote  the  general 
good  of  the  nation.  Such  were  the  wise 
methods  by  which  our  great  ancestors 
preserved  their  country  free,  powerful,  and 
independent,  while  they  beheld  every  other 
part  of  Europe  reduced  to  the  greatest  dis- 
tress and  confusion,  owing  to  the  want  of 
sound  legislation. 

How  differently  have  affairs  been  con- 
ducted in  modem  times  !  Though  there  is 
not  a  nation  at  this  day  in  Europe  that  has 
not  judged  the  state  of  commerce  and 
manufactures  of  the  highest  consequence ; 
though,  to  promote  this  great  object.  Great 
Britain  has  her  Board  of  Trade,  founded 
indeed  no  earlier  than  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth ;  though  France,  Spain,  Holland,  Ger- 
many, Sweden,  and  Denmark,  have  their 
respective  Chambers  of  Commerce ;  even 
the  Hanse-towns,  such  as  Hamburg,  Dant- 
zic,  Bremen,  etc.,  direct  their  sole  attention 
to  trade ;  yet  with  all  these  living  examples, 
no  such  institution  prevailed  in  modem  Ire- 
land ;  and  by  this  means  our  poor,  in  the 
most  fertile  and  benificent  soil  under  the 


sun,  are  reduced  to  such  wretchedness  as 
humanity  ought  to  blush  for ! 

We  have  noted,  in  the  last  chapter,  the 
alliance  formed  between  the  Irish,  Picts, 
and  Saxons,  to  distress  the  Britons.  These 
last,  aided  by  their  brethren  in  Brittany, 
and  led  on  by  Ambrosius  Aurelianus,  the 
last  chief  of  the  Roman  blood,  says  Vener- 
able Bede,*  had  many  bloody  encounters 
with  the  Irish  and  Picts  in  Britain,!  being 
the  allies  of  the  Saxons ;  but  in  general  to 
their  loss,  as  the  event  proved. 

About  this  time  St.  Patrick  returned  to 
Ireland  from  Rome,  whither  he  went  to 
give  an  account  of  his  mission,  and  where 
he  remained  since  the  year  461.  The 
pope,  Hilarius,  received  him  in  the  most 
aflfectionate  manner,  presenting  him  with  a 
pallium,  and  highly  applauded  every  thing 
he  had  done  :  on  his  taking  leave,  he  gave 
him  many  valuable  presents,  among  others, 
some  church  relics.  J  Aongus,  King  of 
Munster,  died ;  and  Eocha  Baildearg,  of 
the  Dai-Gas  line,  succeeded  him  in  that 
title,  according  to  the  law  of  succession. 
Aongus  was  a  prince  of  great  piety  and 
learning,  and  a  great  patron  of  letters.  His 
son  Feidhlim  was  King  of  Desmond,  or 
South  Munster. 

The  attention  and  care  taken  by  this 
monarch  OilioU  to  whatever  regarded  the 
good  of  the  nation,  deserve  highly  to  be 
applauded.  While  with  a  fostering  hand 
he  encouraged  trade  and  manufactures, 
things  of  greater  moment  were  not  less 
objects  of  his  care.  He  kept  up  a  large 
body  of  troops  in  Britain  in  support  of  his 
allies  ;  but  the  immature  death  of  Aongus 
deprived  him  of  a  powerful  ally.  This  ap- 
peared clearly  by  the  Lagenians  refusing 
to  pay  the  famous  Leinster  tribute,  the 
cause  of  so  much  bloodshed,  and  by  their 
arming  themselves  to  oppose  his  preten- 
sions by  force.  Battles  were  fought  with 
various  successes ;  and  it  was  sometimes 
paid,  and  at  other  times  refused,  according 
as  the  force  of  arms  prevailed,  and  this  for 
some  years. 

The  son  of  the  monarch  Laogaire,  the 

*  Lib.  i.  cap.  16.  t  Keating's  History,  p.  2. 

t  vita  Sexta  Sand  Patricii,  p.  101. 


A.  D.  473.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


159 


son  of  the  hero  Niall,  whose  youth  prevent- 
ed him  from  appearing  as  candidate  for  the 
monarchy  on  the  death  of  his  father,  had 
now  passed  the  year  of  probation,  (twenty- 
five.)  He  was  possessed  of  the  same  great 
qualifications  as  his  ancestors.  The  love 
of  dominion  and  glory  fked  his  breast,  and 
he  resolved  to  seize  on  the  monarchy,  or 
die  in  the  attempt.  He  leagued  with  his 
cousin  Murtough,  the  son  of  Earca  ;  with 
the  King  of  Leinster,  the  Irish  Dal-Riada, 
and  other  princes ;  and  soon  appeared  at 
the  head  of  a  most  numerous  and  powerful 
army.  The  monarch  was  not  behindhand 
with  him  in  his  preparations.  It  was  then 
the  custom  in  Ireland,  as  it  was  in  all  other 
times,  both  before  and  after  it,  when  a 
prince  was  resolved  to  lay  claim  to  a  mon- 
archy, and  found  himself  powerful  enough 
to  support  his  pretensions  by  the  sword, 
to  send  his  ambassadors,  demanding  a  for- 
mal renunciation  of  the  crown,  or  to  put 
the  merits  to  the  issue  of  a  general  battle  ; 
on  which  occasion  the  time  and  place  of 
battle  was  agreed  upon.  Oilioll  summoned 
all  his  friends  and  dependants  ;  and  on  the 
plains  of  Ocha,  in  Meath,  the  two  armies 
met.  Dreadful  was  the  conflict,  and  great 
the  slaughter  on  both  sides ;  but  Oilioll 
seeing  the  success  leaning  to  the  side  of  his 
adversary,  with  a  chosen  corps  rushed  into 
the  midst  of  the  battle,  to  single  out  his 
competitor,  by  whose  hand  he  fell  in  single 
combat.  The  carnage  in  this  engagement 
exceeded  by  far  any  that  happened  in  any 
preceding  battle  for  many  years,  very  many 
of  the  slain  being  of  the  prime  nobility  of 
the  kingdom.  On  this  account  our  sen- 
achies  began  to  reckon  a  new  era  from  it, 
as  was  their  custom  from  all  uncommonly 
remarkable  events. 

During  this  reign  Ulster  had  three  suc- 
ceeding kings,  the  above  Muireadhac, 
Cairel  Cosgrach,  and  Eocha,  son  to  Muir- 
eadhach.  Munster  had  Aongus,  of  the 
Eugenian  line,  for  king;  while  Carthan, 
of  the  Dai-Gas  race,  ranked  as  King  of 
North  Munster.  On  the  death  of  Aongus, 
Eocha,  the  son  of  Carthan,  was  saluted 
King  of  Leath-Mogha,  while  Feidhlim, 
the  son  of  Aongus,  was  King  of  South 


Munster;  Breasil  Balach  was  King  of 
Leinster;  and  Dungalach,  and  after  him, 
Eogan  Bel,  were  successive  kings  of  Con- 
naught.  Leo  the  Great,  Hilarius,  and 
Simplicius,  were  popes. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Lughaidh  raised  to  the  empire — His  transactions  on 
taking  possession  of  the  throne — Death  of  St. 
Patrick — Invasion  of  Albany  by  the  sons  of  Ere, 
who  establish  a  new  monarchy  in  North  Britain 
— Account  of  the  seminaries  of  learning,  learned 
men,  and  religious  foundations  in  Ireland — Death 
of  Lughaidh. 

Lughaidh,  the  son  of  Laogaire,  the  son 
of  Niall,  the  son  of  Eochaidh,  of  the  royal 
line  of  Heremon,  by  gaining  the  bloody 
battle  of  Ocha,  gained  the  monarchy  also, 
and  was  accordingly  saluted  emperor. 

His  first  care  was  to  reward  his  friends 
and  associates.  Mortough,  the  son  of 
Earca,  who  brought  a  large  body  of  troops 
into  the  field  to  fight  his  battles,  had  a 
principal  lead  in  his  administration.  The 
sons  of  Luig,  of  the  Dai-Gas  line,  and  race 
of  Heber,  got  new  acquisitions  by  this 
revolution.  In  the  reign  of  Laogaire  we 
observed  that  this  Luig  got  several  con- 
siderable lordships  in  Leinster,  which, 
from  his  surname,  were  called  the  Dealb- 
hnas.  To  these  now  were  added  Delvin 
Nugad,  in  the  county  of  Roscommon ; 
Delvin  Culfabhar,  and  Delvin  Feadha,  in 
the  county  of  Galway.  The  O'Conrics  of 
this  race  (so  called  from  Conraoi,  one  of 
their  ancestors)  were  proprietors  of  part 
of  this  last  tract,  till  dispossessed  by  the 
OTlaherties  and  O'Hallorans,  descendants 
of  Brien,  eldest  son  to  Eochaidh,  monarch 
of  Ireland  in  the  fourth  century. 

We  find  this  prince  deeply  engaged  in 
wars,  and  to  have  fought  several  bloody 
battles ;  but  though  several  Christian  semi- 
naries were  founded  during  this  century, 
and  that  the  Druids  still  exercised  great 
power,  yet  we  are  left  shamefully  in  the 
dark  with  respect  to  the  causes  of  these 
bloody  contests;  while  religious  transae-. 
tions,  the  numbers  of  saints,  and  pious 
foundations    are    carefully    attended    to ! 


160 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  498. 


But  the  present  monarch,  if  ever  a  Chris- 
tian, certainly  apostatized ;  and  this  I  think 
will  explain  the  shameful  inattention  to  the 
political  transactions  of  his  reign.  We 
shall  represent  them  in  the  best  manner  we 
can. 

It  is  recorded  that  he  fought  a  most 
bloody  battle  against  the  Lagenians  at  Cill 
Osnach,  in  the  county  of  Carlow,  in  which 
Aongus,  King  of  Munster,  fell :  but  this 
last  is  a  mistake,  for  he  died  some  years 
earlier,  as  the  book  of  Lecan  testifies ;  it 
must  be  therefore  his  son  Eocha,  and  he 
fought  in  defence  of  the  Lagenians.  A 
party  war  soon  after  broke  out  in  Leinster, 
in  which  Fraoch,  the  son  of  Fionachda, 
fell  by  the  sword  of  Oilioll,  the  son  of  Dun- 
luing,  who  succeeded  him.  Connaught 
was  invaded  by  the  monarch,  or  rather  by 
Mortough,  who  seemed  to*  project  these 
different  wars,  the  better  to  pave  the  way 
for  his  own  advancement.  Three  very 
bloody  battles  were  fought  here ;  in  the 
first  fell  Eogan-Bel,  in  the  second  his  son 
Oilioll,  and  in  the  last  his  successor,  a  very 
warlike  prince,  by  name  Duach-Team- 
maigh.  Eochaidh,  the  son  of  Cairbre,  the 
son  of  Niall,  engaged  the  Lagenians  in 
several  battles. 

In  the  midst  of  these  bloody  dissensions 
died  the  great  St.  Patrick,  apostle  of  Ire- 
land, in  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-first 
year  of  his  age,  after  governing  the  Irish 
Church  with  unexampled  wisdom,  piety, 
and  moderation,  for  sixty-one  years.  He 
died  on  the  17th  of  March,  in  493,  which 
day  is  still  held  as  his  festival,  and  was 
interred  in  the  city  of  Down ;  where, 
under  the  same  monument,  were  after- 
wards placed  the  bodies  of  St.  Bridget  and 
St.  Columba,  as  these  verses  note : — 

"  Hi  tres  in  Diino  tuniulo,  tumulaiitur  in  uno, 
Brigida,  Patricius,  atqua  Columba  pius." 

This  monument  was  constantly  visited  to 
the  time  of  the  Reformation,  by  pious  Chris- 
tians from  different  parts  of  Europe  ;  and 
large  presents  were  made,  and  new  deco- 
rations constantly  added  to  it.  The  fame 
of  its  riches  inspired  Lord  Grey,  deputy  of 
the  English  Pale,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.,  to  make  an  incursion  into  this  coun- 


try, in  which  this  noble  remain  of  piety 
and  antiquity  was  defaced,  and  plundered 
of  all  its  most  valuable  effects.  The  cathe- 
dral of  Kildare,  where  the  body  of  St. 
Conlaith  was  interred,  to  whom  and  St. 
Bridget  superb  monuments  were  raised, 
highly  ornamented  with  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  stones,  suffered  the  same  fate,  as 
did  every  other  religious  foundation,  with- 
in stretch  of  his  sacrilegious  power. 

The  minutest  circumstances  relative  to 
this  great  apostle  are  still  preserved  among 
us,  even  to  his  private  economy,  and  to 
the  officers  of  his  household.  With  the 
greatest"  piety,  moderation,  and  wisdom, 
he  still  preserved  the  archiepiscopal  dig- 
nity with  great  eclat.  The  names  of  his 
secretary,  the  intendant  of  his  household, 
his  librarian,  the  master  of  his  wardrobe, 
and  of  his  ecclesiastical  dress,  are  preserv- 
ed ;  the  hermits  who  entertained  the  poor, 
the  physicians  of  his  household,  and  even 
the  ladies  who  superintended  the  lace  and 
embroidery  of  the  sacred  vestments,  are 
handed  down  to  us.  Every  person  who 
acted  under  him  was  looked  upon  with  an 
eye  of  respect.  The  names  of  his  chario- 
teer, his  page,  his  goldsmiths  and  jewellers, 
workers  in  iron  and  wood,  and  his  chief 
masons  and  architects,  etc.,  are  still  on 
record !* 

The  year  498,  exactly  twenty  years  after 
the  bloody  battle  of  Ocha,  is  marked  down 
as  the  period  when  the  six  sons  of  Ere, 
the  son  of  Eocha,  called  Muin-ramhar,  or 
the  Fat  Neck,  invaded  Albany,  re-pos- 
sessed themselves  of  the  seats  of  their  an- 
cestors, and  established  a  new  monarchy 
in  North  Britain.  But  as  this  regal  settle- 
ment did  not  commence  till  the  beginning 
of  the  next  century,  we  shall  close  this 
chapter  and  book  with  an  account  of  the 
seminaries  of  learning,  the  learned  men, 
and  religious  foundations  of  Ireland  iu  this 
age. 

St.  Ailbe  founded  schools  for  instruction 
as  well  as  the  Church,  at  Emily,  in  the 
county  of  Tipperary,  about  A.  D.  416. 
This  school  was  in  great  esteem ;  and 
among  other  great  luminaries  it  produced 
*  Lecan,  book  i 


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A.I).498.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


161 


were  St.  Colman  and  St.  Molua;  this 
last,  son  of  Eocha,  King  of  Munster,  and 
who  founded  the  Church  of  Killaloe,  but 
more  properly  Kill-Molua,  kail  being 
Irish  for  a  church.  The  church  and 
schools  of  St.  Declan  were  about  the  same 
time  erected  in  the  deasies  in  the  county  of 
Waterford.  St.  Patrick  held  these  two 
prelates  in  such  high  esteem,  that  he  calls 
the  first  "the  Patrick  of  Munster;"  the 
other  "  the  Patrick  of  the  Deasies."  St. 
Kieran's  College  was  opened  at  Sier- 
Kieran,  in  the  King's  County ;  and  that  of 
St.  Ibar,  in  a  sequestered  island,  in  the 
county  of  Wexford.  To  these  schools,  as 
Usher*  and  Colganf  affirm,  numbers  not 
only  of  natives,  but  even  of  foreigners 
resorted,  to  be  instructed  in  religion  and 
letters.  St.  Patrick  himself  founded  the 
University  of  Armagh,  which  preceded 
all  others  for  extent,  magnificence,  and 
endowments ;  and  we  mav  reasonablv 
suppose,  that  to  every  Episcopal  Church 
he  founded,  he  annexed  a  school  for  pub- 
lic education,  as  his  precursors  did.  It 
is  worth  while  to  attend  to  the  reason, 
why  religion  and  letters  went  hand  in  hand 
in  Ireland.  By  the  Irish  constitution,  doc- 
tors in  science  not  only  preceded  the  nobil- 
ity, but  were  exempt  from  all  temporal 
laws,  and  their  persons  and  possessions 
unmolested  in  wars.  What  greater  secu- 
rity could  the  early  Christians  have  to  pro- 
mulgate their  religious  tenets  than  the 
sanction  of  public  schools  ?  we  see  these 
schools  at  this  time  resorted  to  by  foreign- 
ers as  well  as  natives ;  a  demonstrative 
proof  that  the  crowds  of  strangers  who 
flowed  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to  us, 
were  not  confined  to  the  days  of  Christian- 
ity only,  else  what  would  have  brought 
them  then  here  ? 

These  precursors  of  Patrick,  to  wit — 
Ailbe,  Declan,  Kieran,  and  Ibarus,  we 
may  suppose  were  eminent  writers  as  well 
as  preachers.  Ailbe  wrote  "A  Rule  for 
Monks."  Dubthach,  arch-poet  to  the 
monarch  Loagaire,  was  a  man  of  great 
learning,  and  an  early  convert  to  Chris- 

*  rrimord.  Eccles.  Brit.,  p.  1062-3. 
t  Colgan,  Vita  St.  Abban,  etc. 

21 


tianity.  His  poetic  talents,  which  he  be- 
fore often  employed  in  praise  of  Bel,  Crom, 
and  other  heathen  gods,  he  now  converted 
to  the  praise  of  the  great  Creator,  by  whom 
only  these  planets  act.  Colgan  affirms  to 
have  had  several  works  of  this  poet  in  his 
possession.* 

St.  Patrick  himself  was  not  less  eminent 
for  letters  than  for  preaching  and  convert- 
ing. He  is  said  to  have  been  a  master  of 
the  Irish,  British,  Gaelic,  and  Latin  tongues, 
and  also  of  the  Greek.  His  writings  are 
very  many ;  they  are  too  numerous  to  be 
here  inserted ;  but  in  Colgan  you  will  find 
an  ample  detail  of  them.f  St.  Fiech, 
Bishop  of  Sleibhte,  or  the  Mountains,  in 
the  Queen's  County,  was  a  disciple  of  St. 
Patrick,  and  wrote  his  life  in  Irish  metre, 
extant  in  the  Trias  Thaumat.  Harris  at- 
tributes another  work  to  him.J  Binin,  a 
disciple  and  successor,  or  rather  Cobharb- 
har,  to  St.  Patrick,  wrote  his  life,  partly  in 
Latin,  partly  Irish.  This  Binin  has  been 
supposed  to  be  the  author  of  the  famous 
Leabhar  na  Guart,  or  Book  of  Rights,  by 
which  the  subsidies  paid  to  the  kings  of 
Ireland  by  their  subjects  were  stated.  « 
For  my  part,  I  think  it  the  work  of  differ- 
ent writers,  and  in  different  ages.  For  in 
it  we  find  among  the  presents  which  the 
kings  of  Munster,  in  their  royal  tours 
through  Ireland,  offered  at  the  different 
courts  they  visited,  that  they  presf-nted  the 
kings  of  Emania  with  seventy  steeds,  sev- 
enty suits  of  armour,  and  eight  corslets. 
Now  it  has  been  already  observe^  .that  this 
royal  fabric  was  destroyed  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourth  century,  and  of  course 
near  a  century  earlier  than  the  birth  of  this 
writer.  Again,  mention  is  made  in  an- 
other part  of  this  work  of  the  dues  paid 
by  the  Danes  to  the  kings  of  Leinster, 
which  proves  this  last  part  must  have  been 
written  some  ages  posterior  to  the  present 
era.  It  is  however  partly  a  very  ancient 
and  upon  the  whole  a  very  well-preserved 
piece  of  Irish  antiquity.  St.  Mel,  St.  Luman, 
and  his  nephew  St.  Patrick  wrote  also, 
part  Latin,  part  Irish,  the  life  and  miracles 

•  Trias  Thaum.,  p.  8.  t  Trias  Thaum.,  p.  214. 

X  Writers  q^Ireland,  p.  6. 


162 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  498. 


of  our  great  apostle.  From  these  works 
Jocelyne,  the  monk  (who  was  employed 
by  the  famous  John  de  Courcey,  in  the 
twelfth  century,  to  write  the  life  of  the 
Irish  apostle,  and  which  he  finished  about 
A.  D.  1185)  acknowledges  having  received 
great  lights  on  the  subject.*  The  cele- 
brated Bishop  Sedulius  flourished  in  this 
century,  whose  works,  particularly  his 
hymns  and  sacred  poems,  have  been  much 
admired.  Harris  is  minute  in  his  account 
of  them.f  Frideline,  an  Irish  prince,  de- 
voted himself  to  a  monastic  life,  and  trav- 
elled into  Germany  and  France,  where  he 
built  many  monasteries,  and  converted 
numbers  to  Christianity.  He  is  said  to 
have  published  some  religious  tracts.J 
The  celebrated  St.  Cathaldus,  bishop  and 
patron  of  Tarentum,  the  writer  of  some 
remarkable  prophesies,  is  placed  by  Har- 
ris in  this  century  ;  but  from  the  authority 
of  Mac  Bruodin's  Book  of  Munster,  and 
that  of  the  two  Moroni,  both  brothers  and 
Tarentines  born,  I  have  already  placed 
him  in  the  second  century.  St.  Kienan, 
first  Bishop  of  Duleck,  was  christened, 
*  instructed,  and  educated  by  St.  Patrick, 
and  wrote  his  life.§ 

Long  before  the  arrival  of  St.  Patrick, 
Christianity  was  in  a  most  flourishing  con- 
dition in  the  province  of  Munster,  so  much 
so,  that  though  he  landed  in  Ireland  in 
432,  yet  he  did  not  visit  this  province  till 
448.  There  he  met  St.  Ailbe,  their  arch- 
bishop, with  several  of  his  disciples,  and 
found  many  churches  and  monasteries 
erected.  Those  of  greatest  note  were  the 
abbeys  of  Inis-Catha,  or  Scattery,  and 
Inis-Lua,  both  islands  in  the  Shannon,  and 
founded  by  St.  Senan,  of  Corea  Bavi- 
sein. 

The  abbey  of  Muingarid,  near  Limerick, 
being  erected  in  the  fourth  century,  as  was 
another  Adare,  in  the  said  county,  to  this 
day  called  Ceil-Dimma,  from  Dimma,  a 
Christian  priest,  and  to  whose  care  St. 
Declan  was  committed,  when  a  youth,  for 
instruction.     St.  Endeus  founded  the  mon- 

*  Vita  sexta  St.  Patricii,  p.  106. 

t  Writers  of  Ireland,  p.  7.  t  Ibirl,  p.  9. 

$  Trias  Thatei.,p.  217. 


astery  of  Aran,  called  Arra  na  Naoimh,  or 
Aran  of  the  Saints,  on  account  of  the 
amazing  number  of  saints  who  lived  and 
died  in  this  famous  retreat;  St.  Maidoc, 
another,  at  Disert  Nairbre,  in  the  county 
of  Waterford.  The  principal  monasteries 
founded  by  our  apostle,  were  those  of 
Slane,  Trion,  and  Domhnach-Phadraig,  in 
Meath;  Kill-Auxille,  near  Kildare;  Fin- 
glas,  near  Dublin ;  Achad  Abla,  in  the 
county  of  Wexford  ;  Galen,  in  the  county 
of  Carlow ;  Ardah,  in  the  county  of  Long- 
ford ;  Inis  bo  Fion  and  Inis  Cloghran,  in 
the  said  county  ;  Louth  and  Druim-inis- 
gluin,  in  the  county  of  Louth ;  St.  Peter 
«nd  Paul's  Abbey,  at  Armagh ;  Saul  and 
Nendrum  Abbeys,  in  the  county  of  Down; 
Rath-Muighe,  in  the  county  of  Antrim; 
Coleraine  Abbey,  in  the  county  of  Derry ; 
Louch-Dearg,  in  the  county  of  Donegal ; 
Clogher  in  the  county  of  Tyrone  ;  Inis 
Muigh  Samh,  in  the  county  of  Fermanagh ; 
Clun-Feis,  Tuam,  and  Kill-Chonal,  in  the 
county  of  Galway;  Inis-More,  in  the 
county  of  Roscommon ;  Druim-Lias,  in 
the  county  of  Sligo,  etc. 

The  first  monastery  of  females  on  rec- 
ord in  Ireland,  is  that  of  Kill-Liadan,  in 
the  county  of  Carlow,  founded  by  St. 
Kieran  before  the  arrival  of  St.  Patrick. 
St.  Patrick  founded  those  of  Cluan-Bro- 
nach  and  Druimchas,  in  the  county  of 
Longford  ;  of  Temple-Bride,  and  Temple 
na  Fearta,  or  the  Temple  of  Miracles,  in 
the  county  of  Armagh ;  the  Abbey  of 
Lin,  near  Carrickfergus  ;  of  Cluain-Dubh- 
ain,  in  the  county  of  Tyrone  ;  of  Ross- 
Oirther,  in  the  county  of  Fermanagh ;  of 
Ross-Bcnchoir,  in  the  county  of  Clare ; 
and  Killaracht,  in  the  county  of  Roscom- 
mon !  Besides  these,  St.  Bridget  founded 
her  famous  monastery  in  Kildare,  A.  D. 
480,  for  which  she  formed  particular  rules, 
and  which  was  the  head  of  her  order. 
Upon  the  whole,  it  is  agreed  on  by  the 
early  writers  of  his  life,  that  no  less  than 
seven  hundred  religious  houses  were  built 
and  consecrated  during  the  mission  of  this 
apostle.  An  amazing  number  truly  at 
any  time ;  but  more  particularly  when 
two  out  of  the  three  monarchs  of  Ireland 


A.  D.  503.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


163 


who  succeeded  each  other  in  this  period 
were  unbelievers  !  If  any  of  them  were 
ever  Christians — which  I  much  doubt — 
they  certainly  apostatized.  To  this  cause 
or  their  want  of  faith,  the  pious  Christians 
charitablv  resolved  their  violent  deaths ; 
Laogaire  and  Lughridh  being  destroyed 
by  lightning. 

There  cannot,  in  my  opinion,  be  a 
stronger  proof  of  the  civilized  state  of  the 
nation,  than  the  adverting  to  this  circum- 
stance. These  early  Christians  were  no 
doubt  highly  eminent  for  letters,  and  greatly 
cultivated  the  fine  arts ;  and  these  mo- 
narchs,  endued  with  a  truly  great  and 
philosophic  spirit,  considering  their  religion 
as  no  way  dangerous  to  the  state,  gave  not 
the  least  check  to  it.  Like  the  emperors 
of  China  in  our  days,  and  for  above  a  cen- 
tury past,  though  greatly  attached  to  the 
religion  of  their  ancestors,  yet,  far  from 
prohibiting  the  preachers  of  Christianity 


from  spreading  their  tenets  through  the 
empire,  they  grant  both  liberty  and  pro- 
tection to  the  Jesuits  and  Dominicans, 
not  only  to  convert  the  people,  but  to 
erect  churches  for  the  use  of  their  vota- 


ries. 


After  a  reign  of  twenty-five  years,  this 
prince,  Lughaidh,  was  killed  by  lightning. 
Eocha  Baildearg.  of  the  Dai-Gas  line,  con- 
tinued for  some  years  King  of  Leath-Mo- 
gha,  and  Feidhlim,  the  son  of  Aongus, 
King  of  South-Munster.  On  his  death, 
and  during  the  administration  of  Lughaidh, 
Criomthan,  the  son  of  Feidhlim,  was  salut- 
ed King  of  Leath-Mogha,  and  Cor  moo 
Coichin,  succeeded  his  brother  Eocha,  in 
the  sovereignty  of  Thomond.  Two  kings 
of  Ulster,  Eocha,  and  Fergus.  Three 
kings  in  Leinster,  Fraoch,  the  son  of  Fin- 
achda  and  Oilioll,  and  Ulan,  the  sons  of 
Dunluing.  Three  in  Connaught,  Eogan, 
Bel,  Oilioll,  and  Duach-Teanmaigh. 


BOOK    VIII. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Of  the  monarch  Mortough,  and  his  wars — An  Irish 
governineut  erected  in  Albiny — ^Nature  of  the 
connection  between  the  Irish  and  Picts  explnined 
— Of  the  first  and  succeeding  Irish  who  emigra- 
ted to  Albany,  to  their  erecting  of  a  monarchy, 
and  reducing  of  the  Picts — Their  successors 
lose  the  aits  and  letters  which  they  possessed — 
The  use  made  of  them  on  their  revival  to  estab- 
lish a  high  antiquity  in  Britain,  and  the  reason. 

Mortough,  the  son  of  Muireadhach,  the 
son  of  Eogan,  the  son  of  the  hero  Niall, 
was  unanimously  saluted  monarch  of  Ire- 
land. He  is  generally  called  the  son  of 
Earca,  from  his  mother's  name,  who  was 
the  daughter  of  Loam,  of  the  Dal-Riada 
race. 

He  was  the  first  Irish  monarch  who 
lived  and  died  in  the  Christian  faith;  not- 
withstanding that  most  of  the  provincial 
kings  publicly  professed  this  doctrine,  for 
above  half  a  century  earlier.  He  is  highly 
celebrated  as  well  for  his  piety  as  his  in- 
trepidity. His  empress  Sabina  led  so  ex- 
emplary a  life  as  to  be  ranked  amongst 
the  saints  of  Ireland.*  This  prince  met 
with  great  disturbances  in  his  reign.  It  is 
recorded  that  he  fought  no  less  than  seven- 
teen bloody  battles,t  five  of  which  were 
in  the  course  of  one  year  !  J  But,  not- 
withstanding that  this  was  an  age  in  which 
letters  flourished  in  an  eminent  degree 
among  us,  yet  it  is  not  a  little  surprising, 
that  we  find  no  accounts  preserved  of  the 
cause  of  these  fatal  dissensions:  while 
pious  foundations,  and  genealogies  of  saints 
are  recorded  with  a  scrupulous  nicety. 
But,  wrapped  up  in  holy  importance,  our 
Christian  senachies,  in  all  probability, 
thought  nothing  else  worth  recording. 

*  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  679,  690 
t  Grat.  Luc.  p.  74.        t  Keating,  p.  2. 


We  shall  now  return  to  a  most  remark- 
able era,  namely,  the  establishing  of  a 
new  monarchy  in  North  Britain.  We  have 
already  observed  that  in  the  year  498, 
^e  six  sons  of  Ere,  aided  by  the  monarch, 
Lughaidh,  invaded  the  modern  Scotland. 
They  were  called  the  two  Larns,  the  two 
Aonguses,  and  the  two  Fearguses.  But 
as  Irish  and  North  British  writers  diflfer 
materially  with  respect  to  the  period  when 
this  regal  government  began,  and  that 
volumes  have  been  written  on  the  subject, 
to  enable  the  reader  to  form  a  clear  judg- 
ment of  the  whole,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
take  a  short  retrospective  view  of  the 
early  state  of  this  country. 

In  the  infancy  of  the  Milesian  govern- 
ment, we  have  seen  the  Picts  established 
in  North  Britain.  We  have  there  remark- 
ed the  uncommon  wisdom  of  Heremon, 
when  he  vouchsafed  his  protection  to  these 
people,  in  unalterably  fixing  them  attached 
to  the  Irish  monarchy  by  the  simple  bonds 
of  wedlock!  a  circumstance  which  may 
furnish  some  hints  to  modern  legislators 
for  securing  the  fidelity  of  their  colonies. 
But  though  from  time  to  time  this  country 
was  invaded  from  Ireland,  yet  it  was 
rather  to  punish  them  for  their  too  great 
attachment  to  one  party  of  the  Irish,  than 
from  any  suspicions  of  their  ever  aiming 
to  disturb,  much  less  to  overturn  the  Irish 
constitution.  It  was  impossible  in  the  fre- 
quent contests  about  the  monarchy  but 
that  they  must  have  a  greater  desire  to 
support  the  interest  of  one  party  than  that 
of  another.  The  proximity  of  Ulster,  and 
their  more  frequent  alliances  and  inter- 
courses with  the  Irian  race  than  with  the 
other  septs  of  Ireland,  attached  them  more 


A.  D.  503.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND 


165 


strongly  to  them.  For  this  reason,  the 
other  two  houses,  particularly  the  Hebe- 
rians,  laboured  to  lessen  their  power,  as 
the  surest  means  of  reducing  the  northern 
line  of  Irish.  This  I  thought  necessary  to 
remark,  as  all  the  Irish  writers  I  have 
met  with  regard  these  invasions  of  Albany 
as  so  many  conquests.  PJain  sense  points 
out  the  fact  as  I  have  noted ;  for  had  it 
been  otherwise,  they  would  necessarily 
form  alliances  with  the  Britons,  and  other 
enemies  of  Ireland,  and  either  shake  off 
their  dependence  entirely,  or  become  a 
really  conquered  people  ;  neither  of  which 
was  the  case.  Their  predeliction  for  the 
Irish  arose  from  the  strongest  ties.  Their' 
wives  being  mostly  Irish,  infused  this  love 
into  their  husbands  and  children.  The 
next  race  caught  the  same  infection  from 
the  same  cause ;  and  this  cause  constantly 
acting,  the  effect  could  not  cease.  When 
the  Romans  over-ran  all  South  Britain, 
they  could  not  shake  off  this  attachment 
of  the  Picts.  Even  their  invasion  of  Scot- 
land produced  no  alteration  in  their  senti- 
ments. In  the  days  of  Agricola,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  Romans  meditated  a  descent 
on  Ireland:  the  great  utility  of  detaching 
the  Picts  from  their  connections  with  the 
Irish  must  have  struck  so  eminent  a  com- 
mander as  Agricola;  and  I  make  no  doubt 
but  he  laboured — though  in  vain — to  bring 
over  these  people  to  the  interests  of  Rome. 
Thus  we  see  from  very  obvious  causes, 
that  there  was  a  constant  intercourse  be- 
tween the  two  people  ;  but  the  moment  the 
Romans  entered  Britain,  their  mutual  in- 
terests demanded  the  strictest  alliance. 
The  Irish,  from  this  time  forward,  kept 
legions  in  Britain,  which,  as  the  Romans 
did,  they  called  after  the  country.  Fine  Al- 
bin.  Their  numbers  by  this  means,  in 
North  Britain,  became  considerable,  but 
still  without  any  fixed  order  or  legislation, 
till  about  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Conaire 
the  Grand,  or  the  beginning  of  that  of  his 
successor  Art,  Carbre,  the  son  of  this  Con- 
aire, made  a  regular  settlement  in  Argyle, 
whose  posterity  after  him  were  called  Dal- 
Reudini,  as  Bede  declares,*  from  his  sur- 
*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  i.  cap.  1. 


name  Riada,  or  the  Long  Arm,  to  which 
the  word  Dal,  which  denotes  a  sept  or 
family,  was  added.  Mac-Con,  who  suc- 
ceeded Art  in  the  monarchy  of  Ireland,  had 
also  a  considerable  property  there,  which 
his  son  Fatha-Conan  greatly  enlarged. 
From  Mac-Con,  the  house  of  Campbell,  the 
Mac  Aliens,  etc.,  claim  their  pedigree  ;  and 
to  this  day  the  first  are  called  Siol  Mhic- 
Cuin,  or  the  posterity  of  Mac-Con.  Aon- 
gus-Fer,  grandson  to  Carbre-Riada,  greatly 
enlarged  his  family  possessions  in  Albany, 
and  from  him  the  shire  of  Aongus  took  its 
name.  About  the  year  331,  the  Collas, 
grandsons  to  Carbre-Liffecaire,fled  to  Scot- 
land, for  rebellion,  and  were  graciously  re- 
ceived by  their  uncle,  the  Pictish  king,  who 
assigned  them  lands,  and  at  length  pro- 
cured their  pardon.  From  these  the  Mac 
Donnels  of  Scotland  are  descended ;  and 
to  them  are  they  indebted  for  their  posses- 
sions, as  well  there  as  in  the  isles.  Some 
time  after,  Maine,  called  Leamhna,  (from 
a  river  of  that  name  in  the  county  of  Kerry, 
near^which  he  was  nursed,)  the  son  of 
Cove,  King  of  Munster,  repaired  to  Albany, 
that  theatre  of  glory  to  the  Irish  nation  in 
those  days  of  heroism  ;  and  after  exhibiting 
prodigies  of  valour  against  the  Romans, 
gained  a  principality  there,  from  him  called 
Leamhna,  pronounced  Leavna.  He  got 
the  title  of  Maor-More-Leamhna,  or  the 
Great  Steward  of  Leavna,  maor  being  Irish 
for  a  steward ;  from  which  title  his  suc- 
cessors assumed  the  name  of  Steward. 
His  brother  Carbre,  called  Cruithniach,  or 
the  Pict,  gained  also  large  territories  in 
North  Britain.  Ere,  the  son  of  Eocha,  the 
son  of  the  above  Aongus,  the  descendant 
of  Carbre-Riada,  repaired  to  North  Britain 
to  possess  himself  of  the  territories  of  his 
ancestor  there,  soon  after,  (i.  e.  about  A.  D. 
440,)  and  died,  according  to  Usher,  and  the 
Book  of  Lecan,  A.  D.  474.  His  eldest 
son,  Loame,  in  478,  raised  the  entire  clan 
of  Dal-Riada,  as  well  in  Ireland  as  Britain, 
to  fight  the  battles  of  Lughaidh,  influenced 
thereto  by  his  son-in-law  Mortough,  then 
very  young ;  by  which  timely  assistance 
Lughaidh  gained  the  monarchy.  From 
this  prince  the  country  of  Lorn  took  its 


166 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  503. 


name.  Indeed,  the  possessions  and  pedi- 
grees of  the  Albanian  Scots,  in  North  Bri- 
tain, are  preserved  with  wonderful  accura- 
cy in  our  books  of  antiquity.  O'Duvegan 
in  particular  notes  the  subdivisions  of  their 
families  and  patrimonies,  their  different 
chiefs,  their  power  by  sea  and  land,  etc. 

From  this  account  it  appears  that  though 
the  possessions  of  the  Irish  in  Albany  were 
considerable,  yet  that  they  were  there  nei- 
ther a  united  or  powerful  people.  For  the 
great  chiefs  being  some  of  the  line  of  He- 
ber,  others  of  that  of  Heremon,  or  Ith,  re- 
siding mostly  in  the  mother-country,  and 
engaging  in  their  different  family  disputes 
at  home,  attended  not  sufficiently  to  their 
mutual  interests  in  Albany.  Mortough, 
sensible  of  this,  prevailed  on  his  uncles  in 
498,  to  return  there  and  strengthen  their 
family  interest  as  much  as  possible.  Soon 
after  he  was  called  to  the  Irish  monarchy, 
he  caused  Feargns,  the  youngest  brother, 
to  be  proclaimed  king  of  the  Albanian 
Scots,  or  Irish ;  and  to  add  greater  solem- 
nity to  his  inauguration,  he  sent  over  the 
famous  marble  chair,  on  which  the  mon- 
archs  of  Ireland  were  enthroned.  This 
was  the  first  prince,  of  the  Irish  race,  who 
was  proclaimed  or  acknowledged  as  a  king 
in  Albany.  He  united  the  diflferent  jarring 
interests  of  the  colonists,  compelling  such 
as  refused  to  recognize  his  title  to  make 
their  submissions,  and  formed  from  this 
union  a  respectable  power,  subordinate 
however  to  the  mother-country.  His  suc- 
cessors, warlike  and  enterprising  princes, 
gradually  extended  their  frontiers,  enabled 
so  to  do  by  the  constant  assistance  sent 
them,  from  time  to  time,  from  Ireland  ;  till 
at  length  in  the  ninth  century,  Kenneth,  the 
son  of  Alpin,  completely  destroyed  thePict- 
ish  empire,  and  instead  of  king  of  the  Al- 
banian Scots,  as  his  ancestors  were  styled, 
he  was  saluted  king  of  the  Albanies,  i.  e. 
of  the  Picts  and  Scots.  This  explains  the 
following  lines  of  Fordun  on  this  event : — 

"  Primus  in  Albanis,  fertur  regiiAsse  Kenethus 
FUins  Alpini,  prselia  multa  gerens. 
ExpvUis  Pictis,  regnavit  is  octo  bis  annis." 

Though  to  this  time  the  Albanian  Irish 
had  undoubtedly  arts  and  sciences  among 


them,  yet  in  the  reign  of  his  successor  Con- 
stantine,  the  remains  of  the  vanquished 
Picts  inviting  the  Danes  to  their  assistance, 
the  whole  country  became  soon  one  scene 
of  desolation,  from  which  fair  science  fled  ! 
Ireland  too,  being  about  the  same  time  in- 
vaded, could  not  afford  them  those  supplies 
she  formerly  did.  Add  to  this,  that  the 
Albanian  Irish  no  longer  paid  tribute  to 
the  mother-country,  as  we  shall  note  in  its 
place ;  so  that  what  between  their  wars 
with  the  Danes,  the  Saxons,  and  Normans, 
history  and  chronology  became  totally  lost 
there.  These  events  were  not,  neverthe- 
less, nor  could  they  in  the  nature  of  things, 
be  totally  forgotten.  The  only  piece  of 
Scottish  Albanian  history  extant  is  a  regal 
poem,  much  like  ours,  of  Giolla  Caomhain, 
in  which  is  contained  a  list  of  their  kings, 
beginning  with  Loam,  brother  to  Fergus, 
and  ending  with  Malcolm,  the  son  of  Don- 
chadh,  confirming  word  for  word  our  ac- 
counts.* Add  to  this,  that  Scotland,  s^ncN 
ly  speaking,  comprehended  only  that  part 
of  North  Britain  possessed  by  the  Scots  or 
Irish.  This  is  acknowledged  by  all  their 
writers.  To  this  purpose  Hume  tells  us — 
"  It  is  certain  that  in  very  ancient  language, 
Scotland  means  only  the  country  north  of 
the  Firths  of  Clyde  and  Forth.  I  shall  not 
make  a  parade  of  literature  to  prove  it,  be- 
cause I  do  not  find  the  point  is  disputed  by 
the  Scots  themselves."t 

In  the  days  of  the  Venerable  Bede,  who 
died  A.  D.  737,  and  constantly  resided  at 
his  monastery  at  Wearmouth,  on  the  Pict- 
ish  borders,  we  find  the  Albanian  Scotch 
or  Irish  distinguished  from  the  other  clans 
of  Irish,  by  the  name  of  Dal-Reudini,  which 
he  justly  explains  into  the  posterity  of 
Riada.  This  proves  that  they  were  even 
then  looked  upon  as  an  Irish  colony  only, 
not  as  a  distinct  and  independent  body  of 
Irish. 

The  Albanian  Irish,  as  I  observed,  en- 
gaged in  constant  wars  with  different  in- 
vaders, soon  lost  whatever  arts  they  had 
been  in  possession  of.  An  event,  however, 
pointed  out  to  them  the  necessity  of  history 

•  Trias  Thaumat.  fol.  115. 

t  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  258. 


A.  D.  503.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


167 


and  chronology,  which  they  availed  them- 
selves of.  The  immature  death  of  Mar- 
garet of  Norway,  in  the  decline  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  leaving  the  kingdom  of 
Scotland  exposed  to  the  pretensions  of  dif- 
ferent competitors,  Edward  I.,  of  England, 
assumed  to  himself  the  right  of  judge, 
affirming  that  both  Scotland  and  Wales 
were  but  fiefs  of  England  ;  for  that  Brutus 
the  Trojan,  who  subdued  all  Britain,  had 
three  sons,  Laegrus,  Camber,  and  Albanc- 
tus,  between  whom  he  divided  his  territo- 
ries. To  Laegrus  he  left  Laegria,  or 
England  ;  to  Camber,  Cambria,  or  Wales ; 
and  to  Albanctus,  Albany,  from  him  so 
called  ;  but  still  as  fiefs  from  the  eldest  son. 
In  1301,  a  memorial  to  this  purpose  was 
delivered  by  his  ministers  to  Pope  Boniface 
VIII.,  but  the  Scots  were  determined  not 
to  be  behindhand  with  him  in  point  of  an- 
tiquity, or  forfeit  their  title  to  independence 
for  want  of  invention.  Their  countryman, 
Hume,  treating  of  the  era  in  quejstion,  has 
these  remarkable  words :  If  the  Scots  had 
before  this  period  any  real  history  worthy 
of  the  name,  except  what  they  glean  from 
scattered  passagesof  the  English  historians, 
these  events,  however  minute,  yet  being  the 
only  foreign  ones  of  the  nation,  might  de- 
serve a  place  in  it."*  The  English  me- 
morial to  this  pope  traces  their  government 
to  above  eleven  hundred  years  before 
Christ ;  but  the  Scots  make  theirs  coeval 
with  Moses  !  They  affirmed  that  Eric,  the 
son  of  Gathelus,  who  was  contemporary 
with  Moses,  sailed  from  Iceland  to  Albany, 
and  there  founded  a  monarchy,  which  con- 
tinued uninterrupted  to  that  time;  and 
which,  from  these  two  commanders,  took 
the  name  of  Eric-Gathel,  or  Argyle  !  Here 
we  plainly  see  a  confused  memory  of  their 
origin,  much  like  what  we  have  remarked 
of  the  early  Greeks,  but  replete  with  ab- 
surdities and  anachronisms.  In  1320 
another  memorial  was  addressed  to  John 
XXII.,  Pope  of  Rome ;  in  this  they  assure 
his  Holiness  that  their  Eric  was  the  son  of 
Gathelus,  and  Scota,  Queen  of  Egypt,  who 
were  contemporaries  with  Moses.  But 
Scota,  as  wc  have  seen,  was  the  mother, 
*  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  255. 


not  the  wife,  of  Gathelus  ;  and  the  son  of 
this  last  was  named  Easru,  not  Eric.  Nor 
was  it  for  many  generations  after,  that  the 
sons  of  Milesius,  not  Gathelus,  landed  in 
Ireland  ;  one  thousand  eight  hundred  years 
after  which  period,  not  sooner,  an  Irish 
colony  formed  a  regal  settlement  in  Al- 
bany. 

Yet  even  at  Rome  we  should  think 
that  this  pompous  parade  of  antiquity  met 
with  some  censure  ;  because,  in  a  very  few 
years  after  their  second  memorial,  John 
Fordun,  a  Scotch  priest,  was  employed  to 
write  a  history  of  Scotland ;  and  this  is 
the  first  historian  their  country  produced. 
That  this  work  was  undertaken  soon  after, 
is  manifest  from  this,  that  he  speaks  of  the 
year  1341  in  it  as  a  present  one ;  and  that 
it  was  occasioned  bv  the  strictures  on  their 
former  assertions  must  be  admitted,  because 
he  lops  off  at  once  from  their  antiquity 
above  one  thousand  five  hundred  years ;  a 
great  falling  off  truly !  For  instead  of 
making  the  father  of  Eric  coeval  with 
Moses,  he  admits  his  reign  to  have  com- 
menced about  three  hundred  and  thirty 
years  before  Christ !  Need  I  dwell  long 
on  the  subsequent  forgeries  of  Boetius, 
Dempster,  etc.,  to  support  this  imaginary 
antiquity.  Their  affirming  that  the  Scotia 
of  Hegisippus,  Claudian,  Marcellinus,  Gil- 
das,  Bede,  and  other  writers  to  the  eleventh 
century,  meant  modern  Scotland ;  and  be- 
cause it  was  found  that  this  Scotia  was 
also  the  lerne  of  Orpheus,  and  the  Hibemia 
of  Caesar  and  Tacitus,  they  at  once  find 
this  leme  to  be  Strathern  ;  and  instead  of 
a  large  and  potent  island,  to  be  but  an  ob- 
scure part  of  Perthshire  !  Such  flagrant 
insults  on  truth,  history,  and  reason,  roused 
up  the  indignation  of  the  most  passive ;  and 
White,  Fitz-Simmons,  Routh,  Usher,  Ward, 
Lloyd,  Stillingfleet,  etc.,  etc.,  soon  proved 
to  all  Europe  the  impositions  of  these 
writers. 


168 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  503. 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  same  subject  continued — A  new  system  of 
Scottish  history  and  nntiquity — Mac  Pherson's 
Ossian  replete  with  anachronisms,  and  the  pains 
taken  to  impose  it  on  the  world  for  a  s;enuine 
performance Dr.  Mac  Pherson's  Disserta- 
tions— Ireland  the  ancient  countiy  of  the  Alba- 
nian Scots  ;  and  these  last  and  the  Picts  always 

considered  as  different  nations. 

It  is  a  remark  of  the  learned  Dr.  John- 
son, that  "  a  Scotchman  must  be  a  very 
sturdy  moralist  indeed  who  does  not  love 
Scotland  better  than  truth."  *  In  no  in- 
stance can  this  assertion  be  fuller  proved 
than  in  their  labours  to  gain  a  high  anti- 
quity in  Britain.  Their  imaginary  history 
being  exposed,  their  generals,  saints,  and 
literati  reclaimed,  and  the  conversion  of 
countries  and  many  pious  and  literary 
foundations  on  the  continent  being  ac- 
knovirledged  to  be  the  works  of  the  only 
people  then  known  as  Scots  in  Europe, 
i.  e.  the  Irish,  their  inventive  faculties  soon 
planned  a  new  mode  of  antiquity.  The 
Picts,  it  is  agreed  upon  all  sides,  were 
early  inhabitants  of  Britain.  To  make 
these  and  the  Scots  one  people,  would  at 
once  secure  to  them  a  remote  antiquity, 
and  destroy  all  their  connections  with  Ire- 
land. What  availed  it  to  them,  that  in  so 
absurd  an  attempt  they  went  retrogade  to 
every  evidence  of  Albanian,  Irish,  British, 
and  even  Roman  history  ?  The  object 
was,  the  honour  of  the  North  Britons, 
and  truth  itself  must  give  way  to  this ! 
To  this  glorious  undertaking  their  different 
writers  are  called  out,  for — 

"  Gi-seculus  esurieiis  ad  ca-lum  jusseris,  ibit !" 

The  attack  commenced  by  the  publish- 
ing of  different  detached  pieces  under  the 
title  of  Fragments  of  Highland  Poetry. 
Never  did  time  seem  so  favourable  for  the 
advancement  of  their  cause!  The  great 
check  to  all  their  former  attempts — Irish 
History — seemed  now  totally  forgotten. 
The  principal  nobility  and  gentry  of  Ire- 
land, since  the  Revolution,  with  the  history 
neglected  the  common  interest  of  their 
country.  The  most  violent  outrages  of- 
fered to  truth  and  this  lovely  island  were 
unnoticed  ;  and  writers  of  all  denomina- 
tions, domestic  as  well  as  foreign,  seemed 

*  Tour  through  Scotland. 


to  have  a  carte  blanche  for  every  thing  said 
or  done.  These  Fragments  were  succeed- 
ed by  regular  epic  poems,  published  under 
the  auspices  of  Lord  Bute,  and  counte- 
nanced bv  the  whole  Scottish  nation. 
The  main  design  of  these  and  of  the  Notes, 
for  which  they  are  intended,  was  to  prove 
the  Scots  and  Picts  but  one  people,  though 
distinguished  by  different  names,  and 
speaking  different  languages;  that  they 
were  the  aborigines  of  Britain,  who,  giving 
way  to  new  invaders,  retired  more  north- 
erly ;  that  here  erecting  a  new  monarchy, 
and  increasing  in  ppwer,  they  sent  colo- 
nies to  Ireland,  by  whom  the  country  was 
in  time  conquered.  The  curious  reader 
will  probably  demand,  what  further  proofs 
were  offered  in  support  of  this  curious 
hypothesis?  The  immaculate  James  Mac 
Pherson,  and  his  worthy  fellow-labourer 
the  pious  doctor,  (who  only  could  deter- 
mine this  question,)  tell  us  none  !  they 
were  totally  illiterate,  (notwithstanding  the 
pains  of  Dempster  and  others  to  prove  the 
contrary ;)  and  from  Irish  and  Saxon  ec- 
clesiastics they  first  learned  that  they  were 
but  a  colony  from  Ireland ;  which  from 
the  authority  of  Bede,  and  their  great 
veneration  for  holy  priests,  they  then  first 
adopted.  These  poems  were  succeeded 
by  Critical  Dissertations  on  the  Poems  of 
Ossian,  in  which  every  nerve  is  stretched 
to  prove  them  authentic.  But  that  the  re- 
mark of  Dr.  Johnson  should  be  verified  in 
every  sense,  soon  after  appeared  the  pub- 
lic aflirmations  of  different  Pictish  gentry, 
one  in  support  of  one  part,  a  second  of 
another,  and  so  on  of  the  rest,  by  which 
means  the  whole  of  James  Mac  Pherson's 
poems  were  declared  to  be  the  genuine 
and  pure  productions  of  Ossian  ! 

No  doubt  too  much  pains  could  not  be 
taken  to  establish  their  antiquity,  and  de- 
preciate the  annals  of  Ireland  so  hostile  to 
Caledonian  vanity.  It  is  but  common  jus- 
tice to  declare,  that  all  that  could  be  done 
was  done  on  this  occasion ;  and  that 
Jemmy  Mac  Pherson  might  cry  out  with 
iEneas : — 

" si  Perffama  dexlra 


Defeadi  posseat,  etiam  hac  defensa  fuisseut !" 


A.D.503.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND 


169 


But  though  a  Scot,  for  the  honour  of  his 
country,  might  well  conceive  that  regular 
epic  poems,  composed  by  an  ignorant  bard, 
might  be  preserved  by  tradition  only  for 
one  thousand  five  hundred  years;  though 
the  bard  of  one  family  could  recite  but  a 
certain  part  of  them,  a  second  another, 
and  that  it  appears  that  a  great  number  of 
these  were  consulted ;  in  «hort,  that  Mac 
Pherson  went  from  bard  to  bard  to  collect 
from  each  his  portion  of  this  mighty  whole, 
which  parts  he  threw  into  the  same  exact 
order  in  which  they  were  delivered   by 
Ossian  himself — yet  others,  not  so  closely 
interested   in  their   success,   might  doubt 
their  authenticity.     But  to  attempt  estab- 
lishing a  new  system  of  history,  in  oppo- 
sition to  all  antiquity,  on  the  authority  of 
these  poems,  after  so  many  former  unsuc- 
cessful   attempts,    proclaims    highly    the 
modesty  of  the  author   and   of  his  asso- 
ciates.    It  is  no  wonder   that  the  North 
Britons  should  eternally  rail  at  Irish  his- 
tory :  it  has  been  a  constant  obstacle  to 
their  visionary  schemes,  and,  in  all  appear- 
ance will  ever  continue  so  to  be.     Thus, 
in  the  present  poem,  Ossian  has  with  won- 
derful   judgment    synchronized    Cucullin, 
Connal  Cearnach,  Morni  his  son  GauU,  his 
own  grandfather  Cumhal,  and  his  father 
Fion,  with  the  Danes,  though  the  two  first 
were  contemporaries  with  Caesar,  though 
Morni  figured   in   the  first  century,   and 
that  Cumhal  fell  by  the  sword  of  Gaully  in 
the  next  age !    though  Fion  and  himself 
lived  in  the  third  century,  and   that  the 
Danes   were   not  heard  of  till  the  ninth! 
But  what  of  all  this?  the  author,  endued 
with  second  sight,  could  easily   pry  into 
futurity.     He  was  a  Pythagorean,  and  of 
course  could  tell  what  bodies  the  souls  of 
ancient  heroes  would  reanimate,  and  prob- 
ably what  prodigies  of  valour  they  would 
perform  !     Mac  Pherson  has  declared  this 
a  genuine  poem ;  and  my  Lord  Kaims  *  as 
zealously  contends  for  its  authenticity  as 
Blair,  or  any  other  of  the  coalition.     How- 
ever, he  repeatedly  attributes  its  preserva- 
tion to  nothing  less  than  a  miracle  !  a  mi- 
racle then  let  it  be.     But,  instead  of  flying 

*  History  of  Man,  vol.  ii.,  sect.  7. 
22 


to  Scandinavia,  as  the  poem  was  confess- 
edly wrote  in  Irish  ;  that  Ireland  was  the 
scene  of  action  ;  and  that  by  Caledonian 
accounts  the  Irish  were  descended  from 
them ;  had  Lord  Kaims  consulted  Irish 
history,  to  illustrate  this  poem,  as  he  cer- 
tainly ought  to  have  done,  he  would  per- 
haps have  been  better  enabled  to  form  his 
judgment,  for  all  the  above  heroes  were 
the  real  sons  of  Ireland  ;  and  their  ances- 
try, exploits,  and  the  different  periods  in 
which  they  flourished,  are  as  well  known 
at  this  day  as  any  facts  in  ancient  history. 
Even  in  the  twelfth  century  Cambrensis 
remarks  how  full  the  common  people  were 
here  of  their  fabulous  stories  of  Fion  Mac 
Cumhal,  or  Fingal,  of  Oissin,  and  Oscar, 
etc. 

But  notwithstanding  all  the  human  en- 
deavours of  the  Caledonians,  aided  by  the 
supernatural  interposition  of  Lord  Kaims, 
these  precious  poems  have  by  no  means 
answered  the  proposed  design ;  yet  the 
persevering  sons  of  imposition  could  not 
think  of  relinquishing  the  cause.  John 
Mac  Pherson,  D.  D.,  minister  of  Slate,  in 
the  isle  of  Sky,  devoted  the  leisure  of  some 
years  from  the  care  of  souls  to  that  of  his 
country.  His  works  were  published  in 
London  in  1757.  He  took  up  this  subject 
on  a  more  extensive  plan  than  his  friend 
James.  In  vain  has  he  laboured  {ani- 
mated more  by  his  love  of  Scotland  than  of 
truth)  by  specious  arguments,  by  sophistry, 
by  false  quotations,  by  misrepresentations 
of  facts,  and  by  a  smattering  in  the  Erse, 
(a  kind  of  Patois  Irish,)  to  invalidate  the 
force  of  Irish  history,  and  to  prove  that 
the  Picts  and  Scots  were  really  one  peo- 
ple. But  as  I  have  already  examined 
this  curious  work,  I  must  refer  such  as 
think  the  subject  worth  inquiry  to  that 
criticism  for  further  information.*  Too 
many  props  no  doubt  could  not  be  demand- 
ed to  support  so  tottering  a  structure ;  and 
Jemmy  Mac  Pherson  sallied  forth  once 
more,  armed  with  his  Murus  Aheneus,  in 
defence  of  his  darling  historical  hypothe- 
sis. If  we  are  astonished  at  the  easy  con- 
fidence with  which  he  misquotes  authors, 
*  Introduction  to  Irish  History,  part  III.  cap.  viii. 


170 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  503. 


and  misrepresents  facts,  since  then  so  fully 
proved,  that  he  himself  has  been  obliged 
to  acknowledge  both  ;*  we  are  not  less  so, 
to  see  him  in  this  same  work  {Introduction 
to  the  History  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land) fairly  give  up  his  beloved  Ossian, 
notwithstanding  the  labours  of  Mr.  Blair, 
the  declarations  of  the  Highland  chiefs, 
and  the  miraculous  interposition  of  Lord 
Kaims  in  his  favour ;  for,  says  he,  page 
150:  "  In  the  present  state  of  the  argu- 
ment, there  is  no  need  of  his  (Ossian's) 
assistance ;  the  fabric  we  have  raised 
needs  no  collateral  proofs." 

This  short  sketch  of  the  different  opin- 
ions on  Caledonian  history,  I  thought 
proper  to  lay  before  the  public.  Many 
volumes  have  been  written,  and  much 
more  learning  displayed  on  the  subject 
than  it  merited.  That  the  Scots  of  Albany 
were  originally  a  colony  from  Ireland,  the 
proximity  of  their  country,  their  language, 
their  surnames,  and  even  their  own  con- 
fessions, declare.  For  a  Highlander  to 
this  day,  in  the  Erse,  calls  himself  an  Alba- 
nian Scot;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  but 
that  the  only  name  in  Latin  for  a  North 
Briton  is  Scoto-Britanus;  expressions  which 
evidently  point  them  not  the  original  issue 
of  the  country,  but  derived  from  some 
other  Scots ;  and  where  can  we  find  these 
but  in  Ireland  ?  That  Fergus  was  their 
first  acknowledged  king,  and  began  his 
reign  A.  D,  503,  all  our  historians  declare  ; 
and  though  his  brother  Loam  was  probably 
possessed  of  as  much  power  there,  yet  to 
Fergus  only  was  the  inaugurating  chair 
first  given.  There  is  a  very  valuable  old 
MS.  quoted  by  the  learned  Usher,  and 
other  Irish  antiquarians,  synchronizing  the 
provincial  kings  with  the  respective  mon- 
archs  of  Ireland,  (a  copy  of  which  I  have 
in  my  possession,)  in  which  Fergus  is  de- 
clared the  first  king  of  the  Albanian  Scots, 
and  to  be  contemporary  with  the  present 
monarch.  Upon  the  whole,  that  the  Scots 
of  North  Britain  were  colonies  from  Ire- 
land, and  a  people  totally  different  from 
the  Picts,  will  not  I  believe  be  now  doubt- 

•  Whitaker's  History  of  the  Britons. — Appendix  to 
the  Introductiou  to  Irish  History. 


ed ;  that  by  the  wisdom  of  the  monarch 
Mortough,  they  were  first  united  under 
one  head,  all  our  antiquities  declare ;  and 
so  far  from  being  known  as  a  distinct  body 
of  Scots,  even  in  the  eighth  century,  the 
Venerable  Bede  then  called  them  Dal-Reu- 
dini,  just  as  other  tribes  were  distinguished 
at  home,  into  Dal-Fiathach,  Dai-Gas,  etc., 
from  the  names  of  their  first  founders. 
This  prince  Mortough,  in  the  twenty-fourth 
year  of  his  reign,  lost  his  life  at  an  enter- 
tainment at  MuUach-Cleatach,  near  the 
Boyne  ;  the  house  being  intentionally  set 
fire  to,  and  he  perishing  in  the  flames. 

Aodh  Caomh,  the  son  of  Connal,  the  son 
of  Eocha  Baildearg,  a  Dai-Gas,  was  King 
of  Munster.  The  Psalter  of  Cashell  gives 
a  large  account  of  this  prince.  It  appears 
that  Aodh-Dubh,  the  son  of  Criomhthan, 
last  King  of  Munster,  would  not  consent 
to  his  investiture,  till  he  delivered  to  him 
hostages  to  secure  his  own  succession,  or 
that  of  his  sons,  after  the  decease  of  this 
Aodh.  This  was  agreed  to ;  and  Brea- 
nuin,  Abbot  of  Clonfert,  and  Mac  Lenin, 
his  chief  poet,  the  father  of  St.  Colman, 
were  delivered  up  as  sureties  to  Aodh- 
Dubh,  for  the  performing  this  covenant. 
This  last  Aodh,  or  Hugh,  of  the  Eugenian 
line,  was  King  of  Desmond,  or  South 
Munster.  Fergus  and  Scanal,  or  Scanlan, 
his  brothers,  succeeded  him  in  this  title, 
according  to  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  and 
Book  of  Synchronisms  ;  so  that  he  died 
before  his  namesake  Aodh-Caomh.  Fear- 
gus  continued  King  of  Ulster,  and  Ulan, 
King  of  Leinster,  who  was  succeeded  by 
Cormoc,  the  son  of  Oilioll.  Duach,  in 
Connaught,  and  after  him  Eocha.  Fear- 
gus,  after  him  his  brother  Aongus,  and  son 
Domhangard,  are  marked  as  kings  of 
North  Britain,  of  the  Irish  race. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Tuathal  Maolgnrbh  chosen  monarch  of  Ireland — 
Is  assassinated — Dearmod  elected  to  the  throne 
— Inquiry  into  the  origin  of  the  ceremony  of 
anointing  the  monarchs  at  their  inauguration — 
And  Ireland's  claim  of  precedency  before  any 
other  nation  of  Europe. 


A.D.  528.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


171 


TuATHAL  Maolgarbh,  the  son  of  Cormoc- 
Caoch,  the  son  of  Carbre,  son  to  the  hero 
Niall,  was  elected  monarch.  Barring  the 
lives  of  saints,  and  founding  of  churches, 
we  find  in  this  reign  also  a  great  inatten- 
tion to  public  and  political  events.  We 
read  indeed  of  a  fierce  war  carried  on  by 
Earca,  the  son  of  Oilioll-Molt  (from  whom 
the  tribe  of  Firearcha)  and  the  Lagenians, 
and  of  a  general  engagement  ensuing  at 
Tortan,  in  which  this  prince  lost  his  life ; 
but  are  totally  ignorant  as  to  the  cause  of 
it.  Feargus  and  Domhnal,  sons  of  the 
deceased  monarch,  waged  also  war  with 
the  Conacians ;  a  battle  was  fought,  in 
which  the  Conacians  were  defeated,  and 
their  king  slain.  But  what  gave  rise  to 
this  war  must  remain  for  ever  a  secret. 

The  deceased  King  of  Connaught  had  a 
son,  called  Ceallach ;  but  he  having  devo- 
ted himself  to  a  monastic  life,  the  friends 
of  Guare,  the  son  of  Colman,  caused  him 
to  be  proclaimed  king  of  that  province. 
In  most  countries,  and  on  most  occasions, 
there  are  seldom  wanting  factious  and 
seditious  people  ready  to  fish  in  troubled 
water,  and  engage  in  any  desperate  enter- 
prise to  promote  their  private  interests: 
though  Ceallach  had  long  before  the  pres- 
ent event  solemnly  renounced  the  world, 
yet  partizans  were  not  wanting  to  stimu- 
late him  to  quit  his  monastery  and  proclaim 
his  pretensions  to  the  throne.  To  gratify 
their  solicitations  and  his  own  ambition,  he 
privately  quitted  his  cloister,  and,  at  the 
head  of  a  considerable  party,  proclaimed 
his  right  to  the  crown.  But  the  holy 
Abbot  Ciaran,  (who  should  by  no  means 
be  confounded  with  St.  Ciaran,  of  Saigir, 
a  precursor  to  St.  Patrick,)  hearing  of  this 
great  defection  in  a  subject  of  his  house, 
pronounced  a  solemn  malediction  on  him, 
if  he  did  not  immediately  return  to  his  cell, 
and  make  public  reparation  for  the  pro- 
faning the  clerical  habit.  The  poor 
affrighted  monk  immediately  retired  to  his 
monastery,  prostrated  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  saint,  acknowledged  his  crimes  in 
the  most  humiliating  manner,  and  earnestly 
entreated  pardon  and  absolution.  We  are 
told  that  Ciaran  vouchsafed  him  his  bene- 


diction ;  but  at  the  same  time  assured  him 
that  a  violent  death  could  only  expiate  his 
crime.  It  would  not,  we  may  suppose, 
require  any  great  gift  in  prophecy  to  fore- 
tel  that  the  life  of  a  person  who  once  pro- 
claims his  pretensions  to  a  throne,  espe- 
cially if  well  founded,  is  an  object  of  great 
consequence  to  his  competitor.  Guare 
deemed  the  crown  tottering  on  his  head, 
while  his  rival  lived  (though  in  a  monas- 
tery) and  found  means,  even  in  that  sacred 
place,  to  have  him  made  away  with ;  and 
thus  the  prophecy  was  probably  proclaim- 
ed after  the  fact  was  committed.  After  a 
reign  of  eleven  years,  Tuathal  was  assassi- 
nated bv  the  foster-brother  of  his  successor, 
to  pave  his  way  to  the  throne ;  but  the 
regicide  suffered  the  punishment  due  to  so 
atrocious  a  crime,  being  immediately  cut 
to  pieces  by  the  monarch's  guards. 

On  the  death  of  Aodh-Caomh,  which 
happened  in  this  reign,  Finghin,  the  son  of 
Aodh-Dubh,  a  Eugenian,  and  ancestor  to 
the  O'Sullivans,  by  the  law  of  alternate 
succession  was  proclaimed  King  of  Muns- 
ter ;  and  Forranan,  a  Dai-Gas  King  of 
Thomond.  Finghin  was  a  prince  of  un- 
common intrepidity,  as  terrible  in  w'ar  as 
amiable  in  time  of  peace.  To  the  gallantry 
of  the  soldier  he  added  the  politeness  of 
the  courtier,  and  was  particularly  attentive 
to  the  fair  ;  all  which  are  comprised  in  the 
following  beautiful  lines  m  the  Psalter  of 
Cashell : — 

"  Finghin,  bugh  garg,  ba  gniomhach, 
Bo  baoith,  ba  gaoth.  ba  brioghach; 
Bo  min,  ba  miochair  re  mnaibh; 
Bo  truadh  a  geath  dha  Congmail." 

Deman,  son  of  Carril,  succeeded  to  the 
crown  of  Ulster ;  OilioU,  and  after  him 
Guare,  King  of  Connaught ;  Cormoc,  King 
of  Leinster  ;  and  Comhghall,  the  son  of 
Domhangard,  was  King  of  the  Albanian 
Scots. 

Boniface  IL,  John  II.,  Agapetus  I.,  Sil- 
verius,  and  Vigilius,  were  successive  popes 
of  Rome  in  this  reign  ;  Justinian  continu- 
ed Emperor  of  the  East ;  Childebert,  King 
of  France,  and  a  great  part  of  South  Brit- 
ain was  now  possessed  by  the  Saxons. 


172 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  528. 


Dearmod,  the  son  of  Fergus-Kerbheol. 
the  son  (or  indeed  I  think  more  properly 
the  grandson)  of  Conall,  son  of  the  hero 
Niall,  was  proclaimed  monarch.  Adam- 
nanus  calls  him  "  King  of  all  the  Scots,  or- 
dained by  God's  appointment."  "Totius 
Scotiae  regnator  Deo  authore  ordinatus 
est."*  And  as  this  holy  Abbot  of  Huy  flour- 
ished in  the  next  century,  it  merits  some 
attention.  In  the  present  reign,  and  for  a 
century  preceding  it,  Christianity  was  in 
the  most  flourishing  condition  in  Ireland. 
They  had,  as  we  have  seen,  received  this 
doctrine  from  the  Asiatics.  These  last,  in 
many  instances,  adhered  more  closely  to 
the  Jewish  customs  than  the  Roman  Chris- 
tians did.  Though,  from  Constantine  the 
Great's  time,  Rome  had  many  Christian 
emperors,  yet  the  first  instance  on  record 
of  a  Christian  prince  receiving  the  crown 
by  the  hands  of  a  bishop  and  the  chrism, 
(as  the  Jewish  princes  were  inaugurated 
by  the  hands  of  the  high-priest,)  is  that  of 
Justinian,  who  was  crowned  Emperor  of 
the  East  by  the  Patriarch  of  Constantino- 
ple.f  The  stories  of  the  inauguration  of 
Clovis  I.,  King  of  France,  in  the  preceding 
century,  and  of  the  holy  oil  sent  from  hea- 
ven to  St.  Remi  for  that  purpose,  have  been 
long  since  justly  exploded.  Pepin,  of  the 
Carlovingian  race,  was  the  first  prince  in 
France  at  whose  coronation  unction  was 
used.  As  our  countryman  Virgilius  was 
at  this  time  in  France,  and  in  great  friend- 
ship with  Pepin,  it  may  perhaps  account 
for  its  origin  there. 

As  then  the  use  of  the  chrism  was  so 
much  more  early  introduced  into  the 
churches  of  Asia  than  into  that  of  Rome, 
we  may  reasonably  presume  that  the  mon- 
archs  of  Ireland,  where  Christianity  was 
so  highly  cultivated,  would  not  want  a 
ceremony  deemed  so  essential  to  sovereign- 
ty ;  and  that  at  their  coronations  they  were 
anointed ;  at  least  that  this  Dearmod  was. 
And  this  will  explain  the  remarkable  words 
of  Adamnanus.  But  we  have  something 
more  than  bare  presumption  for  what  has 
been  advanced.     For  in  the  reign  of  Aodh, 

•  Vita  St  Columb.  lib.  i.  cap.  36. 
t  Sdden's  Titles  of  Honour,  p.  110. 


and  not  Very  many  years  from  the  period 
in  question,  Adamnanus  tells  us,*  "  that  by 
direction  of  an  angel, Columba  was  charged 
to  consecrate  Aidan,  King  of  the  Irish  or 
Scots  of  Albany.  That  he  had  a  book 
containing  the  form  of  ordination,  which 
he  directed  Columba  to  read,  and  also  a 
bottle  (I  suppose  of  holy  oil.)  That  he 
appeared  to  the  saint  three  succeeding 
nights  in  the  same  manner ;  after  which 
Columba  proceeded  to  the  isle  of  Huy, 
sent  for  Aidan,  the  son  of  Guaran,  conse- 
crated him  king ;  and,  in  the  words  of  con- 
secration, foretold  the  flourishing  state  of 
his  successors,  while  they  continued  friends 
to  the  family  of  Columba ;  after  which  lay- 
ing his  hand  on  the  head  of  Aidan,  he  bless- 
ed him."  In  my  opinion  a  much  stronger 
testimony  cannot  be  demanded  of  the  con- 
secrating our  Christian  monarchs  than  this. 
If  to  a  petty  prince  of  the  royal  line  of 
Ireland,  and  a  tributary  to  our  monarchs 
as  Aidan  was,  consecration  was  deemed 
necessary,  and  by  the  hands  of  Columba 
too,  who,  as  Bede  observes,  though  him- 
self but  an  abbot,  yet  preceded  all  the 
bishops  of  Albany,  it  must  certainly  follow, 
that  it  was  used  by  our  provincial  kings, 
but  especially  by  our  monarchs.  Nay, 
from  the  words  of  Adamnanus,  we  mav 
pronounce  that  consecrating  our  monarchs 
was  before  that  time  in  use.  Crowns  of 
gold  and  sceptres  (other  signs  of  royalty) 
were  used  by  our  princes  and  princesses 
long  before  this  period  ;  nor  did  our  mon- 
archs appear  in  public  without  these  ensigns 
of  royalty. 

About  thirty  years  before  the  Christian 
era,  when  Maud,  Queen  of  Connaught,  in- 
vaded Ulster,  she  appeared  among  her 
troops  in  her  chariot,  with  a  crown  of  gold 
on  her  head.f  In  the  second  century,  the 
afion  or  crown  of  the  Empress  of  Cathoire- 
More,  was  stolen  at  Tara.  Should  any 
now  doubt  the  existence  of  such  crowns,  I 
can  inform  the  reader,  that  no  less  than 
three  such  have  been  found  in  bogs  in  this 
century ;  two  to  my  knowledge,  and  both 
sold  in  this  city,  [Limerick  :]  the  first  found 
in  the  Bog  of  Cullen,  in  1774,  in  the  coun- 
*  Vita  St.  Columb.  lib.  iii.  cap.  5.        t  Tain  bo  Cualgne. 


A.  D.  498.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


173 


ty  of  Tipperary;  the  other  six  years  after, 
at  Cathir  Mechil,  near  Newcastle,  in  this 
county,  in  none  of  which  was  the  cross 
found,  and  all  were  formed  like  the  close 
crowns  of  the  eastern  princes.* 

The  original  meaning  of  the  word  impe- 
rator,  or  emperor,  denoted  no  more  than  a 
general,  or  the  commander  of  an  army ; 
and  if  Caesar  and  the  other  emperors  re- 
tained it,  it  was  not  but  they  knew  and 
thought  the  name  of  king  more  honourable ; 
but  they  declined  assuming  it,  as  it  was  a 
title  odious  to  the  Roman  people.f  In  the 
Eastern  empire,  where  monarchy  was  high- 
ly reverenced,  the  ruler  of  extensive  king- 
doms was  styled  king  of  kings.  When 
Artaxerxes,  King  of  Persia,  enjoins  the 
restitution  of  the  temple  to  the  Jews,  he 
directs  his  commission  thus — "Artaxerxes, 
king  of  kings,  to  Ezra,  the  priest ;"  and 
Cyrus  is  called  ^uadev;  Suadrnar,  i.  e.  king 
of  kings.  The  title  of  ard-righ,  or  chief 
king,  constantly  used  by  all  our  monarchs, 
imports  exactly  the  same,  and  proves  how 
well  their  pre-eminence  was  distinguished. 

It  is  a  matter  universally  agreed  on,  that 
princes  should  rank,  not  according  to  the 
extensiveness  of  their  states,  but  to  the  an- 
tiquity of  their  countries.  Thus,  in  the 
contest  in  Lucian  for  precedency,  even  in 
heaven,  between  Hercules  and  Esculapius, 
Jupiter  adjudges  it  to  Esculapius,  as  having 
died  first.  Considered  on  this  ground,  Ire- 
land should  have  the  precedence  of  every 
other  nation  in  ancient  Europe ;  first,  be- 
cause it  is  the  most  ancient  kingdom ;  sec- 
ondly, because  it  has  been  governed  by  a 
regular  hereditary  line  of  princes  (one  in- 
stance only  excepted)  for  above  two  thous- 
and four  hundred  years ;  thirdly,  its  mon- 
archs may  truly  rank  as  emperors,  being 
the  sovereigns  of  kings ;  and  fourthly,  it 
was  the  only  kingdom  in  Europe  which 
preserved  its  independence  when  the  rest 
were  enslaved  by  Rome.  Add  to  this,  the 
extensiveness  of  her  dominion,  both  Britains, 
the  adjacent  isles,  and  part  of  the  continent, 
for  a  considerable  time  confessing  her 
sway.     To  this  let  me  add  even  a  Roman 

•  Harris's  Antiquities,  vol.  ii.  p.  95. 
t  Titles  of  Honour,  p.  11,  «tc. 


evidence  in  support  of  the  rank  and  dignity 
of  Ireland,  namely,  Celestin's  creating  her 
great  apostle  &  patrician;  for  a  title  it  un- 
doubtedly was,  not  a  name ;  and  a  title 
which  preceded  all  others  but  that  of  em- 
peror, and  which  was  never  conferred  on 
any  other  missionary. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  Mr.  Selden,  in 
his  Titles  of  Honour,  scarcely  vouchsafes 
any  notice  of  Ireland,  except  when  he  can 
show  its  great  inferiority.  Not  content  to 
make  its  kings  subservient  to  those  of  Eng- 
land, he  even  asserts  that  they  paid  homage 
to  lords  of  English  creation !  However, 
the  learned  of  Europe  have  by  no  means 
considered  this  kingdom  in  so  humiliating 
a  light;  for  nearly  two  hundred  years 
later  than  the  period  he  points  out  for  this 
epoch,  the  ambassadors  of  England  owed 
their  rank  and  precedency  in  the  Council 
of  Constance  to  the  title  which  the  popes 
conferred  on  their  sovereigns  as  lords  of 
Ireland.  As  representatives  of  the  King 
of  England,  they  would  not  be  allowed  to 
take  place  or  rank  as  the  ambassadoi-s  of 
a  NATION ;  tlie  advocates  of  France  in- 
sisting, that,  as  being  conquered  by  the 
Romans,  again  subdued  by  the  Saxons 
vvfho  were  tributaries  to  the  German  em- 
pire, and  never  governed  by  native  sove- 
reigns, they  should  take  place  as  a  branch 
of  the  empire  only,  not  as  a  free  nation  : 
"  For  (added  they)  it  is  evident  from  Al- 
bertus  Magnus  and  Barth.  Glanville,  that 
the  world  is  divided  into  three  parts,  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa,  (for  America  was 
not  then  discovered ;)  Europe  was  divided 
into  four  empires,  the  Roman,  the  Constan- 
tinopolitan,  the  Irish,  and  the  Spanish." 
But  the  English  advocates,  admitting  the 
force  of  these  allegations,  claimed  their 
precedence  from  Henry's  being  monarch 
of  Ireland  only ;  and  it  was  accordingly 
granted.* 


*  Acta  Cons.  Const.     See  also  an  English  translation 
vol.  ii.  p.  42,  etc. 


174 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  549. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Dearmod  convenes  the  estates  at  Tara — Invasion 
of  Connaught  by  the  sons  of  Mortough — Battle 
between  the  Eugenians  and  CInn  Breogan — 
Another  meeting  of  the  estates  at  Tara ;  fatal 
efl'ects  of  a  private  quairel  there — Dearmod 
makes  war  upon  the  King  of  Connaught ;  defeats 
him,  and  imposes  a  humiliating  ceremony  on 
making  peace — Character  of  Dearmod — Death 
of  his  son — Great  pestilence  in  his  reign — Dear- 
mod  is  slain  by  the  King  of  Ulster. 

The  first  act  of  Dearmod's  administra- 
tion was  the  convening  the  estates  at  Tara, 
where  the  laws  were  revised ;  some  je- 
jected,  others  amended,  and  new  ones  add- 
ed :  the  national  history  also  was  closely 
inspected  into.  Soon  after  Fergus  and 
Daniel,  the  sons  of  the  deceased  monarch 
Mortough,  again  invaded  Connaught,  en- 
gaged in  battle  with  Oilioll,  a  prince  of 
that  country,  in  which  action  that  prince 
and  his  brother  fell,  and  their  army  suffered 
a  complete  defeat.  From  this,  and  num- 
berless other  instances  in  this  history,  it 
appears  evident  that  the  subordinate  princes 
of  Ireland  made  war  upon  each  other  with- 
out consulting  the  monarch  ;  that  his  power 
was  greatly  limited  ;  and  that  he  took  not 
a  general  active  part  but  when  applied  to 
by  the  national  voice;  or  that  an  aggrieved 
prince,  preferring  the  way  of  negotiation 
to  that  of  arms,  applied  to  him  for  his  in- 
terposition. In  this  case  he  summoned  the 
states  ;  the  affair  was  laid  before  them,  and 
whichever  party  proved  refractory,  was 
compelled  by  force  of  arms  to  submit: 
each  prince  being  then  obliged  to  furnish  a 
certain  number  of  troops  to  the  monarch, 
to  enforce  the  national  decree.  The  next 
year  a  bloody  battle  was  fought  in  the 
county  of  Cork,  between  the  Eugenians 
and  Clana  Breogan,  with  great  slaughter 
on  both  sides  ;  for  it  was  but  too  common 
for  different  petty  states  to  determine  dis- 
putes, often  in  themselves  trifling,  by  a 
general  engagement.  The  day  of  battle 
was  appointed,  perhaps  at  the  distance  of 
six,  nine,  or  twelve  months  ;  in  the  mean- 
time the  parties  on  both  sides  met,  and 
transacted  business  in  the  most  amicable 
manner ;  and  the  honour  of  the  day  was 
all  the  victor  required. 

In  the  year  549  Dearmod  summoned  the 


national  estates  to  meet  him  at  Tara.  What 
the  particular  object  of  this  congress  was 
we  are  not  told,  but  the  fatal  effects  of  a 
private  quarrel  there  are  handed  down  to 
us.  Cuornane  Mac  Aodh  had  in  some  pri- 
vate dispute  killed  another  gentleman,  who 
like  him  was  a  brughadh,  or  representative 
for  a  borough.  To  raise  up  the  hand  to 
strike,  much  less  to  kill  any  person  at  Tara, 
during  the  sessions,  was  from  the  earliest 
period  decreed  to  be  punished  by  death, 
even  out  of  the  power  of  the  monarch  to 
pardon  ;  nor  was  there  to  this  time  a  single 
instance  of  the  infraction  of  this  law.  A 
most  useful  law  it  surely  was,  especially 
among  a  proud,  warlike,  and  independent 
people.  Cuornane,  sensible  of  his  crime 
and  his  danger,  immediately  fled  to  Fer- 
gus and  Daniel,  princes  of  great  power, 
the  sons  of  Mortough.  But  these  princes, 
however  well  inclined,  saw  it  was  in  vain 
to  attempt  to  shelter  him,  and  therefore 
despatched  him  to  their  cousin,  the  great 
Columba,  imploring  his  protection,  and  that 
he  might  afford  him  an  asylum  in  his  mon- 
astery. But  a  national  outrage  of  this 
kind  was  not  to  go  unpunished,  and  Dear- 
mod  had  the  murderer  seized  and  put  to 
death,  notwithstanding  the  entreaties  of  the 
brothers,  and  the  ecclesiastical  privileges 
claimed  by  the  saint. 

No  people  are  so  dangerous  to  offend  as 
churchmen.  Sequestered  from  the  world, 
having  no  other  employment  but  their 
breviaries  and  conventual  duties,  they  have 
greater  time  for  recollection,  and  brooding 
over  injuries,  if  not  endued  with  uncommon 
grace.  Columba  deemed  the  violating  his 
asylum  the  cause  of  God.  High  in  blood 
and  greatly  reverenced,  he  could  not  brook 
this  insult.  He  therefore  applied  to  his 
relations,  the  northern  Clana  Neill,  and 
Fergus  and  Domhnal,  who  at  the  head  of 
a  mighty  army  bade  defiance  to  the  mon- 
arch. A  most  bloody  battle  was  fought  at 
Cuildreimhne ;  the  imperial  army  was  de- 
feated with  great  slaughter ;  with  difficulty 
the  monarch  himself  escaped  with  life ;  and 
more  of  the  credit  of  this  victory  is  attri- 
buted to  the  prayers  of  the  saint  than  the 
courage  of  the  soldiery  ! 


A.  D.546.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


175 


Scarcely  had  the  monarch  recruited  the 
loss  of  this  battle,  when  we  find  him  in- 
volved with  Guare,  King  of  Connaught,  a 
prince  whose  uncommon  liberality,  munifi- 
cence, and  courage,  are  highly  celebrated 
in  our  annals.  The  cause  of  this  war  is 
said,  in  some  chronicles,  to  have  proceeded 
from  Guare's  taking  from  a  sequestered 
religious  a  cow,  which  was  her  only  sup- 
port. She  preferred  her  petition  to  the 
monarch,  who  immediately  took  fire  at  the 
outrage.  An  assertion  so  ridiculous  carries 
with  it  its  own  refutation.  The  event  of 
this  war  proves  sufficiently  that  its  cause 
was  an  object  of  much  greater  conse- 
quence— the  not  paying  the  provincial 
tribute,  or  acknowledging  Dearmod  as 
monarch.  To  enforce  both  he  raised  a 
potent  army,  and  marched  along  the  side 
of  the  Shannon,  we  should  suppose  to  a 
little  above  Killaloe,  because  the  holy  Co- 
min,  who  about  this  time  founded  the 
churches  and  tower  at  Inis-Cealtra,  or  the 
Shannon,  laboured  as  mediator  between 
these  princes.  The  endeavours  of  Comin 
to  prevent  this  war  were  fruitless  ;  and  as 
Guare  rejected  all  his  remonstrances,  he 
predicted  to  him  that  his  army  would  be 
defeated.  The  imperialists  plunged  into 
the  Shannon,  horse  and  foot,  and  gained 
the  opposite  shore  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts 
of  the  Conacians ;  and  now  engaging  them 
on  a  greater  equality,  they  were  soon  com- 
pelled lo  give  way  on  every  side.  Though 
their  retreat  was  precipitate,  yet  they 
formed  again  the  following  day  ;  but,  con- 
sidering the  inequality  of  the  contest,  and 
dreading  to  make  his  country  the  scene  of 
war,  Guare,  by  advice  of  his  council,  sur- 
rendered himself  to  the  mercy  of  the  mon- 
arch. The  ceremony  on  this  occasion  was 
singular,  and  deserves  to  be  transmitted  to 
posterity,  as  I  take  it  for  granted  to  be 
what  was  usually  practised  on  rebellious 
chiefs ;  because  the  intrepidity  of  Guare, 
and  the  acknowledged  bravery  and  hu- 
manity of  the  monarch,  leaves  us  no  room 
to  think  that  the  last  would  commit,  or  his 
antagonist  submit  to,  too  degrading  a  sub- 
mission. But  be  this  as  it  may,  Guare  ap- 
proached the  monarch's  tent,  and,  falling 


on  his  knees,  presented  to  him  his  sword, 
acknowledging  his  crimes,  and  begging 
forgiveness.  The  monarch  rose,  and  com- 
manded him  to  lie  on  his  back  ;  he  then 
placed  one  foot  on  his  breast,  and  the  point 
of  his  sword  between  his  teeth  ;  on  which 
the  other  in  this  posture  acknowledged  his 
disloyalty,  and  swore  fidelity  and  obedience 
during  the  residue  of  his  life.  This  cere- 
mony performed,  he  was  elegantly  enter- 
tained ;  and  the  closest  amity  subsisted 
between  these  princes  ever  after.  Far 
from  injuring  a  poor  helpless  woman,  the 
hospitality,  humanity,  and  charity  of  Guare 
were  proclaimed,  and  the  facts  attested  in 
the  fullest  manner ;  as  well  as  the  great 
encouragement  he  vouchsafed  to  men  of 
letters.  Like  a  second  Titus,  he  thought 
the  day  lost  which  did  not  afford  him  an 
opportunity  of  displaying  some  of  those 
virtues  ;  and  as  the  fullest  proof  of  his  mu- 
nificence and  liberality,  to  be  more  generous 
than  Guare  became  a  common  proverb  in 
Irish  to  express  a  prodigy. 

Guare,  now  reconciled  to  the  monarch, 
thought  the  opportunity  favourable  to  re- 
cover from  North  Munster  a  large  tract 
of  territory  severed  from  the  province  of 
Connaught  by  the  brave  Luigh  Laimh- 
Dearg  in  the  fourth  century.  Finghin,  of 
the  Eugenian  line,  did  not  long  enjoy  the 
throne  of  Munster.  On  his  decease,  Dio- 
ma,  great-grandson  to  Carthan,  a  Dal-gas, 
should  have  succeeded  to  that  crown ;  but 
it  seems  he  had  not  arrived  at  the  age 
required  by  the  laws  to  govern,  and  was 
therefore  laid  aside  for  the  present,  and 
Failbhe-Flan,  brother  to  the  deceased,  was 
declared  his  successor.  This  was  certain- 
ly contrary  to  the  will  of  their  common 
ancestor  Oilliol ;  however,  the  northern 
line  gained  considerable  advantages  by 
this  concession ;  for  the  archbishop  and 
clergy  of  Munster  seasonably  interposing 
their  good  offices,  it  was  agreed  that,  as 
soon  as  Dioma  was  of  the  age  of  twenty- 
five,  he  should  be  associated  with  Failbhe 
in  the  command  of  the  whole  province. 
But  the  territories  of  North  Munster,  from 
Sliabh-Dala,  in  Ossory,  to  the  west  of 
Ireland,  on  both   sides  the  Shannon,  and 


176 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  550. 


from  Sliabh-Eibhline,  Cashell,  Cnoc-Aine, 
and  the  river  Feil,  its  southern  limits,  to 
Galway,  and  the  isles  of  Arran,  were  to 
acknowledge  no  superior,  or  pay  chief 
rents  to  any  other  but  their  native  princes. 
Besides  this  exemption,  the  Eugenians 
were  for  ever  to  renounce  any  pretences 
to  tribute,  or  sword-land,  over  those  septs 
of  the  race  of  Ith,  and  even  of  the  Euge- 
nian  line,  which  the  ancestors  of  Dioma 
had  formerly  bestowed  lands  on,  in  Des- 
mond, or  South  Munster.  These  were  to 
be  paid  in  to  the  kings  of  Thomond ;  and 
as  an  invasion  was  expected  from  Con- 
naught,  Failbhe  also  engaged  to  assist  the 
Thomonians  with  all  his  power.  I  know 
that  it  is  asserted  by  Keating,  and  even  in 
the  late  translation  of  the  Book  of  Munster, 
that  Dioma  was  absolute  King  of  Munster 
when  Guare  invaded  Thomond  ;  and  of 
course  that  Failbhe  must  have  died  ;  yet, 
in  my  copy  of  this  work,  it  is  positively  as- 
serted that  Failbhe,  in  conjunction  with 
Dioma,  successfully  attacked  the  Cona- 
cians  at  Carn-Fearadhe,  or  Cnoc-Aine,  in 
the  county  of  Limerick.  That  the  army 
of  Guare  consisted  of  three  very  large  and 
powerful  legions;  (by  these  expressions 
we  should  infer  that  each  cath,  or  legion, 
exceeded  the  usual  number  of  three  thou- 
sand ;)  that  very  few  escaped  the  battle; 
and  that  among  the  slain  were  six  princes 
of  Connaught.  It  is  probable  that  soon 
after  this  battle  Failbhe  might  have 
died,  and  Dioma  continue  King  of  Mun- 
ster. 

This  monarch  is  highly  praised  for  his 
great  attention  to  strict  justice,  and  for 
supporting  the  laws  of  his  country.  His 
piety  and  munificence  are  not  less  celebra- 
ted ;  nor  would  he  suffer  the  smallest  act 
of  oppression  to  go  unpunished ;  of  this 
we  are  furnished  with  a  melancholy  in- 
stance in  the  death  of  his  own  son.  Bre- 
asal,  his  eldest  son,  had  prepared  a  most 
magnificent  entertainment  at  his  palace  at 
Kells,  to  which  the  monarch  and  the  prin- 
cipal chiefs  of  his  court  were  invited.  No 
expense  was  spared  on  this  occasion ;  a 
beef  of  uncommon  fatness,  among  other 
things,  was  wanting ;  among  his  numerous 


herds  none  was  found  in  the  order  his  pur- 
veyors could  wish  :  a  recluse  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood had  one  exceedingly  large  and 
fat ;  she  was  applied  to  on  this  occasion, 
but  she  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  sell 
it ;  she  even  refused  in  exchange  seven 
cows  and  a  bull,  expecting  no  doubt  still 
greater  offers.  Finding  her  so  very  un- 
reasonable, Breasal's  people  drove  the 
beast  off  the  land  without  any  ceremony, 
and  cooked  it  for  the  entertainment.  In  the 
height  of  their  mirth,  when  their  retinue 
had  withdrawn,  this  wretched  woman 
forced  herself  into  the  royal  presence  ; 
exclaimed  against  the  young  prince's  injus- 
tice, and  deplored  her  own  defenceless  sit- 
uation in  the  most  pathetic  terms.  The 
monarch,  shocked  at  the  recital,  without 
vouchsafing  to  hear  the  defence  of  his  son, 
ordered  him  to  be  instantly  put  to  death. 
But  in  his  cooler  moments,  and  better  in- 
formed, reflecting  on  what  he  had  done, 
he  grew  melancholy,  and  had  recourse  to 
St.  Columba  for  advice ;  the  saint  recom- 
mended him  to  confess  himself  to  St.  Bea- 
i  con,  a  celebrated  penitentiary  of  Muskery, 
in  Munster,  and  to  submit  to  whatever  pen- 
ance he  should  impose. 

The  reign  of  this  prince  was  marked 
by  a  most  dreadful  pestilence  which  over- 
spread the  kingdom  ;  and  from  which  the 
religious,  sequestered  in  their  cloisters, 
were  not  exempt.  It  is  remarkable  that 
the  plague  prevailed  much  about  the  same 
time  in  Gaul  and  Italy ;  and  it  is  from  a 
remarkable  expression  of  this  plague  in 
Jornandes,  that  Vossius  has  fixed  the  time 
of  his  publishing  his  works  to  552.  He 
at  length  fell  by  the  sword  of  Aodh-Dubh 
Mac  Suine,  King  of  Ulster,  and  was  in- 
terred in  the  church  of  Cluan  Mac  Noise, 
which  he  himself  had  founded,  after  a 
reign  of  twenty  years. 

Contemporaries  with  this  prince  were 
Finghin  and  Failbhe,  of  the  Eugenian 
line,  and  Forhanan  and  Dioma,  of  the 
Dai-Gas  race,  in  Munster ;  Guare  and 
Feargus  Mac  Rossa,  in  Connaught  ;  Car- 
bre,  son  to  Cormac,  in  Leinster ;  and 
Betan,  and  after  him  Dimham,  kings  of 
Ulster.     Comhghall  continued  king  of  the 


A.  D.  556.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


177 


Albanian  Scots,  or  Irish,  and  was  succeed- 
ed by  his  brother  Gabhran. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Fergus  and  Daniel  monarchs — Of  Eochaidh  and 
Baodan — of  Ainmheric — Of  Baodan — Is  de- 
feated in  battle,  and  flies  for  refuge  to  St.  Col- 
urnba — An  account  of  this  famous  apostle  of  the 
Picts — Of  the  monarch  Aodh — The  parliament 
of  Drom-Chette — The  objects  of  its  delibera- 
tions. 

Fergus  and  Daniel,  the  gallant  sons  of 
the  monarch  Mortough,  were  next  called 
to  the  throne.  Enterprising  and  warlike, 
they  commenced  their  reign  with  the  in- 
vasion of  Leinster,  to  enforce  the  payment 
of  their  famous  tribute.  They  engaged 
the  Lagenians  in  battle  on  the  borders  of 
the  Liffey,  in  which  the  provincials  were 
defeated  with  great  slaughter.  Some  time 
after  these  princes  departed  this  life,  but 
whether  by  the  sword  or  not  is  uncertain. 
They  were  peaceably  succeeded  by  Eo- 
chaidh, the  son  of  the  above  Daniel,  who 
associated  his  uncle  Baodan  with  him  in 
the  command  of  the  empire.  In  this  reign 
lived  Cairbre-Crom,  the  son  of  Criomthan, 
of  the  Eugenian  line,  who  was  a  prince  of 
great  power  in  Munster.  He  engaged  in 
the  battle  of  Feimhin  with  Colman,  the  son 
of  Dearmod,  and  gave  him  a  complete 
overthrow.  He  it  was,  says  the  Psalter 
of  Cashell,  who  founded  the  bishopric  of 
Cloyne  for  St.  Colman.  Cronan,  Prince 
of  KienachtEi,  on  some  private  quarrel, 
attacked  the  troops  of  the  associated  mon- 
archs, and  gained  a  signal  victory,  these 
princes  themselves  being  among  the  slain. 

Ainmheric,  son  to  Seadhna,  the  son  of 
Feargus,  the  son  of  Conall-Gulban,  son  to 
the  hero  Niall,  was  the  next  monarch. 
He  is  celebrated  as  a  prince  of  great 
learning ;  but  nevertheless  fell  in  battle  by 
the  sword  of  Fergus  Mac  Neill,  who 
joined  his  competitor  and  successor. 

Baodan,  the  son  of  Nineadhadh,  the  son 
of  Feargus,  and  cousin-german  to  the  de- 
ceased, was  also  his  successor.  Being 
defeated  in  battle  in  the  first  year  of  his 

23 


reign,  and  closely  pursued,  he  applied  to 
St.  Columba,  who  was  his  relation,  re- 
questing an  asylum  in  his  monastery,  wliich 
he  granted ;  but  his  enemies,  regardless  of 
this  sacred  retreat,  had  him  dragged  out 
and  murdered.  Columba,  enraged  at  this 
profanation,  incited  his  relations  and  the 
whole  northern  Hi-Neill  race  to  revenge 
this  outrage.  A  bloody  battle  was  fought 
against  Colman,  the  son  of  Dearmod ;  with 
what  success  we  are  not  told,  but  we  must 
suppose  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter, 
since  he  did  not  gain  the  monarchy,  which 
was  the  great  object  of  his  pursuits.  The 
violence  of  Columba's  temper  involved  his 
country  in  great  distress,  about  three  years 
before  the  present  period.  Comhghall,  the 
renowned  Abbot  of  Benchoir,  of  the  royal 
line  of  Ir,  had  some  dispute  with  Columba, 
of  what  nature  we  are  not  told ;  but  his- 
tory seems  to  point  out  this  last  the  aggres- 
sor: he  called  his  brethren  and  kindred 
to  his  assistance ;  the  Dal-Araidhe  rose  in 
defence  of  Comhghall ;  a  bloody  battle  was 
fought,  much  blood  spilled,  but  which  side 
prevailed  we  are  not  told,  As  this  Co- 
lumba makes  a  conspicuous  figure  in  our 
history,  and  that,  next  to  St.  Patrick,  he 
was  the  greatest  apostle  on  this  side  of  the 
Alps,  we  judge  a  more  particular  account 
of  him  necessary. 

He  was  the  son  of  Feidhlim,  the  son  of 
Feargus,  the  son  of  Conall-Gulban  (fi-om 
whom  to  this  day  the  country  is  called 
Tir-Conall,)  son  to  the  hero  Niall.  Great 
controversies  have  arisen  as  to  the  time 
of  his  birth,  and  when  he  first  landed  in 
Britain.  Without  entering  deep  into  them, 
both  I  think  can  be  easily  cleared  by  at- 
tending to  acknowledged  facts.  He  died 
at  the  age  of  seventy-seven,  and  remained 
thirty-three  years  in  Britain.  It  was  not 
in  the  reign  of  Dearmod  he  went  there,  as 
most  of  our  annalists  assert,  but  in  the 
third  year  of  the  reign  of  Aodh,  i.  e.  A.  D. 
569.  For  the  cause  of  it  is  agreed  upon 
on  all  hands  to  be  this : — the  quantity  of 
innocent  blood  he  caused  to  be  shed  in  the 
above  battles,  gave  great  scandal  to  the 
church  and  kingdom.  A  synod  of  the 
clergy  met  to  excommunicate  him ;  and 


178 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  567. 


St.  Molaise  particularly  exclaimed  against 
him.  Columba  became  convinced ;  and 
whatever  other  penance  was  enjoined  we 
are  not  told,  but  one  article  was,  that  he 
was  to  quit  Ireland,  never  to  see  it  more  : 
from  this  it  is  evident  his  banishment  must 
have  happened  after  the  murder  of  Baodan, 
not  before ;  and  as  Colgan's  calculations 
show,  it  must  have  been  in  the  year  569, 
to  correspond  with  602,*  and  of  course 
that  he  was  born  A.  D.  525. 

His  first  education  was  in  the  north, 
under  St.  Fridian,  of  the  Dal-Fiatach  race, 
afterwards  Bishop  of  Lucca  in  Italy. 
From  this  he  was  removed  to  the  school 
of  St.  Finian,  at  Clonard,  near  the  Boyne, 
so  renowned  for  its  erudition  that  no  less 
than  three  thousand  scholars  have  been 
reckoned  in  it  at  one  lime,  as  Colgan  and 
Usher,  etc.,  attest.  Here  he  acquired  a 
complete  knowledge  of  the  learned  langua- 
ges, and  studied  divinity  and  the  scriptures 
with  great  devotion ;  soon  after  which  he 
embraced  the  monastic  order,  and  was 
held  in  great  reverence.  It  is  probable, 
that  his  zeal  for  the  honour  and  immuni- 
ties of  the  church  was  what  hurried  him 
into  those  extravagances,  so  fatal  to  his 
country;  but  his  public  reprehension,  and 
his  penitentiary  exile  do  great  honour  to 
the  clerical  order  of  those  days.  On  his 
arrival  in  Albany,  Conall,  King  of  the  Dal- 
Riada  (not  Brudeus,  the  Pict,  with  Bede) 
bestowed  on  him  the  isle  of  Huy.  Here 
he  established  his  chief  monastery ;  and 
from  thence,  with  his  followers  he  entered 
the  country  of  the  Picts,  and  by  his  preach- 
ing, his  precepts,  and  example,  converted 
the  whole  country,  so  as  to  die  with  the 
glorious  title  of  Apostle  of  the  Picts. 

Aodh,  or  Hugh,  the  son  of  Ainmher, 
was  called  to  the  throne.  His  reign  is 
celebrated  for  a  grand  national  assembly, 
summoned  to  meet  (not  at  Tara  the  usual 
place,  but)  at  Drom-Chette  in  Ulster.  As 
soon  as  St.  Columba  was  ordained,  he 
applied  to  the  present  monarch,  who  was 
of  his  own  blood,  and  then  a  prince  in 
Ulster,  who  bestowed  on  him  lands,  on 
which  he  built  a  monastery,  famous  in  his 

•  Trias  T hauiiiat.  f.  485. 


own  days,  and  for  centuries  after,  for  the 
number  and  learning  of  its  monks.  Har- 
ris,* I  know  not  why,  from  its  Irish  name 
of  Daire  Collum  Chille,or  Columba's  grove, 
will  have  it  be  Durrogh,  in  the  King's 
county;  contrary  to  the  declaration  of 
Adamnanus,  and  other  early  writers ;  for 
it  was  at  a  later  period  that  he  founded 
the  monastery  of  Durrogh.  Add  to  this, 
that  the  possessions  of  this  Aodh  were 
centred  in  Ulster,  not  in  Leinster.  This 
prince  was  a  zealous  partizan  of  Columba, 
and  supported  him  on  all  occasions.  How- 
ever, his  repeated  violences  (for  the  two 
first  of  which,  I  suppose  he  made  some 
public  penance)  could  not  protect  him  from 
the  censures  of  the  clergy;  who,  on  the 
last  occasion,  and  even  in  the  present 
monarchy,  denounced  excommunication  on 
him  if  he  did  not  quit  the  kingdom.  His 
submission,  his  resignation,  and  making 
atonement  by  the  most  exemplary  life  for 
his  former  offences,  proved  the  sincerity  of 
his  repentance,  and  extorted  from  his  pre- 
ceptor St.  Finian,  the  following  saying — 
"that  his  example  ought  to  carry  as  many 
souls  to  heaven  as  his  wars  had  plunged 
into  hell.t" 

In  the  beginning  of  this  reign,  Colman- 
Beg,  the  son  of  Dearmod,  raised  a  second 
army,  determined  to  dispute  the  monarchy 
with  Aodh.  The  two  armies  met  at  Bal- 
lach-Dathi;  the  day  was  disputed  with 
great  obstinacy.  At  length  Aodh  and 
Colman  met,  and  fought  hand  to  hand; 
but  the  death  of  the  latter  soon  decided 
the  contest,  and  with  him  fell  five  thousand 
of  his  best  troops. 

In  574,  according  to  the  Ulster  Annals, 
Aidanus,  the  son  of  Gabhran,  was  conse- 
crated king  of  the  Albanian  Scots  in  the 
isle  of  Huy  by  St.  Columba.  Though  the 
reign  of  the  prince  Aodh  was  long,  yet  we 
are  furnished  with  no  material  political 
events,  till  his  assembling  the  national 
estates  at  Drom-Chette;  and  even  then, 
though  this  parliament  continued  its  session 
for  fourteen  months,  yet  the  objects  of  its 
deliberations,  as  handed  down  to  us,  seem 

*  Writers  of  Ireland,  p.  17. 
t  Vita  St.  Fiiiiani.    Usher,  Primucd.  Eccles.  Brit.  etc. 


^■ 


A.  D.  588.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


179 


to  small  for  such  a  period.  We  will  then 
suppose  that  a  revision  of  the  national  his- 
tory and  laws,  and  a  retrospection  into  the 
state  of  arts,  manufactures,  and  commerce, 
as  usual,  employed  the  greatest  attention 
of  the  members.  These  being  the  great 
and  known  business  of  our  parliaments,  it 
was  supposed  unnecessary  to  mention  them 
— but  besides  these,  Aodh  had  two  other 
objects  of  great  consequence  in  view:  the 
reforming  the  abuses  in  the  schools,  and 
the  compelling  the  tributary  princes  of 
Albany  to  pay  their  accustomed  stipends, 
which  had  been  for  some  time  neglected. 
Notices  were  sent  to  the  different  princes 
of  Ireland,  to  Albany,  to  the  Hebrides, 
and  to  the  Isle  of  Man.  The  assembly 
was  very  numerous  and  brilliant.  The 
names  of  the  chiefs  who  attended  it  are 
yet  on  record;  among  others  was  King 
Aidan,  in  behalf  of  the  Albanian  Scots ; 
and  Columba,  as  representative  of  their 
clergy. 

Columba  was  attended  by  twenty  bishops, 
forty  priests,  and  fifty  deacons.  As  it  may 
seem  strange  to  see  an  abbot  only,  waited 
upon  by  such  a  number  of  dignitaries,  the 
Venerable  Bede  will  explain  it,  by  inform- 
ing us,  that  Columba  and  his  successors  to 
his  own  days,  though  but  priests,  still 
governed  the  hierarchy  of  North  Britain.* 
But  as  part  of  the  penance  imposed  on 
Columba  on  quitting  Ireland  was,  never 
more  to  see  the  country,  he  evaded  this 
by  having  his  eyes  bound  up  from  the 
time  he  left  Scotland  till  he  returned.  The 
nature  of  the  first  question  propounded  by 
the  monarch  to  the  parliament,  has  been 
by  no  means  rightly  explained  by  modem 
writers — some  remains  of  these  schools 
have  subsisted  even  to  the  days  of  our 
fathers  ;  and  it  was  not  the  use,  but  the 
abuse  of  them,  that  was  complained  of. 


Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  Hi.  cap.  4. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Privileges  of  the  Irish  literati,  and  their  abuse  in 
some  instances — The  Albanian  Scots  declared 
an  independent  people — The  death  of  the  mon- 
arch Aoidh,  and  the  Archiepiscopal  See  of  Lein- 
ster  transferred  from  Kildare  to  Ferns — Flour- 
ishing state  of  letters — Of  St.  Bridget,  patroness 
of  Leinster — The  number  of  academies,  holy 
men,  and  pious  foundations. 

From  the  earliest  periods  the  literati  in 
Ireland,  as  in  Gaul,*  enjoyed  uncommon 
privileges,  their  persons  being  sacred,  their 
possessions  in  all  revolutions  undisturbed, 
and  their  students  and  followers  exempt 
from  all  taxations  and  military  laws.  We 
see,  in  Caesar's  time,  the  Gauls  complain 
of  the  abuses  of  this  privilege  ;  and  it  has 
been  the  case  in  Ireland,  in  many  instances 
beside  the  present.  The  Irish  colleges, 
which  were  instituted  for  instructing  in  the 
fine  arts  the  princes,  the  nobles,  and  the 
gentry,  received  also  a  certain  number  of 
students,  who  were  devoted  to  the  studies 
of  divinity,  history,  genealogy,  and  poetry, 
(for  this  last  was  a  particular  and  a  labo- 
rious study,  on  account  of  the  various  kinds 
of  metre,  and  the  rules  to  be  followed  in 
each  species,  examples  of  which  may  be 
seen  in  O'Molloy's  Irish  Grammar,  in 
Llhuid,  but  especially  in  Colonel  Valian- 
cy's.) The  immunities  enjoyed  by  these 
students,  made  numbers  of  idlers  resort  to 
these  colleges :  too  lazy  to  work,  and  too 
proud  to  beg,  they  found  this  medium  to 
gratify  both.  These  schools  were  open 
from  Michaelmas  to  March.  In  those  days 
of  splendour  they  were  always  founded  in 
sequestered  places,  surrounded  by  woods 
of  oak;  and  this  explains  what  Lucan 
says: — 


Nemora  alta,  remotis 


Incolitis  luci8."t 

Even  in  ancient  Athens  the  same  custom 
was  observed ;  hence  the  saying, — 

"  —  Inter  silvas  academi,  quaerere  verum." 

The  light  of  the  day  was  shut  out  of  these 
schools,  and  they  always  studied  by  candle- 
light. From  May  to  Michaelmas,  they  ab- 
sented themselves  from  college ;  the  young 
nobility  and  gentry  retiring  to  their  friends, 
and  the  registered  students,  like  the  milita- 


Comment.  Cjes.  lib.  \i. 


\  Pharsal.  lib.  i. 


180 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  595. 


ry,  being  quartered  on  the  country.  The 
numerous  idlers  who  claimed  the  protec- 
tion of  these  colleges  became  a  real  burden 
to  the  nation.  For  want  of  hands  manu- 
factures were  cramped,  and  agriculture 
injured.  These  poor  indigent  wretches, 
not  content  to  lead  a  life  of  contemptible 
oscitancy,  but  having  a  knack  of  rhyming, 
they  frequently  perverted  it  to  satire; 
abusing  whoever  did  not  show  them  re- 
spect enough,  or  refused  gratifying  their 
demands :  for  no  nation  of  the  world  were 
fonder  of  praise  or  dreaded  satire  more 
than  the  Irish.  To  confine  the  students  in 
each  college  to  a  certain  number,  to  re- 
strain the  insolence  of  these  hangers-on, 
and  not  to  suppress  the  colleges  of  the 
bards,  much  less  banish  them  from  the 
kingdom,  was  what  the  monarch  recom- 
mended to  his  parliament.  For  the  regis- 
tered bards  were  sworn  to  employ  their 
muses  to  no  other  purpose  but  the  glory  of 
God,  the  honour  of  their  country,  of  its 
heroes,  of  its  females,  and  of  their  own 
chiefs.  For  the  time  to  come,  the  mon- 
arch's chief  bard  was  to  be  president  of  all 
the  poetic  colleges  in  the  kingdom ;  he  had 
power  to  appoint  inspectors  to  examine  the 
state  of  the  different  schools,  and  make 
what  reforms  he  judged  necessary,  to  en- 
force this  restraining  act.  But  his  second 
proposal,  namely,  the  paying  of  tribute, 
was  stiffly  opposed  by  Columba,  and  King 
Aidan. 

Besides  a  certain  yearly  tribute  in  mon- 
ey, (but  how  much  we  are  not  told,)  Albany, 
the  Hebrides,  and  Man,  were  obliged,  in 
all  foreign  invasions,  to  send  to  the  monarch 
ships  and  troops ;  so  that  it  is  more  than 
probable,  that  if  Aodh  had  met  with  the 
same  success  in  his  second  demand  that  he 
did  in  his  first,  the  consequence  would  have 
been  an  invasion  of  the  coasts  of  Britain 
or  (Jaul.  The  great  power  of  the  Dal- 
Riada,  as  well  in  Ireland  as  in  Albany,  and 
the  influence  of  Columba,  had  greater 
weight  with  this  assembly  in  this  instance 
than  the  remonstrances  of  the  monarch  or 
the  dictates  of  sound  policy.  The  Alba- 
nian Scots  were  declared,  instead  of  subjects 
and  tributaries,  the  associates  and  friends 


of  Ireland,  and  were  exempt  from  all  taxa- 
tion whatever,  excepting  only  in  cases  of 
murder,  and  devastations  committed  by  the 
Irish  Dal-Riada,  when  they  agreed  to  pay 
their  proportion  of  the  eric,  or  retribution, 
to  be  raised  on  these  occasions  ;  but  these 
Irish  Dal-Riada  were  not  to  be  charged 
with  any  eric  to  be  paid  by  their  Albanian 
brethren.  Thus  ended  this  famous  assem- 
bly of  Drom-Chette,  and  by  their  decision 
was  the  Irish  monarchy  ever  after  confined 
to  the  precincts  of  its  own  island. 

Soon  after  the  dissolution  of  this  parlia- 
ment, whose  resolves  were  so  pernicious 
to  the  kingdom,  (and  which  proved  the 
freeness  of  their  debates,  and  how  circum- 
scribed the  powers  of  the  monarchs  were,) 
we  read  that  Conall,  eldest  son  to  Aodh,  inva- 
ded the  territories  of  Colman-Rimhidh ;  but 
in  the  end  his  army  was  defeated,  and  him- 
self numbered  with  the  slain.  In  the  year 
594,  Aodh  raised  a  great  army,  which  he 
commanded  in  person,  and  with  which  he 
invaded  Leinster,  in  order  to  compel  the 
Lagenians  to  pay  their  tribute,  the  fatal 
cause  of  such  torrents  of  blood.  In  the 
battle,  however,  that  ensued  at  Dunbolg, 
his  troops  were  cut  to  pieces,  he  himself 
falling  in  single  combat,  by  the  hands  of 
Brandubh,  king  of  that  province.  Soon 
after  this,  at  a  synod  of  the  clergy  of  Lein- 
ster, in  which  Brandubh  presided,  it  was 
agreed  to  transfer  the  archbishopric  of  that 
province  from  Kildare  to  Ferns,  in  rever- 
ence to  St.  Maidog.* 

In  Munster,  Dioma  reigned  long,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Colgain,  the  son  of 
Failbhe,  a  Eugenian.  In  Ulster,  Daigha, 
the  son  of  Carril,  and  Aodh-Dubh,  the  son 
of  Suine,  governed :  Colman-More,  son  to 
Cabre,  and  Aodh,  son  to  Colman,  ruled 
Leinster;  and  Maolchothach,  and  Aodh- 
Abhrath,  were  kings  of  Connaught.  In 
Albany,  Conall,  the  son  of  Comhghal,  and 
Aidan,  son  to  Gabhran,  succeeded  each 
other. 

Aodh,  (called  Slaine,  as  it  was  crossing 
the  river  of  that  name  that  his  mother  took 
her  labour,)  succeeded  to  the  throne.  He 
was  the  son  of  the  monarch  Dearmod,  the 

"•  Primord.  Eccles.  Brit.  p.  864,  965. 


A.  D.  595.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


181 


son  of  Feargus,  the  son  of  Conall ;  and  he 
associated  with  him  in  the  empire  Colman- 
Rimhidh,  grandson  to  the  monarch  Mur- 
tough,  who  defeated  the  imperial  troops 
in  the  bloody  battle  of  Sleamhna,  and  with 
his  own  hand  slew  Conall,  son  to  the  last 
monarch.  In  this  reign  St.  Augustin  land- 
ed in  Kent,  in  order  to  convert  the  Saxon 
race,  being  sent  by  Pope  Gregory.*  In 
the  year  596,  Suine,  the  son  of  Colman,  fell 
by  the  sword  of  this  Aodh,  according  to 
the  Four  Masters ;  and  in  600,  he  himself 
met  the  same  fate  by  the  hand  of  Conall, 
son  to  Colman,  as  did  his  associate  by  that 
of  Lochan. 

As  to  the  state  of  religion  and  letters  in 
this  century  in  Ireland,  hear  the  testimony 
of  Camden,  an  author  who  cannot  be  sus- 
pected of  partiality  to  us — "The  Irish 
scholars  of  St.  Patrick  profited  so  notably 
in  Christianity  that,  in  the  succeeding  age, 
Ireland  was  termed  Sanctorum  Patria. 
Their  monks  so  greatly  excelled  in  learn- 
ing and  piety,  that  they  sent  whole  flocks 
of  most  holy  men  into  all  parts  of  Europe, 
who  were  the  first  founders  of  Luxieu 
abbey,  in  Burgundy ;  of  the  abbey  Bobio, 
in  Italy ;  of  Wurtzburgh,  in  Franconia ;  St. 
Gall,  in  Switzerland ;  and  of  Malmesbury, 
Lindisfam,  and  many  other  monasteries  in 
Britain.  For  from  thence  came  Cselius 
Sedulius,  a  priest,  Columba,  Columbanus, 
Colman,  Aidan,  Gallus,"  etc.f 

Among  the  eminent  persons  of  this  age, 
St.  Bridget,  of  Kildare,  merits  the  first 
place,  for  her  high  reputation,  exemplary 
life,  and  numerous  pious  foundations.  She 
was  the  daughter  of  Dubtlvach,  a  Leinster 
captain,  and  early  devoted  herself  to  a  mo- 
nastic life.  Her  charities  were  diffusive 
and  boundless,  and  could  only  be  equalled 
by  her  piety  and  austerity.  She  was  born 
A.  D.  453,  and  in  467  received  the  veil 
from  the  hands  of  St.  Mac  Calle.  From 
this  time  to  her  death,  which  happened  in 
523,  she  daily  made  new  advances  in 
every  kind  of  spiritual  exercise,  and  died 
in  the  highest  reputation  for  sanctity.  She 
was  not  only  canonized  after  her  death,  but 
declared  the  perpetual  Patroness  of  Lein- 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  i.  cap,  23,  etc.      t  Hibern. 


ster,  even  in  her  lifetime ;  for  we  read  in 
her  life,  that  Oilioll,  the  son  of  Dunluing, 
then  king  of  Leinster,  being  attacked  by  a 
very  large  body  of  the  imperialists,  called 
upon  St.  Bridget,  which  so  animated  his 
troops,  that  he  gained  a  complete  victory 
over  his  antagonist.  Her  festival  is  cele- 
brated with  great  devotion  on  the  first  of 
February.  How  much  more  so  in  former 
times,  may  be  collected  from  the  following 
ancient  distich : — 

"  Brigida  virgo  potens,  Februi  sibi,  prima  calendas 
Scotorum  miro  poscit  celebrata  fervore." 

The  fame  of  her  sanctity  soon  spread 
over  Europe,  and  at  Seville  in  Spain,  at 
Lisbon,  Placentia  in  Italy,  at  Tours,  Besan- 
con,  Namur,  Cologne,  and  even  in  London, 
churches  were  dedicated  to  her.  In  some 
of  these  places,  her  relics  have  been  pre- 
served, and  in  all,  her  festival  celebrated  on 
the  first  of  February.*  In  the  dioceses 
of  Tuam,  Alfin,  Kildare,  Dublin,  and  Lis- 
more  only,  Colgan  reckons  about  sixty 
churches  and  monasteries  dedicated  to  her 
name. 

Many  works  are  attributed  to  St.  Brid- 
get by  foreign  writers ;  but  the  following 
she  certainly  wrote — firstly,  Rules  for  the 
Nuns  of  her  own  Foundation ;  secondly, 
an  Epistle  to  St.  Aid,  the  son  of  Delghil ; 
thirdly,aPoemto  St.  Patrick;  and  fourthly, 
the  Quiver  of  Divine  Love,  or,  of  Pious 
Desires.  These  three  last  works,  in  the 
Irish  language,  were  in  the  possession  of 
the  learned  Colgan,  as  he  affirms,  f 

Every  religious  foundation  in  Ireland,  in 
those  days,  included  a  school,  or  indeed 
rather,  academy.  Such  was  the  school  of 
St.  Fridian,  in  which  Columba  received  his 
first  education ;  of  Cluan  Fois,  founded  by 
St.  Jarlath,  where  St.  Brendan,  of  Cluan- 
Feart,  was  educated,  etc.  St.  Fachanus 
founded  an  academy  at  Ross,  in  the  county 
of  Cork,  in  this  century,  around  which 
soon  grew  a  large  city,  and  which  is  ranked 
by  Ware  as  one  of  the  principal  academies 
of  this  age.  He  was  titular  saint  to  the 
O'Driscols,  CLearies,  etc.  But  the  uni- 
versity of  Clonard,  next  to  that  of  Benchor, 

*  Trias  Thaum.  p.  624.  t  Ibid.  p.  610. 


182 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  595. 


was  the  most  celebrated :  in  it,  under  St. 
Finian,  were  no  less  than  three  thousand 
scholars  at  one  time.  Among  the  multi- 
tude of  Finian's  scholars  are  reckoned  the 
twelve  apostles  of  Ireland,  so  called  for 
their  piety  and  learning  ;  to  wit — the  two 
Columbas,  the  two  Keirans,  two  Brendens, 
Comghill,  Cannechus,  Ruadanus,  Nennidh, 
Mobhas,  and  Molaise.  The  number  of 
religious  only.in  the  monastery  of  Benchor, 
founded  by  St.  Comghill,  in  this  century  is 
astonishing.  The  great  St.  Bernard,  a 
writer  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  too  warm 
an  advocate  for  papal  authority  to  be  an 
admirer  of  the  Irish  of  those  days,  shall 
be  my  authority  on  this  occasion.*  He 
affirms,  that  in  the  sixth  century,  under  St. 
Comhgill,  or  Congell,  as  he  calls  him,  "  the 
monastery  of  Benchore  was  a  most  noble 
one,  containing  many  thousand  monks,  and 
itself  the  chief  of  many  monasteries.  So 
fruitful  was  it  of  holy  men,  and  multiplying 
so  greatly  to  the  Lord,  that  Luanus  alone, 
a  subject  of  this  house,  founded  no  less  than 
one  hundred  monasteries.  This  I  mention 
that  the  reader  may  form  an  idea  of  the 
number  of  religious  in  these  days  in  Ire- 
land." The  zeal  and  piety  of  these  holy 
monks,  he  tells  us,  was  not  confined  to  Ire- 
land, but,  like  an  inundation,  their  saints 
spread  piety  and  virtue  over  all  Europe  ! 

St.  Brogan  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Bridget 
in  Irish  verse  about  three  years  after  her 
death;  and  which  life  Colgan  gives  us  en- 
tire, with  a  literal  Latin  translation-! 

Nennidh  is  said  to  have  been  a  writer  of 
Latin  hymns,  and  other  works.  He  was 
a  disciple  of  St.  Finian,  and  afterwards 
himself  founded  an  academy  and  monas- 
tery at  Loch-Erne. 

St.  Dermod  wrote  a  litany  in  elegant 
Irish  metre,  in  my  possession,  says  Colgan. J 
Geman,  a  poet,  wrote  a  copy  of  verses  in 
praise  of  the  great  Finian. 

St.  Cogitosus,  contemporary  with  St. 
Bridget,  but  who  survived  her  for  many 
years,  wrote  her  life  in  Latin,  extant  in  the 
Trias  Thaumaturga.  He  was  himself  a 
monk,  (supposed  of  Kildare,)  because  he 

*  Divi  Bernai-di  Opera,  p.  1934. 
t  Trias  Thaum.  p.  515,  etc.         {  Act.  8.  Hib.  p.  52. 


describes  that  town  and  church  minutely. 
The  work  he  addresses  to  the  monks  his 
brethren.  Amergin,  the  son  of  Amalgaid, 
chief  poet  to  the  monarch  Dermod,  wrote 
a  book  of  etymologies,  or  an  explanation 
of  the  topographical  names  of  countries 
and  territories  in  Ireland.  This  work  the 
learned  Lynch  quotes  as  authority  against 
Cambrensis,  and  as  an  authority  then  sub- 
sisting.* Probably  from  it  Mac  Eagan 
might  have  enlarged  his  Labhar-Breac. 

That  the  scholiast  on  St.  Fiech's  life 
flourished  in  this  century  cannot  be  doubt- 
ed, from  his  calling  Armoric  Brittany  by 
the  names  of  Letania  and  Letavia ;  names 
which,  in  the  first  book  of  this  work,  I  have 
shown  it  was  then  known  by. 

To  St.  Brenden,  of  Clonfert,  many  works 
are  attributed  by  Bale ;  and  St.  Brenden, 
of  Birr,  Berchanus,  and  Dallanus,  wrote 
different  works  in  praise  of  St.  Columba. 
This  last  wrote  also  another  work  yet  ex- 
tant, and  in  high  esteem,  called  Amhra  Col- 
lum  Chille,  or  the  Vision  of  St.  Columba. 

Ruadan,  one  of  the  famous  twelve  Irish 
disciples  of  this  age,  wrote  a  Latin  treatise. 
Contra  Dearmod  Regem,  I  suppose  in  de- 
fence of  St.  Columba.  He  also  wrote  De 
Mirabili  Fontium  in  Hibemia  Natura.  The 
works  written  by  Columba  himself  are  too 
numerous  to  be  here  recited,  but  they  are 
to  be  found  in  the  Trias  Thaumaturga,  p. 
471.  St.  Cannic,  to  whom  the  cathedral 
of  Kilkenny  is  dedicated,  wrote  the  life  of 
Columba. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

The  state  of  arts  and  sciences,  in  these  nges,  much 
more  respectable  than  has  been  supposed — The 
archbishoprics  of  Leinster  and  Connaught  found- 
ed in  this  century — Remarkable  synod  of  the 
clergy  at  Clonard — Many  new  bishoprics  erected 
— An  account  of  some  abbeys,  particularly  of 
Benchoir,  etc.,  and  the  manner  in  which  the 
religious  employed  their  time. 

The   learned   Dr.  Warner   closes   the 
seventh  book  of  his  History  of  Ireland  with 
an  account  of  Irish  writers,  and  though  he 
*  Gmt  Luc.  p.  132. 


A.  D.  595.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


183 


advances  that  the  learning  of  those  days 
was  not  very  great,  yet,  such  as  it  was,  he 
confesses  that  it  flourished  with  the  great- 
est splendour  in  Ireland,  and  from  thence 
was  communicated  to  other  countries.  But 
though  I  am  happy  in  acknowledging  the 
candour  and  abilities  of  this  gentleman,  yet 
I  can  by  no  means  agree  with  him  in  sen- 
timent on  this  occasion. 

From  the  list  of  Irish  writers  of  this  age, 
it  is  but  too  true  that  most  of  their  works 
seem  confined  to  litanies  and  lives  of  saints. 
Yet  one  point  they  had  in  view,  and  indeed 
the  most  important,  namely,  mending  the 
heart,  and  calling  forth  from  its  recesses, 
philanthropy,  charity,  hospitality,  and  a 
thorough  contempt  of  wealth  the  moment 
it  became  diverted  from  its  proper  chan- 
nel. But  besides  this,  the  learning  of  these 
times  was  by  no  means  contemptible.  The 
Irish  professors  were  complete  masters  of 
what  are  called  the  learned  languages, 
(i.  e.  Greek  and  Latin,)  and  opened  schools, 
as  well  in  Britain  as  in  Ireland,  for  these 
studies.  That  they  were  highly  skilled  in 
divinity  and  church  history  in  this  age,  I 
have  but  to  refer  to  Fleury's  account  of 
our  Columbanus,  etc.*  That  they  were 
also  eminent  in  astronomy,  his  defence  of 
the  calculations  of  Anatolius,  and  of  the 
Asiatic  custom  of  celebrating  the  feast  of 
Easter,  proves.  To  this  let  me  add,  the 
arguments  after  this,  oflfered  by  Colman, 
as  recited  by  Bede,t  on  this  subject,  and  a 
work  published  also  by  him  in  its  support. 
Where  but  in  Ireland,  where  he  was  bom 
and  educated,  could  Virgil ius  have  learned 
the  doctrine  of  the  antipodes,  and  the 
sphericity  of  the  earth  ?  These  sure  are 
incontestible  proofs,  that  to  a  knowledge 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin,  of  divinity  and 
church  history,  the  Irish  professors  of  those 
days  added  mathematics,  astronomy,  and 
philosophy.  That  poetry  was  particularly 
cultivated  in  our  schools,  and  classical  poe- 
try too,  I  have  but  to  refer  to  the  writings 
of  the  famous  Sedulius ;  and  to  the  confes- 
sion of  Aldelm,  a  writer  of  the  seventh 
century,  who  was  a  pupil  of  our  famous 

*  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  viii. 

t  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit  lib.  xxiii.  cap.  25. 


Maildulph,  and  the  first  Saxon  who  at- 
tempted to  write  Latin  verse.  Where  he 
acquired  this  knowledge,  the  following  lines 
of  his,  quoted  by  Camden,  will  tell : — 

"  Primus  ejro  in  pntrium  meciim.  modo  vita  sapenit, 
Aonit  rediens,  deducain  vertice  musam."* 

In  no  country  of  the  world,  was  history, 
both  natural  and  civil,t  better  cultivated 
than  in  Ireland ;  and  their  chronology  was 
more  exact  than  that  of  any  other  nation. 

That  not  only  the  sciences,  but  even  the 
fine  arts,  flourished  among  us  in  an  emi- 
nent degree  in  these  early  days,  when  the 
rest  of  Europe  was  involved  in  ignorance 
and  barbarity,  we  have  yet  some  proofs. 
As  to  sculpture,  witness  the  poem  of  Toma 
Eigis,  president  of  the  Irish  poets  in  the 
fourth  century,  in  which  he  enumerates  the 
names  of  the  diflferent  Irish  monarchs,  in- 
terred at  Cruachan,  and  describes  the  mar- 
ble busts  of  some  of  them.  J  In  the  Life  of 
St.  Bridget,  written  by  her  contemporary 
Cogitosus,  he  informs  us  from  his  own 
knowledge,  that  in  the  Cathedral  of  Kil- 
dare,  on  the  right  and  left  sides  of  the  great 
altar,  were  placed  the  bodies  of  Bridget 
and  Conlaith  in  monuments  highly  finished, 
and  ornamented  with  gold,  silver,  and  pre- 
cious stones,  and  over  which  crowns  of 
gold  and  silver  were  suspended.^  From 
his  description  of  this  church  we  plainly 
see  a  taste  for  architecture  ;  and  he  partic- 
ularly mentions  many  pieces  of  painting  in 
it.  To  this  let  me  add,  what  Cambrensis 
himself  confesses  to  have  examined  with 
astonishment,  namely,  that  among  other 
relics  and  curiosities  of  the  church  of  Kil- 
dare,  he  was  shown  "  a  Concordance  of  the 
Four  Gospels,  hy  St.  Hieronimus,  wrote  by, 
or  for  the  use  of  St.  Bridget.  The  margin 
was  ornamented  with  mystic  pictures,  most 
wonderfully  and  animatingly  finished.  The 
writing,  but  particularly  the  capital  letters, 
so  highly  ornamented,  that  (says  he)  neither 
the  pencil  of  an  Apelles,  nor  the  chisel  of  a 
Lysippus,  ever  formed  the  like.  In  a  wordf 
they  seem  to  have  been  executed  by  some^ 

•  Britannia;  under  Wiltshire, 
t  Introduction  to  Irish  History,  p.  ii.  c.  ix. 
X  Keating,  p.  1.     Vallancey's  Grammar,  etc. 
$  vita  secuuda  St.  Brigid.  c.  35,  36. 


184 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  595. 


thing  more  than  a  mortal  hand  /"  You  find 
in  many  dismantled  churches,  even  at  this 
day,  when  carefully  examined,  remains  of 
ancient  fresco  paintings  ;  and  to  go  no 
further  than  Adare,  in  this  county,  you 
there  behold  many  figures,  and  some  heads 
well  done.  Those  of  St.  Patrick,  St.  Bridget, 
and  St.  Columba,  are  very  conspicuous. 

As  to  the  ancient  Irish  music,  it  is  con- 
fessed to  be  original ;  and  in  what  remains 
of  it  at  this  day,  there  is  found  a  wonderful 
softness  and  pleasing  harmony.  The  ab- 
bey of  Benchoir  got  its  name  from  the  mel- 
ody of  its  psalmists  ;  and  when,  in  the  next 
century,  the  abbey  of  Niville,  in  France, 
was  founded,  the  wife  of  Pepin  sent  to 
Ireland  for  doctors  to  instruct  in  church 
discipline,  and  for  musicians  and  choristers 
for  the  church  music.  Cambrensis,  who 
visited  Ireland  twice,  first  with  Henry  II., 
and  afterwards  with  his  son  John;  and 
who,  from  the  station  he  enjoyed,  we  must 
conclude  was  acquainted  with  the  best 
music  in  Britain  and  Gaul  in  his  days,  yet 
declares  the  Irish  music  the  most  pleasing, 
and  its  masters  the  first  performers  in  the 
world.*  Mr.  Warton  produces  his  au- 
thorities for  affirming,  that  so  late  as  the 
eleventh  century,  "the  Welch  bards  re- 
ceived their  instructions  in  Ireland,  and 
brought  with  them  to  Wales  divers  cunning 
musicians,  who  devised  in  a  manner  all  the 
instrumental  music  that  is  now  used  there, 
as  appeareth,  as  well  by  the  books  written 
of  the  same,  as  also  by  the  names  of  the 
tunes,  and  measures  used  among  them  to 
this  day."t  This  last  relation  furnishes  a 
reflection  greatly  in  our  favour,  on  the  sub- 
ject in  hand,  namely,  the  great  superiority 
in  composition  and  execution  of  the  Irish 
over  the  Welch.  For,  as  Cambrensis  was 
himself  a  Welchman  born,  and  also  Bishop 
of  St.  David's,  their  music,  adapted  to  the 
Irish  scale  a  century  earlier,  must  have 
been  well  known  to  him — yet  we  see  the 
powers  of  harmony  softened  even  in  his 
prejudiced  mind,  and  in  this  instance  he 
has  done  us  ample  justice. 

In  this  century  we  find  two  more  arch- 
bishoprics erected  in  Ireland.  That  of 
*  Topogr.  c.  xi.     t  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  dissert.  1. 


Leinster, 'affixed  to  the  church  of  Kildare, 
in  honour  of  St.  Bridget ;  except  it  may  be 
supposed,  that  St.  Fiech  was  appointed  to 
that  honour  by  St.  Patrick  himself;  and 
that  it  was  only  transferred  from  Sleibhte, 
in  reverence  to  Bridget,  which  I  think  was 
not  the  case ;  because  in  the  days  of  St. 
Patrick,  Ireland  still  preserved  its  ancient 
divisions  of  Leath-Mogha,  and  Leath-Cuin ; 
so  that  neither  Leinster  or  Connaught  were 
strictly  deemed  distinct  kingdoms.  Kil- 
dare, we  may  then  suppose,  was  now  for 
the  first  time  declared  a  metropolitan  see, 
and  Conlaeth,  the  first  Archbishop  of  Lein- 
ster. About  the  same  time,  (i.  e.  the  be- 
ginning of  this  century,)  St.  Jarlath  was 
consecrated  Archbishop  of  Connaught.  Pal- 
liums  St.  Patrick  certainly  brought  from 
Rome  on  his  second  visit  there ;  but  these 
must  have  been  for  the  archbishops  of 
Leath-Cuin,  and  Leath-Mogha  only ;  so 
that  the  first  archbishops  of  Connaught  and 
Leinster,  though  consecrated,  had  not  pal- 
liums.  We  are  indeed  told,  that  in  the 
year  695,  and  soon  after  the  bloody  battle 
of  Dun-bolg,  Brandubh,  King  of  Leinster, 
summoned  a  solemn  meeting  of  the  clergy 
of  that  province,  at  which  he  presided. '  In 
this  synod  it  was  unanimously  decreed  to 
transfer  the  archbishopric  of  Leinster  from 
Kildare  to  Ferns,  in  honour  of  St.  Maidoeg, 
who  was  accordingly  consecrated  archbish- 
op, says  Hanmer,  (Chronicle,  p.  64,)  and 
which  city,  to  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  was 
the  capital  of  Leinster.  This  proves  the 
regularity  observed  in  the  proceedings  of 
the  Irish  clergy.  Many  other  synods  of 
our  clergy  are  noticed  in  this  century ;  but 
one  among  those  should  not  be  omitted,  as 
it  reflects  the  highest  honour  on  this  body 
of  men. 

In  the  year  569,  and  immediately  after 
the  third  bloody  battle  which  the  violence 
of  Columba's  temper  involved  his  country 
in,  a  synod  of  the  clergy  met  at  Clonard 
to  deliberate  on  the  public  penance  and 
punishment  necessary  to  be  inflicted  on 
this  monk  for  his  repeated  outrages. 
Some  were  for  excommunicating  him ; 
but,  on  his  submission,  and  promise  of  obe- 
dience, he  was,  by  public  decree  of  the 


A.  D.  595.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


185 


clergy  present,  banished  from  the  kmgdom, 
never  more  to  behold  it  again ;  and  it  was 
declared  that  he  never  could  hope  for  sal- 
vation, till  by  his  austerities,  his  preaching, 
and  his  prayers,  he  had  converted  as  many 
souls  to  God  as  his  violent  temper  had 
hurried  to  immature  death ;  and  thus  was 
the  conversion  of  the  Picts  projected,  and 
happily  completed  by  this  great  apos- 
tle. 

Several  new  bishoprics  were  founded  in 
this  century ;  as  that  of  Clonard,  by  St. 
Finian,  that  celebrated  philosopher,  who 
was  of  the  line  of  Ir,  and  titular  patron  of 
the  Magenises ;  Clonmanois,  by  St.  Kier- 
an,  of  the  sept  of  the  Arads  ;  Clen-De,  or 
the  Valley  of  God,  as  it  was  first  called, 
afterwards  Glen-da-loch,  or  the  Vale  of 
Two  Lakes,  was  founded  by  St.  Coem- 
hene,  or  Ceivin,  and  to  whom  the  church 
of  that  name  in  the  liberty  of  Dublin  is 
dedicated.  He  is  the  patron  saint  of  the 
O'Bymes  and  O'Tooles.  St.  Edan,  or 
Maidoc,  a  descendant  of  Colla,  called 
Uas,  or  the  Noble,  monarch  of  Ireland,  and 
the  titular  saint  of  the  O'Cinellachs,  etc., 
founded  the  bishopric  of  Ferns,  afterwards, 
in  honour  to  him,  erected  into  an  archbish- 
opric. St.  Brenden,  of  the  house  of  Ir, 
and  the  patron  saint  of  the  O'Connors  Ker- 
ry, erected  at  Hi-Ferte,  or  the  Territory 
of  Miracles,  commonly  called  Ardfert,  or 
Adart,  a  see.  His  successors  were  some- 
times called  bishops  of  Kerry.  The  re- 
mains of  churches,  abbeys,  and  religious 
houses,  with  inscriptions,  remarkable  tombs, 
etc.,  at  this  day  sufficiently  proclaim  its 
ancient  magnificence.  An  anchorite  tower 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  high,  the 
finest  in  Ireland,  and  standing  near  the 
cathedral,  fell  down  in  the  year  1771  ;  and 
as,  in  all  human  probability,  it  fell  never  to 
rise  again,  I  leave  this  memorial  of  it.  Of 
this  noble  city,  the  ancient  capital  of  Ker- 
ry, no  other  monuments  but  the  above 
remain,  except  its  being  the  seat  of  the 
earls  of  Glendor,  an  ancient  family  of  this 
county.  I  have  taken  no  small  trouble  to 
ascertain  when  Limerick  was  erected  into 
a  bishopric  ;  and,  though  out  of  its  place, 
I  here  observe,  that  it  was  soon  after  the 

24 


arrival  of  St  Patrick ;  a  proof  of  the  great 
antiquity  of  this  city.  Its  founder  was  St 
Manchin  ;  but  of  this  name  Colgan  notes 
eight  different  saints,  whose  eras  are  very 
uncertain.*  However,  by  the  Book  of 
Lecan,  I  find  that  our  Manchin  was  the 
son  of  Seadhna,  the  son  of  Cas,  the  son 
of  Conall,  of  the  Dai-Gas  race,  and  nephew 
to  Blod,  King  of  Thomond,  in  the  days  of 
St  Patrick.  He  was  first  Abbot  of  Mu- 
imgharid, near  Limerick;  and, for  his  great 
piety  and  learning,  ordered  by  St.  Patrick 
to  the  instruction  of  his  new  converts  in 
Connaught.t  From  this  he  became  first 
bishop  and  patron  of  Limerick. 

Aongos  Mac  Nise  founded  a  little  be- 
fore his  death  the  see  of  Connor. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  century,  Cork 
was  erected  into  a  bishopric  by  St.  Bar, 
or  Finbar,  i.  e.  Bar  the  White,  as  he  is 
called  ;  and  here  I  find  a  great  anachron- 
ism in  Harris.  He  makes  him  flourish  in 
the  seventh  century,J  while  he  admits  him 
to  be  preceptor  to  the  famous  St  Colman, 
of  Cloyne,  who  was  one  of  the  associates 
of  St.  Maidoeg,  founder  of  the  see  of 
Ferns,  and  who  died,  according  to  Colgan, 
in  the  year  600 !  He  first  founded  here 
an  academy,  which,  on  account  of  the 
number  of  students,  soon  raised  it  to  a 
considerable  city,  of  which  he  was  conse- 
crated the  first  bishop§  and  patron. 

St  Colman,  the  son  of  Lenin,  the  son  of 
Gancon,  (for  there  were  many  other  saints 
of  this  name,)  descended  from  the  famous 
Lugha-Lagha,  brother  to  Olioll,  King 
of  Munster,  founded  the  bishopric  of 
Cloyne. 

Colman,  the  son  of  Duach,  and  chief  of 
all  the  numerous  saints  of  the  race  of  the 
Hy-Fiacres,  or  of  the  O'Douds,  O'Shaugh- 
nessies,  O'Heynes,  O'Killhellies,  etc.,  etc., 
founded  the  bishopric  of  Ceill  Mac  Duach, 
so  called  from  his  father. 

The  great  Finian  of  Clonard  founded 
the  bishopric  of  Achrony,  which  he  be- 
stowed on  his  pupil  Nathi.||  The  O'Haras 
were  the  patrons  of  it 

*  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  332. 
t  Vita  sexta  St.  Patricii,  c.  59.         X  Vol.  i.  p.  556. 
$  Acta  Saact.  Hib.  p.  607.       ||  Ibid,  p.  395,  c.  xxvi. 


186 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  695. 


The  abbeys  and  monasteries  founded  in 
this  century  are  astonishingly  numerous, 
and  proclaim  the  piety  and  liberality  of 
the  people.  St.  Columba,  the  patron  of 
the  O'Donnells,  founded  no  less  a  number 
than  one  hundred  churches  and  religious 
houses.  St.  Luanus  founded  as  many  as 
St.  Bernard  notes  ;  but  the  abbey  of  Ben- 
choir,  the  largest,  may  be  called  the  mother 
of  all  the  abbeys  in  Europe,  and  exceeded 
every  other  for  the  number  and  piety  of 
its  monks.  St.  Comhgill,  of  the  house  of 
Ir,  and  the  patron  saint  of  the  Mac  Geni- 
ses,  Mac  Cartans,  etc.,  founded  this  great 
monastery,  in  whose  days,  as  St.  Bernard 
notes,*  were  no  less  a  number  than  three 
thousand  monks,  so  disposed  that  the  choir 
was  constantly  full  of  religious,  chanting 
hymns  to  the  Creator,  as  well  by  night  as 
by  day ;  hence  it  got  the  name  of  Ben- 
choir,  or  the  harmonious  choir.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  regularity  of  these  monks. 
The  times  of  recess  from  prayer,  refresh- 
ments, and  natural  rest,  were  devoted  to 
tillage  and  other  useful  employments,  (for 
they  lived  only  by  the  products  of  nature, 
and  the  labour  of  their  own  hands.)  St. 
Brenden,  the   son  of   Finlogha,  and  first 

•  vita  St.  Malach.  p.  1934. 


Bishop  of  Ardfert,  founded  so  many  mon- 
asteries in  different  parts  of  Ireland,  that 
he  is  said  to  have  presided  over  no  less 
than  three  thousand  monks,*  all  of  whom 
supported  themselves  by  their  own  labour. 
Nay,  in  the  monastery  of  Muingharid, 
near  Limerick,  (anciently  called  the  city 
of  Deochain-assain,)  were  formerly  one 
thousand  five  hundred  monks — five  hun- 
dred of  whom  were  devoted  to  preaching 
and  instruction;  five  hundred  others  so 
divided  as  to  have  a  perpetual  full  choir, 
both  day  and  night ;  and  the  remainder 
being  old,  gave  themselves  up  entirely  to 
spiritual  exercises.  Mainchen,  the  founder 
of  this  monastery,  as  well  as  of  the  see  of 
Limerick,  and  Molua,  who  erected  Killa- 
loe  into  a  bishopric,  being  of  the  royal 
blood  of  North  Munster,  are  the  chief  tit- 
ulary saints  of  this  sept.  These  we  have 
given  as  a  specimen  only  of  the  numerous 
pious  foundations  of  this  century  ;'to  which 
we  shall  add,  that  many  of  them  were  in 
the  most  sequestered  and  least  cultivated 
parts  of  the  kingdom;  and  that  through 
the  labour  of  these  holy  monks  were 
these  wastes  reclaimed  and  made  profit- 
able grounds ! 

•  Usher,  Prim.  Eccles.  Brit.  p.  910,  etc. 


BOOK    IX. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Aodb-Uraiodhnach  elected  monarch — Attacked  by 
Aongus,  whom  he  defeats — Is  slain  by  Maol- 
cobha-Clearach,  who  succeeds  him — Suibhre- 
Mean  raised  to  the  monarchy — Slain  in  battle, 
and  succeeded  by  Daniel,  who  engages  and  de- 
feats Conall,  King  of  Ulster — Marches  into 
Meath  to  attack  the  descendants  of  Niall  the 
Grand,  who  implore  the  aid  of  St.  Fechin — A 
panic  siezes  his  army,  and  he  is  obliged  to  make 
submission  to  the  offended  monk — Death  of 
Daniel — Conal-Claon  made  emperor,  who  asso- 
ciates his  brother  Ceallach  in  the  government — 
Dearmod  and  Blathmac  elected  monarchs — A 
great  plague  in  Ireland. 

AoDH,  called  Uariodhnach,  (on  account 
of  an  acute  pain  in  his  side,  which  seized 
him  periodically,)  the  son  (though,  to  cor- 
respond with  sound  chronology,  I  think 
more  justly  the  grandson)  of  the  monarch 
Daniel,  the  son  of  Mortough,  the  son  of 
Muireadhach,  the  son  of  Eogan,  son  of  the 
hero  Niall,  of  the  Heremonian  race,  was 
elected  monarch :  though  infirm,  and  sub- 
ject to  great  bodily  complaints,  yet  neither 
the  vigour  of  the  mind,  nor  the  activity  of 
his  body,  were  impaired  by  them  ;  for, 
trusting  to  his  bad  state  of  health,  Aongus, 
the  son  of  the  last  Colman,  conjured  up  a 
strong  party  against  the  reigning  prince. 
A  most  bloody  battle  was  fought,  called 
Cath-Odhbha,  in  which  Colman  and  his 
chief  associate  Conall,  son  to  Aodh-Slaine, 
were  numbered  among  the  dead.  This 
great  defeat  did  not  intimidate  the  enemies 
of  Aodh.  Maolcobha,  called  Clearach,  (I 
suppose  from  being  originally  intended  for 
the  Church,)  appeared  at  the  head  of  a 
more  formidable  army.  The  imperial 
troops  met  them  on  the  plains  of  Da  Fear- 
ta.  The  battle  was  well  fought,  and  con- 
tinued for  a  long  time  doubtful.  The  com- 
petitors at  length  met ;  Aodh  fell  by  the 


sword  of  his  antagonist,  and  so  cut  his 
way  to  the  throne,  after  a  reign  of  seven 
years. 

Maolcobha  was  the  son  of  Aodh,  the 
son  of  Ainmeric,  of  the  race  of  Niall  the 
Grand.  At  the  end  of  three  years,  as 
some  chronicles  assert,  he  fell  in  battle  by 
the  sword  of  his  successor ;  but  the  most 
probable  account  is,  that  he  peaceably  re- 
signed the  crown,  and  ended  his  days  in 
the  service  of  the  church.* 

Suibhre-Mean,  the  son  of  Fiachra,  the 
son  of  Murtough,  of  the  Hi-Neill  race,  was 
elected  monarch,  whose  queen  was  daugh- 
ter of  the  prince  of  Dartri,  of  the  Oirgil- 
lians,  (for  there  was  another  territory  of  the 
same  name  in  Connaught.)  Daniel,  brother 
to  the  abdicated  monarch,  made  several 
attempts  on  the  crown,  and  in  his  last  was 
successful.  For  having  leagued,  among 
others,  with  Seangal,  (called  Seith-Leathan, 
or  the  Broad  Shield,)  King  of  Ulster,  he 
sent  his  son  Conall,  at  the  head  of  six  ca- 
thas,  or  legions,  (eighteen  thousand  men,) 
to  his  assistance.  With  these  and  other 
chosen  troops,  he  engaged  the  imperial 
army  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Traighbrene, 
and  gained  a  complete  victory,  Suibhre 
falling  by  the  sword  of  Daniel,  after  a  reign 
of  thirteen  years. 

Daniel,  brother  to  Maolcobha,  was  pro- 
claimed monarch.  He  is  highly  celebrated 
in  our  annals  for  his  great  piety,  charity, 
and  mortifications:  Wc  find ,  however,  that 
his  old  associate  Conall,  as  soon  as  he  suc- 
ceeded his  father  in  the  kingdom  of  Ulster, 
proclaimed  war  against  him,  and  at  the 
head  of  a  large  army  advanced  towards 
Tara.    At  Maigh-rath  the  two  armies  met 

•  Vita  Septima  Colnmbse,  lib.  i.  cap.  56. 


188 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  639. 


and  engaged.  The  Ultonians  were  put  to 
the  rout,  and  among  the  slain  was  the 
gallant  Conall  himself.  This  monarch  is 
celebrated  for  many  other  victories  over 
his  enemies,  as  well  as  for  his  strict  jus- 
tice. 

In  the  partitions  of  the  large  domains  of 
Niall  the  Grand  between  his  children,  as 
we  observed  in  his  life,  the  southern  line 
by  degrees  encroached  upon  the  territory 
of  Tara,  the  Mensal  lands,  annexed  to  the 
monarchy.  To  restore  these  to  the  crown, 
(finding  negotiation  useless,)  Daniel  raised 
a  formidable  army,  which,  from  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  intended,  was  called 
Sloigh-an-mheich,  or  the  army  for  parti- 
tion ;  with  it  he  marched  into  Meath.  The 
sons  of  Aodh-Slaine,  the  chiefs  of  the  south- 
em  Hi-Nialls,  in  vain  opposed  him  with 
troops,  inferior  in  number  and  discipline. 
In  this  distress  they  applied  to  St.  Fechin, 
a  descendant  of  their  own  house,  request- 
ing his  prayers  and  interposition  with  the 
monarch  in  their  behalf  We  are  told,  in 
the  life  of  this  holy  abbot,  that  Daniel  re- 
jected his  mediation,  on  which  he  was 
threatened  with  divine  vengeance.*  He 
despised  these  threats ;  and  the  night  fol- 
lowing an  uncommon  fall  of  snow  dispirited 
his  soldiers,  who  superstitiously  concluded 
that  this  (which  no  doubt  proceeded  from 
a  natural  cause)  was  a  mark  of  divine 
wrath  for  rejecting  the  offers  of  so  great  a 
saint  as  Fechin.  An  aurora-borealis  that 
followed  this,  convinced  the  empress,  and 
the  weak  and  timid,  that  this  war  was  an 
unrighteous  one.  The  panic  spread  through 
the  camp :  the  monarch  found  that  he  must 
make  peace,  or  carry  on  a  war  without 
troops.  Articles  were  soon  agreed  upon 
between  the  contending  parties ;  but  it  was 
not  so  easy  to  be  reconciled  to  the  monk. 
The  disrespect  shown,  not  to  himself,  but 
to  the  character  he  represented,  demanded 
the  most  ample  atonement ;  and  we  are 
told,  with  astonishment,  that  this  great 
prince  was  obliged,  in  the  presence  of  both 
armies,  to  prostrate  himself  before  the 
saint,  who,  with  wonderful  humility,  trod 
upon  his  neck — fulfilling  thus  the  text  of 

*  Act  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  137.  cap.  34,  35. 


Scripture,  "  Super  aspidem  et  basiliscum 
ambulabis,"  etc. 

From  the  uncommon  piety  and  austerity 
of  Fechin,  I  am  ready  to  believe  that  in 
thus  insulting  the  king,  he  really  thought 
that  he  was  advancing  the  cause  of  God 
and  of  religion ;  and  had  the  Church  seemed 
any  way  interested  in  this  war,  some  al- 
lowance might  be  made  for  an  over-heated 
zeal;  but  as  this  was  not  the  case,  we 
must  only  hope  that  some  uncommon  in- 
temperance of  the  monarch  (and  it  would 
be  hard  to  say  what  it  could  be)  made  it 
necessary.  We  are  furnished  with  no 
other  accounts  of  him,  except  his  sending 
missionaries  to  Britain,  and  that  for  the 
last  eighteen  months  of  his  reign  he  was 
confined  to  his  bed,  which  time  he  spent 
mostly  in  prayer  and  pious  meditations,  re- 
ceiving the  sacrament  every  Sunday.  At 
length  a  period  was  put  to  his  suflTerings  on 
the  last  day  of  January,  639. 

Conall,  called  Claon,  or  the  Subtle,  the 
son  of  Maolcobha,  was  saluted  emperor. 
He  associated  with  him  in  the  government 
his  brother  Ceallach.  At  this  time  a  war 
broke  out  between  the  southern  Hi-Nialls, 
and  the  Eoganachts  of  Munster.  The 
cause  was  this :  Carthagh,  of  the  Irian  line, 
and  race  of  O'Connor  Kerry,  (who  after- 
wards founded,  or  at  least  increased  the 
fame  of  the  university  of  Lismore,)  went 
on  a  pilgrimage  to  the  borders  of  Meath, 
and  there  founded  a  religious  house.  The 
piety,  austerity,  and  industry  of  these  monks 
acquired  them  great  veneration  among  the 
people ;  but  the  heads  of  a  neighbouring 
convent,  jealous  of  their  growing  reputa- 
tion, and  looking  on  Carthagh  as  a  foreign 
intruder,  applied  to  Daniel  and  Blathmac, 
princes  of  this  territory,  to  expel  them  from 
their  convent.  This  violation  of  hospitality 
and  insult  to  Carthagh  were  highly  resented 
by  the  Mamonians.  They  raised  a  con- 
siderable force  ;  a  great  battle  was  fought 
at  Cam-Conuil,  in  which  Cuan,  the  son  of 
Amhalghadh,  King  of  Munster,  Cuan,  of 
the  race  of  Finighin,  or  O'SuUivan,  and  the 
Prince  of  Ui-Liathan,  in  the  county  of 
Cork,  fell  on  the  side  of  the  Mamonians, 
and  their  army  was  put  to  flight. 


A.D.  674.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


189 


Flushed  by  the  fame  of  this  signally 
important  victory,  the  brothers  formed  the 
resolution  of  dispossessing  the  reigning 
monarchs.  An  accident  accelerated  the 
accomplishment  of  their  views  ;  for  Ceal- 
lach  being  unfortunately  drowned  in  the 
Boyne,  they  raised  a  very  large  army; 
and  in  the  battle  that  ensued,  the  imperial- 
ists were  defeated,  and  Conall  numbered 
among  the  slain. 

Dearmod,  called  Ruaidhnigh,  or  the 
Charitable,  and  his  brother  Blathmac,  the 
sons  of  Aodh  Slaine,  the  son  of  Dearmod, 
were  elected  monarchs.  In  their  reign  an 
invasion  was  made  from  Britain.  A  battle 
was  fought  at  Pancti,  in  which  the  invader, 
thirty  of  his  principal  officers,  and  almost 
the  whole  of  his  army  were  put  to  the 
sword.  Scarcely  had  the  nation  recovered 
from  this  invasion,  when  we  read  of  a 
dreadful  plague  breaking  out,  which  swept 
off  numbers  of  the  inhabitants,  and  from 
which  even  the  reigning  monarchs  did  not 
escape.  It  is  called  in  our  MSS.,  an 
Bhuidhe-Chonuil,  or  the  yellow  plague,  as 
those  attacked  with  it  appeared  immedi- 
ately as  if  jaundiced.  The  Venerable  Bede 
takes  notice  of  this  plague ;  but  by  him  it 
would  seem  to  have  reached  Ireland  from 
Britain.  By  our  accounts  it  raged  here  for 
some  time  before  the  Britons  caught  the 
infection.* 

The  contemporary  provincial  kings  with 
the  preceding  monarchs,  from  Aodh-Slaine, 
according  to  the  Book  of  Synchronisms, 
and  to  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  were  the  fol- 
lowing :  in  M unster,  Feardomhnach,  or 
Ferdinand,  the  son  of  Dioma,  was  chief 
king ;  and  Amhalghadh,  of  the  Eugenian 
line.  King  of  South  Munster.  His  son 
Cuan  succeeded  as  King  of  Leath-Mogha, 
and  fell  in  the  battle  of  Carn-Conuil.  Aim- 
leadha,  grandson  to  Dioma,  succeeded  Cuan 
in  the  province  of  Munster,  according  to 
the  law  of  alternate  succession. 

In  Ulster,  Fiachna,  Congall-Caoch,  son 
of  Seanlan,  and  Donacha,  son  of  Fiachna, 
successively  reigned.  Ronan,  son  of  Col- 
man,  Criomthan  of  Culagne,  son  of  Aodh- 
Cear,  and  Felan,  grandson  of  Colman,  ruled 

•  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  27. 


Leinster ;  while  Uatach,  son  of  Aodh,  Col- 
man, son  of  Cobthach,  and  Raghallach,  son 
of  Uatach,  alternately  governed  Connaught. 
In  Scotland,  Eocha,  called  Buie,  or  the 
Yellow,  the  son  of  Aidan,  his  son  Conadh, 
Fearchard,  son  of  Conadh,  and  Donald- 
Breac,  the  son  of  Eacha-Buie,  successively 
reigned. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Seachnasach  raised  to  the  monarchy — Ulster  in- 
vaded by  the  Picts,  who  are  repulsed — Death 
of  Seachnasach,  who  is  succeeded  by  his  brother 
— The  Picts  again  invade  Ulster — Fionachta  at- 
tacks the  monarch,  whom  he  kills  in  battle,  and 
is  saluted  emperor — Loingseach  succeeds  him. 

Seachnasach,  the  son  of  Blathmac,  peace- 
ably succeeded  to  the  monarchy.  The 
Scotch,  or  Irish  colony  in  the  Highlands, 
had  greatly  extended  their  frontiers  since 
the  reign  of  Aidan,  being  enabled  to  do  so 
by  the  powerful  assistance  given  them  by 
their  relations,  the  Dal  Riada  of  Ulster. 
To  be  revenged  on  them  for  this,  and  the 
better  to  weaken  the  Caledonian  Irish,  the 
Picts  with  a  powerful  army  invaded  Ulster, 
where  they  were  gallantly  opposed  by  the 
Ultonians.  A  bloody  battle  was  fought, 
called  the  battle  of  Feirt,  in  which,  after  a 
terrible  carnage  on  both  sides,  the  remains 
of  the  Pictish  army  were  obliged  to  retreat. 
Some  time  after,  Seachnasach  fell  by  the 
sword,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother. 

Ceanfoaladh,  son  of  Blathmac,  ruled  Ire- 
land four  years.  In  the  second  year  of 
his  reign,  the  Picts  again  invaded  Ul- 
ster, spreading  desolation  everywhere ;  and 
among  other  instances  of  sacrilegious  bar- 
barity, they  destroyed  the  noble  monas- 
tery of  Benchoir,  and  put  to  the  sword 
or  dispersed  above  one  thousand  monks 
residing  there  !  His  successor,  active  and 
enterprising,  raised  a  great  army  in  order 
to  dethrone  the  monarch.  By  mutual  con- 
sent the  time  and  place  of  action  was  ap- 
pointed. The  two  armies  met;  the  slaugh- 
ter was  dreadful  on  both  sides;  but  the 
death  of  Ceanfoaladh  by  the  hand  of  his 
rival  soon  determined  the  contest. 

Fionachta,  called  Fleadhach,  or  the  Con- 


190 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  698. 


vivial,  son  of  Donchada,  the  son  of  Aodh- 
Slaine,  was  saluted  emperor.  Though  his 
reign  was  long,  yet  considering  an  age  of 
erudition  like  that,  the  transactions  of  it  are 
not  so  minutely  detailed  as  we  could  wish. 
The  first  act  of  it,  however,  was  an  inva- 
sion of  Leinster,  to  enforce  the  payment 
of  their  ancient  tribute.  The  Lagenians, 
according  to  their  usual  manner,  opposed 
it  sword  in  hand.  A  great  battle  was 
fought  near  Kells,  in  which  the  provincials 
were  defeated  with  great  slaughter.  St. 
Moling  was  at  this  time  Archbishop  of 
Ferns,  or  Leinster,  a  prelate  of  noble  blood, 
and  highly  revered  for  his  sanctity.  At 
the  head  of  his  clergy  he  advanced  to  meet 
the  victors.  The  clergy  and  literati  were 
ever  sure  of  respect  and  protection  from 
all  parties.  The  monarch  respectfully  re- 
ceived this  venerable  cohort.  Moling,  with 
great  force  and  dignity,  deplored  the  dis- 
tresses and  hardships  his  country  had  suf- 
fered, and  the  torrents  of  blood  that  had 
been  spilt,  from  time  to  time,  for  about  six 
centuries,  to  enforce  the  payment  of  a  trib- 
ute, in  itself  both  unjust  and  oppressive ; 
that  its  continuance  was  in  manifest  contra- 
diction to  the  express  words  of  God,  which 
says  that  the  sins  of  the  parents  shall  not 
be  punished  beyond  the  third  and  fourth 
generation.  The  monarch  being  naturally 
pious  and  just,  was  sensibly  touched  with 
the  many  miseries  the  Lagenians  suffered 
on  this  account,  and  therefore  solemnly  ex- 
onerated them  from  any  further  payment 
of  this  iniquitous  tribute.  After  this,  it  is 
mentioned,  that  Fionachta  was  inclined  to 
retire  from  the  world,  and  take  the  monas- 
tic habit ;  but  was  in  this  strongly  opposed 
by  his  friends,  who  found  out  a  medium 
to  indulge  his  pious  inclinations,  and  at 
the  same  time  preserve  the  crown  on  his 
head,  by  having  him  entered  in  a  religious 
fraternity. 

To  this  moderation  it  is  that  we  may 
impute  the  many  invasions  of  Ireland  in 
this  reign.  For  a  large  body  of  Britons  or 
Welch  landed  in  a  hostile  manner,  burn- 
ing and  destroying  the  country,  not  even 
sparing  churches  or  monasteries,  which 
they  prostrated  and  despoiled  of  their  riches 


and  ornaments,  and  timely  retreated  to 
their  ships  with  their  booty.  Soon  after 
this,  i.  e.  A.  D.  684,  the  Northumbrian 
Saxons,  led  on  by  their  general,  Birtus, 
with  unrelenting  cruelty,  spread  desolation 
through  the  country,  not  even  sparing  the 
churches,  "of  that  inoffensive  and  most 
friendly  people  to  the  Saxon  race,"  as 
Bede  expresses  it.*  However,  at  Rath- 
more,  a  period  was  put  to  their  sacrile- 
gious rapacity,  being,  after  much  blood- 
shed, put  to  the  rout  and  obliged  to  fly  the 
kingdom.  Soon  after  this  defeat  of  the 
Saxons,  and  in  the  same  year,  (say  the 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,)  Adamnanus 
was  sent  ambassador  to  Egfrid,  the  king, 
to  demand,  in  the  name  of  the  monarch, 
satisfaction  for  this  outrage,  which  was 
immediately  granted.  Bede  mentions  this 
embassy  to  Das- Adamnanus.  After  a  dis- 
turbed reign  of  twenty  years,  Fionachta 
fell  in  battle,  on  the  fourteenth  of  Novem- 
ber, which  day  the  Irish  Church  held  as  a 
festival,  in  honour  of  him.  In  this  reign 
(says  Adamnanus)  a  dreadful  plague  raged 
over  Gaul,  Italy,  Britain,  and  Ireland. 

Loingseach,  the  son  of  Aongus,  the  son 
of  Aodh,  cousin-german  to  the  deceased, 
was  elected  monarch.  The  beginning  of 
his  reign  was  marked  with  a  fresh  inva- 
sion of  the  Welch  and  Picts  united,  who 
miserably  wasted  the  northern  parts  of  the 
kingdom.  Soon  after  this,  a  contagious 
disorder  raged  among  the  horned  cattle,  so 
as  to  destroy  most  of  them  through  the 
kingdom,  by  which  the  public  were  re- 
duced to  great  straits.  This  infection  con- 
tinued for  three  years.  A.  D.  704,  the 
Welch  and  Picts  again  united,  making  a 
fresh  incursion  into  Ulster,  the  better  to 
distress  the  Irish  colony  in  North  Britain. 
The  Ultonians,  on  their  guard,  by  so  many 
repeated  depredations,  had  their  military 
so  posted  on  the  seacoasts,  as  to  be  soon 
united  upon  any  emergency.  On  the  pres- 
ent occasion,  they  fell  upon  these  foreign- 
ers, making  a  miserable  slaughter  of  them, 
so  that  very  few  returned  back.  Adam- 
nanus, the  celebrated  monk  of  Huy,  con- 
vinced of  the  erroneous  time  of  celebrating 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iv.  cap.  26. 


A.  D.  698.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND 


191 


Easter,  at  this  time,  returned  to  Ireland, 
and  contributed  largely  to  the  reformation 
of  his  countrymen  in  this  matter  of  church- 
discipline.  During  these  accumulated  dis- 
tresses, the  spirit  of  ambition  was  not  idle. 
Congal,  a  branch  of  the  royal  line,  formed 
a  deep  and  formidable  league  against  the 
monarch ;  having,  besides  the  partizans  of 
his  own  house,  engaged  in  his  cause  Ceal- 
lagh»  the  warlike  King  of  Connaught. 
With  a  well-appointed  army,  he  attacked 
the  imperialists  at  Cormin,  and  gained  a 
complete  victory  over  them,  Loingseach 
himself  being  among  the  slain. 

Ainleadh  reigned  long  King  of  Mun- 
ster,  and  was  succeeded  in  that  title  by 
Eidirseoil,  the  son  of  Maolmhuadh,  an 
Eugenian,  Maolcobha,  the  son  of  Fiachna, 
his  son  Blathmac,  Congal,  Fergus,  the  son 
of  Aidan,  and  Beg-Bairche,  the  son  of 
Blathmac,  succeeded  each  other  in  the 
kingdom  of  Ulster.  Bran  Mac  Conall, 
Ceallach,  son  of  Gerrthige,  Murcha,  son  to 
Bran,  and  Muireadhach  his  son,  governed 
Leinster ;  while  Loingseach  and  Guare, 
sons  of  Colman,  Cinfoala,  the  son  of  Col- 
gan,  Doncha,  son  to  Maoldubh,  and  Ceal- 
lach, the  son  of  Raghallach,  ruled  Con- 
naught  in  succession. 


CHAPTER    III. 

State  of  learning  in  Ireland,  and  of  the  Church — 
Account  of  illustrious  men  and  eminent  writers, 
their  works,  and  religious  foundations — And  of 
the  part  they  took  in  the  conversion  of  the  Sax- 
ons to  Christianity. 

The  illustrious  men  and  eminent  writers 
of  this  age  were  very  numerous.  St. 
Evinus,  Abbot  of  Rosmic-Treon,  near  the 
Barrow,  which  was  founded  by  St.  Abba- 
nus,  wrote  the  Life  of  St.  Patrick,  part 
Latin  and  part  Irish,  which  work  is  quoted 
by  Jocelyne  the  monk.*  Colgan  pub- 
lished it  entire,  under  the  title  of  The  Sev- 
enth Life  of  St.  Patrick.^  He  wrote  also 
the  life  of  St.  Comhgill  in  Latin,  in  which 

*  Vita  sexta  St.  Patricii,  cap.  186. 
t  Trias  Thaumat.  p.  117, 170,  etc. 


may  be  traced  the  original  of  priories,  and 
how  they  became  subordinate  to  abbeys ; 
for  in  it,  he  tells  us,  "  that  after  the  founda- 
tion of  Benchoir,  by  St.  Comhgill,  the  sub- 
jects of  his  order  multiplied  so  fast,  that 
he  found  his  monastery  could  not  contain 
them.  He  was  therefore  necessitated  to 
build  numbers  of  houses,  not  only  in  Uls- 
ter, but  in  most  other  parts  of  Ireland."  * 
St.  Molua,  called  the  Leaper,  a  disciple  of 
Comhgill,  and  Abbot  of  Cluan-Feart,  in 
Ophaly,  wrote  a  Rule  for  his  Monks,  in 
Latin ;  a  copy  of  which  was  presented  to 
Pope  Gregory  I.  by  St.  Dagan,  about 
A.  D.  596 ;  who  publicly  declared  it  a 
most  excellent  performance,  directing  the 
road  to  Heaven,  and  therefore  sent  him 
his  prayers  and  his  blessing.f  Such  were 
the  exemplary  lives  and  writings  of  the 
Irish  of  those  days  !  Munu,  of  the  North- 
ern Hi-Neils,  the  founder  of  an  abbey  near 
Wexford,  from  him  called  Teagh-Munu, 
was  an  abbot  of  great  erudition,  but  most 
zealously  attached  to  the  Asiatic  time  of 
celebrating  Easter.  Pope  Honorius  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  the  bishops,  to  the 
priests,  and  to  the  doctors  and  abbots  of 
Ireland,  exhorting  them  to  a  conformity 
with  the  Universal  Church,  in  this  custom 
of  church-discipline.J  A  synod  of  the 
clergy  was  held  at  Legh-Lene,  called  the 
White  Plain,  near  the  river  Barrow,  on 
this  occasion.  St.  Lasrian,  appointed  le- 
gate by  Pope  Honorius,  appeared  to  de- 
fend the  Roman  custom,  and  which  I  find, 
by  the  annals  of  this  synod,  called  the  new 
ordinance,  while  Munu  warmly  supported 
the  old  rules.  But  after  much  altercation, 
the  veneration  Munu  was  held  in  for  his 
sanctity  by  this  assembly,  prevented  them 
from  coming  into  any  resolutions  on  this 
very  point;  so  the  synod  broke  up.  He 
wrote  the  Acts  of  St.  Columba,  and  a 
Treatise  de  Pascate.  He  died  soon  after, 
i.  e.  A.  D.  634.§ 

St.  Dagan,  Bishop  of  Achad-Dagan,  was 

*  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  192. 
t  De  Britan.  Eccles.  Primord.  p.  920. 
X  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  ii.  cap.  19. 
$  Prim.  Eccles.  Brit.,  p.  934,  937.     Hanmer's  ChrtJii- 
icle,  p.  62. 


192 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  698. 


a  prelate  of  great  piety,  but  enthusiastic- 
ally attached  to  the  old  mode  of  celebra- 
ting Easter.  He  it  was  that  presented  to 
Pope  Gregory,  St.  Molua's  "  Rules  for  his 
Monks  ;"  and  was  an  active  partizan  of 
Munu,  in  the  debates  at  Legh-Lene.  So 
attached  to  the  old  discipline  was  he,  that 
in  a  visit  he  made  to  Lawrence,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  the  succcessor 
of  St.  Austin,  finding  him  to  adhere  to 
Rome  in  her  time  of  Easter,  he  refused 
not  only  to  eat  at  one  table,  but  even  in  the 
same  house  with  him.*  He  wrote,  accord- 
ing to  Bale,  Ad  Britannorum  Ecclesias, 
lib.  i. 

St.  Columbanus,  of  a  noble  family  in 
Leinster,  after  passing  part  of  his  youth  at 
the  public  schools,  was  committed  to  the 
care  of  the  holy  Senellus,  a  man  deeply 
versed  in  Scripture  ;  and  so  much  did  he 
profit  by  his  instruction,  that  before  he 
arrived  at  the  age  of  maturity,  he  wrote 
"In  Psalterium  Commentar,  lib.  i."  Un- 
der the  great  St.  Comhgill  he  embraced  the 
monastic  habit,  and  was  highly  revered 
for  his  piety  and  learning.  From  Ben- 
choir,  with  the  permission  of  his  superior, 
he  removed  to  Burgundy  in  589,  where, 
in  a  sequestered  wood,  he  founded  the 
Abbey  of  Luxieu.  In  this  pilgrimage  he 
was  attended  by  St.  Deicol,  St.  Gall,  and 
ten  other  holy  recluses.  He  was  after- 
wards joined  by  many  others.  The  sub- 
jects of  his  house  increasing  very  fast,  he 
was  obliged  to  erect  two  others,  subject  to 
the  first,  as  it  was  to  Benchoir.  Notwith- 
standing his  mortifications,  fasting,  and 
humble  manner  of  living,  (being  supported, 
as  were  his  brethren,  by  the  labour  of  his 
own  hands,)  yet  his  great  sanctity  procured 
him  numbers  of  enemies.  He  was  accused 
by  the  bishops  of  Gaul  of  celebrating  the 
feast  of  Easter  contrary  to  the  time  fixed 
on  by  the  Universal  Church.  Pope  Greg- 
ory had  a  council  of  bishops  assembled 
on  this  occasion ;  and  his  defence  was 
learned  and  masterly.  In  fine,  he  quitted 
Gaul,  though  pressed  by  Clotaire  to  re- 
main there;  and  was  most  honourably 
received  by  the  King  of  the  Lombards. 
*  Bede,  H.  B.  lib.  ii.  cap.  4. 


In  his  jdumey  he  staid  some  time  in  Ger- 
many, where,  says  Capgrave,*  he  erected 
monasteries,  into  which,  to  this  day,  none 
but  Irishmen  are  admitted.  At  Bobio,  near 
Naples,  he  founded  a  noble  abbey,  which 
he  hved  to  govern  but  one  year,  having 
quitted  this  life  for  a  better  November 
21st,  615.  He  was  author  of  many  pious 
£md  learned  works,  besides  the  foregoing ; 
as  Regula  Coenobialis  Fratrum,  being  daily 
regulations  for  the  prayers  and  mortifica- 
tions of  his  monks ;  Sermones  Five  In- 
structiones  Variaj ;  De  Paenitentiarum 
Mensura  Taxandi ;  De  Octo  Vitiis  Princi- 
palibus ;  contra  Arianos ;  some  other 
works  of  piety  and  morality  he  also  pub- 
lished ;  but  what  raised  against  him  the 
most  formidable  enemies  in  Gaul,  was  his 
book  Adversus  Theodoricum  Regem  Ad- 
ulterum.  His  eulogy  cannot  be  better 
pronounced,  than  by  noting  the  many  emi- 
nent men  who  wrote  his  life ;  as,  first, 
Jonas  the  Abbot,  his  countryman  and  dis- 
ciple, who  undertook  it  soon  after  his 
death,  at  the  public  request,  at  a  time  when 
the  fame  of  his  piety,  learning,  and  mira- 
cles, were  well  known  and  acknowledged. 
Capgrave,  Bale,  Surius,  Baronius,  Lippelo, 
Stainhurst,  Fleming,  Colgan,  etc.,  etc., 
have  been  also  his  biographers.  For  the 
disciples  of  St.  Columbanus,  and  their  foun- 
dations, see  Fleury's  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory, vol.  viii.,  p.  266. 

St.  Murus,  lineally  descended  from  Niall 
the  Grand,  by  his  son  Eugene,  and  of  course 
of  the  house  of  Tyrone,  or  CNeil,  flourish- 
ed in  this  century.  He  founded  the  abbey 
of  Fathen,  near  Derry,  which  ranked  for 
many  centuries  as  a  royal  one ;  and  was 
himself  the  great  patron  saint  of  the  house 
of  CNeil.  This  abbey,  formerly  so  nobly 
endowed,  was  in  later  times  converted  to  a 
parish  church,  but  still  retaining  his  name, 
as  its  patron.  Among  the  many  works  of 
this  abbey,  was  preserved  even  to  our 
times  the  acts  of  St.  Columba,  the  apostle 
of  the  Picts,  written  by  our  saint.f  A  most 
ancient  Chronicle  of  Irish  Antiquities,  high- 
ly esteemed,  was  another  work  of  his.   The 

*  Hanmer's  ChroD.  p.  57. 
+  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  587. 


A.  D.  698.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


193 


Staff  of  St.  Murus,  covered  with  gold,  and 
ornamented  with  precious  stones,  is  said 
to  be  still  preserved  by  the  family  of  the 
O'Neil's.  To  swear,  Dar  an  Bhacuil-Mura, 
or  hy  the  Staff  of  St.  Mura,  was  the  most 
sacred  oath  that  could  be  tendered  to  any 
of  this  great  sept.  His  festival  is  still  cel- 
ebrated at  Fathen  on  the  12th  of  March. 

St.  Gall,  one  of  the  disciples  of  Colum- 
banus,  and  of  the  same  blood,  was  left  be- 
hind him  in  Germany,  to  -  superintend  his 
pious  foundations  there.  So  highly  rev- 
ered was  he  for  his  sanctity,  that,  though 
a  stranger,  when  the  bishopric  of  Constance 
became  vacant,  Gonzo,  prince  of  that 
country,  wrote  to  him,  requesting  he  would 
attend  a  synod  of  the  bishops  and  clergy, 
assembled  for  the  purpose  of  filling  up  that 
vacancy.  St.  Gall,  attended  by  two  sub- 
jects of  his  house,  presented  himself  to  the 
assembly ;  who  unanimously  agreed  to  con- 
fer this  great  charge  on  him,  whose  learn- 
ing, humility,  and  piety  beamed  forth  so 
conspicuously.  But  nothing  could  disen- 
gage him  from  his  sequestered  life ;  and 
being  then  requested  to  recommend  them 
a  holy  pastor,  he  named  John,  one  of  his 
attendants,  who  was  accordingly  consecra- 
ted Bishop  of  Constance.  After  this  he 
was  called  upon  by  his  countrymen  in  Bur- 
gundy, to  take  on  him  the  superintendence 
of  the  abbey  of  Luxieu,  which  he  also  de- 
clined. He  died  A.  D.  635.  Though  he 
chose  for  his  retreat  a  narrow  cell,  in  the 
midst  of  a  wood,  and  supported  himself  by 
the  labour  of  his  own  hands,  yet  so  great 
a  veneration  was  his  memory  held  in,  that 
people  flocked  to  dwell  round  a  place  in- 
habited by  so  holy  a  recluse  ;  it  by  degrees 
increased  so  as  to'  become  a  considerable 
city.  A  noble  abbey  was  there  founded, 
and  both  are  called,  from  their  patron,  St. 
Gall.  This  abbot  was  a  prince  of  the  em- 
pire. The  life  of  St.  Gall  has  been  written 
by  Strabus,  Notkerus,  etc.  He  published 
a  Sermon,  which  he  preached  on  the  con- 
secration of  his  disciple  John,  as  Bishop  of 
Constance,  some  Epistles,  and  a  Psalter, 
called  after  his  name. 

Jonas,  at  the  request  of  many  holy  monks, 
and  for  the  edification  of  posterity,  wrote 

25 


the  Life  of  his  master,  Columbanus ;  he 
wrote  also  Vitam  Attalae  Monachi,  lib.  i., 
Vitam  Eustachii  Abbatis,  lib.  i.,  and  Vitam 
Bertolsi  Abbatis ;  these  three  were  disci- 
ples and  successors  to  Columbanus ;  Attala 
and  Bertolf  in  the  abbey  of  Bobio,  near 
Naples ;  and  Eustache  in  that  of  Luxieu, 
to  whom  our  Jonas  succeeded. 

Ultan,  Bishop  of  Ardbraccan,  wrote  the 
Life  and  Miracles  of  St.  Bridget.  This 
work  was  published  in  the  beginning  of  the 
last  century,  by  Stephen  White,  a  most 
learned  Jesuit  and  antiquarian,  and  from 
this  copied  by  Colgan  :*  he  also  wrote  a 
Life  of  St.  Patrick. 

Though  St.  Austin  is  the  reputed  patron 
saint  of  England,  and  the  converter  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  yet,  as  Rapin  confesses,!  the 
honour  of  this  should  by  no  means  be  as- 
cribed to  him  alone ;  to  the  monks  of  Ire- 
land, much  more  than  to  St.  Austin,  should 
this  great  work  be  ascribed.  No  one  is 
fuller  and  clearer  on  this  head  than  the 
Venerable  Bede.  Soon  after  the  restora- 
tion of  Oswald  to  the  kingdom  of  Northum- 
berland, says  Bede,  he  applied  to  the  peers 
of  Scotland  or  Ireland  for  some  learned 
prelate  to  instruct  his  people  in  Christiani- 
ty. J  Aidan,  an  Irish  monk,  of  the  race  of 
Amhalgadh,  King  of  Connaught,  and  of  the 
abbey  of  Huy,  was  pitched  upon  for  this 
mission ;  which,  says  he,  he  executed  with 
unremitting  zeal  and  piety.  This  apostle 
of  Northumberland,  after  converting  that 
people,  and  governing  their  church  for 
about  seventeen  years,  died  the  31st  of 
August,  651,  on  which  day  his  festival  is 
kept.  He  wrote  Commentaria  in  Sacras 
Scripturas,  lib.  L,  Homil.  and  Concion., 
lib.  i. 

On  the  death  of  Aidan,  Oswald  request- 
ed from  the  Irish  nation  a  successor,  to 
govern  and  direct  his  bishopric ;  and  Finan, 
of  the  line  of  Ir,  not  his  inferior  in  zeal, 
piety,  and  erudition,  was  consecrated  for 
this  mission.^  About  this  time  the  disputes 
about  Easter  were  carried  to  a  great  height; 

*  Trias  Thaumat.  527,  542.  ^ 

t  History  of  England,  fol.  edit,  p,  79. 
t  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  3,  5,  etc. 
$  Hist.  EkxleSi  lib.  iii.  cap.  25. 


194 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  698. 


an  Irish  priest,  who  from  his  zeal  for  con- 
formity with  Rome,  was  called  by  his 
countrymen  Romanus,  had  public  confer- 
ences with  Bishop  Finan  on  this  head ;  but 
though  he  could  make  no  impression  on 
him  (says  Bede)  yet  others  were  reformed. 
But  this  difference  did  not  abate  the  zeal 
of  Finan.  In  the  city  of  Admurum*  he 
baptized  Penda,  King  of  the  Marshes,  with 
the  knight  and  peers  that  waited  on  him, 
and  their  servants.  He  sent  four  monks  to 
preach  and  convert  the  rest  of  this  people ; 
and  converted  and  baptized  the  King  of 
the  East  Saxons  and  his  subjects.  He 
governed  the  church  of  Northumberland 
ten  years,  and  died  A.  D.  661.  He  wrote 
in  defence  of  the  ancient  time  of  celebra- 
ting Easter,  Pro  Veteri  Paschatis  Ritu, 
lib.  i. 

St.  Fiacre,  inspired  with  the  epidemic 
zeal  of  his  countrymen,  retired  to  France, 
and  in  a  wood,  in  the  diocese  of  Meaux, 
built  a  monastery,  which  he  dedicated  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin.  He  died  the  19th  of 
August,  662 ;  and  his  festival  is  observed 
on  that  day  by  an  office  of  nine  lessons,  as 
may  be  seen  in  most  of  the  Breviaries  of 
France.f  He  published,  says  Dempster, 
Ad  Syram  Sororem,  de  Monasticse  Vitae 
Laude,  lib.  i.  Mons.  Bireal,  (says  Harris) 
one  of  the  French  king's  preachers,  pro- 
nounced the  eulogium  of  St.  Fiacre,  which 
is  printed  among  the  select  panegyrics  of 
that  celebrated  orator,  J 

St.  Fursey,  patron  of  the  church  of  Pe- 
ronne,  in  Picardy,  is  said  to  have  wrote  a 
Prophecy,  and  some  Hymns. 

St.  Aileran,  called  An-Teagnaidh,  or  the 
Wise,  was  a  successor  to  the  great  St. 
Finianus,  in  the  university  of  Clonard.  He 
wrote  the  Life  of  St.  Bridget ;  which  made 
a  subsequent  anonymous  writer  on  the 
same  subject  introduce  his  work  thus : — 

"  Scripserunt  multi,  virtutis  Virginia  Almse, 
Ultanua  doctor,  atque  Aleranius  ovans."§ 

He  was  also  the  author  of  a  Life  of  St. 
Patrick,  pubUshed  by  Colgan  entire,  ||  as 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  iii.  cap.  21,  22. 
+  Hist.  d'Irelande,  tome  i.  p.  345. 
t  Writers  of  Ireland,  vol.  2,  p.  34. 
$  Prim.  Eccl.  Brit.  p.  1067.  |1  Vita  quarts  Patricii. 


well  as  that  of  the  famous  St.  Fechin  of 
Foure,  so  inimical  to  the  monarch  Daniel ; 
but  his  most  celebrated  work  was  publish- 
ed in  1667,  by  Th.  Sirin,  an  Irish  Francis- 
can of  Louvain,  and  the  editor  of  Ward's 
Vita  Santi  Rumoldi.  It  was  transcribed 
from  a  MS.  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Gall,  in 
Switzerland :  the  title  he  gave  it  was  Aile- 
rani  Scoto-Hibemi,  cognomento  Sapientis, 
Interpretatio  Mystica  Progenitorum  D. 
Jesu  Christi.  He  is  the  patron  saint  of  the 
O'Flaherties  and  O'Hallorans,  etc.  He 
died,  according  to  the  Ulster  Annals,  A.  D. 
665,  and  his  festival  is  celebrated  the  11th 
of  August. 

St.  Cumin,  of  Connor,  wrote  (says  Col- 
gan, Act  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  5,  n.  7)  a  Treatise 
on  the  singular  Virtues  of  the  Saints  of 
Ireland. 

Cumain,  called  the  White,  of  the  house 
of  O'Donnell,  was  abbot  of  the  monastery 
of  Huy.  The  disputes  about  the  time  of 
celebrating  Easter  were  at  this  time  car- 
ried to  a  great  height  in  Britain  and  Ire- 
land. The  southern  Irish  had  already 
adopted  the  Roman  time ;  while  their 
northern  brethren  were  inflexibly  resolved 
to  adhere  to  the  custom  of  their  ancestors.* 
Cumian  retired  from  the  world  for  an  en- 
tire year,  to  read  and  consider  (as  he  him- 
self observes)  whatever  had  been  advanced 
on  this  subject  by  Hebrews,  Egyptians, 
Greeks,  and  Latins.  A  synod  (he  says) 
was  called  at  Lene ;  and  pious  divines  were 
sent  to  Rome,  to  see  if  what  report  said 
was  true  ;  i.  e.  that  all  other  Christians  but 
those  of  Britain,  Ireland,  and  Albany,  cele- 
brated Easter  at  the  same  time.  On  their 
return,  after  an  absence  of  three  years,  they 
confirmed  this  account,  with  this  addition, 
that  in  celebrating  this  festival,  the  Irish 
differed  from  them  an  entire  month.  But 
the  monks  of  his  house  highly  resented  this 
defection  of  Cumain  from  the  usage  of  his 
ancestors,  and  treated  him  as  a  heretic.f 

St.  Colman  succeeded  Finian  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  church  of  Northumberland. 
In  the  Synod  called  there  A.  D.  664,  to 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  3. 
t  Usher,  Syllog.  Epist.  Hib.  Ep.  xi.     Harris's  Writers 
of  Ireland,  page  37. 


A.  D.  698.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


195 


determine  this  famous  Easter  contest,  and 
in  his  relation  of  which  Bede  is  so  particu- 
lar, Colman  defended  the  ancient  custom ; 
but  the  plurajity  of  voices  being  against 
him,  rather  than  submit,  he  threw  up  his 
bishopric,  and  retired  to  Ireland ;  here  he 
wrote  Pro  Sociis  Quartodecimanis,  lib.  i. 

Three  brothers,  the  one  a  bishop,  the 
second  a  lawyer,  and  the  third  an  antiqua- 
rian, formed  from  the  different  laws  a  num- 
ber of  decisions,  which  were  so  highly 
revered,  as  to  get  the  title  of  Bratha- 
Neamhadh,  or  Heavenly  Judgments. 

Cionfaola,  of  the  house  of  Ir,  was  a  cel- 
ebrated antiquarian ;  he  wrote  the  Voyages 
of  the  Gadelians,  from  their  first  Departure 
from  Phoenicia,  to  their  landing  in  Ireland, 
and  some  other  pieces  of  antiquities,  yet 
preserved. 

St.  Maildulph,  from  whom  Malmesbury 
took  its  name,  wrote  De  Paschae  Observat. 
lib.  i.,  Regulas  Artium  divers,  lib.  i.,  De 
Disciplin.  Natur. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Continuation  of  the  ecclesiastical  history  and  state 
of  learning  in  Ireland — Mezeray's  testimony  of 
the  great  improvements  made  in  the  manners  of 
the  people,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  lands  in 
Gaul,  by  the  Irish  missionaries — Saints  of  Ire- 
land ranked  in  three  classes — Enumeration  of 
Irish  saints — Affinity  of  the  Celtic  and  Irish  lan- 
guages instanced  in  an  ancient  copy  of  the  Pater- 
Noster  in  those  tongues. 

Early  in  this  century  Dromore  was 
erected  into  a  bishopric  by  St.  Colman,  but 
not  he  of  Lindisfam.  Some  time  after 
Raphoe  was  raised  to  a  see,  and  St.  Eu- 
nanus  was  its  first  bishop.  St.  Laserian, 
who  had  so  notably  exerted  himself  in  the 
famous  synod  of  Legh-Lene,  about  the 
Easter  controversy,  was  consecrated  its 
first  bishop.  St.  Carthagh,  of  the  line  of 
Ir,  and  house  of  O'Connor  Kerry,  being 
expelled  from  his  abbey  of  Ratheny,  in 
Meath,  as  already  related,  returned  to  Mun- 
ster  with  his  monks,  and  found  a  generous 
protector  in  the  prince  of  the  Deasies,  (the 
ancestor  of  the  O'Felans,)  who  assigned 
him  the  city  of  Lismore,  and  a  track  of 


land,  to  support  his  monastery.  Here  he 
erected  a  university,  whose  fame  and  glory 
extended  to  distant  regions,  and  soon  filled 
it  with  learned  men,  from  different  parts  of 
Europe.  In  consequence  of  this,  it  was 
some  time  after  dignified  with  the  title  of  an 
episcopal  see,  and  St.  Carthagh  was  its 
first  bishop.  By  St.  Fachanus  was  Kil- 
fenoragh  erected  into  a  bishopric,  and  he 
was  its  first  pastor  and  patron.  Another 
Fachanus  founded  the  bishopric  of  Ross  ; 
of  whose  family  were  no  less  than  twenty- 
seven  succeeding  bishops,  according  to  the 
Leabhar-Lecan. 

The  abbeys,  and  other  pious  and  munifi- 
cent foundations  of  this  age,  seem  to  have 
exceeded  the  former  ones.  They  are  too 
numerous  to  be  recited  particularly  in  a 
work  like  this :  one  particular,  however,  is 
worthy  recording,  namely,  that  as  Ireland 
was  now  the  only  country  in  Europe  in 
which  arts  and  sciences  blazed  in  their  full 
lustre,  it  became  not  only  the  common 
asylum  of  learned  men  from  all  parts,  but 
such  as  chose  to  excel  in  letters  flocked 
here  from  distant  countries,  to  become  the 
pupils  of  our  regents  and  doctors — 

"  Exemplo  patrum,  commotus  amore  legendi, 
Ivit  ad  Hibemos,  Bophia  mirabili  claros !" 

It  was  not  enough  that  Ireland  became 
so  renowned  for  the  piety  and  erudition 
of  her  sons  among  the  neighbouring  states, 
as  by  common  consent  and  pre-eminence 
to  obtain  the  glorious  title  of  Insula  Sancto- 
rum et  Doctorum,  but  her  princes  and  great 
men  founded  the  numerous  universities  of 
the  kingdom  on  such  generous  and  exten- 
sive plans,  that  not  only  the  foreign  students 
were  found  in  clothes,  diet,  and  lodgings, 
but  even  with  books  (then  so  scarce  an  arti- 
cle) gratis !  Bede,*  among  the  ancient 
Saxons,  and  Camden,t  Spencer,  J  Hanmer,§ 
Llhuid,||  Rowland,!!  etc.,  all  of  later  times, 
agree  that  here  the  Saxons  flocked  in  shoals 
to  be  instructed  in  religion  and  letters. 

How  much  foreigners  from  other  parts 
of  Europe  availed  themselves  of  this  unex- 
ampled liberality  of  the  Irish  nation,  with- 

*  Bede's  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  27. 

t  Britannia.  t  Dialogues.  §  Chronicle. 

II  Archaeologia.        IT  Mona  Antiqua. 


196 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  698. 


out  producing  further  authorities,  may  be 
collected  from  the  following  lines  on  the 
university  of  Lismore,  taken  from  the  first 
book  of  the  Cataldiad,  or  Life  of  St.  Ca- 
taldus,  Bishop  of  Tarentum  in  Italy,  of 
Irish  birth,  written  by  Bonaventura  Moro- 
nus,  a  Tarentine  born  :* — 

"  Undique  convenient  proceres;  quoa  dulce  trahebat 
Discendi  studium,  major  num  cognita  virtus, 
An  laudata  foret.     Celeres  vastissima  Rheni 
Jam  vada  Teutonici,  jam  deseruere  Sicambri: 
Mittit  ab  extreme  gelidos  Aquilone  Boemos, 
Albis  et  Avemi  coeunt,  Batavique  frequentes, 
Et  quicunque  colunt  alt&  sub  rupe  Gebenas. 
Non  omnes  prospectat  Arar,  Rhodanique  fluenta 
Helvetios :  maltos  desiderat  ultima  Thule. 
Certatim  hi  properant,  diverse  tramite  ad  urbem 
Lismoriam,  juvenis  primes  ubi  transigit  amios.' ' 

Nay,  so  universally  known  was  the  fame 
of  our  universities  in  those  days,  that  when 
a  man  of  learning  in  Britain,  or  on  the 
continent,  was  missing,  the  common  adage 
was — Amandatus  est  ad  disciplinam  in 
Hibemia  ! 

But  this  munificent  liberality  was  not 
confined  to  students ;  the  pious  and  austere 
Christians  of  other  nations,  who  repaired 
to  Ireland  for  their  improvement  in  divinity 
and  ascetic  exercises,  experienced  the  same 
generous  reception ;  and  not  only  from 
Britain,  Gaul,  Germany,  and  Italy,  but 
even  from  Greece  and  Egypt  did  holy 
monks  repair  to  us,  where  they  lived  in 
learned  ease,  and  died  honoured  and  re- 
vered. The  reader  can  form  some  idea 
of  their  number  and  consequence,  from  an 
abstract  I  have  already  given  from  a  litany 
of  the  holy  Aongus,  a  writer  of  the  ninth 
century,  who,  on  account  of  his  employ- 
ment of  classing  and  writing  the  lives  of 
the  Irish  saints,  was  called  Hagiographus.f 
Nay,  so  much  superior  to  their  neighbours 
did  the  Irish  then  deem  themselves,  that  in 
the  Life  of  St.  Chilian,  the  apostle  of  Fran- 
conia,  we  are  told  St.  Fiacre,  on  meeting 
him  in  Gaul,  thus  addressed  him :  "  Quid 
te,  charissime  frater,  ad  has  barbaras 
gentes  deduxit  ?" 

Not  content  with  this,  numbers  of  our 
saints,  of  the  purest  blood,  and  most  exalted 

*  Usser.  Primord.  p.  755,  etc. 

t  Introduction  to  Irish  History,  p.  175. 


sentiments,  became  voluntary  pilgrims,  and, 
like  the  Jesuits  in  later  days,  devoted  their 
lives  to  the  reforming  and  converting  dif- 
ferent nations.     They  sought  not  for  gold 
or  silver,  honour  or  command ;  all  these 
they  had  early  at  home  sacrificed  to  the 
service  of  God.     They  built  their  cells  in 
woods  and  sequestered  places,  and  lived 
by  the  labour  of  their  own  hands.     From 
these   they   entered  the   cities  and  great 
towns,  preaching  and  converting  the  peo- 
ple as  much  by  their  examples  as  precepts. 
The  historiographer  Mezeray  mentions  with 
astonishment  the  numbers  of  Irish  who  from 
Ireland  and  Britain  entered  Gaul  to  instruct 
and  convert  that   people.     Among   these 
were  Columbanus,  Eustachius,  Gall,  Man- 
suetus,   Furseus,   Fridolinus,   Fiacre,  etc. 
He  highly  extols  their  piety  and  learning, 
and  proclaims  the  new  face  the  country 
took  by  the  very  labour  of  their  hands. 
Hear  his  own   words:   "It  must  be  ac- 
knowledged that  these  crowds  of  holy  men 
were  highly  useful  to  France,  considered 
merely  in  a  temporal  light.     For  the  long 
incursions  of  the  barbarians  having  quite 
desolated  the  country,  it  was  still  in  many 
places  covered  with  woods  and  thickets, 
and  the  low  grounds  with  marshes.    These 
pious  religious,  who  devoted  themselves  to 
the  service  of  God,  not  to  a  life  of  indo- 
lence, laboured  with  their  own  hands  to 
grub  up,  to  reclaim,  to  till,  to.  plant,  and  to 
build — not  so  much  for  themselves,  who 
lived  with  great  frugality,  but  to  feed  and 
cherish  the  poor ;  insomuch,  that  unculti- 
vated and  frightful  deserts  soon  became 
agreeable    and    fruitful    dwellings.      The 
heavens  seemed  to  favour  the  soil  reclaimed 
and  cultivated  by  hands  so  pure  and  disin- 
terested.    I  shall  say  nothing  of  their  hav- 
ing preserved  almost  all  that  remains  of  the 
history  of  those  times!"*     What  a  picture 
of  real  piety!     The   frightful   wastes  of 
Italy  and  Germany  were  alike  reclaimed, 
and  the  people  instructed  in  religion,  fru- 
gality, and   industry!    Among  the  Irish 
apostles  of  Italy  were  Cataldus,  Donatus, 
Columbanus,  Frigidianus,  etc. ;  and  in  Ger- 
many were  St.  Gall,  Fridolinus,  Deicola, 

*  Histojre  de  la  France,  torn.  i.  p.  117. 


A.  D.  698.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


197 


Kilian,  Fintan,  Albertus,  Rupertus,  etc.; 
and  in  Armoric  Brittany  were  Geladsius, 
Briochus,  etc. ;  Folianus  was  martyred  in 
Flanders,  where  a  monastery  was  built  and 
dedicated  to  his  name ;  Fridegond  converted 
the  people  of  Antwerp,  where,  to  this  day, 
his  memory  is  greatly  revered  ;  Authbert, 
Bishop  of  Cambray,  converted  Hannonia, 
and  is  styled  the  Apostle  of  Flanders  ;  Ru- 
moldus.  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  is  the  patron 
of  Mechlin ;  Columba  is  the  Apostle  of 
Scotland  ;  and  it  needs  not  to  be  recapitu- 
lated how  much  South  Britain  was  indebted 
to  us  for  religion,  for  arts,  and  for  letters. 

The  flourishing  state  of  the  Irish  Church 
may  be  collected  from  very  old  litanies,  yet 
preserved.*  Their  saints  were  divided 
into  three  distinct  classes :  the  first  was 
called  the  Most  Holy  ;  this  comprehended 
St.  Patrick,  and  three  hundred  and  fifty 
bishops  of  his  ordination.  In  the  second 
class,  or  the  More  Holy,  were  three  hun- 
dred priests  and  holy  doctors  of  the  Church, 
but  very  few  bishops.  The  third,  or  Holy 
Order,  was  composed  chiefly  of  holy  monks 
and  anchorites.  These  built  their  cells  in 
woods  and  desert  places,  living  on  an  an- 
tediluvian diet,  and  making  it  a  part  of 
their  vows  to  reclaim  and  cultivate  these 
deserts,  not  for  their  own,  but  the  emolu- 
ment of  the  poor.f  From  this  it  is  that  we 
are  indebted  for  so  many  commons  adja- 
cent to  old  abbeys  and  monasteries ;  for  the 
ground,  originally  waste  and  barren,  was 
claimed  by  no  one ;  and  when  the  succes- 
sors to  these  abbeys  began  to  relax  from 
the  severity  of  their  first  institution,  they 
gave  up  the  reclaimed  land  for  the  use  of 
the  poor  of  the  place.  Thus  the  reader 
will  perceive  what  unexampled  piety  per- 
vaded the  different  orders  in  the  Irish 
hierarchy  !  So  amazingly  great  were  the 
numbers  of  our  saints,  that,  in  the  islands 
of  Ara,  for  instance,  their  conflux  was  so 
rapid,  that  in  the  old  litanies,  after  invoking 
the  principal  of  them,  it  concludes  with — 
"and  all  the  other  saints  here  deceased, 
whose  numbers  are  so  great  as  to  be  known 
to  the  living  God  only."     Succeeding  wri- 

*  Vita.  St.  Rumold,  p.  204,  etc. 
t  Primord.  Eccles.  Brit.  p.  513,  etc. 


ters  were  obliged  to  class  these  saints  ac- 
cording to  their  names.  There  were  four 
Colgas,  ten  of  the  name  of  Gobhan,  twelve 
Dichulls,  twelve  Maidocs,  twelve  Adrands, 
thirteen  Camans,  thirteen  Dimins,  fourteen 
Brendens,  fourteen  Finians,  fourteen  Ro- 
nans,  fifteen  Conalls,  fifteen  Dermods,  fif- 
teen Lugads,  sixteen  Lassarae,  seventeen 
Serrani,  eighteen  Emini,  eighteen  Folbei, 
eighteen  Cominei,  nineteen  Foilaini,  nine- 
teen Sullani,  twenty  Kierani,  twenty  Ul- 
tani,  twenty-two  Cilliani,  twenty-three  Aidi, 
twenty-four  Columbae,  twenty-four  Brigidae, 
twenty-five  Senani,  twenty-eight  Aidani, 
thirty  Cronani,  thirty-seven  Moluani,  forty- 
three  Lafreani,  thirty-four  Mochumii,  fifty- 
eight  Mochuani,  fifty-five  Fintani,  sixty 
Cormocs,  and  two  hundred  Colmani. 

We  must  suppose,  that  in  a  country 
which  was  for  some  ages  the  centre  of  arts 
and  sciences,  to  which  not  only  the  youth 
from  neighbouring  as  well  as  distant  na- 
tions resorted  for  instruction,  but  the  more 
enlightened  for  edification;  whose  sons, 
not  contented  with  affording  an  asylum  to 
these  strangers  at  home,  generously  braved 
the  dangers  of  winds  and  waves,  and  more 
merciless  barbarians,  to  spread  religion 
and  letters  far  and  wide — we  must,  I  say, 
suppose  that  their  language  also  became 
pretty  universal.  Should  any  doubt  this, 
there  are  proofs  that  it  did.  For  the  Ven- 
erable Bede  tells  us,  that  when  our  Bishop 
Aidan  was  sent  to  convert  the  Northum- 
brians, being  ignorant  of  the  Saxon  tongue, 
he  preached  and  instructed  in  the  Irish 
language,  which  King  Oswald  explained  to 
the  people.*  Numbers  of  monks  were  in 
his  retinue,  who,  we  must  suppose,  used  no 
other  tongue ;  nay,  there  is  more  than  pre- 
sumption for  advancing,  that  thirty  years 
after,  his  successors  in  Britain  made  use 
of  the  same  language ;  for  in  the  famous 
synod  assembled  to  determine  the  true 
time  of  holding  the  Easter  festival,  and 
which  was  composed  of  different  nations, 
we  read  that  Bishop  Ceadda  was  appointed 
interpreter  between  the  Irish  bishop.  Col- 
man,  his  clergy,  and  these  people.f    From 

•  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  ii.  cap.  3. 
t  Ibid.  lib.  iii.  cap.  23. 


198 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  698. 


these  acknowledged  facts  in  Britain,  we 
may  infer  that  on  the  continent  they  were 
often  obUged  to  look  out  for  faithful  inter- 
preters between  them  and  the  people.  This 
being  the  case,  the  prayers  and  Christian 
doctrine  in  the  Irish,  in  all  probability,  be- 
came pretty  universal  on  the  continent; 
and  this  will  at  once  explain  the  Celtic 
Paternoster,  and  be  an  additional  proof  of 
the  truth  of  our  records  at  this  period. 

The  learned  Dr.  Raymond,  a  fellow  of 
the  university  of  Dublin  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  present  century,  [1700,]  was 
profoundly  skilled  in  the  antiquities  of  his 
country.  Llhuid  had,  before  him,  demon- 
strated that  the  Irish  language  was  the 
true  glossary  to  the  obscure  words  and 
names  in  the  Celtic,  as  handed  down  to  us 
by  Pezron,  Menage,*  etc.,  and  the  doctor 
luckily  met  with  a  very  ancient  Celtic 
Paternoster  which  he  found  to  be  pure 
Irish,  and  which  he  judged  to  be  the  high- 
est proof  of  our  early  acquaintance  with 
letters.f  This  prayer  has  been  republished 
by  Mr.  0'Connor,J  Dr.  Warner,||  and  Lord 
Lyttleton  ;§  and  it  is  offered  as  a  proof  of 
a  general  Celtic  language. 

Nothing  appears  to  me  more  repugnant 
to  both  reason  and  history  than  the  general- 
ly received  opinion  of  a  universal  tongue. 
Moses,  one  of  the  earliest  historians  in  the 


world,   is'  as  full  on   this   point    as   pos- 
sible. 

Caesar  says  that,  in  his  days,  there  were 
three  different  languages  spoken  in  Gaul  ;* 
and  Bede  affirms,  that  the  languages  in 
Britain,  in  his  time,  were  the  British,  Saxon, 
Irish,  and  Pictish.  To  this  let  me  add, 
that  even  admitting  an  early  and  universal 
Celtic,  yet  how  far  does  the  prayer  in  ques- 
tion, being  found  to  be  pure  Irish,  prove 
this  ?  The  Irish  are,  beyond  controversy, 
a  Scythian,  not  a  Celtic  colony — the  de- 
scendants of  Magog,  not  of  Gomer.  Their 
languages  therefore  were  immediately  after 
the  general  dispersion  of  mankind  different. 
The  remarks  of  Llhuid,  and  the  prayer  in 
question,  prove  evidently  what  history  has 
advanced,  and  no  more — namely,  that  the 
early  Irish  often  instructed,  both  in  Britain, 
Gaul,  and  Germany,  in  their  native  tongue ; 
and  that  numbers,  particularly  among  the 
literary,  preserved  these  prayers,  and  hand- 
ed them  down  to  their  successors.  This 
is  the  evident  induction  from  the  premises ; 
and  it  is  remarkable  enough,  that  in  all  the 
ravages  and  revolutions  of  subsequent 
times,  so  singular  a  piece  of  antiquity,  and 
so  honourable  a  testimony  of  the  truth  of 
Irish  history  should  be  preserved  to  this 
day!  Here  follows  this  ancient  prayer, 
and  the  same  in  Irish : — 


The  supposed  CELTIC  or  Continental  one. 

1.  Our  name  ata  ar  neamb. 

2.  Beanie  a  tanim. 

3.  Go  diga  do  riogda. 

4.  Go  denta  du  hoil  air  talm,  in  marte  ar' 

neamb : 

5.  Tabuar  deim  a  niugh  ar  naran  limb'  ali. 

6.  Agus  mai  duine  ar  fiach  amhail  pear 

marmhid  ar  fiacha. 

7.  Na  leig  sin  amb'aribh  ach  saor  sa  shin 

on  ole. 

8.  Or  fletsa  rioghta,  comtha,  agus  gloir  go 

sibhri — Amen. 


•  Archieologia. 

%  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Ireland. 

X  Dissertations  on  Irish  History. 

II  History  of  Ireland,  vol.  i.        $  Life  of  Henry  II. 


IRISH. 

1.  Ar'  nathoir  ata  ar'  neamh, 

2.  Beannathair  a  thainim  {or  naomh  thar 

hainim) 

3.  Tigiodh  do  rioghacht. 

4.  Deantar  do  hoil  air  an  talamh.  mar  do 

nither  air  neamh : 

5.  Ar  n'naran  laetheamhnil,  tabhar  dhuim 

aniudh. 

6.  Ahgus   maith   dhuin  ar  bhfiacha,  mar 

maithmid-ne  dar'  feitheamhnuibh  fein. 

7.  Agus  'na  leig  inn  a  geathughadh  act 

saor  inn  o  ole. 

8.  Oir  is  leat-fein  a  rioghaet,  agus  an  chum- 

hacht,  agus  an  gloir  go  siorruidhe — 
Amen. 


*  De  Belle  Gallic,  lib.  i.  cap.  i. 


A.  D.  734.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


IM 


CHAPTER    V. 

Conghal,  son  of  Fergus,  elected  monarch  of  Ire- 
land— Succeeded  by  Fearghal — Who  attempts 
to  exact  tribute  from  the  Lagenians,  and  is  slain 
in  the  battle  of  Almhuin — Fogartach  raised  to 
the  monarchy — Succeeded  by  Cionaoth — Flab- 
hertach,  who  resigns  the  throne,  and  retires  to 
a  monasteiy — Succeeded  by  Aodh-Ollan — A 
synod  at  Tirdaglas — Battle  of  Athseanuigh. 

Conghal,  the  son  of  Fergus,  of  the  race 
of  Conall-Gulban,  and  line  of  Heremon,  was 
proclaimed  monarch.  He  is  represented  by 
Lynch  as  a  warlike  prince,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  cruel  one.*  Keating  tells  us  that 
he  was  a  great  persecutor  of  the  clergy ; 
however,  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that 
the  Reim  Riogra,  of  Giolla  Moduda,  pro- 
claims him  a  most  beneficent  prince,  in 
whose  administration  there  was  neither 
battle  or  contest,  and  that  he  died  in  peace 
after  a  reign  of  seven  years.  This  last 
writer  died  about  A.  D.  1 148. 

Fearghal,  the  son  of  Maolduin,  son  of 
Maolfithrich,  son  of  Aodh-Uariodhnach, 
of  the  Heremonians,  succeeded  to  the 
crown.  In  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  the 
Welch  and  Picts  in  conjunction  invaded  the 
northern  parts  of  Ireland,  and  committed 
great  outrages ;  the  Ultonians,  however, 
soon  collected  a  good  body  of  troops,  and 
sought  for,  and  overtook  the  enemy :  a 
most  bloody  engagement  ensued,  in  which 
for  some  hours  its  success  seemed  uncer- 
tain ;  at  length  the  aliens  gave  way,  after 
the  loss  of  almost  the  whole  of  their  army. 
This,  by  our  writers,  is  called  the  battle  of 
Cloch-Mionuire. 

From  this  period  to  the  battle  of  Alm- 
huin we  meet  with  nothing  interesting. 
Fionachta,  in  the  last  century,  by  the  ex- 
hortations of  St.  Moling,  had  exempted  the 
Lagenians  from  the  payment  of  any  fur- 
ther tribute.  The  present  prince  was, 
however,  resolved  to  enforce  it ;  for  which 
purpose,  at  the  head  of  twenty-one  thou- 
sand chosen  troops,  he  invaded  Leinster. 
Murrough,  King  of  Leinster,  assembled 
what  troops  the  suddenness  of  the  notice 
could  afford  him.  These  amounted  to  no 
more  than  nine  thousand  strong.  With 
these  he  engaged  the  imperialists  at  Alm- 
huin, and  gained  a  complete  victory,  not- 

*  Cambr.  Evers.  p.  77. 


withstanding  the  great  disproportion  of 
troops.  Our  writers  attribute  this  great 
success  to  the  execration  of  a  hermit,  who 
had  been  ill-treated  by  some  of  Fearghal's 
people,  and  to  their  plundering  the  church 
of  Cillin  of  its  plate.  It  is  certain  that  the 
invaders  were  seized  with  an  unusual  panic 
at  the  very  first  onset ;  which  I  am  readier 
to  attribute  to  the  exhortations  of  this  her- 
mit in  upbraiding  Fearghal  and  his  people, 
for  wantonly  breaking  through  the  solemn 
engagement  made  by  Fionachta,  for  him- 
self and  for  his  successors,  no  more  to  in- 
vade Leinster  on  this  score.  In  this  battle, 
besides  many  thousand  men,  there  fell  the 
monarch  himself,  with  one  hundred  and 
sixty  select  knights. 

Fogartach,  descended  from  Aodh-Slaine, 
was  the  next  monarch ;  he  fell  in  the  battle 
of  Beilge,  by  the  sword  of  his  successor. 

Cionaoth,  the  son  of  Jorgalaigh,  of  the 
same  house,  ascended  the  throne.  A  for- 
midable competitor  soon  arose ;  the  armies 
met  at  Drum-Curan :  in  this  battle  the 
troops  of  Cionaoth  received  a  complete 
overthrow,  and  he  himself  was  among  the 
slain. 

Flabhertach,  the  son  of  Loingseach,  of 
the  house  of  Aodh-Ainmheric,  became  mon- 
arch. Aodh-Roin,  King  of  Ulster,  greatly 
oppressed  the  'clergy  of  that  province. 
Some  of  his  followers  had  taken  conse- 
crated vessels  out  of  many  of  the  churches, 
and  Congus,  Primate  of  Ireland,  and  con- 
fessor to  Aodh-Ollan,  stimulated  this  prince, 
by  a  poem  he  addressed  to  him,  to  avenge 
the  cause  of  the  Church.  He  accordingly 
invaded  Ulster.  The  armies  met  at  Muir- 
theimhne,  in  the  county  of  Louth,  and 
Aodh-Roin's  troops  were  defeated,  and 
himself  slain.  After  a  reign  of  seven 
years,  Flabhertach  resigned  the  throne, 
and  retired  to  Armagh,  devoting  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life  to  the  service  of  God. 
He  died  A.  D.  760,  in  great  reputation  for 
sanctity. 

Aodh-Ollan,  son  to  the  monarch  Fearg- 
hal, was  called  to  the  throne.  He  was 
remarkably  attached  to  the  Church  and 
clergy.  The  dues,  called  in  other  parts 
of  Europe   St.  Peter's  penpe,  were   here 


200 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  763. 


paid  to  the  see  of  Armagh  yearly.  These 
payments  had  not  of  late  years  been  so 
regular  as  before.  A  synod  of  the  clergy 
was  called  together  at  Tirdaglas,  in  Or- 
mond,  at  which  the  monarch  presided.  It 
was  also  honoured  by  the  presence  of  Ca- 
thal,  King  of  Munster,  and  many  other 
princes  ;  and  a  decree  passed  for  the  more 
regular  collection  of  this  tribute  for  the 
future.  Soon  after,  a  fierce  war  broke  out 
between  the  Mamonians  and  the  King  of 
Leinster;  (but  we  find  no  mention  made 
of  the  cause.)  A  bloody  battle  was  the 
consequence,  which,  by  mutual  consent, 
was  fought  at  Ballach-Feile,  in  Ossory,  in 
which  the  King  of  Munster  was  victor. 
The  monarch  some  time  after  declared 
war  against  the  Lagenians,  and  entered 
that  province  with  a  well-appointed  army. 
Aodh  Mac  Colgan  opposed  him  with  his 
provincials.  A  battle  was  fought,  great 
intrepidity  displayed,  and  very  much  blood 
spilt.  The  Lagenians  were  at  length 
obliged  to  give  way,  with  the  loss  of  their 
king,  the  choicest  of  their  knights  and  no- 
bility, and  nine  thousand  of  their  best 
troops !  Nor  was  the  slaughter  among 
the  victors  much  less.  Among  those  of 
greatest  note  were  Aodh,  the  son  of  Mor- 
tough,  general  to  the  monarch ;  and  this  last 
was  dangerously  wounded.  This  bloody 
engagement  is  called  the  battle  of  Ath- 
seanuigh.  Soon  after  this,  his  successor 
began  to  form  a  dangerous  league  against 
the  reigning  monarch.  He  appeared  at 
length  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army, 
and  publicly  announced  his  pretensions  to 
the  throne.  By  mutual  agreement  a  battle 
was  fought  near  Kells,  in  Meath,  in  which 
the  imperialists  were  defeated,  and  Aodh 
numbered  among  the  slain.  Pity  it  is  that 
we  are  furnished  with  no  other  particulars 
of  this  reign,  because  we  have  reason  to 
think  it  was  a  very  interesting  period,  as 
all  our  annalists  begin  a  new  era  from  his 
death. 

Daniel  III.,  the  son  of  Murtough,  the 
eleventh  in  descent  from  Niall  the  Grand, 
ascended  the  throne.  In  his  reign  the 
Picts  invaded  Leinster,  but  were  defeated 
by  these  last  in  the  battle  of  Rath-Beo- 


thach,  in  which  engagement,  among  other 
persons  of  note,  Cathasach,  their  general, 
the  son  of  OilioUa,  King  of  the  Picts,  was 
slain.  The  Mamonians  some  time  after 
declared  war  against  the  Lagenians.  A 
battle  attended  with  unusual  carnage  was 
fought  at  a  place  called  Tabur-fionn,  or 
the  White  Spring,  but  which  it  is  said,  with 
the  road  and  lake  adjoining,  were  coloured 
with  the  blood  of  the  slain.  Hence  this 
memorable  fight  has  been  called  Cath- 
Beallach-Cro,  or  the  battle  of  the  Bloody 
Path.  The  monarch  seems  to  have  been 
a  tame  and  inactive  spectator  of  these 
bloody  scenes  ;  and  given  up  to  a  religious 
turn,  attended  more  to  litanies  and  proces- 
sions than  to  feats  of  arms.  After  a  rule 
of  twenty  years,  he  made  a  pilgrimage  to 
the  abbey  of  Huy,  where  he  ended  his 
days  with  great  piety  and  resignation. 

Niall  II.,  son  of  the  monarch  Fearghal, 
was  elected  emperor.  He  was  called 
Frassach,  or  the  Showers,  because  it  is 
said  in  his  reign  there  were  three  preter- 
natural falls  from  the  sky :  one,  seemingly 
of  blood,  at  Magh-Laighion ;  another  of 
honey,  at  Fothan-beg ;  and  the  third  of  sil- 
ver, at  Fothan-more.  As  these  are  noted 
in  the  Book  of  Reigns,  and  in  the  Annals 
of  Tigemach,  a  writer  of  the  eleventh 
century,  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  mention 
them,  leaving  to  the  reader's  judgment  the 
degree  of  credit  he  thinks  they  merit. 
Certain  it  is,  that  Mac  Curtin,  who  is  not 
above  forty  years  dead,  declares,  that  bits 
of  fine  silver  called  twelve-grain  pennies, 
were  then  in  being,  and  supposed  to  be 
part  of  this  money* — but,  Credat  qui  vult. 
Very  many  uncommon  phenomena  seemed 
to  predict  the  approaching  miseries  of  Ire- 
land. In  the  reign  of  Aodh-Slaine,  the 
appearance  of  fleets  and  armies  were  seen 
in  the  skies ;  in  that  of  his  successor,  a 
monstrous  serpent  seemed  to  float  in  the 
air.  The  fall  of  blood  in  the  present 
times  seemed  to  announce  their  nearer 
approach.  This  was  followed  by  dreadful 
earthquakes  in  different  parts  of  the  king- 
dom ;  and  to  these  succeeded  so  severe  a 
famine  as  to  carry  oft'  numbers  of  the  in- 
•  History  of  Ireland,  p.  170. 


A.  D.  770.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


201 


habitants.  The  good  monarch  shocked  at 
such  accumulated  miseries,  resigned  the 
crown,  and  retired  to  the  abbey  of  Huy ; 
where,  after  eight  years  spent  in  remarka- 
ble piety  and  austerity,  he  resigned  this 
life  for  a  better,  and  was  interred  there,  in 
the  same  vault  with  his  predecessor.  The 
covering  stone  of  this  vault  is  yet  pre- 
served, with  the  following  inscription  on 
it — "Tumulus  regum  HibernicBJ' 

On  the  resignation  of  Niall  the  estates 
proceeded  to  a  new  election,  when  Dono- 
chad,  the  son  of  the  monarch  Daniel,  was 
called  to  the  crown.  Notwithstanding  that 
he  reigned  twenty-seven  years,  yet,  during 
this  uncommonly  long  period,  we  are  fur- 
nished with  no  remarkable  events  what- 
ever. Bruodinus  notes,  that  in  his  admin- 
istration died  St.  Sedulius,  Bishop  of  Dub- 
lin, St.  Colchus,  called  the  Wise,  and  oth- 
ers ;  and  all  our  annalists  are  in  unison  as 
to  his  exemplary  piety  and  justice. 

The  learned  Dr.  Warner  on  this  occa- 
sion deplores  the  great  destruction  of  our 
annals,  and  his  induction  from  it  is  sensible 
and  judicious.  "  In  so  long  a  reign  (the 
present  one)  says  he,  it  is  impossible  but 
that  many  things  must  have  occurred 
both  in  Church  and  State,  that  were  wor- 
thy of  a  place  itf  the  history  of  these  times. 
The  want  of  these  materials  is  itself  a  con- 
vincing proof  that  we  have  little  more  than 
annals  and  registers  of  the  succession 
and  genealogies  of  their  kings,  extracted 
from  the  histories  that  were  deposited  in 
their  archives;  and  that  these  valuable 
originals  were  destroyed  at  different  times, 
in  the  rage  of  plunder  by  their  enemies. 
At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  observed 
that  this  is  so  far  from  being  an  objection 
to  the  genuineness  of  what  remains,  that 
it  rather  demonstrates  how  scrupulous  suc- 
ceeding historians  were  of  adding  a  syl- 
lable of  their  own,  where  so  much  room 
was  left  for  invention  and  imposition." 

In  the  reign  of  this  prince,  and  year 
790,  the  North  British  writers  affirm,  that 
the  solemn  and  indissoluble  alliance  be- 
tween France  and  their  kings  commenced. 
Mezeray  mentions  this  alliance,*  but  as  a 

*  Histoire  de  France,  tome  i.  p.  161. 
26 


fact  asserted  by  these  people  only.  He 
says,  that  Charlemagne  sent  four  thousand 
men  to  their  assistance,  and  that  in  return, 
they  sent  Claude  Clement  and  Alcuin  to 
France,  who  opened  public  schools  there, 
which  were  the  origin  of  the  University 
of  Paris.  This  relation  is  taken  origi- 
nally from  Boetius,  whose  veracity  as  an 
historian,  has  long  since  been  thus  sung, 
by  the  celebrated  antiquarian*  Leland : — 

"Heetorit  historici,  tot  quot  mendacia  scripait. 
Si  vis  ut  numerem,  lector  amice  tibi : 
Me  jubeas  eXxoinx  Jluetut  numerare  marinot, 
Et  liquidi  ttellas  enumerare  poll !  " 

Hector  says  that  Achaius,  King  of  the 
Scots,  on  this  occasion  sent  his  brother 
William  as  his  ambassador  to  France,  in 
whose  retinue  were  Clement,  John,  Raban^ 
and  Alcuin;  that  the  two  last  returned 
home,  the  others  remaining  in  France. 
Not  to  advert  to  what  has  been  long  since 
DEMONSTRATED  by  Ushcr,  Ward,  and  oth- 
ers, i.  e.  that  North  Britain  was  not  called 
Scotland  for  three  centuries  after  the  period 
in  question,  that  is,  till  the  Dal-Riada,  or 
Irish  colony  in  the  Highlands,  had  totally 
subverted  the  Pictish  government,  and 
firmly  established  their  dominion  over  all 
North  Britain,  and,  of  course,  being  at  this 
time  but  a  small  body  of  people,  pent  up 
in  the  narrow  precincts  of  Argyle,  they 
could  be  but  little  known  as  a  distinct  peo- 
ple inhabiting  Britain.  Not  to  advert  to 
all  this,  I  say,  the  very  tale  carries  its  own 
refutation.  For,  first,  the  name  of  Wil- 
liam was  not  used  either  in  Ireland,  or 
among  their  colonists  in  Britain  for  some 
centuries  after  the  period  in  question ; 
therefore,  as  O'Flaherty  observes,  William 
was  a  Eviopian  prince.  Alcuin  was  a 
British  Saxon,  invited  to  France  by  Char- 
lemagne, (who  met  him  at  Pavia  in  780,) 
and  there  residing  before  the  year  788 ;  f 
but  so  far  from  returning  to  Scotland,  it 
appears  that  he  died  at  Tours,  A.  D.  804. 
Raban  was  a  German,  Abbot  of  Fulda, 
and  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  who  never  quit- 
ted the  continent,  and  died  A.  D.  856  ;  and 
Clement  and  John  were  Scots  of  Ireland, 

*  Histor.  Scot.  lib.  x. 
t  Usher,  Syllog.  Epist.  Hibem.  p.  61. 


202 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  770. 


the  only  country  then,  and  for  above  three 
centuries  after,  known  by  that  name. 

The  fame  of  Charlemagne  indeed,  ex- 
tended to  distant  climes,  says  his  secretary 
and  biographer,  Eginhard.*  "Alfonsus, 
King  of  Galicia,  addressed  letters  to  him, 
in  which  he  desired  to  be  numbered 
among  his  vassals.  The  kings  of  Scotland 
or  Ireland  tasted  so  much  of  his  munifi- 
cence, as  to  call  themselves  his  vassals. 
There  yet  remain  their  letters  (says  he) 
to  this  effect.  The  Saracens  of  Spain  and 
Africa  courted  his  alliance.  Aaron,  King 
of  Persia,  the  haughtiest  prince  on  earth, 
sent  a  most  superb  embassy  to  him." 
Now,  as  Irishmen  had  a  principal  hand  in 
converting  the  French  nation,  and  that  our 
famous  Virgil  was  in  great  favour  with 
Pepin,  father  to  Charlemagne,  it  is  highly 
probable  that  in  these  mutual  and  friendly 
communications  the  Irish  princes  might,  at 
his  request,  send  learned  men  to  form 
schools  there  on  the  plan  of  ours,  as  in 
effect  we  shall  show  they  did. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Account  of  eminent  men,  and  their  works — Ad- 
amnanus,  Abbot  of  Huy,  attempts  a  reform  in 
the  discipline  of  the  Church  of  Ireland — Virgil 
arrives  in  France  on  his  way  to  the  Holy  Land ; 
is  caressed  by  Pepin,  and  becomes  his  confessor — 
Has  a  dispute  with  the  Bishop  of  Mentz ;  and 
the  pope,  on  an  appeal,  decides  in  favour  of 
Virgil. 

Adamnanus,  of  the  race  of  Conall-Gul- 
ban,  and  house  of  O'Donnell,  a  person  of 
uncommon  virtue,  learning,  and  piety,  was 
elected  Abbot  of  Huy,  A.  D.  679.  He 
was  sent  twice  as  ambassador  to  Britain, 
as  he  himself  declares,  in  684,f  to  demand 
satisfaction  for  the  invasion  of  Ireland,  and 
restitution  for  the  outrages  then  commit- 
ted ;  in  687,  he  went  a  second  time.  The 
cause  of  this  second  embassy  is  not  known. 
Bede  tells  us  simply  that  this  Abbot  of 
Huy  was  sent  ambassador  by  the  princes 

*  vita  Car.  Magiii. 
t  Vita  St.  ColumbiB,  lib.  ii.  cap.  46. 


of  Ireland  to  King  Alfred,*  where  re- 
maining for  a  time,  and  being  strongly 
admonished  by  persons  of  great  piety  and 
learning,  particularly  the  Abbot  Caelfridus, 
to  adhere  to  the  customs  of  the  Universal 
Church,  in  opposition  to  those  of  his  an- 
cestors, he  adopted  this  mode,  and,  on  his 
return  to  Huy,  laboured  to  convince  his 
monks  of  their  error,  but  in  vain.  From 
thence  he  sailed  to  Ulster,  and  reclaimed 
the  people  in  those  points  of  Church  disci- 
pline ;  for  the  southern  parts  had  long  be- 
fore this  conformed  to  the  practice  of  the 
Universal  Church.  His  success  at  home 
made  him  return  back  to  his  monastery, 
but  he  could  not  prevail  upon  his  subjects 
to  alter  their  ancient  mode.  He  died,  ac- 
cording to  the  Four  Masters,  September 
23rd,  703,  in  his  seventy-seventh  year. 

He  wrote  the  life  of  St.  Columba  in 
three  books,  published  entire  by  Colgan.f 
Also,  the  Life  of  St.  Bathild,  the  wife  of 
Clovis  II.  She  was  an  English  Saxon,  of 
great  beauty,  surprised  very  young  by 
pirates,  and  sold  as  a  slave  in  France.  She 
was  at  length  married  to  Clovis ;  and  dur- 
ing her  widowhood  governed  with  great 
prudence.  She  invited  numbers  of  holy 
monks  (particularly  from  Ireland)  to  her 
court,  and  died  in  a  convent  about  684. 
This  work,  it  is  said,  is  yet  extant,  in  the 
Benedictine  Convent  of  the  city  of  Mentz, 
in  Lorraine.  He  published  likewise  a  de- 
scription of  the  Holy  Land,  which  he  ded- 
icated to  King  Alfred,  by  whose  bounty, 
says  Bede,  many  copies  of  it  were  made 
out,  and  given  to  different  people.  Be- 
sides these,  some  Epistles,  and  a  book  De 
Paschate  Legitimo,  said  to  have  been  writ- 
ten after  his  conformation,  arc  attributed  to 
him. 

Colman,  called  the  Scribe  of  Armagh, 
wrote  the  Life  of  St.  Patrick.  St.  Co- 
man,  Bishop  of  Roscommon,  wrote  a  Rule 
for  Monks.  He  died  in  746,  say  the 
Annals  of  Ulster,  and  we  find  his  rules 
soon  after  adopted  by  most  of  the  monks  in 
Connaught. 

Albuin,  called  the  Apostle  of  Thuringia, 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  v.  cap.  16,  22. 
t  Vita  quarta  St.  Columba". 


A.  D.  770.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


203 


it  is  said,  wrote  a  work  for  the  use  of  this 
people. 

Ciaran,  Abbot  of  Bealag-duin,  Ermedach, 
Bishop  of  Clogher,  and  CoUait,  a  priest  of 
Druim-Roilgeach,  according  to  Usher,  were 
different  writers  of  the  Life  of  St.  Patrick. 

Virgil,  animated  with  a  desire  of  visiting 
the  Holy  Land,  and  seeing  those  places 
described  by  his  relation,  Adamnanus,  quit- 
ted his  native  country,  (Ireland,)  accom- 
panied by  seven  bishops.  The  abject  state 
of  Christianity  in  Gaul,  and  the  great  re- 
formations there  necessary,  determined 
him  to  remain  among  them  for  a  time.  He 
was  in  the  highest  confidence  with  Pepin, 
(and  for  some  time  his  confessor,)  then 
nominally,  but  major  domo ;  so  that  in  the 
reign  of  Childeric  III.,  he  arrived  in  France, 
as  I  find,  from  the  earliest  accounts  of 
him.*  He  remained  two  years  at  the 
court  of  Pepin,  who  sent  him  on  the  mis- 
sion to  Bavaria.  Here,  with  unremitting 
zeal,  he  laboured  for  conversions  of  souls, 
and  Boniface,  Bishop  of  Mentz,  intending 
to  rebaptize  such  as  had  received  this  sa- 
crament by  the  hands  of  an  ignorant  priest, 
who  had  pronounced  the  formula  in  bad 
Latin,  he  opposed,  being  supported  by  Si- 
donius,  the  archbishop:  he  insisted,  that 
the  sacrament  of  baptism  was  conferred  by 
virtue  of  the  ministry  more  than  by  the 
words,  provided  the  priest  was  properly 
ordained,  and  that  he  administered  it  in  the 
name  of  the  Trinity.  An  appeal  was  made 
to  Pope  Zachary,  who  determined  it  in 
favour  of  Virgil.  He  addressed  on  this 
occasion  **An  Epistle  to  Zachary,  the  Ro- 
man Pontiff"  This  decision  happened  in 
the  year  747. 

This  triumph  of  Virgil  was  highly  re- 
sented by  Boniface,  who  was  greatly  in 
favour  with  this  pope.  He  complained  to 
him,  that  Virgil  boasted  that  he  was  to  be 
nominated  to  the  first  of  the  four  sees  that 
fell  vacant  in  Bavaria ;  and  he  charged 
him  with  doctrines  repugnant  to  Christian- 
ity, particularly  in  publishing,  "that  there 
was  another  world,  another  sun  and  moon  ; 
that  this  world  was  spherical,  instead  of 

*  Vita  St.  Bamoldi  passim ;  Fleory,  Hist.  Eccles.  torn, 
ii.  p.  306.  7,  8, 9. 


being  flat,  and  that  we  had  our  antipodes." 
The  pope  in  his  answer  directed  that,  if 
these  statements  were  proved  before  a 
council,  Virgil  should  be  degraded.  He 
also  observed  that  he  had  written  to  the 
Duke  of  Bavaria,  to  send  him  to  Rome,  to 
be  examined  by  himself;  and  that  he  had 
written  to  Virgil  himself  on  this  head.  It 
appears,  however,  that  he  was  neither  de- 
graded or  sent  to  Rome ;  but  that  he  was 
made  first,  rector  of  St.  Stephen's  abbey, 
and  afterwards  Bishop  of  Saltzburg ;  and 
Zachary  was  himself  suspected  of  favour- 
ing Virgil's  opinion  as  to  the  plurality  of 
worlds.  In  751,  Pepin  was  elected,  and 
afterwards  consecrated  witli  the  holy  oil, 
King  of  France ;  and  as  this  is  thte  first 
instance  of  the  use  of  the  unction  in  France, 
according  to  the  mode  of  the  kings  of 
Israel,  I  strongly  suspect  that  Virgil,  who 
was  a  great  divine,  and  a  prelate  of  univer- 
sal erudition,  first  suggested  this  thought, 
to  take  off  the  odium  of  usurpation,  and  so 
make  the  title  of  king  in  his  family  more 
reverenced.  The  reader  has  already  seen 
the  reasons  I  have  offered  for  its  early  in- 
troduction into  Ireland;  and  if  he  will 
recollect  them,  he  will  be  able  to  judge 
with  more  precision  of  the  reasonableness 
of  the  present  supposition. 

St.  Colga  wrote  Oratio  Colga  Sancti, 
which  Father  Colgan  possessed,  and  who 
tells  us  it  is  a  small  collection  of  the  most 
ardent  prayers,  in  the  manner  of  litanies. 

Aongus,  the  famous  hagiographer,  of 
the  royal  line  of  Ir,  flourished  in  this  cen- 
tury. An  account  of  his  life  and  writings 
may  be  seen  in  the  Acta  Sanct.  Hib.,  p. 
579,  etc. 

Dicuil  is  said  by  Harris  *  to  have  written 
a  Treatise  on  the  Survey  of  the  Provinces 
of  the  Earth,  according  to  the  authority  of 
the  persons  commissioned  by  Theodosius, 
the  emperor,  to  measure  the  same,  and  that 
this  treatise  is  yet  extant  in  MSS. 


*  Writers  of  Ireland,  p.  55. 


204 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  770. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Account  of  eminent  men  continued — Pepin,  King 
of  France,  obtains  missionaries  from  Ireland,  to 
convert  the  Frieslanders  to  Christianity — The 
revival  of  literature  in  Europe  more  probably  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  Irish,  than  the  Arabians — The 
first  universities  of  Europe  established  by  Irish- 
men ;  and  the  form  of  passing  the  degree  of  doc- 
tor derived  from  the  Irish — Of  knighthood,  and 
the  estimation  it  was  held  in  by  the  Irish — In- 
quiry into  the  origin  of  the  feudal  law  and  cus- 
toms— Allodial  tenure — Knight  service — Titles 
of  honour,  duke,  earl,  and  baron,  of  Irish  origin. 

The  Venerable  Bede  confesses  that  at 
the  request  of  Oswald,  St.  Aidan,  with 
other  priests,  were  sent  from  Ireland  to  the 
conversion  of  his  people.*  Oswald  him- 
self, with  his  brothers  fled  thither  in  the 
reign  of  the  monarch  Daniel,  at  whose 
court  they  were  educated,  and  converted 
to  Christianitv  ;  and  to  him  after  his  resto- 
ration,  A.  D.  634,  did  Oswald  apply  for 
missionaries,  for  the  conversion  and  instruc- 
tion of  his  people.  In  like  manner  I  sup- 
pose Pepin,  (major  domo,)  the  grandfather 
of  Pepin,  the  first  King  of  France  of  the 
Carlovingian  race,  and  who  was  zealous  in 
the  cause  of  Christianity — as  indeed  were 
his  successors — applied  to  the  monarch 
Fionachta,  A.  D.  690,  for  missionaries  to 
convert  the  people  of  Friesland,  which 
country  he  had  just  reduced.  But  be  this 
as  it  may,  certain  it  is,  that  Egbert,  a  holy 
Saxon  priest,  then  residing  in  Ireland,  pre- 
pared, with  many  others  for  this  mission 
from  hence  ;  but  obstacles  arising,  he  sent 
Willibrord,  his  countryman,  educated  and 
living  in  Ireland,  with  twelve  disciples,  to 
the  conversion  of  these  people.f  They 
waited  (says  he)  on  Pepin,  who  graciously 
received  them,  and  directed  every  favour 
and  protection  to  be  shown  them.  That 
all  these  were  educated,  and  resided  for 
many  years  in  Ireland,  Bede,  their  contem- 
porary, declares ;  from  whence  they  sailed 
directly  for  Gaul.  The  famous  Alcuin,  his 
countryman,  and  preceptor  to  Charlemagne, 
confesses  all  this  ;J  and  even  begins  his 
second  book  thus  : — 

"  Venerat  de  occiduis  quidam,  de  riNiBas  orbis 
Vir,  virtute  potens,  divino  plenus  amore; 
Ore  sagax,  et  mente  vigil,  et  fervidus  actu. 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  Brit.  lib.  iii.  cap.  3. 
t  Ibid,  lib.  V.  cap.  10,  11.  t  In  vita  ejus. 


Ad  te,  temporibas  Peppini,  Francia  fceliz, 
Quern  tibi  jam  geunit  fscunda  Britannia  mater, 
Doctaqae  natrivit  studiis,  sed  Hibemia  tacrit, 
Nomine  Willibrordus."  . 

Should  it  be  asked  why  these  were  pitched 
upon  by  the  Irish  monarch  for  this  mission? 
Bede  will  mform  you  that  it  was  because 
they  were  themselves  of  the  Saxon  race, 
and  very  probably  understood  the  language. 
To  this,  let  me  add,  that  at  an  earlier  date, 
(i.  e.  A.  D.  653,)  Grimaold,  (major  domo) 
sent  Dagobert,  son  of  Sigebert  III.  to  Ire- 
land, in  order  to  become  a  religious,  where 
he  remained  twenty  years.* 

I  suppose  that  King  Pepin  in  like  manner 
applied  to  the  monarch,  Daniel  III.,  for  a 
new  recruit  of  missionaries  to  further  the 
same  good  end,  who  sent  the  famous  Vir- 
gil, and  his  associates.  We  have  already 
seen  Eginhard  acknowledge  the  friendly 
intercourses  between  our  princes  and 
Charlemagne :  and  at  his  request  it  was, 
that  Claude  Clement,  and  John  Scott,  sur- 
named  Albin,  repaired  to  Paris.  There  is 
an  epistle  of  Alcuin  to  Colga  or  Colcua, 
regent  of  the  school  of  Clonard,  which 
Usher  transcribed  from  the  Cotton  library.f 
It  is  thus  addressed  :  "  Benedicto  magistro 
et  pio  patre  Colcuo"  From  this  epistle,  it 
would  appear,  that  Alcuin  was  a  pupil  of 
Colcuo ;  that  he  kept  up  a  correspondence 
with  him,  and  acquainted  him  from  time  to 
time  of  the  most  material  transactions  of 
the  French  church  and  state.  This  letter 
was  accompanied  with  presents  of  money 
from  Charlemagne,  and  from  Alcuin  him- 
self, to  be  distributed  in  some  convents  in 
Ireland,  to  pray  for  the  success  of  this 
prince. 

As  this  letter  was  written  before  the 
year  790,  and  that  it  is  evident  from  it, 
other  letters  had  passed  between  them  of 
an  earlier  date,  we  may  presume  that 
Clement  and  Albin,  the  founders  of  the 
universities  of  Paris  and  Pavia,  visited 
France  at  the  request  of  Charlemagne,  /or 
this  particular  purpose,  not  that  they  came 
unsent  for,  as  has  been  generally  imagined. 

*  Mezeray,  Hist,  de  France,  torn.  i.  p.  96.     Fleury's 
Hist.  Eccles. 

t  Sylloge  Epist.  Veter.  Hibem. 


A.  D.  770.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


205 


This  will  naturally  account  for  the  honour- 
able reception  he  gave  them,  and  for  his 
immediately  assigning  to  them  the  differ- 
ent cities  in  which  these  great  schools  were 
to  be  founded. 

When  the  reader  recollects  the  flourish- 
ing state  of  arts  and  sciences  among  us, 
for  some  centuries  preceding  the  present 
era;  when  he  considers  from  the  pater- 
noster already  exhibited,  that  our  language 
became  a  kind  of  universal  one  among  the 
literati  of  the  continent,  and  now  beholds 
universities  founded  by  Irishmen,  under  the 
patronage  of  Charlemagne  himself,  will  he 
any  longer  attribute  to  the  Arabians  the 
revival  of  letters  in  Europe  ?  These  peo- 
ple were,  from  religious  and  political  prin- 
ciples, the  avowed  enemies  of  Christendom, 
and  sought  by  the  sword  to  extend  their 
power,  and  establish  their  religion,  not  to 
plant  the  seeds  of  piety,  peace,  and  learn- 
ing. Besides,  the  facts  we  have  asserted 
are  admitted  by  all  the  early  writers ;  and 
to  add  still  greater  force  to  this,  has  not 
Mezeray*  (and  the  best-informed  French 
antiquarians)  acknowledged  that  to  our 
monks  they  are  indebted  for  what  remains 
of  their  early  history  ?  Are  there  any  such 
testimonies  in  favour  of  the  Arabians  ? 

It  may  appear  to  the  present  age  a  thing 
of  little  consequence,  to  whom  their  ances- 
tors were  indebted  for  the  revival  of  letters; 
and  were  I  not  satisfied  that  this  knowledge 
would  greatly  help  to  elucidate  and  explain 
many  things  hitherto  little  understood,  I 
should  not  be  so  detailed  on  this  subject. 
As  then  the  revival  of  letters  in  Britain 
and  on  the  continent  were  the  acts  of  Irish- 
men, we  should  suppose  that  their  history 
and  legislation  ought  to  throw  more  lights 
on  these  matters  than  those  of  any  other 
nation ;  and  the  fact  is  they  do  so.  And 
first,  the  very  form  of  passing  doctors  in 
different  sciences,  and  the  diplomas  granted 
in  consequence,  prove  the  fountain  from 
whence  these  customs  originated. 

We  have  the  copy  of  a  diploma  for  a 
doctorship  in  physic  and  philosophy,  at 
Rome,  in  which,  among  other  insignia  of 
this  office,  we  read,  that  "  a  biretrum  was 

*  Hist,  de  France,  torn.  i.  p.  161. 


placed  on  his  head,  and  a  ring  on  his  fin- 
ger."* Now  the  word  biretrum  is  not 
Latin,  (notwithstanding  that  the  cap  of  a 
cardinal  has  no  other  name,)  but  a  manifest 
Irish  word  latinized.  It  was  the  cap  worn 
by  our  ancient  doctors  in  different  sciences, 
and  is  to  this  day  called  by  us  a  birede, 
from  bar,  a  man  of  letters,  and  eadach,  a 
covering.  By  the  famous  sumptuary  law 
called  Illbreachta,  or  the  Law  of  Colours, 
passed  about  A.  M.  2815,  doctors  had  the 
privilege  of  wearing  six  different  colours 
in  their  garments,  being  one  more  than  the 
equestrian  order,  (whom  they  preceded,) 
besides  a  birede  for  the  head.  About  the 
year  of  the  world  3075,  a  further  regula- 
tion of  the  literati  was  made.  A  few  years 
earlier  it  was  decreed  that  knights,  besides 
five  colours  in  their  garments,  should  also 
be  distinguished  by  a  torques,  or  chain  of 
gold,  round  the  neck ;  and  it  was  now 
enacted  that,  besides  garments  of  six 
colours,  and  the  birede,  doctors  should 
wear  gold  rings  on  the  finger.  From  this 
custom,  the  prince  in  whose  reign  this  law 
passed,  was  called  Aldergoid,  or  the  De- 
creer  of  Gold  Rings.  Besides,  the  biretrum 
and  the  ring,  we  read,  soon  after  the  re- 
vival of  letters  on  the  continent,  that  doc- 
tors disputed  with  knights  for  precedency ; 
and,  to  compose  this  strife,  many  were 
knighted ;  but  others  refusing  this  mark  of 
degradation,  as  they  thought  it,  preserved 
their  rank,  and  were  called  Milites  Clerici. 
As  then  the  first  universities  in  Europe, 
were  regulated  and  established  by  Irish- 
men, behold  how  easily  the  clue  to  these 
customs  is  found  out,  and  how  satisfactorily 
the  whole  is  explained  !  Colleges  of  poets 
were  early  established  in  Germany;  and 
the  arch-poet  presided  over  this  order  of 
men.f  On  passing  doctors,  they  were 
sworn  to  avoid  satire,  misrepresentation,  or 
whatever  could  reflect  on  the  emperor,  or 
on  their  country.  In  Ireland,  such  colleges 
were  established  from  the  beginning  of  our 
monarchy ;  and  does  not  the  abuse  which 
this  order  of  men  among  us  sometimes 
made  of  their  power  prove  the  necessity 

*  Seidell's  Tides  of  Honour,  p.  332. 
t  Ibid,  p.  333,  4,  5,  6,  7,  etc. 


206 


HISTORY  OF   IREI.AND. 


[A.  D.  770. 


of  this  regulation?  More  than  twice 
were  severe  decrees  passed  against  them ; 
and  in  the  year  of  Christ  588,  it  was 
decreed,  that  the  monarch's  chief  bard 
should,  for  the  time  to  come,  be  president 
of  the  poets,  have  power  to  reform  their 
colleges,  and  punish,  or  otherwise  expel 
from  the  order,  such  as  descended  to  satire 
and  misrepresentation ! 

About  the  time  that  universities  were 
established  on  the  continent,  we  read  that 
orders  of  knighthood  were  also  founded  in 
different  places.  It  is  confessed  that  this 
custom  did  not  originate  from  the  eques- 
trian order  of  ancient  Rome ;  and  though 
the  contrary  had  been  asserted,  yet  it  could 
be  easily  refuted ;  for  we  know  that  such 
an  order  subsisted  in  Gaul  long  before  they 
had  any  connection  with  Rome.  They  are 
mentioned  by  Caesar,  by  Tacitus,  by  Livy, 
etc.  Above  three  centuries  before  Christ, 
Manlius,  a  noble  Roman,  got  the  title  of 
Torquatus,  (and  which  continued  in  his 
family,)  for  having  killed  in  a  single  duel, 
a  Gaulish  knight,  whose  torques,  or  chain 
of  gold,  he  ever  after  wore.  Had  the 
torques  been  a  Roman  badge,  the  title 
would  be  absurd. 

That  the  destruction  of  annals  and  early 
records  on  the  continent,  and  the  total  abo- 
lition of  all  ancient  customs  among  them 
by  the  Romans,  should  leave  no  traces  of 
this  order  of  men,  so  renowned  for  their 
bravery  and  virtue,  is  not  surprising ;  nor 
that  the  revival  of  this,  among  other  re- 
mote customs,  in  days  of  freedom,  should 
be  placed  as  the  very  time  of  their  institu- 
tion. Deprived  of  every  clue  to  the  histo- 
ry of  remoter  times,  what  had  writers  but 
conjecture  to  offer  ?  The  history  of  Ire- 
land, the  only  country  in  Europe  which 
had  preserved  its  independence  in  those 
ages  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  however, 
we  see,  dispels  the  clouds,  and,  instead  of 
conjecture,  proves  to  a  certainty  the  very 
great  antiquity  of  the  equestrian  order 
among  the  Celtae  ! 

After  the  revival  of  chivalry  on  the  con- 
tinent, we  behold  emperors  and  kings  deem 
knighthood  a  new  accession  of  honour ; 
and  at  this  day  there  is  no  prince  in  Europe 


who  is  not  knighted.  We  see  it  so  revered 
in  ancient  Ireland,  that  no  prince  could  be- 
come a  candidate  for  the  monarchy  who 
had  not  received  the  Gragh-Gaische,  or 
order  of  chivalry ;  and  to  prove  this,  we 
have  but  to  remind  our  readers,  that  in  the 
fourth  century,  an  Irish  prince,  who  had 
possessed  himself  of  the  palace  of  Tara,  in 
order  to  strengthen  his  claim  to  the  mon- 
archy, was  obliged  to  quit  it,  as  unqualified, 
having  never  been  knighted  ! 

If  from  this  we  carry  our  inquiries  into 
the  origin  of  these  usages  and  laws  called 
feudal,  what  new  lights  will  not  our  history 
throw  on  them  ?  As  they  regarded  ten- 
ures of  every  kind,  and  as  the  first  act 
of  possession,  from  the  prince  to  the  pea- 
sant, consisted  in  turning  up  some  ground, 
they  were  in  general  denominated  feudal 
laws,  from  the  Irish  word  /oc?,  a  clod  of 
earth  turned  up,  and  dlighe,  a  law ;  hence 
the  Latin  fodioy  to  dig,  and  feudum,  a  fee 
or  tenure.  These  tenures  acquired  differ- 
ent names,  according  to  the  manner  they 
were  held  in.  The  most  honourable  ten- 
ure was  called  allodial,  as  being  held  from 
the  most  remote  antiquity.  The  learned 
Dr.  Robertson  derives  it  from  an  and  lot, 
German  words,  which  import  land  got  by 
casting  lots  :*  but  this  gives  no  idea  of  allo- 
dial property.  It  was  by  this  kind  of  ten- 
ure that  the  right  of  governing  was  con- 
fined to  the  blood-royal  in  every  country 
in  ancient  Europe :  it  was  by  it  that  offices 
were  hereditary  in  certain  families,  as  mar- 
shals, treasurers  of  countries,  commanders 
of  horse  and  foot,  etc.,  and  it  explains  why 
these  offices  still  continued  in  families,  not- 
withstanding any  act  of  rebellion  of  the 
present  proprietor.  For  being  but  tenant 
for  life,  and  the  post  elective  by  the  family 
or  sept,  any  overt  act  of  the  present  pos- 
sessor could  only  affect  himself.  When  a 
most  iniquitous  inquiry  commenced  in  Ire- 
land, in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  by  what 
right  many  of  the  most  noble  families  in 
the  kingdom  held  their  ranks  and  fortunes  ? 
they  answered,  by  the  most  indisputable ; 
by  a  right  as  ancient  as  the  monarchy  it- 
self; a  right  which,  till  then,  was  never 

*  Life  of  Cfaarles  Y.  p.  225,  Irish  edit. 


A.  D.  770.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


207 


called  in  question — allodial  tenure.  How- 
ever, some  consented,  and  others  were 
obliged  to  make  a  surrender  of  their  he- 
reditary rights.  She  and  her  pious  minis- 
ters garbled  them  out  in  what  manner  they 
liked  best.  In  these  partitions  the  good 
queen  did  not  forget  herself,  and  her  worthy 
ministers  followed  the  royal  example.  Sir 
John  Davis's  letter  in  the  reign  of  James  I., 
shows  more  of  this.*  This  word,  like  the 
other,  is  derived,  not  from  the  German, 
but  the  Irish  word  allod,  old. 

Knight's  service,  called  by  our  lawyers 
fearan  cloim,  or  sword-land,  was  another 
kind  of  tenure,  different  from  allodial.  This 
last  was  from  the  original  partition  of 
countries  ;  but  sword-land  was  allotted  to 
foreigners,  called  in  in  times  posterior  to 
this.  This  tenure  we  have  instances  of 
from  remote  antiquity.  In  the  latter  end 
of  the  second  century  almost  all  Leinster 
was  overrun  by  the  Mamonians.  In  this 
distress  Cucorb  applied  to  Eochaidh,  bro- 
ther to  the  monarch  Con,  and  Laighseach, 
an  intrepid  hero.  By  their  means  the  Ma- 
monians were  defeated,  and  on  Eochaidh 
he  bestowed  sword-lands  in  the  county  of 
Wexford,  and  on  Laighseach  the  country 
from  him  called  Lais.  When  the  mon- 
arch Cormoc,  in  the  third  century,  engaged 
the  grandson  of  OilioU,  King  of  Munster, 
in  his  interest,  he  gave  to  him  and  his  offi- 
cers large  grants  of  land  in  Leinster  and 
Connaught,  which  were  held  by  military 
tenure,  and  part  of  which  the  issue  of 
these  heroes  possess  at  this  day,  as  O'Con- 
nor-Cianachti,  O'Hara,  CGara,  CCoghlin, 
etc.  In  the  fourth  century,  the  attempts 
of  the  Conacians  to  add  the  present  county 
of  Clare  to  their  province  were  so  frequent 
and  so  bold,  that  Lugha,  King  of  Leath- 
Mogha,  made  fearan-cliomh  of  the  whole 
county,  from  the  borders  of  Galway  •  to 
Loops-Head.  These  few  instances  will 
prove — first,  the  great  antiquity  of  the 
feudal  system,  in  opposition  to  modem 
assertions  ;  secondly,  that  allodial  property 
was  a  branch  of  this  system,  and  never 
fluctuating ;  and  thirdly^  that  it  was  not  a 
barbarous  system  suggested  by  necessity, 

*  Letter  to  the  Earl  of  Salisbuiy. 


after  the  destruction  of  Rome — for  by  it 
property  was  better  secured  than  by  the 
Roman  code — see  the  revolutions  in  an- 
cient Rome — behold  emperors  often  from 
the  dregs  of  the  people,  deposed  and  mur- 
dered at  pleasure,  and  new  ones  chosen, 
according  to  the  power  of  faction  and  ca- 
price !  Does  the  feudal  system  exhibit 
such  outrages,  or  does  it  afford  instances 
of  such  revolutions?  It  does  not.  The 
supreme  command  was  confined  to  the 
blood-royal,  and  all  subordinate  stations 
were  the  honours  and  properties  of  par- 
ticular families. 

But  besides  these,  there  was  a  part  of 
this  code  which  gave  singular  privileges. 
By  it,  the  possessors  of  certain  lands  were 
exempt  from  every  mark  of  tribute  or  vas- 
salage, which  was  not  the  case  with  allo- 
dial proprietors ;  since  the  hereditary  titles 
of  marshal,  standard-bearer,  generals  of 
horse  and  foot,  etc.,  point  out  their  differ- 
ent employments  in  the  state.  We  may 
form  some  idea  of  the  consequence  of  this 
tenure  by  the  will  of  Cathoir-More,  in  the 
second  century,  who,  afler  bequeathing  to 
his  son  Ceatach  certain  lands,  concludes, 
as  a  remark  of  the  great  wisdom  of  this 
prince — ^"that  to  separate  him  from  his 
brothers  would  be  a  grievous  loss  to  them, 
though  it  were  even  on  (saor  forhd)  free 
lands."  Estates  on  the  continent  descended 
to,  and  were  divided  among  the  male  line 
only,  in  exclusion  of  the  female.  This  law 
was  called  Gavel-kind,  from  the  Irish,  gavel, 
land,  and  cinne,  a  family ;  and  instead  of 
receiving,  the  husband  always  settled  a 
dowry  on  the  wife.  She,  nevertheless, 
brought  with  her  a  considerable  stock  of 
cattle,  according  to  her  rank.  In  Ireland 
this  was  called  callp  an  spre,  or  the  mar- 
riage cattle.  The  custom  was  here,  that 
every  friend,  relation,  and  follower  of  the 
family,  brought  his  present  to  the  bride. 
This  rule  is  yet  observed  in  many  places, 
and  exactly  accords  with  the  rules  of  the 
old  Franks  and  Germans. 

Among  the  old  Britons,  Gauls,  and  Ger- 
mans, all  crimes,  not  even  murder  excepted, 
were  punished  by  mulct,  and  this  was  set- 
tled according  to  the  rank  and  dignity  of 


208 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.D.  770. 


the  deceased.  At  all  times,  even  to  the 
last  century,  this  law,  which  was  called 
Eric,  prevailed  in  Ireland.  When  the 
State  in  Dublin  requested  that  Mac  Guire 
would  permit  them  to  send  a  sheriff  into 
his  county,  (Fermanagh,)  he  refused  till 
they  first  settled  his  eric ;  by  which  means, 
in  case  he  should  be  cut  off  by  his  people, 
he  should  know  what  fine  he  was  to  raise 
on  his  subjects  for  the  offence. 

Freemen  who  held  land  under  allodial 
proprietors  were  called  Arimani,  from  the 
Irish  araimh,  to  plough  ;  and  by  the  tenure 
of  soccage,  rent  was  paid  in  com,  from 
soc,  a  ploughshare.  The  word  Dux,  Mr. 
Llhuid  thinks  is  derived  from  the  Irish  tus, 
a  beginning  :  it  also  signifies  noble ;  hence 
the  Irish  tuiseach,  a  chieftain  or  leader. 
In  like  manner  the  word  Earl  seems  de- 
rived from  the  Irish  earlar,  noble,  generous ; 


and  with  us  ear-fhlathas  signifies  an  aris- 
tocracy. A  Baron,  perhaps  from  bar, 
power  ;  hence  Rug  se  an  Bar,  he  carried 
the  sway.  A  Marshal,  from  meirge,  a 
standard ;  and  slua,  an  army. 

From  what  has  been  said,  I  think  it  must 
be  admitted  that  our  history  is  the  true 
clue — indeed  the  only  one — to  the  ancient 
laws  and  customs  of  Europe ;  and  who- 
ever will  study  it  closely,  and  compare  it 
with  what  has  been  advanced  by  Craigs,* 
Montesquieu,!  Robertson, J  Dr.  O'Sulli van,|| 
etc.,  will  throw  this  great  desideratum  to 
the  history  of  Europe  in  the  clearest  light. 
Consult  also  Blackstone's  Commentaries, 
Vol.  11. 

*  De  Jure  Feudal!  apud  Scotus. 
t  L'Esprit  des  Lois. 
t  Hist,  of  Charles  V.  book  i. 
n  Lectures  on  the  Feudal  Laws. 


f 


BOOK    X. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Reign  of  Aodh  VI.,  and  first  appearance  of  the 
northern  pirates,  not  Danes,  strictly  speaking, 
but  an  assemblage  of  different  nations — Their 
incursions  not  caused  by  a  redundance  of  inhab- 
itants— Associate  to  preserve  their  religion  and 
liberties — The  monarch  invades  Leinster,  and 
exonerates  the  clergy  from  their  attendance  on 
the  army — Ravages  of  the  Danes — King  of 
Munster  demands  tribute  from  Thomond,  but 
relinquishes  this  claim — The  Danes  defeated 
near  Waterford — Return  in  greater  numbers. 

Aodh  VI.,  called  Oirdnidhe,  the  son  of 
Niall-Friasach,  was  saluted  monarch. 
About  this  time  the  Annals  of  Ulster  notice 
an  invasion  of  the  isle  of  Rechrin,  to  the 
north  of  the  county  of  Antrim,  and  of  its 
being  plundered  by  pirates ;  and  these  the 
learned  Usher  observes,  were  the  first 
Danish  invaders.* 

As  these  people  were  for  above  two 
centuries  highly  formidable  not  only  to 
Ireland,  but  to  all  Europe,  some  rational 
attempt  to  investigate  the  ctiuse  of  their 
repeated  depredations,  may  not  be  unac- 
ceptable to  philosophic  inquirers.  It  is 
generally  agreed  that  these  pirates  were 
a  motley  aggregate  of  Livonians,  Saxons, 
Frisians,  Danes,  Norwegians,  and  Swedes, 
whose  residence  on  the  coasts  of  the  Ger- 
man Sea  and  the  Baltic,  made  them  natu- 
rally fond  of  that  element.  The  various 
names  by  which  our  writers  have  distin- 
guished them,  plainly  prove  them  to  have 
been  of  different  nations.  One  tribe  of 
them  were  called  Leth-Manni ;  and  these 
Archbishop  Usher  and  Dr.  O'Conryf 
judge  were  Livonians,  whose  province  is 
called  Letten,  and  by  geographers  Letta, 
hence  Leth-Manni,  or  the  people  of  Letta. 

*  Brit.  Eccles.  Prim.  p.  958,  1172. 

t  Laws  of  Tanistry  Illustrated,  p.  489. 

27 


Others  were  called  Fionne  Gail  and  Dubh- 
Gail,  or  White  and  Black  Strangers,  from 
the  colour  of  their  hair.  The  first  were, 
to  all  appearance,  the  Danes,  Swedes  and 
Norwegians,  who  are  generally  fair-haired ; 
and  the  others,  Germans.  A  territory 
near  Dublin  yet  retains  the  name  of  Fin- 
Gall  ;  and  Dunegal  is  probably  a  corrup- 
tion of  Dubh-Gail,  or  the  country  of  the 
Black  Strangers.  But  the  most  general 
names  they  are  distinguished  by,  among 
us,  are  Dubh-Loch-Lannice  and  Fionn- 
Loch-Lannice  ;  the  word  loch-lonnach  sig- 
nifies powerful  at  sea,  and  the  adjectives 
dubh,  or  black,  and  fionn,  or  white,  were 
added  to  denote  their  differ^  countries  by 
the  hair.  We  also  sometimes  find  them 
called  Danair-Fohn  and  Dan-Fhir ;  but  I 
believe  these  were  rather  words  of  re- 
proach than  an  implication  of  the  country 
from  whence  they  came,  because  they  are 
rarely  met  with,  and  Irish  writers  were 
not  fond  of  reproachful  epithets  to  their 
enemies.  They  were  called  Dan-Fhir,  I 
conjecture,  from  dana^  bold,  impetuous, 
oppressive,  and  fear,  a  man  ;  hence  dan- 
fhir,  or  dan-airimh,  oppressive  men.  But 
nothing  can  more  fully  prove  the  exactness 
of  our  historians  in  their  distinctions  of 
these  people,  than  when  the  black  Loch- 
Lannics  invaded  Leinster  in  851,  they  at- 
tacked and  dispossessed  the  white  Loch- 
Lannics  of  their  territories  about  Dublin. 

If  ancient  historians  are  sometimes  cen- 
surable for  too  easy  a  credence  of  improb- 
able relations,  and  for  mixing  fable  with 
history,  what  shall  we  say  to  modem  wri- 
ters, who  oppose  their  own  assumptions  to 
both  ?  It  must  be  confessed  that,  with 
respect  to  the  depredations  of  the  northern 


210 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  797. 


pirates,  we  have  little  of  certainty  to  ex- 
plain to  us  the  cause  "why,  for  about  two 
centuries,  the  European  seas  should  be 
covered  with  lawless  pirates,  and  different 
nations  feel  the  force  of  their  power ;  and 
why  these  different  depredations  should 
begin  almost  everywhere  about  the  same 
time,  and  cease  at  nearly  an  equal  period  ! 
Semblance  of  truth  too  often  precludes 
truth ;  and  superficial  readers  sometimes 
embrace  the  shadow  for  the  substance. 

The  cause  of  the  sudden  bursting  forth 
of  such  numerous  northern  hives,  at  this 
time,  has  been  attributed  to  a  superabund- 
ance of  inhabitants.  The  north,  say  lazy 
speculatists,  has  been  always  a  country  the 
most  prolific  :  it  is  the  officina  et  vagina 
gentium!  From  it  nations  have  been 
over-run  from  time  to  time,  and  hardy 
warriors  have  acquired  in  other  countries 
those  settlements  which  the  too  great  pop- 
ulation of  their  own  refused  them.  But, 
however  plausible  this  appears,  like  many 
other  refined  theories  of  modern  historians, 
it  is  but  a  bare  assumption.  Every  evi- 
dence that  can  be  demanded  proves  that, 
at  all  periods,  population  has  been  greater 
in  southern  than  northern  climates.  The 
great  quantity  of  unreclaimed  ground,  even 
to.  this  day,  in  Denmark,  Norway,  and 
Sweden,  shows  these  countries  were  never 
overstocked  with  inhabitants.  Whole 
tracts  covered  with  wood,  and  the  ama- 
zing quantities  of  it  exported,  particularly 
from  Norway,  prove  the  thinness  of  its 
inhabitants.  What  are  Copenhagen,  Stock- 
holm, or  Drontheim,  compared,  for  extent 
or  inhabitants,  to  London,  Paris,  or  Dub- 
lin ?  Or  what  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  to 
those  of  Asia  ?  Population,  to  a  certainty, 
is  much  greater  in  warm  than  cold  cli- 
mates ;  but  were  we  to  grant  the  reverse 
to  be  the  case,  why  confine  this  amazing 
conflux  of  people  to  particular  periods? 
Nature  is  uniform  in  all  her  effects ;  and 
the  same  cause  that  produced  a  plethora 
of  inhabitants  at  one  particular  period, 
should,  while  existing,  at  every  other. 
Were  the  inundations  of  Europeans  into 
Asia  in  the  eleventh,  twelfth,  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  ever  attributed  to  a  redundancy 


of  inhabitants ;  notwithstanding  the  Asiat- 
ics might  well  suppose  it,  from  seeing  at 
different  times  such  astonishing  armies 
cover  their  countries  ?  Were  the  differ- 
ent migrations  to  the  East  and  West  In- 
dies, and  the  vast  continent  of  America, 
for  two  centuries  past,  resolved  into  an 
overstock  of  inhabitants  in  Europe?  If 
they  were  not,  why  should  we  vapidly 
assign  this  as  a  cause  in  the  present  in- 
stance ? 

We  have  already  noted  how  anxious 
Charlemagne,  Pepin,  and  their  predeces- 
sors were,  to  convert  the  northern  nations 
of  Germany ;  and  the  active  part  which 
the  Irish  missionaries  took  in  this  great 
work.  In  all  appearance,  policy  united 
with  religion  in  these  pursuits ;  as  every 
convert  they  made  was  a  new  subject  ac- 
quired. These  German  nations,  who  so 
manfully  defended  their  liberties,  plainly 
saw  that  the  religion  of  their  invaders  was 
as  inimical  to  them  as  their  swords,  and 
began  to  form  a  general  confederacy 
against  both.  Driven  into  a  narrower 
compass  they  became  more  compact  and 
numerous,  and  their  religion  and  their  lib- 
erties, being  equally  the  objects  of  the  con- 
querors, they  confederated  to  defend  both.* 
Not  numerous  enough  to  face  their  enemies 
by  land,  and  being  powerful  at  sea,  they 
determined  to  make  diversions  this  way. 
Very  probably  necessity  first  drove  them 
to  try  the  expedient,  and  unexpected  suc- 
cess increased  their  confidence.  The  his- 
torian Mezeray  attributes  the  depredations 
of  these  northern  nations  to  their  love  of 
liberty,  and  their  detestation  of  those 
priests  and  religions  who  had  destroyed 
their  gods  and  their  altars ;  hence,  says 
he,  their  greatest  cruelty  was  exercised  on 
monks  and  monasteries.f  For  this  reason 
it  is,  that  they  are  frequently  styled  in  our 
annals  Dubh-Geinte,  or  Black  Infidels,  and 
Fionn-Geinte,  or  White  Infidels.  And  as 
a  further  proof  of  this,  it  appears,  that  as 

*  Both  Pepin  and  Charlemagne  formed  holy  confed- 
eracies to  convert  these  people  by  fighting  as  well  as 
praying ;  and  where  is  the  absurdity  to  suppose  these 
unite  to  oppose  both  7 

t  Hist  de  France,  tome  i.  p.  165. 


A.  D.  804.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND 


211 


Christianity  began  to  spread  among  them, 
this  rage  of  invasion  began  gradually  to 
subside.  What  avails  it  that  the  acts  of 
nations  and  communities  are  the  result  of 
some  general  principles,  if  the  historian, 
whose  duty  it  is,  will  not  be  at  the  trouble 
of  exploring  them  ? 

In  the  vear  798,  and  second  vear  of  the 
reign  of  Aodh,  the  west  of  Munster  was 
invaded  by  a  large  body  of  the  white 
Loch-Lannics,  or  Danes,  who  for  some 
time  ravaged  the  coasts,  destroying 
churches  and  monasteries,  and  putting  to 
the  sword  all  the  clergy  they  found.  Art, 
or  Airtre,  the  son  of  Cathal,  was  at  this 
time  king  of  Munster,  who,  hastily  collect- 
ing the  forces  next  to  hand,  engaged  these 
foreigners  in  a  pitched  battle,  defeated 
them,  and,  but  for  the  night's  coming  on, 
would  have  cut  off  their  retreat  to  their 
ships,  which  the  remainder  of  them  with 
difficulty  reached. 

In  799,  the  monarch  raised  a  great  army 
with  which  he  invaded  the  province  of 
Leinster,  to  enforce  the  payment  of  the 
Tuathalian  tribute.  It  seems  that  the  royal 
army  was  always  attended  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  and  his  suffi-agan  bish- 
ops. Conmac  was  at  this  time  the  successor 
of  St.  Patrick,  i.  e.  the  primate,  and  com- 
plained and  remonstrated  to  the  monarch, 
at  the  head  of  his  clergy,  how  improper 
and  indecent  it  was  to  see  the  ministers  of 
peace,  upon  all  occasions,  witnesses  to  the 
horrors  of  war  and  desolation ;  and  pray- 
ing, for  himself  and  for  his  successors,  a 
dispensation  from  so  unclerical  a  duty. 
The  Abbot  Fothadius,  who,  on  account  of 
his  great  knowledge  in  the  canon  laws, 
was  called  De  Canonibus,  was  appealed  to 
on  this  occasion.  He  drew  up  his  opinion 
in  writing,  which  he  entitled  Opus'culum 
pro  Cleri  Defensione  et  Immunitate,  and 
presented  it  to  the  monarch.  In  this  he 
proved  that  the  clergy  ought  for  ever  to 
be  exempted  from  this  duty ;  and  it  was 
decreed  so.* 

Six  years  after  the  first  defeat  of  the 
Danes  in  Munster,  (i.  e.  A.  D.  804,)  say  our 
annals,  and  when  Feidhlim,  of  the  Euge- 

•  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p,  581,  583. 


nian  line  was  king  of  Munster,  a  second 
fleet  of  Danes  landed  on  these  coasts,  burn- 
ing and  destroying  whatever  stood  before 
them,  particularly  the  churches  and  clergy. 
Feidhlim  collected  a  considerable  body  of 
troops,  and  attacked  these  barbarians,  who, 
after  a  long  and  bloody  conflict,  gave  way 
on  every  side,  and  were  pursued  to  their 
ships  with  great  slaughter.* 

Soon  after  this  we  read  of  an  invasion 
of  Ulster  by  these  barbarians,  and  of  the 
uncommon  cruelties  thev  exercised  there. 
They  plundered  the  famous  abbey  of  Ben- 
choir  of  all  its  riches,  carrying  with  them 
the  rich  shrme  of  St.  Comghill,  and  putting 
to  the  sword  the  abbot  with  nine  hundred 
monks  !  Muireadach,  King  of  Ulster,  at- 
tacked these  incendiaries  with  great  reso- 
lution, and  after  the  loss  of  twelve  hundred 
of  their  best  troops,  the  rest  fled  to  their 
ships. 

Feidhlim,  the  Munster  king,  being  for 
the  present  rid  of  the  Danes,  by  the  advice 
of  his  ministers  was  resolved  to  compel 
the  people  of  North  Munster  to  pay  tribute 
to  the  kings  of  Cashell.  To  give  greater 
weight  to  negotiation,  he  raised  a  consid- 
erable army,  with  which  he  followed  his 
ambassadors.  The  Dalgais,  astonished  at 
the  novelty  of  the  demand,  boldly  answered 
that  they  would  never  pay  it ;  that  they 
and  their  ancestors  had  been  at  all  times 
exempt  from  taxes  of  every  kind;  that 
their  possessions,  particularly  the  county 
of  Clare,  were  fearhan  forgahhala  na 
cloidhimh,  (ancient  conquest  of  the  sword,) 
and  as  it  had  been  hitherto  preserved  free, 
in  spite  of  the  power  of  Connaught,  they 
would  take  care  to  transmit  it  so  to  their 
posterity.!  The  bishops  of  Limerick,  Kil- 
laloe,  and  Inis-Catha,  softened  this  answer 
by  remarking  to  the  ambassadors  of  Feidh- 
lim that,  since  the  fourth  century,  by  com- 
mon consent,  the  territory  of  Thomond 
was  declared  sword-land,  and,  of  course, 
the  people  free  from  every  tribute,  while 
they  preserved  this  barrier  to  Munster. 
But,  besides  this,  Lachtna,  the  son  of  Core, 
son  of  Auluain,  (who  then  governed  the 

*  Cogadh-Gail,  re  Gaoidhealaibh. 
t  Leabbar-Maimhean. 


312 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  812. 


province,)  repaired  to  the  court  of  Feidh- 
lim,  representing  to  him  the  injustice  of  his 
proceedings ;  that  his  family  had  been  long 
deprived  of  their  right  of  alternate  succes- 
sion to  the  crown  of  Munster,  according 
to  the  will  of  their  common  ancestor  Oilioll; 
and,  that  now,  instead  of  raising  them  to 
their  former  rank,  they  wanted  to  make 
them  their  tributaries.  Feidhlim  and  his 
chiefs  were  sensible  of  the  justness  of 
Lachtna's  remarks,  which  became  of  more 
weight  on  finding  that  the  Dalgais  were 
collecting  their  troops  from  all  quarters. 
Lachtna  paid  him  homage  as  king  of  Mun- 
ster, and  was  splendidly  entertained  by 
him.  Feidhlim  relinquished,  in  the  most 
solemn  manner,  all  claims  on  the  Dalgais ; 
and  this  invasion,  in  the  beginning  so  for- 
midable, ended  in  amity  and  festivity. 

Feidhlim  soon  after  embracing  a  monas- 
tic life,  Olchubhar,  the  son  of  Ceanaodha,  a 
Eugenian,  succeeded  him,  in  whose  reign 
the  Danes  made  a  fresh  invasion  into 
Munster,  committing  uncommon  atrocities, 
particularly  on  the  churches  and  clergy. 
They  landed  at  Waterford,  and  every- 
where fire  and  sword  marked  the  footsteps 
of  these  inhuman  wretches.  The  city  of 
Lismore  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  and  its 
university,  then  so  renowned  in  Europe, 
destroyed,  with  its  very  valuable  library ; 
churches  were  every  where  prostrated ; 
and  wherever  they  found  any  clergy  they 
were  sure  to  put  them  to  the  sword.  Ol- 
chubhar, King  of  Munster,  attacked  these 
aliens  in  the  country  of  the  Deasies,  and, 
after  a  most  bloody  battle,  gained  a  com- 
plete victory  over  them.*  Twelve  hun- 
dred Danes  were  killed  on  the  field  with 
two  of  their  chiefs,  Tomar  and  Eric,  and 
numbers  fell  in  the  pursuit.  But  the  loss 
of  the  Mamonians  was  very  considerable, 
among  others  Olchubhar  himself,  with  many 
nobles  of  prime  note,  fell  that  day.  To 
this  defeat,  I  bejieve  it  is  that  Eginhard 
alludes,  when  he  tells  us  in  his  annals,  un- 
der the  year  812,  "  that  the  Danes  landed 
an  army  in  Ireland,  which  was  defeated, 
and  put  to  a  shameful  flight,  by  the  Irish."t 

Notwithstanding  these  defeats,  the  re- 

*  Toruigheact  Cealachan  Chaisel.     t  An.  Franc.  Contr. 


ports  made  by  the  fugitives  to  their  coun- 
trymen of  the  wealth  of  Ireland,  the  splen- 
dour, magnificence,  and  number  of  its 
churches  and  monasteries,  and  the  fertility 
of  the  soil,  encouraged  others  to  make  new 
attempts,  and  to  endeavour  at  some  settle- 
ment in  the  kingdom.  A  considerable  fleet 
appeared  off"  Kerry  Head,  and  plundered 
and  destroyed  the  monastery  of  Skelig 
Mhichel ;  they  then  landed  on  the  continent, 
and  laid  waste  the  country  as  far  as  Loch- 
Lene,  or  Killarney.  Here  they  were 
boldly  attacked  and  defeated,  leaving  be- 
hind them  a  considerable  part  of  their 
booty. 

A  fresh  force  appeared  soon  after  in  the 
Shannon,  and  the  noble  churches  of  Scat- 
tery,  or  Inis-Catha,  were  plundered,  the 
clergy  put  to  the  sword,  and  the  rich  mon- 
ument of  St.  Sennan  defaced.  Their  troops 
suddenly  landed,  at  different  times  on  both 
sides  the  Shannon,  and  Corcabaiscan,  and 
Tradeuighe  on  the  north,  and  Ui  Connal 
Gabhra  on  the  south  side,  with  all  the 
churches,  were  laid  in  ashes.  A  large 
party  of  these  incendiaries  were,  however, 
overtaken  at  Seannued,  near  Glin,  and  put 
to  the  sword.  But  though  it  appears  that 
wherever  the  Irish  and  these  foreigners 
met.  the  latter  were,  in  general,  defeated, 
yet  the  country  was  destroyed  beforehand 
by  reason  of  their  commanding  the  sea, 
and  being  at  all  times  able  to  land  where 
least  expected.  Though  the  ravages  of 
these  Danes  were  alone  as  great  afflictions 
as  could  be  well  borne,  yet  the  very  ele- 
ments seemed  to  conspire  to  the  ruin  of 
this  afflicted  kingdom.  On  the  northern 
side  of  the  Shannon,  in  the  month  of  March 
following,  such  violent  and  uncommon 
claps  of  thunder  and  lightning  burst  forth, 
that  above  a  thousand  people  were  de- 
stroyed by  it ;  at  the  same  time  the  sea 
broke  down  the  banks  with  great  violence, 
and  laid  a  considerable  part  of  the  coun- 
try under  water. 

Of  the  monarch  Aodh  we  are  furnished 
with  no  accounts  till  that  of  his  death, 
which  happened  in  the  twenty-fourth  year 
of  his  reign,  and  in  the  battle  of  Deafearta, 
by  the  Conacians. 


A.  D.  835.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


213 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  reign  of  Connor — Battle  of  Druim-Conla — 
Fresh  devastations  of  the  Danes,  and  death  of 
the  monarch — Of  Niall  III.,  and  the  landing  of 
Turgesius — Miserable  state  of  Munster,  and  an- 
tiquity of  its  cities — Leinster  overran,  and  the 
reduction  of  the  kingdom  projected — Death  of 
Niall — Of  Mnlachie  I.,  convention  of  the  states 
of  Leath-Cuin,  and  several  defeats  of  the  Danes, 
but  triumph  at  length. 

Connor,  son  to  the  monarch  Donochada, 
now  filled  the  throne.  The  Gailiongachs, 
leaguing  with  the  Danes,  this  prince  at- 
tacked them,  on  the  plains  of  Tailtean  in 
Meath,  and  defeated  them  with  great 
slaughter.  The  Danes  had  already  over- 
ran a  great  part  of  Leinster  and  Connaught. 
The  Lagenians,  headed  by  their  prince 
Lorcan,  the  son  of  Ceallach,  collected  a 
considerable  force,  and  attacked  these  for- 
eigners at  Druim-Conla.  The  action  was 
very  bloody,  and  for  a  long  time  doubtful. 
Fortune  at  length  declared  in  favour  of  the 
aliens,  and  for  the  first  time,  were  the  Irish 
defeated  with  very  great  slaughter.  This 
year  the  clergy  of  Connaught  agreed  to 
pay  Patrick's  pence  to  the  see  of  Ar- 
magh. 

A  body  of  Danes  landed  suddenly  near 
Cork,  set  fire  to  the  town  and  church  of 
St.  Finbar ;  but  the  people,  recovering 
from  their  surprise,  attacked  and  defeated 
them  with  considerable  slaughter.  A  large 
body  of  Danes  landed  at  Inbher-Chin-Tra- 
gha,  or  Newry,  and  committed,  dreadful 
cruelties.  They,  for  the  first  time,  attacked 
Armagh,  and  set  fire  to  the  churches  and 
university,  plundering  them  of  all  their 
plate  and  riches.  The  monastery  of  Ben- 
choir  again  felt  the  fury  of  these  fiends,  and 
several  parts  of  Connaught  were  laid  waste 
by  them.  The  monarch,  either  unable  to 
unite  the  nation  in  a  body  against  these 
invaders,  or,  perhaps,  perceiving  the  im- 
practicability of  it,  as  their  attacks  were  so 
sudden,  so  unexpected,  and  distant,  we  are 
told,  died  with  grief,  and  was  succeeded 
by- 

Niall  III.,  called  Caille,  the  son  of  Aodh 
VI.  The  year  836  was  remarkable  for 
the  arrival  of  Turgesius  in  Ireland.  Most 
of  our  writers  place  it  earlier  by  twenty 
years  ;  but  this  would  be  giving  to  this  ty- 


rant an  unreasonable  length  of  years,  and 
making  him  play  the  fool,  as  we  shall  see, 
at  a  time  when  such  vagaries  must  have 
long  left  him  ;  add  to  this,  that  his  seizing 
on  Armagh,  (which  he  did  soon  after  his 
arrival,)  and  expelling  St.  Ferranan,  the 
clergy,  and  all  the  students,  is  placed  in 
the  year  839.  This  prince  Turgesius,  with 
a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  ships, 
made  two  descents  in  Ireland.  One  fleet 
of  fifty  ships  entered  the  river  Boyne,  and 
landed  near  Drogheda ;  the  other  in  Dub- 
lin. Encouraged  by  so  considerable  a  re- 
inforcement, and  sensible  of  the  utility  of 
having  one  common  chief,  all  the  foreign- 
ers in  the  kingdom  (though  of  difierent  na- 
tions) agreed  to  acknowledge  and  act  un- 
der the  command  of  Turgesius  as  such, 
and  to  endeavour  to  conquer  and  settle  in 
a  country,  which  their  first  intentions  were 
only  to  plunder  and  distress. 

Already  had  Munster  suffered  unheard- 
of  afflictions.  The  northern  and  southern 
Mamonians,  or  the  Eoganachts  and  Dal- 
gais,  had  not  been  well  united.  These 
last,  constantly  in  arms  to  defend  their  fron- 
tiers from  the  Conacians,  could  not  enforce 
their  right  of  alternate  succession  to  the 
crown  of  Munster,  and  were,  in  a  manner, 
excluded  by  the  Eoganachts ;  and  the 
writer  of  the  actions  of  Ceallachan  Caisil, 
now  before  me,  complains,  that  in  all  the 
miseries  of  those  days,  the  monarchs,  and 
province  of  Leath-Cuin,  never  aflforded  them 
the  smallest  succours.  Thus  divided  among 
themselves,  and  unsupported  by  the  other 
provinces,  the  Danes,  wherever  they  landed, 
had  nothing  to  fear  but  from  the  military, 
and  people  of  that  quarter  only.  Their 
fleet  a  second  time  sailed  up  the  Shannon, 
and  destroyed  a  most  spacious  monastery 
near  Carrig  a  Foile,  the  remains  of  which, 
at  this  day,  proclaims,  in  part,  its  former 
extent  and  grandeur.  All  the  other  reli- 
gious houses,  on  both  sides  the  river,  suf- 
fered the  same  fate.  They  landed  a  con- 
siderable body  of  troops  near  Limerick, 
surprised,  and  set  on  fire  the  ancient  city 
of  Deochain-Assain,  and  with  it  the  noble 
college  of  Muingharid,  with  the  monastery, 
and  other  religious  houses,  having  fiivt 


S14 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


A.  D.  835.] 


plundered  them  of  their  richest  effects. 
Soon  after  this  they  possessed  themselves 
of  Limerick.  We  are  not  told  how,  nor 
the  exact  time,  but  the  Ulster  Annals,  un- 
der the  year  843,  mention  St.  Ferranan's 
being  taken  prisoner  at  Cluan-Chomharda, 
and,  with  his  family  and  the  ornaments 
and  relics  of  his  churches,  conveyed  by 
water  to  their  fleet  at  Limerick.  From 
this  we  must  suppose  them  in  possession 
of  it  before  that  period.  And  here  let  me 
for  once  observe,  en  passant,  the  manifest 
absurdities  of  foreign  writers,  in  asserting 
that  Limerick,  Cork,  Waterford,  and  most 
of  our  seaport  towns,  were  built  by  those 
merciless  barbarians.  Limerick  was  so 
noted  for  its  commerce  from  the  earliest 
ages,  that  it  was  never  mentioned  by  our 
ancient  writers  without  the  epithet  Long 
annexed  to  it.  When  Ceallachan-Caisil  at- 
tacked and  expelled  the  Danes  from  thence, 
we  then  find  him  call  it  Luimneach  na  Lu- 
ingas,  or  Limerick  of  the  Ships  or  Fleets. 
We  see  St.  Munchin,  its  first  bishop,  in  the 
days  of  St.  Patrick ;  and  Cork  was  soon 
after  erected  into  a  bishopric,  etc.  It  need 
not  be  told  that,  before  the  Council  of  Nice, 
it  was  decreed,  that  bishops  should  never 
be  ordained  but  to  preside  over  large  cities, 
or  considerable  tracts  of  land,  where  num- 
bers of  inferior  clergy  were. 

The  Mamonians  must  have  received 
some  considerable  cheeks  in  this  last  inva- 
sion, because  I  find  it  mentioned,  that  after 
the  decease  of  Ailghenan,  King  of  Cashell, 
(and  he  ruled  Munster  but  seven  years,) 
Maolgula,  who  was  his  successor,  was 
killed  in  battle  by  the  Loch-Lonnachs. 

Turgesius,  as  we  see,  having  now  the 
command  of  these  aliens,  wherever  dis- 
persed through  the  kingdom,  with  great 
wisdom  availed  himself  of  this  power,  and 
his  different  detached  parties  were  every- 
where in  action,  while  he  possessed  him- 
self of  Drogheda,  and  another  party  of 
Dublin.  And^now  was  the  whole  country 
one  scene  of  ruin  and  desolation  !  Churches 
and  monasteries,  religious  and  laics,  no- 
bles and  peasants,  without  discrimination, 
suffered  the  utmost  cruelty  of  sword  and 
fire!      Maigh-Breagh,    and    Maigh-Liffo, 


which,  before  this,  exhibited  such  scenes 
of  opulence,  splendour,  hospitality,  and  pi- 
ety, became  now  destitute  of  inhabitants, 
cities,  or  houses;  and  the  country,  instead 
of  being  covered  with  flocks  and  com,  was 
replete  with  barbarians,  who  were  a  dis- 
honour to  humanity  !  In  this  general  con- 
flagration and  carnage,  churches  of  the 
greatest  fame  were  particular  objects  to 
satiate  the  vengeance  and  rapacity  of  these 
infidels.  They  plundered  and  burned  the 
noble  abbey  and  churches  of  Kildare,  tak- 
ing with  them  the  rich  shrines  of  St.  Bridget 
and  St.  Conlaeth.  The  city  of  Fearna- 
Maidog,  or  Ferns,  then  the  capital  of  Lein- 
ster,  they  laid  in  ashes  ;  having  first  plun- 
dered the  archiepiscopal  church  of  St.  Mai- 
dog  of  all  its  riches.  They  erected  forts 
and  castles,  in  these  now  desolate  places  ; 
so  that  whoever  ventured  to  return  to  their 
old  habitations,  must  do  it  on  terms  of  sub- 
mission to  them.  In  vain  did  the  Irish  op- 
pose them  manfully  everywhere ;  and 
wherever  they  engaged  them,  in  general 
defeated  them.  Our  annals  are  minute 
enough  in  their  accounts  of  these  different 
encounters,  (for  battles  they  could  not  be 
called,)  and  note  in  what  place  three,  in  an- 
other five,  and  six  hundred  of  these  people 
were  cut  off.  It  is  evident  by  their  num- 
bers and  the  power  they  in  fact  acquired, 
that,  upon  the  whole,  the  Danes  were  suc- 
cessful. This  was  not  enough :  the  inte- 
rior parts  of  the  country  had  been  hitherto 
free  from  their  incursions ;  and  poured 
forth  new  men,  to  defend  those  parts  near- 
est them.  Turgesius,  in  imitation  of  the 
Irish,  having  penetrated  far  into  the  coun- 
try, caused  light  barks  to  be  built,  and  the 
interior  parts  of  the  Shannon,  and  other 
rivers  and  lakes,  were  soon  filled  with  en- 
emies, who,  by  sudden  landings,  laid  the 
country  everywhere  waste.  The  prospect 
of  a  complete  reduction  of  the  kingdom 
animated  these  people  to  make  new  efforts. 
Turgesius  sent  to  his  friends  for  a  fresh 
reinforcement  of  troops.  Early  in  839,  a 
fleet  of  Danish  ships  appeared  on  the  coasts 
of  Ulster,  and  landed  a  large  body  of  troops 
near  Dundalk  ;  and  after  laying  waste  the 
ooimtrv,  took  Armagh  sword  in  hand,  and 


A.  D.  848.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


215 


set  fire  to  all  its  sumptuous  churches,  col- 
leges and  public  edifices.  As  had  been 
already  done  in  the  south,  they  built  ves- 
sels ;  and  Loch-Neagh  and  Loch-Erne 
were  covered  with  small  craft,  from  which 
they  suddenly  landed,  spreading  ruin  and 
desolation  over  all  the  adjacent  country, 
and  particularly  destroying  churches  and 
monasteries. 

These  scenes  of  devastation,  the  mon- 
arch, we  must  suppose,  laboured  to  re- 
dress ;  but  the  attacks  were  so  frequent, 
so  unexpected,  and  so  general,  that  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  remedy  for  all.  He  en- 
gaged them,  however,  in  two  different 
places,  and  defeated  them  both  times  with 
considerable  slaughter.  He  laboured  now 
to  unite  the  jarring  interests  of  the  king- 
dom. To  this  purpose  he  made  a  royal 
tour  into  Leinster,  but  was  unfortunately 
drowned  in  the  river  Caillen,  (in  attempt- 
ing to  relieve  a  gentleman  of  his  train,  who, 
in  trying  whether  it  was  fordable,  was 
washed  off  his  horse,)  to  the  unspeakable 
loss  of  his  country. 

In  the  disordered  state  in  which  the 
kingdom  must  have  been  left  by  the  pre- 
mature death  of  Niall,  we  cannot  suppose 
that  the  election  of  a  successor  was  so  sol- 
emn and  magnificent  as  upon  former  occa- 
sions— indeed  it  would  be  hard  to  think 
how  the  national  representatives  could 
safely  meet  to  proceed  to  such  election — 
yet  as  he  is  placed  next  in  the  regal  list, 
we  must  suppose  that  Maolseachlin,  other- 
wise Malachie,  the  son  of  Maolruana,  and 
brother  to  the  monarch  Connor,  was  imme- 
diately nominated  monarch  of  Ireland.  He 
is  called  in  the  regal  list  Flaith  na  Feine  go 
Fior-Bhuadh,  or  Prince  of  the  truly  Con- 
quering Legio^is.  Soon  after  his  accession 
to  the  throne,  he  summoned  the  states  of 
Leath-Cuin,  (i.  e.  of  Connaught,  Ulster,  and 
Meath,)  to  meet  at  Armagh,  (which  had 
been  recovered  from  the  Danes,)  to  delib- 
erate on  the  state  of  the  nation.  There 
appeared  besides  the  monarch  and  his 
suite,  Madaghan,  King  of  Ulster,  Flaithri, 
King  of  Connaught,  with  their  nobility; 
and  Diermod,  successor  to  St.  Patrick, 
with  his  clergy,  and  those  of  Meath,  opened 


the  convention  by  a  solemn  high  mass. 
From  their  effects  only,  are  we  enabled  to 
determine  what  were  the  resolves  of  this 
august  assembly,  and  these,  it  appears, 
were  to  attack  the  Danes  in  all  quarters, 
at  nearly  the  same  time.  The  monarch 
himself,  at  the  head  of  a  chosen  band,  de- 
feated a  large  body  of  them  in  Meath, 
with  the  loss  of  seven  hundred  of  their 
best  troops  left  dead  on  the  field  of  battle. 
The  brave  Dalgais  cut  to  pieces  several 
hundreds  of  them  at  Ard-Breacan,  about 
the  same  time ;  and  the  people  of  Tyrcon- 
nel  gave  a  signal  overthrow  to  a  large 
body  of  them  near  Easruadh.  The  same 
success  attended  the  people  of  Cianachta  ; 
and  at  Loch-Gobhair,  they  lost  several 
hundreds  more.  The  monarch  soon  after, 
in  conjunction  with  the  Lagenians,  gave 
them  battle  at  Glas-Glean,  and  seventeen 
hundred  of  them,  with  Saxolb,  a  comman- 
der of  special  note,  fell  in  the  engagement. 
But  these  successes  were  but  transitory; 
and  the  Danes  had  resources  which  the 
Irish  had  not.  Besides  the  numbers  of 
them  constantly  crowding  from  their  own 
barren  soil,  by  their  superiority,  both  in 
Britain  and  France,  they  could  recruit 
more  expeditiously  upon  emergencies,  than 
to  wait  for  new  succours  from  the  Baltic. 
Accordingly,  in  a  little  time,  the  power  of 
Turgesius  was  more  absolute  than  ever ; 
and  he  availed  himself  of  this  power  by 
imposing  the  severest  hardships,  and  taking 
the  most  effectual  methods  to  depress  the 
spirit  and  destroy  the  power  of  the  Irish 
that  barbarous  and  uncultivated  cruelty 
could  suggest. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Tyranny  exercised  by  Turgesius — Case  of  the 
Btooi-s  of  Granada  and  Hupuenots  of  France 
after  their  reduction,  very  different  from  that  of 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland — Justified  for  taking  up 
arms  on  revolution  principles — Unprecedented 
i-estraining  laws  passed  against  them,  and  the 
consequences  of  them. 

The  numerous  and  well-appointed  forces 
of  Turgesius,  by  the  spoils  of  Ireland  and 


ine 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  848. 


the  adjacent  countries,  in  their  turn  took 
the  lead  of  the  Irish  and  triumphed  every- 
where.    The  will  of  the  conquerors  be- 
came laws  to  the  vanquished,  and  these 
were  of  the  most  oppressive  nature.  Every 
district  in  the  land  in  which  an  Irish  taoi- 
seach,  or  lord,  resided,  was  obliged  to  en- 
tertain a  Danish  chief,  to  whom  he  was 
obliged  to  submit,  and  from  whom  he  was 
to  receive  orders  for  governing  his  people ; 
for  these  last  would  receive  no  commands 
but  directly  from  their  own  chiefs.     This 
preserved    the    appearance    of    freedom 
among  the  people,  and  at  the  same  time 
riveted  their  chains  more  strongly.    Every 
town,  besides  its  old  magistrates,  was  su- 
perintended by  a  captain  with  his  company ; 
every  village  had  a  serjeant ;  and  in  every 
farm-house  in  the  country  was  a  soldier 
lodged.     All  these  the  people  were  obliged 
to  support.     Had  this  support  been  such 
as  they  could  have  afforded,  it  would  have 
been  some   alleviation  to  their  miseries; 
but  this  was  not  the  case.     Nothing  the 
gentleman,  the  citizen,  or  the  farmer  pos- 
sessed, could  he  safely  call  his  own.     The 
cattle,  the  corn,  and  provisions  were  at  the 
disposal  of  the  rapacious  soldiery.     The 
citizen  and  the  farmer  dared  not  sit  down 
to  their  meals  in  their  own  habitations,  nor 
partake  of  the  fruits  of  their  industry,  till 
these  banditti  were  first  satisfied.     All  or- 
ders in  the  state  were  laid  aside,  and  the 
different  coloured  garments  by  which  the 
nobility,  the  literati,  and  the  military  were 
distinguished,  were  forbidden  under  severe 
penalties.     Universities  and  schools  were 
filled  with  soldiers,  churches  and  monas- 
teries with  heathen  priests,  and  such  of  the 
clergy  and  literati  as  escaped  the  sword, 
fled  to  deseft-ts   and  wildernesses,  where 
many  perished   through   want   and  cold. 
Religion  and  letters  were  interdicted ;  the 
nobility   and   gentry  were   forbidden  the 
use  of  arms ;  and  the  very  ladies  of  the 
education  proper  for  their  rank  and  state  ! 
This  was  not  enough :  the  master  of  every 
house  in  the  land  was  obliged  to  pay  an- 
nually to  Turgesius's  receivers  an  ounce 
of  gold  ;  and  this  was  exacted  with  such 
rigor  and  cruelty,  that  such  as  could  not 


comply  were  to  forfeit  the  loss  of  their 
nose,  or  become   slaves !   hence  this  tax 
was  called  Airgid-Srone,  or  nose-money. 
Such  were  the  terms  of  peace  which  the 
haughty  Dane  offered  the  Irish ;  and  these 
they  thought  were  better  than  a  total  ex- 
tirpation, which  must  have  followed  their 
refusal.     Thus,  though  Malachie  was  the 
nominal   monarch  of  Ireland   among   his 
countrymen  for  many  years,  yet  Turgesius 
was  in  fact  the  dictator.     The  colouring 
in  this  picture  of  national  distress  is  very 
far  from  being  heightened,  and  is  strictly 
consonant  to  the  records  of  those  days. 
But  if  we  reflect  on  the  characteristic  bar- 
barity of  this  motley  aggregate  of  different 
nations,  enemies  to  the  religion  and  to  the 
liberties  of  Europe,  and  at  the  same  time 
consider    that    their   tenures   in   different 
countries   were   by  the   sword   only,  we 
shall    be    less    surprised    at    the    savage 
cruelty  with  which  they  supported  their 
dominion  everywhere.     Should  we  be  able 
to  produce,  even  in  the  present  enlightened 
age,  not  the  lawless  behests  of  savage  ban- 
ditti, but  the  cool  and  deliberate  acts  of 
national  assemblies,  in  their  effects  as  op- 
pressive as  those  already  recited,  and  still 
less  defensible,  as  being  contrary  to  the 
faith  of  treaties  and  of  nations,  what  will 
the   public  think  of  the  framers  and  en- 
forcers of  them  ?  and  yet — lamentable  to 
be  told — such  is  the  case  of  Ireland  at  this 
very  day ! 

The  Spaniards  have  been  severely  ani- 
madverted on  for  their  banishing  the  Moors 
from  their  territories,  and  France  has  been 
highly  censured  for  the  revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes.  Viewed  in  a  political 
light,  nothing  can  be  offered  in  vindication 
of  either  act ;  but  considered  in  a  moral 
one,  much  may  be  said  to  extenuate  the 
charge  of  injustice  in  both  instances. 

With  respect  to  the  Moors,  their  ances- 
tors were  Africans,  enemies  to  Europe  by 
religion  and  by  principle:  they  not  only 
kept  Spain  under  galling  fetters  for  some 
centuries,  but  invaded  France,  and  intended 
everywhere  to  establish  the  crescent  at  the 
expense  of  the  cross.  They  were  expel- 
led from  France,  and  at  length  subdued  in 


A.  D.  848.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


217 


Spain  by  the  union  of  the  houses  of  Cas- 
tile and  Arragon;  and  being  completely 
conquered,  they  were,  by  the  law  of  arms, 
ai  the  mercy  of  their  enemies.  In  sound 
policy,  the  moment  they  were  deprived  of 
power,  that  moment  should  they  cease4o 
be  regarded  with  an  inimical  eye  ;  and  wise 
legislators  would  have  considered  only  how 
they  could  best  make  so  considerable  an 
accession  of  new  subjects  useful  to  the 
state.  The  wisdom  of  Spanish  counsels 
on  this  occasion  may  be  arraigned,  but  not 
their  justice. 

As  to  the  treatment  of  the  reformed  in 
France,  it  is  evident  from  history,  that  the 
concessions  made  to  them  were  extorted 
by  force  and  violence.  They  leagued 
with  England  and  Germany,  possessed 
themselves  of  several  cities,  and  bade  de- 
fiance to  their  natural  sovereigns.  By  the 
NULLUM  TEMPU8  act — eveu  in  England  a 
law  of  the  land — it  is  acknowledged  that 
no  length  of  time  or  possession,  no  pre- 
scription whatever,  can  deprive  the  crown 
of  a  resumption  of  her  natural  rights.  It 
should  follow,  then,  that  graces  extorted 
by  force  and  rebellion  in  more  settled 
times  may  be  legally  recalled.  But  let 
me  not  be  supposed  an  advocate  for  any 
violence  whatever  offered  to  people  on 
account  of  religious  principles.  My  soul 
abhors  the  thought;  and  I  think  every 
man  should  be  permitted  to  adore  the 
Deity  in  what  form  he  judges  best,  while 
his  religious  tenets  are  neither  injurious  to 
the  state,  or  to  individuals.  With  avowed 
principles  of  universal  toleration  I  wish 
not  to  offend  any  party  of  men ;  and  if  I 
have  hinted  at  the  above  facts,  it  is  that 
the  reader  may  plainly  see  in  how  different 
a  light  the  hardships  imposed  on  the  Irish 
Catholics  should  be  considered  from  those 
inflicted  on  the  Moors  of  Granada,  or  the 
Protestants  of  France. 

The  only  moral  light  in  which  the  Rev- 
olution of  1688  can  be  considered,  in  order 
to  be  justified,  is  by  admitting,  what  the 
church  of  England  formerly  denied,  and 
what  numbers  of  its  clergy  deny  at  this 
day — i.   e.   "  That  whenever    the   ruling 

prince  forfeits  his  coronation  oath,   that 

28 


moment  the  subjects  become  absolved 
from  their  allegiance ;"  and  to  give  to  this 
position  its  full  force,  we  shall  even  grant 
what  this  Revolution  sufficiently  proves — 
i.  e.  "  That  any  infraction  of  this  oath,  on 
the  part  of  the  sovereign,  is  a  full  acquittal 
of  every  tie  of  allegiance  on  those  of  the 
subject."  Still  the  Irish  could  not  be  justi- 
fied in  being  even  passive,  in  this  extraor- 
dinary revolution.  They,  as  well  as  the 
English,  swore  allegiance  to  James :  if  he 
trampled  on  the  laws  and  liberties  of  the 
latter,  the  former  had  no  charge  of  this 
kind  to  make.  On  the  contrary,  princi- 
ples of  gratitude,  as  well  as  of  duty,  called 
upon  them  to  defend  and  support  his  right 
to  the  kingdom  of  Ireland.  I  say  of  grati- 
tude, because  it  is  evident,  from  the  mo- 
ment he  came  to  the  crown,  that  he  had 
determined  to  repeal  the  act  of  settlement^ 
and  to  restore  to  the  Irish  those  estates 
and  honours,  which  both  he  and  they 
thought  that  act  had  most  unjustly  de- 
prived them  of.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
enter  into  the  nature  of  the  last  Irish  war : 
it  is  sufficient  for  our  purpose  to  observe, 
that  it  was  terminated  by  the  famous  capit- 
ulation of  Limerick,  agreed  to  on  the  third, 
and  signed  the  thirteenth  of  October,  1691, 
confirmed  by  the  then  lords-justices  on  be- 
half of  King  William,  and,  after  this,  recog- 
nised by  this  prince  in  the  most  ample  man- 
ner. By  this  peace,  the  Irish  Catholics  con- 
tinued possessed  of  their  estates  and  prop^ 
erties,  and  the  full  exercise  of  their  reli- 
gion, such  as  they  enjoyed  in  the  days  of 
Charles  II.,  on  taking  new  oaths  of  allegi- 
ance to  the  present  government ;  and  the 
merchant,  the  artizan,  and  the  agrarian, 
had  every  assurance  of  support  and  pro- 
tection. Such  Irish  as  thought  they  could 
not  in  honour  and  conscience  transfer  their 
allegiance  to  the  new  government,  were  at 
liberty  to  depart  from  the  kingdom,  and 
carry  with  them  their  money,  jewels,  and 
other  valuable  effects,  (William  obliging 
himself  to  supply  them,  at  his  own  expense, 
with  seventy  transports  ;)  and  no  less  than 
twenty  thousand  embraced  this  alteraative ! 
By  the  voluntary  emigration  of  such  a  num- 
ber of  bold  and  restless  spirits,  an  ample 


218 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  848. 


field  was  now  opened  to  restore  to  the 
peaceable  sons  of  Ireland,  that  ease  and 
tranquillity  which  cruel  intestine  wars  for 
above  five  centuries  had  deprived  them 
and  their  ancestors  of;  but  that  happy  day 
was  still  very  remote ! 

The  same  zeal  for  religion  which  ani- 
mated the  reformed  to  take  up  arms  against 
James,  and  to  expel  him  and  his  posterity, 
seemed,  now  that  they  were  possessed  of 
national  power,  to  absorb  every  other  pub- 
lic consideration  ;  and  to  it,  arts,  manufac- 
tures, commerce,  tillage,  and  whatever  else 
is  deemed  to  create  national  wealth  and 
felicity,  were  sacrificed!  For,  instead  of 
conciliatory  acts,  instead  of  acts  of  general 
oblivion,  instead  of  labouring  to  make  the 
horrors  of  war  be  forgot  in  the  happiness  of 
peace  and  plenty,  the  succeeding  Irish  par- 
liaments seemed  to  direct  all  their  views  to 
convert  and  reform  their  new  subjects  by 
penal  laws,  and  to  make  wilful,  obstinate 
recusants  feel  the  utmost  force  of  them ! 
These  laws  were  not  simply  confined  to 
the  nobility  and  gentry,  but,  with  wonder- 
ful impartiality  and  perspicuity,  materially 
affected  every  order  of  men. 

Catholics  were  forbidden,  by  severe 
penalties,  to  send  their  children  abroad  for 
education,  while,  at  the  same  time,  persons 
of  that  persuasion  were  disqualified  from 
instructing  them  at  home  !  Papists  were 
declared  incapable  of  purchasing  estates  ; 
and  the  estates  of  Papists  were  decreed,  to 
descend  in  Gavel-kind,  ad  infinitum ;  but 
if  the  eldest,  or  any  other  son  reformed,  he 
became  heir-at-law  !  That  the  children  of 
Papists  should  be  under  no  kind  of  dread 
or  restraint  of  their  parents,  whoever 
chose  to  become  Protestants,  was  allowed 
by  the  court  of  Chancery  a  stipend  equal 
to  the  father's  fortune  during  his  life,  and 
the  inheritance  on  his  decease,  howsoever 
dissolute  and  abandoned  he  might  be  !  Pa- 
pists were  rendered  incapable  of  inheriting, 
by  will,  descent,  or  otherwise,  any  estate 
of  Protestant  relations,  unless  they  reformed 
within  the  course  of  six  months  :  they  could 
not  lend  money  on  mortgages ;  and  they 
were  forbidden  even  to  wear  that  com- 
mon mark  of  gentility,  a  sword. 


Besides  these  and  many  other  acts,  lev- 
elled chiefly  at  the  Catholic  nobility  and 
gentry,  others  were  calculated  to  affect 
the  farmer,  the  merchant,  and  the  me- 
chanic. An  act  passed,  declaring  Roman 
Catholics  incapable  of  taking  lands,  farms, 
or  houses,  for  a  longer  term  than  thirty- 
one  years ;  but  in  this  act  there  was  a 
clause  of  the  most  pernicious  tendency  to 
the  industrious  farmer,  and  through  him  to 
the  kingdom  at  large.  For  it  was  not 
enough  that  by  circumscribing  the  length 
of  his  tenures,  the  interest  of  the  land-holder 
was,  at  best,  but  short  and  precarious,  and 
his  inducements  to  improve,  but  few  ;  by 
this  act  he  was  obliged  to  pay  two-thirds 
of  the  improved  yearly  value  of  such  land^ 
otherwise  it  became  the  property  of  the  first 
Protestant  discoverer.  Papists  were  for- 
bidden to  reside  in  Limerick  or  Galway, 
(then  great  commercial  cities,)  except  fish- 
ermen and  labourers ;  nor  even  these,  if 
they  paid  a  greater  rent  than  forty  shil- 
lings a  year  each  for  his  holdings.  Nay, 
popish  artizans  were  rendered  incapable 
of  taking  more  than  two  apprentices. 

Whatever  wise  and  pious  intents  were 
proposed  by  these,  and  many  other  acts 
of  parliament,  equally  new  and  unprece- 
dented, yet  the  fact  is,  that  they  have  been 
productive  of  the  greatest  calamities,  as 
well  to  the  nation  at  large,  as  to  the  par- 
ties more  immediately  affected  by  them, 
as  they  contributed  very  little  towards  the 
conversion  of  the  Catholic  natives  ;  they 
of  course  laid  them  open  to  every  scene  of 
distress,  poverty,  and  misery  that  can  well 
be  supposed.  By  their  effects,  the  bonds 
of  society  became  dissolved,  and  the  peace 
of  families  destroyed  !  Parents  were  de- 
prived of  rewarding  their  dutiful,  or  pun- 
ishing delinquent  children !  The  kingdom 
swarmed  with  perjurers,  blood-hounds,  and 
discoverers ;  the  lawyers  were  deeply  in- 
terested in  extending  the  spirit,  force,  and 
meaning  of  these  acts,  to  their  utmost  lim- 
its ;  and  the  courts  had  little  other  busi- 
ness but  enforcing  them.  The  act  con- 
fining Papists  to  leases  of  thirty-one  years, 
but  particularly  obliging  them  to  pay  to  the 
landlord  full  two-thirds  of  the  profit  rent 


[A.  D.  848. 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


S19 


was  one  of  the  most  oppressive  and  iniqui- 
tous that  was  ever  dictated  !  The  reader 
will  easily  perceive  that  the  other  third 
was  scarce  sufficient  to  pay  the  expense 
of  tillage,  much  less  to  yield  a  profit  rent 
to  the  farmer.  If  he  took  a  lease  below 
this  valuation,  after  building  and  improving 
for  three  or  four  years,  he  was  sure  to 
be  dispossessed.  The  distress  and  ruin 
brought  on  families,  and  on  the  kingdom, 
by  it,  are  not  to  be  expressed.  The  coun- 
try became  desolate,  country-towns  dwin- 
dled into  wretched  villages,  and  these  soon 
mouldered  into  dust  for  want  of  trade  and 
employment ! 

Still  the  cities  continued  opulent  by  their 
commerce,  and  the  large  exports,  particu- 
larly of  woollen  goods,  gave  employment 
to  thousands.  Their  situations  and  cir- 
cumstances were  no  more  overlooked  than 
those  of  the  very  common  peasants,  who 
were  forbidden  by  law  to  take  more  than 
two  acres  of  land  each !  Very  soon  after  the 
Revolution  an  act  passed,  directing  two 
shillings  in  the  pound  duty  to  be  paid  for  all 
Irish  broad-cloths  exported,  and  one  shil- 
ling in  the  pound  on  narrow  goods !  This 
was  succeeded  by  a  second,  which  obliged 
the  merchant  to  pay  four  shillings  in  the 
pound  on  broad-cloths,  and  two  shillings 
in  the  pound  on  narrow  goods  shipped  for 
foreign  markets.  A  third  followed,  con- 
fining the  exportation  of  woollen  cloths  to 
four  pounds  worth  to  the  captain,  and  forty 
shillings  worth  to  the  sailors  of  every  ship, 
and  no  more;  and  this  was  soon  after 
closed  by  a  total  prohibition ! 

The  government  of  corporate  towns  be- 
ing transferred  to  new  hands,  their  rulers, 
the  better  to  ingratiate  themselves  with  the 
higher  powers,  followed  the  example. 
Catholic  merchants  agreed  to  pay  them  the 
extraordinary  duties,  such  as  aliens  pay, 
for  permission  to  follow  trade  in  their  na- 
tive cities ;  the  manufacturers  were  obliged 
to  pay  heavy  fines  and  quarterage  to  enti- 
tle them  to  pursue  their  different  callings ; 
nay,  the  very  journeymen  were  compelled 
to  pay  these  impositions,  and  these,  in  too 
many  instances,  were  extorted  with  un- 
heard-of cruelty.     I  shall  not  dwell  upon 


these  facts :  they  have  been  proved  before 
the  House  of  Commons ;  they  have  been 
declared  unlawful;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  reiterated  endeavours  of  heads  of  cities 
and  corporate  towns  for  some  years  past, 
they  have  not  been  able  to  gain  for  these 
acts  of  monopoly  and  oppression  the  force 
of  law.  Thus  a  profound  and  undisturbed 
peace  of  eighty-six  years,  has  proved,  to  a 
large  majority  of  the  natives  of  this  king- 
dom, a  period  of  most  unheard-of  afflic- 
tions; and  laws,  operating  against  indus- 
try, arts,  and  sciences,  have  had  the  utmost 
success.  The  poor  of  Ireland,  one  of  the 
most  lovely  and  fruitful  islands  in  the  world, 
are,  at  this  day,  the  most  wretched  and 
oppressed  set  of  mortals  the  sun  ever  shone 
on,  and  we  are  the  last  nation  in  Europe 
in  arts,  commerce  and  letters  !  In  vain  do 
"  THESE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY**  cry  out  against 
the  banishing  of  the  Moors  from  Spain, 
and  exclaim  at  the  revocation  of  the  Edict 
of  Nantes.  It  had  been  a  happy  circum- 
stance for  the  Irish  had  they  been  obliged, 
like  the  Moors,  to  sell  their  estates  and  quit 
the  kingdom ;  they  then  would  have  car- 
ried their  property  with  them;  but  the 
penal  laws  deprived  multitudes  of  this,  and 
considerable  families  soon  mouldered  away. 
The  laws  of  France  operated,  not  on  the 
properties,  but  the  religion  of  the  Hugue- 
nots ;  those  of  Ireland  unhappily  militate 
against  both  1 

The  bad  policy  in  enacting  these  laws 
is  now  acknowledged  by  men  of  sense  and 
candor,  and  some  faint  unsuccessful  at- 
tempts have  been  lately  made  to  repeal,  or 
rather  to  mitigate  a  few  of  them ;  but  no 
notice  is  taken  of  their  injustice,  or  how 
ruinous  they  have  been  in  their  conse- 
quences both  to  Britain  and  Ireland ;  being 
the  efficient  cause  of  no  less  than  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  Irish  enlisting  them- 
selves under  the  banners  of  France  from 
the  year  1691  to  the  year  1745,  inclusive! 


220 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  862. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

The  Danes  still  triumphant — Turgesius  demands 
the  daughter  of  Malachie  for  a  mistress — Mala- 
chie  conspires  to  circumvent  him,  and  restore 
liberty  to  his  country — The  Danes  everywhere 
subdued  —  Mistake  of  Keating,  and  singular 
character  of  Malachie. 

The  oppressions  the  Irish  nation  la- 
boured under,  continued  during  almost  the 
entire  of  Malachie's  reign  ;  and,  for  a  pe- 
riod of  thirteen  years,  we  read  of  no  gen- 
erous effort  made  by  this  prince  to  restore 
peace  and  liberty  to  his  country,  except 
the  few  attempts  made  in  the  first  year  of 
his  administration.  The  event,  however, 
proves  that,  far  from  wanting  abilities, 
genius,  or  courage,  he  was,  in  the  main,  as 
great  a  statesman  and  general  as  any  na- 
tion produced  ;  but  the  nerves,  by  which 
only  these  latent  virtues  could  be  called 
forth,  had  not  yet  suffered  the  smallest  vi- 
bration. Neither  the  love  of  glory  or  of 
his  country  were  the  predominant  passions 
of  Malachie,  as  is  evident  by  his  abject 
passiveness  for  so  many  years;  but  the 
measure  of  the  iniquities  of  Turgesius,  and 
of  his  barbarous  hosts,  was  now  filled,  and 
the  vengeance  of  an  afflicted  people  was 
to  be  satisfied. 

Turgesius,  accustomed  to  the  most  pas- 
sive obedience,  and  wantonly  indulging 
every  lawless  passion,  had  seen  the  lovely 
Melcha,  daughter  to  the  monarch,  and  was 
resolved  to  enjoy  her.  He  found  means  ! 
to  make  his  desires  known  to  her,  but  they  j 
were  rejected  with  disdain.  He  applied  j 
to  her  father,  and  probably  with  an  intent  \ 
to  make  her  his  wife,  thereby  to  give  some 
appearance  of  justice  to  the  entailing  of 
the  supreme  command  of  Ireland  in  his 
family ;  but  this  last  is  a  mere  surmise  of 
mine,  unsupported  by  any  authority.  That 
he  requested  the  father's  interest  to  procure 
him  the  daughter  is  certain ;  and  now  it 
was  that  these  passions,  which  the  love  of 
his  country  could  not  inspire,  blazed  forth, 
and,  in  the  insults  offered  to  his  name  and 
family,  Malachie  wept  over  the  distresses 
of  his  country,  and  sought  to  remedy  them. 
In  order  to  gain  time,  he  requested  of  Tur- 
gesius two  days  to  prepare  his  daughter 
for  this  sacrifice;  and,  in  return  for  this 


condescension,  he  engaged  that  she  should 
be  attended  by  fifteen  of  the  finest  virgins 
in  Meath,  (for  this  tyrant's  residence  was 
near  Tara,)  in  order  to  be  disposed  of 
among  his  principal  favourites.  The  Dane 
agreeing  to  this,  Malachie  became  more 
composed,  and,  we  are  told,*  proposed  to 
him  the  following  question,  probably  to  de- 
termine his  own  future  conduct :  "  What 
(says  he)  shall  we  do  to  clear  the  coun- 
try effectually  of  a  parcel  of  foreign  birds, 
lately  come  among  us,  who  are  of  a  most 
pestiferous  nature  ?"  The  tyrant,  not  aware 
of  the  tendency  of  the  question,  answered, 
"  If  they  build  nests,  you  can  never  hope 
to  root  them  out  without  destroying  these 
nests  every  where."  This  plainly  pointed 
out  to  Malachie  that,  in  his  meditated 
scheme  of  ruining  the  Danes,  to  insure  suc- 
cess he  must  destroy  their  castles  and 
strongholds  also. 

Malachie,  immediately  after  this,  retired 
to  his   palace,  to  consider  more  at  leisure 
the  conduct  he  should  pursue.     To  sacri- 
fice his  daughter  to  a  heathen  Dane,  the 
tyrant  and  usurper  of  his  country !  his  soul 
recoiled  at  the  thought !    The  shortness 
of  the  time,  and  the  numbers  of  Danish 
enemies,  and  spies  in  every  nook  in  the 
kingdom,  could  not  shake  him   from  his 
purpose.    With  wonderful  secrecy  he  had 
procured  fifteen  beardless  young  men,  but 
with  hearts  burning  to  avenge  the  cause 
of  their  country ;    and  these  were  to  be 
attired  in  female  habits,  each  with  a  dirk 
concealed,  to  attend  the  princess  of  Ireland 
to  the  castle  of  Turgesius.     He,  at  the 
same   time,  called  together  a  few  of  his 
most  faithful  adherents  and  opened  to  them 
his  intentions.     Expresses  were  also  sent, 
with  the  greatest  privacy,  from  prince  to 
prince,  and  from  chief  to  chief,  exhorting 
them  to  fall  everywhere  on  the  perfidious 
Danes,  as  expeditiously  as  possible,  on  the 
day  marked  down,  by  which  means  they 
would  be  disabled  from  affording  relief  to 
each  other.     During  these  preparations  the 
thoughts  of  love  only  filled  the  breast  of 
the  amorous  Dane.     He  prepared  a  most 
sumptuous  banquet,  to  which  he  invited  his 

*  rambreiia.  Topogr.  Hibem.  Dist.  3.  c.  42. 


A.  D.  863.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


221 


chief  favourites,  to  celebrate  the  reception 
of  his  mistress  with  great  splendour.  The 
evening  of  the  fatal  day  approached ;  the 
princess,  with  her  attendants,  advanced  to- 
wards the  castle  of  Turgesius,  and  the 
father,  with  a  throbbing  heart,  anxious  for 
the  issue  of  these  great  events,  prepared, 
with  his  forces,  secretly  and  speedily  to 
follow.  The  directions  given  to  the  young 
men  were,  the  moment  they  perceived  the 
Dane  advancing  towards  the  princess,  they 
were  to  seize  and  manacle,  but  by  no 
means  to  kill  him.  A  sign  agreed  on  was 
then  to  be  given,  the  gates  to  be  burst 
open,  and  Malachie  and  his  party  without, 
were  to  force  in  and  put  the  garrison  to 
sword,  Turgesius  only  excepted  ;  all  which 
were  executed  with  as  much  courage  and 
exactness  as  they  were  planned  with  se- 
crecy and  wisdom.  Malachie,  now  in  pos- 
session of  the  tyrant,  had  him  led  in  fetters 
in'the  midst  of  his  troops,  the  better  to  en- 
courage his  countrymen  and  intimidate  the 
Danes,  who,  without  head  or  hearts,  fell 
everywhere  an  easy  prey  to  the  enraged 
Irish.  In  a  short  time  the  kingdom  became 
clear  of  their  hostile  troops,  either  falling 
in  battle  or  escaping  by  their  ships,  and  an 
armed  Dane  was  not  to  be  seen  in  the 
land  !  Liberty  was  proclaimed,  the  re- 
mains of  the  clergy  and  the  literati  came 
forth  from  their  lurking-places,  and  many 
of  those  who  fled  to  France  returned. 
Churches  and  monasteries  were  re-conse- 
crated, colleges  and  universities  again 
opened,  and  such  works  as  could  be  glean- 
ed, or  had  escaped  the  Danish  conflagra- 
tions, were  carefully  collected.  The  glory 
of  Malachie,  and  the  greatness  of  his  ex- 
ploits, were  the  themes  of  the  senachies 
and  bards,  and  the  kingdom  re-echoed  the 
sound. 

The  foreigners  being  thus  subdued,  and 
their  castles  and  strongholds  everywhere 
prostrated,  a  national  assembly  of  the  es- 
tates was  convened  at  Rath-Aodh,  or  the 
Palace  of  Hugh,  in  West  Meath.  That 
no  private  animosities  should  obstruct  the 
public  concerns,  the  clergy,  who  attended 
this  assembly,  took  care  first  to  reconcile 
the  disputes  between  the  diflerent  great 


chiefs.  The  case  of  the  remains  of  these 
aliens  who  escaped  the  first  fury  of  the 
enraged  Irish  was  taken  into  consideration ; 
they  were  still  numerous,  and  at  the  mercy 
of  their  enemies.  Sound  policy  succeed- 
ed rage;  and  it  was  evident  that  they 
might  be  converted,  with  care,  to  useful 
subjects  of  the  State,  possessing  some 
arts,  and  not  totally  unacquainted  with 
trade..  It  was,  however,  decreed  that  Tur- 
gesius should  be  put  to  death;  and  it  was 
done  in  the  most  public  manner,  being 
thrown  into  Loch-Ainin,  bound  hand  and 
foot,  in  the  presence  of  his  surviving  coun- 
trymen, and  thousands  of  spectators.  This 
public  sacrifice  being  over,  a  general  am- 
nesty passed,  by  which  the  captive  Danes 
became  emancipated,  and  liberty  was 
granted  them  to  live  in  the  maritime  towns, 
and  pursue  commerce  and  manufactures 
under  certain  regulations.  What  other 
useful  acts  were  passed  in  thi^  assembly 
we  are  not  told ;  and  it  is  surprising  that 
the  state  of  their  navy,  and  the  necessity 
of  keeping  up  a  considerable  fleet,  did  not 
then  occur  to  them.  It  is,  however,  highly 
probable  that  it  did,  though  no  knowledge 
of  it  has  come  to  us. 

Internal  peace  and  order  being  happily 
restored  by  one  of  the  most  sudden,  vio- 
lent, and  successful  revolutions  that  history 
can  produce,  the  next  care  of  Malachie 
was  to  announce  this  glorious  event  to  his 
foreign  allies.  We  are  particularly  told 
that,  by  his  ambassadors  to  Charles  the 
Bald,  King  of  France,  he  sent  rich  pres- 
ents— probably  some  of  the  spoils  of  the 
Danes* — and  a  request  to  grant  him,  and 
his  retinue,  safe-guards  through  France,  in 
his  passage  to  Rome,  where  he  intended 
going  on  a  pilgrimage,  to  return  God 
thanks  for  the  happy  delivery  of  his  coun- 
try from  foreign  tyranny;  but  a  natural 
death  soon  after  prevented  the  execution 
of  his  pious  intentions,  and  he  was  interred 
with  great  funeral  pomp  at  Chean-Mac- 
Nois. 

We  are  surprised  to  read  in  Keating, 
and  other  historians,  that,  after   this  de- 

*  Ware's  Antiqaides,  chap,  zxiv.,  fix>m  the  Chroni- 
cles of  Normandy. 


222 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  863. 


struction  of  the  Danes,  and  the  prostration 
of  all  their  castles  and  forts,  which  Mala- 
chie  gave  a  particular  charge  to  see  execu- 
ted, that  he  was  again  obliged  to  make  war 
on  them ;  and  particularly  for  their  putting 
to  death  Maolguala,  King  of  Munster; 
but  this  proceeds  from  not  properly  advert- 
ing to  dates ;  for  this  prince  fell  in  the  be- 
ginning of  Malachie's  reign,  nor  was  there 
for  some  years  after  any  of  these  people 
capable  of  molesting  the  public  tranquillity. 
The  glory  which  this  prince  acquired  in 
the  decline  of  life,  shows  how  little  we  can 
depend  upon  the  general  tenor  of  conduct 
in  kings  to  determine  their  real  abilities. 
We  see  him,  in  the  beginning  of  his  admin- 
istration, exert  himself  with  activity  in  the 
cause  of  his  country ;  but  fresh  enemies 
constantly  pouring  in,  so  harrassed  his 
troops  and  dispirited  himself,  that,  like  the 
present  king  of  Poland,  [1778,]  he  judged 
the  very  shadow  of  monarchy,  though  at 
the  ruin  of  his  country,  preferable  to  a 
desperate  exertion  of  power  to  recover  the 
whole,  or  perish  in  the  attempt.  For  thir- 
teen years,  timid,  passive  counsels  governed 
his  conduct ;  and  we  should  have  known 
little  of  his  real  character  or  amazing  abil- 
ities, had  not  the  spring  to  these  passions 
been  happily  put  in  motion.  No  measures 
of  prudence  were  now  regarded.  The 
Danes,  possessed  of  all  the  strongholds  in 
the  kingdom,  powerful  at  sea,  with  resour- 
ces easy  to  be  procured  from  Britain  and 
Armoric  Gaul  in  case  of  necessity,  dis- 
persed over  every  part  of  the  land,  and 
commanded  everywhere.  Yet  all  these 
dangers  appeared  as  nothing  in  his  eyes  ; 
but  the  moment  the  honour  of  his  family  was 
attacked,  he  projected  and  succeeded  in 
one  of  the  boldest  enterprises  that  human 
genius  could  imagine,  to  preserve  his 
daughter,  while,  with  half  this  vigour,  and 
not  half  the  danger,  he  might  have,  long 
before  that,  destroyed  them,  had  he  been 
as  active  in  the  cause  of  his  country  ! 


CHAPTER    V. 

Of  Aodh  VII.,  and  the  artifices  of  the  Danes  to 
gain  a  new  footing  in  Ireland — They  become 
again  terrible  to  the  natives — Reign  of  Flan,  and 
his  invasion  of  South  Munster — Singular  reason 
for  entering  North  Monster,  and  his  defeat  there 
— The  Danes  avail  themselves  of  these  intestine 
broils — Of  Cormoc,  King  of  Munster — Cause  of 
his  invading  Leinster — His  will — Defeat  and 
death  in  the  battle  of  Maigh-Ailbe. 

Aodh,  or  Hugh  VII.,  the  son  of  Niall- 
Caille,  now  succeeded  to  the  monarchy. 
Though  the  Danes,  as  a  military  people, 
were  expelled  from  the  kingdom,  yet  the 
fertility  of  the  soil  and  beauty  of  the  coun- 
try, and  still  more,  its  immense  riches, 
were  continual  stimulants  to  them  to  pant 
for  a  re-possession  of  it.  They  saw  it 
was  impracticable  to  attempt  this  by  force, 
as,  by  the  convention  at  Rath- Aodh,  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom  had  confederated  to 
oppose  these  foreign  invasions.  After 
much  consultation,  the  following  project, 
says  Cambrensis,  was  agreed  to.  Three 
brothers,  Amelanus,  Sitaracus,  and  Ivorus, 
commanders  of  great  abilities,  fitted  out  a 
considerable  fleet,  consisting  of  merchan- 
dise, but  in  which  large  quantities  of  arms 
were  concealed ;  and  the  better  to  deceive 
the  vigilance  of  the  Irish,  they  were  divided 
into  three  squadrons.  One  sailed  up  the 
Shannon,  to  dispose  of  their  goods  at  Lim- 
erick, commanded  by  Ivorus.  He  waited 
upon  Lachtna,  King  of  North  Munster, 
presented  him  with  some  rare  curiosities, 
requesting  his  permission  to  settle  in  that 
city,  with  his  people,  in  the  way  of  traffic, 
and  promising  extraordinary  duties  for  this 
liberty.  In  like  manner  Amelanus  was 
permitted  to  settle  in  Dublin,  by  the  king 
of  Leinster  ;  and  Sitaracus  in  Waterford, 
by  the  prince  of  the  Deasies.  Cambrensis 
and  the  Polychronicon  aflirm,  that  by  these 
three  leaders  were  these  cities  for  the  first 
time  built;  but  the  reader  cannot  forget 
that  they  were  cities  of  note  long  before 
Christianity,  and  that  the  trade  of  Dublin, 
in  particular,  was  so  great  in  those  early 
days,  that  a  most  bloody  war  broke  out, 
in  the  decline  of  the  second  century,  be- 
tween the  monarch  Con  and  the  king  of 
Munster,  to  determine  to  whom  the  duties 
upon  exports  and  imports    in    that  city 


A.  D.  869.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


223 


should  be  paid.  Add  to  this,  that  St.  Pat- 
rick celebrates  it  for  its  great  trade,  riches, 
and  splendour  ;  and,  as  to  Waterford,  the 
name  of  it  in  Irish,  sufficiently  declares 
its  ancient  commerce,  being  called  Port- 
Lairge,  or  the  harbour  in  form  of  a  thigh  ; 
so  that  if  it  had  not  been  noted  for  trade, 
it  would  not  have  got  the  name  of  Port. 

These  chiefs  now  laid  themselves  out  to 
pay  their  court  to  the  different  princes  in 
whose  territories  they  had  got  footing. 
They  entered  into  their  interests,  soothed 
their  passions,  and  engaged  to  support  their 
different  claims.  It  must  be  confessed  that 
the  Irish  have  a  greater  milkiness  of  tem- 
per than  any  other  nation;  and  English 
writers,  and  English  governors,  while  they 
have  been  plundering  them  of  their  pro- 
perty, and  forming  the  most  iniquitous 
schemes  against  them,  abundantly  acknow- 
ledge how  much  gentle  words  could  pacify 
them.  We  must  not  then  be  surprised  that 
the  Danish  intrigues  proved  so  successful. 
As  the  fast  friends  and  allies  of  these  Irish 
princes,  they  were  permitted  to  purchase 
land,  and  erect  castles  and  strongholds 
for  their  security ;  and  by  this  means,  and 
the  accession  of  fresh  forces,  under  the 
disguise  of  merchants  and  travellers,  they 
became  very  formidable  friends  in  a  short 
time.  Thus  Amelanus,  (or  as  he  is  called 
in  our  annals  Amhlaoibh,)  uniting  with  the 
Lagenians,  attacked  the  forces  of  Connor, 
the  son  of  Donough,  Governor  of  Meath, 
and  defeated  them  at  Clonaird.  Among 
the  slain  was  this  Connor,  who  fell  by  the 
sword  of  Humphry,  a  Danish  prince. 
Encouraged  by  this  success,  and  joined  by 
fresh  forces,  Amelanus,  the  spring  follow- 
ing, made  a  sudden  incursion  into  Ulster, 
surprised  Armagh,  and,  after  plundering 
the  churches  and  sacred  places  of  their 
riches,  set  fire  to  them,  putting  at  the 
same  time  to  the  sword,  above  a  thousand 
people,  clergy  and  laity.  The  monarch 
hastily  collected  a  body  of  men  and  came 
up  with  the  incendiaries,  and  their  Irish 
allies,  at  Loch-Foil,  in  the  county  of  Don- 
egal. The  action  was  long  and  severe, 
but  victory  at  length  declared  in  favour  of 
Aodh.    Of  the  Danes  only,  twelve  hun- 


dred were  slain  in  the  field,  with  forty 
officers  of  note :  how  many  of  their  allies 
fell  on  that  day  is  not  said.  Encouraged 
by  this  success,  the  monarch  attacked 
their  castles  and  garrisons,  recovering  a 
considerable  part  of  the  booty  they  had 
taken.  Among  other  exploits,  he  set  fire 
to  the  castle  of  Cluan-Dalcham,  near  Dub- 
lin, and  put  the  garrison,  and  numbers 
of  their  best  commanders,  then  shut  up 
there,  to  the  sword.  To  revenge  these 
affronts,  Amelanus,  soon  after,  laid  an  am- 
buscade, and  surprised,  and  put  to  the 
sword,  or  made  prisoners,  above  two 
thousand  Irish.  Encouraged  by  this  suc- 
cess, Amelanus,  with  his  Irish  associates, 
took  the  field ;  but  Aodh,  at  the  head  of 
one  thousand  cavaliers,  and  as  many  foot, 
mounted  on  the  troop-horses,  for  greater 
expedition,  attacked  their  army  so  cour- 
ageously and  seasonably,  that,  of  above 
five  thousand  men  of  which  it  was  com- 
posed, few  escaped  the  slaughter.  Soon 
after,  Amelanus  and  his  brother  Ivorus 
collected  their  best  troops,  and  hastened 
to  the  assistance  of  Hinguar  and  Hubba, 
their  allies,  then  hard  pressed  by  the 
Welch.  For  it  was  a  policy  successfully 
practised  by  this  people,  when  they  found 
themselves  too  closely  pressed  in  different 
places,  to  give  up  one  or  two,  for  a  time, 
in  order  to  be  more  successful  in  a  third ; 
and,  when  they  had  established  their  power 
in  the  last  place,  to  return  with  greater 
forces  to  the  former.  The  histories  of 
France  and  England,  as  well  as  Ireland, 
sufficiently  prove  this,  and  will  clearly 
explain  why  they  so  speedily  recruited 
their  forces,  and  triumphed  over  troops 
which,  a  little  before,  they  retreated  from. 
Their  success  in  Wales  was  so  great,  in 
this  last  expedition,  that  Roger,  the  son  of 
Moirman,  King  of  the  Britons,  fled  to  Ire- 
land for  refuge,  and  was  most  honourably 
entertained  by  the  monarch. 

For  the  remainder  of  this  reign,  we  read 
of  no  further  hostile  attempts  of  the  Danes ; 
and  in  this  time  many  churches  and  pub- 
lic edifices  were  re-built  and  re-edified. 
Among  others,  Armagh,  Kildare,  Skelig, 
St.  Michael,  in  the  county  of  Kerry,  etc.. 


224 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  888. 


resumed  their  former  splendour;  but  the 
Danish  depredations  on  the  English  and 
Scottish  coasts  were  so  great,  that  the 
rich  shrine  of  St.  Columba  was,  for  its 
greater  security,  in  875,  conveyed  to  Ire- 
land, from  the  Isle  of  Huy.  The  monarch 
at  length  departed  this  life  in  peace,  the 
twentieth  of  November,  879,  with  the 
character  of  a  good  prince,  a  good  soldier, 
and  a  good  Christian. 

Flan-Sionna,  son  of  the  intrepid  Malachie, 
was  called  to  the  throne.  His  reign  com- 
menced with  a  sudden  invasion  of  Munster, 
in  which  he  carried  everything  before  him. 
Cean-Faola  (not  Maolguala,  with  Keat- 
ing) was  at  this  time  king  of  Munster,  and 
at  the  same  time  abbot  of  Emely  ;  and  we 
cannot  be  surprised  at  the  success  of  the 
monarch  against  such  an  enemy.  We  are 
told  in  the  Psalter  of  Cashell,  that  the  mon- 
arch became  so  elated  at  this  success,  that 
one  day,  in  the  presence  of  his  generals 
and  his  court,  he  declared  that  he  would 
enter  hostilely  into  any  territory  in  Ire- 
land, and  that  with  as  much  safety  and  as 
little  fear  of  an  enemy  as  if  he  had  been 
on  a  royal  tour ;  and,  in  consequence  of 
this  confidence,  he  announced  his  intention 
of  amusing  himself  at  chess  on  his  march 
home.  Mac  Lonnan,  the  chief  bard,  who 
thought  it  his  duty  to  check  such  vain 
sallies,  answered,  that  if  he  went  into  the 
Dai-Gas  territories,  or  those  of  Thomond, 
in  the  same  manner,  and  offered  such  marks 
of  contempt  to  that  intrepid  race,  he  would 
soon  see  the  difference  between  invading 
the  territories  of  a  warrior  and  of  a  priest. 
Enraged  at  this  tart  remark.  Flan  ordered 
the  tents  to  be  immediately  struck,  and 
directed  his  march  towards  Thomond; 
but  Lorcan,  king  of  that  country,  alarmed 
at  the  invasion  of  South  Munster,  had  al- 
ready collected  his  forces,  apprehensive  of 
such  a  visit.  As  soon  as  Flan  had  crossed 
the  Shannon,  and  advanced  some  miles 
into  the  country,  he  pitched  his  tents,  and 
ordered  the  chess-tables  to  be  produced, 
that  he  and  his  chief  commanders  might 
sit  down  to  play.  Lorcan  was  a  prince 
of  uncommon  intrepidity,  and  possessed 
besides  of  great  abilities  for  the  field  or  the 


cabinet:  he  deemed  this  mark  of  contempt 
a  greater  indignity  than  the  invasion  itself. 
Scarce  had  Flan  and  his  officers  began 
their  games,  when  the  Dalgais  broke  into 
their  camp,  overturned  the  tables,  and  call- 
ed the  monarch  to  another  party.  Both 
armies  immediately  engaged  with  great 
fury,  and  night  only  ended  the  contest  for 
the  present.  The  battle  was  renewed  next 
morning  with  the  rising  sun,  and  continued 
till  night.  It  was  a  point  of  honour  that 
gave  rise  to  the  whole  dispute ;  and  this 
only  could  end  with  the  destruction  of  one 
party  or  the  other,  for  neither  would  re- 
treat. It  ended  indeed  the  evening  of  the 
third  day,  but  with  the  destruction  of  al- 
most the  whole  of  the  imperial  army  ;  and 
Flan  himself  was  obliged  to  send  this  very 
Mac  Lonnan  to  Lorcan,  to  beg  a  safeguard 
for  himself  and  the  remainder  of  his  shat- 
tered forces,  which  was  immediately  grant- 
ed. This  battle,  and  the  consequences  of 
it,  proclaim  but  too  much  the  natural  dis- 
positions of  the  Irish  to  contentions  ;  and 
how  ready  they  were,  on  the  most  trifling 
occasions,  to  rush  wantonly  into  battle. 
It  however  proves  that  their  very  manner 
of  giving  offence  had  something  in  it  noble 
and  manly. 

In  888,  Cean-Faola,  King  of  Munster, 
died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Donogh,  the 
son  of  Duibh-Dabhorean,  of  the  same  Eu- 
genian  stock. 

The  Danes,  from  their  successes  in  Bri- 
tain and  Gaul,  were  enabled  to  reinforce 
their  garrisons  in  Ireland  ;  and  they  avail- 
ed themselves  of  the  supineness  of  their 
enemies,  for  in  883,  they  invaded  Leinster, 
and  plundered  many  rich  churches  and 
abbeys,  particularly  those  of  Kildare  and 
the  Naas,  returning  to  Dublin,  laden  with 
spoils,  and  two  hundred  and  eighty  cap- 
tives, among  whom  was  Suine,  the  son  of 
Duibh-Dabhorean,  prior  of  Kildare,  and 
other  ecclesiastics  of  prime  quality,  who 
were  ransomed  at  a  very  great  expense. 
In  885,  the  monarch  Flan  attacked  Dublin, 
but  his  army  was  defeated,  and  among  the 
slain  was  Largisius,  Bishop  of  Kildare. 
The  death  of  this  prelate  shows  that  the 
ordinance  of  Aodh  VI.  dispensing  prelates 


A.  D.  906.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


225 


from  attending  the  royal  army,  was  not 
perpetual.  In  890,  the  Danes  made  a  sud- 
den incursion  into  Ulster,  plundering  the 
churches  of  Armagh,  and  returning  with 
an  immense  booty,  and  a  vast  number  of 
captives. 

They  at  the  same  time  established  a 
colony  at  Loch-Foil;  and  the  lake  was 
covered  with  their  sloops  and  boats,  from 
which  they  at  times  sorely  distressed  the 
adjacent  parts.  The  monarch  enraged  at 
these  repeated  depredations,  and  partic- 
ularly for  their  again  plundering  Kildare, 
the  Naas,  Cluanaird,  etc.,  engaged  then  in 
a  most  bloody  battle,  remarkable  only  for 
its  carnage,  without  any  visible  advantages 
to  either  party.  The  next  year  gave  rise 
to  a  fresh  engagement,  in  which  the  mon- 
arch kept  the  field,  but  his  loss  was  very 
considerable.  In  893,  the  Danes  about 
Loch-Foil,  collected  a  considerable  force 
and  plundered  Armagh ;  and  the  year  after, 
notwithstanding  the  distresses  of  the  king- 
dom, instead  of  convening  the  national 
estates,  and  renewing  the  general  confed- 
eracy of  Rath-Aodh,  we  find  Flan  collect- 
ing a  mighty  army,  again  to  invade  Mun- 
ster ;  but  what  the  success  of  this  second 
expedition  was,  we  are  not  told. 

Our  annals  are  silent  as  to  other  public 
events  till  the  year  902,  when  Cormoc,  the 
son  of  Cuillenan,  was  proclaimed  king  of 
Munster,  on  the  death  of  Donogh.  He 
was  at  the  same  time  archbishop  of  Cash- 
ell  or  Munster,  and  thus  united  the  regal 
and  pontifical  dignities.  However,  there 
was  pothing  singular  in  this  in  Ireland,  any 
more  than  in  other  countries ;  for  two  of 
his  predecessors,  and  of  the  same  Eugenian 
line,  to  wit,  Olchubhar,  and  Cean-Foala, 
were  abbots  of  Emely,  while  kings  of  Mun- 
ster ;  and  Muredach,  the  son  of  Bran,  con- 
temporary with  Cean-Foala,  was  at  the 
same  time  abbot  of  Kildare,  and  king  of 
Leinster.  Not  to  mention  sacred  history, 
where  we  find  many  Jewish  princes  high- 
priests,  Mahomet,  and  many  of  his  suc- 
cessors, under  the  title  of  Caliphs,  ruled 
both  in  spirituals  and  temporals.  The 
reign  of  the  immaculate  Cromwell  and  his 

pious  hosts  will  not  be  soon  forgotten.    He 

29 


was  at  the  same  time  protector  and  high- 
priest,  and  his  officers  acted  as  justices, 
clergymen,  and  soldiers  occasionally;  so 
that  his  administration  might  be  called  the 
church  militant.     Thus  Anius  in  Virgil : — 

"  Rex  Anius,  rex  idem  hominum,  Phcebi^ue  sacerdos  !" 

Sofme  time  after  Cormoc  was  proclaimed 
king  of  Munster,  he  paid  a  visit  to  Lor- 
can.  King  of  Thomond.  This  prince,  not 
content  with  punishing  Flan  for  his  inva- 
sion of  his  territories,  by  defeating  his  army, 
fitted  a  large  fleet  of  sloops  and  small  craft 
on  the  Shannon,  from  which  he  made  sud- 
den incursions  on  both  sides  that  ri\wr,  and 
returned  home  with  considerable  booty, 
both  from  Meath  and  Connaught.  Cormoc 
and  his  retinue  were  entertained  by  this 
prince,  with  all  the  expensive  profiision  of 
Irish  banquets,  and  returned  to  Cashell 
with  hostages  from  eleven  out  of  twelve 
of  the  counties  of  which  Thomond  was 
then  composed.  The  next  year  Lorcan 
returned  Cormoc's  visit,  and  was  assigned 
the  northern  half  of  the  palace  of  Cashell, 
for  himself  and  his  retinue  ;  but  these  visits 
were  something  more  than  ceremony. 
Domhnal,  the  son  of  Cathil,  and  king  of 
Connaught,  was  collecting  a  large  army  to 
invade  Thomond ;  and  it  was  necessary  to 
be  prepared  for  this  event.  The  invasion 
took  place,  but  with  little  success.  The 
next  year  Flan  again  entered  Munster,  and 
penetrated  with  his  forces  as  far  as  Lim- 
erick ;  but  was  obliged  to  retreat.  Lorcan 
uniting  his  forces  with  those  of  Cormoc, 
composed  a  very  considerable  army,  and 
with  it  they  invaded  Meath.  The  monarch 
met  them  on  the  plains  of  Maigh-Lena,  so 
memorable  for  the  bloody  engagement  be- 
tween the  monarch  Con,  and  Eogan,  King 
of  Munster,  in  the  second  century.  The 
battle  soon  commenced,  and  Flan  and  his 
army  were  defeated. 

Cormoc  is  represented  by  our  historians 
as  a  prince  of  exemplary  piety,  justice,  and 
learning.  The  causes  generally  assigned 
for  his  invading  Leinster,  and  in  which  at- 
tempt he  lost  his  life,  by  no  means  justifies 
this  character.  It  is  said  he  undertook  this 
war  to  reclaim  the  tribute  paid  to  Munster, 
fi-om  the  days  of  Conaire  the  Great,  by  the 


326 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  910. 


Lagenians,  for  the  murder  of  his  father, 
but  which  had  not  been  demanded  for  near 
two  centuries,  and  therefore,  by  disuse, 
was  in  a  manner  abolished.  The  fact  was 
not  so  ;  and  that  valuable  tract,  the  book 
of  Lecan,  proves  it. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century 
were  six  brothers,  all  descendants  of  the 
Eogonachts  of  South  Munster,  men  of  un- 
feigned piety,  and  who  had  dedicated  them- 
selves to  monastic  lives.  Eminus,  one  of 
them,  had  obtained  from  the  Lagenians  a 
tract  of  ground,  near  the  river  Barrow,  on 
which  he  erected  a  monastery,  and  endow- 
ed it  with  particular  privileges.  By  the 
religious  vows  of  his  order,  they  were  to 
taste  neither  meat  or  butter,  and  no  Lein- 
ster  subjects  was  to  be  received  into  this 
house,  except  approved  of  by  the  abbot. 
The  fame  of  this  monastery,  and  the  great 
austerity  of  its  monks,  drew  numbers  of 
people  to  it,  so  that  it  became  in  some  time 
a  considerable  city.  It  was  called  Ros- 
Glas,  and  as  the  abbey  was  composed  en- 
tirely of  Munster  men,  the  word  Muim- 
neach,  was  added  to  it.  It  was  named 
also  from  this  Eminus,  or  Evinus,  Monaster 
Evin,  and  which  name  it  goes  by  to  this 
day.  Cearbhuil,  King  of  Leinster,  had 
taken  possession  of  this  house,  for  the  use 
of  his  own  people,  and  the  exiled  monks 
applied  to  Cormoc.  It  was  a  religious  dis- 
pute, and  he  entered  into  it  with  alacrity. 
His  confidant  and  first  minister,  was  the 
abbot  of  Inis-Catha,  or  ,Scattery,  of  the 
same  blood  with  himself,  but  violent  and 
positive  in  his  temper.  He  represented  it 
as  the  cause  of  God  and  of  religion ;  and 
nothing  but  a  most  exemplary  punishment 
could  atone  for  this  sacrilege.  The  mon- 
arch interfered,  and  the  king  of  Leinster 
sent  ambassadors,  and  oflfered  his  son  as  a 
hostage,  to  restore  all  matters  to  their  pris- 
tine order.  This  proposal,  though  it  satis- 
fied Cormoc,  could  not  appease  the  abbot. 
In  short,  he  so  worked  on  the  temper  of 
the  king,  that  an  invasion  of  Leinster  was 
resolved  on ;  and  in  which  we  find  the  two 
Munsters  engaged !  For  he  sent  for  Lor- 
can.  King  of  Thomond,  and  declared  in 
the  presence  of  his  council,  that  he  should 


in  justice,  and  agreeable  to  the  will  of  their 
common  ancestor,  Oilioll,  succeed  him  as 
king  of  Leath-Mogha.  While  the  army 
was  collecting  and  preparing  for  this  ex- 
pedition, he  seemed  to  have  a  prescience 
of  his  own  death.  He  made  his  last  will, 
and  prepared  for  a  speedy  dissolution. 
This  will  is  yet  extant,  both  in  prose  and 
verse.  In  the  last,  he  bequeathed  to  the 
abbot  of  Inis-Catha,  his  most  costly  sacred 
vestments ;  his  clock,  which  called  him  to 
his  devotions,  to  the  nunnery  on  the  river 
Fergus  ;  his  royal  robes,  embroidered  with 
gold,  and  set  with  costly  jewels,  were  to 
be  deposited  in  the  monastery  of  Roscrea, 
to  the  care  of  the  order  of  St.  Cronan ;  his 
armour  and  coat  of  mail,  he  bequeathed  to 
the  king  of  Ulster ;  his  gold  chain  to  St. 
Muchuda ;  the  rest  of  his  wardrobe  to  Mac 
Gleinin ;  and  his  psalter,  which  he  faith- 
fully transcribed  from  ancient  records,  he 
ordered  to  be  deposited  at  Cashell,  as  a 
monument  to  future  ages.  He  left  gold 
and  silver  chalices,  vestments,  and  presents 
of  gold  and  silver  to  the  principal  churches 
of  the  kingdom. 

The  Munster  army  at  length  entered 
Leinster  in  three  divisions.  The  first  was 
commanded  by  the  abbot  of  Inis-Catha, 
and  the  prince  of  Ossory ;  the  second  by 
Cormoc  himself;  and  the  third  by  the 
the  prince  of  the  Deasies.  The  Lagenians 
were  not  behindhand  in  their  preparations, 
yet  they  still  made  one  effort  more  to  pre- 
serve peace.  It  was  the  custom  on  those 
occasions,  to  send  heralds  to  announce  the 
time  and  place  of  action ;  and  in  return  to 
the  challenge  of  Cormoc,  the  Lagenians 
again  sued  for  peace,  which  the  principal 
officers  thought  equitable,  but  which  the 
counsels  of  the  abbot  Flabhertach  over- 
ruled. The  battle  that  ensued  was  fatal  to 
the  Mamonians ;  and  it  is  agreed  on,  that 
neither  their  officers  or  soldiers  entered 
into  it  with  spirit.  But  had  they  con- 
sidered that  though  this  war  was  not  to 
their  liking,  yet  still  when  the  battle  com- 
menced, that  on  their  own  bravery  their 
safety  depended,  their  defeat  would  not 
have  been  so  considerable,  nor  their  loss 
so  great  as  it  was.    This  bloody  battle  was 


A.  D.  916.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


227 


fought  in  the  barony  of  Idrone,  in  the  coun- 
ty of  Carlow  and  from  the  place  is  called 
the  battle  of  Belach-Muga,  or  of  Magh- 
Ailbe.  It  is  said  that  as  soon  as  the  signal 
for  engaging  was  thrown  out,  Ceilliochar, 
one  of  Cormoc's  leaders,  who  commanded 
a  body  of  horse,  rode  through  the  ranks, 
and  called  aloud  to  his  men  to  retreat: 
that  the  war  was  a  wanton  one — a  war  of 
priests — and  to  them  it  should  be  left  to 
decide  it.  On  this  he  clapped  spurs  to  his 
horse  and  quitted  the  field,  followed  by 
many  of  his  people,  which  greatly  dispirited 
others.  The  engagement,  however,  con- 
tinued with  great  obstinacy  for  many  hours, 
notwithstanding  that  the  monarch  fought 
on  the  Leinster  side  ;  but  the  Mamonians 
at  length  suffered  a  most  complete  defeat ; 
six  thousand  of  their  bravest  veterans,  with 
numbers  of  officers,  besides  Cormoc  him- 
self, fell  that  day,  with  many  princes  and 
nobles.  Among  these  were  O'Felan,  prince 
of  the  Deasies,  in  the  county  of  Waterford ; 
O'Keefe,  prince  of  Fermoigh ;  O'Liathan, 
prince  of  that  territory,  now  called  Barry- 
more  ;  CShaghnessy,  prince  of  Aidhne, 
now  called  Killtartan,  in  the  county  of  Gal- 
way,  (then  in  exile ;)  Mac  Ennery,  prince 
of  Ui-Connell,  or  Upper  Connells,  in  the 
county  of  Limerick ;  O'Sullivan,  prince  of 
Dunkerman,  in  the  county  of  Kerry ;  Mad- 
igan,  brother  to  Donogh,  late  king  of  Mun- 
ster ;  Fitz  Patrick,  prince  of  Ossory,  and 
many  others.  To  account  in  some  meas- 
ure for  the  numbers  of  prime  quality  that 
fell  in  this  battle  on  the  side  of  Munster,  it 
is  to  be  noticed,  that  this  Eminus,  was 
deemed  the  chief  saint  and  protector  of  the 
Eogonachts.  So  much  so,  that  his  conse- 
crated bell,  which  was  called  Bernan-Em- 
hin,  was  what  was  swore  upon  in  solemn 
trials  by  all  this  tribe,  and  always  deposited 
with  the  Mac  Egan's  hereditary  chief- 
justices  of  South  Munster.  The  bell  of 
St.  Sennanus  (or  some  other  for  it)  is  still 
religiously  preserved  in  the  west  of  the 
county  of  Clare  ;  and  to  swear  by  it  false- 
ly, it  is  agreed  upon  by  the  common  people, 
would  be  immediately  followed  by  convul- 
sions and  death.  If  these  are  acts  of  su- 
perstition, the  sensible  reader  will,  however, 


agree  with  me,  that  they  are  arts  innocent 
in  themselves,  calculated  for  the  best  pur- 
poses, and  for  the  meridian  in  which  they 
prevail.  After  the  battle,  the  body  of  Cor- 
moc was  searched  for,  and  his  head,  taken 
off,  was  presented  by  some  soldiers  to  the 
monarch  Flan,  in  hopes  of  a  great  reward ; 
but  this  generous  prince  upbraided  them 
for  their  cruelty,  ordered  them  out  of  his 
presence;  and  it  is  said  even  kissed  the 
head,  lamenting  the  loss  of  so  wise  a  prince, 
and  so  religious  a  prelate.  He  then  di- 
rected the  body  to  be  sought  for,  and 
ordered  both  to  be  delivered  to  Monach, 
the  confessor  of  Cormoc,  to  be  interred  with 
suitable  honours,  where  his  will  had  ap- 
pointed. 

Among  the  prisoners  of  note  taken  in  the 
above  battle  was  Flabhertach,  the  cause 
of  all  this  dreadful  carnage.  It  is  highly 
honourable  to  the  ancient  clergy  of  Ireland, 
that  though  they  had  some  hot-headed 
priests  among  them,  who  were  the  cause 
of  much  blood  being  spilt,  as  St.  Columba 
in  the  sixth,  and  the  abbot  of  Inis-Catha  in 
this  century,  who  were  both  of  the  blood- 
royal,  yet  far  from  being  countenanced  in 
these  hostile  deeds,  (though  both  contended 
for  the  privileges  of  the  church,)  we  find 
them  punished  by  the  clergy.  The  first 
was  banished  to  Scotland,  and  this  last  im- 
prisoned for  two  years,  and  then  ordered 
to  a  severe  penance  in  his  monastery  of 
Scattery.  Dubhlactna  succeeded  to  the 
throne  of  Munster  and  reigned  six  years. 

After  a  long  reign  of  thirty-six  years  and 
some  months,  Flan-Sionna  departed  this 
life,  the  8th  of  June,  916.  Whatever  his 
abilities  might  have  been,  his  actions  dis- 
played little  of  magnanimity  or  sound  pol- 
icy. A  small  exertion  of  either,  consider- 
ing the  length  of  his  administration,  would 
have  effectually  freed  his  country  from 
those  vile  incendiaries  the  Danes,  and  saved 
the  nation  from  new  scenes  of  cruelty  and 
barbarity. 


228 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  950. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

State  of  letters  in  the  tenth  age — Clement  and 
Albin  first  regents  of  the  universities  of  Paris 
and  Pavia — A  mistake  of  M.  Fleury's  corrected, 
and  a  further  account  of  Clement — Of  Dungnl, 
Donatus,  Moongnl,  Feidhlim,  the  Abbot  Pat- 
rick— Of  the  celebrated  Scotus,  and  some  ac- 
count of  his  works — A  different  person  from 
John  Scotus,  professor  at  Oxford — Of  Ornulphus 
and  Buo — Remarks  on  the  erection  of  schools  in 
France — Decay  of  Irish  hospitable  houses  there. 

It  is  agreed  on  that  the  first  universities 
founded  on  the  continent  were  those  of 
Paris  and  Pavia,  and  that  Claude  Clement 
was  regent  of  the  first,  and  Albin  of  the 
other,  who  were  both  Scots.  They  got 
the  title  of  universities  to  distinguish  them 
from  schools ;  as  in  the  first,  professors 
were  appointed  to  instruct  in  every  science, 
whereas  in  schools,  particular  branches  of 
literature  only  were  taught — as  philosophy 
in  one,  divinity  in  another,  and  so  on.  From 
the  name  of  Scots  given  to  Clement  and 
Albin,  former  North  British  writers  have 
vainly  claimed  them  as  their  countrymen ; 
but  nothing  is  more  clear  than  that  they 
were  Scots  of  Ireland,  which  was  the  only 
country  known  by  that  name,  from  the 
third  to  the  eleventh  century,  as  the  learned 
Usher,  and  all  our  historians  and  antiqua- 
rians have  proved.  I  have  said  former 
North  British  writers  have  attempted  to 
make  them  citizens  of  Caledonia,  because 
the  present  race  seem  in  unison  that  their 
ancestors  were  totally  illiterate,  so  that  the 
fact  does  not  now  admit  of  litigation  ;  but 
to  such  as  may  entertain  the  least  doubt 
of  this  matter,  I  must  refer  them  to  authori- 
ties that  cannot  be  controverted.* 

Some  epistles  of  Albin  are  yet  extant, 
and  the  works  of  Clement  were  ^o  many, 
and  so  erudite,  that  a  learned  writer  of  the 
fourteenth  century  affirmed,  "  That  by  the 
works  of  Clement,  an  Irishman,  the  French 
might  be  compared  to  the  Athenians  and 
Romans,  f" 

Fleury  makes  of  Claude  Clement  two 
distinct  persons.  J    The  first,  he  says,  was  a 

*  Hibern.  Resurgeus.  Act.  Sanct.  Hibern.  p.  696. 
Prim.  Eccles.  Brit.  Lynch's  Letter,  at  the  end  of  Ogy- 
gia,  vindicated.     Harris's  Irish  Writers,  p.  54,  etc. 

t  Bebenburgius  de  Zelo  Veter.  Princip.  German. 

t  Hist  Eccl.  vol.  X.  p.  28. 


Spaniard,  and  bishop  of  Turin,  the  last  an 
Irish  Scot,  the  successor  to  Alcuin  in  the 
schools  of  the  palace  of  Charlemagne. 
However,  all  ancient  writers  agree  that, 
not  the  schools  of  the  palace,  but  the  uni- 
versity of  Paris  was  founded  by  Clement, 
and  this  before  Alcuin  put  his  foot  in  that 
capital.  Some  affirm  that  he  was,  after 
this,  consecrated  bishop  of  Auxerre ;  but 
this  is  a  manifest  anachronism,  as  Claude 
of  Auxerre  flourished  much  earlier.  The 
great  probability  is  that  he  was  made 
bishop  of  Turin,  and,  under  that  title  he 
became  so  noted  for  his  writings ;  and  of 
course,  suppressing  his  surname,  he  might 
be  easily  taken  for  a  different  person.  M. 
Fleury  acknowledges  that  Clement  was 
regent  of  the  school,  and  that  Claude  lec- 
tured in  divinity  there,  and  was,  after  this, 
bishop  of  Turin :  but  the  fact  is,  that  the 
regent  was  also  professor  of  divinity,  and 
of  course  bishop  of  Turin ;  and  that  this 
was  the  case,  we  see,  by  the  works,  which 
M.  Fleury  attributes  to  this  writer,  appear- 
ing to  be  the  very  same  which  Colgan, 
Usher,  Harris, etc.  give  to  Claude  Clement.* 
The  great  erudition  of  Clement,  his  ex- 
positions of  many  books  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  and  his  talents  as  a 
preacher,  determined  Louis,  the  successor 
of  Charlemagne,  to  have  him  consecrated 
bishop  of  Turin,  in  which  diocese  many 
abuses  had  arisen.  The  Greek  Church  had 
been  long  divided  about  the  question  of 
images^  and  our  new  bishop  proved  him- 
self a  violent  /conoc/asf.  It  appears  that 
in  his  diocese,  great  abuses  had  been  com- 
mitted through  the  extreme  ignorance  of 
the  people  and  clergy,  insomuch  that  these 
images,  which  were  intended  to  excite  de- 
votion, and  a  lively  imitation  of  the  sanc- 
tity of  those  they  represented,  rather  in- 
creased the  superstition  of  the  people  !  He 
endeavoured  to  reclaim  them  by  preach- 
ing and  exhortations  ;  but  his  zeal  carried 
him  so  far  as  to  break  and  destroy  most 
of  these  images,  and  even  to  remove  the 
crosses  from  several  churches.  He  de- 
fended these  outrages  by  several  learned 
writings,  and  was  answered  by  some,  but 

»  Hist.  Eccl.  vol.  X.  p.  345. 


[A.D.  950. 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


229 


by  none  in  so  masterly  a  manner  as  by  a 
countryman  of  his  own — Dungal,  a  cele- 
brated theologian,  who  was  one  of  the 
clergy  who  happily  escaped  the  first  Dan- 
ish proscription,  fled  to  France,  and  be- 
came a  monk  of  St.  Denis,  near  Paris.  He 
wrote  a  treatise  Pro  Cultu  Sacrarum  Ima- 
ginum,  etc.,  in  which  he  distinguished  be- 
tween the  use  and  abuse  of  images,  con- 
formable to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church ; 
and  accused  Claude,  in  his  intemperate 
abuse  of  images,  of  reviving  the  heresies 
of  Eunomius  and  Vigilantius.  This  work 
he  dedicated  to  the  emperors  Louis  and 
Lothaire.  Fleury  tells  us  he  was  a  for- 
eigner, without  ascertaining  his  country  ;* 
but  had  we  no  other  proofs  of  it  but  his 
name,  it  would  sufliciently  point  out  his 
country.f 

Donat  was  one  of  the  number  who  fled 
from  Ireland  to  avoid  the  butchery  by  the 
Danes  in  this  age ;  he  retired  to  a  hermit- 
age in  Tuscany,  from  whence  he  was 
called  to  the  bishoprick  of  Fiesole.  Some 
works  are  attributed  to  him ;  but  a  Latin 
Description  of  Ireland,  beginning  with 
"  Finibus  Occidius  describitur  Optima  Tel- 
lus,"  it  was  agreed  on  was  written  by  him. 
Colgan  promised  to  publish  his  life  in  his 
List  of  Irish  Saints  for  the  month  of  Octo- 
ber ;  but  of  this  great  work,  his  Trias 
Thaumaturga,  and  Lives  of  Saints  for  the 
first  three  months,  only  have  appeared. 

Moengal,  called  by  the  Latins  Marcel- 
lus,  was  an  Irish  monk  of  the  order  of  St. 
Columbanus,  who  escaped  the  fury  of  the 
Danes,  with  his  uncle  Bishop  Marcus. 
Returning  from  Rome,  he  came  to  the  ab- 
bey of  St.  Gall,  to  visit  Grimoald,  abbot  of 
that  monastery}  and  others,  his  country- 
men, there  residing.  He  was  requested  to 
remain  there  and  superintend  the  schools 
of  that  house,  to  which  the  children  of  the 
princes  and  nobility,  from  a  great  distance, 
were  sent  for  education.  He  wrote  Ho- 
mil.  in  Lect.  Evangel,  which  work  is  said 
to  be  yet  extant. 

Feidlemid-Mac-Criomthan,  who  had  re- 
signed the  crown  of  Munster  in  this  cen- 

*  Hist.  Eccles.  vol.  i.  p.  256. 
t  Act  Sanct.  Hib.,  p.  256,  257. 


tury  for  a  monastic  life,  is  said,  in  his  re- 
treat, to  have  written  some  tracts,  as  well 
historical  as  devotional ;  but  both  the  works 
and  their  very  titles  are  lost. 

Patrick,  Abbot  of  Armagh,  wrote  a 
Book  of  Homilies  and  Letters  to  the  Irish 
Nation.  He  retired  to  Britain  from  the 
Danish  fury,  and  died  in  the  abbey  of  Glas- 
tonbury :  his  feast  is  celebrated  on  the 
twenty-fourth  of  August;  and  from  the 
name  many  have  asserted  that  it  was  not 
this  Patrick,  but  the  celebrated  apostle  of 
Ireland  that  was  interred  in  that  famous 
abbey.  Usher  gives  a  large  account  of 
this  matter.* 

The  celebrated  Scotus,  called  John  Eri- 
gena,  escaped  the  Danish  persecution  in 
846,  and  fled  to  France  with  other  reli- 
gious. His  great  erudition,  his  assiduity 
and  penetrating  genius,  so  far  gained  the 
affection  of  Charles  the  Bald,  then  king  of 
France,  that  he  lodged  him  in  his  palace, 
and  even  made  him  eat  at  the  same  table 
with  himself.f  At  the  request  of  this  mon- 
arch, he  translated  from  the  original 
Greek  into  Latin,  the  works  of  St.  Denis, 
and,  through  his  influence,  he  was  prevail- 
ed upon  by  Hincmarius,  Archbishop  of 
Rheims,  and  Pardulus,  Bishop  of  Laon,  to 
undertake  the  defence  of  the  Church 
against  the  attacks  of  the  Predestinarians. 
This  work  is  addressed  to  these  prelates, 
in  which  he  acknowledges  the  great  hon- 
our done  him  in  deigning  him  worthy  of 
so  great  a  task.  Questions  concerning 
grace,  predestination,  and  abstracted  sub- 
jects of  this  kind,  often  bewilder  the  ima- 
gination and  are  perpetual  sources  of  skep- 
ticism. He  professed  to  follow  closely  the 
doctrine  of  St.  Augustine ;  but  this  work 
was  condemned  in  the  third  Council  of 
Valence,  as  was,  in  later  times,  a  similar 
work  written  by  Jansenius,  Bishop  of  Ypres ; 
though  like  our  Scotus,  he  also  pretended 
the  authority  of  Augustine  for  what  he 
advanced  !  Soon  after  the  appearance  of 
this  work  of  Scotus,  we  find  it  warmly 
attacked  by  Prudentius,  Bishop  of  Troyes ; 
the  church  of  Lyons  also  employed  the 

*  Primord.  p.  890,  etc. 

t  Hist.  Eccles.  tom.  x.  p.  440. 


830 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  950. 


Deacon  Florus,  a  celebrated  theologian,  to 
refute  it ;  and  many  others  entered  into 
the  controversy.  In  their  answers  they 
charge  Scotus  with  the  doctrines  of  Pela- 
gius  ;  and  it  would  seem,  by  them,  as  if 
his  writings  were  not  only  condemned, 
but  he  himself  confined  for  publishing 
them. 

The  controversy  of  the  eucharist  became 
a  new  subject  of  dispute  among  these 
subtle  theologians ;  and  Charles,  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  matter,  was  frequent- 
ly appealed  to  by  both  sides.  Hincma- 
rius  and  Scotus  were,  however,  his  ora- 
cles ;  to  them  he  mostly  appealed,  and,  at 
this  time,  Scotus  was  particularly  con- 
sulted by  him.*  This  would  seem  to  re- 
fute the  insinuation  of  his  being  confined  ; 
but  be  that  as  it  may,  the  treatise  he  wrote 
on  this  subject  met  as  many  opponents  as 
the  former,  and  was  at  last  condemned  in 
the  Council  of  Verceil,  A.  D.  1050.  Even 
his  translation  of  Dionysius's  works  were 
not  well  received,  particularly  at  Rome. 
We  are  told  that  Pope  Nicholas  wrote  to 
Charles  about  this  translation,  complaining 
that  the  author,  though  a  man  of  great 
erudition,  was  suspected  of  not  being  or- 
thodox ;  and  therefore  that  the  book  should 
have  been  first  sent  to  him  for  his  appro- 
bation, before  it  was  published.f  So 
many,  and  such  powerful  enemies,  united 
against  a  single  man  and  a  stranger,  made 
Charles  apprehensive  for  his  safety,  and 
he  recommended  him  to  return  to  his  na- 
tive country,  especially  as  by  the  late 
destruction  of  the  Danes,  religion  and  lib- 
erty were  again  established  there.  Sco- 
tus returned  to  Ireland  in  864,  and  died 
there  in  874.  Some  writers  suppose  our 
John  the  same  who  was  invited  by  King 
Alfred  to  superintend  the  schools  at  Ox- 
ford; but  Fleury  tells  us,  that  this  last  was 
a  Saxon  born,  but  educated  in  France, 
and  by  no  means  to  be  confounded  with 
John  Scotus.  J  The  writings  of  this  great 
man  were  very  numerous ;  and  we  sup- 

*  Dupin's  Ecclefl.  Histoiy,  cent.  9, 
t  Spotswood's  Charch  HiBtory.     Harris's  Writers  of 
Ireland. 
t  Hist.  Eccles.  lib.  liv.  sect.  8. 


pose  his  astonishing  erudition,  abilities,  and 
high  favour  with  Charles  the  Bald,  made 
him  be  treated  with  much  greater  severity 
by  his  contemporaries  than  he  deserved. 
He  was  not  only  a  complete  master  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin,  but  also  of  the  Oriental 
languages;  and  this  circumstance  alone 
proves  the  flourishing  state  of  letters  in 
Ireland  in  these  days.  How  distinguished 
a  figure  our  literati  cut  in  France  at  this 
time,  may  be  collected  from  what  Eric  of 
Auxerre,  in  his  letter  to  Charles  the  Bald, 
says — "  Why  do  I  speak  of  Ireland  ?  That 
whole  nation,  almost  despising  the  dangers 
of  the  sea,  resort  to  our  coasts  with  a  nu- 
merous train  of  philosophers,  of  whom,  the 
most  celebrated,  quitting  their  native  soil, 
account  themselves  happy  under  your  pro- 
tection, as  servants  of  the  wise  Solomon." 
And  in  another  place,  he  tells  us,  "  that 
Charles  drew  Greeks  and  Irish,  with  flocks 
of  philosophers,  for  the  instruction  of  his 
people." 

Omulphus  and  Buo  directed  their  course 
from  Ireland  to  Iceland,  to  propagate 
Christianity,  with  other  monks  in  their 
retinue.  They  were  of  the  order  of  St. 
Columba,  and  erected  a  monastery  in  the 
town  of  Esinburg.  They  converted  the 
natives,  and  are  esteemed  the  apostles  of 
Iceland,  as  Angrim  Jonas,  in  his  history 
of  that  country  declares.*  Buo  is  said  to 
have  written  Homil.  ad  Islandos,  lib.  i. 

Early  in  this  century  we  read  of  num- 
bers of  public  schools  being  established  in 
France  ;  and  the  great  advantages  arising 
from  them  were  so  visible,  that,  in  the 
Council  of  Langres,  held  A.  D.  859,  the 
princes  and  the  bishops  were  exhorted  to 
erect  schools  in  convenient  places,  as 
well  for  improvement  in  the  learned 
languages,  as  for  the  better  understand- 
ing of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  When  the 
reader  recollects  that,  from  the  first  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  into  Ireland,  the 
missionaries  opened  schools  to  instruct, 
in  religion  and  letters,  and  that  the  number 
and  fame  of  these  schools  increased  as 
their  doctrine  spread,  when  he  also  calls  to 
mind  the  numbers  of  holy  doctors  who 

*  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  256, 


A.  D.  950.] 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


231 


afterwards  quitted  this  country  to  reform 
the  neighbouring  states,  and  especially  in 
the  present  century,  he  will  be  apt.  to  con- 
clude that  the  French  (as  the  Britons  and 
Saxons  did  before  them)  not  only  adopted 
our  mode  of  propagating  Christianity,  but 
employed  also  our  doctors  to  establish  it. 
Hence  the  crowds  of  our  philosophers  and 
doctors  pouring  into  France,  as  noted  by 
Eric,  are  accounted  for.  Indeed,  the  in- 
tercourse between  both  countries,  from  a 
remote  date,  seems  to  have  been  very 
considerable.  When  the  abbey  of  Ni- 
velle  was  founded  in  favour  of  St.  Ger- 
trude, daughter  to  the  illustrious  Pepin, 
mayor  of  the  palace  to  Dagobert  and  Sige- 
bert  III.,  in  the  seventh  century,  her  mo- 
ther, while  she  sent  to  Rome  for  relics, 
and  copies  of  the  Lives  of  Saints,  sent,  at 
the  same  time,  to  Ireland  for  lettered  men 
to  instruct  her  community,  and  for  musi- 
cians and  chanters  to  teach  them  psalm- 
singing.  Among  the  first,  were  St.  Foil- 
Ian,  St.  Ultan,  etc.,  and  she  erected  for 


them  a  monastery,  or  rather,  a  house  of 
hospitality,  for  the  reception  and  entertain- 
ment of  pious  and  other  Irish,  travelling 
that  way,  at  Fosse,  near  the  abbey  of  Ni- 
velle.*  Many  others  were  erected  through 
France  by  pious  Irishmen  for  the  same 
purpose ;  and  in  the  Council  of  Meaux, 
held  in  845,  among  other  acts,  they  direct, 
"That  complaint  shall  be  made  to  the 
king  of  the  ruin  of  hospitable  houses,  but 
particularly  of  those  of  the  Irish  nation, 
founded  by  charitable  natives  of  that  coun- 
try. Not  only  (say  they)  have  these  in- 
truders refused  to  receive  or  entertain  such 
as  present  themselves  for  relief,  but  they 
have  even  ejected  these  religious,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  relieve  the  sick,  the  dis- 
tressed, and  the  stranger."  f  The  erection 
of  those  houses  is  surely  an  incontroverti- 
ble proof  of  the  close  correspondence  be- 
tween the  nations,  and  of  the  numbers  of 
Irish  thereto  resorting  from  time  to  time. 

*  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.  torn.  viii.  p.  421. 
t  Idem,  torn.  z.  p.  382. 


BOOK    XI. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Of  the  monarch  Niall,  with  a  retrospective  view 
of  Irish  affnira — A  fresh  invasion  of  the  Danes — 
Battle  of  Cennnfund — A  more  fatal  one  near 
Dublin,  in  which  the  monarch  fell — Storm  of 
Armagh — Donachad  elected  monarch ;  engages 
and  defeats  the  Danes — Review  of  the  affairs  of 
Munster — Invaded  from  Connaught — Lorcan 
succeeds  to  the  crown  of  Munster — Battle  of 
Roscrea,  and  defeat  of  the  Danes. 

NiALL  IV.,  called  Glun-Duibh,  or  the 
Black  Knee,  son  of  the  monarch  Aodh, 
was  successor  to  Flan.  The  very  bad 
policy  pursued  by  his  predecessor,  who, 
during  his  long  reign,  instead  of  uniting  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom  against  the  common 
enemy,  studied  only  how  to  distress  the 
other  provinces,  and  particularly  Leath- 
Mogha,  gave  the  Danes  full  leisure  to  es- 
tablish their  power,  which  they  promoted 
with  less  suspicion,  by  engaging  in  the 
interests  of  the  different  competitors. 
Cormoc,  King  of  Munster,  misled  by  weak 
heads,  contributed  not  a  little  to  increase 
their  influence  in  that  province.  Lorcan, 
of  the  Dalgais  line,  notwithstanding  Cor- 
moc's  declaration,  was,  we  see,  excluded 
from  the  crown  of  Munster,  and  even 
after  the  death  of  Dubhlactna,  Flabher- 
tach.  Abbot  of  Inis-Catha,  was  appointed 
to  that  honour,  to  his  prejudice ;  so  that 
these  two  great  houses  lost  that  mutual 
confidence  so  necessary  to  make  them 
respectable.  Such  was  the  situation  of 
the  kingdom  at  this  time.  Private  animos- 
ities directed  public  counsels ;  the  national 
chiefs  were  more  jealous  of  each  other 
than  of  the  common  enemy ;  and  the  Danes 
availed  themselves  of  these  unhappy  feuds.* 
The  times  seemed  favourable  to  reduce  the 
kingdom  once  more  to  their  obedience; 
and  they  waited  only  for  reinforcements 


to  throw  off*  the  mask  entirely.  A  part  of 
these  arrived  in  Ulster,  committing  every- 
where their  usual  depredations.  The  mon- 
arch, at  the  head  of  a  considerable  army, 
soon  came  up  with  them.  Both  parties 
prepared  for  battle  ;  but  the  fortune  of  the 
day  at  length  declared  in  favour  of  the 
Irish.  The  foreigners  were  defeated  with 
great  slaughter ;  but  the  victors  purchased 
the  day  very  dearly,  most  of  their  principal 
officers  and  best  soldiers  having  fallen  in 
the  combat.  The  next  year  a  fresh  party 
of  Danes  entered  the  harbour  of  Dublin, 
and  landing  their  troops,  were  joined  by 
numbers  of  their  countrymen,  so  as  to 
form  a  very  considerable  body,  with  which 
they  invaded  the  province  of  Leinster; 
leaving  everywhere  marks  of  their  fe- 
rocity and  cruelty.  Lorcan,  the  son  of 
Felan,  king  of  that  province,  collected  his 
troops  from  all  quarters  to  oppose  them. 
A  bloody  battle  was  fought  on  the  plains 
of  Ceannfuad,  in  which  the  Lagenians  were 
defeated  with  great  carnage,  and  among 
their  slain  were  many  princes  and  nobles 
of  prime  quality.  Animated  by  this  suc- 
cess, they  sent  for  fresh  forces,  to  make  a 
complete  conquest  of  the  kingdom.  In 
919,  a  considerable  fleet  appeared  in  the 
harbour  of  Dublin,  commanded  by  God- 
frey, the  son  of  Jomhair :  to  the  superior 
capacity  of  this  last  general  were  the 
Danes  indebted  for  their  late  victory  :  and 
now  both  armies  uniting,  Dublin  was  at- 
tacked with  incredible  fury,  and,  after  a 
gallant  resistance,  taken  sword  in  hand,  and 
the  garrison  put  to  the  rout. 

All  Leath-Cuin  became  alarmed  at  these 
uncommon  successes  of  the  enemy,  whom 
they,  before  this,  seldom  engaged  without 


?** 


A.  D.  934]. 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


233 


a  certainty  of  victory.  The  imperial 
standard  was  set  up,  and  to  it  troops  re- 
paired from  all  quarters.  A  very  consid- 
erable army  was  soon  formed ;  and  it  was 
judged  proper  to  attack  the  enemy  before 
they  possessed  themselves  of  other  strong- 
holds. The  two  armies  met  near  Dublin 
on  the  16th  of  October,  and  the  engage- 
ment soon  commenced.  Never  was  great- 
er intrepidity  displayed  than  by  both  ar- 
mies. The  fight  continued  for  many 
hours ;  but  the  Irish  at  length  gave  way 
on  every  side.  In  vain  were  they  called 
by  their  leaders  to  return  to  the  charge : 
unable  to  resist  the  number  and  impetuos- 
ity of  the  enemy,  they  betook  themselves 
to  a  shameful  flight  instead  of  a  regular 
retreat  The  monarch  determined  not  to 
survive  the  disgrace,  and,  with  a  chosen 
band,  consisting  of  the  prime  knights  and 
nobility  of  the  kingdom,  rushed  into  the 
thickest  part  of  the  Danish  troops,  where 
he  and  his  whole  party  were  cut  off,  hut 
by  no  inglorious  wounds  !  With  Niall  fell 
that  day,  Aodh,  King  of  Ulster,  Connor, 
son  of  Flan,  and  prince  of  Tara,  the  prin- 
ces of  Orgial,  Breagh,  with  many  other 
princes  and  nobles ;  and  from  this  we  may 
judge  how  great  the  loss  in  general  must 
have  been.  This  battle,  though  fought  so 
late  in  the  season,  did  not  prevent  the  en- 
terprising Jomhair  from  improving  his 
advantages  ;  while  he  laid  the  adjacent 
country  in  ruin  and  ashes  he  detached  his 
son  Godfrey,  with  a  considerable  body  of 
forces,  to  make  an  irruption  into  Ulster,  in 
revenge  for  the  defeat  he  received  there  in 
the  year  917 ;  and  in  the  middle  of  No- 
vember, he  took  Armagh,  sword  in  hand, 
and  put  the  garrison  to  the  sword ;  "  hut 
sparing  the  churches,  the  clergy,  and  the 
infirm"  say  the  Annals  of  the  Four 
Masters. 

Donachad  II.,  son  of  the  monarch  Flan, 
was  elected  monarch,  and  began  his  reign 
with  some  eclat.  He  collected  the  shat- 
tered forces  of  Leath-Cuin,  which  he  con- 
siderably reinforced  by  fresh  troops,  and 
led  them  forth,  without  loss  of  time,  against 
the  Danes.  These  last,  accustomed  of  late 
to  victory,  did  not  decline  the  combat;  they 

30 


even  marched  into  Meath,  to  meet  the 
enemy.  The  engagement  was  desperate 
and  bloody ;  but,  notwithstanding  the  great 
abilities  of  Jomhair  as  a  general,  seconded 
by  the  valour  and  discipline  of  his  troops, 
they  were  at  length  obliged  to  give  way 
on  every  side,  and  the  slaughter  in  the 
field,  and  in  the  pursuit,  was  incredibly 
great.  Our  annalists  note,  that  their  loss 
in  this  battle  amply  compensated  for  that 
of  the  Irish,  the  preceding  year.  Dona- 
chad detached  flying  parties  to  cut  off  the 
enemy's  retreat,  and  destroyed  all  their 
garrisons  and  strongholds ;  so  that  nothing 
remained  to  them  in  Leinster  and  Meath 
but  the  city  of  Dublin,  which  was  too  well 
fortified,  and  had  too  formidable  a  garrison 
for  Donachad  to  sit  down  before  it 

Munster  was  still  divided  about  the  suc- 
cession to  that  crown.  The  posterity  of 
Cormoc-Cas,  had  been  long  deprived  of 
their  right  of  alternate  succession ;  and 
engaged  in  protecting  their  frontiers  from 
the  Conacian  invaders,  they  wanted  that 
power  so  necessary  to  support  right  among 
princes.  The  great  abilities  of  Lorcan,  as 
a  general  and  statesman,  and  the  length  of 
his  reign,  gave  new  force  and  vigour  to 
the  territory  of  North  Munster.  The  king 
of  Connaught  prepared  again  to  invade  that 
province,  both  by  land  and  sea.  A  party 
of  his  men  landed  near  Loch-Dearg,  and 
surprised  the  fort  which  defended  the  palace 
of  Lorcan,  put  the  garrison  to  the  sword, 
and  plundered  and  set  fire  to  the  palace,  but 
were  disappointed  of  their  principal  object, 
which  was  the  capture  of  the  prince  him- 
self, who  happily  at  that  time  was  engaged 
elsewhere.  They  now  formally  demanded 
of  Lorcan  hostages,  as  vassal  to  the  king 
of  Connaught  or  to  surrender  to  them  that 
part  of  North  Munster  included  in  the 
present  county  of  Clare.  To  so  insolent  a 
message  he  returned  a  proper  answer,  and 
ordered  the  beacons  to  be  lighted  up,  which 
was  a  notice  for  the  whole  province  imme- 
diately to  repair  to  him,  with  horses  and 
arms.  It  is  curious,  even  at  this  day,  to 
observe  the  judgment  with  which  these 
beacons  were  placed.  I  have  examined 
several  of  these  eminences,  and  am  there- 


234 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  942. 


fore  a  judge  of  the  matter.  Not  only 
through  the  whole  county  of  Clare  were 
forts  so  disposed,  that  in  two  hours  the 
entire  county  could  receive  the  alarm, 
whether  the  attempts  were  made  by  sea 
or  land,  or  both,  but  in  Lower  Ormond, 
stations  were  so  judiciously  placed,  that  the 
least  attempts  or  preparations  towards  the 
Shannon  side  were  quickly  made  known. 
By  these  means  Lorcan  soon  collected  a 
considerable  force — for  the  whole  province 
took  fire  at  the  attempt  on  his  person.  Not 
satisfied  with  repelling  the  invaders,  and 
defeating  them  both  by  land  and  sea,  he,  in 
his  turn,  entered  Connaught,  carrying  fire 
and  sword  through  a  great  part  of  the 
province,  and  returned  home  laden  with 
spoils  and  glory.* 

Flabhertach,  the  abbot  of  Inis-Catha, 
who,  from  a  penitentiary,  was  called  to 
succeed  Dubhlachtna  on  the  throne  of 
Mimster,  dying  after  a  reign  of  twenty-six 
years,  Lorcan,  though  greatly  advanced  in 
years,  insisted  on  the  right  of  succession 
in  his  house,  and  marched  towards  Cash- 
ell  with  a  considerable  army,  (where  the 
estates  were  assembling  to  choose  a  suc- 
cessor,) the  better  to  support  his  claim. 
This  ultima  ratio  gave  uncommon  weight 
to  his  negotiations,  and  he  was  proclaimed 
king  of  Leath-Mogha,  an  honour  which 
his  ancestors  had  been  long  deprived  of. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  0'Conry,t  possessed  with 
the  modern  spirit  of  skepticism,  will  not 
allow  to  the  Eugenian  line  the  number  of 
kings  which  antiquity  has  attributed  to 
them.  To  prove  this  in  part,  he  affirms 
that  from  the  death  of  Cormoc,  the  son  of 
Cuillenan,  to  that  of  Ceallachan,  who  in 
truth  succeeded  Lorcan,  but  one  Eugenian 
ruled  Munster,  namely,  Flabhertach,  and 
he  places  him  after  Lorcan.  The  fact, 
however,  is,  that  Dubhlachtna  and  Flab- 
hertach, both  Eugenians,  preceded  Lorcan ; 
and  that  the  reign  of  this  last  as  king  of 
Munster,  was  but  eighteen  months.  How- 
ever, even  in  this  short  time,  an  event  hap- 
pened which  added  greatly  to  his  former 
laurels. 

*  Leabhar  Muimhean. 

t  The  Law  of  Tanutry  illostrated,  p.  471. 


A  great  annual  fair  was  held  at  Roscrea, 
on  the  festival  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  but 
which  continued  for  fourteen  days.  As 
this  was  nearly  in  the  centre  of  the  king- 
dom, merchants  resorted  to  it  not  only  from 
different  parts  of  Ireland,  but  from  foreign 
countries,  to  dispose  of  their  wares ;  for 
the  country  was  even  then  by  the  mercan- 
tile world  called — "  Insula  dives  opum, 
gemmarum,  vestis,  et  auri !"  The  Danes 
of  Limerick  and  Connaught  had  formed  a 
bold  scheme  to  surprise  the  merchants  at 
this  fair,  where  they  expected  immense 
treasures.  Olfinn,  chief  the  Conacian 
Danes,  conducted  this  enterprise,  and 
marched  his  men  in  detached  parties  to  the 
borders  of  the  Shannon,  where  they  were 
to  meet  at  an  appointed  day  the  forces 
from  and  about  Limerick.  As  they  took 
different  routes,  and  no  very  considerable 
bodies  appeared  together,  their  intentions 
were  more  secret  and  less  alarming.  But 
no  sooner  did  they  appear  on  the  side  of 
the  Shannon,  but  notice  was  given  by  light- 
ing fires  at  the  different  stations  in  Lower 
Ormond,  by  which  the  country  became 
alarmed.  They  plunged  into  their  barks 
as  soon  as  possible ;  and  of  this,  and  of 
their  landing  in  Ormond,  which  was  ef- 
fected in  little  more  than  two  hours,  notice 
was  also  given.  From  the  place  of  their 
landing,  the  object  of  their  destination  be- 
came suspected,  and  soon  known.  As 
every  thing  depended  upon  expedition, 
they  formed  and  marched  off  as  fast  as 
they  landed.  The  soldiers  who  guarded 
the  approaches  to  the  fair  assembled,  and 
were  joined  by  the  merchants,  their  clerks, 
^nd  numbers  of  gentlemen  and  others  as- 
sembled from  all  quarters  on  such  occa- 
sions. On  consultation  it  was  resolved 
not  to  remove  the  shops,  the  stages,  the 
warehouses,  or  merchandises,  but  let  them 
remain  where  erected;  by  which  means 
these  people,  more  immediately  interested, 
would  acquit  themselves  the  better.  It 
was  also  agreed  on  to  march  out  and  meet 
the  enemy  and  not  wait  to  be  attacked  by 
them.  These  resolves  inspired  the  people 
with  confidence  ;  for  troops  advancing  to 
the  charge  must  collect  more  resolution 


A.  D.  942.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


235 


(if  they  acquit  themselves  well)  than  those 
who  wait  to  be  attacked.  As  soon  as  the 
Danes  appeared,  they  gave  them  no  time 
to  form,  but  assailed  them  on  every  side 
with  such  firmness  and  resolution,  (neither 
of  which  was  expected,)  that  they  were 
very  soon  broken  ;  and  in  this  battle,  and 
in  the  pursuit  that  followed,  above  four 
thousand  Danes  were  slain,  with  most  of 
their  principal  officers,  among  whom  was 
Olfinn  himself. 

About  this  time  Donochad  invaded  the 
province  of  Connaught,  and  a  battle  was 
fought  near  Athluan,  or  Athlone,  in  which 
the  imperialists  were  defeated  and  obliged 
to  retire.  As  this  was  the  time  in  which 
the  celebrated  Ceallachan  flourished,  we 
shall  bestow  a  particular  chapter  on  it. 


CHAPTER   II. 

Contest  between  Cineidi  and  Ceallachan  for  the 
crown  of  Munster — Cineidi  relinquishes  his 
claim  to  Ceallachan — Manner  of  proclaiming 
him — A  confederacy  formed  against  Cineidi — 
He  unites  with  Ceallachan  against  the  common 
enemy — Battle  and  defeat  of  the  Danes  near 
Limerick — Again  at  Cork,  with  the  taking  of 
Cashell  and  Waterford — Bad  policy  of  the  Irish 
with  regard  to  these  foreigners — Deliberations 
of  the  parUament  of  Munster,  at  Cashell. 

On  the  decease  of  Lorcan  many  can- 
didates appeared  for  the  crown  of  Mun- 
ster, but  they  were  soon  reduced  to  two : 
Cineidi,  son  of  the  intrepid  Lorcan,  and 
Ceallachan,  the  son  of  Buadhchain.  Cineidi 
marched  into  the  county  of  Cork  to  solicit 
the  suffrages  of  different  princes.  Cealla- 
chan was  proceeding  on  the  same  business. 
Both  parties  met,  an  engagement  ensued, 
in  which  Ceallachan's  party  were  defeated, 
and  three  hundred  of  his  own  followers, 
besides  many  others,  were  left  dead.  This 
Cineidi,  as  the  Book  of  Munster  observes, 
was  a  prince  of  great  intrepidity,  and  every 
way  worthy  the  royal  stock  from  whence 
he  sprang.  By  this  little  essay,  the  Eoga- 
nachts  were  not  so  forward  in  their  sup- 
port of  Ceallachan  ;  and  it  was  imagined 
the  majority  of  voices  would  be  against 
him  on  the  day  of  election,  notwithstand- 
ing that  the  Eoganachts  reckoned  seven- 


teen counties,  while  in  North  Munster  were 
only  twelve.  The  mother  of  this  prince 
being  a  lady  of  great  spirit,  and  apprehen- 
sive that  her  son  would  be  excluded  from 
the  throne,  waited  upon  Cineidi  in  person 
to  remonstrate  on  the  violence  and  injus- 
tice of  his  proceedings.  "She  reminded 
him  of  the  will  of  their  great  ancestor 
Olioll-Ollum :  that  by  it,  the  crown  was  to 
go  alternately  between  the  posterity  of 
Fiacha-Muilleathan,  and  Cormoc-Cas ;  and 
that  as  his  father  was  the  last  king  of 
Munster,  it  was  unjust  in  him  to  attempt  to 
succeed  to  that  crown."  In  vain  he  urged, 
"  that  his  ancestors,  for  some  generations, 
were  deprived  of  that  right  by  the  descend- 
ants of  Fiacha ;  and  that  this  was  a  suffi- 
cient justification  of  his  proceedings."  She 
did  not  pretend  to  support  the  usurpations 
of  her  house,  but  dwelt  much  on  the  pres- 
ent act  of  injustice ;  employed  the  rheto- 
ric of  tears,  and  concluded  her  speech  thus: 
"  Cuimhnigh  a  Cineidi-Cas ;  dail  Fiacha  is 
Cormoc-Cais ;  gur  f  hagsad  in  Muimhin  da 
roin  ;  go  ceart  idir  agcomhchloin :" — ^i.  e. 
"  Remember,  gallant  Cineidi,  the  agreement 
between  Fiacha  and  Cormoc :  they  divided 
Munster  in  two  partitions,  and  decreed  it 
should  be  governed  alternately  by  the  is- 
sue of  each  house."  So  bold  and  ani- 
mating a  speech — the  majesty  and  dignity 
with  which  it  was  delivered — a  fine  wo- 
man pleading  the  cause  of  justice — and  a 
tender  and  afflicted  mother  the  defence  of 
a  son,  unmanned  the  whole  assembly ! 
The  gallant  Cineidi  was  the  first  to  ac- 
knowledge the  power  of  female  eloquence ; 
and  what  the  forces  of  half  Ireland  united 
with  difficulty  could  effect,  the  tears  of  a 
woman  performed !  Cineidi  gave  up  his 
claim  to  the  sovereignty  of  Munster,  and 
his  competitor  was  unanimously  appointed 
to  that  high  station. 

In  the  history  of  the  renowned  hero  Ce- 
allachan, now  before  me,*  is  related  the 
manner  of  his  inauguration,  which,  as  it  is 
curious,  I  shall  literally  translate.  "  The 
princes  and  nobles  of  Munster,  (says  my 
author,)  waited  on  Ceallachan  at  Cashell. 
Each  put  his  hands  between  those  of  the 

*  Toruigbeacht  Ceallachan  Caisil. 


236 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND 


A.  D.  804.] 


prince;  the  royal  diadem  was  placed  on 
his  head ;  it  was  then  announced  to  the 
people,  that  Ceallachan,  the  son  of  Buadh- 
chain,  the  son  of  Lachtna,  the  son  of  Airt- 
ghoile,  the  son  of  Sneadhasa,  the  son  of 
Donghoile,  the  son  of  Daolgusa,  the  son  of 
Nadfraoich,  the  son  of  Colgan,  the  son  of 
Failbhe-FIan,  the  son  of  Aodha-Dubh,  the 
son  of  Criomhthan,  the  son  of  Feidhlim, 
the  son  of  Aongus,  the  son  of  Core,  the  son 
of  Luigheach,  the  son  of  Olioll-Flan-Beg, 
the  son  of  Fiacha-M uilleathan,  the  son  of 
Eogan-More,  the  son  of  Olioll-OUum,  (and 
so  on  to  Phsenius,)  was  sovereign  prince 
and  ruler  of  Leath-Mogha ;  and  the  royal 
shout  declared  the  public  approbation." 

Soon  after  this,  the  Book  of  Munster 
tells  us,  a  most  formidable  confederacy  was 
formed  against  the  generous  Cineidi,  the 
son  of  Lorcan,  king  of  North  Munster.  It 
mentions  the  confederates  in  the  following 
manner:  Corcam-Ruadh, Dealbhna,  Meath, 
the  Muscrys,  Eile,  the  Eoganachts,  with 
Ceallachan  at  their  head,  and  Connaught ! 
Such  very  formidable  enemies,  surround- 
ing his  dominions  on  every  side,  seemed 
formed  with  intent  to  annihilate  the  power 
of  North  Munster  ;  and  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  Ceallachan  and  the  Eoganachts 
were  the  very  soul  of  this  great  confede- 
racy. The  intrepid  Cineidi,  like  the  pres- 
ent king  of  Prussia,  [1778,]  far  from  being 
intimidated,  prepared  valiantly  to  oppose 
his  enemies  on  every  side.  He  called  to- 
gether his  brave  Dalgais :  these  were  his 
hereditary  troops,  and  the  most  warlike 
and  best  disciplined  in  Ireland.  In  all  at- 
tacks they  were  the  van,  and  formed  the 
rear  on  a  retreat.  Their  banner  was  the 
bloody  hand,  £uid  the  motto,  "  the  first  in 
the  attack,  and  the  last  in  the  retreat."  He 
caused  the  beacons  to  be  lighted  up,  and 
every  man  fit  to  bear  arms  prepared  to 
attend  his  standard.  The  particulars  of 
this  war  we  are  not  told ;  but  that  it  soon 
terminated  in  an  honourable  peace;  and 
one  of  the  conditions  of  it  (we  must  sup- 
pose) was,  that  Cineidi  delivered  up  his 
son  Duineachan  as  a  hostage  to  Ceallachan, 
because  we  find  this  young  prince  con- 
stantly after  in  his  court. 


By  this  peace  the  two  Munsters  became 
united,  and  of  course  formidable  to  their 
enemies.  Actuated  by  public  principles, 
Ceallachan  and  Cineidi  everywhere  at- 
tacked the  common  enemy.  In  fourteen 
different  battles,  says  the  Book  of  Munster, 
did  Cineidi  engage  and  defeat  the  Danes, 
so  as  to  clear  his  dominions  of  them.  But 
the  "  Wars  of  Ceallachan  Caisil,"  are 
more  minute  in  the  exploits  of  this  last 
hero.  He  called  his  chiefs  together,  and 
exhorted  them  to  arm  everywhere  against 
the  Danes;  and  Limerick  was  pitched 
upon  as  their  first  attack.  A  thousand 
Eoganachts,  or  hereditary  troops  of  South 
Munster,  (a  most  select  body,)  with  many 
others  of  less  note,  headed  by  Ceallachan, 
under  whom  were  the  young  Duineachan, 
O'SulIivan,  O'Keefe,  O'Rierdan,  O'Leahan, 
Aodh  Mac  Cuillenan,  and  other  great 
chiefs,  marched  to  this  assault.  Heralds 
were  sent  requiring  the  Danes  to  surren- 
der the  city,  and  give  up  hostages  for  their 
future  behaviour,  or  prepare  to  defend 
themselves ;  but  the  Danes  returned  for 
answer,  "  That  far  from  waiting  to  be  at- 
tacked, they  would  march  out  of  the  city 
and  give  them  battle."  They  marched  out 
in  four  divisions,  four  hundred  select  men, 
mostly  armed  with  coats  of  mail,  in  each 
division,  besides  light-armed  troops ;  and 
the  battle  was  fought  at  Sain-Aingil,  called 
now  Singleland. 

O'SulIivan,  who  acted  as  general  under 
Ceallachan,  addressed  his  men  in  a  most 
animating  speech,  which  was  answered  by 
the  shouts  and  clashing  of  the  swords  and 
shields  of  the  soldiery.  The  fight  began, 
we  are  told,  by  the  discharge  of  stones 
from  the  slings  of  the  light-armed  troops, 
by  the  discharge  of  arrows,  by  spears,  and 
by  lances.  The  heavy-armed  troops  now 
engaged,  breast  to  breast,  and  long  and 
dreadful  was  the  conflict.  The  Danish 
commanders  left  nothing  unessayed  to  give 
firmness  to  their  troops ;  and  the  greatest 
efforts  of  their  antagonists  made  little  im- 
pression on  them.  Ceallachan  at  length 
singled  out  Amhlaobh,  or  Aulavus,  the 
Danish  commeuider,  and  with  one  stroke 
of  his  sword  split  his  skull  through  his  hel- 


A.  D.  943.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


23T 


met,  and  he  immediately  fell  dead  at  his 
feet.  In  like  manner  CSuUivan  engaged 
Moran,  who  is  called  "  Son  to  the  king  of 
Denmark"  and  cut  off  his  head,  by  a  well 
pointed  blow  between  the  helmet  and 
breast-plate.  CKeefe  ran  Magnus,  who  is 
called  "  the  standard-bearer,"  through  the 
body,  and  after  a  gallant  defence,  Loch- 
luin,  called  Na-Ureach,  or  the  Spoils,  re- 
ceived his  death  by  the  hands  of  CRierdan. 
The  Danes  now  gave  way  on  every  side, 
and  were  so  hotly  pursued,  that  the  Irish 
entered  the  city  with  the  fugitives,  putting 
to  the  sword  all  the  foreigners  they  met,  as 
well  in  the  streets  as  in  the  castles  and 
lofty  towers.  But  instead  of  keeping  pos- 
session of  the  town,  yve  find  Ceallachan 
contented  with  exacting  large  contributions 
from  the  inhabitants,  part  of  which  was 
paid  down  in  gold  and  merchandise,  and 
hostages  taken  for  the  security  of  the  re- 
mainder. 

Next  morning  the  army  marched  off  for 
Cork  with  the  utmost  secrecy  and  expedi- 
tion ;  for,  it  seems,  the  Danes  were  so  pow- 
erful there  as  to  exact  hostages  from  the 
Eogonachts,  aod  from  among  these  was  a 
natural  son  of  Ceallachan's.  Prudence 
therefore  demanded  this  precaution,  lest 
the  Danes  might  ship  them  off  for  the  con- 
tinent. They  appeared  before  Cork  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  next  day,  horse  and  foot, 
and  immediately  summoned  the  town ;  but 
these,  slighting  the  summons,  the  signal  for 
attack  was  directly  given,  the  walls  were 
scaled,  the  Danes  defeated,  and  the  prison- 
ers restored  to  liberty.  From  thence  they 
proceeded  towards  Cashell.  On  their 
march  an  ambuscade  was  laid  for  them ; 
but  three  hundred  Danes  were  cut  to 
pieces  in  the  attempt,  as  were  five  hundred 
more  soon  after.  At  Cashell,  Ceallachan 
presented  CKeefe  with  a  hundred  helmets, 
a  hundred  swords,  a  hundred  shields,  a 
hundred  horses,  and  a  hundred  slaves. 
From  Cashell  the  army  marched  to  Wa- 
terford,  the  very  day  that  Sitric,  his  wife, 
and  family  landed  there,  with  seven  ships. 
The  citizens,  hearing  the  rapid  progress  of 
the  Irish,  and  the  many  defeats  which  their 
countrymen  received,  instead  of  marching 


out  to  attack  the  enemy,  shut  the  gates  and 
manned  the  walls.  But  their  caution  availed 
not ;  for  while  on  one  side  the  gates  were 
attempted  to  be  broken  open,  others  mount- 
ed the  walls,  which  so  dismayed  them,  that 
they  lost  all  courage,  and  the  town  was 
speedily  taken  with  considerable  slaughter. 
But  Sitric  and  many  of  the  principal  Danes 
escaped  to  their  ships,  and  sailed  for  Dub- 
lin. After  this,  parties  were  sent  to  pun- 
ish different  Irish  chiefs  who  meanly  sup- 
ported these  barbarians.  Large  sums 
were  extorted  from  them,  and  they  were 
obliged  to  send  hostages  to  Ceallachan  for 
their  fiiture  good  behaviour. 

Thus  was  all  Munster,  in  the  space  of  a 
few  weeks,  delivered  from  the  tyranny  of 
these  wretches,  by  the  vigour  and  intre- 
pidity of  Ceallachan  and  Cineidi ;  but  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  great  defect  in  the 
policy  of  these  princes;  for  though  it  is 
evident  that  far  from  meaning  to  exter- 
minate these  strangers,  the  great  object  of 
Irish  counsels,  from  the  first  of  these  trou- 
bles, was  to  reduce  them  to  obedience,  and 
make  them  useful  to  the  nation  by  arts  and 
commerce,  yet  they  always  overlooked 
the  true  method  of  bringing  them  to  this. 
They  left  them  in  possession  (or,  at  least, 
the  ruling  part)  of  most  of  their  seaports, 
by  which  means,  on  future  occasions,  they 
were  enabled  to  create  fresh  troubles. 
Had  they,  indeed,  suffered  them  to  remain 
in  their  cities  for  the  sole  purpose  of  trade, 
and  conferred  the  government  of  them  on 
magistrates  of  their  own  appointment,  all 
the  calamities,  or  at  least  a  considerable 
part  of  what  fell  on  the  nation,  might  have 
been  avoided.  But  this  we  see  was  not 
the  case  ;  and  the  only  way  to  account  fo. 
this  great  oversight  is,  to  confess  what  was 
really  the  truth.  The  Irish,  though  they 
knew  the  value  of  trade,  and  highly  en- 
couraged and  protected  it,  yet  deemed  it 
dishonourable.  Enthusiastically  fond  of 
arms  and  of  letters,  they  looked  upon  other 
avocations  with  contempt.  Hence  we 
have  seen  the  amazing  numbers  of  the  first 
nobility  who  devoted  themselves  to  the 
church,  and  to  different  learned  professions, 
as  law,  physic,  poetry,  history,  music,  and 


238 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  943. 


genealogy;  and  these  professors  ranked 
even  before  the  miUtary.  Commerce 
and  manufactures  were  mostly  carried  on, 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Danes,  by  the 
Belgae  and  Damnonii.  The  trading  cities 
were  mostly  Hanse-towns ;  the  monarch 
and  provincial  kings  were  paid  certain  sub- 
sidies from  them  in  money,  \<^ines,  and 
merchandise  every  first  of  May  and  No- 
vember. They  had  a  police  of  their  own ; 
and  we  may  safely  affirm  that  the  ancient 
citizens  leagued  with  the  new  comers, 
whose  chief  power  depended  on  their  ships. 
Even  at  this  day  ceanuighe,  which  is  the 
Irish  for  a  merchant,  conveys  with  it  a 
contemptible  idea  ;  and  from  the  old  law 
■word  cain,  tribute,  is  the  word  ceanuighe 
derived. 

Upon  restoring  peace  and  tranquillity  to 
Munster,  a  feis,  or  parliament,  was  sum- 
moned by  Ceallachan  to  meet  at  Cashell, 
where  were  assembled  the  chiefs  of  the 
seventeen  counties  of  South  Munster  ;  and 
Cineidi,  with  the  twelve  princes  of  North 
Munster,  O'Felan,  prince  of  the  Deasies, 
and  others.  At  this  convention  Cineidi 
was  declared  tanaiste,  or  successor  to  the 
crown  of  Munster,  and  received  the  usual 
presents,  and  tuarasdal,  or  pay,  annexed 
to  that  rank.*  Reforms  were  made  (but 
what,  we  are  not  told)  in  the  government 
of  cities;  and  the  case  of  the  people  of 
Ossory  came  next  under  consideration.  It 
appeared  from  the  registers,  that  for  one 
hundred  and  forty-one  years,  (says  my 
copy,)  that  is,  from  the  first  coming  of  the 
Danes,  the  Ossorians  had  withheld  their 
usual  tribute  to  the  kings  of  Munster.f 
Ambassadors  were  immediately  sent  to 
make  a  formal  demand  of  this  tribute,  and, 
in  case  of  refusal,  to  denounce  war  against 
them.  But  the  prince  of  Ossory,  aided  by 
the  Lagenians,  refused  to  comply  with  this 
demand.  His  territories  were  soon  in- 
vaded, and  he  was  obliged  to  submit,  and 

•  Thii  was  ten  gold  cups,  thirty  gold-hilted  swords, 
thirty  horses,  ten  coats  of  mail,  and  two  embroidered 
cloaks ;  and  to  be  continued  annually,  till  he  succeeded 
to  the  cro'wn  of  Munster. 

t  This  (says  my  author)  was  three  hundred  scarlet 
cloaks,  five  hundred  horses,  and  their  contingent  of 
troops  when  called  on. 


send  his  son  as  a  hostage  for  his  future 
good  behaviour. 


CHAPTER    III. 

The  Danes  form  a  deep-laid  conspiracy,  under  the 
pretence  of  marriage,  to  get  CetUlachan  into  their 
hands,  and  succeed — The  terms  on  which  they 
propose  to  release  him,  and  his  own  private  in- 
structions to  his  ministers — The  Mamonians 
raise  a  large  army,  and  fit  out  a  powerful  navy, 
to  redeem  Ceallachan — Armagh  taken  by  assault 
— Naval  engagement  oflT  Dundalk,  and  prodigies 
of  valour  performed  by  the  Irish,  and  release  of 
Ceallachan — Triumphant  return  to  Munster. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  Sitric  in  Dublin,  he 
called  together  an  assembly  of  the  princi- 
pal Danes,  in  order  to  consult  upon  the 
means  of  recovering  their  lost  power  in 
Munster,  or,  at  least,  of  preserving  what 
remained  to  them  in  the  other  provinces. 
His  wife  was  an  Irish  princess,  so  that  he 
preserved,  by  her  family,  some  native 
weight  in  Leath-Cuin.  Munster,  as  has 
been  often  before  noted,  was,  to  all  intents 
and  purposes,  totally  independent  of,  and 
owed  no  obedience  whatever  to,  Leath- 
Cuin,  or  the  monarchs  of  the  Heremonian 
line.  This  it  is  proper  to  repeat,  because 
it  has  been  affirmed  that  Ceallachan's  re- 
fusing to  pay  the  usual  tribute  to  Donachad 
was  the  reason  that  he  countenanced  Si- 
tric in  a  conspiracy  against  Munster,  the 
particulars  of  which  we  shall  now  relate. 

The  Danes  had  been  too  long  in  the 
kingdom  not  to  be  acquainted  with  the 
particular  interests  of  its  different  chiefs. 
It  was  by  entering  into  their  views  that 
they  gradually  gained  a  new  ascendancy 
after  their  first  expulsion  by  Malachie. 
This  knowledge  they  now,  with  profound 
policy,  availed  themselves  of.  They  art- 
fully represented  to  the  monarch  that,  by 
the  late  success  of  Munster,  its  princes  had 
acquired  a  new  power,  and  might,  as  they 
formerly  did,  dispute  the  monarchy  with 
the  Heremonians,  and  so  bring  all  Leath- 
Cuin  under  their  subjection ;  that  they 
themselves  had  formed  a  scheme  by  which 
that  province  could  be  soon  reduced; 
that,  provided  they  had  no  interruption  to 


A.D.  944.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


239 


their  designs,  they  would,  in  a  short  time, 
have  Ceallachan  and  Dunchuain  at  their 
mercy,  and  of  course  all  Munster  in  their 
power ;  and  that  whatever  dominion  they 
might  acquire  by  this  means,  they  would 
hold  it  under  Donachad  and  his  posterity 
only.  By  this  artful  representation,  and 
speaking  to  the  passions  and  the  seeming 
interests  of  the  Heremonians,  they  not 
only  disarmed  their  jealousies  of  them- 
selves, but  made  them  view  the  successes 
of  the  Mamonians  in  a  formidable  light. 

Secure  of  one  party,  they  now  proceed- 
ed in  their  attack  upon  Ceallachan.  Am- 
bassadors were  sent  to  Cashell  in  the  names 
of  Sitric  and  his  brothers,  Tor  and  Mag- 
nus, and  of  the  sons  of  the  king  of  Fuar- 
lochlon  (I  think  Norway)  and  Fionlochlon, 
or  Denmark,  and  their  adherents,  request- 
ing a  lasting  peace  and  amity  with  Mun- 
ster; engaging  for  themselves,  and  for 
their  posterity,  to  relinquish  all  claims  or 
pretences  whatever  on  any  of  the  cities  and 
seaports  of  that  province,  and  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  late  war  themselves.  They 
were  then  directed,  if  they  found  this  pro- 
posal favourably  heard,  to  insinuate  the 
wishes  of  Sitric,  to  cement  this  friendship 
more  closely,  by  marrying  his  sister,  the 
lovely  and  accomplished  Beibhion,  to  Ceal- 
lachan : — that  by  this  union  he  could  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  Leath-Cuin,  as  Sitric 
would  always  assist  him  with  money,  arms, 
and  shipping ;  Ceallachan,  at  the  same 
time,  engaging  to  defend  him  against  all 
attacks  of  the  monarch ;  and  thus  their 
mutual  power  and  independency  would 
be  supported.  Never  was  negotiation 
more  plausible,  or  more  artfully  managed ! 
Ceallachan  assembled  his  council :  the  dif- 
ferent proposals  were  separately  examined, 
and  they  appeared  so  advantageous  to  both 
parties  that  the  least  doubt  of  their  sin- 
cerity could  not  be  harboured.  It  was  evi- 
dent that  Sitric  and  his  party  could  not 
exist  in  Leath-Cuin  without  support ;  and 
Ceallachan,  dreading  the  union  of  that 
party  against  Munster,  was  glad  of  so 
powerful  an  ally  in  their  own  dominions. 
These  agreements  were  formally  ratified 
on  both  parts,  and  Ceallachan  prepared 


for  Dublin,  to  meet  his  intended  bride,  with 
all  the  splendour  and  magnificence  which 
the  ancient  Irish  were  so  fond  of.  He  pro- 
posed marching  his  army  to  Kildare,  there 
to  wait  his  return,  and  attend  his  bride  to 
Cashell ;  but  this  was  opposed  by  Cineidi, 
and  by  O'Keefe,  his  general,  who  said  they 
could  by  no  means  agree  to  leave  the  coun- 
try defenceless ;  but  by  keeping  the  troops 
at  Cashell  they  would  be  ready  to  assist 
him  in  case  of  any  unforeseen  accident 

At  the  head  of  the  young  princes  and 
nobles  of  Munster,  namely :  of  Dunchuain, 
the  son  of  Cineidi ;  of  Aodh,  the  son  of 
CFelan,  prince  of  the  Deasies ;  of  Aon- 
gus,  the  young  prince  of  Ossory,  with  the 
sons  of  O'Keefe,  O'SuUivan,  O'Connor- 
Kerry,  O'Driscol,  O'Moriarty,  O'Rierdan, 
and  the  other  young  chiefs  of  the  twenty- 
nine  counties  of  both  Munsters,  and  his 
guard  of  Ossorians,  gallantly  attired,  did 
Ceallachan  proceed  on  his  way  to  Dub- 
lin, attended  by  the  Danish  ambassadors 
and  their  retinue.  So  unnatural  and  so 
unexpected  a  union  astonished  the  public ; 
and  nothing  was  spoken  of  but  the  prepar- 
ations and  expenses  over  all  Munster,  to 
receive  their  king  and  his  queen  with  joy 
and  splendour.  The  real  intentions  of 
Sitric,  were  so  impenetrable — most  prob- 
ably he  reserved  them  to  himself — that  it 
was  not  till  the  morning  of  the  arrival  of 
Ceallachan  in  Dublin,  that  he  announced 
his  designs  to  his  wife,  who  had  often  be- 
fore expressed  her  astonishment  at  this 
sudden  union  between  her  husband  and  his 
mortal  enemy.  Sure  of  his  prey,  he  now 
told  her  in  confidence,  that  nothing  was 
further  from  his  mind  than  giving  his  sister 
to  the  king  of  Munster.  That  it  was  a 
train  he  had  laid  to  get  him  and  Dunchuain 
into  his  hands,  with  all  the  young  nobility 
of  Munster,  whom  he  intended  shipping 
off  for  Denmark,  or  else  destroying  them, 
if  the  repossession  of  all  the  strongholds 
he  had  been  deprived  of  were  not  restored 
to  him,  with  a  proper  eric,  or  ransom,  for 
every  Dane  who  fell  in  the  late  war. 
The  blackness  and  perfidy  of  the  act,  and 
probably  some  affection  for  her  native 
country,  whose  liberty  she  saw  would  be 


340 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  944. 


endangered  by  it,  determined  her  to  con- 
vey immediately  a  private  account  to 
Ceallachan,  of  the  intentions  of  her  hus- 
band. 

This  prince,  who  was  preparing  with 
great  magnificence  to  enter  the  city  of 
Dublin,  received  this  notice  at  Cill-Mhogh- 
nion,  vulgarly  called  Killmainhim.  He 
communicated  its  contents  to  his  attend- 
ants, and  asked  their  opinions.  They 
agreed  to  retire  as  fast  as  possible ;  but 
Sitric  was  too  profound  a  politician  to 
leave  much  to  chance.  He  ordered,  the 
night  before,  troops  to  file  oflf  silently,  and 
line  the  hedges  on  both  sides  the  road,  so 
as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  an  escape, 
in  case  Ceallachan  should  penetrate  his 
designs ;  and  in  the  morning,  by  way  of 
doing  him  greater  honour,  a  body  of  horse 
were  to  usher  him  into  town.  The  troops 
seeing  Ceallachan  and  his  party  turning 
their  backs  on  Dublin,  quitted  their  reces- 
ses, in  order  to  oppose  them ;  but  several 
of  them  were  cut  to  pieces,  and  they  would 
have  made  good  their  retreat,  but  for  the 
horse,  who  being  near  at  hand,  and  hear- 
ing the  shouts,  spurred  on,  and  soon  came 
up  with  this  handful  of  heroes,  contending 
with  hundreds  ! 

On  sight  of  the  horse,  these  young  nobles 
formed  a  resolution  worthy  of  their  birth 
and  valour.  They  requested  Ceallachan 
and  Dunchuain  to  retire  as  fast  as  possible, 
while  they  sold  their  lives  as  dear  as  they 
could  for  their  country's  safety.  But  cour- 
age was  vainly  opposed  to  numbers ;  and 
though  the  enemy  fell  in  heaps  on  every 
side,  yet  the  strength  of  these  young  com- 
batants was  soon  exhausted,  and  they 
themselves  received  from  others  that  death 
which  they  had  so  liberally  bestowed. 
Ceallachan  and  Dunchuain,  finding  all 
hopes  of  liberty  lost,  determined  to  sell 
their  lives  dearly ;  but  the  Danes  had  it 
in  charge  to  take  them  alive,  which  they 
at  length  effected.  Sitric  received  them 
with  all  the  cruelty  of  an  insulting  tyrant, 
and  had  even  the  heads  of  their  young 
nobility  exposed  in  their  presence — up- 
braiding them  with  all  the  Danish  blood 
they  had  spilt,  and  vowing  that  they  should 


never  return  to  Munster,  till  all  the  cities 
were  restored  to  him,  and  a  proper  eric 
paid  for  every  Dane  who  fell  since  the 
taking  of  Limerick. 

The  news'of  the  capture  of  the  king  of 
Munster,  and  of  the  destruction  of  all  the 
young  nobility  in  his  train,  filled  that  whole 
people  with  horror  and  consternation; 
since  there  was  scarce  a  great  house  in  the 
province,  that  had  not  lost  a  son  or  a  bro- 
ther. With  this  melancholy  account  came 
the  Danish  proposals,  from  which  they 
would  not  recede ;  but  Ceallachan  sent 
private  instructions  toCineidi,  by  no  means 
to  hearken  to  them,  but  to  arm  all  Mun- 
ster, and  pursue  the  Danes  to  Armagh, 
where  they  intended  to  remove  him.  At 
the  same  time,  he  recommended  him  to 
collect  all  the  naval  power,  and  proceed  to 
Dundalk,  where  the  Danish  fleet  then  lay, 
and  which  he  apprehended  was  to  carry 
him  to  Denmark.  "  Should  these  manoeu- 
vres (said  he)  prove  unsuccessful,  have  no 
further  regard  to  our  situations,  but  pursue 
the  barbarous  Danes.  Assume  the  crown 
of  Munster,  which  your  virtues  so  justly 
entitle  you  to,  and  take  ample  revenge  on 
the  kings  of  Tara  and  Leinster  for  their 
base  treachery." 

On  consultation,  it  was  agreed  to  pursue 
the  advice  of  Ceallachan.  Expresses  were 
sent  to  collect  the  troops,  and  for  those 
chiefs  whose  duty  it  was  to  be  always 
ready  with  their  ships,  to  attend  the  calls 
of  their  country,  to  proceed  to  sea  by  that 
day  week  for  Dundalk,  which  day  was  also 
marked  out  for  the  march  of  the  land  forces. 
At  the  appointed  day,  appeared  two  thous- 
and of  the  Dalgais,  completely  armed  with 
helmets,  coats  of  mail,  broadswords,  and 
shields,  headed  by  Congalach,  Cosgrach, 
and  Longargan,  the  brothers  of  Cineidi. 
Three  thousand  Eugenians,  armed  in  like 
manner,  arranged  themselves  under  the 
standard  of  O  Keefe,  who  was  apf)ointed 
commander-in-chief.  Another  body  from 
Hi-Conn uil,  Hi-Carbre,  Hi-Caille,  and  Hi- 
Liathan,  appeared.  These  were  joined  by 
a  large  body  of  volunteers ;  so  that  the 
army  consisted  of  four  catha,  or  twelve 
thousand  men,  besides  archers,  slingers  and 


A.  D.  944.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


241 


other  light-armed  troops.  On  a  review  of 
the  troops,  Cineidi  first  addressed  himself 
to  his  brothers  and  the  brave  Dalgais  ;  he 
reminded  them  of  the  explojts  of  their  an- 
cestors, the  cause  in  which  they  were  em- 
barked, and  the  perfidious  enemy  with 
which  they  were  to  engage ;  and  charged 
them  to  return  with  victory  or  die  glorious- 
ly. O'Keefe,  and  his  intrepid  Eugenians, 
he  also  harangued.  It  is  all  in  verse,  ani- 
mating, noble,  and  poetic  !  It  may  not  be 
here  amiss  to  inform  the  reader,  that  the 
Irish  princes  and  nobility  were  early  in- 
structed in  history  and  poetry,  as  well  as 
in  feats  of  arms,  and  that  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  both,  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary in  all  public  stations.  Every  man's 
rank  was  thus  known,  and  the  degree  of 
attention  necessary  to  be  paid  to  him.  Pub- 
lic discourses  of  every  kind  were  concluded, 
and  often  recapitulated,  in  verse  ;  and  this 
will  explain  why  all  our  MSS.  contain 
prose  and  verse;  and  the  meaning  of  the 
adage  among  antiquarians — ^*Laoi  no  litir 
coithigkuas — prose  or  verse  proves ;"  that 
is,  that  the  poetic  part  is  as  authentic  as  the 
mere  literal. 

The  number  of  ships  in  this  expedition 
are  very  particularly  specified.  (yDriscol, 
CCobhtach,  and  O'Flan,  armed  and  manned 
ten  ships  each ;  Corca-Duibhne,  in  the  coun- 
ty of  Kerry,  the  principality  of  OTailbhe, 
or  O'Falvy,  who  was  hereditary  admiral 
of  South  Munster,  equipped  thirty  ships ; 
O'Connor-Kerry,  twenty  ships ;  from  Cor- 
cumruadh  and  Burrin,  in  the  county  of 
Clare,  twenty  ships ;  and  from  Corca- 
Bhaiscin,  twenty  ships :  in  all  one  hundred 
and  twenty  sail.  For  it  is  to  be  noticed, 
that  there  was  at  this  time  thirteen  sea- 
ports in  South,  and  but  five  in  North  Mun- 
ster. These  ships,  well-manned  and  ap- 
pointed, and  commanded  by  their  diflferent 
chiefs,  rendezvoused  at  Beal-Atha-Laigh- 
ean,  on  the  day  appointed,  and  immediately 
proceeded  to  sea. 

In  the  march  of  the  army,  they  were 
joined  by  one  thousand  Conacians,  the  pos- 
terity of  Teige,  the  son  of  Cian,  the  son  of 
Oliol-OUum,  who  got  large  estates  in  Lein- 
ster  and  Connaught,  in  the  third  century. 

31 


At  the  head  of  these  were  OUara,  O'CJara, 
O'Connor,  from  this  Cian,  called  Cianachta, 
etc.,  and  soon  after  by  five  hundred  foot 
completely  armed,  from  the  Delvins,  head- 
ed by  O'Coghlin,  0*Fennellan,  etc.,  being 
the  posterity  of  Luigh-Dealboaodh.  These 
chiefs  informed  O'Keefe,  that  as  being 
themselves  of  the  lineofHebcr,  they  thought 
they  were  bound  in  honour  to  engage  in 
this  cause,  and  therefore  voluntarily  offered 
their  service,  which  he  gladly  accepted, 
applauding  their  generosity  and  bravery, 
and  that  of  their  ancestors,  in  an  extempore 
poem.  It  is  to  be  noticed,  that  seven  hun- 
dred years  had  now  elapsed  since  the  an- 
cestors of  the  Gaileangas,  or  first  body  of 
these  auxiliaries,  gained  estates  in  Con- 
naught  and  Leinster ;  and  above  five  hun- 
dred since  those  of  the  Delvins  got  acqui- 
sitions in  Leinster  and  Meath ;  yet  we  see 
how  well  preserved  was  the  memory  of 
their  ancestors ! 

The  army,  in  high  spirits,  soon  reached 
Armagh ;  but  in  their  march  through  Tir 
Connel,  some  excesses  were  committed, 
which  that  prince  complained  of;  but  get- 
ting no  redress,  and  unable  to  oppose  force 
to  force,  through  vexation  he  sent  a  private 
express  to  Sitric,  at  Armagh,  that  the  whole 
power  of  Munster  would  be  immediately 
on  his  back.  On  receipt  of  this  intelligence, 
he  quitted  the  town  with  his  army  and 
prisoners,  and  proceeded  to  Dundalk,  where 
his  ships  lay,  leaving  a  strong  garrison  be- 
hind him,  to  delay  as  much  as  possible  the 
Munster  troops.  Immediately  on  their  ar- 
rival, O'Keefe  took  a  view  of  the  city  and 
proceeded  to  form  the  attack.  To  the  Dal- 
gassians,  and  the  troops  from  Delvin  and 
Connaught,  he  assigned  the  western  side 
of  Armagh ;  to  those  of  Hi-Connuil  and 
Hi-Garbre,  or  of  Upper  Connellac  and 
Kerry,  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  and  of 
Hi-Liathan,  or  Barrymore,  in  the  county 
of  Cork,  etc.,  the  attack  of  the  old  town. 
The  troops  from  the  Deasies,  or  county  of 
Waterford,  were  to  form  the  southern  at- 
tack ;  and  the  Eogonachts,  with  himself  at 
their  head,  were  to  make  their  approaches 
at  the  east  side  of  the  city.  All  these  at- 
tacks were  to  commence  at  precisely  the 


242 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  944. 


same  time.  The  troops  took  their  differ- 
ent stations  ;  the  signal  was  given,  and  the 
projection  of  large  stones  from  the  machines, 
and  arrows  from  the  archers,  were  for  a 
time  so  constant  and  thick,  that  the  air  was 
almost  darkened.  Scaling  ladders  were 
fixed  against  the  walls;  the  soldiers  as- 
cended them  with  loud  shouts,  and  death 
stalked  round  on  every  side.  Part  of  the 
troops  gained  the  tops  of  the  walls,  and  the 
first  Irish  standard  that  was  planted,  was 
the  Dalgassian.  The  Danes  everywhere 
defended  themselves  with  uncommon  bra- 
very and  desperation,  as  they  had  every 
thing  to  apprehend  from  the  enraged  as- 
sailants. At  length  they  gave  way,  but 
not  till  late  in  the  evening  did  the  Irish  get 
possession  of  the  town.  But  the  general, 
apprehensive  that  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night,  should  the  fight  and  pursuit  continue 
longer,  the  troops  advancing  from  different 
quarters,  might  through  mistake  engage 
each  other,  gave  orders  that  none  should 
stir  from  their  stations,  but  remain  under 
arms  all  night,  and  to  take  care  that  none 
should  be  suffered  to  quit  the  town. 

In  the  morning  early  they  heard  with 
astonishment  that  Sitric  had  been  informed 
of  their  intentions  by  the  prince  of  Tir 
Connel,  and  had  marched  off  for  Dundalk 
with  his  prisoners.  After  burying  the  dead, 
which  it  appears  were  very  considerable, 
(five  hundred  of  the  Eogonachts  only  being 
among  the  slain,)  they  proceeded  for  Dun- 
dalk, or  Dun-Dealgan,  the  ancient  residence 
of  the  famous  hero  Cucullin.  Here  they 
found  that  Sitric  with  all  his  forces  had 
embarked,  and  the  fleet  laying  in  the  bay 
ready  for  sea.  CKeefe  sent  off  a  flag  of 
truce  to  demand  of  Sitric  the  bodies  of 
Ceallachan  and  Dunchuain,  at  the  same 
time  upbraiding  him  with  his  breach  of 
public  faith.  But  the  Dane  returned  for 
answer,  "  that  the  prisoners  should  not  be 
restored  till  an  eric  was  first  paid  for  the 
Danes  who  fell  in  fifteen  different  battles 
with  Ceallachan  and  his  forces ;"  and  at  the 
same  time  he  ordered  Ceallachan  to  be 
bound  to  the  round-top  of  his  own  ship,  which 
was  the  largest  in  the  fleet,  and  directed  that 
Dunchuain,  who  was  in  that  of  the  king  of 


Norway,  should  be  served  in  like  manner 
in  view  of  the  whole  Munster  army. 

But  if  the  rage  and  grief  of  the  Irish  were 
extreme  at  this  insult  offered  to  their  princes 
and  to  the  nation,  in  their  sight,  but  out 
of  their  power  to  revenge,  what  must  not 
have  been  their  joy  on  viewing  the  Mun- 
ster fleet,  now  in  sight,  with  oars  and  sails 
moving  up  the  bay  ?  When  they  beheld 
distinctly  the  admiral's  flag,  and  knew  to  a 
certainty  the  different  squadrons  of  which 
the  fleet  was  composed,  by  their  ensigns, 
they  expressed  their  satisfaction  by  loud 
and  repeated  shouts,  which  were  returned 
by  the  navy ;  and  now  both  parties  pre- 
pared for  action.  O'Failbhe  drew  up  his 
ships  in  an  extended  line,  but  so  as  to  leave 
room  enough  for  the  ships  to  work  and 
fight,  but  not  to  let  the  Danes  escape  them. 
Both  parties  were  resolved  on  victory  or 
death,  and  with  cool  determination  ap- 
proached each  other.  O'Driscol,  O'Cobh- 
tach,  and  OTlan,  who  led  the  van,  began 
the  attack  on  that  of  the  enemy  by  showers 
of  arrows  and  stones,  darted  from  ma- 
chines and  slings,  and  of  lances.  But  these 
missive  weapons  dealt  death  too  slowly  for 
the  enraged  Irish.  The  ships  still  ap- 
proached nearer,  and  they  were  directed 
to  grapple  the  enemy  and  board  them. 
It  appears  that  heavy-armed  troops  were 
dispersed  through  both  fleets,  and  these 
fought  hand  to  hand,  and  breast  to  breast. 
The  Irish  admiral  now  approached  the 
central  division  under  Sitric,  while  the 
distant  war  was  conducted  as  above. 
O'Failbhe  grappled  the  Danish  admiral,  the 
rest  of  his  squadron  did  the  like  to  others, 
and  all  leaped  into  the  enemy's  ships.  The 
North  Munster  division  attacked  the  Danes 
commanded  by  the  princes  of  Norway  and 
Denmark,  and  boarded  them  also.  Never 
was  greater  intrepidity  displayed  than  by 
both  parties  on  this  dreadful  occasion. 
The  Danish  fleet  was  much  better  manned 
than  the  Irish ;  and  this  superiority  made 
the  conflict  long  doubtful.  The  Irish  ad- 
miral advanced  at  the  head  of  a  select 
party  with  a  sword  in  each  hand,  deter- 
mined to  restore  Ceallachan  to  his  liberty, 
or  die  in  the  attempt.     Sitric  and  his  bands 


A.  D.  944.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


243 


resolutely  expected  the  attack.  Courage, 
strength,  and  experience,  were  opposed  to  ^ 
each  other ;  but  the  Danes  were  at  length 
driven  from  the  main  deck,  and  Cealla- 
chan  relieved.  O'Failbhe  gave  him  one 
of  his  swords,  and  desired  him  to  take 
possession  of  his  ship  and  show  himself  to 
the  fleet,  while  he  returned  to  the  charge. 
The  liberty  of  their  prince  gave  new 
spirits  to  the  Irish,  and  they  everywhere 
pressed  the  enemy  closer.  The  gallant 
O'Failbhe  now  renewed  the  fight  with  re- 
doubled vigour ;  but  Sitric,  who  knew  how 
much  depended  on  his  own  ship,  gallantly 
opposed  him,  and  he  at  length  fell,  pierced 
by  a  thousand  wounds !  His  head  was 
immediately  displayed  on  Sitric's  mast- 
head, and  this  sight  gave  fresh  courage  to 
the  Danes.  But  Fingal,  second  in  com- 
mand, vowed  ample  revenge  on  Sitric. 
He  reanimated  his  wounded  and  dispirited 
associates,  and  conjured  them  to  make  one 
generous  attempt  more  in  the  cause  of  their 
country.  They  caught  the  sacred  flame, 
and  bravely  seconded  their  gallant  com- 
mander. The  fight  was  now  more  despe- 
rate than  ever,  and  not  only  in  this,  but  in 
every  ship  of  the  Danes;  and  we  are  par- 
ticularly told  that  the  different  combatants 
fought  almost  knee-deep  in  blood.  Fingal 
and  Sitric  at  length  closed,  surrounded  by 
crowds  of  Danes ;  Fingal  saw  his  death 
certain,  but  determined  to  die  gloriously. 
By  a  sudden  effort  he  grasped  Sitric  in  his 
arms,  and  hurled  his  enemy  with  himself 
into  the  unfathomable  deep !  The  like  did 
Connal  and  Seagha,  the  ancestors  of 
O'Connor  Corcumruadh,  and  O'Loghlin, 
who  engaged  with  the  ships  commanded 
by  Tor  and  Magnus,  brothers  to  Sitric,  and 
reduced  to  the  same  extremity  with  Fingal ; 
like  him,  they  grasped  these  different  chiefs 
in  their  arms,  and  with  them  rushed  into 
eternity  !  O'Connor-Kerry,  and  his  divi- 
sion met  the  same  opposition ;  and  he,  in 
particular,  after  much  carnage,  attacked, 
hand  to  hand,  the  Danish  commander, 
whose  head  he  cut  off ;  but  while  he  was 
eiposing  it  to  his  men,  he  met  the  same  fate 
from  another  Dane ! 

After    performing    every  duty    which 


could  be  expected  from  experienced  com- 
manders, and  gallant  soldiers  and  seamen, 
the  aliens  began  at  length  to  lose  their 
courage  at  such  unexampled  instances  of 
heroism  and  perseverance ;  while  their 
antagonists  more  eagerly  sought  for  death, 
provided  they  could  drag  some  Danish  an- 
tagonist to  eternity  with  them  !  In  a  word, 
the  Danish  fleet  was  all  taken  or  destroyed; 
and  of  that  numerous  host,  which  in  the 
morning  exhibited  so  glorious  a  sight,  not 
a  single  man  remained  alive  at  night ! 
History  cannot  produce  another  instance 
of  so  well-fought  a  battle,  or  so  dreadful  a 
carnage !  Of  all  the  Irish  chiefs  that  en- 
gaged that  day,  not  one  escaped  death; 
the  like  of  all  the  captains,  and  very  few 
of  the  soldiers  or  sailors,  who  were  not 
killed  or  wounded !  The  enemies'  ships 
being  everywhere  taken  or  destroyed,  Ce- 
allachan  and  Dunchuain  landed ;  and  the 
sight  of  these  princes,  with  the  glory  of 
the  well-purchased  day,  soon  made  the 
army  forget  all  the  losses  attending  it. 
The  bards,  as  usual,  congratulated  them 
in  adulatory  odes ;  and  the  shouts  of  the 
soldiery  proclaimed  their  joy  and  appro- 
bation. 

Ceallachan  gave  orders  to  set  fire  to 
such  of  the  enemies'  ships  as  were  totally 
disabled  ;  and  after  distributing  their  spoils 
among  the  troops,  he  detached  a  considera- 
ble body  of  men  to  punish  the  prince  of 
Tir  Connell  for  his  perfidy,  with  orders  to 
join  him  afterwards  in  Meath.  He  at  the 
same  time  sent  heralds  to  the  monarch  Do- 
nachad,  upbraiding  him  with  his  baseness, 
and  informing  him  that  he  would  soon  be 
at  Tara  to  lay  waste  his  country  if  he  was 
not  able  to  fight  him.  The  monarch  de- 
clined the  challenge,  and  Ceallachan  raised 
heavy  contributions  on  the  country,  with 
which  and  many  hostages,  he  returned  tri- 
umphant to  Cashell. 

As  the  MS.  which  details  the  wars  of 
this  prince,  is  more  minute  in  relating  the 
manner  of  engagements  both  by  sea  and 
land  than  any  other  I  have  met  with,  I 
have  here  given  the  substance  of  it  entire. 
By  it  it  appears  that  soldiers,  armed  at  all 
points*  fought  as  well  on  ship-board  as  op 


244 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  945. 


shore ;  and  that  the  distant  war,  in  both 
instances,  consisted  in  hurling  of  stones  and 
the  discharge  of  arrows  and  lances.  The 
projection  of  stones  from  slings  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  missive  weapon  that 
was  used  ;  and  Pliny  attributes  its  inven- 
tion to  the  PhoBnicians.  In  the  armies  of 
Israel  were  slingers  of  stones :  by  this  art 
David  killed  Goliah;*  and  among  those 
who  came  to  his  assistance  afterwards, 
were  men,  "  who  could  use  both  the  right 
hand  and  the  left,  in  hurling  stones  /"f  In 
the  army  of  the  children  of  Benjamin  were 
seven  hundred  chosen  men,  left-handed — 
**  Every  one  could  sling  stones  at  an  hair 
breadth  and  not  miss."J  The  Gauls  suc- 
cessfully used  them  in  their  wars  with  the 
Romans  ;§  and  these  last  afterwards  em- 
ployed the  Balearians,  or  inhabitants  of 
Majorca  and  Minorca,  in  their  armies  for 
this  purpose.  In  Ireland,  men  were  partic- 
ularly trained  to  this  exercise ;  and  were 
so  expert  at  it  as  to  be  certain  of  hitting 
any  object  within  its  reach.  By  it,  Con- 
nor, King  of  Ulster,  near  the  birth  of  Christ, 
had  his  skull  fractured,  and  some  years  af- 
ter the  famous  Meibh,  Queen  of  Connaught, 
received  her  death.  Besides  stones,  the 
Irish  slingers  used  a  composition  of  quick- 
lime, coarse  gravel,  brick-dust  and  blood, 
which  they  worked  into  a  mass,  and  of 
this  formed  balls  of  different  sizes  for  their 
cran-tubals,  or  slings. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Death  of  the  monarch  Donochad,  and  election  of 
Congalach — Defeats  the  Danes  in  two  pitched 
battles — State  of  Munster  and  death  of  Cealla- 
chan — Objections  to  his  history  amrWered — Suc- 
ceeded by  Feargradh — History  and  exploits  of 
Mahon,  King  of  Thomond — Succeeds  to  the 
crown  of  Munster,  and  defeats  the  different 
leagues  formed  against  him,  but  is  at  length 
treacherously  slain. 

The  spirit  of  Ceallachan  and  of  Cineidi 
seems  to  have  been  caught  by  some  north- 
em  princes;  and  Mac  Neill  fitted  out  a 

*  1  Samuel,  xvii.  49. 

t  1  Chronicles,  xii.  2. 

t  Judges,  XX..  16. 

$  Cssar  de  Bello  Gal.  lib.  ii.  cap.  7. 


fleet  on  Loch-Neagh,  with  which  he  at- 
tacked and  destroyed  that  of  the  Danes, 
and  killed  more  than  twelve  hundred 
of  their  men.  In  like  manner  the  Cona- 
cians  encountered  the  Danes  on  Loch- 
Oirbhsion,  who  had  long  distressed  the  ad- 
joining inhabitants,  sunk  or  burned  all 
their  vessels,  and  put  to  the  sword  every 
man  of  them.  In  this  year  Donachad,  the 
monarch,  died  suddenly,  after  a  reign  of 
twenty-five  years,  during  which  long  pe- 
riod he  displayed  no  great  talents  or  patri- 
otism. Had  he,  after  the  rapid  successes 
of  Ceallachan,  leagued  with  this  prince,  or 
even,  as  he  did  in  Leath-Mogha,  humbled 
their  power  in  Leath-Cuin,  in  all  appear- 
ance the  remains  of  these  people  from  in- 
veterate enemies  might  have  been  con- 
verted to  useful  subjects.  But  he  envied 
these  exploits  which  he  ought  to  have  im- 
itated ;  and,  like  a  modem  patriot,  would 
rather  see  the  nation  totally  destroyed,  than 
rescued  from  its  dangers  by  other  hands 
than  his  own! 

Congalach,  the  son  of  Maoilmhithe,  sixth 
in  descent  from  Aodh-Slaine,  of  the  Here- 
monian  line,  was  proclaimed  monarch. 
He  was  an  active  and  enterprising  prince, 
and  a  determined  enemy  of  the  Danes. 
On  some  depredations  of  these  pirates, 
Congalach  declared  war  against,  and  led 
forth  an  army  to  chastise  them.  The 
Danes  withdrew  their  distant  garrisons, 
and  waited  the  motions  of  the  monarch. 
The  armies  engaged  near  Dublin,  and  in 
the  battle,  four  thousand  Danes  were 
slain ;  and  so  hotly  were  the  fugitives  pur- 
sued, that  the  victors  entered  the  city  with 
them,  and  put  the  garrison  to  the  sword. 
It  does  not  appear  that  Congalach  left 
troops  in  that  city  to  secure  its  possession 
to  himself;  and  therefore  Blacar  the  Dane, 
entered  it  the  next  year,  and  fortified  it 
stronger  thanit  had  been  before.  They  at  the 
same  time  collected  a  considerable  force  to 
carry  on  their  usual  depredations ;  but  were 
attacked  by  the  imperialists  near  Slane, 
where  the  Danes  lost  sixteen  hundred  of 
their  very  best  troops,  with  their  general 
Blacar.  Godfrey  succeeded  Blacar  in  the 
command  of  the  Danes,  and,  impatient  to 


A.  D.  953.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


245 


revenge  the  many  defeats  which  his  coun- 
trymen had  lately  suffered,  he  collected 
troops  from  all  quarters,  and  auxiliaries 
from  Britain  and  Gaul ;  and  at  the  head 
of  a  larger  force  than  had  ever  appeared 
before  of  these  aliens,  he  entered  into  ac- 
tion, laying  waste  the  country  for  nearly 
thirty  miles  round  Dublin,  with  sword  and 
fire,  and  plundering  the  churches,  monas- 
teries, and  other  houses,  of  whatever  was 
most  valuable.  In  their  return,  laden 
with  spoils,  they  were  overtaken  by  the 
imperialists  at  a  place  called  Muinbrocan, 
in  Meath,  where,  after  a  most  bloody  con- 
test, they  received  a  complete  overthrow, 
having  had  no  less  a  number  than  seven 
thousand  killed,  besides  above  one  thou- 
sand prisoners  taken  !  But  this  victory 
was  dearly  purchased,  for  the  Irish  suffered 
considerably;  and  among  the  slain  was 
Roderic  O'Cannanan,  prince  of  Tir  Con- 
nel,  righ-damhna,  or  declared  successor 
to  the  monarch,  and  general  of  the  imperial 
army. 

In  the  meantime  the  Danes  got  to  a 
great  head  in  Munster,  having  received 
considerable  supplies  from  the  Baltic  :  they 
fortified  Limerick  by  new  works,  and  made 
Scattery  a  place  of  arms.  Cork  and  Wa- 
terford  received  also  great  recruits  of  men 
and  arms,  but  they  acted  so  circumspectly 
during  the  reigns  of  Ceallachan  and  Ci- 
neidi,  that  their  real  power  was  neither 
known  nor  suspected. 

Towards  the  end  of  950,  the  gallant  Ci- 
neidi.  King  of  Thomond,  died,  without  en- 
joying the  crown  of  all  Munster,  which 
his  virtues  and  intrepidity  so  jaiitly  entitled 
him  to.  He  was  succeeded  by  his  son 
Lachtna ;  and  the  same  year  Dunchuain 
and  Eichthiam,  sons  of  Cineidi,  were  slain 
by  the  troops  of  Congalach,  as  they  were 
gallantly  opposing  their  passage  into  Tho- 
mond. In  952,  Ceallachan-Casil,  King  of 
Munster,  died,  as  is  expressly  mentioned 
in  his  life  and  exploits,  an  epitome  of 
which  I  have  already  given.  And  here 
let  me  advert  to  the  objections  made  by 
the  translator  of  the  Book  of  Munster,  to 
the  account  which  Keating*  gives  of  this 

*  Law*  of  TaniBtry  illtutrated,  p.  458,  Sue. 


prince ;  because  it  appears  that  Cineidt 
and  Ceallachan  were  early  at  variance,  he 
presumed  that  they  could  not  afterwards^ 
become  friends,  and  that  Cineidi  would 
never  suffer  his  son  Dunchuain  to  accom- 
pany this  prince  to  Dublin,  or  Ceallachan 
entrust  Cineidi  with  the  government  of 
Munster  in  his  absence.  And  as  Sitric  i& 
said  by  Keating  to  have  been  the  son  of 
Turgesius  the  tyrant,  who  was  destroyed 
by  the  monarch  Malachie  about  a  century 
earlier,  his  sister  Beibhion  (says  the  trans- 
lator) must  have  preserved  her  beauty  to  a 
wonderful  old  age  to  match  Ceallachan* 
For  these  reasons,  he  treats  the  union  of 
Ceallachan  and  Cineidi,  and  the  exploits- 
attributed  to  the  Mamonians,  in  redeeming^ 
the  first,  as  mere  fables,  and  is  very  severe 
in  his  animadversions  on  this  reverend  wri- 
ter. That  princes  at  variance  may  be  recon- 
ciled, and  afterwards  become  warm  friends^ 
cannot  be  doubted  ;  and  though  the  author- 
ity from  which  I  have  faithfully  extracted 
the  exploits  of  Ceallachan  expressly  says 
that  Sitric  was  the  son  of  Turgesius,  yet 
it  does  not  affirm  that  this  Turgesius  was 
the  tyrant  before  alluded  to.  Turgesius^ 
like  Sitric,  Ivorus,  Avlavus,  etc.,  was  a 
name  peculiar  to  these  foreigners.  We 
read  of  many  Sitricses,  Ivoruses,  etc.,  in 
our  annals,  and  why  not  many  Turgesiuses? 
Thus,  though  this  Sitric  is  said  to  have 
been  the  son  of  Turgesius,  yet  it  is  not  a 
consequence  that  he  must  have  been  son  to 
that  Turgesius  drowned  in  Loch-Ainin. 
Besides,  our  history  mentions  him,  with 
his  chiefs  and  family,  to  have  been  cut  off, 
so  that  there  could  be  no  authority  what- 
ever for  even  supposing  it  Thus  his 
proofs,  when  examined,  appear,  like  most 
modern  attacks  upon  ancient  history,  but 
merely  presumptive.  But  had  this  gentle- 
man perused  the  work  relative  to  this 
prince,  he  would  have  been  convinced, 
from  its  style  and  language,  not  only  that 
it  was  genuine,  but  written  immediately 
after  the  transactions  recorded  therein. 
From  this  hero,  Ceallachan,  his  posterity 
assumed  the  name  of  CCeallachan,  and 
preserved  a  considerable  part  of  their  an- 
cient property  even  to  the  days  of  Crom- 


346 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND, 


[A.D.  959. 


well.  This  tyrant  obliged  them,  as  he  did 
many  other  great  families,  to  exchange 
their  ample  fortunes  at  home  for  smaller 
ones  in  other  counties.  It  was  a  policy  he 
adopted,  in  too  many  instances,  in  order  to 
weaken  ancient  family-interests,  to  trans- 
plant people  from  one  county  to  another ; 
and  then  it  was  that  the  chief  of  this  prince- 
ly line  was  removed  from  the  county  of 
Cork  into  the  county  of  Clare,  where  his 
posterity  have  still  an  ample  property. 

On  the  death  of  Ceallachan,  Feargradh, 
the  son  of  Ailgenan,  a  Eugenian,  was  pro- 
claimed king  of  Munster  in  preference  to 
Lachtna,  who  should  certainly  in  justice 
have  succeeded  Ceallachan ;  but  I  suppose 
the  incursions  of  the  Danes  into  his  terri- 
tories (who  were  now  possessed  not  only 
of  Limerick,  but  of  all  the  islands  in  the 
Shannon  near  it)  disabled  him  from  sup- 
porting his  right  by  arms.  Lachtna,  how- 
ever, had  war  on  his  hands ;  and  in  the 
third  year  of  his  reign,  the  Book  of  Mun- 
ster tells  us,  he  fell  in  battle  by  the  hands 
of  O'Flin  and  O'Cearny. 

Mahon,  brother  to  Lachtna,  was  his  suc- 
cessor in  the  kingdom  of  North  Munster, 
a  prince  of  uncommon  bravery  and  con- 
duct ;  and  such  a  one  was  highly  necessary, 
as  the  Danes  already  possessed  most  of  the 
strongholds  in  the  province,  from  which 
they  made  sudden  and  dreadful  incursions. 
Mahon,  for  a  time  assisted  by  his  brethren, 
particularly  his  brother  Brien,  unable  to 
face  them  in  the  field,  carried  on  a  kind  of 
partisan-war  against  them,  watching  op- 
portunities of  surprising  and  cutting  off 
their  different  scouting  and  detached  par- 
ties, the  success  of  which  gave  new  spirits 
to  his  people,  so  that  in  some  time  his  forces 
became  considerable  and  respectable. 

The  Lagenians,  Danes,  and  Normans,  of 
Ulster  and  Leinster,  entered  into  a  confed- 
eracy against  Congalach.  He  raised  an 
army  to  oppose  them,  but  fell  in  the  action 
that  ensued  near  Armagh,  as  the  Annals 
of  the  Four  Masters  note. 

His  successor  was  Domhnal  O'Neil,  the 
son  of  Murtough,  the  son  of  the  monarch 
Neil-Glundubh.  Soon  after  his  inaugura- 
tion, Daniel,  son  of  the  deceased  monarch 


Congalach,  leagued  with  the  Danes  and 
Lagenians,  and,  at  the  head  of  a  potent 
army,  avowed  his  pretensions  to  the  throne 
of  Tara.  The  monarch  prepared  to  meet 
him  ;  and  at  Cill-Moha  a  most  bloody  battle 
was  fought,  in  which  Argal,  son  of  the 
king  of  Ulster,  the  young  prince  of  Oirgial, 
and  other  persons  of  prime  quality  fell,  and 
with  them  the  hopes  of  the  son  of  Conga- 
lach. The  Conacians  had  not  sent  hos- 
tages to  the  monarch,  nor  yet  recognised 
his  title.  To  punish  them  for  this  neglect 
and  disrespect,  he  invaded  that  province, 
raised  contributions  on  the  country,  and 
brought  hostages  to  Tara  from  the  differ- 
ent free  states. 

The  active  and  enterprising  king  of 
North  Munster,  and  his  brother  Brien, 
were  perpetually  in  arms  against  the 
Danes,  constantly  harassing  them,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  never  attacking  them  but 
where  they  had  the  advantage  of  situation ; 
so  that  far  from  repeating  their  depreda- 
tions on  the  public,  they  dared  not  now 
venture  from  their  strongholds  but  in  large 
bodies.  Alarmed  at  the  success  of  Mahon 
in  this  kind  of  partisan-war,  the  Danes  of 
Cork,  Waterford,  and  Limerick  agreed  to 
raise  a  body  of  men  to  crush  for  ever  this 
rising  spirit.  Three  thousand  picked  men 
were  raised  for  this  purpose,  commanded 
by  Muiris,  chief  of  the  Danes  of  Limerick, 
under  whom  were  four  colonels  of  great 
military  experience,  and  other  officers  of 
approved  valour.  Mahon's  troops,  in  fly- 
ing parties,  constantly  hovered  round  them 
in  their  majrch  from  Cashell  to  Limerick, 
sometimes  skirmishing  in  front,  sometimes 
in  the  rear,  or  wherever  they  found  the 
least  advantage.  At  length,  at  Sulchoid,  a 
noted  pass,  they  attacked  them  with  such 
spirit  and  impetuosity,  and  with  such  vis- 
ible advantage,  that  the  front  ranks  fell  in 
upon  the  centre,  and  all  was  soon  in  confu- 
sion. In  vain  did  their  chiefs  exert  all  their 
courage  and  skill,  and  oppose  themselves 
to  the  greatest  dangers  to  reanimate  the 
troops.  Two  thousand  of  them  were  cut 
to  pieces  on  the  spot,  with  their  general 
and  principal  officers,  and  the  remainder 
fled  towards  Limerick,  whither  they  were 


A.  D.  960.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


247 


SO  closely  and  eagerly  pursued,  that  the 
victors  entered  the  town  with  them,  put- 
ting to  the  sword  all  opponents,  breaking 
down  the  walls  in  several  places,  and  set- 
ting fire  to  all  the  gates  of  the  city. 

This  victory  having  .secured  and  en- 
larged the  boundaries  of  Mahon's  territo- 
ries, he  thought  the  opportunity  favourable 
to  be  avenged  on  the  Conacians.  These 
last  always  deemed  the  present  county  of 
Clare  as  part  of  their  dominions,  (though 
in  the  original  partition  of  Ireland,  be- 
tween Heber  and  Heremon,  as  well  as  in 
the  subsequent  one,  between  Eoghain-More 
and  the  monarch  Con,  it  was  determined 
that  it  belonged  to  LeathrMogha,  or  south- 
ern Ireland,)  and  made  several  unsuccess- 
ful attempts  to  recover  it  during  the  late 
scenes  of  distress  of  that  people.  Mahon, 
having  made  a  truce  with  the  Danes,  col- 
lected at  Cin-Currtha,  and  the  places  adja- 
cent to  Killaloe,  a  large  number  of  sloops 
and  flat-bottomed  boats,  in  which  he  em- 
barked on  the  Shannon,  with  a  select  num- 
ber of  his  brave  Dalgais,  making  descents 
on  different  places  on  the  Connaught  coasts, 
and  raising  contributions  everywhere,  till 
he  went  beyond  Loch-Righ.  Here  he 
landed  his  whole  force,  and  marched  far 
into  the  country.  Feargal,  the  son  of 
Ruarc,  narrowly  watched  his  motions,  and 
near  the  banks  of  a  river  which  runs  into 
that  lake,  Feargal  with  his  whole  force 
attacked  Mahon  ;  but  the  Dalgais,  (Caesar 
like,)  unacquainted  with  fear,  received 
them  with  their  wonted  firmness  and  intre- 
pidity, and,  after  a  very  bloody  contest, 
put  them  to  a  shameful  flight.  This  was 
so  precipitate,  that  Feargal  plunged  into 
the  river,  and  in  his  hurry  and  confusion, 
threw  away  his  shield,  which  Mahon  got, 
and  which  was  ever  after  carefully  pre- 
served by  the  posterity  of  this  prince,  and 
used  in  all  succeeding  wars  with  the  Cona- 
cians. To  lose  one's  shield  or  arms  in 
battle,  much  less  to  throw  them  away,  was 
deemed,  not  only  in  Ireland,  but  among 
the  ancient  Celtae,  the  greatest  reproach, 
as  Tacitus  observes ;  and  Horace  himself 
acknowledges  by  his  "relicta  non  bene 
parmala,**  how  dishonourable  it  was  even 


in  ancient  Rome.  This  transaction,  and 
the  loss  of  Feargal's  shield,  are  preserved 
in  a  well-pointed  poem  in  the  Book  of 
Munster.  The  late  translator  of  this 
work  says,  that  the  invasion  of  Connaught 
was  by  land ;  but  not  to  advert  to  the  im- 
probability of  Mahon's  being  able,  at  this 
time,  to  raise  forces  enough  for  so  great  an 
undertaking,  the  Book  of  Munster  assures 
us  that  it  was  an  aquatic  expedition. 

Feargradh,  King  of  Munster,  being  cut 
off,  Mahon  claimed  the  crown  as  his  right, 
according  to  the  law  of  alternate  succes- 
sion ;  and  the  better  to  support  his  claim, 
marched  a  respectable  army  to  CashelL 
This  gave  such  weight  to  his  solicitations, 
that  he  was  elected  king  by  a  considerable 
majority,  and  was  consecrated  by  the 
archbishop  of  Cashell  or  Munster.  But 
nothing  could  be  more  disagreeable  to  the 
foreigners  than  this  dignity  conferred  on 
their  mortal  enemy.  The  Danes  of  Cork, 
Waterford,  Limerick,  and  Dublin,  formed 
an  alliance  for  their  mutual  defence  ;  and 
most  likely  were  privately  encouraged,  if 
not  supported,  by  some  of  the  Eugenians. 
This  they  kept  secret  till  sufficient  provi- 
sion was  made  for  carrying  on  the  war ; 
this  being  effected,  the  troops  from  the 
different  quarters  rendezvoused  at  nearly  a 
central  place — I  suppose  about  Tburles, 
since  the  march  of  the  confederates  com- 
bined was  towards  Limerick,  by  the  way 
of  Cashell.  Their  leaders,  says  the  Book 
of  Munster,  were  Corran,  chief  of  the 
Danes  of  Leinster.  Magnus  of  Limerick, 
Toralp  and  Sithmoll.  Mahon  waited  for 
them  at  the  pass  of  Sulchoid.  The  Danish 
horse,  who  came  to  reconnoitre  his  situa- 
tion, were  briskly  attacked  by  the  Irish 
cavalry,  commanded  by  his  brother  Brien, 
and  very  roughly  handled.  This  brought 
on  a  general  engagement,  in  which  the 
Danes  were  defeated  with  very  great 
slaughter.  This  battle  is  said,  in  the 
Chronicon  Scotorum,  to  have  been  fought 
A.  D.  968:  after  this,  it  is  said,  he  defeated 
the  Martini  of  Munster  in  a  general  en- 
gagement. 

This  same  year,    Murrough,   King  of 
Leinster,   leagued   with  the  Danes,   and 


-248 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  950. 


committed  great  depredations  in  Meath ; 
but  the  monarch  attacked  them  with  such 
vigour  and  spirit,  that  their  army  was  cut 
to  pieces  or  dispersed. 

The  Eugenians,  who  had  so  long  gov- 
•emed  Munster,  but  particularly  Maol- 
muadh,  the  son  of  Brain,  could  not  bear 
to  see  Mahon  so  strongly  riveted  in  the 
throne  of  that  province.  He  leagued  with 
the  common  enemy,  but  Mahon  defeated 
their  whole  combined  forces,  in  two  differ- 
ent battles.  Maolmuadh,  despairing  to 
succeed  by  open  force,  had  recourse  to 
treachery.  The  bishop  of  Cork,  and  other 
clergy  of  Munster,  interposing  their  good 
offices,  it  was  agreed  on  that  both  princes 
should  meet,  with  a  few  friends  on  each 
side,  in  order  to  settle  their  differences 
amicably.  The  house  of  O'Donovan,  chief 
of  Carbre-Aobhdhda  or  Kenrv,  in  the 
county  of  Limerick,  was  the  appointed 
place  of  meeting ;  and  thither  Mahon  re- 
paired, with  only  twelve  noblemen,  and 
their  suite,  in  his  train.  In  the  interim, 
Maolmuadh  tampered  with  the  infamous 
O'Donovan,  and  he  was  base  enough  to 
promise  to  secure  the  body  of  his  prince. 
The  son  of  Brain,  attended  with  a  strong 
party  of  horse  at  some  distance,  and  the 
gallant  Mahon  were  carried  off  to  the 
county  of  Cork,  and  basely  murdered  at  a 
place  called  Leacht-Mathuin,  near  Mac- 
roon,  in  that  county.  By  this  insidious 
action,  Maolmuadh  was  proclaimed  king 
of  Munster. 


CHAPTER    V. 

History  and  exploits  of  Brien  till  crowned  king 
of  Munster — Dispossesses  the  Danes  of  Inis- 
Catba  and  other  islands  of  the  Shannon,  whose 
churches  and  monasteries  he  caused  to  be  re- 
built and  re-edified — Other  reforms  of  Brien — 
Annual  revenues  of  the  Munster  kings,  and  the 
stipends  paid  by  them  to  their  tributaries — Re- 
view of  the  military  power  of  Munster — State 
of  Leinster  and  Ulster,  and  death  of  the  mon- 
arch Domnald. 

Bkiek,  the  son  of  Cineidi,  succeeded  his 
brother  in  the  crown  of  North  Munster, 


and,  after  securing  internal  peace  and  good 
order,  his  next  object  was  to  be  revenged 
on  the  betrayer  and  the  murderer  of  his 
brother.  But  though  all  our  writers  agree 
as  to  the  great  exploits  of  this  immortal 
prince,  yet  they  are  by  no  means  in  unison 
as  to  the  length  of  his  reign.  Keating, 
M'Curtin,  and  others,  reckon  fifty-six  years 
from  his  being  called  to  the  crown  of 
North  Munster  to  his  death  ;  and  Bruodi- 
nus  makes  it  still  more.  The  Chronicon 
Scotorum  reduces  it  to  thirty-eight  years, 
in  which  opinion  is  the  translator  of  the 
Book  of  Munster.  The  first  writers  con- 
found these  actions  which  he  performed 
under  his  brother  with  his  own  exploits 
when  king  of  Thomond,  and  so  extend  his 
reign  as  much  beyond  the  true  time  as 
others  unreasonably  contract  it.  The 
Leabhar  Oiris,  or  Chronicle  of  the  CMaol- 
conneries,  which  is  an  express  relation  of 
the  wars  of  this  prince  from  his  first  en- 
thronement to  his  death,  clearly  affirms  that 
the  whole  of  his  reign  was  forty-nine  years; 
the  first  thirty-seven  of  which  he  was  king 
of  Munster,  and  from  that  time  to  his 
death  was  monarch  of  Ireland.  He  was 
bom  in  the  year  926,  and  fell  in  the  battle 
of  Cluan-Tarbh,  in  1014  ;  from  which  it 
must  follow  that  he  commenced  his  reign 
in  965,  in  the  thirty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 
But  as  I  wish  to  bring  the  exploits  of  this 
great  hero  into  as  clear  and  comprehen- 
sive a  light  as  I  can,  in  hopes  some  future 
biographer  may  eternize  his  own  name 
in  transmitting  to  posterity  his  great  ex- 
ploits, I  shall  observe,  for  more  accuracy, 
that  of  these  forty-nine  years  he  was,  for 
the  two  first,  but  king  of  Thomond,  Maol- 
muadh being  then  king  of  Munster ;  that 
during  the  ten  succeeding  ones  he  was 
king  of  Munster;  the  twenty-five  years 
following,  he  was  king  of  Leath-Mogha ; 
and  the  remaining  twelve,  monarch  of 
Ireland. 

O'Donovan  was  too  well  acquainted  with 
the  spirit  and  resolution  of  Brien  not  to  ap- 
prehend every  thing  from  him,  and  there- 
fore took  into  his  pay,  besides  his  own 
troops,  fifteen  hundred  heavy-armed  Danes, 
commanded  by  Avlavus,  a  soldier  of  great 


A.D.  969.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


S49 


experience.  Brien,  as  was  expected,  in 
the  spring  of  966,  entered  his  territories, 
and  was  opposed  by  the  combined  forces. 
A  battle  was  fought  with  such  fury  and 
obstinacy,  that  not  only  O'Donovan  and 
Avlavus,  but  their  entire  party  fell  by  the 
sword !  Brien  then  sent  a  herald  to  Ma- 
olmuadh,  denouncing  war  against  him,  and 
acquainting  him  that  he  would  invade  his 
territories  early  the  next  year.  Such  was 
the  established  custom  of  those  days. 

At  the  head  of  an  army  more  respecta- 
ble for  courage  and  discipline  than  for 
numbers,  Brien  entered  into  action.  Ma- 
olmuadh,  besides  his  provincials,  had  col- 
lected a  large  body  of  Danes,  and  by  mu- 
tual consent  a  battle  was  fought  at  Beal- 
lach-Lachta,  in  which  Brien  was  again  vic- 
torious. In  this  bloody  engagement  Mor- 
rough,  eldest  son  of  Brien,  by  More,  daugh- 
ter of  O'Hine,  prince  of  Jobh-Fiacre-Ai- 
dhne,  in  Connaught,  made  his  first  cam- 
paign, and  though  but  thirteen  years  old, 
engaged  hand  to  hand  with  Maolmuadh, 
and  slew  this  murderer  of  his  uncle  !  This 
victory  was  doubly  glorious  for  Brien  ;  by 
it  he  avenged  the  blood  of  his  brother,  and 
secured  to  himself  the  crown  of  the  two 
Munsters.  After  his  coronation  at  Cashell, 
which  was  performed  early  next  year,  he 
returned  to  his  palace  at  Cinn-Corradh ; 
and  now,  having  leisure  and  time,  he  be- 
gan to  consider  the  situation  of  his  subjects 
nearer  home.  The  Danes  still  possessed 
all  the  islands  on  the  Shannon  from  Limer- 
ick to  the  sea;  and  while  they  monopo- 
lised all  the  trade  of  that  city,  the  country 
on  both  sides  was  grievously  infested  by 
sudden  landings  from  those  islands.  Brien 
prepared  a  large  number  of  ships  and  flat- 
bottomed  boats,  and  at  the  head  of  twelve 
hundred  brave  Dalgais  he  landed  at  Inis- 
Catha,  or  Scattery.  In  this  island  St. 
Senanus  founded  an  episcopal  see  in  the 
fifth  century.  In  it  were  no  less  than 
eleven  churches  for  the  use  of  his  monks, 
besides  a  fine  anchorite  tower  yet  standing. 
A  superb  monument  was  erected  to  his 
memory,  and  was  resorted  to  by  pious  per- 
sons from  the  most  distant  parts ;  but  it  is 
very  remarkable  that  no  women  were  per- 

32 


mitted  to  land  on  it  from  its  first  founda- 
tion to  the  coming  of  the  Danes.  This 
rich  and  lovely  little  island  these  barba- 
rians had  long  possessed,  and  were  deter- 
mined to  preserve.  The  landing  of  Brien 
in  his  flat  boats  was  supported  by  his 
ships,  from  which  they  discharged  showers 
of  stones  and  arrows.  The  Danes,  how- 
ever, prepared  to  give  them  a  warm  recep- 
tion, but  were  soon  routed  with  the  loss  of 
eight  hundred  of  their  best  men.  After 
the  re-consecration  of  the  churches,  Brien 
returned  solemn  thanks  to  God,  who  had 
enabled  him  to  restore  them  to  his  glory. 
From  Scattery,  Brien  embarked  troops 
who  possessed  themselves  of  all  the  other 
islands.  The  churches  and  monasteries 
were  repaired,  the  clergy  restored,  and 
schools  again  opened  for  instruction  in 
piety  and  letters.  After  this  he  laid  siege 
to  Limerick,  and,  on  its  surrender,  he  dis- 
placed the  Danish  magistrates,  appointing 
others  in  their  stead. 

Having  subdued  the  Danes  and  restored 
peace  to  Munster,  his  next  care  was  to 
give  vigour  to  the  laws,  and  see  justice  and 
subordinaticm  again  established.  The  ru- 
ined churches  and  monasteries  were  rebuilt 
or  repaired,  and  the  bishops  and  clergy 
restored  to  their  livings.  At  his  own  ex- 
pense he  rebuilt  the  cathedral  of  Killaloe, 
the  church  and  steeple  of  Tuaim-Grein,  and 
the  churches  on  Scattery,  Inis-Cealtrach, 
and  other  islands  in  the  Shannon.  He 
repaired  and  re-edified  all  the  palaces  or 
royal  houses  in  Munster,  which  were  thir- 
teen in  number.  But,  lest  the  reader  might 
be  surprised  at  this  great  number,  I  should 
inform  him  that,  by  the  established  laws  of 
the  land,  among  other  requisites  for  roy- 
alty, as  being  of  the  blood-royal,  and  of 
the  equestrian  order,  the  candidate  must 
also  be  possessed  of  three  royal  bouses,  the 
better  to  support  the  regal  state.  The  pub- 
lic roads  in  times  of  anarchy  and  confu- 
sion had  been  neglected  and  torn  up,  and 
bridges  and  causeways  destroyed.  All 
these  he  caused  to  be  repaired,  and  the 
forts  and  strongholds  strengthened  by  new 
works.  He  summoned  a  feis  or  parliament 
at  Cashell,  in  which  many  new  and  useful 


950 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.D.970. 


ordinances  passed.  The  lands  which  had 
been  unlawfully  usurped  by  the  Danes 
were  restored  to  the  issue  of  the  original 
proprietors ;  and  for  such  as  clear  titles 
could  not  be  made  out,  they  were  sold  and 
the  money  converted  to  the  establishment 
of  universities  and  public  hospitals.  Such 
foreigners  as  did  not  openly  profess  Chris- 
tianity, were  allowed  twelve  months  time 
to  dispose  of  their  effects  and  quit  the  king- 
dom. The  records  of  Munster  were  care- 
fully examined,  and  new  copies  distributed 
to  the  different  senachies.  Houses  of  hos- 
pitality (of  which  no  less  a  number  than 
eighteen  hundred  belonged  to  the  two 
Munsters)  were  rebuilt,  and  the  lands  ori- 
ginally appropriated  to  them  restored. 
Brien  himself,  with  a  magnificence  truly 
royal,  lived  in  the  palace  of  his  ancestors 
at  Cinn-Corradh.  The  reader  will  be  ena- 
bled to  form  some  idea  of  this  from  the 
annual  revenues  of  the  Munster  kings, 
which,  according  to  the  Leabhar  na  Cleart, 
or  Book  of  Rights,  agreed  to  by  the  states 
of  Ireland  assembled  at  Tara,  A.  D.  450, 
in  the  presence  of  St.  Patrick,  and  drawn 
up  by  his  disciple  St.  Beanan,  or  Benignus, 
consisted  of  six  thousand  two  hundred  and 
forty  bullocks,  six  thousand  cows,  four 
thousand  sheep,  five  thousand  hogs,  five 
thousand  common,  one  hundred  green,  and 
forty  scarlet  cloaks,  four  hundred  and 
twenty  tons  of  iron ;  and  the  annual  reve- 
nues of  the  city  of  Limerick  only  were 
three  hundred  and  sixty-five  tons  of  claret, 
besides  spices,  cloths,  and  silks !  This 
work,  now  before  me,  mentions  the  pro- 
portions which  the  different  territories  or 
counties  of  Munster  paid  of  this  great  reve- 
nue. Besides  this,  each  chief  was  to  have 
a  certain  number  of  light  or  heavy-armed 
troops  ready  to  attend  the  prince's  sum- 
mons ;  and  the  maritime  places  a  certain 
number  of  ships  ready  for  sea.  The  num- 
ber of  these  last  in  the  reign  of  Ceallachan, 
we  have  seen,  were  a  hundred  and  twenty 
ships,  of  which  South  Munster  produced 
eighty.  Had  Cork,  Kinsale,  Waterford, 
Youghal,  Limerick,  etc.,  been  then  pos- 
sessed by  this  prince,  as  they  were  by  his 
enemies,  the  reader  may  well  suppose  how 


much  more  numerous  they  would  have 
been. 

This  work  mentions,  with  great  accu- 
racy, the  annual  presents  made  by  the 
kings  of  Munster  to  the  different  states  or 
territories,  in  return  for  the  troops  and 
ships  they  were  to  keep  in  readiness  when 
called  for.  They  are  very  considerable 
both  in  gold,  silver,  horses,  and  arms,  and 
bespeak  the  splendour  and  riches  of  the 
kingdom.  The  prince  of  Gabhran  or  Os- 
sory  received  annually  ten  horses,  ten 
swords,  ten  shields,  two  suits  of  armour, 
and  two  cloaks  with  gold  clasps  and  rich 
embroidery.  When  a  Dal-Cassian  was 
elected  king  of  Munster,  he  presented  to 
the  chief  of  the  Eogonachts,  ten  men  and 
ten  women  slaves,  ten  gold  cups,  and  ten 
horses  with  gold  bits,  and  in  full  furniture. 
The  prince  of  Ara  (a  district  of  the  county 
of  Tipperary,  bordering  on  the  Shannon, 
opposite  Killaloe)  received  six  gold-hilted 
swords,  six  shields  of  curious  workman- 
ship, and  six  scarlet  cloaks.  O'Fogerty, 
prince  of  Eile,  in  the  said  county,  was  pre- 
sented with  eight  coats  of  mail,  eight 
shields,  eight  swords,  eight  horses,  and 
eight  cups.  CRyan,  chief  of  Unaithne, 
(the  country  about  Tulla  in  that  county,) 
received  six  shields,  six  swords  richly 
mounted,  and  six  horses  with  gold  bits  and 
complete  furniture.  To  OFelan,  chief  of 
the  Deasies,  in  the  county  of  Waterford, 
eight  ships,  eight  men  and  eight  women 
slaves,  eight  coats  of  mail,  eight  shields, 
eight  swords,  and  eight  horses  were  given. 
The  chief  of  Kenry  had  seven  slaves,  seven 
freemen,  seven  swords,  and  seven  cups. 
Mac  Ennery  and  CSheehan,  chiefs  of  Co- 
nal  Cabhra,  or  Upper  Connello,  received 
ten  swords,  ten  shields,  ten  horses,  and  ten 
cups,  and  the  honour  of  sitting  at  the  king's 
table  at  Cashell.  CCoUins  and  O'Kineale, 
chiefs  of  Lower  Connello,  in  the  county  of 
Limerick,  received  the  like.  The  chief  of 
Aine-Cliachall,  in  the  said  county,  or 
CCiarwic,  eight  swords,  eight  horses,  eight 
cups,  two  suits  of  armour,  and  two  cloaks. 
O'Keefe  and  CDugan,  chiefs  of  Gleanam- 
hain  and  Fearmuighe,  in  the  county  of 
Cork,  were  each    presented  with  seven 


A.  D.  981.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


251 


horses,  seven  shields,  and  seven  cups.  The 
chief  of  Aobh-Liathan,  or  Barrymore,  in 
the  said  county,  who  was  O'Lehane,  was 
sent  a  sword  and  shield  of  the  king's  own 
wearing,  a  horse  in  full  furniture,  and  an 
embroidered  cloak.  To  CFlin,  chief  of 
M usgry,  one  of  the  king's  swords,  one  of 
his  horses  in  full  furniture,  and  a  hound. 
To  CMahony-Fionn,  chief  of  Rathlean, 
ten  horses,  ten  shields,  ten  scarlet  cloaks, 
and  ten  coats  of  mail.  To  O'Driscol,  chief 
of  Dairinne,  or  Carbery,  seven  ships,  seven 
suits  of  armour,  seven  horses,  seven  swords, 
and  seven  cups.  To  O'Driscol -Oge,  chief 
of  Leim-Con,  all  in  the  said  county,  the 
same.  O'Donoghue,  chief  of  Loch-Lein, 
or  Killamey,  in  the  county  of  Kerry,  re- 
ceived the  same  tuarasdal,  or  military  sti- 
pend, with  O'Driscol.  O'Shea,  chief  of 
Iveragh,  O'Failbhe,  lord  of  Corcaduibhne, 
O'Connell,  O'Moriarty,  and  other  great 
lords  of  that  county,  received  similar 
presents. 

The  number  of  troops  which  each  chief 
was  obliged  to  support  is  not  mentioned,  so 
that  the  military  state  of  Munster  can  only 
be  guessed  at.  They  held  by  different  ten- 
ures. The  above,  and  others  in  their  line, 
were  allodial  proprietors.  Each  held  an 
hereditary  employ  in  the  state,  and  of 
course  kept  in  pay  a  certain  number  of 
troops.  Those  who  were  of  the  blood- 
royal  neither  paid  tribute  or  received  sub- 
sidies, yet  supported  a  standing  force ;  and 
those  who  held  by  fearan-cloidhemh,  or 
sword-land,  as  almost  the  entire  county  of 
Clare,  Ormond,  and  the  borders  of  the 
county  of  Limerick,  etc.,  must  necessarily 
keep  up  a  more  considerable  force,  being 
exempt  from  every  other  kind  of  tribute. 
Upon  the  whole,  the  following  calculations 
may  be  safely  admitted.  The  naval  force 
of  Munster,  when  its  chief  cities  were 
held  in  obedience,  may  be  estimated  at 
three  hundred  ships.  This  may  be  safely 
inferred,  because  we  have  seen  that  Cealla- 
chan's  fleet,  when  they  were  possessed  by 
the  enemy,  consisted  of  a  hundred  and 
twenty  sail.  We  can  by  no  means  sup- 
pose them  to  be  any  thing  equal  to  such 
ships  of  war  as  we  see  now.     Even  thirty 


years  ago,  seventy-gun   ships  were  not 
much  larger  than  fifty-gun  ships  now. 

The  land  forces  of  Munster — ^by  these  I 
mean  the  cavalry  and  heavy-armed  infant- 
ry ONLY,  consisted  of  ten  catha,  legions,  or 
thirty  thousand  men.  Each  legion  had 
five  hundred  horse ;  so  that  the  two  Mun- 
sters  when  united,  could  bring  into  the 
field  on  a  short  notice,  a  regular  force  of 
twenty-five  thousand  foot  and  five  thou- 
sand horse,  well  armed  and  well  disci- 
plined, and  with  little  or  no  expense  to  the 
state.  Thus  the  revenues  of  the  crown 
were  very  great ;  especially  when  it  is 
considered,  that  in  this  estimate,  we  have 
not  noticed  any  duties  paid  by  foreign 
ships,  or  the  revenues  arising  from  the 
many  rich  mines  that  were  worked, 
or  from  the  mines  of  amethysts  and 
topazes,  for  which  the  kingdom  was  then 
so  noted  as  to  be  called — "Insula  dives 
opum,  gemmarum,  vestis,  et  auri !"  From 
this  slight  sketch,  the  reader  may  form  an 
idea  of  the  power  and  splendour  of  Brien. 
But  this  was  not  all :  to  avoid  all  occasion 
of  dispute  among  a  haughty  and  warlike 
people,  Brien  revived  the  law  called  II- 
breachta,  by  which  the  diflferent  ranks  of 
the  people  were  known  by  their  dress; 
and  the  law  which  regarded  rank  and  pre- 
cedence was  again  put  in  force.  So  exact 
was  his  police,  that  it  stands  on  record 
that  a  beautiful  virgin  travelled  from  one 
extremity  of  the  province  to  another  with 
a  gold  ring  on  the  top  of  a  white  wand 
without  receiving  the  least  injury  or  mo- 
lestation !  Probably  Brien  himself  might 
have  directed  the  experiment  to  be  made. 

Encouraged  by  the  example  of  Brien, 
Domnald,  King  of  Ulster,  attacked  and  de- 
feated the  Danes  in  many  battles;  and  to 
be  revenged  on  the  Lagenians  who  openly 
assisted  them,  he  marched  his  army  into 
Leinster,  and  committed  great  depreda- 
tions on  that  people  and  their  associates. 
Soon  after  this,  Keating  tells  us  that  Cion- 
nath  O'Hartegan,  primate  of  Armagh, 
openly  assisted  the  Danes  of  Dublin,  by 
which  means  Ugaire,  prince  of  Leinster, 
was  taken  prisoner.  I  have  examined  the 
catalogue  of  archbishops,  not  only  of  Ar- 


J52 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  961. 


magh,  but  of  Dublin,  etc.,  and  cannot  find 
one  prelate  of  or  like  the  name  in  that 
century  ;  so  that  he  must  have  been  some 
clergyman  of  inferior  degree,  if  we  admit 
the  fact.  But  let  him  be  taken  how  he 
may,  it  appears,  that  after  his  release  he 
raised  a  large  body  of  troops,  and  engaged 
the  Danes  of  Dublin,  in  which  action  his 
army  was  defeated,  and  he  himself  was 
among  the  number  of  the  slain.  The 
monarch  Domnald,  tired  of  the  pageantry 
of  royalty,  quitted  the  throne  of  Tara  and 
retired  to  Armagh,  where  he  died  some 
time  after,  in  great  repute  for  piety  and 
sanctity. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Malachie  elected  monarch,  and  triumphs  over  the 
Danes — A  confederacy  formed  against  the  king 
of  Munster,  which  he  disperses,  and  is  saluted 
king  of  Leath-Mogha — The  distinctions  between 
a  king  of  Thoniond,  a  king  of  Munster,  and  a 

sovereign    of     Leath-Mogha Wars    between 

Malachie  and  Brien — Revenue  paid  by  Leinster 
to  the  king  of  Leath-Mogha — Battle  of  Glean- 
Maniha — States  of  Irekind  propose  to  depose 
Malachie — He  gets  time  to  prepare  for  his  de- 
fence— Is  disappointed,  and  is  granted  further 
time — Surrenders  the  diadem  to  Brien — Pres- 
ents received  on  such  occasions. 

On  the  abdication  of  Domnald,  the  es- 
tates of  Leath-Cuin  chose  for  his  successor 
Malachie  II.,  the  son  of  Domnald,  prince 
of  Meath,  the  son  of  the  monarch  Dona- 
chad,  son  of  Flan  Sionna,  etc.  The  Danes 
about  this  time  invaded  Meath  with  a 
powerful  army,  exercising  their  wonted 
cruelties,  but  particularly  plundering  and 
setting  fire  to  churches  and  monasteries. 
Malachie  collected  the  forces  of  Meath, 
and  gave  them  battle.  This  is  called  the 
fight  of  Tara,  and  a  most  bloody  one  it 
was ;  for  in  it  fell  five  thousand  Danes  and 
their  associates,  with  Regnald,  the  son  of 
Aomhlabh,  their  general,  and  most  of  their 
best  oflUcers.  After  this  he  laid  the  dis- 
trict of  Fingal,  near  Dublin,  waste ;  and 
having  thus  cut  ofif  their  supplies,  he  laid 
siege  to  Dublin  itself,  in  conjunction  with 
Donachad,  prince  of  Ulster.  The  third 
day  a  general  assault  was  given ;  the  gates 


were  attacked,  the  walls  scaled,  and,  after 
a  bloody  contest,  the  Danish  ensigns  were 
torn  down,  and  Irish  ones  put  in  their 
place.  Though  taken  by  assault,  yet  Mal- 
achie acted  with  caution  :  in  the  city  were 
many  captives  of  prime  quality ;  among 
others,  Domnald,  King  of  Leinster,  and 
O'Neil,  prince  of  Tyrone,  etc.  To  have 
all  these  prisoners  restored  to  their  lib- 
erty, he  saved  the  lives  and  effects  of  the 
citizens. 

But  though  Malachie  was   triumphant 
over  the  Danes,  yet  he  regarded  with  a 
jealous  eye  the  great  power  of  Brien.    It 
was  an  hereditary  quarrel ;  and  his  grand- 
father Donachad,  as  we  have  seen,  encour- 
aged the  designs  of  Sitric  against  Munster, 
seeming  thereby   better   pleased  to  have 
that  rich  province  possessed  by  the  barba- 
rians, than    by  the    ancient   proprietors. 
The  knowledge  of  this  I   suppose  deter- 
mined O'Felan,  prince  of  the  Deasies,  to 
form     a    powerful     confederacy    against 
Brien.     In  it  were    joined    the   king    of 
Leinster,  the  prince  of   Ossory,  and   the 
Danes  of  Cork,  Waterford,  and  Leinster. 
At  the  head  of  these  allies,  O'Felan  march- 
ed towards  Cork,  spoiling  the  country  as 
he  advanced  ;    but  on  the   approach  of 
Brien,  he  retreated  precipitately  towards 
Waterford ;  thither  Brien  followed  him  by 
forced  marches.     Near  that  city  the  ar- 
mies engaged ;  but,  after  a  gallant  resist- 
ance, the  confederates  were  broken,  and 
fled  with  great  precipitation.     The  troops 
of  Brien  entered  Waterford  with  the  fugi- 
tives, putting  numbers  to  the  sword,  and 
setting  fire  to  the  city.     From  Waterford, 
Brien  marched  to  Ossory,  where  he  re- 
ceived the  submission  of   hostages  from 
Fitzpatrick,  chief  of  that  territory.     From 
thence  he  proceeded  to  Ferns,  where  the 
king  of  Leinster  paid  him  homage  as  king 
of  Leath-Mogha,  and  delivered  hostages 
for  his    future    good    behaviour.      Brien 
marched  to  Cork,  whose  citizens  he  chas- 
tised for  their  rebellion,  altered  its  magis- 
trates, raised  heavy  fines  on  the  old  ones, 
and  carried  away  hostages  for  their  future 
good  behaviour. 

As  I  have  distinguished   Brien  in   his 


A.  D.  999.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


253 


regal  capacity  as  king  of  Thomond,  king 
of  Munster,  and  king  of  Leath-Mogha,  it 
is  necessary  to  observe  that,  as  king  of 
Thomond,  his  power  was  confined  to  the 
present  counties  of  Clare,  Limerick,  Tip- 
perary,  and  a  part  of  the  present  Leinster; 
that  as  king  of  Munster,  he  commanded 
the  whole  province ;  and,  as  king  of  Leath- 
Mogha,  or  Southern  Ireland,  the  king  of 
Leinster  was  his  vassal. 

Malachie,  envious  of  the  success  of 
Brien,  invaded  Munster,  and  returned  to 
Tara  laden  with  spoils  and  captives.  The 
next  year  he  took  into  his  pay  a  body  of 
Danes,  and  was  joined  by  some  Conacians. 
They  laid  waste  a  good  part  of  Leinster 
and  the  Deasies.  Domnald  Cloan,  King 
of  Leinster,  engaged  them  in  battle,  but 
was  defeated  with  great  loss.  Enraged  at 
these  depredations,  Brien  made  great  pre- 
parations by  land  and  water  to  invade 
Meath  and  Connaught.  He  drew  together 
a  very  great  number  of  shallops,  and  flat- 
bottomed  boats,  in  which  he  embarked  a 
select  body  of  troops  on  the  Shannon,  at 
Loch-Dearg,  who  were  to  sail  up  that  river 
as  far  as  Loch-Righ,  and  lay  the  country 
on  both  sides  under  contributions.  At  the 
same  time  he  marched  a  powerful  army 
into  Meath.  Malachie  saw  he  had  in 
Brien  too  powerful  a  prince  and  too  able 
a  general  to  contend  with,  and  therefore 
made  a  speedy  peace  with  him.  By  it,  he 
was  to  make  lestitution  for  the  outrages 
committed  by  the  late  invasions  of  Mun- 
ster, and  restore  all  the  prisoners  he  had 
taken.  Brien  also  returned  such  as  fell 
into  his  hands  ;  and  they  mutually  agreed 
to  support  each  other ;  that  is,  that  if  any 
of  the  provinces  of  Leath-Cuin  refused 
paying  their  subsidies  to  the  monarch, 
Brien  was  to  assist  him ;  and  should  the 
provinces  of  Leath-Mogha  in  like  manner 
becomp  refractory,  he  was  to  receive  sim- 
ilar help  from  Malachie.  The  translator 
of  the  Book  of  Munster,  mentions  the  pres- 
ent invasion  as  intended  against  the  Lage- 
nians.  I  however  adhere  closely  to  the 
Leabhar-Oiris,  which  mentions  its  destma- 
tion  to  be  against  Meath  and  Connaught ; 
and   adds,  that  in   the  incursion   of  the 


Mamonians  into  Connaught  from  Athlone, 
they  defeated  the  Conacians,  commanded 
by  Maurice  O'Connor,  their  king,  who  fell 
in  this  battle. 

We  have  seen  the  revenues  of  Brien,  as 
king  of  Munster,  to  which  we  shall  add, 
that  as  king  of  Leath-Mogha,  they  became 
more  considerable — the  Leinster  tribute 
consisting  of  three  hundred  gold-handled 
swords,  three  hundred  cows  with  brass 
yokes,  three  hundred  steeds,  and  three  hun- 
dred purple  cloaks. 

The  Lagenians  ill  bore  this  galling  trib- 
ute irViposed  on  them  by  Brien,  and  there- 
fore confederated  with  the  Danes  of  Dub- 
lin :  they  invited  into  their  service  many 
foreigners,  and  bade  defiance  to  that  prince. 
At  the  head  of  a  powerful  army  he  invaded 
Leinster.  A  bloody  battle  was  fought  at 
Glean-Mamha,  in  which  Brien  was  as 
usual  victorious.  He  pursued  the  Danes 
to  Dublin,  and  they  saved  the  city  by  com- 
position ;  how  much  we  are  not  told,  but 
that  Brien  received  a  great  quantity  of 
gold,  silver,  rich  silks,  and  manufactures. 
Grat.  Luc.  p.  79,  attributes  this  defeat  to 
Malachie,  the  monarch ;  and  the  translator 
of  the  Book  of  Munster  to  him  and  Brien 
united.  The  Leabhar-Oiris,  declares  it  to 
have  been  the  act  of  the  Mamonians  only. 
The  Danes  waited  a  favourable  opportu- 
nity to  recover  their  distressed  affairs ; 
and  this  offered  soon  after,  for  having  re- 
ceived some  considerable  supplies  from 
Normandy,  from  Britain,  and  Denmark, 
they  again  rebelled  against  Brien,  and 
were  again  defeated  by  this  victorious 
prince.  Among  their  slain  were  Harold, 
son  of  Amhlaobh,  and  Carolus,  called 
Cloidheamh,  or  the  Sword,  prince  of  Den- 
mark. 

Brien  was  for  ever  in  arms  against 
these  foreigners;  in  twenty-five  pitched 
battles,  says  my  author,  did  he  engage 
them  and  their  Irish  associates,  and  victory 
ever  attended  his  standard.  He  not  only 
reduced  them  from  a  state  of  independence 
to  absolute  subjection  in  Leath-Mogha,  but 
assisted  the  Conacians  against  them,  by 
which  means  four  thousand  Danes  fell  in 
the  battle  of  Succa.     The  great  power. 


S54 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1000. 


magnanimity,  justice,  and  patriotism  of 
this  prince,  contrasted  with  the  passive 
temporizing  spirit  of  Malachie,  who,  after 
the  first  five  years  of  his  reign,  sank  into 
indolence  and  apathy,  made  a  strong  im- 
pression on  the  chiefs  of  the  kingdom. 
With  such  a  prince  as  Brien  at  the  head 
of  the  nation,  they  hoped  the  whole  people 
would  feel  the  blessings  of  peace  and  sub- 
ordination, which  at  present  were  confined 
to  Leath-Mogha.  In  a  convention  of  the 
diflferent  states  of  Connaught  and  Munster, 
it  was  agreed  to  request  Brien  to  assume 
the  monarchy,  and  they  engaged  to  support 
him  to  the  utmost.  Deputies  were  then 
sent  from  both  states  to  inform  Malachie 
that  as  he  neither  exerted  himself  like  a 
prince  in  defence  of  his  country,  nor  yet 
protected  his  subjects — the  ends  for  which 
,  he  was  elected  monarch — they  judged  him 
■no  longer  worthy  to  fill  the  throne  of  Tara, 
and  desired  he  would  relinquish  the  crown 
to  one  worthy  of  it.  This  kind  of  lan- 
guage from  the  electors  of  Ireland  was  not 
unusual.  In  the  reign  of  Con  of  the  Hun- 
dred Battles,  the  states  convened  at  Tara, 
before  the  battle  of  Cnucha,  addressed 
him  thus — "  Resign,  O  king,  the  throne  of 
Tara  to  some  prince  more  worthy,  since 
you  do  not  protect  your  subjects  from  the 
incursions  of  Cumhal,  and  the  children  of 
Cathoir-More."* 

Malachie  heard  the  proposal  with  sur- 
prise and  indignation,  and  declared,  as  he 
lived,  he  would  die  monarch  of  Ireland. 
But  Brien,  whom  we  must  suppose  the 
very  soul  of  the  intended  revolution,  was 
too  sensible  a  politician  not  to  expect  such 
an  answer,  and  to  be  prepared  against  it. 
At  the  head  of  an  army  of  twenty  thou- 
sand veterans,  besides  a  large  body  of 
Danish  curassiers,  (who  from  rebels  he 
made  good  subjects,)  Brien  marched  to 
Tara.  Malachie  was  again  required  to 
resign  the  throne ;  but  his  ambassadors 
represented  to  Brien  that  their  master 
would  by  no  means  consent  to  the  pro- 
posal ;  that  it  was  true  he  was  at  present 
destitute  of  troops,  but  if  Brien  would 
allow  him  a  month  to  collect  them,  he 

*  Catha-Cnucba. 


would  then  give  him  battle,  or  if  not  in  a 
condition  to  oppose  him,  he  would  surren- 
der the  regalia  into  his  hands.  At  the 
same  time  he  requested  that  his  army 
might  not  be  suffered  to  commit  any  ex- 
cesses on  the  country.  These  terms 
Brien  agreed  to.  Malachie  sent  expresses 
to  all  the  princes  of  Leath-Cuin,  requiring 
of  them  as  their  chief,  and  conjuring  them 
as  their  friend,  to  repair  to  Tara  with  their 
forces  to  oppose  the  ambitious  designs  of 
Brien.  He  showed  them  that  in  manfully 
supporting  him  they  defended  their  own 
cause,  and  that  of  the  entire  line  of  Here- 
mon,  now  ready  to  be  crushed  by  the 
Heberians.  But  whether  through  want  of 
opinion  of  his  capacity,  or  reverence  for 
glorious  deeds,  or  a  dread  of  the  power  of 
Brien,  they  all  declined  meddling  in  his 
affairs.  He  then  summoned  the  Clan 
Colman,  or  southern  Hi-Nialls;  but  they 
were  unable  to  oppose  the  power  of  Mun- 
ster. Malachie,  thus  destitute  of  all  support, 
on  the  day  appointed,  at  the  head  of  twelve 
hundred  horse,  waited  on  Brien  at  his 
camp  near  Tara,  with  the  crown  on  his 
head,  the  sceptre  in  his  hand,  and  all  the 
regalia.  Being  introduced  to  Brien,  who 
was  surrounded  by  a  great  assemblage  of 
his  princes  and  chief  nobility  gallantly 
attired,  he  thus  addressed,  says  the  Bruo- 
din  Chronicle — (the  Bruodins  were  the 
hereditary  historians  of  North  Munster) — 
the  king  of  Leath-Mogha :  "  Through  the 
defection  of  my  subjects,  and  the  inabil- 
ity of  my  friends,  I  find  myself,  great 
prince,  unable  to  oppose  your  pretensions 
to  the  monarchy.  I  surrender  to  you  this 
sceptre,  (presenting  it,)  and  this  crown, 
(taking  it  off  his  head,)  which  my  ances- 
tors of  the  royal  line  of  Heremon  for  so 
many  generations  bore,  and  which  I  have 
now  worn  for  above  twenty  years.  They 
are  the  rewards  of  your  virtues,*  and  I 
submit."  Here  he  stopped  short :  the  in- 
ward conflict  was  too  visible  not  sensibly 
to  affect  the  spectators;  and  Brien  with 
great  humanity  approached  the  distressed 
prince,  and  embracing  him,  said :  "  Since, 
most  serene  monarch,  you  have  not  only 
offered  the  crown,  but  surrendered  your- 


A.  D.  1000.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


855 


self  into  our  hands  without  demanding 
hostages  for  your  safe  return,  or  making 
any  stipulation  whatever,  it  would  ill  be- 
come us  not  to  reward  such  confidence 
with  equal  generosity.  Take  back  these 
trappings  of  royalty.  I  consent  that  you 
should  retain  the  crown  of  Ireland  in  your 
hands  for  twelve  months  more  from  this 
day.  This  will  afford  you  opportunities  of 
showing  your  virtues  equal  to  so  great  a 
dignity,  and  of  supporting  your  title  by 
the  sword ;  but  should  you,  in  the  end,  find 
yourself  unable  to  oppose  our  pretensions, 
I  shall  then  expect  your  peaceable  surren- 
der of  the  monarchy."  So  saying,  the 
conference  ended.  Brien  broke  up  his 
camp,  dismissed  his  auxiliaries,  and  re- 
turned to  Cinn-Corradh,  at  the  head  of  his 
intrepid  Dalgais. 

Malachie  employed  the  time  granted  to 
him  in  the  best  manner  he  could  to  raise 
up  a  spirit  against  Brien.  He  sent  ambas- 
sadors to  Connaught,  to  Ulster,  to  Orgial, 
and  to  every  territory  within  the  district 
of  Leath-Cuin.  He  employed  all  his  rhet- 
oric to  engage  Hugh  CNeil  in  his  inter- 
est, who  was  the  most  powerful  chief  in 
Ulster.  The  abbot  of  Benchoir  remon- 
strated to  him  on  behalf  of  the  monarch, 
that  if  he  did  not  powerfully  exert  himself 
on  the  present  occasion,  he  sacrificed  for 
ever  the  power  of  the  Heremonians ;  that 
the  monarchy  had  been  for  some  centuries 
confined  to  their  houses — i.  e.  the  northern 
and  southern  Hi-Nialls — and  that  by  pre- 
venting the  present  revolution,  the  crovm 
might  revert  to  him  or  to  his  posterity. 
But  CNeil,  for  a  general  answer  to  all 
these  solicitations,  observed,  "that  when 
the  crown  of  Tara  was  possessed  by  his 
ancestors  of  the  house  of  Tyrone  they 
bravely  defended  it  against  all  claimants ; 
that  Brien  was  a  prince  whose  virtues, 
bravery,  and  patriotism,  merited  the  ap- 
plause of  all  good  men ;  and  that  he  could 
not  think  of  unsheathing  his  sword  against 
the  gallant  tribe  of  Dalgais,  whom  he  so 
highly  esteemed."  It  was  of  the  last  con- 
sequence to  the  monarch  to  make  O'Neil 
of  his  party,  as  his  example  would  greatly 
influence  the  other  princes  of  Leath-Cuin ; 


and  not  willing  to  confide  the  method 
he  proposed  to  gain  him  over  to  any  one. 
he  in  person  visited  the  king  of  Ulster,  in 
hopes  his  own  presence  would  have  greater 
influence.  Hugh  seemed  unmoved  by  all 
his  solicitations.  At  length  Malachie  pro- 
posed to  him  a  formal  surrender  of  the 
throne  of  Tara,  provided  he  united  with 
him  to  give  battle  to  the  troops  of  Munster. 
On  this  a  provincial  feis,  or  parliament,  was 
assembled  to  consider  these  proposals  ;  but 
after  maturely  weighing  every  thing  for 
and  against  them,  they  were  unanimously 
rejected — so  formidable  did  the  power  of 
Brien  appear  to  them.  It  was,  however, 
proposed  to  Malachie,  that  if  he  surren- 
dered to  them  half  the  domain  of  Tara  and 
of  Meath,  (which  they  contended,  by  the 
will  of  their  common  ancestor,  Niall  the 
Grand,  was  their  property,)  they  would 
then  unite  heart  and  hand  in  his  cause. 
These  terms  seemed  to  Malachie  so  exor- 
bitant, that  he  quitted  the  court  of  Ulster 
without  coming  to  any  resolution.  Much 
time  had  been  spent  in  these  different  ne- 
gotiations; and  Malachie  informed  Brien 
exactly  of  his  situation,  and  proposed  that 
if  he  ceded  to  him  the  peaceable  posses- 
sion of  Tara  and  Meath,  he  would  no  fur- 
ther oppose  him.  To  this  Brien  consent- 
ed, more  from  principles  of  generosity  and 
compassion,  and  to  avoid  the  effusion  of 
Christian  blood,  than  through  any  doubt 
of  his  own  power  and  influence. 

At  the  time  appointed,  Brien  appeared 
on  the  plains  of  Tara  at  the  head  of  his 
invincible  legions ;  and  then  and  there,  in 
the  presence  of  the  princes  and  chiefs  of 
the  land,  Malachie  made  a  formal  surren- 
der of  the  crown  and  regalia  of  Ireland  to 
him,  at  the  same  time  paying  him  homage 
as  his  vassal.  Brien  then  dismissed  him 
and  his  retinue  with  large  presents.  The 
custom  of  making  presents  when  diflTerent 
competitors  appeared  as  candidates  for  the 
monarchy,  was  always  observed  in  Ireland. 
It  was  the  mark  of  sovereignty  in  the 
monarch,  and  of  acquiescence  to  his  power 
in  the  others.  It  was  a  tuarasdalj  or 
wages  received,  and  an  acknowledgment 
of  superior  sway.    Core,  King  of  Munster, 


856 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1001. 


received  presents  from  his  competitor  Niall 
the  Grand,  in  the  fourth  century,  and 
thereby  gave  up  his  pretensions  to  the 
monarchy.  In  the  year  1260,  tired  with 
the  cruelties  and  outrages  committed  by 
the  foreigners,  the  chiefs  of  the  Irish  at 
length  saw  the  necessity  of  forming  a  gen- 
eral confederacy  and  restoring  the  consti- 
tution to  its  original  state,  by  electing  a 
monarch  among  themselves.  A  meeting 
was  held  at  a  place  called  Caoluisge,  on 
the  borders  of  the  river  Erne,  in  Ulster. 
The  candidates  were  O'Brien  of  Thomond, 
and  O'Neil  of  Tyrone.  O'Brien,  who  was 
an  excellent  commander,  and  who  some- 
time before  this  defeated  the  English  and 
their  Irish  associates  in  a  general  battle 
near  Limerick,  imagining  that  the  majority 
of  voices  was  in  his  favour,  sent  to  O'Neill 
one  hundred  beautiful  steeds,  with  gold 
bits  and  in  full  furniture,  by  way  of  sub- 
sidy ;  but  his  competitor,  persuaded  that 
he  was  elected,  returned  the  present,  and 
with  them  sent  two  hundred  horses  to 
O'Brien,  with  rich  gifts  to  his  courtiers, 
none  of  which  were  received.  By  this 
means  the  assembly  broke  up  without  form- 
ing any  general  resolves ;  and  thus  were 
the  public  at  large  left  exposed  to  the  out- 
rages and  base  machinations  of  these  pre- 
tended reformers,*  through  the  ambition 
of  the  two  chiefs,  neither  of  whom  could 
be  prevailed  upon  to  acknowledge  the  su- 
periority of  the  other. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

The  conduct  of  Brien  and  Malachie  in  the  pre- 
ceding revolution  justified — Brien  receives  hos- 
tages from  the  different  princes  of  Ireland,  and 
is  crowned  at  Tara — Holds  an  assembly  of  the 
national  estates — Surnames  established,  with  ob- 
servations on  them — His  attention  to  justice  and 
to  the  restoration  of  religion  and  letters — His 
exchequer  revenues  as  monarch,  and  improve- 
ments at  Cinn-Corradh,  with  the  etiquette  of  his 
court. 

In  perusing  the  above  extraordinary  rev- 
olution it  is  necessary  to  guard  the  reader 
against  misconceptions.     Though  he  will 

*  Caithreim  Thoirdhealbhaicc. 


be  apt  to  consider  Brien  as  a  usurper,  yet 
will  he  deem  his  conduct  in  general  great 
and  noble.  Malachie  may  also  probably 
be  censured  for  carrying  his  hatred  to 
Brien  so  far  as  even  to  offer  a  surrender 
of  the  crown  to  another  prince,  provided 
Brien  would  be  disappointed,  and  this  af- 
ter his  granting  him  a  further  time  of 
twelve  months  to  establish  his  affairs.  If 
we  judge  of  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  on 
this  occasion  by  what  is  generally  pursued 
in  other  nations  in  similar  circumstances, 
or  by  the  general  line  of  politics,  we  shall 
think  Brien's  behaviour,  with  his  enemy 
in  his  power,  to  be  rather  romantic  than 
prudent ;  but  the  Irish  seemed  of  a  differ- 
ent cast  from  the  neighbouring  states,  and 
viewed  objects  through  mediums  peculiar 
to  themselves ;  so  true  is  that  character 
of  the  nation,  given  many  centuries  ear- 
lier— "  Inclyta  gens  hominum,  milite,  pace, 
fider 

That  Brien  should  form  the  resolution  to 
dethrone  Malachie  had  nothing  of  novelty 
in  it ;  too  many  similar  instances  have  oc- 
curred in  the  course  of  this  history  ;  and, 
provided  the  claimant  was  of  the  royal  line 
of  Milesius,  had  received  the  order  of  chiv- 
alry, and  could  show  three  royal  seats  in 
his  family,  his  success  was  not  deemed  a 
usurpation.  In  all  our  history  a  single  in- 
stance only  occurs  of  usurpation,  and  this 
marked  down  so,  namely,  that  of  Carbre, 
called  Cin-Ceat,  in  the  first  century,  who 
got  himself  proclaimed  monarch,  though  a 
Danaan  !  Certain  it  is  that  the  throne  of 
Tara  had  been  possessed  by  the  Heremo- 
nian  line  for  some  centuries  in  exclusion 
to  the  other  royal  houses,  particularly  that 
of  Heber,  eldest  son  of  Milesius.  But  their 
antiquarians  contended  that — **  It  was  not 
seniority  but  intrepidity,  not  a  vain  claim, 
but  the  power  of  supporting  it  that  gave  a 
solid  title;"  according  to  a  stanza  of  one 
of  their  most  celebrated  bards  and  advo- 
cates : — 

Sinsireacht  ni  ghabhan  Ceart 
Attir  do  ghabhtar  le  neart : 
Calmacht  no  bhfear  is  Ceart  an, 
Sin  sinsireacht  f  hear  nanbhan. 

But  in  the  case  of  Brien  there  was  not  only 
seniority  (being  descended  from   Heber) 


A.  D.  1002.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND, 


257 


but  power  to  support  it ;  and  thus  much 
to  obviate  the  charge  of  usurpation  against 
this  prince.  As  to  the  notice  and  time 
given  to  Malachie  to  collect  his  forces,  it 
was  the  constant  practice  in  Ireland  from 
all  antiquity.  Did  a  prince  attempt  any 
other  mode  he  would  not  only  be  aban- 
doned by  his  own  party,  but  he  would  be 
held  forth  as  a  mirror  of  baseness  to  the 
latest  posterity.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century,  when  Mac  Con  denounced 
war  against  the  monarch  Art,  this  last  de- 
manded twelve  months'  time  to  prepare 
for  the  battle ;  but  Mac  Con's  ambassa- 
dors showing  the  impossibility  of  grant- 
ing so  long  a  time,  as  their  master's  army 
was  mostly  composed  of  foreign  merce- 
naries, hired  for  a  certain  time  only,  this 
plea  was  admitted  by  Art's  ministers,  and 
the  battle  fought  much  sooner.  Had  his 
army  been  natives  he  could  not  have  refused 
the  demand.  The  same  mode  was  observed 
in  every  other  revolution ;  heralds  were 
constantly  sent  and  the  day  of  action  was 
mutually  agreed  on.  Thus  the  time  granted 
to  Malachie  was  not,  we  see,  a  single  case, 
nor  the  use  he  made  of  it  to  be  censured. 

Brien  now  received  hostages  from  Mal- 
achie as  sureties  for  his  peaceable  beha- 
viour. He  also  demanded  fresh  ones  from 
the  king  and  princes  of  Leinster,  and  the 
Danes  of  Dublin.  He  marched  his  army 
to  Athlone,  requiring  the  king  and  princes 
of  Connaught  to  meet  him  there  by  a  cer- 
tain day  to  render  him  homage  as  monarch 
of  Ireland,  and  to  give  sureties  for  their 
dutiful  demeanour.  From  thence  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Ulster,  where  the  like  ceremo- 
nies were  performed  and  hostages  put  into 
his  hands.  Marianus,  the  successor  of  St. 
Patrick,  at  the  head  of  his  clergy,  paid  his 
duty  to  Brien.  He  received  the  holy  com- 
munion at  his  hands,  and  made  an  offering 
on  the  altar  of  the  great  church  of  an  ingot 
of  gold  of  twenty  ounces.  He  also  made 
large  presents  to  ornament  the  cathedral 
of  Armagh  at  the  request  of  Marianus,  and 
declared  his  intentions  of  being  interred 
there.  He  returned  to  Tara,  where,  in 
the  presence  of  the  princes  and  chief  no- 
bility of  the  land,  he  was  solemnly  anointed 

33 


and  crowned  by  the  archbishopjof  Cashell ; 
and  it  was  then  announced  to  the  people, 
"  that  Brien,  the  son  of  Cineidi,  the  son  of 
Lorcan,  and  so  on  to  Milesius,  was  mon- 
arch of  Ireland ;"  which  was  confirmed 
by  their  giving  what  is  called,  the  royal 
shout. 

After  his  coronation,  says  the  Bruodin 
Chronicle,  a  feis,  or  national  assembly, 
was  convened  at  Tara,  where  many  new 
and  wholesome  laws  and  regulations  were 
made,  the  national  history  revised,  and  a 
decree  was  passed  by  which  great  families 
should,  for  the  future,  be  distinguished  by 
certain  surnames  to  avoid  confusion.  But 
these  were  not  to  be  arbitrarily  imposed 
as  in  other  countries.  Each  chief  was  to 
be  called  after  some  certain  ancestor 
whose  particular  virtues  would  always  re- 
mind him  of  his  origin.  This  custom  had 
been  introduced  into  Munster  in  the  days 
of  Ceallachan,  and  into  other  provinces, 
but  it  was  confined  to  a  very  few  families : 
from  the  present  reign  it  came  into  gene- 
ral use.  Thus  the  successors  of  the  pres- 
ent prince  from  him  assumed  the  name 
of  O'Brien,  or  the  descendants  of  Brien. 
The  issue  of  his  brother  Mahon  were  called 
Mac  Mahon.  The  O'Neils  were  so  called 
from  Niall  the  Grand,  or  of  the  Nine  Hos- 
tages ;  and  so  on  of  other  families.  The 
adjuncts  O'  or  Mac,  which  imported  the 
son,  or  the  descendant,  were  prefixed  to 
each  name.  The  chief  of  each  family  was 
distinguished  from  its  branches  by  pre- 
serving the  surname  only,  as  O'Brien, 
O'Neil,  Mac  Carthy,  etc.,  while  to  all  the 
rest  the  Christian  name  was  added.  These 
titles  were  so  highly  esteemed  in  Ireland 
that  when  it  was  known  to  a  certainty, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  that  O'Brien 
had  rejected  his  for  the  more  degrading 
one  of  earl  of  Thomond,  the  chiefs  of  his 
own  blood  set  fire  to  his  noble  mansion  at 
Cluanroad,  near  Ennis,  and  would  have 
consumed  him  in  the  flames  but  for  the 
timely  interposition  of  Mac  Clanchy,  chief- 
justice  of  North  Munster.  John  O'Neil, 
in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  returned  the  pat- 
ent of  the  earl  of  Tyrone,  granted  to  his 
father,  and  complained  of  the  dishonour  he 


258 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1002. 


affixed  to  his  blood  in  accepting  of  it.  He 
also  bitterly  reproached  Mac  Carthy  for 
accepting  of  the  title  of  earl  of  Clancarthy. 
In  short,  the  Irish  chiefs  regarded  these 
titles  of  nobility  as  degradations ;  and  this 
is  the  reason  why  in  the  Irish  peerage  so 
few  Milesians  are  to  be  found.  Certain  it 
is  that  the  few  Irish  who  have  still  pre- 
served their  family  honours,  should,  in  jus- 
tice, take  precedence  of  the  present  nobil- 
ity of  Europe,  as  being  allodial,  or  titles 
from  the  most  remote  antiquity,  whereas 
these  last  are  at  best  but  of  modem  date. 

Having  wisely  regulated  the  national 
system,  Brien  dissolved  the  assembly  and 
sent  ambassadors  (says  the  Bruodin  Chron- 
icle) to  the  different  princes  of  Europe,  an- 
nouncing his  election  to  the  Irish  monarchy. 
With  these  embassies  were  sent  presents 
of  fine  horses,  wolf-dogs,  hawks,  etc.  His 
next  care  was  to  see  the  laws  everywhere 
executed  with  strictness  and  impartiality, 
and  the  money  appropriated  to  public  uses 
justly  applied.  It  was  astonishing  to  see 
what  a  new  face  the  whole  kingdom  as- 
sumed in  a  short  time  through  his  care  and 
attention.  The  cities,  from  a  ruined  state, 
became  more  ample  and  splendid ;  the 
churches,  monasteries,  and  public  hospitals 
were  repaired  or  rebuilt  with  additional 
majesty;  and  piety,  peace,  and  plenty 
spread  far  and  wide  !  The  edict  which  he 
published  when  king  of  Munster  against 
the  heathen  Danes  had  so  visible  an  effect 
on  the  conduct  and  morals  of  that  barba- 
rous people  that  it  became  now  national ; 
and  this,  with  the  exhortations  and  exam- 
ples of  the  clergy,  wonderfully  facilitated 
the  conversion  and  civilization  of  them. 

We  have  already  observed  the  splendour 
and  dignity  with  which  he  supported  the 
character  of  king  of  Leath-Mogha :  the  ti- 
tle of  monarch  of  Ireland  was  a  new  ac- 
cession of  power  and  an  additional  increase 
of  revenue ;  and  these  were  but  fresh  in- 
citements to  hospitality  and  philanthro- 
phism.  As  monarch  of  Ireland,  the  follow- 
ing were  the  annual  contributions  from  the 
provinces  of  Leath-Cuin  for  the  support 
of  his  dignity :  from  Connaught  he  received 
eight  hundred  fat  oxen,  a  thousand  weth- 


ers, eight  hundred  pigs,  and  four  hundred 
pieces  of  cloth.  From  Tyrone,  in  Ulster, 
three  hundred  oxen,  five  hundred  sheep, 
one  hundred  and  seventy  swine,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pieces  of  cloth,  and  three 
hundred  tons  of  iron.  From  Tyrconnel, 
six  hundred  beeves,  five  hundred  sheep, 
four  hundred  swine,  a  hundred  tons  of  iron, 
and  three  hundred  pieces  of  cloth.  From 
the  Clana-Ruighruidhe,  or  posterity  of  Ir,  in 
Ulster,  eight  hundred  oxen,  sixty-six  weth- 
ers, and  a  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  cloth. 
From  Leinster,  as  monarch,  two  hundred 
oxen,  eight  hundred  wethers,  a  hundred 
pigs,  two  hundred  pieces  of  cloth,  and  five 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  of  iron.  The  Osso- 
rians  paid  a  hundred  and  sixty  bullocks, 
two  hundred  wethers,  a  hundred  pigs,  and 
fifty  tons  of  iron.  The  city  of  Dublin,  with 
the  ports  of  Wexford,  Drogheda,  etc., 
paid  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  tuns  of 
French,  and  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
tuns  of  Spanish  wine,  besides  money  and 
other  duties,  the  quantities  of  which  are  not 
expressed.  From  this  relation  it  will  ap- 
pear that  the  ExcHEauER  revenues  of  the 
monarch  Brien  were  equal  to  those  of  any 
prince  at  this  day  in  Europe,  (being  appro- 
priated to  the  splendour  of  the  diadem 
only,)  and  his  expenses  were  proportioned 
to  them.  The  regal  seat  of  Cinn-Corradh, 
about  a  mile  beyond  Killaloe,  being  very 
old,  he  pulled  down  and  converted  to 
kitchens  and  offices,  and  at  a  place  some 
distance  from  it,  called  to  this  day  Ball- 
Boirumhe,  or  the  Habitation  of  Boirumhe, 
(i.  e.  the  Raiser  of  Tributes,  the  epithet  of 
this  prince,)  he  erected  a  noble  banqueting 
house.  From  the  kitchens  were  two  long 
galleries  or  corridors,  parallel  to  each,  car- 
ried across  a  flat  to  this  banqueting  house. 
A  hundred  servants  were  every  day,  at 
dinner  and  supper,  arranged  in  each  of 
these  gallepies.  The  business  of  one  set 
was  to  pass  from  hand  to  hand,  from  the 
kitchens  the  different  dishes  for  the  enter- 
tainment ;  and  of  the  others,  with  equal 
celerity,  to  return  them.  From  Ball-Boi- 
rumhe  a  wooden  bridge  was  carried  across 
the  Shannon  for  the  convenience  of  this 
house,  (the  stone  one,  lower  down,  being 


A.  D.  1010.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 


259 


strongly  fortified,  as  is  evident  at  this  day,) 
and  opposite  to  it  were  his  wine  cellars. 
The  place  yet  bears  the  name  of  Cloch-na- 
Fhionne,  or  the  wine-stone,  or  building. 

Here  did  this  monarch  entertain  the 
princes  and  nobles  of  the  nation  in  regular 
rotation,  with  a  splendour  and  politeness 
unknown  for  at  least  two  centuries.  So 
exact  was  the  etiquette  of  his  court,  that 
the  rank,  station,  and  places  of  his  different 
visitors  were  ascertained,  so  that  no  confu- 
sion or  dispute  could  arise  on  account  of 
precedence.  He  saw  both  the  inconven- 
ience and  the  impropriety  of  any  princes' 
followers  appearing  at  his  court  in  arms ; 
and  it  was  a  rule  he  established,  that  none 
but  his  brave  Dalgais,  or  body-guards, 
should  be  permitted  to  carry  arms  at  Ball- 
Boirumhe.  Besides  his  army,  he  increased 
his  navy  considerably  ;  among  the  rest,  he 
built  three  ships  of  enormous  size,  much 
like  those  carracks  which  appeared  so  for- 
midable in  later  times.  We  may  judge  of 
their  strength  and  force  by  his  son  Do- 
nough,  with  a  single  ship  of  this  structure, 
attacking,  sinking,  or  destroying  fourteen 
of  the  enemy's  ships,  as  the  Annals  of 
Inis-Fallen,  under  the  year  1056,  note ! 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

The  king  of  Leinster,  offended  at  the  court  of 
Brien,  returns  home  in  disgust,  and  confederates 
with  the  Danes — Invades  Meath — Brien  pitches 
his  camp  near  Kilmainhim,  and  lays  Leinster 
under  contribution — Returns  to  Munster  for  the 
winter — Great  preparations  for  the  ensuing  cam- 
paign— A  list  of  some  of  the  principal  chiefs  who 
attended  the  standard  of  Brien — Number  of  for- 
eigners in  the  Leinster  army — Dispositions  for 
battle — An  account  of  the  battle  of  Cluantarff — 
Defeat  of  the  Danes,  and  death  of  Brien — De- 
tail of  the  slain  on  both  sides — Character  of 
Brien  Boirumhe. 

For  more  than  ten  years  had  the  king- 
dom enjoyed  a  most  profound  and  undis- 
turbed peace ;  and,  during  that  period, 
IN  NO  INSTANCE  wcrc  the  laws  of  the  land 
violated.  An  incident,  in  itself  of  the  most 
trifling  nature,  however,  soon  destroyed 
this  so  long  wished-for  happiness,  and  left 


the  kingdom  once  more  a  prey  to  faction 
and  party. 

Among  the  many  royal  visitors  at  Ball- 
Boirumhe,  was  Mailmordha  Mac  Mur- 
rogh.  King  of  Leinster.  Between  this 
prince  and  Morrogh,  eldest  son  of  Brien, 
the  tanaiste,  or  heir-apparent  to  the 
crown  of  Munster,  no  real  friendship 
subsisted.  Morrogh  always  deemed  him 
a  base  enemy  to  his  country,  and  the 
constant  associate  and  protector  of  the 
heathen  Danes.  He  had  more  than  once 
publicly  attacked  his  abilities  as  a  general ; 
and  to  his  ill  conduct  he  attributed  the  de- 
feat he  himself  had  given  to  the  Lagenians 
and  Danes  in  the  battle  of  Glean-Mamha. 
Where  ill  blood  has  long  subsisted,  the 
slightest  inuendo  will  often  throw  it  into  a 
flame.  Among  the  amusements  of  the 
Irish,  chess  and  back-gammon  were  fa- 
vourite games.  Morrogh  engaged  one  day 
at  a  party  of  chess,  Maolmordha,  looking 
on,  advised  his  antagonist  to  a  movement, 
which  lost  Morrogh  the  game.  He  tartly 
remarked,  "  That  if  Maolmordha  had  given 
as  good  advice  at  the  battle  of  Glean-Mam- 
ha, the  Danes  would  not  have  received  so 
capital  an  overthrow. ^^  This  was  touching 
him  in  the  most  tender  point ;  he  felt  the 
utmost  force  of  it,  and  spiritedly  answered, 
"  That  he  hoped  his  next  advice  to  them 
would  be  attended  with  better  success" 
Laws  of  hospitality  and  politeness  prevent- 
ed Morrogh  from  noticing  this  threat. 
Maolmordha  hastily  retired  to  his  apart- 
ment, and  early  next  morning,  without  any 
kind  of  ceremony,  departed  from  Ball- 
Boirumhe  for  his  own  territories.  He 
called  together  his  council,  and  related  the 
behaviour  of  Morrogh.  He  recapitulated 
all  the  hardships  his  country  and  his  asso- 
ciates suffered  by  the  power  of  Brien,  and 
his  speech  breathed  nothing  but  war  and 
revenge.  The  chiefs  of  the  Danes  of 
Leinster  were  invited  to  a  conference,  and 
a  league  was  formed,  in  which  they  en- 
gaged to  assist  him  with  all  their  power  to 
reduce  Munster.  Emissaries  were  sent  to 
Denmark  and  Norway.  The  Danes  of 
Normandy,  Britain,  and  the  isles,  joyfully 
entered  into  the  confederacy,  pleased  at  the 


260 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1014. 


prospect  of  once  more  gaining  possessions 
in  this  \and  flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 

While  Maolmordha  was  waiting  for  the 
arrival  of  his  foreign  auxiliaries,  in  order  to 
inure  his  troops  to  action  it  was  judged 
advisable  to  make  an  incursion  into  Meath, 
by  way  of  commencing  the  war.  With  a 
body  of  troops,  Danes  and  Lagenians,  he 
penetrated  into  Meath,  as  far  as  Tearman- 
Feichin,  and  on  his  retreat  destroyed  the 
country,  and  carried  off  an  immense  booty. 
To  be  revenged  for  this  affront,  Mala- 
chie  sent  his  son  Flan,  with  a  good  body 
of  troops,  into  Fingal,  and  the  environs  of 
Dublin  :  but  Sitric,  the  son  of  Amhlaoibh, 
laid  an  ambuscade,  in  which  they  were 
severely  handled,  and  among  the  slain  was 
Flan  himself,  with  several  officers  of  prime 
quality.  Malachie,  on  this  defeat,  waited 
in  person  on  Brien  at  Ball-Boirumhe,  com- 
plained of  the  injuries  he  had  received  from 
the  Lagenians  and  Danes,  and  claimed 
support  from  Brien  as  his  chief.  Brien 
and  his  son  Morrogh,  entered  Leinster 
with  a  powerful  army  to  chastise  that 
people  for  invading  Meath,  and  disturbing 
the  public  tranquillity.  Finding  no  army 
in  Leinster  able  to  oppose  them,  they  fixed 
their  head-quarters  on  the  plains  near 
Dublin,  from  whence  parties  were  sent  out 
different  ways  miserably  wasting  the  coun- 
try, biU  enriching  the  camp  with  their 
spoils.  By  way  of  making  a  diversion,  a 
fieet  of  Danes  was  equipped  at  Dublin,  in 
which  a  large  body  of  troops  were  em- 
barked, who  entered  the  harbour  of  Cork, 
and  surprised  and  plundered  the  city  ;  but 
before  they  could  regain  their  ships  the 
greater  part  of  them  were  cut  off,  with 
some  of  their  best  officers. 

Dublin  was  blockaded  for  nearly  four 
months,  and  the  province  of  Leinster  laid 
under  heavy  contributions  by  the  imperial 
army,  till  the  approach  of  winter  obliged 
them  to  retire  into  winter-quarters.  Both 
parties  during  this  recess  prepared  to  re- 
new the  war  with  more  violence  than  ever. 
Troops  poured  into  the  different  ports  of 
Leinster  from  Denmark,  Sweden,  Norway, 
Normandy,  Britain,  the  Orkneys,  and  ev- 
ery other    northern    settlement       Maol- 


mordha was  also  indefatigable  not  only  in 
raising  new  levies  but  in  labouring  to  de- 
tach different  princes  from  the  interest  of 
their  conntry.  Never  were  such  efforts 
made  by  the  Danes  as  upon  this  occasion  ; 
the  best  men  were  everywhere  pitched 
upon  for  this  service,  and  the  most  expe- 
rienced officers  sought  for.  Among  others, 
Brodar  and  Aisgiodal,  two  Danish  princes, 
landed  at  the  head  of  two  thousand  choice 
troops,  armed  from  head  to  foot ! 

These  uncommon  preparations  of  the 
enemy  were  not  unknown,  to  Brien  and  to 
his  council ;  and  they  were  the  strongest 
arguments  to  determine  the  Irish  to  make 
their  utmost  efforts  to  render  them  abor- 
tive. To  show  the  world  that  Brien 
wished  not  that  his  race  and  name  should 
survive  the  liberties  of  their  country,  there 
attended  his  standard,  of  his  own  family, 
his  five  sons,  and  his  grandson,  his  fifteen 
nephews,  and  the  whole  tribe  of  Dalgais, 
with  all  the  chiefs  of  North  Munster.  The 
people  of  South  Munster  were  equally 
conspicuous  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  not  one 
prince  absenting  himself  on  this  trying  oc- 
casion. Cathal,  the  son  of  Conchabhar,  or 
Connor,  (from  whence  O'Connor,)  King  of 
Connaught,  attended  by  O'Heine,  prince  of 
Aidhne ;  O'Kelly,  prince  of  Hi-Maine; 
O'Flaherty,  prince  of  West  Connaught; 
Mac  Dermod,  prince  of  Maigh-Lurg,  and 
many  other  great  chiefs  and  their  follow- 
ers, with  all  their  posterity  of  Luig-Deal- 
bha,  both  in  Connaught  and  Leinster,  joined 
the  imperial  standard.  The  great  stew- 
ards of  Leamhna,  or  Lenox,  and  of  Mar, 
with  many  other  Albanian  chiefs,  repaired 
to  the  army  of  Brien.  Hugh  CNeil  made 
an  offer  of  his  troops,  and  his  service,  to 
attend  the  imperial  standard  ;  but  Brien 
politely  declined  the  offer;  he  had  not  for- 
gotten the  negotiation  between  Malachie 
and  himself;  and  the  conduct  of  Malachie 
afterwards,  justified  how  well-founded  his 
suspicion  and  jealousy  of  bothjthese  princes 
were. 

At  the  head  of  thirty  thousand  chosen 
men,  highly  appointed,  Brien  marched  into 
Leinster  about  the  beginning  of  April, 
1014,  in  three  divisions,  and  was  joined  by 


A.  D.  1014.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


261 


Malachie,  King  of  Meath.  He  encamped, 
as  he  had  done  the  year  before,  near  Kil- 
mainhim ;  and  after  both  armies  viewing 
each  other  for  some  days,  it  was  agreed 
to  determine  the  fate  of  Ireland  by  a  gen- 
eral battle,  on  the  plain  of  CluantarfF. 
Early  on  the  23d  of  April,  being  Good- 
Friday,  the  Danes  appeared  formed  in 
three  separate  bodies  for  battle  ;  and  by 
their  dispositions  Brien  regulated  his  own. 
The  auxiliaries  from  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark, consisting  of  twelve  thousand  men, 
among  whom  two  thousand  were  heavy- 
armed,  commanded  bv  Brodar  and  Ais- 
giodal,  formed  the  right  division  ;  the  left, 
of  nearly  an  equal  number,  commanded 
by  Sitric,  consisted  of  the  Danes  of  Ire- 
land, and  their  neighbouring  associates ; 
and  the  centre,  composed  of  the  flower  of 
Leinster,  under  the  direction  of  Maol- 
mordha,  who  acted  as  genera  1-in-chief, 
formed  the  enemy's  disposition  of  battle. 
It  was  judged  that,  by  placing  the  troops 
in  this  manner,  under  their  own  leaders, 
it  would  raise  a  spirit  of  generous 
emulation  among  them,  and  that  they 
would  vie  with  each  other  in  feats  of 
bravery. 

The  right  wing  of  the  imperial  army 
was  composed  of  the  household  troops, 
filled  up  by  the  prime  nobility  of  Munster ; 
the  invincible  tribe  of  Dalgais,  with  all  the 
princes  of  Brien's  blood,  were  also  in  this 
division,  and  Malachie,  with  the  forces  of 
Meath.  This  was  to  be  commanded  by 
Morrogh,  and  Sitric,  prince  of  Ulster.  In 
the  left  wing,  commanded  by  the  king  of 
Connaught,  all  the  Conacian  troops  were 
placed  ;  but  as  it  did  not  form  so  extended 
a  line  as  that  of  the  enemy's,  several  de- 
tachments were  added  to  it,  from  the 
troops  of  Arra,  Coonach,  Muscry,  and 
Corca-Baisgne.  The  troops  of  South 
Munster,  under  their  different  chiefs,  with 
those  of  the  Deasies,  formed  the  central 
division,  commanded  by  Cian,  the  son  of 
Maolmuadh.  Brien  rode  through  the 
ranks  with  a  crucifix  in  one  hand,  and  his 
drawn  sword  in  the  other.  He  exhorted 
them  as  he  passed  along,  "  to  do  their  duty 
as  soldiers  and  Christians,  in  the  cause  of 


their  religion  and  their  country.  He  re- 
minded them  of  all  the  distresses  their 
ancestors  were  reduced  to  by  the  perfid- 
ious and  sanguinary  Danes,  strangers  to 
religion  and  humanity  !  That  these  their 
successors  waited  impatiently  to  renew 
the  same  scenes  of  devastation  and  cruelty, 
and,  by  way  of  anticipation,  (said  he,)  they 
have  fixed  on  the  very  day  on  which 
Christ  was  crucified,  to  destroy  the  country 
of  his  greatest  votaries  ;  but  that  God, 
whose  cause  you  are  to  fight  this  day,  will 
be  present  with  you,  and  deliver  his  ene- 
mies into  your  hands."  So  saying,  he 
proceeded  towards  the  centre  to  lead  on 
his  troops  to  action  ;  but  the  chiefs  of  the 
army  with  one  voice  requested  he  would 
retire  from  the  field  of  battle  on  account 
of  his  great  age,  and  leave  to  the  gallant 
Morrogh  the  chief  command. 

At  eight  in  the  morning,  the  signal  for 
slaughter  was  given.  The  Dalgais,  with 
the  whole  right  wing,  marched  to  attack, 
sword  in  hand,  the  Danes  commanded  by 
Brodar  and  Aisgiodal ;  but  an  uncommon 
act  of  cowardice  or  treachery  like  to 
have  destroyed  the  whole  imperial  army  ; 
for  at  this  very  critical  minute,  Malachie, 
with  his  Meathians,  retired  suddenly  from 
the  field,  leaving  the  rest  of  this  body  ex- 
posed to  a  far  superior  number  of  ene- 
mies. But  Morrogh,  with  great  presence 
of  mind,  cried  out  to  his  brave  Dalgais, 
"  that  this  was  the  time  to  distinguish 
themselves,  as  they  alone  would  have  the 
unrivalled  glory  of  cutting  off  that  formi- 
dable body  of  the  enemy."  And  now, 
while  close  engaged  with  the  battle-axe, 
sword,  and  dagger,  on  the  right,  the  left, 
under  the  command  of  the  king  of  Con- 
naught,  hastened  to  engage  the  Danes  of 
Leinster  and  their  insular  levies,  while  the 
troops  of  South  Munster  attacked  the  apos- 
tate Maolmordha,  and  his  degenerate  La- 
genians  !  Never  was  greater  intrepidity, 
perseverance,  or  animosity  displayed  in 
any  battle  than  in  this,  as  everything  de- 
pended on  open  force  and  courage.  The 
situation  of  the  ground  admitted  of  no 
ambuscades,  and  none  were  used.  They 
fought  man  to  man,  and  breast  to  breast, 


262 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1014. 


and  the  victors  in  one  rank  fell  victims  in 
the  next.     The  officers  and  generals  on 
both  sides  performed  prodigies  of  valour. 
Morrogh,  his  son  Turlogh,  his  brethren  and 
kinsmen  flew  from  place  to  place;    and 
everywhere  left  the  sanguinary  traces  of 
their  courage  and.  their  fortitude  I     The 
slaughter  committed  by  Morrogh,  deter- 
mined Carolus  and  Conmaol,  two  Danes 
of  distinction,  to  attack  this  prince,  in  con- 
junction, and  they  both  fell  by  his  sword ! 
It  was  observed  that  he,  with  other  chiefs, 
had   retired  from    the   battle   more  than 
twice,  and  after  each  return,  seemed  to 
be  possessed  of  redoubled  force.     It  was  to 
slake   their   thirst,  and  cool   their   hands, 
swelled   with  the  use   of  the   sword   and 
battle-axe,  in    an  adjoining    brook,   over 
which  a  small  guard  was  placed,  and  this 
the  Danes  soon  destroyed.     On  rejoining 
his  troops  the  last  time,  Sitric  Mac  Lodair, 
with  a  body  of  Danes,  was  making  a  fresh 
attack  on  the  Dalgais,  and  him  Morrogh 
singled  out,  and  with  a  blow  of  his  battle- 
axe  divided  his  body  in  two,  through  his 
armour !     The  other    Irish  commanders 
in  like  manner  distinguished   themselves, 
though  their  exploits  are  not  so  particularly 
narrated;    and  it  would  seem  from   the 
number  of  prime  quality  that  fell  on  both 
sides,  that  besides  its  being  a  general  bat- 
tle, the  chiefs  every  where  singled  out  each 
other  to  single  combat.     The  courage  of 
the   Irish  was  not  to  be   subdued.     Till 
near  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  did  the 
issue  of  the  day  remain  doubtful ;  and  then 
it  was  that  they  made  so  general  an  attack 
on  the  enemy,  that  its  force  was  not  to  be 
resisted.      Destitute    of   leaders,   and   of 
course  of  order,  the  Danes  gave  way  on 
every  side.     Morrogh  at  this  time,  through 
the   uncommon   use   and   exertion  of  his 
sword-arm,  had   both  hand  and  arm  so 
swelled  and  pained  as  to  be  unable  to  lift 
them  up.      In  this   condition  he  was  at- 
tacked sword  in  hand  by  Henry,  the  son 
of  Eibhroic,  a  Danish  prince  ;  but  Morrogh 
closing  in  upon  him,  seized  him  with  the 
left  hand,  shook  him  out  of  his  coat  of 
mail,  and  prostrating  him,  pierced  his  body 
with  his  sword  by  fixing  its  pommel  on 


his  breast  and  pressing  the  weight  of  his 
body  on  it.  In  this  dying  situation,  Henry 
nevertheless  seized  the  dagger  which  hung 
by  Morrogh's  side,  and  with  it  gave  him 
at  the  same  instant  a  mortal  wound  !  The 
Dane  expired  on  the  spot ;  but  Morrogh 
lived  till  next  morning,  employing  the  in- 
termediate time  in  acts  of  piety  and  devo- 
tion, in  making,  says  my  MSS.,  a  general 
confession,  receiving  the  eucharist,  and 
dying  as  a  hero  and  a  Christian  should  ! 

The  confusion  became  general  through 
the  Danish  army,  and  they  fled  on  every 
side.  Corcoran,  one  of  the  monarch's  aid- 
du-camps,  seeing  the  standard  of  Morrogh 
struck,  (for  this  notified  the  death  of  the 
chief,)  and  in  the  general  deroute  unable  to 
distinguish  friend  from  foe,  concluded  that 
the  imperial  army  was  defeated.  He  has- 
tily entered  the  tent  of  Brien,  who  was  on 
his  knees  before  a  crucifix,  and  requested 
he  would  immediately  mount  his  horse  and 
escape,  for  that  all  was  lost.  "Do  you 
(says  this  hero,)  and  my  other  attendants 
(rising  up)  fly.  It  was  to  conquer  or  die 
I  came  here,  and  my  enemies  shall  not 
boast  the  killing  of  me  by  inglorious 
wounds  !"  So  saying,  he  seized  his  sword 
and  battle-axe,  his  constant  companions  in 
war,  and  resolutely  waited  the  event.  In 
this  general  confusion,  Brodar,  and  a  few 
of  his  followers  entered  the  royal  tent. 
He  was  armed  from  head  to  foot ;  and  yet 
the  gallant  old  chief  pierced  his  body 
through  his  coat  of  mail !  Two  more  of 
his  attendants  met  the  same  sad  fate ;  but 
Brien  received  his  death  by  a  fourth ! 

The  intrepid  Sitric,  prince  of  Ulster,  the 
faithful  companion  of  Brien  in  all  his  wars 
was  witness  to  the  death  of  Morrogh,  and 
revenged  it  by  killing  Plait,  a  Danish 
knight  of  great  intrepidity,  and  by  numbers 
of  others  of  less  note.  Eagerly  pursuing 
Brodar  and  his  party  he  saw  them  enter 
the  tent  of  Brien,  and  cut  to  pieces  the  re- 
mains of  them.  But  when  he  beheld  the 
aged  monarch  extended  on  the  ground  his 
grief  was  extreme.  He  threw  himself  on 
the  dead  body:  the  many  wounds  he  had 
received  in  the  battle  burst  forth  afresh ; 
he  refused  every  kind  of  assistance  and  ex- 


A.  D.  1014.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


263 


pired  in  the  arms  of  his  friend  and  faithful 
ally !  These  particulars  of  the  death  of 
Brien,  taken  from  the  Leabhar-Oiris,  I 
thought  would  not  be  unacceptable  to  the 
reader,  more  especially  as  I  find  no  two 
modern  writers  in  accord  as  to  the  manner 
of  his  dissolution. 

From  the  acrimony  and  length  of  this 
battle  we  may  conclude  few  prisoners 
were  taken,  and  none  certainly  were! 
Death  or  an  escape  was  all  the  Danes  had 
for  it ;  and  they  were  eagerly  pursued  to 
their  ships  and  to  the  very  gates  of  Dublin. 
From  the  vast  number  of  chiefs  who  fell 
we  may  form  some  idea  of  the  carnage  on 
both  sides.  On  the  imperial  side  were 
slain  the  monarch  himself,  his  son  and  gen- 
eral Morrogh,  with  two  of  his  brothers,  and 
his  grandson  Turlogh,  who,  though  but  fif- 
teen years  old,  performed  prodigies  of  val- 
our that  day !  His  nephew  Conning,  Sit- 
ric,  prince  of  Ulster,  Mothla,  prince  of  the 
Deasies,  Eocha,  chief  of  O'Seanlans,  Neal 
CCuin  and  Cudula  Mac  Ceineidi,  his  chief 
favourites,  received  the  same  fate.  The 
chiefs  of  Corca-Baisgne,  of  Fermoigh,  of 
Coonach,  of  Kerry  Luachra,  of  Loch-Lene, 
€tc.,  fell  also  in  this  battle  ;  as  did  CKelly, 
chief  of  Hi-Maine,  O'Heine,  and  many 
other  of  the  Connaught  princes.  The 
great  stewards  of  Lenox  and  Mar,  with 
other  brave  Albanians,  the  descendants  of 
Core,  King  of  Munster,  died  in  the  same 
cause.  Besides  these  princes  and  vast 
numbers  of  less  note,  the  Bruodin  Chroni- 
cle, and  other  indisputable  records,  esteem 
the  loss  of  Irish,  horse  and  foot,  that  day  at 
seven  thousand. 

On  the  side  of  the  enemy  there  fell  Ma- 
olmordha,  the  cause  of  all  this  blood,  with 
the  princes  of  Hi-Failge,  or  O'Faly,  of 
Magh-LifFe,  and  almost  all  the  other  chiefs 
of  Leinster,  who  attended  his  standard, 
with  three  thousand  of  their  bravest  troops. 
Their  right  wing  was  composed  of  the  new 
Danes,  and  the  firmest  troops  they  had. 
These  suffered  amazingly  by  the  Dalgais. 
Their  principal  officers  were  cut  oflT  to  a 
man,  with  seven  thousand  soldiers !  Of 
the  left  wing,  besides  most  of  their  officers 
of  note  were  slain  in  the  field  four  thousand 


men,  making  in  all  fourteen  thousand.  This, 
though  an  amazing  slaughter  considering 
the  numbers  who  engaged,  yet  I  am  satis- 
fied by  no  means  includes  the  whole  of  the 
enemy  who  were  slain  in  the  battle  and  in 
the  pursuit;  and  for  this  reason — with 
Brien  fell  that  day  the  vitals  of  the  Irish 
constitution.  Almost  all  the  succeeding 
rulers  were  never  acknowledged  by  our 
own  annalists  as  monarchs  in  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  word.  They  were  rather  chiefs 
of  diflferent  parties ;  the  nation  was  quite 
disunited ;  and  if  the  Danish  loss  had  not 
been  much  greater  at  this  time,  from  the 
attempts  they  formerly  made,  we  may  pre- 
sume that  they  would  not  totally  relinquish 
an  object  which  had  for  above  two  centu- 
ries cost  them  so  much  blood  and  treasure. 
But  the  fact  is  that  their  power  was  totally 
broken  at  this  time.  The  surviving  for- 
eigners took  an  eternal  farewell  of  the 
country;  and  the  Irish  Danes  were  con- 
tent to  become  obedient  to,  and  crouch 
under  that  government,  which  they  so  often 
laboured  to  undermine  and  destroy. 

Thus  fell  the  immortal  Brien  in  the 
eighty-eighth  year  of  his  age,  the  most  uni- 
formly perfect  character  that  history  can 
produce.  If  we  consider  him  in  his  mili- 
tary capacity  we  should  suppose  that  the 
study  of  arms  susperseded  every  other  ob- 
ject. In  twenty-five  different  rencounters 
and  twenty-nine  pitched  battles  did  he  en- 
gage his  Danish  and  other  enemies,  and 
victory  always  attended  his  standard !  By 
his  conduct,  prudence,  and  bravery,  he 
raised  his  country  from  a  state  of  the  most 
abject  slavery  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of 
glory !  His  superior  genius  and  success 
in  war  did  not  make  him  fond  of  it ;  and 
he  preferred  the  way  of  negotiation  to  arms 
where  it  was  admissible — witness  his  re- 
linquishing Meath  to  Malachie  on  his  re- 
signing the  monarchy.  As  a  statesman 
and  as  a  legislator  his  talents  were  not  less 
conspicuous.  Whatever  he  recovered  by 
the  sword  he  preserved  by  the  prudence 
of  his  counsels  and  the  mildness  of  his  ad- 
ministration. The  whole  tenor  of  his  life 
proclaims  that  the  only  objects  of  his  pur- 
suits were  to  restore  to  his  country  its  an- 


264 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1014. 


cient  laws  and  liberty.  Munster  had  been 
long  unacquainted  with  the  blessings  of 
peace  till  he  became  its  king ;  and  when 
he  became  monarch,  all  Ireland  partook 
of  this  happiness.  The  wonderful  abilities 
of  Brien  made  him  shine  in  every  depart- 
ment of  the  state.  He  saw  with  his  own 
eyes  every  defect  in  the  political  machine ; 
and  his  own  genius  found  out  the  reme- 
dies. He  gave  vigour  and  force  to  the 
laws,  and  the  sons  of  rapine  and  plunder 
instantly  disappeared  !  He  re-established 
religion  and  letters,  and  was  the  first  Irish 
prince  who  laboured  to  reform  and  con- 
vert his  Danish  subjects.  If  he  was  terri- 
ble to  his  enemies  in  the  field,  he  was  mild 
and  merciful  to  them  in  the  cabinet ;  and 
during  his  whole  reign  a  single  act  of  cru- 
elty or  injustice  cannot  be  laid  to  his 
charge.  His  great  attention  to  every  de- 
partment in  the  exalted  station  he  filled  did 
not  make  him  forget  his  duty  as  a  Chris- 
tian. No  one  was  more  constant  and  fer- 
vent in  their  devotions  than  he,  insomuch 
that  by  most  of  our  writers  he  has  been 
deemed  a  saint,  by  some  a  martyr.  He 
was  easy  of  access,  and  courteous  and  po- 
lite to  all.  While  he  lived  at  Ball-Boi- 
rumhe  with  all  the  magnificence  and  pro- 
fusion of  Irish  hospitality,  it  was  tempered 
with  such  decorum  and  ease,  that  the  dig- 
nity of  the  prince  was  never  lost  in  the 
cheerful  affability  of  the  companion.  In 
short,  as  a  soldier,  a  statesman,  a  legisla- 
tor, a  Christian,  and  a  scholar,  he  had  not 
a  superior ;  and  if  any  thing  can  blazon 
his  character  higher  it  must  be  his  manner 
of  dying.  At  the  age  of  eighty-eight,  when 
the  vital  forces  sensibly  decay ;  when  the 
languid  motion  of  the  blood  mechanically 
affects  the  heart  and  spirits,  and  naturally 
brings  on  dejections ;  at  a*  time  when  Brien 
himself  was  requested  to  retire  to  his  tent 
from  the  horrors  of  the  day,  and  leave  the 
conduct  of  the  battle  to  his  son — at  this 
time,  and  under  these  circumstances,  he 
was  told  that  all  was  lost  and  was  himself 
requested  to  fly !  Then  it  was  that  the 
hero  and  the  monarch  blazed  forth  in  their 
utmost  lustre !  "  Do  you,  (says  he,)  and 
my  other  attendants  fly.     It  was  to  con- 


quer or  die  I  came  here  ;  and  my  enemies 
shall  not  boast  the  killing  me  by  inglorious 
wounds !"  This  was  closing  the  scene 
with  true  dignity ! 

His  body,  after  being  embalmed  accord- 
ing to  his  will,  was  conveyed  to  Armagh. 
First,  the  clergy  of  Swords  in  solemn  pro- 
cession brought  it  to  the  great  abbey ;  from 
thence,  the  next  morning,  the  bishops  and 
clergy  of  Damh-Hag,  or  Duleek,  conducted 
it  to  the  church  of  St.  Cianan.  Here  the 
clergy  of  Lughmhaigh  attended  the  corpse 
to  their  own  monastery.  The  archbishop 
of  Armagh,  with  his  suffragans  and  clergy, 
received  the  body  at  Lughmhaigh,  from 
whence  it  was  conveyed  to  their  cathedral. 
For  twelve  days  and  nights,  says  my  MS., 
was  it  watched  by  the  clergy,  during 
which  time  there  was  a  continued  scene 
of  prayers  and  devotions ;  and  then  it  was 
interred  with  great  funeral  pomp,  at  the 
north  side  of  the  altar  of  the  great  church. 
The  bodies  of  Morrogh  and  Sitric,  with 
the  hearts  of  Conning,  and  CFelan,  prince 
of  the  Deasies,  at  their  own  requests, 
were  deposited  in  the  south  aisle  of  that 
church,  while  his  grandson  Turlogh,  and 
most  of  the  other  chiefs,  were  interred  at 
the  monastery  of  Kilmainhim. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Writers  of  the  tenth  century — St.  Cormoc,  and 
an  account  of  his  famous  work,  called  the  Psal- 
ter of  Cashell — A  detail  of  other  eminent  men, 
with  the  list  of  the  works  of  some  of  them. 

Though  the  tenth  century  has  been,  by 
almost  universal  consent,  called  the  dark 
and  sterile  age,  on  account  of  the  abject 
state  of  letters,  and  the  few  men  of  emi- 
nence it  produced,  occasioned  by  the  dep- 
redations of  the  northern  nations,  yet  even 
at  this  very  period  we  find,  besides  the 
hereditary  antiquarians,  poets,  and  histo- 
rians, Ireland  still  produced  men  of  un- 
common erudition  and  abilities.  Among 
these,  St.  Cormoc  merits  the  first  place,  on 
accpunt  of  his  exalted  station,  and  pre- 
eminence in  letters.  This  great  king  and 
holy  bishop  had  employed  the  leisure  time 


A.  D.  950.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 


265 


of  many  years  in  revising  and  correcting 
his  native  history,  and  which  he  lived  to 
complete,  as  may  be  seen  by  his  will, 
which  we  have  already  given.  It  is  not  a 
general  history  of  Ireland  as  some  have 
supposed ;  it  is  more  properly  the  history 
of  the  posterity  of  Heber,  or  of  the  Mun- 
ster  line  of  kings.  It  begins  with  the 
creation,  the  fall  of  man,  and  the  antedilu- 
vian world ;  and  in  the  chronology  he 
seems  to  adhere  to  the  Septuagint  account. 
Phaenius,  the  great  ancestor  of  the  Gade- 
lian  race,  he  declares  to  have  been  the  son 
of  Baath,  the  son  of  Magog,  the  son  of 
Japhet,  the  son  of  Noah.  He  relates  the 
dereliction  of  Egypt  by  Niulus,  the  son  of 
Phaenius,  and  the  voyages  and  adventures 
of  his  posterity  to  their  settling  in  Ireland. 
From  this  period  to  his  own  days  he  con- 
fined his  inquiries  to  the  exploits  of  his  own 
ancestors  of  the  line  of  Heber ;  so  that 
with  great  propriety  he  styles  it  the  Psal- 
ter of  Cashell,  or  Book  of  Munster.  Be- 
sides this  most  valuable  record,  he  also 
wrote  Seanasan  Cormoc,  or  Cormoc's 
Glossary  of  obsolete  words;  and  this 
work,  with  several  later  editions,  was  pub- 
lished at  Louvain,  early  in  the  last  cen- 
tury, by  CClery. 

Sealbhach,  secretary  to  King  Cormoc, 
wrote  a  genealogy  of  the  saints  of  Ireland, 
beginning  with  Naomh  Seanchas,  Naomh, 
Inis-Fail,  or  the  sacred  genealogy  of  the 
Irish  saints.* 

Probus  flourished  in  this  century;  and 
at  the  request  of  Paulinus  (as  he  himself 
declares  in  the  conclusion)  he  wrote  in 
Latin  the  Life  and  Miracles  of  St.  Patrick, 
in  two  books;  which  work  Colgan  gives 
entire,  under  the  title  of  the  Fifth  Life  of 
St.  Patrick.t 

Archbishop  Foranan,  renowned  for  his 
learning  and  piety,  with  twelve  holy  asso- 
ciates, retired  from  the  fury  of  the  Danes 
to  Flanders,  where  he  founded  a  monastery 
on  the  borders  of  the  Meuse,  emd  restored 
the  ascetic  discipline  to  its  primitive 
vigour.J 

St.  Cadroe,  educated  in  the  university 

*  Acta.  Sanct  Hib.  p.  5.    t  Ibid.  p.  105,  152,  etc. 
t  Trias  Thaamat.  p.  51. 

34 


of  Armagh,  became  so  celebrated  for  his 
universal  erudition  as  to  be  deemed  among 
the  most  learned  of  his  country.  He  vis- 
ited Britain  and  Gaul,  and  succeeded  For- 
anan in  his  monastery,  and  in  his  zeal  and 
piety.     His  life  is  given  by  Colgan. 

In  this  age  Flan,  the  celebrated  scribe 
and  chronographer,  flourished,  as  the  An- 
nals of  the  Four  Masters  declare  ;  as  also 
an  anonymous  writer,  who  continued  the 
Psalter  of  Cashell,  or  Book  of  Munster,  to 
the  reign  of  Mahon,  King  of  Munster ;  an 
authentic  copy  of  which,  in  my  posses- 
sion, has  been  highly  useful  to  the  present 
work. 

In  the  tenth  century  may  be  also  placed 
the  anonymous  writer  of  the  Life  of  Ceal- 
lachan-Caisil.  This  work  is  much  to  be 
valued,  not  only  on  account  of  the  lights  it 
throws  on  the  period  and  transactions  of 
which  it  speaks,  but  also  because  it  details 
in  a  full  manner  the  modes  of  attack  in 
those  days,  with  respect  to  the  besieging 
of  towns,  and  to  general  engagements, 
whether  by  land  or  by  water. 

St.  Malbrigid,  Mac  Doman,  who  is  in 
our  annals  styled  successor  to  St.  Patrick, 
St.  Columba,  and  St  Adamnanus,  head  of 
the  religious  of  all  Ireland,  and  of  the 
greatest  part  of  Europe,  flourished  in  this 
century.  Rumold,  bishop  of  Cluanard, 
Mainchas,  abbot  of  Benchoir,  Carpre  the 
anchorite,  the  abbots  Paulinus,  Colman^ 
and  Cormoc,  with  Joseph,  who  from  a 
recluse  was  raised  to  the  see  of  Armagh,^ 
are  all  highly  celebrated  in  the  Annals  of 
the  Four  Masters  for  their  religion  and 
learning. 

St  Columbanus,  abbot  and  anchorite,  in 
the  middle  of  this  century,  retired  to  Flan- 
ders ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  the  first 
who  introduced  among  that  people  this 
species  of  mortification.*  After  exhorting 
and  preaching  with  uncommon  zeal  and 
devotion,  he  retired  to  a  cemetery  in  the 
church  of  St.  Bavon,  in  Ghent  in  which 
he  continued  to  his  death,  which  happened 
about  two  years  after  his  retreat,  i.  e.  A.  D. 
959.  He  is  still  invoked  in  times  of  public 
calamity,  as  one  of  the  patrons  of  that  city. 

*  Vita  St.  Columbani,  f.  2. 


BOOK    XII. 


CHAPTER    I. 

No  national  advantages  made  of  the  late  great  vic- 
tory— Retreat  of  the  Munster  and  Leinster 
forces — Cian  assumes  the  title  of  King  of  Mun- 
ster, and  demands  hostages  from  the  sons  of 
Brien,  which  are  refused — Character  of  Cian — 
His  pretensions  opposed  by  Domhnal — Retreat 
of  the  troops  of  North  Munster — The  prince  of 
Ossory  demands  hostages  of  them,  and  is  re- 
fused— The  Munster  troops  prepare  for  battle, 
and  are  joined  by  their  sick  and  wounded — The 
Ossorians  generously  refuse  to  attack  them — 
Battle  of  Maigh-Guillidhe. 

After  so  decisive,  though  dear-bought, 
a  victory  as  the  battle  of  Cluantarff,  we 
should  naturally  suppose  that  the  first  ob- 
jects of  the  conquerors  w^ould  have  been 
to  proceed  to  the  election  of  an  emperor, 
and  the  forming  such  a  new  code  of  laws 
as  would  secure  to  the  kingdom  that  inter- 
nal peace  and  security  which  it  stood  in 
much  need  of.  But  no  such  thing.  That 
great  soul  which  animated  this  whole 
party  fled  to  heaven ;  and  characters  so 
great  and  so  elevated  are  not  the  product 
of  every  age.  The  king  of  Connaught, 
apprehensive  of  domestic  troubles,  hastily 
retired  to  his  own  territories,  and  the  Mun- 
ster army,  under  the  command  of  its  dif- 
ferent chiefs,  followed  the  example.  But 
scarce  had  these  last  closed  the  march  of 
the  first  day,  when  old  disputes  and  dis- 
tinctions arose,  and  having  now  no  other 
enemies  to  fear,  they  began  to  look  for  new 
ones  among  themselves. 

Cian,  the  son  of  Maolmuadh,  chief  of  the 
sept  of  the  O'Mahonies,  thought  that  his 
power  and  blood  justly  entitled  him  to  the 
succession  to  the  crown  of  Munster.  He 
sent  a  formal  embassy  on  the  next  morn- 
ing, being  the  26th  of  April,  to  Teige  and 
Donough,  the  surviving  sons  of  Brien,  in- 
forming them  of  his  intentions  of  being 


proclaimed  king  of  Munster,  and  request- 
ing from  them  the  same  aid  and  assistance 
he  had  afforded  to  their  father,  at  the  same 
time  requiring  their  submission  as  their 
chief,  and  hostages  for  their  future  good 
behaviour.  To  soften  these  demands,  it 
was  represented  to  them  that,  by  the  will 
of  their  common  ancestor  Olioll-OIlum, 
the  government  of  Munster  was  to  pass 
alternately  from  the  house  of  Eogan  to  that 
of  Cormoc ;  that  their  father  being  of  the 
latter  house,  and  last  king  of  Munster,  the 
choice  of  a  successor  necessarily  fell  upon 
the  Eogonachts ;  and,  therefore,  besides 
the  ties  of  affinity — he  being  married  to 
their  sister — those  of  strict  justice  strongly 
pleaded  in  his  behalf.  However  surprised 
and  shocked  at  this  message,  as  the  bro- 
thers necessarily  must  have  been,  yet  they 
returned  a  resolute  and  spirited  answer. 
As  to  the  submission  and  aid  which  Cian 
boasted  of  affording  their  father,  they  ob- 
served, "that  it  was  not  voluntary,  but 
exacted  by  the  sword ;  that  the  will  of 
Olioll  had  long  since  been  broken  through 
and  rendered  nugatory  by  the  posterity  of 
Eogan,  who  had  usurped  to  themselves  in 
too  many  instances  the  right  of  governing 
Munster  ;  that  their  father  Brien,  by  force 
of  arms,  had  obliged  them  to  recognise  his 
title,  and  that,  by  the  same  means,  they 
would  preserve  this  rank  and  transmit  it 
to  their  posterity.  It  is  true  (added  they) 
we  are  not  so  numerous  nor  so  well  pre- 
pared for  battle  as  you,  having  lost  most 
of  our  brethren  and  friends  in  the  late 
engagement ;  but  we  have  hearts  unac- 
quainted with  fear,  and  the  God  of  armies 
will  support  us  in  the  day  of  trial." 
But  while  the  sons  of  Brien  prepared 


A.D.  1014.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


267 


with  firmness  for  the  event,  sound  policy 
pointed  out  to  them  the  means  of  weaken- 
ing their  enemy.  Cian,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, was  a  prince  of  great  bravery  and 
wisdom.  In  the  life  of  his  father  he  was 
delivered  up  as  a  hostage  to  Brien:  his 
gallantry  and  engaging  behaviour  had  so 
far  endeared  him  to  that  chief  that  he 
gave  him  his  daughter  Saobh,  or  Sabina, 
to  wife.  He  constantly  attended  Brien  in 
all  his  wars,  fought  by  his  side,  and  shared 
in  his  dangers  and  in  his  glory.  No  one 
seemed  more  worthy  the  crown  of  Mun- 
ster,  or  monarchy  of  Ireland,  than  Cian  ; 
and  had  fate  so  decreed  it,  in  all  appear- 
ance Ireland  would  not  have  felt  those 
calamities  which  she  so  long  endured. 
The  troops  of  South  Munster,  in  the  battle 
of  Cluantarff,  had  not  suffered  near  so 
much  as  their  brethren  of  North  Munster. 
These  last  had  to  engage  with  the  flower 
of  the  Danish  troops,  above  two  thousand 
of  whom  were  completely  armed ;  and 
they  were  besides  deserted  by  Malachie 
and  his  forces  of  Meath.  The  remains  of 
their  forces,  after  the  battle,  did  not  amount 
to  quite  two  thousand  men,  out  of  which 
twelve  hundred  only  were  able  to  bear 
arms,  the  rest  being  desperately  wounded 
in  different  parts ;  whereas  the  troops  of 
South  Munster  were  infinitely  superior, 
and  besides  had  not  near  so  many  wound- 
ed. Cian  alone  was  at  the  head  of  three 
thousand  men ;  but  Domhnal,  the  son  of 
Dubhdabhoran,  and  chief  of  the  O'Dona- 
choes,  commanded  a  very  respectable  body 
of  troops,  independent  of  Cian.  To  him 
the  brothers  sent  an  express,  announcing 
the  intentions  of  Cian,  and  requesting  his 
aid.  If  the  ambition  of  Domhnal  was 
roused  by  the  attempts  of  Cian,  his  pride 
was  equally  wounded  to  think  he  would 
carry  them  into  execution  without  consult- 
ing him. 

He  immediately  proceeded  to  the  tent  of 
the  son  of  Maolmuadh,  and  found  all  his 
men  busied  in  preparing  themselves  for 
battle.  He  demanded  the  cause,  and  Cian, 
without  any  reserve,  disclosed  it  to  him. 
After  gome  expostulations,  Domhnal,  in  a 
few  words,  informed    him,   "that  in   his 


junction  with  the  imperial  army  he  had 
not  the  most  distant  idea  of  promoting 
Cian  to  the  sovereignty  of  Munster  in  case 
of  a  vacancy  ;  and  that  he  now  solemnly 
protested  against  his  proceedings."  Cian 
fiercely  answered,  "  that  he  never  once 
thought  of  asking  either  his  advice  or  as- 
sistance on  the  occasion."  On  this,  Domh- 
nal and  his  army  separated  from  that 
of  Cian,  and  formed  a  distinct  camp.  The 
brothers,  well  apprised  of  these  divisions, 
knew  that  Cian  was  too  great  a  politician 
to  think  of  attacking  them,  circumstanced 
as  he  now  was,  and,  therefore,  after  stand- 
ing for  some  time  under  arms,  ordered  a 
retreat,  directing  the  sick  and  the  baggage 
to  be  placed  in  the  front  of  their  little  army. 
Cian  and  his  party  proceeded,  at  the  same 
time,  to  Ibh-Eachach  in  Carbery,  the  place 
of  his  residence,  as  did  Domhnal  to  Kerry, 
but  by  different  routes. 

But  the  sons  of  Brien  were  decreed  to 
suffer  still  more  mortifying  trials  before 
they  reached  the  mansion  of  their  ancestors. 
As  soon  as  they  approached  the  borders  of 
Ossory,  Fitz-Patrick,  chief  of  that  territory, 
sent  ambassadors,  requiring  hostages  for 
the  good  behaviour  of  their  troops,  and  also 
for  their  peaceable  demeanour  for  the  time 
to  come.  Enraged  at  so  insolent  a  de- 
mand, and  from  a  constant  tributary  to  the 
crown  of  Munster,  they  returned  for  an- 
swer, "  that  they  were  astonished  at  the 
presumption  of  the  prince  of  Ossory  in 
daring  to  send  them  such  a  message ;  and 
though  their  troops  were  greatly  dimin- 
ished, yet  they  had  still  sufficient  to  punish 
a  dastardly  chief  like  him  who  meanly 
availed  himself  of  his  present  seeming 
superiority."  Nothing  can  prove  more 
strongly  how  delusive  and  transitory  hu- 
man honours  and  applause  are,  than  the 
present  situation  of  these  princes  contrast- 
ed with  the  rank  they  held  a  few  days 
earlier.  There  we  behold  them  courted 
and  caressed,  honoured  and  feared,  by  the 
army  and  by  the  whole  kingdom  !  Here, 
their  weight  and  power  being  greatly  di- 
minished— for  respect  and  adulation  seem 
to  adhere  to  stations,  not  to  persons — 
these  honours  are  turned  to  insults,  and  this 


268 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1014. 


applause  to  contempt !  What  availed  it  to 
the  son»  of  the  immortal  Brien  that  their 
father,  their  brothers,  their  nephew,  their 
kinsmen,  and  almost  the  entire  tribe  of 
Dpig^is,  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  glory  and 
independence  of  their  country ;  and  that 
their  present  situation  entitled  them  to 
every  honour  that  could  be  conferred  on 
men !  These  great  services,  we  see,  were 
almost  instantly  forgotten,  and  their  pres- 
ent consequence  was  only  rated  according 
to  their  present  power. 

The  ambassadors  of  Fitz-Patrick,  sensi- 
ble of  the  great  superiority  of  his  army, 
(being  joined  by  a  body  of  Lagenians,)  and 
foreseeing  the  destruction  of  the  remains 
of  the  brave  Dalgais  if  a  battle  should 
ensue,  conjured  the  brothers  to  make  some 
small  concessions  to  their  master,  and  not 
to  dismiss  them  with  an  answer  so  ill 
adapted  to  their  present  situation.  "At 
what  period  of  time  (replied  the  intrepid 
Donough)  did  any  one  of  my  ancestors  do 
homage,  or  deliver  hostages,  to  an  Osso- 
rian  ?  That  the  posterity  of  Eogan  should 
sometimes  make  such  demands  is  not  sur- 
prising, being  the  issue  of  the  eldest  son 
of  our  great  ancestor ;  but  is  there  in  his- 
tory a  single  instance,  besides  the  present, 
of  the  chief  of  Ossory's  daring  to  demand 
hostages  from  the  posterity  of  Olioll- 
OUum?"  So  saying  he  dismissed  the 
ambassadors,  and  began  to  prepare  for  the 
expected  engagement. 

A  body  of  two  hundred  men  were  di- 
rected to  escort  the  wounded  and  the  bag- 
gage to  an  adjoining  fort ;  but  as  soon  as 
the  purport  of  Fitz-Patrick's  message  be- 
came known,  a  general  rage  and  indigna- 
tion seized  on  the  whole  army.  The 
wounded  called  out  to  be  led  to  battle. 
They  conjured  their  brethren  not  to  de- 
sert them,  but  as  they  had  hitherto  lived, 
so  they  hoped  they  would  now  suffer  them 
to  die  by  their  sides.  They  applied  to 
Donough  and  to  Teige ;  and,  as  a  further 
inducement,  observed  to  them,  "that  by 
permitting  them  to  stand  to  their  arms 
their  fellow-soldiers  would  fight  with  more 
intrepidity,  and  would  never  think  of  giving 
way.     Let  stakes  (said  they)  be  stuck  in 


the  ground,  and  suffer  each  of  us,  tied  to 
and  supported  by  one  of  these  stakes,  to 
be  placed  in  his  rank  by  the  side  of  a 
sound  man  ;  our  front  will  be  more  extend- 
ed, and  we  shall  by  this  means  be  enabled 
to  use  our  arms."  Their  importunities, 
and  these  reasons,  made  a  strong  impres- 
sion on  the  brothers,  and  between  seven 
and  eight  hundred  wounded  men,  pale, 
emaciated,  and  supported  as  above,  ap- 
peared mixed  with  the  foremost  of  the 
troops.  Never  was  such  another  sight 
exhibited  !  The  Ossorians  marched  to  the 
attack  with  full  assurance  of  victory ;  but 
when  they  regarded  the  situation  of  almost 
half  of  the  enemy  they  were  to  attack,  pity 
and  admiration  succeeded  to  rage  and 
resentment !  In  vain  Fitz-Patrick  called 
them  forth  to  the  battle;  in  vain  he  urged 
that  so  decisive  an  opportunity  as  the  pres- 
ent would  never  offer  again,  and  that  by 
losing  it  the  whole  power  of  Munster 
would  soon  be  on  their  backs.  His  rea- 
sons were  of  no  weight ;  and  his  allies  ab- 
solutely refused  to  engage  with  the  troops 
of  North  Munster  in  their  present  situation. 
The  sons  of  Brien,  seeing  this  defection, 
prepared  for  a  retreat ;  but  the  prince  of 
Ossory,  says  my  MS.,  with  a  select  body 
of  followers,  constantly  hovered  round  this 
body  of  men,  perpetually  harrassing,  but 
never  daring  to  come  to  an  engagement 
with  them.  By  this  means  they  lost  a 
hundred  and  fifty  of  their  wounded,  and 
many  others  were  cut  off  in  the  retreat. 
After  this  the  remains  of  these  heroes 
reached  Ball-Boirumhe  without  any  fur- 
ther molestation. 

We  observed  that  Cian  and  Domhnal 
separated  on  their  return  to  Munster. 
Cian  had  not  yet  lost  sight  of  the  crown 
of  that  province ;  and  the  first  object  of 
his  resentment,  after  his  arrival,  was  the 
son  of  Dubhdabhoran.  He  sent  heralds, 
denouncing  war,  and  challenging  him  to 
battle  in  ten  days  on  the  plains  of  Magh- 
Guillidhe.  Both  parties  met,  and  the  en- 
gagement was  long  and  bloody.  The 
party  of  Cian  was  at  length  defeated  with 
great  carnage,  and  among  the  slain  were 
this  prince,  his  two  brothers,  and  three  of 


A.D.  1014.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


269 


his  sons.  **  Thus  fell  (says  the  Leabhar 
Oiris)  the  intrepid  Cian,  as  gallant  and 
generous  a  prince  as  the  house  of  Heber 
ever  produced." 


CHAPTER  II. 

Malachie  again  saluted  monarch  by  the  Clan-Col- 
man,  but  not  elected  by  the  national  estates — 
Righe-go-freasabhra,  its  import — Malachie 's  re- 
markable account  of  the  battle  of  CluantarfF — 
Takes  Dublin  by  assault — Civil  commotions  of 
Munster — Of  Leinster — Malachie  repents  his 
former  conduct,  and  devotes  the  remainder  of 
his  life  to  acts  of  piety  and  charity — Contentions 
in  Munster — The  Heremonians  appoint  a  pro- 
tector— Remarks  on  this  title — Donough  O'Brien 
overruns  Leinster,  Meath,  and  Connaught — 
His  issue — Is  defeated  by  his  nephew  Turlogh — 
Resigns  the  crown,  and  retires  to  Rome — The 
Powers,  Plunkets,  and  Eustaces,  of  the  race  of 
O'Brien — The  pretences  of  Rome  to  the  com- 
mand of  Ireland  inquired  into  and  refuted. 

Malachie,  it  is  said,  was  proclaimed 
monarch  by  the  national  estates,  imme- 
diately after  the  death  of  Brien.  This 
was  not  certainly  so;  for  we  have  seen 
that  the  chiefs  of  Munster  and  Connaught 
returned  to  their  different  countries  the 
second  day  after  the  battle  of  CluantarfF. 
Had  their  suffrages  been  demanded  in 
favour  of  a  successor,  I  take  it  for  gra  nted, 
that  Malachie  would  have  been  the  last 
man  in  the  world  on  whom  they  would 
have  bestowed  it.  He  had  been  formally 
deposed  in  1001,  and  resigned  the  crown 
some  time  after.  During  the  glorious 
reign  of  Brien,  in  no  one  instance  was  he 
entitled  to  the  confidence  of  the  public. 
We  have  seen  that  the  late  Danish  war 
commenced  with  an  incursion  into  Meath, 
and  Malachie,  in  person,  claim  the  protec- 
tion of  the  monarch  as  his  chief;  yet  in 
the  decisive  battle  that  followed  the  year 
after,  forgetful  of  his  allegiance  to  his  sov- 
ereign, of  the  duty  he  owed  his  country,  of 
his  own  honour,  and  of  the  just  revenge 
which  the  death  of  his  son  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  territories  demanded — on  the 
instant  of  trial  he  basely  deserted  his  sta- 
tion, and  by  this  defection  hazarded  the 
eternal  ruin  of  his  country !    Was  such  a 


character  the  object  of  national  esteem? 
The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  Malachie  seeing 
no  formidable  competitors,  and  being  at 
the  head  of  a  good  army,  in  the  centre  of 
his  relations,  the  Clan-Colman,  or  southern 
Hi-Niall  race,  he  convened  an  assembly 
of  the  estates  of  Meath,  in  the  middle  of 
May,  1014,  by  whom  he  was  saluted  king 
of  Tara  and  monarch  of  Ireland  ;  and,  in 
this  instance,  gave  the  example  to  future 
powerful  princes  to  assume  the  title,  and, 
in  part,  the  power  of  monarchs,  without  a 
previous  general  election:  such,  in  fact, 
were  almost  all  the  succeeding  rulers  of 
Ireland.  These  princes  have  been  very 
properly  stigmatized  by  our  senachies, 
righe-go-freaasbhra,  or  kings  by  force  or 
violence,  in  opposition  to  those  legally 
elected,  whom  they  have  called  lain-righe, 
or  kings  in  the  complete  sense  of  the 
word. 

In  this  convention,  we  are  told  by  Mac 
Liagh,  historian  to  Brien  Boirumhe,  and  it 
is  also  recorded  in  the  Leabhar  Oiris,  that 
the  estates  of  Meath  requested  of  Malachie 
some  account  of  the  late  battle  of  Cluan- 
tarfF, of  which  so  much  had  been  said,  and 
that  he  answered  them  thus :  "  It  is  impos- 
sible for  me  to  relate  the  particulars  of  this 
battle,  nor  do  I  believe  could  any  one  less 
than  an  angel  from  heaven.  I  retired, 
with  the  troops  under  my  command,  to  an 
eminence,  separated  from  the  combatants 
by  a  field  and  a  ditch  only.  The  appear- 
ance of  the  men,  the  glittering  of  swords, 
spears,  and  battle-axes,  and  the  brightness 
of  their  armour,  exhibited  at  once  a  glo- 
rious and  an  awful  sight !  The  engage- 
ment soon  commenced,  and  in  less  than 
half  an  hour  it  was  impossible  to  distin- 
guish the  combatants  from  each  other; 
even  a  father  or  a  brother  could  not  be 
known,  except  by  his  voice,  so  closely 
were  they  mingled  together,  and  so  cov- 
ered with  blood  darting  forth  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  body,  and  scattered  on 
every  side  by  the  wind,  which  was  then 
sharp  and  high.  Separated  as  we  were 
from  them,  the  spears,  swords,  and  battle- 
axes  of  our  men  were  so  entangled,  by 
the  quantity  of   blood   and  clotted    hair 


270 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1017. 


flying  from  the  field  of  battle,  that  with 
constant  difficulty  and  labour  only  were 
they  able  to  disengage  them  and  to  keep 
their  ranks  ;  nor  was  it  for  some  time  after 
that  their  arms  recovered  their  former 
lustre.  The  scenes  of  carnage,  which 
spread  far  and  wide,  were  terrible  beyond 
description — so  much  so,  that  the  very 
sight  of  them  to  us  spectators,  appeared 
infinitely  more  distressing  and  terrifying 
than  they  could  possibly  be  to  the  parties 
engaged.  From  sunrise  to  the  evening 
did  the  battle  continue,  with  such  unremit- 
ting slaughter,  that  the  returning  tide  was 
stained  red  !" 

This,  it  must  be  confessed,  if  not  the 
description  of  a  battle,  is,  at  least,  a  lively 
one  of  its  melancholy  effects. 

As  soon  as  Malachie  found  himself  in 
the  peaceable  possession  of  a  crown  which 
he  so  ill  merited,  in  order  to  ingratiate 
himself  with  the  public,  and  to  endeavour 
to  remove  part  of  the  ill  impression  con- 
ceived against  him,  he  led  a  powerful 
army  against  Dublin,  in  conjunction  with 
his  ally  Aodh  O'Neil,  which  he  took  by 
assault,  and,  after  plundering  the  city,  he 
set  it  on  fire  in  different  places,  in  order 
effectually  to  destroy  that  ungrateful  and 
irreclaimable  set  of  traitors,  the  remains  of 
the  Danes.  Such  of  these,  however,  as 
escaped  the  sword,  had  their  revenge  by 
plundering  and  destroying  the  adjacent 
country,  and  putting  to  the  sword  the 
peaceable  inhabitants. 

We  have,  in  the  last  chapter,  noticed 
the  death  of  the  gallant  Cian  and  the  de- 
feat of  his  army.  Mahon,  his  surviving 
son,  fled  from  the  rage  of  the  conquerors 
to  the  court  of  his  uncles  Donough  and 
Tiege.  To  reinstate  him  in  the  dominions 
of  his  ancestors,  they  marched  a  considera- 
ble army  into  Desmond,  which  soon  en- 
gaged with  that  commanded  by  the  son  of 
Dubhdabhoran.  In  this  battle  the  latter 
was  defeated ;  and  among  the  slain  was 
his  son  Cathal,  and  others  of  prime  quality. 
By  this  victory  the  sons  of  Brien  secured 
a  powerful  ally  in  their  nephew,  and  obliged 
his  antagonist  to  deliver  up  hostages  to 
them,  and  thus  regained  the  sovereignty  of 


all  Munster.  But  rara  concordia  fratrum  ! 
this  acquisition  of  power  was  a  source  of 
fresh  commotions.  Tiege,  as  elder  brother, 
insisted  that  he  ought  singly  to  reign  ;  but 
Donough,  who  was  an  able  politician,  and 
besides  possessed  of  insatiable  ambition, 
would  by  no  means  admit  of  the  arguments 
of  his  brother.  Both  parties  had  (as  usual) 
recourse  to  arms:  a  pitched  battle  was 
fought,  in  which  the  prince  of  Aradh  of 
Ui-Cairbre  and  other  great  chiefs  were 
slain,  with  little  visible  advantage  to  either 
party.  During  these  intestine  commotions 
the  son  of  Dubhdabhoran  was  not  idle. 
He  artfully  recovered  his  hostages,  and  at 
the  same  time  made  a  sudden  and  unex- 
pected incursion  into  Carbery.  Every 
thing  gave  way  to  his  superior  power,  and 
with  his  own  hand  he  slew  young  Mahon 
in  revenge  for  the  death  of  his  son  Cathal. 

Domhnal  prepared  with  a  considerable 
army  to  invade  Thomond,  and  this  cir- 
cumstance had  a  speedier  effect  to  unite 
the  sons  of  Brien  than  all  the  remonstrances 
of  the  clergy,  who,  to  do  them  justice,  were, 
on  all  occasions,  the  ministers  of  peace. 
They  became  reconciled,  and,  uniting  their 
armies,  waited  at  Limerick  the  approach 
of  the  enemy.  By  mutual  agreement  a 
battle  was  fought  in  which  great  bravery 
was  displayed,  and  of  course  much  blood 
spilt.  At  length  the  Eogonachts  gave  way 
on  every  side  ;  but  not  till  they  saw  their 
chief  and  almost  all  their  principal  officers 
fall! 

Malachie  having  reduced  the  Danes, 
marched  an  army  into  Leinster  in  order 
to  chastise  such  chiefs  of  that "  country  as 
had  not  paid  him  proper  homage ;  and 
after  his  return,  in  conjunction  with  O'Neil, 
he  invaded  Connaught,  returning  with 
prisoners  and  hostages  by  the  way  of  Kil- 
dare.  Some  petty  princes  of  Ulster  he 
also  chastised  and  obliged  them  to  give 
hostages  for  their  future  obedience. 

Donagan,  a  Leinster  prince,  with  many 
other  chiefs,  were  cut  off  at  an  entertain- 
ment by  the  prince  of  Ossory ;  and  soon 
after,  to  punish  this  prince  for  so  infamous 
an  act,  Malachie  entered  his  territories, 
laid  waste  the  country  with  fire  and  sword, 


A.  D.  1023.] 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


271 


putting  him  to  death  with  other  conspira- 
tors, and  leading  to  Tara  a  large  number 
of  prisoners. 

During  these  various  intestine  broils,  the 
Danes,  collected  from  different  parts,  had 
again  taken  possession  of  Dublin.  It  is  cer- 
tainly very  surprising,  and  not  easily  to  be 
accounted  for,  that  in  all  the  various  defeats 
the  Danes  received,  their  enemies  never 
once  thought  (except  in  the  days  of  Mala- 
chie  I.)  to  prostrate  the  walls  of  their 
cities  and  strongholds.  They  contented 
themselves  with  plundering  and  setting  fire 
to  their  houses  after  forcing  their  cities 
and  raising  contributions  only.  By  this 
means,  and  that  of  their  extensive  and  lu- 
crative trade,  and  the  supplies  of  foreign- 
ers, they  soon  became  enabled,  on  every 
occasion,  to  create  fresh  disturbances,  and 
seldom  wanted  the  inclinations  and  oppor- 
tunities of  doing  so.  Thus  Sitric,  the 
Danish  governor  of  Dublin,  on  some  dis- 
pute, had  the  eyes  of  Brien,  son  to  Maol- 
mordha,  that  degenerate  king  of  Leinster, 
struck  out ;  but  his  successor  took  ample 
revenge  on  that  insidious  crew,  and  so  ef- 
fectually humbled  them  that  they  never 
after  were  able  to  emerge  from  that  con- 
tempt and  obscurity  which  their  crimes 
and  repeated  acts  of  rebellion  had  so  long 
merited. 

Malachie  now  greatly  advanced  in  years, 
saw  and  blamed  too  late  his  past  conduct. 
To  regain  the  monarchy  he  sacrificed  his 
faith,  his  honour,  and  whatever  else  was 
dear  to  man ;  and  he  now  was  convinced 
that  he  wanted  the  abilities  requisite  for  so 
great  a  charge.  The  power  of  the  com- 
mon enemy,  it  is  true,  was  annihilated; 
but  he  had  neither  force  nor  resolution  to 
break  through  party,  faction,  and  intestine 
broils,  with  which  the  kingdom  was  over- 
run. As  some  atonement  for  these  defects 
he  dedicated  the  remainder  of  his  life  to 
acts  of  piety  and  devotion.  He  founded 
St.  Mary's  abbey,  in  Dublin ;  rebuilt  and 
repaired  such  churches,  monasteries,  and 
colleges  as  had  through  time,  neglect,  or 
the  ravages  of  war,  fallen  into  decay  ;  and 
he  made  foundations  of  different  colleges 
in  the  kingdom  for  the  maintenance  and 


education  of  three  hundred  poor  students. 
In  his  last  illness  he  was  attended  by  the 
archbishop  of  Armagh,  with  the  abbots  of 
Ionia  and  Saghire,  and  died  September  2d, 
1022,  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his  age, 
after  a  reign  of  eight  years,  three  months, 
and  twelve  days.  Malachie  was  the  only 
monarch  of  Ireland  who  survived  the  loss 
of  the  diadem  ;  and  the  first  who  again  re- 
sumed that  title  without  a  regular  and  for- 
mal election. 

On  the  death  of  Malachie  none  seemed 
to  have  better  pretensicMis  to  the  supreme 
command  of  Ireland  than  the  sons  of  Brien ; 
but  unnatural  jealousies  and  dissensions 
among  themselves  deprived  the  nation  of 
so  wished  for  a  blessing.  We  have  seen 
them,  after  the  defeat  of  Domhnal,  turn 
their  arms  against  each  other ;  and  now, 
instead  of  uniting  in  the  same  cause,  they 
proceeded  to  similar  excesses.  Tiege  was 
the  elder  brother,  and  great  respect  was 
always  paid  to  seniority.  Donough  at  best 
saw  that  he  could  be  but  second  in  com- 
mand while  Tiege  lived;  and  therefore 
effected  by  treachery  what  he  could  not 
by  force.  He  sent  for  the  chief  of  Eile,  in 
Ormond,  who  was  particularly  attached  to 
him,  and  by  large  presents,  and  a  promise 
of  making  saor-fearan,  or  a  palatinate,  of 
his  country,  he  engaged  him  to  surprise 
his  brother  the  following  night  and  carry 
him  off  prisoner  to  Ormond,  where  he  was 
cut  off  soon  after.  Though  Donough  af- 
fected great  surprise  at  the  sudden  disap- 
pearance of  Tiege,  yet  both  his  hypocrisy 
and  treachery  were  quickly  seen  into  ;  for 
soon  after  his  nephew  Turlogh  fled  from 
Munster  to  Ferceall,  the  seat  of  his  uncle, 
where  he  was  honourably  received.  It  is 
to  be  noticed  that  Tiege  had  married  Mor, 
the  daughter  of  O'Molloy  or  Maolmuadh, 
prince  of  this  territory,  now  known  by  the 
name  of  King's  county. 

The  Heremonians  became  alarmed  at 
the  rising  state  of  Munster,  but  not  able  to 
agree  among  themselves  as  to  a  successor 
to  Malachie,  Cuan  0*Lochain,  was  ap- 
pointeoi  by  them  protector  of  the  monarchy. 
This,  to  many  antiquarians,  seemed  a  new 
and  unheard-of  employment ;  however,  in 


272 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1060. 


the  fourth  century,  we  find  the  monarch 
Criomhthan  appoint  his  cousin  Conall  pro- 
tector of  Ireland  during  his  absence.  In 
the  will  of  Niall  the  Grand  he  expressly 
declares  his  son  Maine,  Ard  Comairce 
Eirin  Uile,  or  chief  protector  of  all  Ireland 
during  his  absence  ;  and  I  have  met  with 
flaany  instances  in  old  MSS.  of  the  title  of 
governor  of  Tara,  which  implies  the  same 
thing,  as  it  was  the  known  residence  of  the 
Irish  monarchs.  To  have  a  person  ap- 
pointed in  cases  of  vacancies  to  an  elec- 
tive monarchy,  in  whom  the  executive 
power  should  be  lodged  during  the  elec- 
tion, is  a  measure  which  no  wise  govern- 
ment could  want ;  and  this  seems  one  of 
the  last  efforts  to  bring  back  the  constitu- 
tion to  its  original  state. 

This  measure,  and  some  troubles  in 
Munster,  suspended  for  a  time  the  ambi- 
tious views  of  Domhnal ;  but  Cuan  dying  in 
the  second  year  of  his  administration,  his 
successor  Corcoran,  seemed  possessed  of 
little  or  no  power.  In  1027,  says  my 
MSS.,*  Donough,  at  the  head  of  a  mighty 
army,  invaded  Meath,  where  he  received 
hostages  from  the  Clan  Colman.  From 
thence  he  marched  to  Dublin,  and  sat 
before  that  city  for  some  days,  till  he  re- 
ceived the  homage  of  that  people,  and 
large  contributions.  From  Dublin  he  re- 
turned through  Leinster,  compelling  both 
these  and  the  Ossorians  to  give  him  tribute 
and  securities  for  their  future  peaceable 
demeanour,  and  arrived  at  Cinn-Corradh, 
laden  with  spoils  and  glory. 

The  next  year  Donough  entered  into 
Connaught,  and  received  the  homages  and 
the  tributes  usually  paid  to  monarchs, 
though  he  had  not  been  called  to  that 
honour,  nor  even  summoned  the  estates  for 
that  purpose.  On  a  complaint  that  the 
prince  of  Ossory  had  killed  his  own  bro- 
ther, Donough  again  marched  into  his 
country,  and  raised  heavy  contributions  on 
the  people. 

He  now  commanded,  not  only  in  the  two 

Munsters,  but  also  in  Leinster,  Connaught, 

and  Meath ;  and  yet  we  do  not  find  that 

he  adopted  any  measures  to  have  himself 

*  Leabhar  Oiris,  etc.  etc. 


legally  declared  monarch !  However,  the 
estates  of  Leath-Mogha  were  convened  at 
Cashell,  where  several  wholesome  regula- 
tions were  made,  and  severe  laws  passed 
against  robbers,  murderers,  and  profaners 
of  the  Sabbath.  At  no  one  time  since  the 
days  of  St  Patrick  (say  our  annalists  *) 
were  so  many  wise  institutions  framed. 

Donough,  by  his  first  wife,  had  eleven 
sons,  two  of  whom  only  left  male  issue, 
namely,  Lorcan  and  Morrogh.  His  sec- 
ond wife,  by  whom  he  had  a  son  named 
Domhnal,  was  named  Driella,  daughter  to 
the  great  Earl  Godwin,  and  sister  to  Har- 
old, afterwards  king  of  England.f  In 
1050,  say  our  annals,  Harold  fled  for  pro- 
tection to  his  brother-in-law,  bv  whom  he 
was  honourably  received.  He  afterwards 
supplied  him  with  a  large  fleet  and  a  con- 
siderable body  of  land  forces,  with  which 
he  made  a  successful  landing  in  Britain.^ 

The  great  power  of  Donough  was  the 
source  of  much  discontent  to  the  provinces 
he  had  overrun.  A  powerful  league  was 
formed  against  him.  His  nephew  Tur- 
logh,  who  had  already  acquired  great 
fame,  the  kings  of  Connaught  and  Leinster 
agreed  to  supply  with  a  powerful  army, 
in  order  to  recover  his  inheritance.  This 
had  the  appearance  of  justice,  and  they 
knew  he  had  a  considerable  party  to  sup- 
port him.  At  the  head  of  these  troops  he 
invaded  Munster,  and  gained  many  advan- 
tages over  Donough.  .  In  1058,  Turlogh, 
at  the  head  of  his  aliens,  gained  a  complete 
victory ;  but  in  order  to  lessen  the  number 
of  his  enemies,  Donough  agreed  the  next 
spring,  to  exonerate  the  Conacians  of  all 
claim  to  tribute,  provided  they  would  with- 
draw their  troops.  In  1060,  he  made  the 
same  concesssions  to  the  people  of  Lein- 
ster ;  but  the  party  of  Turlogh  was  now 
too  strong  in  Munster  to  be  injured  by 
these  defections.  Donough  made  one 
effort  more  to  expel  his  nephew  from  the 
province.  He  collected  all  his  forces,  and 
at  Jhe  foot  of  Ardagh  mountain  engaged 
the  army  of  Turlogh,  and  received  a  com- 

*  Annal.  Innis-Falens.  Tigernach,  etc. 

t  Bruodiu,  etc. 

X  Baker's  Chronicle,  Bapio,  vol.  i.  p.  133. 


A.  D.  1064.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


273 


plete  overthrow.  These  repeated  defeats, 
his  advanced  age,  the  murder  of  his  .bro- 
ther, and  the  injuries  he  did  his  nephew, 
began  to  oppress  him.  Religion  is  the  only 
resource  for  the  guilty  and  for  the  unfortu- 
nate, and  this  pointed  out  to  Donough  to 
make  all  the  atonement  he  could.  To  his 
nephew  he  peaceably  surrendered  the 
crown  of  Munster ;  and,  as  some  expiation 
for  fratricide,  he  went  on  a  pilgrimage  to 
Rome,  where  he  took  on  him  a  religious 
habit  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Stephen,  in 
which  he  remained  to  his  death,  which 
happened  some  years  after,  in  the  eighty- 
eighth  year  of  his  age. 

The  Bruodin  Chronicle  affirms — and 
tradition  has  it — that  from  this  prince  Do- 
nough three  noble  families  are  descended, 
supposed  to  be  of  foreign  extraction :  viz. 
the  Powers,  the  Plunkets,  and  the  Eus- 
taces. Dr.  Keating,  mistaking  the  rela- 
tion, denies  the  statement ;  for  he  supposes 
that  it  had  been  asserted  that  Donough, 
after  his  arrival  at  Rome,  had  this  issue  ; 
a  thing,  he  justly  observes,  impossible  in 
his  advanced  stage  of  life.  It  was  by  the 
princess  Driella  he  had  a  son  named  Domh- 
nal, "  a  renowned  hero,  (say  our  historians,) 
but  of  whose  posterity  we  have  no  perfect 
accounts."  But  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that,  as  a  cadet,  on  the  retreat  of  his 
father,  he  repaired  to  Britain,  where  his 
posterity  might  assume  those  different 
names ;  and  as  the  Bruodins  were  the  ac- 
knowledged hereditary  historians  of  the 
O'Briens,  great  credit  is  due  to  their  rela- 
tions, especially  in  the  article  of  genealogy. 
It  has  been  asserted  that,  on  Donough's 
dereliction  of  Ireland,  he  carried  with  him 
the  crown,  which  he  laid  at  the  feet  of  the 
then  pope,  Alexander  II. ;  and  this  is  of- 
fered as  one  proof  that  the  donation  of 
Adrian  IV.  was  valid.  But  admitting  that 
he  surrendered  his  crown  to  the  see  of 
Rome,  it  is  evident  that  it  could  not  be  the 
imperial  crown,  because  he  was  neither 
elected  nor  crowned  monarch.  It  could 
not  be  the  crown  of  Leath-Mogha,  as  from 
unerring  records  it  appears  that  he  peace- 
ably surrendered  that  to  his  nephew.  But 
let  us  for  once  suppose,  what  was  not  the 

35 


case,  viz.  that  Donough  made  a  formal 
tender  of  the  crown  of  Ireland  to  this  pope; 
could  he  or  his  successors,  from  this  dona- 
tion, found  any  kind  of  claim  whatever  to 
the  sovereignty  of  Ireland?  Could  an 
exile,  a  usurper,  as  he  undoubtedly  was, 
transfer  to  any  other  a  power  which  he 
had  already  surrendered  to  the  legal  pro- 
prietor ?  But  for  argument  sake,  let  us 
admit  him  to  be  acknowledged  as  monarch 
in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  and  that 
in  this  character  he  made  a  formal  surren- 
der of  his  crown  and  dignity  to  this  pope, 
or  to  any  other  prince  ;  still,  by  the  laws 
of  Ireland,  the  moment  of  his  death  put  a 
period  to  his  delegation.  Of  the  truth  of 
this  we  are  furnished  with  a  proof  so  late 
as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 

John  O'Neil  was  questioned  for  refusing 
the  title  of  earl  of  Tyrone,  granted  to  his 
father  and  his  successors ;  and  he  an- 
swered **  that  no  act  of  his  father,  except 
confirmed  by  the  estates  of  Ulster,  could 
be  binding  on  his  successors;  that  the 
title  of  O'Neil  was  to  him  superior  to  any 
other,  and  that  only  he  would  take."  * 


CHAPTER  III. 

Of  Dermod,  nominal  monarch,  and  his  exploits — 
Of  Turlogh  XL,  monarch — Receives  hostages 
from  different  provinces,  but  is  defeated  in  Ul- 
ster— Appoints  his  son  governor  of  Dublin,  and 
prevents  commotions  in  Connaught — His  trans- 
actions  with  some  Ulster  princeis — Death  and 
character — Mortogh,  King  of  Leath-Mogha, 
assumes  the  title  of  monarch — Receives  the 
submissions  of  some  provinces — Wars  with  Ul- 
ster— Bad  conduct  of  his  brother — Are  recon- 
ciled— A  continuation  of  his  wars — A  reconcil- 
iation between  him  and  the  Ultonians — Further 
accounts  of  the  exploits  of  Mortogh — Dedicates 
the  city  of  CasheD  to  the  Church — Death  of 
this  prince,  and  his  great  antagonist  Domhnal, 
prince  of  Tyrconnel. 

Since  the  death  of  Brien  Boimmhe,  we 
have  seen  how  flagrantly  the  constitution 
was  violated.  No  convention  of  the  es- 
tates at  Tara,  no  election  of  a  ntionarch,  no 
generous  attempt  whatever  to  restore  dig- 

*  Camden  Anaal.  Rer.  Angl.  and  Hib.  Regn.   Eliz. 
p.  78. 


274 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1075. 


nity  and  weight  to  the  national  laws ! 
Malachie  was  contented  to  be  declared 
monarch  by  the  estates  of  Meath  only ; 
and  Donough,  conscious  of  his  crimes, 
dared  not  meet  a  national  assembly.  By 
this  means  every  feudatory  prince  formed 
an  independent  interest,  and  it  was  not  his 
wish  to  be  eclipsed  by  another.  In  this 
confusion,  and  to  preserve  a  consistency 
in  the  history,  the  antiquarians  have  con- 
sidered the  prince  of  the  greatest  power, 
as  the  nominal  monarch  of  the  day.  In 
this  light  some  have  viewed  Dermod, 
King  of  Leinster,*  because,  in  conjunction 
with  the  king  of  Connaught,  he  reduced  the 
power  of  Munster,  and  obliged  Donough 
to  relinquish  that  crown  to  the  lawful  heir. 
He  after  this  assisted  in  crushing  a  rebel- 
lion raised  by  Muchad,  the  son  of  Do- 
nough. He  compelled  the  king  of  Con- 
naught  to  give  him  hostages;  and  the 
people  of  Meath  and  Dublin  paid  him 
tribute.  The  continuator  of  the  Annals  of 
Tigemach  affirms,  that  the  Welch  and  the 
Hebrides  were  his  tributaries  also.  In  the 
beginning  of  February,  1072,  he  again  en- 
tered Meath,  but  was  defeated  on  the  7th 
of  said  month,  by  Connor,  the  son  of  Mala- 
chie, king  of  that  province,  with  great 
slaughter,  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Odhbha, 
he  himself  being  among  the  slain. 

Though  Turlogh,  the  son  of  Tiege,  son 
of  the  immortal  Brien,  has  been  placed  as 
nominal  monarch  after  his  uncle,  yet,  as 
it  appears  evident,  that  to  the  king  of 
Leinster  he  owed  his  elevation,  and  that, 
during  his  reign,  this  prince's  power  and 
military  glory  far  eclipsed  that  of  Turlogh, 
I  have  placed  him  next  in  order  to  Do- 
nough. But  on  his  death,  in  1072,  Tur- 
logh certainly  was  the  most  potent  prince 
in  Ireland,  and  had  the  fairest  claim  to  that 
title. 

From  this  time  we  date  Turlogh,  righe- 
go-freasabha,  or  nominal  monarch  of  Ire- 
land ;  and  this  will  reconcile  the  accounts 
of  antiquarians  with  respect  to  the  length 
of  his  reign — some  making  it  twenty-two 
years,  others  allowing  him  but  fourteen.f 

*  Grat.  Luc.  p.  81.     Ogygia,  p.  437. 
t  Grat.  Luc.  p.  82. 


For  those  who  have  placed  him  in  the 
WHITE  LIST,  immediately  on  the  resigna- 
tion of  his  uncle,  are  right  in  allowing  him 
a  reign  of  twenty-two  years;  but  those 
who  have  arranged  him  after  the  above 
Dermod,  cannot  be  censured  for  cutting  off 
eight  years  from  this  period.  The  first 
public  act  of  Turlogh,  was  to  raise  the 
power  of  Munster,  with  which  he  marched 
into  Leinster,  receiving  homage,  and  tak- 
ing hostages  from  the  different  princes  and 
chiefs.  His  army  halted  at  Kilmainhim, 
and  here  the  Danish  chiefs  and  magis- 
trates waited  upon  him  in  form ;  and,  as 
the  other  tributary  princes  did,  they 
kneeled,  and  each  put  his  hands  into  those 
of  Turlogh,  which  implied,  that  their 
power  was  for  the  future  to  be  employed 
by  him.  After  he  entered  the  city  with 
great  splendour ;  the  gates  being  thrown 
open,  the  keys  were  presented  to  him,  rnd 
he  was  acknowledged  as  their  sovereign. 
He  confirmed  the  former  governor  and 
magistrates  in  their  different  posts  ;  and 
from  thence  proceeded  to  Meath,  to  receive 
hostages  and  punish  Murrogh  O'Mealsach- 
lin  for  the  inhuman  murder  of  his  brother 
Connor,  king  of  that  territory.  After  this 
he  returned  to  his  palace  of  Cinn-Corradh, 
where  he  was  received  as  king  of  Leath- 
Mogha  in  the  most  extensive  meaning  of 
the  word. 

In  1075  he  marched  an  army  into  Con- 
naught  and  received  homage  and  hostages 
from  Roderic  O'Connor,  king  of  the  prov- 
ince, from  O'Rourk,  prince  of  Breffni,  from 
O'Reily,  O'Kelly,  Mac  Dermod,  and  others. 
From  thence  he  proceeded  to  Ulster  on  the 
same  errand  ;  but  his  troops  were  severely 
handled  by  the  Ultonians.  However,  un- 
derstanding that  Godfrey,  governor  of 
Dublin,  gave  early  intelligence  to  the  king 
of  Ulster  of  his  designs,  and  even  privately 
assisted  him,  on  his  return  he  banished 
him  from  the  kingdom,  and  appointed  his 
own  son  Mortogh  governor  of  Dublin  and 
the  territory  of  Fingal  in  his  stead.  The 
Conacians,  encouraged  by  the  checks 
which  Turlogh  received  in  Ulster,  were 
preparing  to  shake  off  the  yoke ;  but  he 
receiving  timely  information  of  it  suddenly 


A.  D.  1086.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND 


275 


invaded  that  province,  surprised  and  made 
a  prisoner  of  King  Roderic,  who  on  the 
most  solemn  assurances,  and  the  receiving 
of  fresh  hostages  for  his  future  good  be- 
haviour, he  released  from  his  captivity. 

In  1079,  Dunlevy,  King  of  Uladh,  ap- 
plied to  Turlogh  for  succours  to  reinstate 
him  in  his  dominions,  from  which  he  had 
been  expelled.  He  supplied  him  with  a 
good  body  of  men,  by  whose  assistance 
the  malcontents  were  defeated.  This  same 
year  he  sent  his  son  Dermod  into  Wales 
with  a  powerful  navy,  who  laid  waste  the 
country  and  returned  with  considerable 
spoils.  O'Mealsachlin,  attended  by  the 
archbishop  of  Cashell,  in  1080,  waited  on 
Turlogh  at  his  palace  in  Limerick,  (since 
then  a  monastery,  and  now  the  cathedral 
church,)  and  got  his  pardon  for  the  murder 
of  his  brother,  and  was  received  into  fa- 
vour. In  1082,  Dunlevy,  King  of  Uladh, 
with  his  principal  nobility  waited  on  Tur- 
logh in  Limeiick,  to  thank  him  for  the  re- 
covery of  his  dominions  and  to  do  him 
homage  as  his  chief.  Turlogh  dismissed 
them  with  great  marks  of  royal  munifi- 
-cence — there  being  distributed  among  them, 
by  his  orders,  a  thousand  cows,  a  hundred 
and  twenty  cloaks  of  different  colours,  ac- 
cording to  the  quality  of  the  people,  forty 
ounces  of  gold,  with  swords  and  bucklers, 
etc.  In  1084,  Turlogh  being  on  a  royal 
tour,  CyRourk  made  a  sudden  irruption 
into  Thomond,  burned  and  plundered  Kil- 
laloe,  Tuam-Greine,  Seariff,  and  Magh- 
Neo,  (then  flourishing  cities  on  the  banks 
of  the  Shannon,  now  scarce  retaining  the 
traces  of  villages  !)  and  returned  to  Breffni 
laden  with  spoils ;  but  Turlogh  had  his 
revenge,  for  the  forces  of  O'Rourk  were 
cut  off  and  himself  slain  soon  after  by  the 
troops  of  Munster. 

This  generous  and  intrepid  prince  had 
long  laboured  under  a  chronic  disorder, 
which  at  length  deprived  him  of  life  at 
Cinn-Corradh,  in  the  seventy-seventh  year 
of  his  age,  in  the  month  of  July,  1086.  He 
has  been  placed  high  in  the  list  of  fame  by 
our  writers,  not  so  much  for  his  success 
and  intrepidity  in  war,  (in  which  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been  very  successful,)  as  for 


his  justice,  his  humanity,  his  piety,  and  love 
of  his  country.  His  cousin  Murchad,  in 
the  second  year  of  his  reign,  raised  a  for- 
midable rebellion  in  Thomond,  which  was 
suppressed  with  great  loss  of  blood,  and 
he  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  Connaught. 
Some  years  after  he  returned  and  was  the 
cause  of  fresh  outrages,  yet  the  only  pun- 
ishment inflicted  by  Turlogh  was  to  assign 
him  ample  possessions  in  Cuonagh  and 
Aharla,  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  which 
his  posterity  enjoyed  for  many  generations. 
He  showed  the  same  humanity  to  other 
delinquents,  and  framed  a  set  of  laws  much 
wanted  and  highly  applauded  in  those  days. 
The  fame  of  the  splendour,  power,  and  jus- 
tice of  this  prince  was  not  confined  to  Ire- 
land. St.  Lanfranc,  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, addressed  a  letter  "  To  the  mag- 
nificent Turlogh,  King  of  Ireland ;"  in 
which  he  praises  God  for  his  blessings  to 
the  Irish  nation  in  granting  them  a  prince 
of  his  piety,  moderation,  and  equity,  to  rule 
them.* 

Turlogh  had  by  his  queen  Saibh,  daugh- 
ter of  the  king  of  Desmond,  four  sons; 
Tiege,  who  died  soon  after  his  father  at 
Cinn-Corradh  ;  Mortogh,  who  was  his  im- 
mediate successor ;  Dermod,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  ;  and  Donough,  slain  in  Meath. 

Immediately  after  the  death  of  Turlogh, 
his  son  Mortogh  was  proclaimed  king  of 
Leath-Mogha,  and  is  ranked  next  among 
the  monarchs  of  Ireland.  But  to  insure 
his  power  we  find  the  first  public  acts 
of  his  reign  were  to  banish  his  brother 
Dermod,  and  to  lead  an  army  into  Leinster 
to  receive  the  homage  of  that  people.  God- 
frey, the  former  governor  of  Dublin,  in 
whose  place  Mortogh  had  been  placed  by 
his  father,  had  resumed  the  command  of 
that  city  in  his  absence ;  but  hearing  he 
was  so  near,  again  fled  beyond  sea,  and 
Mortogh  appointed  his  eldest  son,  Domh- 
nal,  to  that  charge. 

Hav-ing  thus  gained  the  sovereignty  of 
Leinster  and  Meath,  he  entered  Ulster  in  a 
hostile  manner  and  compelled  the  petty 
chiefs  to  pay  him  tribute ;  but  Domhnal, 
prince  of  Tyrconnel,  being  a  warlike  and 

*  Usser.  Epist.  Hib.  Syllog.  Ep.  xxvii. 


f^ 


876 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1099. 


enterprising  prince,  embraced  this  oppor- 
tunity to  cause  a  diversion  in  Munster,  be- 
ing invited  so  to  do  by  Dermod,  brother 
to  Mortogh.  His  army  proce'eded  through 
Connaught,  which  country  paid  him  hom- 
age. The  palace  of  Cinn-Corradh  he  laid 
in  ashes ;  and  among  his  prisoners  were 
one  hundred  and  fifty  of  Mortogh's  house- 
hold troops,  with  three  of  their  principal 
commanders,  namely,  the  sons  of  ©'Ken- 
nedy, O'Hogan,  and  O'Linshe.  Limerick 
underwent  the  same  fate  with  Cinn-Cor- 
radh, as  did  other  towns  of  less  note ;  and 
Domhnal  returned  to  Ulster  laden  with 
trophies  and  spoils. 

If  laying  waste  a  country  and  impover- 
ishing its  miserable,  though  innocent  in- 
habitants, may  be  called  satisfaction,  Mor- 
togh had  this  ;  for  he  forcibly  entered  Ul- 
ster, laid  waste  the  country,  destroyed  its 
towns,  and  levelled  the  palace  of  Aghle 
with  the  dust.  His  brother  Dermod  was 
a  very  formidable  enemy  on  account  of 
the  party  he  had  in  Munster.  We  see  the 
thirst  of  ambition  and  revenge  supersede 
every  other  consideration  in  him;  and 
with  astonishment  we  behold  this  prince 
mean  enough  to  accept  the  command  of 
the  Connaught  navy,  and  base  enough  to 
convert  that  force  to  the  ruin  of  his  own 
countrv.  For  with  it  he  scoured  the  coasts 
of  Munster,  making  sudden  landings  in  dif- 
ferent places,  and  plundering  the  country. 
Some  time  after  the  archbishops  of  Ar- 
magh and  Munster,  with  several  other  dig- 
nitaries, interposed  their  good  offices,  by 
which  means  the  brothers  became  recon- 
ciled. Mortogh  passed  a  general  act  of 
amnesty  for  all  past  offences  whatever; 
and  Dermod  solemnly  swore  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  clergy,  "  by  the  staff  of  St. 
Patrickj  and  hy  all  the  holy  relics  of  Ire- 
land^ to  behave  as  a  dutiful  brother  and 
subject  for  the  remainder  of  his  life.  In 
1094,  Mortogh  again  invaded  Leinster  and 
Meath,  defeated  the  forces  of  O'Connor 
Failge,  or  Falia,  and  made  him  prisoner. 
He  after  this  attacked  the  Meathians  and 
slew  Donald  O'Maolseachlin,  King  of  Tara, 
whose  territories  he  afterwards  divided  be- 
tween his  two  brothers. 


Next  year  he  encamped  in  the  centre  of 
Connaught  for  above  two  months ;  and  the 
Shannon  was  covered  by  his  fleets,  with 
which  he  subjected  all  the  neighbouring 
states ;  but  Domhnal  was  his  most  formi- 
dable enemy,  yet  mostly  on  the  defensive. 
Though  Mortogh  had  three  several  times 
invaded  Ulster,  and  though  his  land  opera- 
tions were  always  seconded  with  a  numer- 
ous and  well-appointed  navy,  yet  the  ad- 
vantages he  gained  were  very  inadequate 
to  his  losses  and  expenses.  Frequently 
the  clergy  interposed  their  good  offices 
and  strove  to  reconcile  these  contending 
chiefs ;  but  their  amity  was  neither  lasting 
nor  sincere.  In  1099,  Mortogh  invaded 
Ulster  with  a  mighty  army,  and  was  met 
on  the  plains  of  Muirtheimhne,  in  the  county 
of  Down,  (so  memorable  for  the  defeat  and 
death  of  the  famous  Cucullin,  some  time 
before  the  Incarnation,)  by  Domhnal,  with 
the  whole  power  of  Ulster.  The  armies 
on  both  sides  were  arranged,  waiting  for 
the  signal  to  engage ;  when,  happily,  the 
successors  of  St.  Patrick  and  St.  Ailbe, 
(i.  e.  the  arcbishops  of  Armagh  and  Cash- 
ell,)  with  several  other  dignitaries,  threw 
themselves  between  them,  and  by  their  ex- 
hortations, their  prayers,  and  their  entrea- 
ties, a  solid  and  lasting  peace  was  made. 
By  this  peace  Domhnal  was  acknowledged 
as  king  of  Leath-Cuin,  says  Giolla-Moduda, 
a  celebrated  antiquarian  and  contemporary ; 
and  Mortogh,  king  of  Leath-Mogha ;  but 
to  me  it  is  clear  that  this  last  reserved  to 
himself  the  nominal  title  of  ard-righ  or 
monarch.  By  his  bravery,  conduct,  and 
prudence,  Mortogh  became  highly  es- 
teemed by  the  neighbouring  states,  who 
sent  ambassadors  to  congratulate  him  on 
his  victories.  St  Anselm,  successor  to 
Lanfranc  in  the  see  of  Canterbury,  some 
time  after  his  consecration,  addressed  his 
letter  "  To  Mortogh,  the  magnificent  king 
of  Ireland,"  in  which  he  pays  high  compli- 
ments to  his  prudence,  fortitude,  and  jus- 
tice.* Some  time  after  the  estates  of 
Man  and  the  adjacent  isles  sent  ambassa- 
dors to  this  prince,  requesting  he  would 
grant  them  an  able  and  prudent  governor 

*  Usher.  Epist.  Hibern.  Syllog.  Ep.  xxxvi. 


A.  D.  1119.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


277 


to  rule  them  till  their  king  came  of 
age.*  In  the  said  chronicle  it  is  asserted 
that  Magnus,  King  of  Norway  and  Man, 
some  time  after  sent  ambassadors  to  Mor- 
togh,  requiring,  as  a  mark  of  vassalage, 
that  he  should  publicly  on  Christmas-day 
carry  his  shoes  on  his  shoulders,  which 
the  other  meanly  complied  with  rather 
than  expose  his  country  to  fresh  insults ; 
and  yet  nevertheless  Magnus,  with  a 
mighty  fleet,  invaded  the  country,  being 
allured  to  do  so  from  the  report  of  its  great 
fertility  and  riches.  But  Dr.  Warner  (as 
every  other  man  of  sense  would)  thinks  it 
impossible  that  a  prince  of  Mortogh's  high 
blood  could  ever  be  brought  to  submit  to 
such  meanness ;  and  the  Bruodin  Chroni- 
cle puts  it  beyond  question.  For  that  val- 
uable record  tells  us  that  a  Danish  prince 
did  send  such  a  message  to  Mortogh,  who 
ordered  the  ears  of  the  messengers  to  be 
cut  off,  and  bade  them  inform  their  master 
that  such  w^as  his  answer  to  so  inso- 
lent a  demand.  The  barbarian,  highly  in- 
censed, prepared  with  a  large  fleet  and  a 
considerable  body  of  land  forces  to  invade 
Ireland ;  but  Mortogh,  being  informed  of 
the  place  of  their  intended  descent,  waited 
with  a  select  body  of  troops,  which  soon 
attacked,  cut  to  pieces,  or  otherwise  dis- 
persed this  formidable  banditti.f  This 
happened  in  the  year  1101. 

After  this  reconciliation  and  the  above 
defeat,  these  rival  princes  lived  in  peace 
and  harmony,  and  seemed  greatly  struck 
with  the  ravages  and  distresses  their  wild 
ambition  had  involved  the  nation  in.  Both 
became  great  penitents,  and  laboured  by 
acts  of  piety  and  charity  to  obliterate  their 
former  crimes.  In  1101,  Mortogh  con- 
vened the  estates  of  Munster  at  Cashell, 
with  all  the  bishops  of  Leath-Mogha ;  and 
he  there,  with  their  consent,  alienated  for 
ever  that  city  from  the  crown  of  Munster, 
dedicating  it  to  God,  to  St  Patrick,  and  St. 
Ailbe,  and  affixing  it  to  the  diocese  of 
Cashell.  Mortogh,  being  in  a  declining 
state  of  health,  in  1116  solemnly  renounced 
the  crown  of  Munster  in  favour  of  his 

*  Camden  Brit.  sub.  fin. 

t  De  Begibus  Hibern.  p.  933. 


brother  Dermod,  and  retired  to  the  monas- 
tery of  St.  Carthagh,  at  Lismore,  where  he 
lived  with  great  piety  and  austerity,  and 
died  the  3d  of  March,  1119,  and  was  buried 
with  great  funeral  pomp  at  Killaloe.  In 
like  manner,  some  time  before  his  death, 
Domhnal  entered  the  monastery  of  St.  Co- 
lumba,  at  Derry,  where  he  died,  A.  D,  1 121, 
in  his  seventy-third  year.  Colgan  gives 
him  a  very  high  character,  both  for  the 
graces  of  his  mind  and  body  as  well  as  for 
his  justice,  liberality,  and  humanity.  Mor- 
togh had  three  sons — Domhnal,  whom  he 
appointed  governor  of  Dublin,  and  who  in 
1118  embraced  a  monastic  life;  Mahon, 
who  was  ancestor  to  the  Mac  Mahons  of 
Corca-Bhaisorgin ;  and  Kennedy,  of  whom 
no  further  mention  is  made. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Council  of  Fiadh- JEngusa — State  of  the  church  of 
Ireland,  its  privileges,  and  the  great  power  of  its 
metropolitans — Reformations  wanting  in  it — The 
first  instance  since  the  days  of  Patrick  of  a  le- 
gate, with  powers  from  Rome,  presiding  at  a 
council  of  Irish  bishops — Acts  of  this  council, 
with  a  remarkable  prayer — Writers  of  the  elev- 
enth century. 

We  have  given  a  remarkable  instance 
of  the  piety  and  munificence  of  Mortogh, 
in  his  prevailing  on  the  estates  of  Munster 
to  unite  with  him  in  conveying  for  ever  to 
the  church  of  Cashell  that  ancient  city,  the 
royal  residence  of  the  Munster  kings  for  so 
many  centuries,  and  which  was  so  called 
from  cios-ol,  the  place  of  tribute,  as  here 
the  regal  revenues  were  paid  in  every  May 
and  November.  Besides  this,  in  1 1 18, 
Mortogh  by  his  royal  proclamation  con- 
vened a  synod  of  the  clergy  to  meet  at 
Fiadh-iEngusa,  or  Aongus's  Grove,  in 
Meath.  In  this  synod,  which  continued  by 
adjournment  for  some  years,  many  useful 
reforms  were  made  in  the  church  of  Ire- 
land. For,  first,  it  is  certain,  that  bishops 
were  multiplied  among  us  at  the  will  of  the 
metropolitan,  and  often  without  any  fixed 
places  of  residence ;  secondly,  the  power 
of  nominating  bishops  to  certain  dioceses 
was  reserved  to  certain  royal  and  noble 


278 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1118. 


families  in  the  different  parts  of  the  king- 
dom, and  to  them  only;  thirdly,  though 
the  church  of  Ireland  was  in  exact  con- 
formity with  that  of  Rome  in  the  doctrines 
of  faith,  and  submitted  to  her  decisions  in 
many  instances  of  discipline,  as  in  the  ton- 
sure, the  celebration  of  Easter,  etc.,  yet  it 
does  not  appear  that  the  popes  ever  en- 
joyed any  direct  power  or  authority  what- 
ever over  that  church.  We  have  seen 
briefs  and  letters  directed  to  the  Irish  bish- 
ops ;  but  I  cannot  find  that  they  deemed 
themselves  schismatics  when  ihey  thought 
fit  to  refuse  the  decisions  of  Rome,  as  they 
did  for  more  than  two  centuries  with  res- 
pect to  the  feast  of  Easter  ;  fourthly,  in 
some  instances  bishops  had  been  married 
men ;  but  no  proofs  whatever  can  be  pro- 
duced that  the  popes  nominated  to  bishop- 
rics among  us ;  and  fifthly,  it  appears 
evident  that  the  Irish  bishops  enjoyed  no 
exclusive  privileges  whatever — though  Co- 
lumba  formerly  strongly  contended  for  the 
church's  being  an  asylum ;  on  the  con- 
trary the  Irish  clergy  were  subject  to  tem- 
poral laws  and  temporal  taxations : — they 
were  obliged  in  person  to  attend  the  royal 
standard ;  and  I  take  it  for  granted  that,  as 
feudal  lords,  they  were  obliged  to  bring  a 
certain  quota  of  troops  into  the  field  also. 
Yet,  with  all  this,  in  no  part  of  the  world 
were  the  clergy  more  respected;  but  to 
the  exemplary  lives  they  led  they  owed 
this.  Synods  and  councils  they  held  from 
time  to  time  to  correct  abuses  in  the 
church,  but  the  archbishop  of  Armagh  con- 
stantly presided  as  patriarch,  and  their  de- 
cisions were  for  near  two  centuries  re- 
ceived in  England,  and  until  the  twelfth 
century  in  Scotland. 

Such,  in  miniature,  was  the  state  of  the 
Irish  church  and  its  privileges,  which  I 
have  with  no  small  labour  and  reading 
extracted  from  our  most  authentic  records, 
ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil ;  and  which  I 
judged  highly  necessary  to  be  laid  before 
the  reader,  the  better  to  understand  the 
subsequent  parts  of  our  history.  From 
this  account  it  will  appear  that  refor- 
mations were  wanting  in  ecclesiastical 
discipline. 


The  Irish  archbishops,  particularly  him 
of  Armagh,  from  the  days  of  St.  Patrick, 
assumed  a  power  of  consecrating  bishops, 
not  only  for  Ireland,  but  for  the  neighbour- 
ing states.  The  Venerable  Bede,  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  his  Ecclesiastical  History  of 
Britain,  is  as  clear  in  this  as  words  can 
express  it,  with  respect  to  the  Saxons.  It 
is  also  evident  that  they  consecrated 
bishops  for  the  missions  in  France,  Ger- 
many, etc. ;  and  in  Scotland,  till  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century,  the  Irish  consecration 
only  was  known.  By  this  power  they 
increased  the  number  of  bishops  at  home 
at  pleasure ;  but  whatever  necessity  there 
might  be  for  it  formerly,  it  now  became  a 
burden  to  the  state,  and  demanded  an 
abridgment.  It  was  also  useful  to  religion 
and  good  discipline,  that  the  right  of  nomi- 
nating to  bishoprics  should  be  altered, 
since,  by  the  mode  in  use,  the  hierarchy 
was  mostly  confined  to  certain  septs  in  the 
different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  re- 
spect due  to  religion  seemed  to  require  a 
relaxation  of  the  temporal  laws  with  re- 
spect to  the  clergy.  Celsus,  or  Celestin, 
was,  at  this  time,  the  successor  to  St.  Pat- 
rick— a  prelate  of  great  erudition,  of  un- 
feigned piety,  and  of  a  most  exemplary 
life.  Maol  Josa  CDuncen  was  archbishop 
of  Munster,  of  a  most  edifying  life  and  con- 
versation ;  and  almost  all  the  bishops  were 
highly  eminent  for  their  sanctity  and 
learning. 

Under  such  a  prince  as  Mortogh,  and 
influenced  by  such  prelates  as  the  above, 
great  matters  were  expected,  and  much 
good  was  done.  Pope  Pascal  II.  had  fre- 
quently importuned  Mortogh  to  call  a 
national  council ;  and  he  appointed  Gilbert 
of  Limerick,  his  legate,  to  preside  in  it. 
It  is  the  first  instance  we  read  of,  since 
the  days  of  St.  Patrick,  of  a  legate  from 
Rome  presiding  over  a  council  of  Irish 
bishops ;  and  this,  with  the  presence  of 
the  monarch  and  chiefs  of  the  land,  brought 
a  great  conflux  of  the  clergy.  At  this 
council  were  assembled  no  less  a  number 
than  fifty  bishops,  fifteen  mitred  abbots, 
three  hundred  and  sixty  priests,  and  near 
three  thousand  regulars.    As  matters  of 


A.D.  1120.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


279 


much  importance  were  to  be  here  debated, 
great  caution,  time,  and  deliberation  were 
necessary.  From  ancient  writers  calling 
the  place  of  meeting  sometimes  Fiadh- 
iEngusa,  at  other  times  Uisneach,  and 
Rath-Bresail,  later  ones  have  imagined  that 
there  were  three  different  councils,  and 
called  at  different  places ;  but  a  knowledge 
of  ancient  typography  will  at  once  explam 
this. 

Uisneach  was  in  the  centre  of  Meath, 
and  here,  in  the  days  of  Druidism,  was  the 
grand  temple  of  Bel.  It  was  erected  in  the 
middle  of  a  large  grove,  as  all  Druid 
houses  were :  this  grove  was  called  Fiadh- 
-^ngusa,  and  a  fort  adjoining  it  was  called 
Rath-Bresail.  In  this  place  the  monarch, 
the  princes,  and  the  clergy  met;  and  among 
other  regulations,  the  following  were  unan- 
imously agreed  and  subscribed  to:  First, 
the  clergy  were,  for  the  future,  to  be  ex- 
empt from  public  taxations  and  temporal 
laws ;  and  whatever  they  contributed  to- 
wards the  support  of  the  state,  was  to  be 
by  way  of  free  gift.  Second,  the  arch- 
bishops resigned  the  right  they  derived 
from  St.  Magonius  the  Patrician,  or  (as  he 
is  generally  called  St.  Patrick,)  of  conse- 
crating bishops  at  pleasure.  Third,  the 
number  of  bishops  in  Ireland,  for  the  time 
to  come,  was  to  be  limited  to  twenty-eight, 
but  without  encroaching  on  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  the  present  bishops :  of  these 
twelve  were  to  be  under  the  see  of  Leath- 
Cuin,  or  Armagh,  twelve  under  that  of 
Leath-Mogha,  or  Cashell,  and  two  in 
Meath ;  these  last  at  the  appointment  of 
the  monarch.  Fourth,  the  rights  in  spirit- 
uals, over  all  Ireland,  was  confirmed  to 
the  see  of  Leath-Cuin,  and  the  archbishop 
of  Cashell  presided  over  Leath-Mogha. 
A  survey  of  the  church-lands  was  taken ; 
and  the  lands  and  extent  of  jurisdiction  of 
the  future  bishops  was  settled  with  great 
precision.  We  find  no  mention  made  of 
the  archbishops  of  Leinster  or  Connaught 
in  this  celebrated  council. 

After  subscribing  to  these  and  many 
other  regulations  of  less  consequence,  the 
following  prayer  was  added :  "  The  bless- 
ing of  the  Almighty,  and  of  St  Peter,  and 


St.  Patrick,  and  of  the  representer  of  St. 
Peter's  successor,  the  Legate  Giolla  Aspuig, 
Bishop  of  Lomeneach,  of  Ceallach,  St 
Patrick's  successor,  of  Maol-Josa  Mac 
Ainmhire,  Archbishop  of  Leath-Mogha, 
and  of  all  the  bishops,  nobles,  and  clergy 
in  this  holy  synod  of  Rath-Bresail  assem- 
bled, light  upon,  and  remain  with  all  who 
shall  approve,  ratify,  and  observe  these 
ordinances." 

CMaolconry  was  a  celebrated  poet  and 
antiquarian  of  the  eleventh  century.  We 
have  yet  preserved  a  chronological  poem 
of  his,  beginning  with  the  monarch  Lo- 
gaire,  A.  D.  428,  and  ending  in  the  year 
1014. 

An  anonymous  writer  of  the  history  of 
the  archbishops  of  Munster  and  church  of 
Cashell,  is  placed  by  Colgan  in  this  cen- 
tury, as  it  is  brought  down  no  lower  than 
the  year  1017.* 

The  author  of  the  Anala  ar  Chogaibh 
Eirion,  who  I  take  for  granted  to  be  the 
famous  antiquarian  Mac  Liag,  lived  also 
in  the  eleventh  age,  because  he  closes  his 
work  with  the  abdication  of  Donough, 
A.  D.  1064;  and  yet,  as  historiographer  to 
the  immortal  Brien,  we  should  be  apt  to 
conclude  that  he  could  not  live  so  long ; 
and  that  the  continuation  of  this  work, 
after  the  death  of  Brien,  must  be  by  some 
other  hand. 

Dubdaleth,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  wrote 
the  annals  of  Ireland  to  1021 ;  as  also  the 
history  of  his  predecessors  in  that  see  to 
his  own  times.f 

The  celebrated  Marianus  Scotus  flour- 
ished in  this  century,  and  was  as  eminent 
for  his  uncommon  austerity  and  pety  as 
for  his  great  erudition  and  knowledge  of 
the  sacred  writings.  Of  all  his  numerous 
works,  his  Chronicon  Universale  holds  the 
first  place  in  public  estimation.  Sigebert, 
of  (Jemblours,  says  of  him,  "  that  without 
comparison  he  was  the  most  learned  man 
of  his  age ;  an  excellent  historian,  a  fa- 
mous mathematician,  and  a  solid  divine."  J 
The  writer  of  a  chronicle,  in  the  Cotton 

*  Act.  Sanct.  Hib.  p.  5,  c.  iv. 
t  Trias  Thaumat.  p.  298,  col.  ii. 
X  Writers  of  Ireland,  fol.  66. 


280 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1120. 


Library,  carried  from  the  Incarnation  to 
the  year  1181,  under  the  year  1028  says, 
"  This  year,  Marianus  Scotus,  the  Irish 
chronographer,  was  born,  who  wrote  the 
Chronicle  of  Chronicles."  *  Walsh  seems 
guilty  of  a  great  anachronism  in  declaring 
the  above  Marianus  to  be  the  preceptor 
to  Adrian  IV. ;  for,  in  1052,  he  embraced 
the  monastic  life,  and  in  '1056  retired  to 
Germany,  where  he  lived  mostly  a  recluse 
to  his  death,  which  happened  in  1086 ; 
whereas  Adrian  was  advanced  to  the 
papacy  in  1154,  sixty-eight  years  after  the 
death  of  Marianus  !  f 

Gilda  Coamhain  is  placed  by  most  wri- 
ters in  the  present  age,  but,  I  think,  with 
great  impropriety ;  for  he  brings  his  his- 
tory no  further  down  than  the  reign  of 
Loagaire,  which  work  Gilda  Moduda  re- 
sumed, and  carried  on  to  the  death  of 
Malachie  II. 

Tigemach  O'Braoin,  successor  to  St. 
Ciaran,  or  abbot  of  Cluan-Mac-Nois,  and 
who  died  in  the  year  1088,  wrote  a  chron- 
icle from  the  earliest  period,  which  he 
brought  down  to  his  own  times.  This 
work  is  highly  esteemed ;  and  an  anony- 
mous writer  has  carried  it  on  t6  the  seven- 
teenth century 

Maol  Josa  O'Brolchain,  a  religious  of 
great  reputation  for  sanctity  and  letters,  is 
said  to  be  the  author  of  many  valuable 
pieces,  but  their  titles  are  not  specified. 
The  Annals  of  Dunegal  declare  him  to 
have  been  among  the  first  doctors  and 
writers  of  Ireland. 

Errard,  secretary  to  Malachie,  King  of 
Meath,  is  said  by  Colgan  to  have  been  a 
profound  antiquarian,  and  the  author  of 
some  antiquities ;  and  Maol  Josa  O'Stuir 
is  mentioned  as  an  excellent  philosopher, 
and  is  said  to  have  written  some  physical 
tracts. 


*  Do  Britan.  Ecclea.  Prim.  p.  735. 
t  Prospect  of  Ireland,  p.  448. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Turlogh  nominal  monarch — Character  of  Connor 
O'Brien — Wars  of  these  princes — Assembly  of 
Tailtean — Turlogh  invades  Munster  by  sea  and 
land — Connor  unites  his  brothers,  and,  in  his 
turn,  invades  Connaught — Returns  the  next 
year,  and  brings  immense  spoils  from  Ulster  and 
Connaught — Death  and  character  of  Connor 
O'Brien — Turlogh  O'Brien  proclaimed  king  of 
Munster — Policy  of  Turlogh,  the  monarch,  in 
dividing  Munster — Invades  that  province,  and  is 
defeated — Returns  the  next  year — Fatal  battle 
of  Mon-Moir — Turlogh  resigns  the  crown  of 
Munster,  and  retires  to  the  North — Is  restored 
to  his  crov^n  by  the  king  of  Ulster — Death 
and  character  of  Turlogh  O'Connor — A  moral 
reflection. 

Turlogh,  the  son  of  Roderic  O'Connor, 
King  of  Connaught,  is  placed  next  on  the 
list  as  nominal  monarch  of  Ireland.  Sir 
James  Ware,  and  others,*  think  that  the 
factious  parties  in  the  land  were  so  coun- 
terpoised that,  for  seventeen  years  after 
the  death  of  Mortogh,  no  prince  was  pow- 
erful enough  to  assume  this  title;  yet  it 
was  agreed  that  Turlogh  was  so  saluted 
(at  least  by  his  own  subjects)  immediately 
after  Mortogh. 

He  was  son  to  Roderic,  King  of  Con- 
naught, and  twenty-third  in  descent  from 
Eochaidh  Moighmheodin,  monarch  of  Ire- 
land in  the  fourth  century,  and  the  first  of 
this  branch  of  the  Heremonian  line  who, 
in  that  long  interval,  from  kings  of  Con- 
naught had  assumed  the  title  of  monarch. 
In  times  of  faction  and  turbulence  like  the 
present,  where  the  estates  were  not  con- 
vened to  proceed  to  a  regular  election,  or 
the  parliament  of  Tara  assembled  to  cor- 
rect national  abuses,  every  thing  was  deter- 
mined by  the  sword.  Connor  O'Brien, 
called  Slaparsalach,  or  the  Spattered  Robe, 
the  son  of  Dermod,  last  king  of  Leath- 
Mogha,  and  nephew  to  Mortogh  the 
Great,  succeeded  his  father,  A.  D.  1 120,  and 
possessed  all  those  qualifications  which  are 
generally  supposed  to  constitute  the  hero. 
He  was  as  ambitious  for  obtaining  the 
monarchy  as  Turlogh,  and  as  little  scrupu- 
lous as  to  the  ways  of  attaining  it.  Tur- 
logh may  be  with  propriety  styled  king  of 
Leath-Cuin,  as  he  was  the  most  powerful 
chief   in  that  district,  and   for  the  same 

•  Ogygia,  p.  439. 


A.  D.  1127.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


261 


reason  Connor  may   be   called  king   of 
Leath-Mogha. 

Two  powerful  princes,  of  opposite  in- 
terests, must  necessarily  become  enemies, 
and  such  were  these.  Dermod,  the  father 
of  Connor,  some  time  before  his  death 
invaded  Connaught,  and  laid  the  country 
under  military  execution  ;  and  this  compli- 
ment was  returned  by  Turlogh  the  sec- 
ond year  of  Connor's  reign,  by  marching 
his  army  to  Cashell  and  Lismore,  etc., 
and  sorely  distressing  the  people ;  but  the 
Mamonians  attacked  them  on  their  retreat 
near  Ardfinan,  dispersing  their  army,  with 
great  slaughter  of  very  many  of  its  chiefs, 
among  whom  were  O'Heyne,  O'Flaherty, 
O'Lorcan,  etc.  However,  early  in  No- 
vember, we  find  Turlogh  entering  Mun- 
ster  at  the  head  of  a  more  powerful  army 
than  the  last.  He  remained  encamped 
near  Birr  till  the  end  of  the  January 
following. 

But  though  his  troops  remained  inac- 
tive, yet  was  not  he  nor  his  ministers. 
During  this  interval  he  was  labouring  to 
disunite  the  Eugenians  from  the  Dalgais, 
by  representing  how  long  their  family  had 
been  deprived  of  their  right  of  succession 
to  the  Munster  crown.  A  hint  of  this 
kind  was  enough  to  blow  up  the  coals  of 
dissension.  Donough  Mac  Carthy,  and 
other  Eugenian  princes,  immediately  en- 
tered into  private  treaty  with  Turlogh. 
But  this  was  not  enough :  the  tribe  of  Dal- 
gais, connected  and  united,  was  still  a 
formidable  body;  and  even  among  these 
parties  must  be  formed.  When  Connor 
was  proclaimed  king  of  Leath-Mogha,  his 
next  brother,  Turlogh,  was  declared  king 
of  Thomond.  The  king  of  Connaught, 
spirited  up  Tiege  Gle  O'Brien,  a  younger 
brother,  who  seized  on  him  by  surprise,  had 
him  conveyed  to  the  Connaught  camp,  and 
thereupon  usurped  the  title  of  king  of 
Thomond  himself.  Thus  did  Turlogh 
O'Connor,  by  his  negotiations,  without  the 
loss  of  a  man,  more  effectually  distress  his 
antagonist  than  he  could  have  done  by 
several  battles.  The  Dalgais  were  by  this 
means  divided ;  and  by  supporting  Do- 
nough Mac  Carthy  agamst  his  elder  brother 

36 


Cormoc,  he  sowed  similar  dissensions 
among  the  Eugenians. 

Having  cut  out  work  enough  for  the 
Mamonians  at  home,  in  the  middle  of  Feb- 
ruary he  decamped  from  Birr,  and  obliged 
the  Lagenians,  Meathians,  and  people  of 
Dublin,  to  deliver  up  hostages  to  him. 
After  this  he  made  great  preparations,  both 
by  sea  and  land,  to  invade  Ulster,  and 
oblige  that  gallant  race  of  people  to  ac- 
knowledge his  sway.  In  the  spring  of  the 
following  year  he  entered  that  province  at 
the  head  of  a  gallant  and  well-appointed 
army,  whose  operations  were  seconded  by 
a  fleet  of  a  hundred  and  ninety  ships. 
With  these  he  defeated  the  different  ar- 
mies and  navies  that  everywhere  opposed 
him.  He  spoiled  Tir-One  and  Tir-Connel, 
and  compelled  the  chiefs  of  these  two 
great  houses,  and  those  of  Dal-Airidhe, 
etc.,  to  submit  to  his  power  and  acknowl- 
edge his  sway. 

In  July,  1126,  the  great  assembly  at 
Tailtean,  in  Meath,  was  opened  for  the  first 
time  for  near  a  century.  It  generally  last- 
ed a  month,  beginning  fifteen  days  before 
the  first  of  August,  and  ending  the  fifteenth 
of  that  month.  In  this  meeting  horse- 
races, charioteering,  tournaments,  and  feats 
of  arms,  hurling,  and  all  the  gymnastic 
exercises,  were  exhibited  with  great  splen- 
dour. Days  were  set  apart  for  these  dif- 
ferent amusements  ;  rewards  were  appoint- 
ed for  the  victors ;  and  these  sports  were 
resorted  to  from  different  parts  of  Europe. 
From  Tailte,  daughter  of  Maghmor,  a 
Spanish  prince,  were  they  called,  by  Lugh- 
aidh,  monarch  of  Ireland,  who,  to  her 
memory,  and  in  gratitude  for  the  care  she 
took  in  his  education,  instituted  them ;  and 
from  this  prince  the  month  of  August  was 
called  Lughnas,  (Lunas,)  from  which  the 
English  adopted  the  name  of  Lammas  for 
the  first  of  August. 

In  the  year  1127,  Turlogh  collected  all 
the  power  of  Leath-Cuin  to  fall  upon  Mun- 
ster. He  crossed  the  Shannon  at  Athlone, 
and  marched,  without  the  least  interruption, 
as  far  as  Cork.  At  the  same  time  his  navy, 
consisting  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  ships,  was 
directed  to  ravage  the  coasts,  to  draw  off 


282 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1142. 


the  attention  of  the  enemy.  Here  he  was 
joined  by  Donough  Mac  Carthy,  and  other 
Eugenian  princes,  and  then  deposed  Cor- 
moc,  the  elder  brother,  and  caused  Do- 
nough to  be  proclaimed  king  of  Desmond. 
Thus  Turlogh  made  Tiege  O'Brien  king 
of  Thomond,  and  Donough  Mac  Carthy 
king  of  South  Munster,  or  Desmond,  by 
which  means  the  power  of  Connor,  king  of 
the  entire  province,  was  much  straitened. 
But  Connor,  having  reconciled  his  contend- 
ing brothers,  and  strengthened  his  own 
interest,  marched  his  army  into  Desmond, 
where  O'SuUivan,  O'Donoghoc,  O'Maho- 
ny,  O'Keefe,  O'Moriarty,  O'Felan,  and 
other  Eugenian  chiefs,  with  their  forces, 
joined  him.  In  the  interim,  Cormoc  had 
retired  to  the  monastery  of  Lismore,  from 
which  he  was  drawn  forth,  and  a  second 
time  saluted  king  of  Desmond,  while  Do- 
nough and  his  party  were  banished  to 
Connaught.  To  avenge  this  insult,  Tur- 
logh directed  his  navy  to  scour  the  coasts 
of  Munster  ;  in  which  expedition  they  did 
great  mischief  to  the  poor  exposed  border- 
ers and  to  the  country. 

Connor  having  solidly  established  his 
authority  at  home,  compelled  the  Lage- 
nians  to  return  to  their  duty,  and  being 
once  more  actual  king  of  Leath-Mogha, 
with  a  mighty  army  he  invaded  Connaught. 
Near  Athlone  he  was  opposed  by  the  col- 
lected forces  of  Turlogh.  A  bloody  en- 
gagement ensued,  in  which  the  Conacians 
were  routed  with  considerable  slaughter. 
Among  the  slain  were  O'Flaherty,  and 
many  other  persons  of  prime  quality ;  at 
the  same  time  his  fleet  from  Cinn-Corradh 
scoured  the  adjoining  coasts  and  commit- 
ted great  depredations,  while,  with  another 
from  Cork,  he  plundered  the  seacoasts  of 
Connaught. 

The  next  year  he  again  invaded  Con- 
naught, defeated  the  forces  of  Turlogh, 
and  slew  Cathal  O'Connor,  presumptive 
heir  to  the  crown,  O'Floin,  and  other  chiefs 
of  eminence.  In  1134,  he  attacked  Mac 
Murcha,  King  of  Leinster,  who  favoured 
the  party  of  his  antagonist,  and  gave  his 
army  a  most  complete  defeat.  He  now 
marched  his  victorious  troops   into  Con- 


naught, and  determined  to  subdue  Turlogh 
or  perish  in  the  attempt;  but  the  arch- 
bishop and  clergy  of  Connaught  interpo- 
sing their  good  oflices,  a  peace  was  con- 
cluded, by  which  Connor  was  acknowl- 
edged as  king  of  Leath-Mogha,  and 
Turlogh  king  of  Leath-Cuin,  and  (I  sup- 
pose) with  the  title  of  monarch.  But  Con- 
nor, we  find,  did  not  as  usual  dismiss  his 
auxiliaries.  He  marched  at  their  head  into 
Ulster,  carrying  on  a  war  rather  of  depre- 
dation than  conquest.  The  people  of  Ty- 
rone, in  this  consternation,  had  their  plate 
and  treasures  deposited  in  the  church  of 
Derry,  and  other  sacred  edifices,  as  places 
of  the  greatest  safety ;  but  these  Connor 
caused  to  be  seized.  In  like  manner  the 
treasures  of  Tyrconnel,  lodged  in  the  ca- 
thedral of  Raphoe,  etc.,  were  carried  oK 
In  Meath  he  committed  the  same  sacrile- 
gious excesses,  possessing  himself  of  all 
the  treasures  of  the  province  laid  up  in 
the  church  of  Clonard  ;  then  crossing  the 
Shannon,  conveyed  to  Cinn-Corradh  what- 
ever he  found  of  public  property  in  the 
abbeys  of  Conga,  Eithne,  Roscommon,  etc. 
We  shall  pass  by  other  incidents  of  less  mo- 
ment to  his  death,  which  happened  in  No- 
vember, 1142,  to  which  time  he  preserved 
all  the  rights  and  powers  which  had  ever 
been  annexed  to  the  sovereignty  of  Leath- 
Mogha,  and  those  in  as  ample  a  manner  as 
had  been  possessed  by  any  of  his  ancestors. 
He  was  interred  in  the  cathedral  of 
Killaloe. 

Connor  was  a  prince  of  invincible  cour- 
age and  a  great  politician,  which  made 
him  always  find  certain  resources  when 
his  affairs  seemed  most  desperate.  He 
has  been  also  celebrated  for  his  munifi- 
cence, his  hospitality,  and  piety.  He  was 
so  fond  of  building  and  improving,  that  he 
got  the  surname  of  Catharach,  or  the 
Cities,  on  account  of  the  many  he  founded 
and  improved ;  likewise  that  of  Slaparsa- 
lach,  or  the  Dirty  Robe,  as  his  attention  to 
these  works  was  so  great  as  often  to  have 
his  robes  spattered  with  the  mortar.  He 
is  said  to  have  been  the  founder  of  many 
churches  and  monasteries,  but  I  cannot  find 
their  particular   names  specified.      It  is 


A.D.  1150.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


283 


much  more  probable  that  he  rather  re- 
paired and  restored  such  as  had  fallen  to 
ruin.  His  piety  and  munificence  in  these 
articles  were  not  entirely  domestic,  since 
it  is  acknowledged  in  the  chronicle  of  the 
Irish  abbey  of  St.  Peter's,  at  Ratisbon,  that 
he  it  was  who  restored  and  repaired  this 
abbey  from  its  foundation ;  and  to  prove 
in  how  masterly  a  manner  it  was  done,  it 
is  added:  "The  erecting  so  spacious  a 
cloister,  of  such  famous  workmanship, 
abounding  with  stately  turrets,  walls,  pil- 
lars, and  vaults,  so  expeditiously  construct- 
ed, must  be  wholly  attributed  to  the  im- 
mense sums  of  money  and  riches  furnished 
for  that  pious  end  by  the  king  of  Ireland, 
and  by  other  princes  of  that  nation."* 
Besides  this  we  find  that  Connor  sent  a 
great  number  of  noble  knights,  and  other 
persons  of  quality,  to  the  Holy  Land. 
They  were  charged  (says  the  above 
chronicle)  with  many  rich  presents  to  the 
Emperor  Lotharius,  towards  defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  Crusades,  and  they  were 
directed  to  fight  under  his  banners. 

Turlogh,  the  brother  of  Connor,  was 
proclaimed  by  the  estates  king  of  Munster, 
immediately  after  his  death,  according  to 
the  law  of  tanistry,  by  which  the  uncle  or 
next  in  blood  to  the  deceased  of  the  great- 
est experience  and  abilities,  was  elected  in 
preference  to  the  heir-apparent ;  and  Mor- 
togh,  the  son  of  Connor,  succeeded  his 
uncle,  as  king  of  Thomond.  His  mother 
was  Saibh,  daughter  to  O'Mealseachlin, 
King  of  Tara. 

Soon  after  Turlogh's  accession  to  the 
throne  of  Munster,  he  made  a  successful 
irruption  into  Connaught;  but  the  next 
year  his  own  territories  were  invaded  by 
Donough  Mac  Carthy.  From  thence  he 
entered  the  Deasies,  where  he  was  seized 
on  by  CFlanagan,  and  sent  under  a  strong 
guard  to  Turlogh,  who  had  him  conveyed 
to  the  strong  fortress  of  Loch-Goir,  in  the 
county  of  Limerick,  where  he  soon  after 
ended  his  days.  The  great  policy  of  Tur- 
logh, the  monarch,  consisted  in  creating 
divisions  among  the  Mamonians.  He  rep- 
resented to  the  Eugenians,  that  for  near 

•  Chron.  Monast.  St.  Jacobi  Ratisbon. 


two  centuries  were  they  and  their  ances- 
tors deprived  of  the  right  of  succession  to 
the  crown  of  Munster ;  and  how  mean 
must  they  appear  in  public  estimation  for 
so  long  and  so  tamely  submitting  to  such 
injustice.  This  was  what  stimulated  them 
in  the  reign  of  Connor  to  oppose  him  in 
many  instances.  Turlogh,  sensible  of  all 
this,  judged  that  the  surest  means  of  sup- 
porting his  authority  was  to  humble  the 
king  of  Connaught,  by  which  means  the 
Eugenians  would  be  less  fond  of  showing 
their  hostile  intentions.  With  a  large 
army,  Turlogh,  in  conjunction  with  his 
nephew  Mortogh,  invaded  Connaught.  A 
bloody  battle  was  fought,  in  which  the 
Conacians  were  worsted.  Roderic  CFla- 
herty,  and  other  persons  of  note,  were 
slain ;  and  O'Kelly,  chief  of  Hy-Maine, 
with  many  others,  were  made  prisoners. 
Dermod,  the  son  of  Cormoc,  late  king  of 
Desmond,  with  most  of  the  Eugenians, 
were  resolved  to  support  his  claim  to  the 
crown  of  Munster,  and  the  monarch  Tur- 
logh determined  to  assist  them  with  all  hit 
power. 

At  the  head  of  the  forces  of  Connaught 
and  Breffni,  Turlogh  marched  into  Des- 
mond, where  he  was  joined  by  the  Euge- 
nians. At  the  foot  of  Sliabh-Mis,  in  Kerry, 
the  combined  forces  were  attacked  by  the 
king  of  Munster,  who,  after  a  gallant  re- 
sistance and  the  loss  of  much  blood,  obliged 
them  to  make  a  precipitate  retreat.  Der- 
mod however  collected  his  scattered  forces, 
and  having  received  considerable  reinforce- 
ments, entered  the  county  of  Limerick  the 
same  year  and  received  a  complete  defeat, 
his  entire  army  being  cut  oflT  or  dispersed. 
Dermod,  by  his  ambassadors,  represented 
to  the  monarch  the  distressed  situation  of 
his  affairs,  and  claimed  a  more  powerful 
support  than  he  had  yet  received.  A  coun- 
cil was  called,  and  it  was  resolved  to  de-  ' 
throne  the  king  of  Munster,  cost  what  it 
would.  He  sent  expresses  to  Leinster,  to 
Meath,  to  Breffni,  and  to  all  his  tributaries, 
to  attend  his  standard  early  in  March ;  but 
while  these  formidable  preparations  were 
making,  his  son  and  heir,  young  Roderic, 
at  the  head  of  a  chosen  party  suddenly  en- 


384 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1014. 


tered  Thomond,  and,  among  other  excesses, 
surprised,  plundered,  and  set  fire  to  the 
palace  of  Cinn-Corradh,  "  the  most  stately 
royal  edifice  in  Ireland,"  says  Tigernach's 
continuator.  Encouraged  by  this  success 
the  imperial  army  marched  into  Munster, 
headed  by  the  monarch  in  person,  under 
whom  were  Mac  Murcha,  King  of  Lcin- 
ster,  O'Mealsachlin,  King  of  Meath,  O'Ru- 
ark  and  O'Bellis,  princes  of  Breffni,  and 
many  other  chiefs.  Dermod  Mac  Carthy 
and  the  Eugenians  immediately  poured  in 
to  his  assistance,  and  the  state  of  the  Mun- 
ster army  seemed  very  precarious.  The 
night  before  the  bloody  battle  of  Mon- 
moir,  the  imperial  army  had  encamped 
on  the  side  of  the  Black  Water,  while 
their  opponents,  headed  by  Turlogh  and 
his  gallant  nephew,  were  lodged  about 
Cork.  Early  next  morning  these  last 
marched  to  Glean-Mahair,  and  at  Monmoir 
the  two  armies  engaged.  The  imperial 
troops,  as  may  well  be  supposed,  were 
much  more  numerous  than  their  adversa- 
ries ;  yet  among  these  last  were  three  Dal- 
gasian  brigades,  or  nine  thousand  men, 
whose  intrepidity  and  fortitude  could  be 
depended  on.  The  engagement  as  usual 
began  with  the  projection  of  stones  from 
slings,  with  the  discharge  of  arrows,  of 
lances,  etc.  Soon  they  came  to  close, 
when  the  sword,  the  battle-axe,  and  dag- 
ger, exposed  a  new  scene  of  carnage  !  In 
battles  like  this  strength  and  numbers  must 
ever  prevail.  After  a  long  and  bloody 
conflict  the  Mamonians  began  to  give  way 
on  every  side  :  it  was  resolved  to  sound  a 
retreat ;  and  the  Dalgais,  whose  province 
it  was  to  lead  on  to  the  battle,  always 
claimed  the  honour  of  covering  the  retreat. 
The  son  of  the  gallant  Connor  at  the  head 
of  his  brave  associates,  opposed  their  im- 
penetrable column  to  every  attack  of  the 
enemy.  Unacquainted  with  fear,  they 
could  not  think  of  retiring,  and  they 
scorned  to  ask  for  quarter.  Turlogh,  by 
this  means,  and  the  shattered  remains  of 
his  forces,  gained  time  enough  to  reach 
Limerick,  but  with  an  almost  irreparable 
loss  to  North  Munster.  For  to  effect  this 
the  generous  Mortogh  and  almost  the  en- 


tire of  his  corps  fell  in  their  ranks ;  and  it 
may  be  said  that  the  Dalgais  never  effec- 
tually recovered  the  loss  of  that  day ! 

The  day  after  this  decisive  battle  the 
monarch  marched  to  Limerick ;  but  Tur- 
logh, not  choosing  to  stand  a  siege,  submit- 
ted to  the  conqueror,  did  him  homage,  put 
hostages  into  his  hands,  procured  his  own 
liberty  by  paying  down  two  hundred 
ounces  of  pure  gold,  with  many  other  val- 
uable presents,  and  surrendered  up  his 
crown.  Hereupon  Tiege-Gle  was  pro- 
claimed king  of  Thomond,  and  Dermod 
Mac  Carthy  king  of  Desmond  ;  each  to  be 
supreme  in  his  own  territories  and  no  fur- 
ther. Turlogh,  now  an  exile,  retired  to 
the  court  of  Tyrone.  O'Neil,  prince  of 
that  territory,  received  him  with  singular 
honours ;  a  league  was  formed  between 
the  princes  of  Ulster,  jealous  of  the  over- 
grown power  of  the  monarch,  and  they 
determined  to  restore  the  exile.  The 
troops  of  Tyrone,  Tyrconnel,  Oirgial,  etc., 
assembled ;  and  in  their  march  through 
Meath  were  attacked  by  those  of  the  mon- 
arch, whom,  after  a  bloody  contest,  they 
defeated  with  great  slaughter  of  men,  be- 
sides nine  princes  left  dead  on  the  field  of 
battle  !  After  this  Turlogh  was  reinstated 
in  his  kingdom,  and  the  eyes  of  Tiege-Gle 
were  put  out,  who  retired  to  the  abbey  of 
Lismore,  where  he  died  in  great  repute  for 
sanctity  in  1154.  This  success  of  the  en- 
terprising prince  of  Ulster  encouraged  him 
to  make  further  attempts  to  restrain  the 
power  of  Turlogh  O'Connor.  He  invaded 
his  territories  by  land,  and  with  his  navy, 
composed  of  his  own  ships,  with  others 
that  he  had  taken  into  his  service  from 
North  Britain  and  the  Orkneys,  he  scoured 
the  Connaught  seas,  and  at  length  com- 
pelled him  to  put  hostages  into  his  hands 
as  sureties  for  his  peaceable  demeanour  for 
the  future.  Turlogh  spent  the  remainder 
of  his  reign  mostly  in  acts  of  piety  and  de- 
votion, and  died  the  13th  of  June,  1156,  in 
the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  age.  By  his 
will  he  ordered  that  his  body  should  be  de- 
posited in  the  church  of  St.  Ciaran,  at 
Cluan  Mac  Nois,  close  to  the  great  altar. 

The  actions  of  this  reign  have  been  very 


A.  D.  1086.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


superficially  narrated  by  Keating  and  Bru- 
odinus.  Grat.  Luc.  is  more  detailed,  but 
without  attending  to  dates,  etc.  The  Scoto- 
Chronicon,  the  Annals  of  Tigemach,  of 
Innis-Falen,  and  the  translation  of  the 
Book  of  Munster  have,  however,  enabled 
me  to  throw  the  whole  into  a  clear  point 
of  view.  From  the  whole  it  appears  evi- 
dent that  Turlogh  was  not  only  a  great 
general  but  a  profound  politician,  who  suc- 
cessfully employed  these  different  talents  ac- 
cording to  exigencies.  That  he  protected 
trade  and  manufactures  must  be  presumed 
from  his  rebuilding  causeways  and  repair- 
ing the  public  roads.  He  threw  two  spa- 
cious bridges  over  the  Shannon — one  at 
Athlone,  the  other  at  Ath-Crochta,  and  one 
across  the  river  Suick.  He  repaired  the  ca- 
thedral of  Tuam,  erected  a  spacious  hospital 
there,  and  founded  and  endowed  with  great 
splendour  a  priory  in  that  city  under  the 
invocation  of  St.  John  the  Baptist.  He 
augmented  the  funds  of  the  abbey  of  Ros- 
common, and  founded  a  new  professorship 
of  divinity  in  the  university  of  Armagh. 
He  directed  the  host  to  be  carried  with 
great  solemnity,  attended  by  many  reli- 
gious, through  the  kingdom,  and  afterwards 
had  it  deposited  in  the  abbey  of  Roscom- 
mon in  a  tabernacle  of  inestimable  value. 
He  presented  to  the  cathedral  of  Cluan 
Mac  Nois.  a  number  of  silver  crosses, 
some  curious  gold  chalices  and  goblets, 
and  erected  there  a  mint.  By  will  he 
directed  that  all  the  valuable  furniture  of 
his  palace,  his  vessels  of  gold  and  silver, 
his  diamonds  and  precious  stones,  the 
horses  and  cattle  of  his  domain,  his  mu- 
sical instruments,  and  five  hundred  and 
forty  ounces  of  pure  gold,  with  forty  marks 
of  silver,  should  be  distributed  among  the 
clergy  and  churches,  and  he  noted  down 
the  proportions  to  each.  Besides,  he  di- 
rected that  his  horse  and  arms,  with  his 
quiver  and  arrows,  should  be  deposited  at 
Cluan  Mac  Nois  on  account  of  his  singu-  I 
lar  reverence  for  St.  Ciaran. 

Thus  died  the  great  Turlogh  O'Connor, 
in  the  highest  estimation  for  piety.  But 
say,  ye  casuists,  did  he,  or  his  formidable 
rival,  Connor  O'Brien,  really  merit  this  epi- 


thet so  liberally  bestowed  on  both  ?  Will 
the  erecting  a  few  churches  and  monas- 
teries atone  for  the  immature  death  of  thou- 
sands and  the  ruin  of  as  many  more  ? 
Were  the  objects  of  these  contending 
princes  to  establish  peace  and  subordina- 
tion and  restore  to  their  country  its  ancient 
constitution?  If  these  were  not  their 
views,  as  we  know  they  were  not,  then 
there  must  have  been  something  extremely 
defective  in  the  heads  and  hearts  and  in 
the  education  of  both !  What  avails  it  that 
the  Christian  system  exhibits  the  most  ex- 
alted notions  of  morality  that  human  na- 
ture can  conceive,  if  mankind  are  not  the 
better  for  it  ?  The  same  crimes,  the  same 
thirst  of  ambition  and  of  empire  that  have 
hurried  men  to  the  greatest  excesses  in  the 
days  of  heathenism,  are  exhibited  in  every 
region  and  every  age  of  Christianity  since 
the  Incarnation !  Turenne  had  twenty- 
five  villages  and  two  cities  of  the  Palatinate 
set  fire  to  and  consumed  to  ashes  in  one 
morning,  and  yet  he  was  deemed  a  prince 
of  great  piety  and  humanity  !  It  is  said 
of  the  great  Duke  of  Berwick  that  he 
heard  two  masses  every  morning ;  and 
yet,  after  his  devotions,  we  see  he  could  sit 
down  with  great  composure  to  calculate 
the  numbers  of  lives  such  an  attack  or  such 
a  siege  would  cost  him !  It  may  be  al- 
ledged  that  Turenne  and  Berwick  were  but 
subjects,  bound  implicitly  to  obey  the  orders 
of  their  prince.  This  may  be  a  good  ar- 
gument in  the  Mahometan  system,  which 
enjoins  the  most  servile  obedience  to  the 
commands  of  their  emperors,  but  not  in 
the  Christian,  which  admits  of  a  free  will. 
But  while  Alexanders  and  Caesars,  the  de- 
vastators of  countries  and  perverters  of 
constitutions,  are  exhibited  as  models  for 
princes ;  while  historians  seem  to  dwell 
with  pleasure  on  sieges  and  battles,  state 
convulsions  and  state  revolutions,  and  slur 
over  the  blessings  of  peace,  it  cannot  be 
otherwise !  How  much  more  enlivening 
would  the  description  of  a  royal  progres- 
sion be,  in  which  virtue  is  called  forth  fi-om 
modest  obscurity,  industry  cherished  and 
rewarded,  arts  and  sciences  protected,  and 
peace  and  plenty  smiling  over  the  land ! 


286 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1162. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Mortogh  assumes  the  title  of  monarch — OpjMJsed 
by  O'Connor — Falls  in  tho  battle  of  Litterluin — 
State  of  the  Irish  church — St.  Bernard's  charges 
against  this  church  and  clergy  candidly  exam- 
ined and  refuted — Necessity  of  circumscribing 
its  powers — Council  of  Kclls — Four  archbishops 
presented  with  palliums,  with  a  list  of  their  suf- 
fragans. 

Mortogh  CNiall,  the  son  of  Niall,  the 
son  of  Lochlin,  of  the  royal  blood  of  Ty- 
rone, of  the  posterity  of  Niall  the  Grand, 
and  house  of  Heremon,  was  saluted  by  his 
faction,  long  before  tho  death  of  Turlogh, 
monarch  of  Ireland  ;  and  this  circumstance 
will  reconcile  what  has  been  affirmed,  that 
the  famous  council  of  Kells  was  held  in 
his  reign.  Soon  after  the  interment  of 
Turlogh  O'Connor,  we  read  of  Mortogh's 
triumphantly  marching  his  army  through 
different  territories,  and  receiving  the  sub- 
missions of  their  several  chiefs.  So  expe- 
ditious was  he  that  after  overrunning  Ul- 
ster, Meath,  and  Leinster,  we  find  him 
early  in  the  year  1157  encamped  before 
Limerick,  where  the  princes  of  both  Mun- 
sters,  and  people  of  that  city,  delivered  him 
hostages  and  did  him  homage. 

The  young  king  of  Connaught,  Roderic, 
far  from  submitting  to  his  authority  or  con- 
fessing his  sway,  bade  defiance  to  his 
power ;  and  invading  Tyrone  both  by  sea 
and  land,  desolated  the  whole  country,  par- 
ticularly Inis-Eoghain,  with  all  its  costly 
buildings  and  elegant  improvements.  The 
next  year  Roderic  invaded  Leinster  and 
Meath,  and  obliged  both  territories  to  de- 
liver up  hostages  to  him.  However,  after 
much  blood  being  spilt,  in  the  year  1162  a 
peace  was  concluded  between  these  princes, 
by  which,  Roderic,  on  delivering  of  hos- 
tages to  Mortogh,  got  the  peaceable  pos- 
session of  Connaught,  with  sovereignty 
over  half  the  principality  of  Meath,  which 
power  he  ceded  to  Dermod  O'Mealsachlin, 
its  natural  chief,  for  a  hundred  ounces  of 
pure  gold.  «  Mortogh,  though  in  the  main 
of  a  very  religious  cast,  yet  was  violent 
and  impetuous  in  his  temper.  Eochaidh, 
prince  of  Ulida,  and  his  neighbour,  having 
refused  to  pay  tribute,  Mortogh,  in  re- 
venge, entered  his  territory  with  an  armed 
host,  committed  great  depredations,  and 


carried  off  many  of  his  vassals.  Through 
the  mediation  of  the  archbishop  of  Armagh 
and  the  prince  of  Oirgial,  a  peace  was  con- 
cluded, and  Eochaidh  was  received  into 
grace  and  favour.  The  prelate  and  prince 
were  guarantees  of  this  peace  ;  and  the 
reconciled  chiefs  solemnly  swore  before 
the  great  altar  of  Armagh,  "  By  the  holy 
staff  of  St.  Patrick  and  by  the  relics  of  Ire- 
land," faithfully  to  observe  all  the  articles  of 
it ;  yet  the  very  next  year  (for  what  reason 
we  are  not  told)  Mortogh  caused  Eochaidh 
to  be  seized  and  his  eyes  put  out,  and  his 
three  chief  confidants  to  be  put  to  death. 
The  prince  of  Oirgial,  who  pledged  him- 
self to  Eochaidh  on  the  part  of  the  mon- 
arch, highly  enraged  at  so  flagrant  a  vio- 
lation of  public  faith,  and  at  the  injury 
offered  to  himself,  at  the  head  of  nine  thou- 
sand veterans  suddenly  rushed  into  Ty- 
rone, laid  waste  the  country,  and  attacked 
the  troops  hastily  collected  to  oppose  him. 
In  this  engagement,  which  our  annalists 
call  the  battle  of  Litterluin,  the  monarch's 
army  was  cut  to  pieces,  and  he  himself  was 
found  buried  under  heaps  of  his  enemies. 
"  Thus  fell,  say  our  writers,  the  generous 
Mortogh,  the  most  intrepid  and  gallant 
hero  of  his  day,  the  ornament  of  his  coun- 
try, the  thunderbolt  of  war,  and  the  Hector 
of  Western  Europe  !  He  was  victor  in 
every  battle  he  fought  except  this ;  but, 
forgetting  his  solemn  vows,  he  fell  a  sacri- 
fice to  justice." 

As  it  is  universally  agreed  upon  that  it 
was  in  the  reign  of  Mortogh  that  the  fa- 
mous council  of  Kells,  in  Meath,  was  held, 
iu  which  Cardinal  Paparo  presided  on  be- 
half of  Pope  Eugenius  III.,  and  in  which 
he  distributed  palliums  to  the  Irish  arch- 
bishops, the  state  of  the  Irish  church  since 
the  last  general  council  of  Uisneach  merits 
our  attention. 

In  that  council  great  advances  were 
made  by  the  clergy  and  by  the  national 
states  towards  acknowledging  the  absolute 
supremacy  of  Rome  in  spirituals.  The 
archbishops  gave  up  the  power  which  their 
predecessors,  since  the  days  of  Patrick, 
enjoyed  and  exercised,  of  creating  bishops 
at  will :  the  bishops  agreed  to  a  reduction 


A.  D.  1165.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


287 


of  their  number,  and  the  monarch  and 
estates  exonerated  the  clergy  for  the  time 
to  come  from  temporal  laws  and  temporal 
taxations  !  Still  more  was  to  be  done  be- 
fore the  power  of  Rome  was  completely 
established.  Different  great  families,  hav- 
ing the  power  of  presentation  to  bishop- 
ricks,  deprived  the  popes  of  the  full  exer- 
cise of  the  power  of  making  the  bishops, 
for  the  future,  to  depend  immediately  upon 
themselves. 

As  this  was  an  affair  of  the  utmost  con- 
sequence to  Rome,  no  wonder  all  the  artil- 
lery of  her  advocates,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  should  be  employed  to  destroy  so 
great  an  obstacle  to  her  ambitious  and  in- 
terested views.  From  this  cause,  says  St. 
Bernard,*  "  arose  that  universal  dissolution 
of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  that  disregard 
of  censure  and  decay  of  religion  over  all 
Ireland !"  The  holy  primate  Celsus  seemed 
so  sensible  of  this  that,  when  dying,  he  sent 
the  staff  of  St.  Patrick  to  St.  Malachie,  de- 
claring him  his  successor  in  the  see  of  Ar- 
magh ;  and  he  conjured  Mortogh,  the  mon- 
arch, and  Domhnal,  King  of  Leath-Cuin, 
by  letters  and  messages,  that  they  would 
use  their  influence  and  authority  to  con- 
firm his  nomination.  "  For  (says  St.  Ber- 
nard) a  most  pernicious  custom  had  been 
established,  by  the  diabolical  ambition  of 
some  men  in  power,  of  getting  possession 
of  the  seat  of  St.  Patrick  by  hereditary 
succession  ;  nor  would  they  permit  any  to 
be  elected  bishops  who  were  not  of  their 
sept  and  family  ;  for  fifteen  bishops  of  the 
same  blood  had  successively  governed  this 
church."  The  abbot  had,  with  much  more 
intemperance  than  Christian  charity,  al- 
ready given  a  most  horrid  account  of  the 
state  of  religion  in  Ireland ;  and  to  this 
hereditary  succession  of  bishops  he  attrib- 
uted all  these  disorders ;  but  he  confessed 
that,  in  the  early  days  of  Christianity,  Ire- 
land abounded  with  most  holy  and  edify- 
ing ecclesiastics  ;t  and  yet  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  ecclesiastical  dignities 
were  hereditary  in  families  all  over  the 
kingdom  at  that  time,  and  from  that  period 

*  Opera,  p.  1937. 
t  Opera,  p.  1937. 


down  to  his  days  !  From  this  custom  he 
also  dates  another  flagrant  abuse  :  "  Hence 
(says  he)  a  practice  became  established, 
unheard-of  since  the  promulgation  of  Chris- 
tianity, of  multiplying  bishops  at  the  pleas- 
ure of  the  metropolitan."  And  yet  this 
also  was  practised  by  St.  Patrick  and  by 
his  successors,  to  the  great  advantage  and 
increase  of  Christianity,  as  Bede  and  al- 
most all  other  early  ecclesiastical  writers 
acknowledge  !  Patrick  consecrated  him- 
self no  less  a  number  than  three  hundred 
and  sixty  bishops  in  his  lifetime ;  and  his 
successors  not  only  consecrated  their  do- 
mestic bishops,  but  also  dignitaries  for  the 
British,  Gallic,  and  German  missions ! 
Thus  it  appears,  contrary  to  the  assertion 
of  the  abbot  of  Clairvaus,  that,  in  the  days  of 
the  highest  splendour  of  the  Irish  church — 
in  those  days  when,  by  universal  consent, 
the  country  got  the  title  of  Insula  Sancto- 
rum— the  hierarchy  was  not  only  hereditary 
in  families,  but  the  successors  of  Si.  Pat- 
rick and  St.  Ailbe  consecrated  bishops  at 
pleasure  !  If  then,  from  the  fifth  to  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  when  the  piety 
learning,  and  zeal  of  the  Irish  nation  were 
so  universally  admitted,  these  customs  of 
her  church,  far  from  injuring,  highly  served 
the  cause  of  religion,  how  account  for 
their  producing  so  contrary  an  effect  in  the 
twelfth  ?  Nor  was  there  then  '*  that  uni- 
versal dissolution  of  ecclesiastical  disci- 
pline^ in  the  Irish  church  which  St.  Ber- 
nard affirmed  ;  since,  in  the  enormous  vol- 
ume of  his  works  now  before  me,  of  which 
the  life  of  St.  Malachie  is  a  part,  he  ac- 
knowledges that,  through  the  recommend- 
ation of  his  preceptor  Imarius,  St.  G^la- 
sius  ordained  Malachie  deacon  and  priest, 
"  though  he  had  not  then  arrived  at  the 
exact  age  prescribed  by  the  canons,  which 
were  then  strictly  observed"  that  is, twenty- 
five  years  for  deacons',  and  thirty  for 
priests'  orders  ! — for  Gelasius  himself  was 
of  the  hereditary  line  of  the  successors  of 
St.  Patrick,  as  was  Malachie  also. 

But  as  this  work  of  St.  Bernard's  is  the 
grand  reservoir  from  which  all  succeeding 
defamers  of  the  Irish  church  and  nation 
have  drawn  their  authorities  and  argu- 


288 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1165. 


ments,  it  necessarily  demands  a  more  crit- 
ical examination.  St.  Magonius  the  Pa- 
trician was  endowed  with  uncommon  priv- 
ileges by  Pope  Celestin  on  his  mission  to 
the  Irish  nation,  all  which  he  exercised 
in  the  fullest  manner.  After  remaining 
twenty-nine  years  preaching  and  convert- 
ing the  nation,  he  returned  to  Rome  early 
in  the  year  461,  to  give  an  account  of  his 
mission  to  Leo  the  Great,  then  pope,  who 
received  him  with  distinguished  honours. 
He  remained  in  Rome  near  two  years, 
and  then  returned  to  Ireland,  where  he 
continued  till  his  death.  Benignus,  and  his 
successors  in  the  see  of  Armagh,  even  in 
the  lifetime  of  St.  Patrick,  exercised  these 
privileges,  which  seemed  peculiar  to  the 
Irish  church  ;  and  Patrick  himself  frequent- 
ly convened  synods  and  councils,  at  which 
he  presided  as  legate,  to  direct  the  affairs 
of  the  church.  It  is  not  particularly  said, 
but  I  think  it  must  be  admitted,  that  the 
powers  originally  granted  to  St.  Patrick, 
were,  on  his  return  to  Rome,  confirmed  to 
his  successors,  because  we  see  them  exer- 
cised even  in  his  own  lifetime  (and  he 
lived  to  493)  without  the  least  restraint; 
and  had  they  been  irregular  or  usurped, 
he  certainly  would  have  forbidden  them. 
Thus  the  unlimited  powers  of  the  Irish 
archbishops  were  powers  they  derived 
from  Rome,  and  which  they  employed  for 
the  advancement  of  religion  only.  It  is 
certain,  now  that  all  Europe  became  Chris- 
tian, that  this  power  was  too  great,  and 
seemed  to  eclipse,  in  some  measure,  that  of 
Rome.  The  Irish  clergy  were  admonished 
on  this  head,  and  we  see  that,  thirty-nine 
years  before  St.  Bernard  wrote  the  Life 
of  St.  Malachie,  (i.  e.  A.  D.  1111,)  they, 
in  full  convocation,  resigned  it,  though  he 
adds  it  to  the  other  charges  against  the  na- 
tion !  We  see  also  in  that  famous  council, 
that  they  agreed  to  lessen  the  number  of 
Irish  bishops ;  and  St.  Malachie  himself,  in 
1139,  made  a  surrender  of  all  the  other 
exclusive  privileges  of  the  Irish  church  to 
Innocent  II.,  "who  was  so  pleased  that, 
after  appointing  him  legate,  he  placed  the 
mitre  that  was  on  his  own  head  on  the 
head  of  Malachie,  gave  him  the  stole  and 


maniple  which  he  used  himself  at  the  altar, 
and  giving  him  the  kiss  of  peace,  he  dis- 
missed him  with  his  benediction."  St. 
Malachie,  on  his  return  to  Ireland,  called 
synods  in  different  parts  of  the  kingdom  ; 
"  and  everywhere  (says  St.  Bernard  *) 
were  his  counsels  and  instructions  received 
and  submitted  to,  as  if  they  had  come  di- 
rectly  from  Heaven  /"  These  surely  are 
not  marks  of  a  barbarous  people.  Chris- 
tians only  in  name  !  Thus,  we  see,  at  the 
very  time  that  Bernard  was  employed  in 
writing  the  present  work,  Ireland  acknowl- 
edged the  supremacy  of  Rome ;  but  the 
popes,  though  they  got  the  power  of  ap- 
proving of  future  Irish  bishops,  had  not  yet 
that  of  nominating  them !  This  was  the 
grand  desideratum,  and  the  want  of  this 
the  source  "of  that  universal  dissolution 
of  church  discipline,  and  that  decay  of 
religion  over  all  Ireland,"  which  has  been 
so  confidently  affirmed,  though  by  no 
means  proved.  Had  the  Irish  ecclesias- 
tics, like  the  Saxons  in  the  reign  of  Alfred, 
been  so  totally  ignorant  as  not  to  under- 
stand the  Latin  tongue,  or  could  it  be 
recorded  of  them,  as  we  find  it  in  a  coun- 
cil held  at  Oxford,  A.  D.  1222,  where  the 
"  archdeacons  are  directed  to  take  care 
that  the  clergy  shall  rightly  pronounce  the 
formulary  of  baptism,  and  the  words  of 
the  consecration  in  the  canon  of  the 
mass,"  there  might  be  some  pretence  for 
so  severe  a  charge  ! 

As  to  the  hereditary  episcopal  right,  it 
is  to  be  noticed  that,  in  Ireland,  all  posts 
and  public  employments  whatever  were 
confined  to  certain  septs.  When  Chris- 
tianity superseded  Druidism,  those  great 
families  who  founded  bishopricks  reserved 
the  power  of  nominating  to  them  those  of 
their  own  blood.  Persons  were  set  apart 
for  the  clerical  function,  but  none  were 
nominated  or  ordained  who  had  not  given 
the  clearest  proofs  of  pious  and  irreproach- 
able lives.  Hence  the  remarkable  piety 
and  humility  of  the  Irish  ecclesiastics, 
proved  in  every  period  of  our  history.  We 
have  but  two  instances  where  the  impetu- 
osity of  our  ecclesiastics  hurried  the  na- 

*  Divi  Bernard!  Opera,  p.  1944. 


A.D.  1166.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


289 


tion  to  war,  and  both  were  in  defence  of 
clerical  power ;  and  yet,  in  both  instances, 
were  their  proceedings  condemned  and 
themselves  censured,  though  both  of  the 
blood-royal,  namely,  St.  Columba  in  the 
sixth,  and  the  abbot  of  Inis-Catha  in  the 
tenth  age  !  But  we  have  thousands  of  in- 
stances where  they  have  been  indefati- 
gable in  their  endeavours  to  restore  peace 
and  concord  between  the  princes  of  the 
land.  As  to  our  princes,  certain  it  is  that 
they  were  proud,  haughty,  and  ambitious, 
fond  of  war,  and  ready  to  decide  every 
contest  by  the  sword.  But  amid  all  these 
excesses  and  ravages,  /  challenge  any  na- 
tion under  the  sun  to  produce  so  few  in- 
stances of  proscriptions  or  deliberate  cruel- 
ties.    But  to  return  from  St.  Bernard. 

The  privileges  exercised  by  the  Irish 
church  were,  it  must  be  confessed,  too 
great,  and,  if  held  longer,  might  endanger  a 
schism.  It  was  a  wise  measure  to  reduce 
them  ;  but  we  see  it  was  unjust  to  suppose 
them  usurped,  or  that  "  a  universal  dissolu- 
tion of  church  discipline"  was  the  con- 
sequence :  it  was  not ;  and  the  moment 
the  churches  of  Rome  and  Ireland  became 
united  proved  it,  since  all  the  difference 
found  between  them  was,  that  the  Irish 
nation  paid  those  small  dues  called  Peter's- 
pence,  to  the  see  of  Armagh,  which  the  rest 
of  Europe  paid  to  Rome!  The  bishops, 
in  full  convocation  in  1111,  surrendered 
to  Rome  the  rights  which  they  until  then 
enjoyed ;  and  great  pains  were  every  day 
taken  to  lessen  the  other  privileges  of  the 
Irish  church.  What  then  remained  for 
Malachie  to  do,  but,  as  the  successor  of 
St.  Patrick,  to  make  a  formal  surrender  of 
his  see  to  Rome  in  his  own  name,  and  in 
the  names  of  his  successors  ?  But  it  re- 
quired no  small  difficulty  to  persuade  those 
princes  and  chiefs  who  had  been  inducted 
to  bishopricks,  to  resign  so  great  a  power. 
This  it  was  that  Innocent  required  of 
Malachie  ;  for  this  purpose  he  appointed 
him  his  legate  ;  and  to  promote  it  did  he 
assemble  so  many  synods  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  kingdom.  Early  in  the  year 
1148  a  finishing  hand  was  put  to  the  great 

work  of  reformation  ;  for,  at  a  council  then 

37 


held  at  Holm-Patrick,  composed  of  Gela- 
sius,  successor  to  St.  Patrick,  and  fifteen 
bishops,  with  two  hundred  priests,  many 
abbots  and  others,  and  in  which  St.  Mala- 
chie, as  legate,  presided,  it  was  agreed  to 
send  him  again  to  Rome,  with  full  powers 
to  compose  all  differences  between  the 
church  and  the  Irish  nation ;  but  he  died 
at  Clairvaux  on  his  way  to  Rome.  Im- 
mediately after,  through  the  interest  of 
St.  Bernard,  Christian  I.,  abbot  of  Melle- 
font,  and  who  had  resided  some  time  at 
Clairvaux,  was  appointed  legate,  and  soon 
after  bishop  of  Lismore.  In  1150  here- 
paired  to  Rome  with  fresh  authority  from 
the  princes  and  clergy,  on  the  same  busi- 
ness ;  and  the  following  year  he  was  des- 
patched, in  company  with  Cardinal  Paparo, 
but  they  did  not  arrive  till  early  in  the  year 
1152. 

A  council  was  then  held  at  Kells,  in 
which  the  legate  presided,  and  which,  be- 
sides the  prelates  and  principal  clergy, 
was  also  honoured  by  the  presence  of  Mor- 
togh  O'Neil,  (who,  it  appears,  even  at  this 
time  ranked  as  monarch,)  with  several 
other  princes  and  nobles.  Many  useful 
regulations  took  place :  among  the  rest,  the 
state  of  the  hierarchy  was  taken  into  con- 
sideration. In  the  general  council  of  Uis- 
neach,  the  number  of  Irish  bishops  was 
reduced  to  twenty-eight,  under  two  metro- 
politans. The  instructions  to  Cardinal 
Paparo  were  to  have  the  church  under  the 
government  of  four  archbishops,  namely : 
Armagh,  Cashell,  Tuam,  and  Dublin ;  but 
we  find  that  it  met  with  great  opposition 
in  the  council.  It  was  observed  that  the 
most  general  division  of  Ireland  was  that 
of  Leath-Mogha  and  Leath-Cuin ;  that  in 
the  days  of  St.  Patrick  it  was  so,  for  which 
reason  he  himself  ordained  St.  Ailbe  arch- 
bishop of  Munster.  It  is  true,  that  after- 
wards St.  Jarlath  had  assumed  the  title  of 
archbishop  of  Connaught,  and  St.  Con- 
laeth  of  Leinster ;  but  they  were  not  regu- 
larly consecrated  or  generally  acknowl- 
edged ;  that,  in  the  council  of  Uisneach, 
two  archbishops  only  were  appointed,  and 
under  them  a  certain  number  of  bishops  ; 
but  if  the  present  regulation  took  place. 


290 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1166. 


these  must  necessarily  be  deprived  of  some 
of  their  suffragans,  or  a  new  creation  of 
bishops  must  take  place.  But  the  cardinal 
observed  that  Connaught  and  Leinster 
were  always  particular  kingdoms,  and 
therefore  entitled  to  those  marks  of  dis- 
tinction ;  but  that  the  archbishops  of  Ulster 
and  Munster  should  not  imagine  that  he 
intended  to  encroach  upon  their  rights,  or 
lessen  the  number  of  their  suffragans,  he 
would,  by  virtue  of  the  apostolic  power, 
appoint  particular  bishops  as  suffragans  to 
the  new  metropolitans.  He  was  positive, 
though  we  are  unacquainted  with  the  rea- 
son, and  it  did  not  become  new  subjects  to 
disobey  the  papal  authority.  The  follow- 
ing, taken  from  an  ancient  Roman  provin- 
cial, was  the  regulation  then  received  and 
adopted. 

Under  the  archbishop  of  Armagh,  Pri- 
mate of  all  Ireland,  were  twelve  suffra- 
gans, namely :  Meath,  Down,  Clogher, 
Connor,  Ardachd,  Raphoe,  Rathlure,  Du- 
leek,  Derry,  Dromore,  Breffni,  and  Clan- 
macnois.  Under  the  archbishop  of  Mun- 
ster or  Cashell,  twelve,  to  wit :  the  bishops 
of  Killaloe,  Limerick,  Inis-Catha,  Killfenu- 
ragh,  Emily,  Roscrea,  Waterford,  Lismore, 
Cloyne,  Cork,  Ross,  and  Ardfert.  The 
archbishop  of  Connaught  had  nine  suffra- 
gans, who  were  the  bishops  of  Cilmac 
Duach,  of  Mayo,  of  Enachdun,  of  Inis- 
Caltra,  Roscommon,  Clonfert,  Achonry, 
Killalallah,  and  Elphin;  and  under  the 
metropolitan  of  Leinster,  were  the  bishops 
of  Glendaloch,  Ferns,  Ossory  Leighlin,  and 
Kildare  : — in  all  thirty-eight  bishops  ;  and 
because  it  was  known  that  the  archbishops 
of  Connaught  and  Leinster  had  no  certain 
fixed  seats,  it  was  decreed  that  Dublin 
should  be  the  future  residence  of  the  me- 
tropolitans of  Leinster,  and  Tuam  of  those 
of  Connaught.  Some  regulations  were 
made  in  this  council  with  regard  to  mar- 
riages ;  but  this  must  certainly  regard  the 
clergy,  because  in  no  other  country  was 
the  purity  of  blood  more  carefully  attend- 
ed to,  as  all  posts  of  honour  were  heredi- 
tary. After  this  Cardinal  Paparo  pre- 
sented palliums  to  the  four  archbishops  in 
great  pomp  and  form,  and  remained,  says 


M.  Fleury,  in  Ireland  till  the  Easter  of 
1153.* 

From  this  time  till  the  arrival  of  the 
EngUsh,  provincial  synods,  or  general 
councils,  were  frequently  held  for  restor- 
ing ecclesiastical  discipline ;  among  other 
regulations,  to  show  how  solicitous  they 
were  for  a  firm  union  with  Rome,  it  was 
decreed  that  none  should  keep  divinity 
schools  for  the  future  but  such  as  had  taken 
out  their  doctors'  degrees  in  the  university 
of  Armagh,  as  here  the  reformation  first 
began. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Roderic  O'Connor  receives  the  submissions  of 
Munster,  Leinster,  and  Meath — Prepares  to 
invade  Ulster — Diverted  by  the  complaints  of 
O'Ruark — His  letter — Grants  troops,  and  ap- 
points him  general  against  Leinster — Mac  Mur- 
chad  flies  to  England — Roderic  invades  Ulster 
by  sea  and  land,  and  succeeds — Sessions  of  the 
est«tes  of  Leath-Cuin — Mac  Murchad  applies 
to  Henry  H.,  and  is  permitted  to  raise  troops, 
but  with  no  success — Leagues  with  Strongbow 
and  Fitz-Stephen — Returns  to  Ireland — Sub- 
mits to  the  monarch,  and  makes  peace  with 
O'Ruark — The  indirect  use  made  by  him  of  this 
peace. 

On  the  death  of  Mortogh,  Roderic 
O'Connor,  son  of  Turlogh  the  Great,  as- 
sumed the  title,  and  was  saluted  monarch 
of  Ireland  by  his  faction.  Soon  after  this 
he  collected  his  troops,  and  called  his  tri- 
butaries to  his  standard ;  and  at  the  head 
of  a  respectable  army  invaded  Tyrconnel, 
which  he  subdued,  and  had  hostages  put 
into  his  hands.  On  his  return  he  was 
joined  by  O'Ruark  and  CReily,  princes 
of  Breffni,  and  O'Mealsachlin,  King  of 
Meath,  and  with  his  combined  forces  he 
proceeded  to  Dublin,  where  he  was  most 
honourably  received  and  entertained. 
Here  the  Dublinians  rendered  him  homage 
as  monarch  of  Ireland,  and  they  received 
from  him  a  present  of  four  thousand  oxen. 
From  hence  he  marched  to  Drogheda,  and 
took  hostages  from  O'Cearbhoil,  prince  of 
Oirgial,  who  also  did  him  homage ;  that  is, 
on  his  bended  knees  put  hishands  closed  into 
those  of  Roderic;  and  as  a  mark  of  his 
*  Hist.  Eccles.  torn.  xiv.  p.  685. 


A.D.  1167.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


291 


being  a  vassal,  the  monarch  ordered  him  a 
tuarasdel,  or  subsidy  of  two  thousand  bul- 
locks. In  the  interim  Mac  Murchad,  King 
of  Leinster,  made  an  incursion  into  Meath, 
for  which  insolence  he  was  severely  pun- 
ished by  Roderic,  for  he  hastily  marched 
into  Leinster,  attacked  and  defeated  his 
troops,  and  obliged  him  to  submit  and  give 
sureties  for  his  good  behaviour,  and  greatly 
abridged  his  power.  The  prince  of  Ossory 
acknowledged  his  sway,  and  received  the 
usual  presents  of  a  vassal ;  from  thence  he 
marched  into  Munster,  received  hostages 
from  Desmond  and  Thomond,  and  then 
returned  to  Connaught  with  great  glory 
and  triumph. 

In  the  spring  of  1167,  he  was  making 
great  preparations  both  by  sea  and  land  to 
reduce  Tyrone,  and  oblige  the  chief  of  the 
northern  Hi-Nialls  to  submit  to  him ;  but 
an  extraordinary  accident  retarded  for 
some  time  the  execution  of  this  enterprise. 
The  king  of  Leinster  had  long  conceived  a 
violent  affection  for  Dearbhorgil,  daughter 
of  the  king  of  Meath ;  and  though  she  had 
been  for  some  time  married  to  O'Ruark, 
prince  of  Breffni,  yet  it  could  not  restrain 
his  desires.  They  carried  on  a  private 
correspondence,  and  she  informed  him  that 
O'Ruark  intended  soon  to  go  on  a  pilgrim- 
age, (an  act  of  piety  frequent  in  those 
days,)  and  conjured  him  to  embrace  that 
opportunity  of  conveying  her  from  a  hus- 
band she  detested  to  a  lover  she  adored. 
Blinded  by  licentious  desire,  Mac  Murchad 
too  punctually  obeyed  the  summons,  and 
had  the  lady  conveyed  to  his  capital  of 
Ferns.  An  outrage  of  this  kind,  so  new 
and  unheard  of,  astonished  every  one ;  but 
the  feelings  of  the  injured  husband  will  be 
best  expressed  by  the  letter  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  King  Roderic  on  the  subject.* 

*  O'Roreiut,  Rotherieo  monarcho,  S. : 

Etsi  non  sum  nescios  (illustrissime  princeps)  bama- 
noB  casus  equo  semper  animo  frendos,  et  hominis  esse, 
virtatis  prestantia  excellentis,  ob  meretricis  inconstan- 
tiam  mutabilitatemqae  non  efieminari;  tamen  cam 
atrocissimam  hoc  crimen,  quod  ad  te,  certo  scio,  prios 
omniom  romore,  qoam  meis  Uteris  allatom  est,  ita  sit 
bactenns  in  auditam,  ut  ante  banc  diem,  non  sit,  nostra 
memoria,  contra  ullum  (quod  sciam)  Hibemicum  re- 
gem  sosceptom ;  severitas  me  jubet,  justitise  concedere. 


"  CyRuark,  to  Roderic  the  monarch,  health : 
"  Though  I  am  sensible  (most  illustrious 
prince)  that  human  adversities  should  be 
always  supported  with  firmness  and  equa- 
nimity, and  that  a  virtuous  man  ought  not 
to  distress  or  afflict  himself  on  account  of 
the  levity  and  inconstancy  of  an  imprudent 
female,  yet,  as  this  most  horrible  crime  (of 
which  I  am  fully  satisfied,)  must  have 
reached  your  ears  before  the  receipt  of 
my  letters, — and  it  is  a  crime  hitherto  so  un- 
heard of,  as  far  as  I  can  recollect,  as  never 
to  be  attempted  against  any  king  of  Ire- 
land,— severity  compels  me  to  seek  justice, 
while  charity  admonishes  me  to  forgive  the 
injury.  If  you  consider  only  the  dishon- 
our, that  I  confess  is  mine  alone ;  if  you 
reflect  on  the  cause,  it  is  common  to  ub 
both  !  For  what  confidence  can  we  place 
in  our  subjects,  who  are  bound  unto  us  by 
royal  authority,  if  this  lascivious  adulterer, 
or  rather  destroyer  of  chastity,  shall  escape 
unpunished,  after  the  commission  of  so  fla- 
gitious a  crime?  The  outrages  of  princes 
so  publicly  and  notoriously  committed,  if 
not  corrected  become  precedents  of  perni- 
cious example  to  the  people.  In  a  word, 
you  are  thoroughly  convinced  of  my  affec- 
tion and  attachment  to  you.  You  behold 
me  wounded  with  the  shafts  of  fortune, 
affected  by  numberless  inconveniences, 
and  sorely  distressed  with  the  greatest 
afflictions  !  It  only  remains  for  me  to  re- 
quest, as  I  am  entirely  devoted  to  you,  that 
you  will  not  only  with  your  counsels  as- 
sist, but  with  your  arms  revenge  these 
injuries  which  torment   and  distract  me. 

quod  caritas  monet,  vindicta  recnsare.  Si  dedecus 
sp6ctes  boo  ad  me  unum,  fateor  pertinet,  si  caossam 
consideres,  en  tibi  mecum  est  communis.  Qoalem 
enim,  in  nostris  bominibus,  nobis  regia  dominatione 
devinctis,  spem  collocabimus,  si  mulierosus  hie  Mae- 
cbns,  ac  potius  pudicidae  ezpagnator,  tanti  sceleris 
imponitatem  fuerit  consecutus  7  Quippe,  inolta  princi- 
pium  flagitia  (qui  in  omnium  oculis  habitant)  pemicio- 
sam  imitationem  exempli  populo  prodere  conBaeacant. 
In  summa  meam  erga  te  yolnntatem  satis  exploratum 
babes.  Vides  me  fortunae  telis  sauciatum,  maximii 
incommodis  ad  fectum,  summis  difficnltatibas  adflict- 
om?  Reliquum  est  cum  totus  animo  et  studio  aim 
tuns,  ut  injurias,  quibus  laceror,  tam  consilio  togatos, 
quam  auxUio  aimatns  persequaris.  Hoc  cum  yelis,  et 
ut  veils,  non  Bolnm  a  te  poctulo,  varum  etiam  flagito. 
Vale. 


992 


HISTORY   OP    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1167. 


This  when  you  will,  and  as  you  will,  I  not 
only  demand,  but  require  at  your  hands. 
Farewell." 

On  receipt  of  the  express,  the  monarch 
held  a  council ;  and  the  result  was,  that 
Mac  Murchad  was  pronounced  unworthy 
to  govern,  and  therefore  must  be  deposed 
and  banished.  He  immediately  despatched 
a  body  of  his  troops,  and  sent  with  them 
orders  to  the  king  of  Meath,  and  to  the 
people  of  Dublin  and  Ossory,  to  join  O'Ru- 
ark,  whom  he  nominated  general  in  this 
expedition.  Mac  Murchad  endeavoured 
to  oppose  their  passage  into  Leinster  ;  but 
on  this  occasion  found  himself  deserted  by 
the  nobility,  the  military,  and  even  by  his 
principal  favourites  and  dependants,  so  hor- 
rible did  the  crime  he  was  charged  with 
appear  in  their  eyes !  Thus  circumstanced, 
he  retired  to  Ferns,  and  not  daring  to  stand 
a  siege,  he  fled  from  thence,  and  had  him- 
self and  about  sixty  persons  in  his  suite 
(says  his  secretary  O'Regan,)  conveyed  to 
Bristol.  The  castle  of  Ferns  soon  surren- 
dered; his  country  was  divided  between 
the  prince  of  Ossory,  and  Murcha,  a  prince 
of  his  blood  ;  and  seventeen  hostages  were 
brought  to  the  monarch. 

Public  justice  being  thus  rendered  to  the 
prince  of  Breffni,  the  monarch  prepared  with 
a  royal  army  to  invade  Tyrone,  while  with 
a  fleet  of  a  hundred  and  ninety  ships  he 
scoured  the  seas,  cut  off  their  supplies  from 
North  Britain,  and  assisted  the  operations  of 
the  army.  At  the  head  of  thirteen  legions,  or 
thirty-nine  thousand  foot,  and  seven  legions, 
or  fourteen  thousand  horse,  he  marched 
into  Ulster,  says  Lucius  ;*  nor  shall  we  be 
surprised  at  so  great  a  force,  when  we  con- 
sider that  it  was  to  act  against  the  greatest 
chief  in  Ulster  ;  and  that  Roderic  had  un- 
der him  O'Brien  and  Mac  Carthy,  kings  of 
the  two  Munsters,  O'Mealsachlin,  King  of 
Meath,  O'Reily  and  O'Ruark,  kings  of  the 
two  Breffhis,  the  princes  of  Oirgial,  Ulida, 
and  of  Leinster,  etc.  The  troops  from  the 
fleet  landed  at  Derry,  to  attack  it,  while 
with  the  land  forces  he  penetrated  into 
Tyrone.    In  vain  did  O'Neil  attempt  to 

*  Cambrens.  Even.  p.  88. 


oppose  their  passage,  and  try  to  attack 
the  imperial  camp  at  night  by  surprise. 
Through  treachery  or  the  darkness  of  the 
night,  his  troops  marching  different  ways, 
fell  upon  each  other  ;  nor  was  the  mistake 
discovered  tiU  much  blood  was  spilt.  Thus 
circumstanced,  he  judged  it  better  to  sub- 
mit, than  to  see  his  country  laid  waste  and 
himself  deposed.  He  sent  his  ambassa- 
dors to  Roderic,  proposed  to  pay  him  hom- 
age, and  to  deliver  into  his  hands  hostages 
for  his  loyalty  for  the  time  to  come.  The 
terms  were  accepted  :  in  the  presence  of 
the  other  princes  and  nobles,  O'Neil,  un- 
covered and  kneeling,  placed  his  hands 
closed  between  those  of  the  monarch, 
which  implied  surrendering  his  power  into 
his  hands,  and  was  immediately  after  re- 
ceived into  grace  and  favour.  After  this 
Roderic  dismissed  his  auxiliaries  with  rich 
presents,  and  returned  to  Connaught,  at- 
tended by  the  kings  of  the  two  Munsters, 
whom  he  royally  entertained,  and  on  their 
departure  presented  them  with  gifts  of 
great  value,  particularly  a  sword  of  exqui- 
site workmanship  to  O'Brien,  and  a  curi- 
ous goblet  of  pure  gold  to  Mac  Carthy. 

In  this  same  year  it  was*  that  Roderic 
sent  forth  notices  for  a  general  convention 
of  the  estates,  (not  of  all  Ireland,  but  of 
Leath-Cuin,)  to  meet  at  Athboy,  in  Meath, 
called  Ath-Buie-Flacta,  as  it  was  here  that 
the  famous  temple  of  Flacta,  sacred  to 
Samhuin,  or  the  moon,  was  erected  in  the 
days  of  Druidism.  This  feis,  besides  the 
monarch  in  person,  was  honoured  with 
the  presence  of  O'Mealsachlin,  King  of 
Meath,  O'Ruark  and  O'Reily,  princes  of 
the  Breffhis,  O'Dunlevy,  King  of  Ulida, 
O'Felan,  prince  of  the  Deasies,  etc.  Be- 
sides these,  St.  Gelasius  the  primate,  St. 
Laurence  OToole,  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 
Caeda  O'Dubthig,  Arcbishop  of  Tuam,  with 
a  great  number  of  bishops,  abbots,  and  in- 
ferior clergy,  attended  this  convention 
also.  In  this  feis,  (says  my  authority,) 
many  wholesome  laws  and  regulations 
took  place,  as  well  for  the  government  of 
the  church  as  the  state.  How  long  this 
sessions  held  is  not  said ;  but  that  it  broke 

*  Trias  Thaumat.  p.  310,  &c. 


A.  D.  1168.] 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND. 


293 


up  the  same  year,  and  that  no  less  a  num- 
ber than  thirteen  thousand  horse  attended 
it,  are  positively  affirmed. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  year  Morrogh 
O'Brien,  King  of  Thomond,  was  killed  by 
the  people  of  Desmond  (says  Lucius,)  who 
paid  an  eric  of  three  thousand  one  hundred 
and  twenty  beeves ;  but  the  Munster  An- 
nals affirm  that  he  fell  by  the  hands  of  his 
own  cousin  Connor,  grandson  to  the  fa- 
mous Connor  na  Catharach  ;  nevertheless 
Domhnal,  brother  to  the  deceased,  suc- 
ceeded him.  Soon  after,  the  people  of 
Dealbhna  attacked  CFennelan,  their  nat- 
ural lord,  and  put  him  and  his  adherents  to 
the  sword.  The  people  of  Meath,  who 
joined  in  this  insurrection,  were  fined  eight 
hundred  bullocks,  and  those  of  Dealbhna 
severely  fined,  but  how  much  is  not  said. 
Early  this  year  the  great  fair  of  Tailtean 
was  proclaimed,  and  held  the  usual  time, 
(i.  e.  from  the  16th  of  July  to  the  15th  of 
the  following  August,)  with  great  splen- 
dour and  solemnity. 

We  observed  of  Mac  Murchad  that,  de- 
serted and  detested  by  every  one,  he  fled 
to  England,  hoping  that,  in  a  strange  coun- 
try, where  his  tyranny  and  his  crimes  were 
not  so  well  known,  he  might  procure  friends 
and  followers  to  assist  him.  After  remain- 
ing some  time  at  Bristol,  he  proceeded  to 
Normandy  to  claim  the  protection  of 
Henry,  King  of  England.  Henry  gave 
him  a  favourable  reception,  heard  his  tale, 
but  excused  himself  from  at  present  en- 
gaging in  his  cause.  Mac  Murchad  re- 
quested at  least  his  permission  to  convey 
to  Ireland  such  volunteers  as  he  could  pro- 
cure in  England,  which  Henry  agreed  to, 
and  sent  with  him  the  following  proclama- 
tion; 

«  Henry,  King  of  England,  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy and  Aquitaine,  Earl  of  Anjou, 
etc.,  unto  all  his  subjects,  English,  Nor- 
mans, Welch  and  Scots,  and  to  all  na- 
tions and  people,  being  his  subjects, 
greeting : 

"Whereas  Dermod,  King  of  Leinster, 
most  wrongfully  (as  he  informeth,)  ban- 
ished out  of  his  own  country,  hath  craved 


our  aid  ;  therefore,  forasmuch  as  we  have 
received  him  into  our  protection,  grace,  and 
favour,  whoever  within  our  realms,  subject 
unto  our  command,  will  aid  and  help  him, 
whom  we  have  embraced  as  our  trusty 
friend,  for  the  recovery  of  his  land,  let  him 
be  assured  of  our  grace  and  favour." 

Mac  Murchad,  by  sound  of  trumpet,  had 
this  proclamation  frequently  read  in  Bris- 
tol, and  some  adjoining  cities.  He  offered 
great  rewards  in  money  and  lands  to  such 
as  would  enlist  under  his  banners ;  but  his 
success  was  not  great.  After  a  month's 
stay  at  Bristol  he  retired  to  Wales.  He 
applied  to  Richard,  Earl  of  Strigul,  com- 
monly called  Strongbow,  a  powerful  and 
popular  chief  in  Wales.  He  made  him 
considerable  offers  to  attach  him  to  his 
service.  He  went  so  far  as  at  last  to  pro- 
mise him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  the 
reversion  of  his  kingdom  after  his  death, 
if  by  his  means  and  those  of  his  friends 
and  associates,  he  should  be  restored  to  his 
dominions.  So  tempting  an  offer  could 
not  be  resisted.  Strongbow  immediately 
entered  deep  into  all  the  schemes  of  the 
exile.  The  treaty  was  signed  and  sworn 
to  on  both  sides  ;  and  Mac  Murchad  bound 
himself  by  oath  to  give  him,  at  a  proper 
time,  his  daughter  in  marriage,  and  to  settle 
the  reversion  of  his  kingdom  on  him ; 
though  this  last  he  knew  was  contrary  to 
the  fundamentals  of  the  constitution,  for 
the  right  of  election  was  vested  in  the 
chiefs  of  the  country,  and  none  could  be 
put  in  nomination  for  the  crown  of  Lein- 
ster who  were  not  of  the  line  of  Cathoir 
the  Great ! 

Earl  Richard,  now  entirely  devoted  to 
Mac  Murchad,  advised  him  by  all  means 
to  gain  to  his  interest  Robert  Fitz-Stephen, 
a  nobleman  of  great  interest,  but  who  had 
been  for  three  years  confined  by  Rice-ap- 
Griffen,  Prince  of  South  Wales.  Mac 
Murchad  waited  on  this  prince,  and  not 
only  procured  his  enlargement,  but  liberty 
to  transport  himself  and  his  friends  and 
followers  to  Ireland.  To  him,  and  to  his 
half-brother  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  he  prom- 
ised to  give  up  the  town  of  Wexford,  with 


294 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1168. 


two  cantreds  of  land  adjoining,  on  condi- 
tion of  their  support  and  assistance ;  and 
now  he  set  sail  for  Ireland,  with  as  many 
volunteers  as  he  could  collect.  He  pri- 
vately advertised  some  of  his  most  faithful 
adherents  of  his  landing  with  some  forces, 
which  were  soon  to  be  followed  by  more 
considerable  succours,  and  he  conjured 
them  to  repair  to  his  standard.  Those 
who  first  joined  him,  laboured  of  course 
to  engage  as  many  as  they  could  in  the 
same  cause ;  and  Mac  Murchad  found 
himself  powerful  enough  to  be  acknowl- 
edged, at  least  in  his  hereditary  territories. 
His  mortal  enemy,  O'Ruark,  had  soon 
notice  of  this,  and  advertised  the  monarch, 
who  sent  him  troops,  with  orders  to  pur- 
sue and  reduce  him.  Mac  Murchad,  diffi- 
dent of  his  own  subjects,  and  sensible  how 
unequal  the  contest  must  be  between  his 
few  auxiliaries  and  his  opponents,  had 
recourse  to  negotiation.  He  made  the 
most  abject  offers  of  submission  to  the 
monarch,  and  conjured  him  to  interpose 
his  good  offices  to  bring  about  a  recon- 
ciliation between  him  and  O'Ruark,  whom 
he  confessed  he  had  greatly  injured ;  that  he 
was  still  making  expiations  for  the  horrid 
crime  he  had  committed,  as  the  unhappy 
lady  had  long  been  among  the  holy  nuns 


of  St.  Bridget  at  Kildare ;  and  he  hoped 
that  he  would  not  drive  an  unfortunate 
prince  to  indigence  and  despair,  but  allow 
him  some  small  portion  of  the  possessioifB 
of  his  ancestors  to  support  the  remains  of 
a  miserable  life.  His  representations  were 
favourably  heard ;  he  was  allowed  ten  can- 
treds of  the  lands  of  Hi-Cinsellagh  (Wex- 
ford ;)  he  paid  homage,  and  delivered  up 
seven  hostages  to  the  monarch ;  and  he 
gave  to  O'Ruark  a  hundred  ounces  of  pure 
gold,  as  an  eric  for  the  injury  he  did  him. 

Having  thus  artfully  gained  a  solid  set- 
tlement at  home,  Mac  Murchad,  forgetful 
of  his  oath  and  his  hostages,  sent  his  confi- 
dant and  secretary,  O'Regan,  privately  to 
Wales,  to  remind  his  friends  of  their  prom- 
ises and  engagements,  and  that  he  was 
ready  to  receive  them  with  open  arms. 
As  the  season  was  now  far  advanced,  he 
advised  them  to  send  a  few  troops  by 
different  ways ;  but  to  be  ready  by  spring, 
with  what  forces  they  could  collect,  to 
land  on  the  Leinster  coasts,  where  he 
would  be  ready  to  receive  and  support 
them  with  a  good  body  of  troops.  O'Re- 
gan was  also  instructed  to  procure  as 
many  recruits  as  he  could,  and  for  this 
purpose  to  spare  neither  money  nor  prom- 
ises to  allure  the  people  to  his  standard. 


BOOK    XIII 


CHAPTER    I. 

Landing  of  the  Welch  adventurers,  and  junction 
with  the  army  of  Mac  Murchad — Assault  Wex- 
ford three  different  times,  and  are  repulsed — 
Delivered  up  by  composition — Mac  Murchad 
invades  and  lays  waste  the  principality  of  Ossoiy 
— The  monarch,  alarmed  at  his  success,  directs 
him  to  cease  further  hostilities  and  dismiss  his 
auxiliaries — Through  the  intercession  of  the 
Leinster  clergy  Mac  Murchad  agrees  to  a  fresh 
peace,  and  breaks  through  every  article  of  it — 
Enters  into  treaty  with  the  king  of  Thomond — 
New  Spain  discovered — Landing  of  Strongbow, 
and  capture  of  Waterford — They  march  to 
Dublin — Dublin  surprised,  and  the  massacre  of 
its  inhabitants — Remarks  on  this  success,  and  on 
the  Council  of  Armagh. 

While  Mac  Murchad  was  preparing 
to  assert  his  right  to  the  kingdom  of  Lein- 
ster, his  foreign  associates  were  equally 
active  in  his  cause.  In  May,  1169,  Fitz- 
Stephen,  Fitz-Gerald,  Barry,  Hervey,  etc., 
landed  near  Wexford  with  thirty  knights, 
sixty  esquires,  and  three  hundred  archers, 
and  these  were  next  day  joined  by  Maurice 
Prendergast,  at  the  head  of  ten  knights  and 
two  hundred  archers.  By  letters,  dated 
May  11, 1169,  they  advised  Mac  Murchad 
of  their  safe  arrival,  and  waited  his  orders 
as  to  their  proceedings.  He  immediately 
sent  his  natural  son  Donald,  at  the  head 
of  five  hundred  horse,  to  join  them,  while, 
at  the  head  of  his  infantry,  he  followed. 
He  received  them  with  every  expression 
of  joy,  and  they  immediately  concerted 
their  plan  of  operations.  Wexford  being 
nearest  to  them,  and  a  port  of  consequence, 
it  was  resolved  to  attack.  The  garrison 
(considering  the  abject  state  of  Mac  Mur- 
chad's  affairs,  and  how  universally  detested 
he  was)  imagined  they  were  strong  enough 
to  disperse  in  the  field  this  troop  of  inva- 
ders, and  marched  some  distance  from  the 
town  to  give  them  battle ;  but  when  they 


beheld  a  regular  and  well  disciplined  body 
of  men,  horse  and  foot,  exceeding  three 
thousand,  they  retreated,  burning  all  the 
villages  and  houses  contiguous  to  the  town, 
making  close  the  gates,  and  manning  the 
walls.  This  retreat  of  the  Irish  inspired 
their  antagonists  with  fresh  courage,  and 
orders  were  instantly  given  to  make  a 
general  assault  on  the  town.  But,  not- 
withstanding "  the  sounding  of  trumpets^ 
the  neighing  of  their  barbed  horses,  their 
shining  armour,  and  regular  discipline^ 
which  Cambrensis,  Campion,  Stainhurst, 
Hanmer,  and  later  writers  affirm,  were 
new  and  terrifying  spectacles  to  the  na- 
tives, we  find,  by  the  resistance  they  made, 
that  prudence  more  than  fear  determined 
their  retreat.  Fitz-Stephen  and  Barry  led 
on  the  troops  to  the  assault.  They  soon 
filled  the  ditches,  and  fixed  their  ladders 
against  the  walls  and  turrets  ;  but  the  Irish, 
regardless  of  "  their  shining  armour  and 
their  regular  discipline,"  everywhere  re- 
ceived them  with  their  accustomed  cour- 
age. Their  knights  were  hurled  headlong 
from  the  walls,  their  ladders  were  broken, 
and  after  the  loss  of  many  gallant  soldiers 
they  sounded  a  retreat.  This  repulse 
greatly  depressed  the  spirits  of  the  inva- 
ders ;  and  Fitz-Stephen,  apprehensive  that 
his  followers  would  desert  him,  instantly, 
at  the  head  of  a  select  body  of  friends, 
with  great  resolution  and  presence  of 
mind,  set  fire  to  all  the  ships  in  the  har- 
bour, to  show  his  men  that  they  had  no 
alternatives  for  the  future  but  victory  or 
death.  For  three  succeeding  days  (says 
Campion)  did  they  renew  the  assault,  and 
with  no  better  success.  At  length,  the 
bishop  and  clergy  of  Wexford,  to  prevent 


296 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


fA.  D.  1169. 


the  further  effusion  of  Christian  blood, 
exerted  their  utmost  influence  to  bring 
about  a  reconciliation  between  the  con- 
tending parties.  After  many  messages 
backwards  and  forwards,  Mac  Murchad 
agreed  to  accept  the  submission  of  the 
citizens :  they  renewed  their  oaths  of  fidel- 
ity, and  put  into  his  hands  four  of  their 
principal  burgesses  as  hostages  for  their 
future  good  behaviour.  Mac  Murchad, 
according  to  treaty,  made  over  the  lord- 
ship of  this  city  and  liberties  to  Fitz- 
Stephen  and  Fitz-Gerald. 

The  reduction  of  Wexford,  and  the 
report  of  the  numbers  of  foreigners  who 
came  to  the  aid  of  Mac  Murchad,  (which, 
as  usual  in  similar  cases,  was  greatly  ex- 
aggerated,) increased  his  reputation,  and 
made  numbers  of  the  Lagenians  resort  to 
his  standard,  though  much  against  their 
inclinations,  for  few  princes  were  more 
detested.  His  army  being  considerably 
increased,  he  thought  it  high  time  to  be 
revenged  on  Fitz-Patrick,  prince  of  Ossory, 
on  whom  part  of  his  territories  had  been 
bestowed  by  the  monarch.  He  imparted 
his  resolution  to  the  foreigners,  who  rea- 
dily agreed  to  the  proposal,  stimulated 
thereto  by  the  hopes  of  plunder.  He  col- 
lected all  his  forces,  with  a  considerable 
body  from  Wexford,  at  the  head  of  whom 
he  entered  the  territories  of  Ossory. 
Domhnal,  chief  of  that  territory,  had  forti- 
fied all  the  passages  into  it,  so  that  after 
three  days  constant  skirmishing,  the  Lage- 
nians made  no  sort  of  impression.  This 
success  determined  the  Ossorians  to  quit 
their  entrenchments  and  attack  the  enemy 
in  the  open  field  ;  but  being  much  inferior 
in  number,  they  were  obliged  to  retire,  and 
Mac  Murchad  gave  full  liberty  to  his 
troops  to  burn,  plunder,  and  destroy  the 
open  country  without  mercy  !  He  then 
returned  to  Ferns,  loaded  with  the  spoils 
and  treasures  of  Ossory.  The  glory  of 
this  victory  English  writers,  with  their 
accustomed  vanity,  attribute  to  their  coun- 
trymen, though  not  the  tenth  part  of  Mac 
Murchad's  army!  The  English  cavalry 
are  also  highly  extolled,  though  five  ships 
only  wafted  all  their  forces  to  Ireland,  in 


which  there  was  not  a  single  horse,  though 
all  the  writers  agree  that  the  son  of  the 
king  of  Leinster  immediately  joined  them, 
at  the  head  of  five  hundred  cavaliers,  which 
was  all  the  horse  in  the  army  !  Nay,  of 
so  little  consequence  were  they  in  the 
main,  that,  though  it  appears  that  imme- 
diately after  this  defeat  of  the  Ossorians, 
Prendergast  joined  the  prince  of  Ossory, 
the  sworn  enemy  to  Mac  Murchad,  with 
about  half  the  Welch  adventurers,  (for  not 
one  Englishman  was  of  the  party,)  yet  it 
produced  no  alteration  for  the  better  or 
the  worse  in  his  affairs ! 

Thus  did  Mac  Murchad,  by  uncommon 
fortitude  and  invincible  perseverance,  not- 
withstanding his  accumulated  crimes,  re- 
possess himself  of  all  the  dominions  of  his 
ancestors.  Revolutions  of  this  kind,  we 
have  seen,  were  frequent  in  Ireland,  but 
never  on  so  flagrant  an  occasion  as  the 
present.  He  had  already  made  his  peace 
with  O'Ruark,  and  the  repossession  of  his 
country  was  an  affair  in  which  the  public 
at  large  were  not  interested.  Princes  were 
frequently  deposed,  or  their  power  circum- 
scribed, according  as  they  stood  attached 
to  their  monarch  for  the  time  being,  and 
this  without  any  public  convulsions.  Such 
was  the  light  in  which  the  present  revolu- 
tion was  considered  ;  but  to  Roderic,  and 
to  his  party  only,  it  became  an  alarming 
affair.  If  Mac  Murchad  held  his  kingdom 
of  Leinster  without  doing  homage  foi*  it, 
his  own  power,  as  monarch,  must  become 
precarious.  Add  to  this,  that  Donald 
O'Brien,  son-in-law  to  Mac  Murchad,  being 
now  king  of  Thomond  and  Ormond,  that 
is,  of  North  and  East  Munster,  Roderic 
dreaded  his  power  and  suspected  his  fidel- 
ity. By  dispersing  the  forces  of  the  Lage- 
nians, or  compelling  Mac  Murchad  to  con- 
fess his  sway,  he  dissipated  all  apprehen- 
sions of  a  confederacy  against  him,  which 
might  end  in  his  deposition. 

Roderic  summoned  a  meeting  of  all  his 
friends  and  tributaries,  to  take  their  advice 
on  the  present  uncertain  situation  of  his 
affairs.  The  result  was,  that  messengers 
should  be  sent  to  Fitz-Stephen,  and  his 
followers,  to  demand  "by  what  right  or 


^ 


A.  D.  1169.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


297 


authority  they  presumed  hostilely  to  invade 
and  display  their  banners  in  this  land  ?  and 
ordering  them  immediately  to  quit  the 
country,  or  expect  to  be  treated  as  pirates 
and  robbers  who  had  taken  up  arms  with- 
out the  sanction  of  their  lawful  sovereign." 
As  their  ships  had  been  burned,  he  also 
offered  them  ships  and  money  to  transport 
themselves ;  but  these  adventurers  were 
between  two  rocks,  Sylla  and  Charybdis. 
Fitz-Stephen,  their  chief,  had  been  taken 
out  of  prison,  after  a  confinement  of  three 
years,  at  the  earnest  request  of  Mac  Mur- 
chad  and  the  bishop  of  St.  David's,  on  con- 
dition of  quitting  the  kingdom ;  and  we 
must  suppose  that  his  followers  were  not 
in  a  much  more  respectable  situation. 
That  they  were  all  persons  of  desperate 
fortunes  is  universally  admitted  ;  and  that 
they  were  men  of  the  most  dissolute  mo- 
rals, rapacious,  blood-thirsty,  and  cruel, 
the. whole  tenor  of  their  lives,  from  their 
first  landing  in  Ireland  to  their  different 
deaths,  sufficiently  proclaim !  Outcasts 
from  their  own  country,  what  other  would 
wish  to  receive  them  ?  Was  it  a  virtuous 
attachment  to  the  interest  of  Mac  Murchad, 
or  their  own  desperate  situations,  that 
made  them  reject  offers  so  full  of  human- 
ity? Any  one  can  answer  the  question. 
A  cause  like  Mac  Murchad's  was  worthy 
such  supporters :  simile  simili. 

But  while  these  orders  were  given  to 
the  ambassadors  of  Roderic,  others  were 
given  to  his  troops,  and  to  his  confederates, 
to  assemble  without  delay  to  add  greater 
weight  to  this  negotiation.  The  answer 
was  such  as  was  expected ;  but  it  acquit- 
ted the  monarch,  in  the  eyes  of  the  public, 
^om  the  consequences  that  might  be  sup- 
posed to  attend  such  refusal.  At  the  head 
of  twenty  thousand  men,  horse  and  foot, 
highly  appointed,  Roderic  entered  Lein- 
ster  ;  but  the  rebels,  unable  to  face  such  an 
army,  retired  from  post  to  post,  until  they 
reached  the  fastnesses  of  the  country  about 
Ferns,  which  they  strongly  fortified,  hoping 
to  protract  the  war  till  they  received  new 
succours  from  their  friends  in  Wales.  But 
Roderic,  resolving  to  finish  the  campaign 
as  soon  as  possible,  divided  his  armv  into 

38 


different  detachments,  appointed  the  troops 
who  were  to  attack  the  different  posts,  and 
those  who  were  to  support  them  ;  and,  ad- 
dressing them  in  an  animating  speech,  he 
ordered  them  to  march  on  to  victory ;  but 
(in  an  unlucky  hour  for  this  devoted  king- 
dom !)  the  clergy  of  Leinster,  assembled 
in  a  body,  presented  themselves  before  the 
monarch,  and  conjured  him,  in  the  most 
pathetic  terms,  to  avoid  the  effusion  of 
Christian  blood  !  Mac  Murchad  was  at 
his  mercy ;  and  all  he  could  require  by  a 
victory  should  be  granted  without  striking 
a  blow.  Thus,  first  at  Wexford,  and  again 
near  Ferns,  was  Mac  Murchad  and  his  as- 
sociates preserved  from  inevitable  ruin, 
through  the  interposition  of  the  Irish 
clergy  !  The  credulous  monarch  became 
again  a  dupe  to  the  sincerity  of  his  own 
heart;  and  the  perjured  Mac  Murchad 
gained  a  further  length  of  days  to  complete 
the  ruin  of  his  country!  Through  the 
mediation  of  the  clergy,  a  peace  was  con- 
cluded on  the  following  terms :  1st.  Mac 
Murchad  was  to  possess  the  country  of 
Hi-Cinsellagh,  or  Wexford,*  with  the  title 
of  king  of  Leinster.  2d.  He  was  to  do 
homage  to  the  monarch  for  this  territory, 
as  holding  it  in  vassalage  under  him. 
3d.  He  was  to  dismiss  all  the  foreigners, 
with  proper  rewards  for  their  trouble,  and 
never  admit  any  more  of  them  into  his 
country.  All  this  was  ratified  by  oath, 
before  the  great  altar  of  the  church  of  St. 
Maidog  at  Ferns,  and  he  delivered  his  son 
Art  into  the  hands  of  Roderic  as  a  further 
security.  This  proves  upon  what  light 
grounds  these  writers  go,  who  affirm  that, 
with  the  messengers  sent  to  Fitz-Stephen 
by  Roderic,  he  sent  others  to  Mac  Mur- 
chad, requiring  his  immediate  submission 
and  the  dismission  of  the  foreigners  ;  since 
we  see  that  he  thought  himself  now  happy 
to  compound  for  such  a  sacrifice.  But  the 
Lagenian  meant  as  little  security  in  this  as 
he  did  in  his  former  treaty.     The  truth  is, 

*  This  mistake  of  Sylvester  O'Halloran's,  in  identi- 
fying in  extent  "  the  country  of  Hi-Cinsellagh"  with 
Wexford,  has  been  pointed  out  by  Thomas  Moore, 
whose  very  valuable  note  on  this  subject  may  be  found 
in  his  "  History  of  Ireland,"  vol.  ii.  page  246,  Cab.  Cy- 
clop, edit. — Am.  Ed. 


298 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1170. 


he  was  so  universally  detested  by  his  own 
people,  that  he  apprehended  falling  a  sacri- 
fice to  their  resentment  the  moment  his 
foreign  satellites  quitted  him;  and  was, 
therefore,  determined  to  stick  to  them  to 
the  last. 

The  credulous  monarch,  relying  on  the 
faith  of  this  treaty,  solemnly  guaranteed  by 
the  clergy  of  Leinster,  dismissed  his  aux- 
iliaries and  retired  to  his  own  domain, 
while  Mac  Murchad,  under  various  pre- 
tences, delayed  the  time  of  fulfilling  his  en- 
gagements. It  was  the  interest  of  the  for- 
eigners to  appear  useful  and  necessary  to 
him ;  to  their  counsels  he  adhered  ;  and 
what  confirmed  him  the  more  was  the  ar- 
rival of  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  at  Wexford, 
with  ten  knights,  thirty  esquires,  and  a 
hundred  archers,  at  this  critical  time.  With 
this  addition  to  his  army  Dermod  suddenly 
appeared  before  Dublin,  laying  waste  the 
country  all  roimd.  The  citizens,  to  get  rid 
of  so  troublesome  a  guest,  agreed  to  give 
him  hostages  and  a  considerable  sum  of 
money,  which  last  was  the  sole  object  of 
this  expedition. 

Domhnal  Mor  O'Brien,  King  of  Tho- 
mond,  beheld  with  secret  pleasure  the  er- 
rors committed  by  Roderic.  He  was  son- 
in-law  to  Mac  Murchad,  and  secretly  en- 
couraged his  defection.  He  was  in  hopes 
to  extend  his  power,  and  that  of  his  house, 
at  the  expense  of  the  monarch,  and  he  en- 
tered into  a  private  treaty  with  Dermod, 
by  which  they  engaged  to  support  each 
other.  The  season  was  now  far  spent,  and 
Mac  Murchad  sent  pressing  letters  to 
Strongbow  to  join  him,  with  all  his  forces, 
early  next  year.  This  year  Maidoc,  or 
Maidog,  third  son  to  Owen  Gwineth,  prince 
of  North  Wales,  by  an  Irish  princess,  find- 
ing his  country  in  great  commotions,  and 
his  brothers  engaged  in  civil  wars  against 
each  other,  retired  to  his  maternal  patri- 
mony of  Clochran,  in  Connaught ;  and  be- 
ing a  prince  of  great  experience  in  mari- 
time afifairs,  he  fitted  out  a  number  of  ships, 
with  which  he  sailed  from  Ireland  (say 
my  authorities,  Clin  and  Stow)  so  far  north 
as  to  discover  lands  till  then  unknown; 
and  these  regions,  in  the  opinion  of  the  an- 


tiquarian Humphrey  Lloyd,  and  others, 
must  have  been  part  of  New  Spain  ;  if  so, 
Irish  and  Welchmen  may  claim  the  honour 
of  this  discovery  prior  to  Columbus  or 
Americus  Vespucius. 

The  winter  was  spent  in  negotiations 
and  secret  preparations,  the  eflfects  of 
which  appeared  early  in  the  summer ;  for 
the  king  of  Thomond  openly  disclaimed  all 
allegiance  to  the  monarch,  and  set  his 
power  at  defiance.  Roderic  invaded  Tho- 
mond and  Donald  claimed  aid  from  Mac 
Murchad,  who  sent  him  a  good  body  of 
troops,  Irish  and  English,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Fitz-Stephen ;  and  this  was  the 
first  footing  of  the  foreigners  in  this  fertile 
province.  Many  sharp  and  bloody  en- 
counters ensued,  with  various  success  ;  but 
Roderic,  called  away  by  more  pressing 
engagements,  was  obliged  to  relinquish 
this  object  for  the  present. 

Strongbow,  during  the  winter,  was  very 
active  in  raising  troops  for  his  intended  ex- 
pedition ;  but  sensible  how  highly  enraged 
Henry  II.  was  with  Fitz-Stephen  and  his 
party,  for  presuming  to  enter  into  the  ser- 
vice of  the  king  of  Leinster  without  his 
particular  license,  he  laboured  to  procure 
his  permission  to  serve  in  the  same  cause. 
He  applied  to  the  king  several  times,  who, 
tired  with  his  importunities,  contemptuously 
answered  at  last — "  That  he  might  go  as 
far  as  his  feet  could  carry  him ;  nay,  if 
he  would  get  Dedalus's  wings,  as  far  as  he 
could  fly."  Equivocal  and  insulting  as 
this  answer  was,  Strongbow  took  it  for  a 
permission  ;  but  he  first  sent  Raymond  Le 
Gros,  with  ten  knights  and  about  a  hun- 
dred archers  as  his  vanguard,  to  announce 
to  Dermod  when  he  himself  intended  to 
land,  that  he  might  be  ready  to  support 
him.  This  small  body  of  men  landed 
about  four  miles  from  Waterford,  and  im- 
mediately took  possession  of  an  old  neg- 
lected fortress,  which  they  repaired,,  and 
then  sallied  out  on  the  great  object  of  plun- 
der. They  collected  a  large  quantity  of 
homed  cattle,  which  they  obliged  the  coun- 
trymen to  drive  before  them ;  but  0*Fe- 
lan,  O'Ryan,  and  some  of  the  burgesses  of 
Waterford,  tumultuously  assembled  to  re- 


A.  D.  1170.1 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


299 


take  the  cattle  and  chastise  these  bold  in- 
vaders. With  great  difficulty  and  some 
Ioss,^the  cattle  and  part  of  the  guard  gained 
the  fortress ;  but  the  remainder  were  in  a 
fair  way  of  being  cut  off,  which  Raymond 
perceiving,  with  great  resolution  sallied 
forth,  and  slew  with  his  own  hand  CRyan, 
and  many  of  his  associates  were  killed. 
The  loss  of  one  of  their  chiefs  deranged 
the  Irish  for  awhile  ;  and  in  this  state  of 
irresolution,  Raymond,  with  uncommon 
presence  of  mind,  ordered  the  cattle,  with 
sword  and  pike,  to  be  driven  against  the 
enemy,  while  his  troops  followed.  It  was 
a  critical  moment  to  save  his  party  from 
destruction,  and  he  availed  himself  of  it : 
the  wounded  beasts  rushed  with  great  fury 
through  the  midst  of  their  ranks,  and  all 
was  confusion.  Raymond  and  his  troops 
gave  them  no  time  to  form  or  rally,  and, 
after  a  great  carnage,  took  seventy  pris- 
oners, with  which  they  marched  back  in 
triumph  to  their  fortress.  But  because 
Englishmen,  when  they  commit  acts  of 
cruelty,  choose  to  do  them  deliberately, 
Cambrensis,  and  others,  tell  us  that  Ray- 
mond called  a  council  of  war  to  determine 
on  the  fate  of  these  prisoners ;  and  it  was 
agreed  that  they  should  first  have  their 
limbs  broken,  and  then  be  all  precipitated 
into  the  sea ;  which  was  instantly  after  ex- 
ecuted, and  this  for  attempting  to  regain 
their  properties  from  the  hands  of  lawless 
banditti!  Immediately  after  this  inhuman 
and  bloody  sacrifice,  Raymond  was  joined 
by  a  body  of  Irish  and  English  of  Mac 
Murchad's  faction. 

We  are  told  that,  while  Strongbow  was 
preparing  to  embark  his  men  at  Milford, 
Henry  sent  an  express  commanding  him, 
on  pain  of  his  allegiance  and  life,  to  dis- 
miss his  troops  and  return  to  court  to  give 
an  account  of  himself;  but  he  had  gone  too 
far,  and  the  tenor  of  the  message  itself 
seemed  too  menacing  to  abide  its  conse- 
quences. Strongbow,  therefore,  weighed 
anchor,  and  in  a  few  hours  after  landed  in 
the  bay  of  Waterford,  on  the  23d  of  Au- 
gust, at  the  head  of  two  hundred  knights 
and  <me  thousand  two  hundred  foot  sol- 
diers, well-appointed.     Here  he  was  joined 


by  Mac  Murchad,  Fitz-Stephen,  Fitz-Ger- 
ald  and  Raymond,  with  their  forces,  who 
attended  his  arrival.  A  council  of  war 
was  held,  and,  as  it  was  of  the  utmost  con- 
sequence to  possess  themselves  of  Water- 
ford,  as  well  for  the  facility  of  receiving 
succours  from  South  Wales,  as  for  their 
own  security  in  case  of  a  future  defeat,  the 
dispositions  were  made  to  assault  it  next 
day  without  waiting  the  tedious  form  of  a 
siege,  which  their  critical  situation  would 
by  no  means  permit.  The  combined  forces 
advanced  to  the  assault  with  great  intre- 
pidity, and  were  as  bravely  received  by 
the  besieged,  who,  after  a  bloody  conflict, 
obliged  them  to  sound  a  retreat.  Next 
day  they  renewed  the  attack,  in  different 
places,  with  fi-esh  forces,  but  succeeded  in 
none !  Raymond,  who  commanded  as 
general  in  this  siege,  became  very  doubt- 
ful of  the  event.  He  carefully  sui^veyed 
all  the  walls  and  approaches  to  the  town : 
he  noticed  a  house  projecting  from  the 
walls,  the  beams  of  the  floors  of  which 
were  lodged  in  them,  and  wooden  posts 
fixed  in  the  ground  outside  the  walls  to 
support  this  airy  mansion.  In  the  night 
he  had  these  supporters  silently  knocked 
off,  and,  as  he  expected,  down  fell  the 
house,  and,  with  its  weight,  a  part  of  the 
wall.  A  considerable  breach  being  thus 
suddenly  made,  in  rushed  a  body  of  troops, 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  who,  traversing 
the  walls,  put  to  the  sword  all  they  met ; 
and  then,  proceeding  to  the  gates,  threw 
them  open  for  the  admission  of  their  com- 
panions. The  city  was  soon  one  scene  of 
carnage,  and  the  licentious  and  dissolute 
foreigners  glutted  themselves  with  every 
species  of  cruelty,  and  partly  satiated  their 
avarice  with  the  plunder  of  that  commer- 
cial city. 

The  relentless  Mac  Murchad,  callous  to 
the  feelings  of  humanity,  and,  as  if  to  add 
insults  to  the  distresses  of  the  surviving  cit- 
izens, sent  an  express  to  Ferns  for  his 
daughter  Aofe,  whom  he  immediately  after 
married  to  Strongbow,  and  then  had  him 
saluted  Righ-Damhna,  or  presumptive  heir 
to  the  crown  of  Leinster.  But  love  speed- 
ily gave  way  to  ambition,  and  the  taking 


300 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1170. 


of  Dublin  (with  Waterford  and  Wexford 
already  in  their  possession,)  must  give  to 
Mac  Murchad  the  absolute  command  of  a 
considerable  part  of  the  kingdom.  They 
immediately  began  to  prepare  the  army  for 
the  march,  of  which  Roderic  was  well  ap- 
prised, and  which  called  him  from  his  at- 
tacks on  Thomond.  He  caused  all  the 
passes  and  defiles  in  the  road  towards  Dub- 
lin, to  be  fortified  and  manned,  and  the  road 
itself  to  be  broken  up  in  several  places  to 
retard  the  march  of  the  enemy,  while  he 
attended  with  a  respectable  army  to  hang 
over  their  march,  or  give  them  battle,  as 
he  judged  most  proper.  But  the  confed- 
erates evaded  all  these  toils  by  taking  an- 
other, and  a  less-frequented  route,  and 
crossing  the  mountains  of  Glendcloch,  they 
got  the  start  of  the  royal  army,  and  en- 
trenched themselves  near  the  walls  of  Dub- 
lin at  a  time  when  the  inhabitants  thought 
them  many  miles  from  it.  The  object  for 
which  this  army  was  raised  being  thus  de- 
feated, the  diflferent  chiefs  demanded  their 
dismission  of  Roderic,  which  he  was  obliged 
to  grant,  and  so  Dublin  was  left  exposed 
to  all  the  horrors  of  war  and  desolation. 

The  citizens,  who  had  expected  the  at- 
tack, took  every  prudent  precaution  to  de- 
fend themselves  ;  and  Mac  Murchad  and 
Strongbow,  judging  by  the  obstinate  de- 
fence of  Wexford  and  Waterford,  that  the 
taking  of  Dublin  must  cost  much  blood, 
wished  to  gain  possession  of  it  on  easier 
terms.  O'Regan,  in  the  name  of  his  mas- 
ter, summoned  the  citizens  to  surrender, 
and  promised  to  preserve  their  immunities 
and  pass  a  general  act  of  oblivion  for  all 
past  offences.  St.  Laurence  CToole,  their 
archbishop,  desirous  of  avoiding  the  effu- 
sion of  blood,  exerted  his  influence  to  pre- 
vail on  the  burghers  to  enter  into  a  treaty. 
A  deputation  of  the  citizens,  with  this  most 
venerable  prelate  at  their  head,  waited  on 
Mac  Murchad  at  the  head-quarters.  Num- 
berless difficulties  were  started  to  protract 
signing  the  capitulation,  while  Raymond  le 
Gros  and  Miles  Cogan  were  carefully  ex- 
amining the  walls  of  the  city,  to  find  out 
the  most  likely  place  of  assaulting  it  with 
success ;  who,  as  Cambrensis  expresses  it — 


"  were  more  earnest  to  fight  under  the  ban- 
ners of  Mars  in  the  field  than  sit  in  the 
senate  with  Jupiter  in  council."  While 
the  deputies  were  amused  in  the  camp, 
and  the  burghers,  unguarded,  impatiently 
waited  their  return,  the  two  generals  led 
their  troops  to  the  lowest  and  least  defen- 
sible part  of  the  walls,  the  summit  of  which 
a  few  gained,  and  these  were  followed  by 
numbers.  Notice  was  given  to  the  camp 
of  their  success,  the  gates  were  forced 
open,  and  in  less  than  two  hours  the  city 
was  one  scene  of  blood.  The  cruelty 
of  the  soldiery  could  not  be  restrained ; 
houses  were  plundered  and  fired,  the  citi- 
zens butchered  in  cold  blood,  and  matrons 
and  virgins  violated  in  the  sight  of  their 
expiring  husbands  and  fathers  !  In  the 
j  height  of  this  carnage  and  conflagration, 
I  Mac  Murchad  and  Strongbow  entered  the 
city  in  triumph,  to  enjoy,  with  their  own 
eyes,  the  bloody  effects  of  their  hellish 
machinations  ;  and,  as  a  reward  to  Cogan 
for  the  soldier-like  part  he  acted  in  this 
most  perfidious  plot,  they  created  him  on 
the  spot  governor  of  Dublin,  and  to  the  sol- 
diers they  gave  the  pillage  of  the  town  ! 
The  21st  of  September,  1170,  was  the  day 
of  this  tremendous  massacre.  In  a  few 
days  after  Dermod  and  Strongbow  invaded 
Meath,  and  burned,  despoiled,  and  wasted 
the  country  without  mercy.  Roderic, 
roused  from  his  lethargy,  sent  a  message 
to  Dermod,  menacing  the  death  of  his  son 
if  he  did  not  immediately  withdraw  his 
troops,  and  atone  to  CRuark  for  the  de- 
vastations and  murders  committed  in  his 
country;  but  to  this  he  returned  a  most 
insolent  answer,  and,  far  from  avowing 
himself  his  liege  man,  he  declared  he  would 
not  lay  down  his  arms  till  he  made  all  Ire- 
land acknowledge  his  sway,  and  him  in 
particular.  Roderic,  enraged,  had  the 
head  of  young  Art,  and  two  more  of  Der- 
mod's  hostages,  cut  off,  and  declared  war 
against  him. 

The  pea-fidy,  cruelty,  and  butchery  of 
Mac  Murchad  and  his  foreign  associates, 
astonished  and  terrified  the  whole  kingdom. 
The  reader  has  seen  the  manner  in  which 
the  Irish  carried  on  their  domestic  wars. 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


301 


Everything  was  managed  aboveboard ;  ar- 
mies met  upon  a  day  appointed,  and,  by 
mutual  consent,  battles  were  fought.  Trea- 
ties of  peace  were  most  religiously  ob- 
served ;  conquests  were  never  followed  by 
cruelties  and  butcheries;  and  properties 
were  constantly  preserved  in  families ! 
How  could  such  a  people — indeed  any 
people — ^guard  against  an  enemy  devoid 
of  every  principle  of  honour  or  humanity, 
whom  the  most  sacred  ties  of  religion 
could  not  restrain  ?  Such  foes  were  their 
present  ones ;  and  Cambrensis,  Stainhurst, 
Campion,  Hanmer,  etc.,  their  own  histo- 
rians, are  my  evidences.  No  wonder  then 
if  the  astonished  clergy  should  assemble  in 
council,  as  they  did  this  winter,  under  the 
presidency  of  St.  Gelasius  the  primate,  to 
explore  the  cause  of  such  dreadful  massa- 
cres, practised  by  one  set  of  Christians 
against  another !  They  concluded  them 
to  be  permitted  by  the  will  of  Heaven, 
for  their  still  countenancing  an  unnatural 
traffic  with  England,  which  consisted  in 
purchasing  their  children  and  relations  as 
slaves ! — for  they  were  already  in  perfect 
accord  with  Rome  in  every  point  of  disci- 
pline. They  requested  of  Roderic  to  abol- 
ish this  custom,  and  to  emancipate  these 
English  slaves  ;  and  this  public  act  proves 
at  once  the  piety  and  simplicity  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  general  innocence  of  man- 
ners and  piety  of  the  people,  which  Bede, 
on  a  similar  occasion  in  his  own  days, 
acknowledged ! 


CHAPTER   II. 

Henry,  by  proclamation,  recalls  his  subjects  from 
Ireland — The  situation  which  this  and  the  death 
of  Mac  Murchad  reduces  them  to — Offer  a  for- 
mal surrender  of  their  conquests  to  Henry, 
which  he  refuses — Dublin  besieged  by  Roderic 
— The  garrison  offer  to  submit  and  surrender — 
Their  proposals  rejected — Surprise  the  camp  of 
the  monarch,  and  disperse  his  troops — The 
siege  of  Dublin  raised — Henry  receives  the 
submission  of  Strongbow,  and  invades  Ireland — 
The  princes  of  Leath-Mogha  submit  to  him — 
Remarks  on  the  parade  of  English  writers. 

While  Dermod  and  his  associates,  thus 
carried  everything  with  a  high  hand,  the 


fame  of  their  exploits  was  wafted  to  Aqui- 
taine ;  and  Henry  heard,  with  indignation 
and  jealousy,  that,  not  content  with  his 
kingdom  of  Leinster,  Mac  Murchad  laid 
public  claim  to  the  monarchy  of  Ireland, 
and  his  subject  Strongbow  was  declared 
presumptive  heir  to  the  crown  of  Leinster. 
He  quickly  foresaw  that  their  success 
would  endanger  the  peace  of  his  own  do- 
minions, and,  by  throwing  the  war  into 
Wales,  the  Welch  might  again  become  an 
independent  people,  and  proclaim  the  sound 
of  liberty  through  the  rest  of  Britain.  A 
proclamation  was  therefore  immediately 
issued  in  the  following  words,  and  sent  to 
Ireland : — 

^^Henry,  King  of  England,  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy and  Aquitaine,  etc. : 

"  We  forbid  and  inhibit  that,  from  hence- 
forth, no  ship  from  any  place  of  our  do- 
minions, shall  traffic  or  pass  into  Ireland ; 
and  likewise  charge  that  all  our  subjects, 
on  their  duty  and  allegiance,  which  are 
there  commorant,  shall  return  from  thence 
into  England,  before  Easter  next  following, 
upon  pain  of  forfeiture  of  all  their  lands  ; 
and  the  persons  so  disobeying,  to  be  ban- 
ished our  land,  and  exiled  for  ever." 

It  may  be  easily  conceived  what  a  mor- 
tifying and  unexpected  blow  this  must 
prove  to  the  ambitious  expectations  of 
Strongbow  and  his  partisans ;  but  their 
situation  became  presently  more  critical 
and  alarming,  when  they  heard  of  the 
sickness  and  death  of  their  protector  Mac 
Murchad,  in  his  capital  of  Ferns.  This 
execrable  wretch  died,  a  shocking  specta- 
cle, to  insatiable  and  vicious  ambition. 
His  body  became  covered  with  foetid  sores ; 
he  was  attacked  with  the  morbus  pedicu- 
laris ;  and  he  died  in  the  greatest  misery, 
without  friends,  pity,  or  spiritual  comfort  1 
This  was  attended  with  still  worse  conse- 
quences, for  it  detached  Donal  O'Brien 
from  this  interest,  who  presently  made 
peace  with  the  monarch,  and  most  of  the 
Lagenians  themselves  followed  the  exam- 
ple ;  however,  some  septs  of  thein  adhered 
closely  to  the  interest  of  Strongbow. 


302 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


In  this  distressed  situation,  Strongbow 
called  together  his  most  faithful  friends, 
who  resolved  on  the  only  expedient  which 
sound  sense  could  dictate.  Raymond  le 
Gros  was  despatched  with  the  following 
letter  to  Henry : — 

**Most  puissant  Prince  and  my  dread  Sov- 
ereign : 

"  I  came  into  this  land  with  your  majes- 
ty's leave  and  favour,  (as  far  as  I  remem- 
ber,) to  aid  your  servant  Dermod  Mac 
Murchad.  What  I  have  won  was  with 
the  sword ;  what  is  given  me  I  give  you. 
I  am  yours,  life  and  living.'* 

Raymond  presented  this  letter  to  Henry 
in  Aquitaine,  but  was  received  with  marks 
of  high  displeasure,  and,  after  a  long  at- 
tendance, was  obliged  to  return  to  Ireland 
without  any  answer.  This  irresolution  of 
Henry's  is  ascribed  to  the  murder  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  about  this  time ; 
as  if  the  great  object  of  acquiring  one  of 
the  finest  islands  in  the  world,  was  to  give 
way  to  the  consequences  attending  the 
death  of  a  prelate,  whose  life  had  been  long 
devoted  to  destruction  !  It  is  an  absurdity 
to  suppose  it ;  and  Henry's  behaviour 
showed  how  little  he  attended  to  the  con- 
sequences of  it.  His  irresolution  proceeded 
from  a  more  important  consideration ;  to 
accept  the  offers  of  Strongbow  was  to  in- 
volve himself  in  a  war  with  Ireland,  the 
issue  of  which  might  be  uncertain,  espe- 
cially now  that  he  was  so  deeply  engaged 
with  Rome.  When  he  had  procured  the 
bull  of  Adrian  IV.,  in  1156,  his  mother 
charged  him  to  avoid  all  altercations  with 
Ireland,  and  he  had  not  forgotten  this  inhi- 
bition. The  time  allowed  by  his  procla- 
mation had  now  elapsed ;  Strongbow  and 
his  adherents  were  proscribed  in  Britain, 
and  their  avarice  and  cruelty  made  them 
universally  detested  in  Ireland.  Roderic 
once  more  appeared  in  arms ;  he  sum- 
moned all  his  friends  and  allies  to  his  stand- 
ard, and  he  resolved  to  get  rid  of  this  set 
of  banditti.  Thirty  ships  of  war  had,  for 
some  time,  guarded  the  bay  of  Dublin,  to 
prevent  any  succours  being  received  by 


the  garrison,  and,  at  the  head  of  a  large 
army,  Roderic  appeared  on  the  plains  of 
Dublin.  The  garrison  were  not  in  the 
meantime  idle ;  they  called  in  all  their  out- 
posts, and  they  drained  their  other  garri- 
sons to  strengthen  that  of  Dublin.  Donal 
Cavenagh,  at  the  head  of  a  select  body  of 
Irish,  after  encountering  a  variety  of  dan- 
gers, threw  himself  and  his  men  into  that 
city  also ;  so  that  Strongbow,  Fitz-Gerald, 
Raymond,  Prendergast,  and  the  Cogans, 
with  their  best  men-at-arms,  were  there 
assembled. 

Roderic  at  length  invested  it  in  form. 
The  disposition  of  his  troops  showed  him 
well  versed  in  the  art  of  war ;  and  if  his 
vigilance  had  been  equal  to  his  abilities, 
he  would  have  got  a  speedy  riddance  of 
the  foreigners.  The  head-quarters  were 
fixed  at  Castle  Knoc,  three  miles  to  the 
west  of  Dublin.  O'Ruark  and  O'Cearuibhil, 
were  posted  at  Cluantarff,  to  the  north  of 
the  Liffey,  while  O'Cavenagh,  successor  to 
Mac  Murchad  in  the  kingdom  of  Leinster, 
with  his  Lagenians,  occupied  the  opposite 
shore,  and  O'Brien,  and  his  Mamonians, 
intrenched  themselves  at  Kilmainhaim. 
By  this  disposition,  aided  by  the  ships  in  the 
harbour,  they  were  cut  oflf  from  all  relief; 
Roderic  proposed  taking  it  by  famine,  and 
the  blockade  continued  two  months.  In 
this  distressed  situation  Strongbow  called 
a  council  of  war,  to  deUberate  on  what 
should  be  done ;  and  it  was  unanimously 
agreed  to  make  a  formal  surrender  to  Rod- 
eric of  all  their  castles  and  strongholds, 
to  render  him  homage  as  their  lawful  sov- 
ereign, and  to  hold  them  for  the  future  un- 
der him  as  his  vassals.  They  requested 
of  St.  Laurence  O'Toole  to  carry  these 
proposals  to  the  monarch,  and  to  intercede 
for  them.  The  holy  prelate  accepted  the 
commission;  they  were  formally  deliber- 
ated on,  and  they  were  found  inadmissible. 
Another  prince,  of  the  blood  of  Cathoir- 
More,  had  been  elected  king  of  Leinster ; 
and  these  chiefs,  whose  territories  had  been 
unlawfully  usurped,  now  reclaimed  them. 
The  only  terms  that  would  be  granted  to 
the  foreigners  were  that,  upon  condition 
that  they  would  peaceably  surrender  the 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


303 


city  of  Dublin,  with  the  ports  of  Water- 
ford,  Wexford,  and  their  other  strongholds, 
on  days  assigned  for  each,  they  should  then 
be  provided  with  transports  to  convey  them 
and  their  effects  back  to  Wales,  without 
the  least  hurt  or  injury ;  but  if  these  terms, 
so  reasonable  and  equitable,  were  not 
agreed  to,  then  they  would  speedily  pre- 
pare for  a  general  assault  and  put  the  gar- 
rison to  the  sword.  The  archbishop  re- 
turned with  this  answer,  and,  very  prob- 
ably, his  own  importunities  made  it  so  fa- 
vourable. But,  alas,  what  availed  these 
concessions  to  the  besieged !  They  had 
been  already  proclaimed  traitors  in  Brit- 
ain; their  natural  sovereign  rejected  the 
offers  they  made  him,  and  gave  them  up  as 
a  people  devoted  to  certain  destruction. 
In  so  deplorable  a  situation,  they  took  a 
resolution  worthy  of  gallant  men,  who  had 
no  alternatives  but  victory  or  certain  ruin. 
They  unanimously  agreed  to  make  a  des- 
perate sally,  and  to  fall  upon  the  monarch's 
ovra  quarters,  which,  they  had  reason  to 
think,  were  but  carelessly  guarded,  espe- 
cially while  this  negotiation  was  carrying 
on.  The  archbishop  was  in  their  hands ; 
and  while  the  troops  without,  and  he 
within,  thought  they  were  deliberating  on 
this  message,  they  were  everywhere  arm- 
ing for  the  sortie.  Before  daylight  they 
attacked  the  monarch's  quarters,  but  cer- 
tainly with  a  much  larger  force  than  their 
writers  set  forth.  The  out-guards,  supine 
and  careless,  were  easily  mastered.  They 
threw  themselves  into  the  camp,  and  every- 
thing was  soon  in  confusion.  The  be- 
siegers concluded  that  they  had  received  a 
large  reinforcement  from  England,  and 
their  surprise  and  fear  made  them  magnify 
the  danger.  Roderic  himself,  we  are  told, 
was  at  this  time  preparing  for  a  bath  ;  and, 
so  hot  was  the  alarm,  that  he  escaped  half- 
dressed  and  thus  set  the  example  to  his  fol- 
lowers. The  victorious  Britons  retreated 
to  the  city,  laden  with  spoils  and  glory ; 
and  the  Irish  princes,  in  imitation  of  their 
chief,  broke  up  their  camps  and  marched 
back  to  their  different  territories  !  Thus 
the  desperate  state  of  Strongbow's  affairs, 
and  the  inevitable  ruin  which  seemed  to 


await  him  and  his  followers,  were  the  very 
means  of  his  wonderful  success !  Could 
he  have  been  assured  of  an  asylum  in  Brit- 
ain, he  would  have  thought  himself  happy 
to  reach  it,  but  cut  off  from  such  resource, 
he  formed  the  generous  resolution  to  con- 
quer or  die. 

The  kingdom  was  once  more  broken 
into  factions  :  the  irresolute  and  tempori- 
sing spirit  of  Roderic  lost  him  the  confi- 
dence of  the  nation,  and  Donal  O'Brien 
again  renounced  his  authority,  and  entered 
into  a  fresh  treaty  with  his  brother-in-law 
Strongbow.  Still  we  cannot  doubt  but 
Strongbow  would  have  been  glad  to  be 
received  into  the  monarch's  favour,  and 
render  him  homage  for  his  territory ;  and 
it  is  a  most  reasonable  presumption  to  sup- 
pose that  he  made  new  overtures  on  this 
head.  He  could  not  hope  to  remain  inde- 
pendent ;  and  the  probability  is,  that  he 
would  rather  hold  his  dominions  by  Irish 
tenure,  than  put  himself  into  the  power  of 
Henry,  whose  dominion  he  dreaded,  and 
whose  hatred  to  him  he  was  well  apprised 
of;  but  Roderic  possessed  all  the  pride 
and  haughtiness  of  an  Irish  monarch,  with- 
out that  determined  spirit  so  necessary  to 
support  them. 

Henry  heard  with  amazement  the  new 
change  in  Strongbow's  affairs  ;  he  blamed 
his  own  timidity  for  not  accepting  the  ten- 
der he  made,  and  the  former  apprehensions 
of  his  mother  he  saw  were  imaginary.  He 
repaired  to  Britain,  and  made  large  levies 
to  invade  Ireland.  He  sent  over  for  Strong- 
bow, received  him  graciously,  (say  the 
Chronicles  of  North  and  South  Wales,) 
restored  him  to  his  estates  in  England  and 
Normandy,  and  declared  him  steward  of 
Ireland.  Whatever  might  be  his  inward 
dislike  to  Strongbow,  it  was  his  interest  to 
soothe  and  flatter  him,  and  it  was  equally 
the  other's  to  seem  persuaded  of  his  good 
intentions.  Thus  reciprocal  interests,  with- 
out love  or  sincerity,  brought  about  a  firm 
coalition  between  Henry  and  Strongbow  ! 
Their  conferences  ran  on  the  reduction  of 
Ireland ;  and,  from  what  Strongbow  had 
already  effected,  Henry  could  not  doubt 
but  his  expedition  must  be  crowned  with 


304 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


glory.  By  treaty  Henry  was  to  be  put  in 
possession  of  Dublin,  Waterford,  and  all 
the  maritime  towns  which  Strongbow  held, 
and  he  was  guaranteed  the  peaceable 
tenure  of  the  rest  of  his  territories. 

But  while  Henry  was  preparing,  during 
the  whole  summer,  for  his  Irish  expedition, 
we  behold  with  astonishment  no  attempts 
whatever  to  oppose  his  landing,  or  even  to 
re-take  any  of  those  cities,  so  necessary  for 
the  security  of  his  fleet  and  army,  except 
an  unsuccessful  attack  made  by  O'Ruark 
on  the  city  of  Dublin  !  But  how  could  it 
be  otherwise  ?  Roderic  had  let  slip  sev- 
eral opportunities  of  annihilating  his  ene- 
mies, and  every  new  accession  of  power 
to  them  was  a  fresh  source  of  reproach  to 
him.  Under  a  prince,  who  had  lost  the 
confidence  of  his  people,  no  vigorous  meas- 
ure could  be  adopted ;  and  those  from 
whom  the  nation  might  hope  for  protection 
publicly  betrayed  its  cause  !  The  two 
Munsters,  after  renouncing  the  authority 
of  Roderic,  entered  into  treaty  with  Strong- 
bow;  and,  as  the  event  would  seem  to 
prove,  privately  encouraged  the  invasion 
of  Henry,  since  we  behold  Mac  Carthy 
and  O'Brien  the  two  first  to  render  hom- 
age to  him  immediately  after  his  landing ! 

Everything  being  at  length  prepared, 
Henry,  with  a  fleet  of  four  hundred  ships, 
(say  some ;  with  others,  but  of  two  hun- 
dred and  forty,)  weighed  anchor  from  Mil- 
ford  Haven  with  a  fair  wind,  and  in  a  few 
hours  entered  the  harbour  of  Waterford, 
October  the  1 8th,  11 72.*  His  whole  force 
consisted  of  but  four  hundred  knights  and 
four  thousand  men-at-arms.  On  his  land- 
ing, Strongbow,  kneeling,  presented  him 
the  keys  of  that  city,  and  putting  his  hands 
closed  into  those  of  Henry,  did  him  hom- 
age for  his  kingdom  of  Leinster.     The  very 

•  The  reader  will  remember  that  "Dr.  Leland,  and 
others,  have  unfortunately  followed  the  authority  of 
Giraldus  Cambrensis  for  this  date  (1172.)  It  has  lately 
been  ascertained  that  the  right  year  is  1171.  Dr. 
O'Connor  is  severely  indignant  at  the  mistake.  When 
such  learned  doctors  disagree,  surely  our  friend  O'Hal- 
lorau  may  be  excused.  T.  Moore  equitably  observes, 
that  it  is  "a  mark  of  carelessness,  unquestionably,  but 
by  no  means  meriting  the  grave  severity  with  which 
Dr.  O'Connor  remarks  upon  it. — Am.  Ed. 


next  day,  Dermod  Mac  Carthy  presented 
him  the  keys  of  his  capital  city  of  Cork, 
and  rendered  him  homage  as  monarch  of 
Ireland.  After  a  few  days  repose  Henry 
marched  his  army  to  Lismore,  where  he 
rested  two  days,  and  from  thence  proceeded 
to  Cashell,  at  which  city  he  was  waited 
upon  by  Donal  O'Brien,  prince  of  Tho- 
mond,  who  tendered  to  Henry  the  keys  of 
his  capital  of  Limerick,  and  did  him  hom- 
age as  his  sovereign  ;  and  his  example  was 
soon  after  followed  by  Fitz-Patrick,  prince 
of  Ossory,  OTelan,  chief  of  the  Deasies, 
and  other  princes.  When  Henry  arrived 
at  Cashell,  he  there  produced  the  bull  of 
Adrian  IV.,  confirmed  by  his  successor 
Alexander  III.,  by  which  the  sovereignty 
of  Ireland  was  transferred  from  its  natural 
princes  to  this  stranger.  At  his  desire  a 
synod  of  the  clergy  was  immediately  sum- 
moned, to  meet  there  and  deliberate  on  the 
admissibility  of  the  bull,  in  which  Chris- 
tian, Bishop  of  Lismore,  as  legate,  was  to 
preside ;  but,  in  the  next  chapter,  we  shall 
give  an  account  of  this  bull,  and  the  result 
of  the  council  held  thereon.  In  the  mean- 
time, it  may  not  be  amiss  to  advert  to  the 
vain  and  ridiculous  parade  of  English 
writers,  and  their  Irish  associates,  with 
respect  to  this  prince.  We  are  told,  that 
his  army  proceeded  in  slow  and  solemn 
marches  through  the  country,  in  order  to 
strike  the  rude  inhabitants  with  the  splen- 
dour and  magnificence  of  their  procession ; 
and  we  have  been  already  entertained  with 
the  terror  which  the  appearance  of  Fitz- 
Stephen  and  his  armed  forces  impressed 
on  the  natives,  who  had  never  beheld  the 
like !  Assertions  of  this  kind,  indeed, 
might  appear  plausible,  had  this  people 
dwelt  on  the  other  side  the  Atlantic ;  but 
when  a  brave  and  polished  people  were 
the  subjects,  the  futility  of  the  assertion  di- 
verts our  thoughts  from  choler  to  con- 
tempt !  The  reader  has  been  already  suf- 
ficiently acquainted  with  the  distinguished 
character  of  the  Irish  nation  both  in  arts 
and  arms.  He  has  heard  how  remarkably 
attentive  they  were  to  the  article  of  their 
armour ;  that  their  corsets  and  head-pieces 
were  ornamented  with  gold ;  that  the  ban- 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


305 


dies  of  their  swords  were  of  the  same 
metal,  and  the  shields  of  the  knights  and 
of  the  nobility  were  mostly  of  pure  gold  or 
silver !     He  has  been  informed  that  their 
heavy-armed   infantry  were  cased  in  ar- 
mour from  head  to  foot ;  and  he  must  be 
convinced  that  the  equestrian  orders  among 
the  CeltsB  of  Europe  originated  from  hence. 
Yet,  in  opposition  to  such  stubborn  facts, 
British  writers  have  never  once  blushed 
for  imposing  such  falsehoods  upon  Europe  ! 
It  were  even  an  absurdity  to  suppose — 
though  we  wanted  these  evidences — that  a 
rich  and  commercial  nation,  constantly  in 
arms  against  each  other,  should  want  such 
necessary  appendages.    Did  they  not  wage 
constant  war  with  the  Danes  for  more  than 
two  centuries,  and  (what  is  more  than  can 
be   said   for  either  England  or  France) 
never  laid  down  their  arms  till  they  ex- 
pelled them  from  the  kingdom  ?     And,  had 
they  no  other  opportunities,  must  we  not 
suppose  that  they  would  borrow  from  them 
the  use  of  so  obvious  a  protection  ?     They 
contributed   largely,  by  their  blood   and 
treasures,  to   the   conquest  of   the   Holy 
Land ;  and  the  noble  endowments  for  the 
Knights  Hospitallers  by  Turlogh  O'Con- 
nor, Connor  O'Brien,  and  other  Irish  princes, 
(the  visible  remains  of  many  of  which  pro- 
claim the  magnificence  and  piety  of  these 
days,)   sufficiently  prove   this.     Must  not 
these  knights  and  adventurers  to  the  Holy 
Land   have   learned  the  use  of  armour, 
should  we    suppose  it  unknown  before? 
And  could  the  sight  of  a  few  needy  Welch- 
men,  of  desperate  lives  and  fortunes,  strike 
the  Irish  with  terror  and  amazement  ?  or 
could  the  parade  of  an  army  of  four  or  five 
thousand  men  be  such  a  novelty  to  them, 
who  frequently  saw  their  own  princes,  in 
all  the  pomp  of  royalty,  at  the  head  of 
thirty  or  forty  thousand?     Investigations 
of  this  kind  are  part  of  the  province  of 
history,  and  the  candid  and  generous  Brit- 
ons of  modern  days  will,  I  flatter  myself, 
be  pleased  to  see  proper  justice  done  to  a 
nation   with   whom   they  are   so   closely 
linked  by  affinity  and  interest. 


39 


CHAPTER  III. 

Synod  of  Cashell — The  bulls  of  Adrian  and  Alex- 
ander— Complained  of  by  Irish  writers,  and 
supposed  spurious — Real  bulls — The  reasons  that 
induced  Adrian  to  grant  a  bull  to  Henry— Why 
it  lay  concealed  for  sixteen  years — Ireland  sac- 
rificed to  unite  Alexander  and  Henrj'— The  con- 
duct of  Alexander  not  to  be  justified — Cambren- 
sis's  accountof  theactsof  the  Council  of  Cashell 
exposed — Accept  of  the  bulls — The  letter  of 
O'Ruark,  for  style,  language,  and  sentiment, 
infinitely  superior  to  what  is  contained  in  those 
bulls. 

The  synod  of  Cashell  was  splendid  and 
numerous.  Besides  the  legate,  there  ap- 
peared the  archbishops  of  Munster,  Lein- 
ster,  and  Connaught,  with  their  suffragans, 
and  many  mitred  abbots  and  inferior  clergy. 
The  bull  of  Adrian  IV.  was  then  produced, 
of  which  here  follows  a  copy : — 

"Adrian,  bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of 
God,  to  his  dearest  son  in  Christ,  the 
illustrious  King  of  England,  greeting, 
and  apostolical  benediction : 

"  Full  laudably  and  profitably  hath  your 
magnificence  conceived  the  design  of  prop- 
agating your  glorious  renown  on  earth,  and 
completing  your  reward  of  eternal  happi- 
ness in  heaven ;  while,  as  a  Catholic  prince, 
you  are  intent  on  enlarging  the  borders  of 
the  Church,  teaching  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  faith  to  the  ignorant  and  rude, 
extirpating  the  roots  of  vice  from  the  field 
of  the  Lord,  and  for  the  more  convenient 
execution  of  this  purpose,  requiring  the 
counsel  and  favour  of  the  apostolic  see,  in 
which  the  maturer  your  deliberation  and 
the  greater  the  discretion  of  your  proce- 
dure, by  so  much  the  happier  we  trust  will 
be  your  progress,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
Lord,  as  all  things  are  used  to  come  to  a 
prosperous  end  and  issue,  which  take  their 
beginning  from  the  ardour  of  faith  and  the 
love  of  religion. 

"  There  is,  indeed,  no  doubt  but  that 
Ireland,  and  all  the  islands  on  which 
Christ,  the  sun  of  righteousness,  hath 
shone,  and  which  have  received  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Christian  faith,  do  belong  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  St.  Peter  and  the  holy 
Roman  church,  as  your  excellency  also 
doth  acknowledge ;  and  therefore  we  are 
the  more  solicitous  to  propagate  the  right- 


306 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


[A.D.  1171. 


eous  plantation  of  faith  in  this  land,  and 
the  branch  acceptable  to  God,  as  we  have 
the  secret  conviction  of  conscience  that 
this  is  more  especially  our  bounden  duty. 
You  then,  my  dear  son  in  Christ,  have  sig- 
nified to  us  your  desire  to  enter  into  the 
island  of  Ireland,  in  order  to  reduce  the 
people  to  obedience  under  the  laws,  and 
to  extirpate  the  plants  of  vice  ;  and  that 
you  arc  willing  to  pay  from  each  a  yearly 
pension  of  one  penny  to  St.  Peter,  and 
that  you  will  preserve  the  rights  of  the 
churches  of  this  land  whole  and  inviolate. 
We,  therefore,  with  that  grace  and  accept- 
ance suited  to  your  pious  and  laudable  de- 
sign, and  favourably  assenting  to  your 
petition,  do  hold  it  good  and  acceptable, 
that,  for  extending  the  borders  of  the 
Church,  restraining  the  progress  of  vice,  for 
the  correction  of  manners,  the  planting  of 
virtue,  and  the  increase  of  religion,  you 
enter  this  island,  and  execute  therein  what- 
ever shall  pertain  to  the  honour  of  God 
and  welfare  of  the  land  ;  and  that  the  peo- 
ple of  this  land  receive  you  honourably, 
and  reverence  you  as  their  lord,  the  rights 
of  their  churches  still  remaining  sacred 
and  inviolate,  and  saving  to  St.  Peter  the 
annual  pension  of  one  penny  from  every 
house. 

"  If  then  you  be  resolved  to  carry  the 
design  you  have  conceived  into  effectual 
execution,  study  to  form  this  nation  to 
virtue  and  manners,  and  labour  by  your- 
self, and  others  you  shall  judge  meet  for 
this  work,  in  faith,  word,  and  life,  that  the 
Church  may  be  there  adorned,  that  the 
religion  of  the  Christian  faith  may  be 
planted  and  grow  up,  and  that  all  things 
pertaining  to  the  honour  of  God,  and  sal- 
vation of  souls  be  so  ordered,  that  you  may 
be  entitled  to  the  fullness  of  heavenly  re- 
ward from  God,  and  obtain  a  glorious 
renown  on  earth  throughout  all  ages. 
Given  at  Rome,  in  the  year  of  Salvation 
1166." 

Next  was  read  the  bull  of  his  succes- 
sor, Alexander  III.,  confirming  the  above 
donation  of  Adrian,  to  the  following 
effect : — 


"Alexander,  bishop,  servant  of  the  servants 
of  God,  to  his  most  dear  son  in  Christ, 
the  illustrious  King  of  England,  health 
and  apostolical  benediction : 
"  Forasmuch  as  these  things  which  have 
been  on  good  reasons  granted  by  our  pre- 
decessors, deserve  to  be  confirmed  in  the 
fullest  manner  ;  and  considering  the  grant 
of  the  dominion  of  the  realm  of  Ireland  by 
the  venerable  Pope  Adrian,  we,  pursuing 
his  footsteps,  do  ratify  and  confirm  the 
same,  (reserving  to  St.  Peter,  and  to  the 
holy  Roman  Church,  as  well  in  England  as 
in  Ireland,  the  yearly  pension  of  one  penny 
from  every  house,)  provided  that  the  abom- 
inations of  the  land  being  removed,  that 
barbarous  people.  Christians  only  in  name, 
may,  by  your  means,  be  reformed,  and 
their  lives  and  conversation  mended,  so 
that  their  disordered  church  being  thus 
reduced  to  regular  discipline,  that  nation 
may,  with  the  name  of  Christians,  be  so  in 
act  and  deed.  Given  at  Rome,  in  the  year 
of  Salvation  1172." 

Our  writers  complain  loudly  of  the  in- 
justice, and  want  of  foundation,  in  the 
charges  exhibited  in  the  above  bulls; 
they  mention  the  flourishing  state  of  reli- 
gion and  letters  in  this  very  age,  in  which 
no  less  than  three  of  our  prelates  were 
afterwards  canonized  by  Rome,  namely, 
Celsus  and  Malachie,  successors  in  the  see 
of  Armagh,  and  St.  Laurence  O'Toole, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin.  They  recite  with 
these  the  names  of  a  Christian,  a  Gelasius, 
a  Malchus,  a  Maurice,  etc.,  etc.,  prelates 
of  most  exalted  virtue  and  learning.  It 
had  been  better  for  the  nation  that  they 
could  have  mentioned  a  Brien,  a  Cineidi,  a 
Ceallachan,  etc.,  who,  with  the  sword, 
would  at  once  cut  through  the  fascination ! 
In  their  zeal  for  the  honour  of  the  Church 
they  contend  that,  because  these  bulls  were 
unjust,  they  were  therefore  forged ;  as  if 
popes,  in  their  temporal  capacities,  were 
exempt  from  human  depravities ;  and,  as 
if  acts  of  injustice  exercised  by  them, 
affected  the  religion,  not  the  person  ! 

We  have  every  reason  to  think  them 
genuine.      They  were  published  in  the 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


307 


lifetime  of  Alexander,  by  Cambrensis,  who, 
though  in  most  instances  a  man  as  devoid 
of  truth  and  candour  as  any  that  ever  took 
up  the  pen,  yet  would  not  presume,  on  the 
present  occasion,  to  publish  a  bull  as  Alex- 
ander's, if  he  was  not  well  authorised  so 
to  do ;  and  the  authenticity  of  this  confirms 
that  of  the  other.  Add  to  this,  that  the 
effects  they  produced  on  the  present  assem- 
bly, and  through  their  influence,  on  the 
nation,  is  a  proof,  not  to  be  controverted, 
of  their  reality.  How  much  it  restrained 
the  hands  of  the  Irish,  not  only  upon  this, 
but  upon  future  occasions,  we  may  infer 
from  the  following  remarkable  words  in  a 
memorial  from  O'Neil,  King  of  Ulster, 
presented  in  1330,  to  John  XXII.,  Pope  of 
Rome,  in  the  name  of  the  Irish  nation : — 
"  During  the  course  of  so  many  ages, 
(three  thousand  years,)  our  sovereigns 
preserved  the  independency  of  their  coun- 
try; attacked  more  than  once  by  foreign 
powers,  they  wanted  neither  force  nor 
courage  to  repel  the  bold  invaders;  but 
that  which  they  dared  to  do  against  force, 
they  could  not  against  the  simple  decree  of 
one  of  your  predecessors."     Adrian,  etc.* 

The  validity  of  these  bulls  I  think  can- 
not be  doubted :  it  only  remains  to  know 
how  they  were  procured,  and  why  bulls 
granted  at  such  distances  from  each  other, 
and  for  the  same  purpose,  should  appear  at 
one  and  the  same  time  ?  This  investiga- 
tion will  be  at  the  same  time  a  refutation 
of  the  arguments  offered  against  them. 
Adrian  was  by  birth  an  Englishman,  the 
spurious  offspring  of  a  priest ;  deserted  by 
his  father,  he  repaired  to  Paris,  and  was 
there  instructed  in  philosophy  and  divinity, 
by  Marianus  O'Gormon,  professor  of  the 
seven  liberal  sciences,  (so  he  is  styled,)  as 
he  himself  acknowledges,  f  In  1154  he 
was  raised  to  the  pontificate;  and  some 
time  after  Henry  II.  was  proclaimed  king 
of  England,  he  sent  a  formal  embassy  to 
congratulate  the  new  pope  on  his  eleva- 
tion. This  mark  of  attention  in  Henrv 
was  highly  pleasing  to  Adrian.  A  strict 
friendship  arose  between  them,  and  this 

*  Scota  Chronicon,  vol.  iii.  p.  908,  etc. 
t  Grat.  Luc.  p.  164. 


encouraged  the  young  king,  whose  ambi- 
tion was  boundless,  to  request  a  grant  of 
the  kingdom  of  Ireland  from  the  pope.  It 
was  a  flattering  circumstance  to  him  as 
pontiff*,  as  it  was  acknowledging  the  power 
assumed  by  the  see  of  Rome,  of  disposing 
of  kingdoms  and  empires.  He  by  this 
means  gratified  the  desire  of  aggrandizing 
his  native  country,  added  a  fresh  accession 
of  wealth  and  power  to  Rome,  and  ren- 
dered a  mighty  prince  one  of  her  tributa- 
ries. Such  were  the  reasons  that  prevailed 
on  Adrian  to  grant  the  kingdom  of  Ireland 
to  Henry.  Whether  he  had  a  power  to 
make  this  donation,  and  if  he  had,  whether 
it  was  just  so  to  do,  were  objects  which 
never  once  employed  his  thoughts.  That 
it  lay  concealed  for  sixteen  years  is  grant- 
ed, during  which  time  every  action  of 
Henry's  life  showed  how  little  disposed  he 
was  to  be  thought  a  champion  of  the 
Church,  and  of  course  what  little  reliance 
he  had  on  the  force  of  this  bull.  We  have 
seen  Mac  Murchad  apply  to  him  in  1168, 
and  it  is  affirmed  that  he  offered  to  hold 
the  kingdom  of  Leinster  under  him,  pro- 
vided he  assisted  in  re-establishing  him  on 
that  throne.  In  1171,  Strongbow  and  his 
followers  made  a  formal  surrender  of  it 
to  him,  which  he  absolutely  refused  ;  but, 
say  the  panegyrists  of  this  prince,  it  was 
because  they  had  presumed  to  invade  a 
country  which  he  intended  to  conquer ! 
Was  ever  a  more  weak  and  ridiculous 
reason  started  ?  But  if  he  not  only  re- 
jected this  offer  of  his  own  subjects  in 
1171,  but  even  proscribed  them,  how  ac- 
count for  his  gladly  accepting  it  in  1172, 
and  receiving  them  back  to  grace  and 
favour?  Is  it  that  these  gentlemen  sup- 
pose their  readers  void  of  sense  and  re- 
flection, when  they  presume  to  advance 
such  absurdities ;  or  that  time  gives  a 
sanction  to  ill-founded  assertions  ? 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  Ireland, 
though  divided  into  factions,  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  not  governed  by  monarchs 
legally  chosen  for  above  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  yet  still  appeared  formidable 
and  respectable  in  the  eyes  of  Europe. 
They  revered  the  nation,  which  not  only 


308 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  1171. 


preserved  her  independence  in  the  height 
of  Roman  despotism,  but  continued  to 
break  the  shackles  with  which  she  fettered 
the  rest  of  Europe ;  they  admired  her 
noble  and  successful  efforts  against  the 
Danes,  to  the  total  expulsion  of  that  people  ; 
and  they  could  not  forget  that,  to  the  piety 
and  learning  of  her  sons  they  were  in- 
debted for  the  revival  of  letters.  It  was 
not  want  of  inclination,  but  a  dread  of  the 
power  that  was  to  oppose  him,  that  made 
Henry  so  backward  to  engage  in  the  cause 
of  Mac  Murchad,  and  afterwards  of 
Strongbow.  But  when  he  beheld  this  last, 
contrary  to  all  expectations,  by  his  valour, 
not  only  able  to  extricate  himself  from  the 
dangers  with  which  he  was  environed,  but 
also  to  re-establish  himself  in  his  kingdom 
of  Leinster,  he  became  convinced  he  had 
counted  more  on  the  power  of  the  Irish 
than  he  ought.  The  same  reasons  that 
made  him  for  so  many  years  a  persecutor 
of  the  Church  and  the  clergy,  (interest.) 
now  pointed  out  to  him  a  contrary  course. 
He  had  completed  the  rupture  with  Rome 
by  the  murder  of  the  famous  Thomas  a 
Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who 
fell  by  the  hands  of  his  assassins  at  the 
very  altar,  on  the  29th  of  December,  1170. 
His  name  was  execrated  over  all  Europe ; 
at  Rome,  it  was  dangerous  to  mention  it. 
He  was  to  have  been  excommunicated 
there  on  Holy  Thursday,  1171,  but  that 
his  deputies  boldly  swore  that  the  murder 
of  Thomas  was  without  his  participation, 
which  suspended  it  for  a  time  ;  but  his 
territories  on  the  continent  remained  under 
interdict,  and  the  excommunication  of  the 
English  bishops  in  full  force :  and  yet  at 
this  time,  and  under  these  difficulties,  some 
have  asserted  that  Alexander  confirmed 
the  donation  of  Adrian  in  consequence  of 
a  request  from  the  Irish  clergy  !  *  Early 
in  the  year  1172,  Henry  repaired  to  Eng- 
land, to  be  nearer  at  hand  to  attend  the 
affairs  of  Ireland,  which  now  seemed  to 
demand  his  more  particular  notice.  Here 
he  received  advice,  that  the  legates  from 
Rome  had  arrived  in  Normandy  to  hear 
his   defence,  and    in   consequence  of   it, 

•  Fleury  Hist.  Eccles.  torn.  xv.  f.  323. 


either  to  exculpate  or  excommunicate  him 
for  the  murder  of  Thomas  a  Becket.  How 
much  this  new  apostle  of  Ireland  regarded 
in  his  heart  these  anathema,  may  be  col- 
lected from  this  answer  to  a  couple  of  car- 
dinals, who,  two  years  before  this,  had 
threatened  him  with  a  similar  compliment : 
"  By  the  eyes  of  God,  (his  favourite  oath, 
says  he,)  I  neither  regard  you  nor  your 
excommunication  any  more  than  I  do  an 
egg !"  But  it  was  his  present  interest  to  be 
on  good  terms  with  the  pope,  as  he  hoped 
by  getting  his  confirmation  of  Adrian's  bull 
of  donation,  to  make  the  reduction  of  Ire- 
land— now  open  to  him — on  easier  terms. 
He  therefore  repaired  to  Normandy  to 
meet  the  legates ;  but  though  he  affected 
to  despise  the  censures  of  the  Church,  yet 
he  seemed  to  pay  greater  regard  to  an 
oath  than  the  reverend  advocates  he  sent 
to  Rome,  who  there  swore  in  his  name, 
(and  as  if  by  his  directions,  though  it 
appears  they  had  none  from  him,)  that  he 
was  innocent  of  the  death  of  Thomas. 
The  legates  demanded  his  own  oath,  as  a 
confirmation  of  what  they  had  deposed, 
and  which  was  the  condition  on  which  the 
excommunication  was  delayed ;  but  this  he 
not  only  refused  to  comply  with,  but  ab- 
ruptly quitted  the  assembly.  He  had,  two 
years  before  this,  declared  not  only  his 
contempt  of  Rome,  but  obliged  his  English 
subjects,  of  all  ages,  to  renounce  their 
obedience  to  her  ;  and  the  legates  did  not 
wish  to  push  him  to  greater  extremities. 
They  sent  a  message  to  Henry,  by  the 
bishops  of  Lizieux  and  Salisbury,  and  the 
archdeacon  of  Poictiers,  his  particular 
confidants,  by  whom  he  was  prevailed 
upon  to  give  another  meeting  to  the  le- 
gates. Here  he  not  only  took  the  oath 
required  of  him,  but  freely  subscribed  to 
every  article  they  thought  fit  to  impose 
upon  him,  to  the  great  astonishment  of 
everybody  but  the  few  who  were  in  the 
secret.  I  suppose  {and  I  think  the  event 
makes  it  certain)  that  the  real  cause  of  this 
wonderful  reformation  was  a  promise,  in 
case  of  his  compliance,  of  having  the  bull 
of  Adrian  confirmed ;  but  otherwise,  to 
have  it  reversed,  and  so  unite  all  Ireland 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


309 


against  him.  In  the  September  following, 
four  months  after  this  agreement,  Henry 
attended  the  council  of  Avranches,  where 
he  renewed  all  his  oaths ;  and  then,  and 
there,  I  take  it  for  granted,  he  was  pre- 
sented with  Alexander's  bull ;  for  it  is 
agreed  on  all  hands,  that  the  union  be- 
tween the  pope  and  the  king  happened 
this  year ;  and  it  is  also  as  certain,  that  it 
was  the  October  following  that  he  landed 
in  Ireland  ;  and,  in  all  appearance,  it  was 
the  waiting  for  this  bull,  (which  bore  the 
date  of  1172,)  that  made  his  departure  for 
that  island  so  late  in  the  season,  from 
which  he  did  not  return  till  the  spring  of 
1173.  Thus  attending  to  dates  and  cir- 
cumstances, renders  all  these  affairs,  so 
seemingly  intricate  and  difficult,  quite 
clear.  It  explains  the  reasons  that  made 
Henry  so  cautious  of  meddling  in  Irish 
affairs,  till  he  found  Strongbow  firmly  es- 
tablished there  ;  it  accounts  for  the  sudden 
alteration  of  his  conduct  to  this  nobleman, 
as  well  as  to  Alexander's  legates ;  and  it 
at  the  same  time  removes  all  the  objections 
of  Irish  writers  to  the  validity  of  this  and 
the  former  bull ;  for  can  anything  appear 
more  absurd  than  to  suppose  that  Henry, 
under  the  sanction  of  Rome,  would  attempt 
to  invade  Ireland,  while  her  thunder  was 
ready  to  be  launched  against  himself? 
that  he  should  conquer  under  her  auspices 
abroad,  while  she  was  just  ready  to  strip 
him  of  his  own  dominions  at  home  ? 

But,  to  every  man  of  principle,  the  con- 
duct of  Alexander  and  of  his  ministers, 
viewed  in  the  most  favourable  light,  must 
appear  hypocritical  and  abominable  to  the 
last  degree  !  Let  us  suppose  him  to  have 
had  an  absolute  dominion  over  Ireland,  and 
that  the  natives  were  the  very  people  he 
had  described  them  to  be ;  was  Henry — a 
prince  notoriously  devoid  of  religion,  a 
persecutor  of  the  Church  and  clergy,  cruel 
and  vindictive  in  his  public  character,  and 
dissolute  in  private  life — was  this  prince, 
surrounded  with  satellites,  a  proper  person 
to  send  to  reform  the  church  and  people 
of  Ireland  ?  But  if  Alexander  and  his  pre- 
decessors had  not  the  smallest  shadow  of 
right  whatever  to  the  dominions  of  Ireland, 


as  they  most  certainly  had  not ;  and  if  the 
people  were  the  very  reverse  of  what  he 
paints  them,  as  they  most  assuredly  were ; 
what  can  be  offered  in  defence  of  the  con- 
duct of  this  father  of  the  Christian  world? 
But  to  return  to  the  council  of  Cashell, 
of  whose  acts  I  can  trace  no  accounts  but 
such  as  are  delivered  by  Cambrensis,  who 
tells  us  that,  after  accepting  of  the  bulls, 
they  proceeded  to  the  reformations  so 
much  wanted — "  Which  were  to  make 
them  Christians  in  effect  as  well  as  in 
name,  and  which  were  to  bring  back  their 
church  from  disorder  and  anarchy  to  regu- 
lar discipline."  This  reform  is  reduced  to 
eight  articles :  The  first  enjoins,  that  the 
people  shall  not  marry  with  their  close 
kindred.  Second,  the  children  shall  be 
catechized  outside  the  church-door,  and 
infants  baptized  at  the  font.  Third,  the 
laity  shall  pay  tithes.  Fourth,  the  posses- 
sions of  the  clyirch  shall  be  free  from  tem- 
poral exactions.  Fifth,  the  clergy  to  be 
exempt  from  eric,  or  retribution,  on  ac- 
count of  murder,  or  other  crimes  committed 
by  their  relations.  Sixth,  directs  the  man- 
ner of  disposing  by  will  of  the  eflfects  of  a 
dying  man.  Seventh,  enjoins  burial  to  the 
dead.  And  the  eighth  directs,  that  divine 
service  should  be  for  the  future  performed 
in  Ireland,  in  every  particular  according  to 
the  English  church ;  "  for  it  is  meet  and 
just,  says  the  immaculate  Gerald,  that  as 
Ireland  hath  by  Providence  received  a  lord 
and  king  from  England,  so  she  may  receive 
from  the  same  a  better  form  of  living ! 
For  to  his  royal  grandeur  are  both  the 
church  and  realm  of  Ireland  indebted  for 
whatever  they  have  hitherto  obtained, 
either  of  the  benefit  of  peace  or  the  increase 
of  religion ;  since  before  his  coming  into 
Ireland,  evils  of  various  kinds  had,  from 
old  times,  gradually  overspread  the  land, 
which  by  his  power  and  goodness  are  now 
abolished." 

Of  these  wonderful  reformations  of  Henry 
— *^for  the  benefit  of  peace  and  the  increase 
of  religion"  the  reader  will  easily  per- 
ceive that  the  two  first  articles  are  merely 
for  parade ;  as  to  the  third,  which  enjoins 
tithes,  I  must  remark  that,  so  exact  were 


310 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


the  Irish  in  this  article  from  the  days  of  St. 
Patrick,  that  they  not  only  gave  up  cheer- 
fully to  the  church  the  tenth  of  their  corn 
and  cattle,  but  even  devoted  the  tenth  child 
to  the  service  of  God !  As  to  the  fourth 
and  fifth  articles,  which  exonerated  the 
church  and  clergy  from  temporal  laws,  we 
have  seen  that  they  were  the  first  things 
agreed  to  in  the  council  of  Uisneach,  sixty- 
one  years  before  the  convening  of  this 
council  of  Cashell  !  As  to  the  sixth,  or 
power  of  disposing  of  effects,  the  custom 
of  making  wills  was  practised  in  Ireland 
long  before  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
and  was  always  continued ;  remarkable 
instances  of  which  we  have  exhibited  in 
both  periods.  As  to  the  seventh  article, 
which  regards  the  burial  of  the  dead,  it 
was  a  solemnity  in  all  ages,  even  to  my 
own  memory  religiously  attended  to  in 
Ireland.  As  in  the  days  of  Druidism,  so 
in  those  of  Christianity,  people  were  set 
apart,  whose  duty  it  was,  in  a  soft  but 
melancholy  tone,  to  recite  the  pedigree, 
virtuous  actions,  noble  exploits,  and  liberal 
endowments  of  the  deceased,  in  a  species 
of  verse  called  caoine.  The  funeral  was 
magnificent,  and  the  attendants  numerous  ; 
for  all  the  family,  friends,  and  connections 
of  the  deceased  failed  not  to  appear.  From 
the  whole,  it  is  evident  that,  whatever  were 
the  resolves  of  this  council,  or  whatever 
reforms  they  made,  could  not  be  those  re- 
cited by  Cambrensis — these  are  certainly 
the  product  of  his  own  fertile  brain ;  for  it 
must  appear  highly  ridiculous  to  behold  a 
number  of  learned  and  grave  divines,  meet 
to  form  articles  for  church  government, 
which  had  been  long  before  agreed  and 
subscribed  to  !  But  Gerald  wanted  some 
pretence  to  justify  the  bulls  of  Adrian  and 
Alexander,  and  his  master's  usurpation. 
That  the  clergy  assembled  and  accepted 
these  bulls,  is  what  I  am  ready  to  believe ; 
and  this  is  all  that  Henry  wished  or  cared 
for.  Cambrensis  tells  us  St.  Gelasius, 
Archbishop  of  Armagh,  did  not  attend  this 
meeting,  being  indisposed ;  but  our  own 
annals  affirm,  that  at  this  time  he  convened 
an  assembly  of  the  clergy  of  Leath-Cuin, 
in  which  he  presided  under  the  auspices  of 


Roderic,  and  probably  (as  Dr.  Leland  ob- 
serves,) in  opposition  to  that  of  Henry. 
So  that,  upon  the  whole,  it  appears  evident 
that  Henry  did  not  acquire  at  this  time  the 
absolute  government  of  Ireland,  as  his  flat- 
terers have  vainly  asserted,  but  the  sov- 
ereignty of  Leath-Mogha,  or  southern  Ire- 
land only. 

I  have,  in  chapter  viii.  of  the  preceding 
book,  given  the  letter  of  O'Ruark  to  the 
monarch,  complaining  of,  and  demanding 
justice  for  the  violation  of  his  wife — (the 
source  of  the  present  revolution) — in  the 
original  Latin,  with  a  translation  ;  and  I 
shall  close  this  chapter  with  the  bulls  of 
Adrian  and  Alexander  in  their  native  Latin 
coverings.  The  difference  in  civilization 
and  in  the  cultivation  of  the  fine  arts,  be- 
tween Rome  and  Ireland  at  this  time,  can- 
not surely  be  exhibited  in  livelier  colours 
than  by  comparing  the  style,  sentiment, 
and  language,  in  the  letter  of  this  Irish 
prince,  with  those  in  the  bulls  of  these 
pontiffs. 

"  Adrianus  episcopus,  servus  servorum  Dei, 
charissimo  in  Christo  filio  illustri  An- 
glorum  regi,  salutem  et  apostolicam  ben- 
edictionem. 

"  Laudabiliter  et  satis  fructuose  de  glo- 
rioso  nomine  propagando  in  terris,  et  eter- 
nal felicitatis  prsemio  cumulando  in  caelis 
tua  magnificentia  cogitat,  dum  ad  dilatan- 
dos  ecclesia3  terminos,  ad  declarandum  in- 
doctis,  et  rudibus  populis  Christianae  fidei 
veritatem  et  vitiorum  plantaria  de  agro 
dominico  extirpanda,  sicut  catholicus  prin- 
ceps  intendis,  et  ad  id  convenientius  exe- 
quendum,  consilium  apostolicae  sedis  exigis, 
et  favorem,  in  quo  facto  quanto  altiore  con- 
silio,  et  majori  discretione  procedis,  tanto 
in  eo  feliciorem  progressum  te  (prsestante 
domino)  confidimus  habiturum,  eo  quod  ad 
bonum  exitum  semper  et  finem  solent  at- 
tingere,  quse  de  ardore  fidei  et  religionis 
amore  principium  acceperunt. 

Sane  Hiberniam  et  omnes  insulas,  qui 
sol  justitiae  Christus  illuxit,  et  quae  docu- 
menta  fidei  Christianae  ceperunt,  ad  jus 
beati  Petri,  et  sacro  sanctae  Romanae  ec- 
clesisB  (quod  tua  etiam  nobilitas  recogno- 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


311 


scit)  non  est  dubium  pertinere,  unde  tanto 
in  eis  libentius  plantationem  fidelem,  et 
germen  gratum  Dea  inserimus,  quanto  id  a 
nobis  interno  examine  districtius  prospici- 
mus  exigendum  significasti  quidem  nobis 
(fili  in  Christo  charissime)  te  Hiberniae  in- 
sulam,  ad  subdendum  ilium  populum  legi- 
bus,  et  vitiorum  plantaria  inde  extirpanda, 
velle  intrare,  ct  do  singulis  domibus  an- 
nuam  unius  denarii,  beato  Petro  velle  sol- 
vere pensionem,  et  jura  ecclesiarum  illius 
terras  illibata,  ct  integra  conservare :  nos 
itaque  pium  et  laudibile  desiderium  tuum 
cum  favore  congruo  prosequentes,  et  pe- 
tition! tuse  benignum  impendentes,  assen- 
sum  gratum  et  acceptum  habemus,  ut  (pro 
dilatandis  ecclesiae  terminis,  pro  vitiorum 
restringendo  decursu,  pro  corrigendis  mo- 
ribus,  et  virtutibus  inserendis,  pro  religionis 
Christianae  augmento)  insulam  illam  ingre- 
diaris  et  quae  ad  honorem  Dei,  et  salutem 
illius  terras  spectaverint  exequaris ;  et  il- 
lius terras  populus  honorifice  te  recipiat,  et 
sicut  dominum  veneretur ;  jure  nimirum 
ecclesiarum  illibato,  et  integro  permanente, 
et  salva  beato  Petro,  et  sacrosancta  Ro- 
mana  ecclesia  de  singulis  domibus  annua 
unius  denarii  pensione. 

Si  ergo  quod  concepisti  animo,  effectu 
duxeris  prosequente  complendum,  stude 
gentem  illam  bonis  moribus  informare ;  et 
agas  (tam  per  te  quam  per  illos  quos  ad 
hoc  fide,  verbo  et  vita  idorieos  esse  per- 
spexeris)  ut  decoretur  ibi  ecclesia,  plantetur 
et  crescat  fidei  Christianas  religio,  et  ad 
honorem  Dei  et  salutem  pertinet  anima- 
rum,  per  te  aliter  ordinentur  ut  a  Deo  sem- 
piternas  mercedis  cumulum  consequi  mer- 
caris,  et  in  terris  gloriosum  nomen  valeas 
in  sasculis  obtinere.  Datum  Romas,  anno 
salutis  1156." 

*^ Alexander  episcopus,  servus  servorum  Dei, 
charissimo  in  Christo  jilio,  illustri  An- 
glorum  rege,  salutem  et  apostolicam 
henedictionem. 

"  Quoniam  ea  quae  a  prasdecessoribus 
nostris  rationabiliter  indulta  noscuntur, 
perpetua  merentur  stabilitatefir  mari ;  ven- 
erabilis  Adriani  papas  vestigiis  inhasrentes, 
nostrique  desiderii  fructum  attendentes  con- 


cessionem  ejusdem  super  Hibernici  regni 
dominio  vobis  indulto  (salva  beato  Petro 
et  sacro  sanctas  Romanas  ecclesiae,  sicut 
in  Anglia  sic  etiam  in  Hibemia,  de  singulis 
domibus  annua  unius  denarii  pensione) 
ratam  habemus,  et  confirmamus,  quatenus 
eleminatis  terres  ipsius  spurcitiis,  barhara 
natio,  qucB  Christiana  censetur  nomine, 
vestra  indulgentia  morum  induat  venus- 
tatem,  et  redactu  in  formam  hactenas  in 
formi  finium  illorum  ecclesia,  gens  ea  per 
vos  Christiana  professionis  nomen  cum 
effectu  de  cetero  consequatur.  Datum 
Romas,  an.  sal.  1172." 


/ 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Henry  acknowledged  as  sovereign  of  Leath- 
Mogha — Leath-Cuin  still  an  independent  king- 
dom— Henry  neither  conquered  Ireland  nor 
established  a  new  code  of  laws  there — Some 
similarity  between  the  Irish  revolution  in  1172, 
and  the  English  one  in  1688 — English  and  Irish 
accounts  of  the  peace  at  Windsor  in  1175 — 
Proofs  from  both  that  foreign  laws  were  not 
attempted  to  be  introduced — Several  proofs  of 
the  insincerity  of  early  English  writers — Real 
force  and  extent  of  Poyning's  famous  restraining 
law — Necessity  of  recurring  to  the  ancient 
constitution  in  inquiries  of  this  kind — Extent  of 
the  English  mode  of  legislation  to  the  reign  of 
James  I. 

Henry  IL,  by  the  public  submissions  of 
the  princes  of  Munster,  Leinster,  Ossory, 
and  the  Deasies,  through  the  influence  of 
the  Irish  clergy,  became  sovereign  of 
Leath-Mogha ;  still  Roderic  and  the  prov- 
ince of  Ulster,  made  no  kind  of  advances 
towards  an  union  with  him.  We  are, 
however,  told  that  Henry  sent  Hugh  de 
Lacy  and  William  Fitz-Aldelm,  as  his  am- 
bassadors, to  Roderic,  who  then  lay  en- 
camped with  his  army  on  the  banks  of  the 
Shannon,  ready  to  oppose  any  attempts  on 
his  territories ;  that  a  peace  was  concluded 
on,  and  that  Roderic  did  him  homage  by 
proxy,  swore  allegiance,  and  put  hostages 
into  his  hands.  There  is  not  the  least 
record  of  Irish  history  to  countenance  this 
assertion  ;  and  his  conduct  the  next  year, 
(particularly  in  defeating  Strongbow,  and 
cutting  off  one  thousand  eight  hundred  of 


312 


HISTOkY  OF  IRELAND, 


[A.  p.  1171. 


his  best  troops,)  and  even  until  the  peace 
solemnly  made  at  Windsor  in  1175,  proves 
he  made  no  such  submission. 

Though  at  the  head  of  a  royal  army, 
and  supported  by  Munster  and  Leinster, 
yet  Henry  made  no  hostile  attempts  what- 
ever to  extend  his  power  over  the  other 
provinces  of  Ireland  !  Still,  by  the  mod- 
est Gerald,  is  he  styled  conqueror  of  Ire- 
land, and  in  this  he  is  followed  by  all  sub- 
sequent writers :  but  the  candid  reader 
will  see  with  how  little  justice  !  We  are 
also  told  that,  with  their  submission,  the 
Irish  surrendered  their  laws  and  customs, 
and  agreed  to  be  governed  by  those  of 
England.  But  what  has  been  left  unsaid 
that  falsehood,  malice,  or  ignorance  could 
suggest  ?  Were  we  to  suppose  the  Irish 
destitute  of  any  rational  mode  of  legisla- 
tion, (as  from  the  bulls  of  Adrian  and  Alex- 
ander might  justly  be  inferred),  such  alter- 
ation might  be  necessary,  and  seemed  a  part 
of  the  conditions  on  which  these  bulls  were 
granted ;  but  if  a  reverence  for  strict  jus- 
tice, and  an  amenableness  to  the  laws  be 
proofs  of  sound  legislation — as  they  surely 
are — then  were  their  own  modes  of  judica- 
ture founded  upon  principles  of  the  strict- 
est equity.  The  bad  conduct  of  Henry 
himself,  and  of  those  he  left  behind  him, 
could  impress  no  advantageous  ideas  in 
them  of  the  superior  excellence  of  the 
English  laws.  So  late  as  the  days  of 
Henry  VIII.,  Baron  Finglas  confesses,* 
"  That  the  English  statutes,  passed  in  Ire- 
land, are  not  observed  eight  days  after 
passing  them ;  whereas  those  laws  and 
statutes,  made  by  the  Irish  on  their  hills, 
they  keep  firm  and  stable,  without  breaking 
through  them  for  any  favour  or  reward !" 
Nay,  so  dissolute  and  immoral  were  the 
conduct  of  most  of  these  strangers,  that  we 
find  synods  assembled  in  the  Irish  coun- 
tries, and  ordinances  passed,  to  cut  off 
every  kind  of  connection  with  their  Eng- 
lish neighbours,  lest  their  examples  should 
corrupt  the  morals  of  the  people  !  Their 
rapacity,  and  want  of  principle,  were  so 
notorious,  that  they  became  reduced  to  an 
Irish  proverb — 

*  Breviate  of  Ireland. 


Nadin  common  re  feor-galda :  ma  nir  ni  fairde  dhuit. 
Beidh  choidhe  ar  tidh  do  mbeatta :  common  an  f  hir 
galda  riot. 

That  is,  "  To  form  no  connections  with  an 
Englishman,  lest  you  sorely  repent,  for  his 
friendship  is  fraud  and  deceit." 

There  is  not,  then,  in  history  a  fact 
more  certain  or  better  authenticated  than 
this,  "  That  the  Irish  received  no  laws  what- 
ever from  Henry,  or  from  any  of  his  suc- 
cessors kings  of  England,  but  were  con- 
stantly governed  by  the  ancient  feudal  laws 
of  Ireland  till  the  reign  of  James  /."  And 
this,  at  once,  puts  the  nature  of  Henry's 
real  power  out  of  doubt.  Through  the 
influence  of  the  Irish  clergy,  directed  so 
by  these  bulls,  the  Irish  of  Leath-Mogha 
paid  Henry  the  same  homage  they  would 
to  a  natural  sovereign.  It  was  not  as 
king  of  England,  but  as  a  chief  of  Ireland, 
they  regarded  him.  As  such  he  could  not 
surely  alter  these  established  laws,  which 
he  was  sworn  to  support  and  protect.  He 
did  not  attempt  to  alter  them,  nor  did  any 
of  his  successors  to  the  above  time  ;  and 

then,  BY   CONSENT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  AT  LARGE, 

did  the  kingdom  form  for  themselves  a 
mode  of  government  similar  to  that  of 
England. 

Certain  it  is,  that  Henry  introduced  the 
English  form  of  government  among  his 
own  followers,  which  was  adopted  by  some 
and  rejected  by  others,  and  finally  confined 
to  what  was  called  the  Pale,  which  did  not 
comprehend  the  twentieth  part  of  the 
kingdom.  Not  only  the  old,  but  the  new 
Irish,  adhered  to  the  old  constitution  in 
every  other  part  of  the  kingdom.  To  offer 
proofs  of  this  would  be  idle,  because  the 
very  laws  passed  from  time  to  time,  in  the 
little  senates  of  the  Pale,  sufficiently  ac- 
knowledge this.  That  these  ancient  laws 
were  founded  upon  the  strictest  equity, 
we  may  conclude  from  the  characters 
given  by  the  first  English  judges  (who 
went  circuits  into  Irish  counties)  of  the 
natives.  Sir  John  Davis,  attorney-general,* 
tells  us,  from  his  own  knowledge,  "  That 
there  is  no  nation  under  the  sun  that  love 
equal  and  indifferent  justice  better  than  the 
*  History  of  Ireland. 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


313 


Irish,  or  will  rest  better  satisfied  with  the 
execution  thereof,  although  it  be  against 
themselves!"  This  honourable  testimony 
was  given  immediately  after  a  fifteen 
years'  bloody  war,  carried  on  with  uncom- 
mon cruelty  by  the  troops  of  Elizabeth ; 
and  Lord  Coke  about  this  time,  treating  of 
the  laws  of  Ireland,  has  the  following  re- 
markable words:  "For  I  have  been  in- 
formed by  many  of  them  that  have  had 
judicial  places  there,  and  'partly  of  mine 
own  knowledge,  that  there  is  no  nation  of 
the  Christian  world  that  are  greater  lovers 
of  justice  than  they  are,  which  virtue  must, 
of  necessity,  be  accompanied  by  many 
others  !"* 

How,  then,  can  writers  affirm  that 
Henry  made  sheriffs  and  judges  itinerant, 
with  other  ministers  of  justice  and  officers 
of  state,  according  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land ?  If  he  made  them,  nothing  is  more 
certain  than  that  they  were  appointments 
unknown  or  unattended  to  by  the  Irish, 
not  only  during  his  reign  but  for  four  hun- 
dred years  after!  The  shortness  of  his 
time  in  Ireland  is  also  regretted,  as  it 
thereby  prevented  him  from  completing 
the  reforms  he  intended.  We  find,  how- 
evei-,  that  his  stay  was  near  six  months, 
during  which  time  nothing  remarkable 
happened,  except  the  acknowledging  of 
him  as  king  of  Leath-Mogha,  and  a  fatal 
plague  which  followed  soon  after,  by  which 
thousands  perished  !  It  is  through  asser- 
tions, vague  and  ill-founded  as  the  above, 
unsupported  by  truth  or  historical  facts, 
that  English  writers  of  later  date,  even  to 
the  present  times,  have  constantly  deemed 
Ireland  a  kingdom  subordinate  to  Britain, 
and  even  hound  hy  her  acts,  when  Ireland 
is  expressly  mentioned.f  It  is  from  the 
same  muddy  source  affirmed,  that  the 
Irish  solemnly  swore,  at  the  council  of 
Lismore,  held  by  Henry,  to  receive  and 
obey  the  laws  of  England.  Now  nothing 
is  more  certain,  than  that  no  council  was 
assembled  at  Lismore  by  this  prince.  The 
mistake  arose  from  the  bishop  of  Lismore's 
presiding,  as    legate,  in    the    council    of 

*  Coke's  Institutes,  chap.  Ixxvi. 
t  31ackstone's  Commentaries,  vol.  i.  p.  99.  100,  etc. 

40 


Ca shell ;  and  the  assertion,  from  Cambren- 
sis,  telling  us,  that  at  this  council  the  Irish 
clergy  agreed  to  have,  for  the  future,  the 
rites  of  their  church  in  exact  conformity 
with  those  of  the  British. 

There  is  something  similar  in  the  nature 
of  this  Irish  revolution  in  1172,  and  the 
English  one  in  1668.  In  both  cases  reli- 
gion was  made  the  pretence,  and  many  of 
the  clergy  exerted  themselves  to  bring 
about  the  changes  that  followed.  Both 
princes  were  foreigners,  and  thought  their 

PIOUS    DISINTERESTED     INTENTIONS    UOt      the 

worse  for  being  supported  by  the  sword. 
William,  and  some  of  his  ministers,  looked 
upon  his  possessing  the  crown  of  England 
to  be  by  the  right  of  conquest ;  nay,  they 
boldly  asserted  it !  Henry's  ministers  and 
panegyrists  affirmed  the  same  with  respect 
to  Ireland,  and  yet  with  infinitely  less  ap- 
pearance of  reason.  The  kingdom  of 
England,  at  once,  confessed  the  sovereignty 
of  William  ;  but  half  Ireland  only  acknow- 
ledged the  power  of  Henry.  William's 
terms  were  with  the  people  at  large, 
Henry's  with  the  feudatory  princes,  who 
still  preserved  their  power  over  their  sub- 
jects. In  1175  peace  was  concluded  be- 
tween Roderic's  ministers  on  the  one  side, 
(to  wit,  Catholicus,  Archbishop  of  Tuam, 
St.  Laurence  O'Toole,  Archbishop  of  Dub- 
lin, the  abbot  of  St.  Brandon,  and  Doctor 
Laurence,  chaplain  and  chancellor  to  the 
king  of  Connaught,)  and  those  of  Henry 
on  the  other,  at  Windsor.  The  terms  of 
this  peace  and  concord,  as  delivered  by 
British  writers,  prove  that  there  was  nei- 
ther a  conquest  nor  an  alteration  of  the  laws 
even  pretended  to  by  Henry  or  his  min- 
isters. The  whole  is  comprised  in  four 
articles,  by  the  preliminary  to  which,  and 
by  the  peace  itself,  it  will  plainly  appear 
"to  be  a  compact  between  two  princes,  with- 
out any  terms  or  conditions  for  the  subject 
whatever.     It  runs  thus : 

"  Hie  est  finis  et  concordia  quae  facta 
fuit  apud  Windsore  in  octabis  Sancti  Mi- 
chaelis,  anno  gratiae  1175,  inter  dominum 
regem  Angliae  Henricum  II.  et  Rodericum 
regem  Conaciae,  per  Catholicum  Tuamen- 
sem  archiepiscopum,  et  abbatem  C.  Sancti 


314 


HISTORY  OP  IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1171. 


Brandani,  et  Magistrum  Laurentium  can- 
cellarium  regis  Conaciae." 

By  the  first  article,  on  Roderic's  agree- 
'  ing  to  do  homage  to  Henry — (which,  if  he 
did,  it  must  have  been  certainly  by  proxy) 
— and  to  pay  him  a  certain  tribute,  he  was 
to  possess  his  kingdom  of  Connaught  in  as 
full  and  ample  a  manner  as  before  Henry's 
entering  that  kingdom.  By  the  second 
article,  Henry  engages  to  support  and 
defend  the  king  of  Connaught,  in  his  terri- 
tories, with  all  his  force  and  power  in  Ire- 
land, provided  he  paid  to  Henry  every 
tenth  merchantable  hide  through  the  king- 
dom. The  third  excepts  from  this  condi- 
tion, all  such  domains  as  were  possessed  by 
Henry  himself  and  by  his  barons ;  as  Dub- 
lin with  its  liberties,  and  Meath  with  all  its 
domains,  in  as  full  a  manner  as  it  was 
possessed  by  O'Mealsachlin,  or  those  de- 
riving under  him ;  Wexford,  with  all  Lein- 
ster;  Waterford,  with  all  its  domain,  as 
far  as  Dungarvan,  which,  with  its  territory, 
is  also  to  be  excluded  from  this  taxation. 
Fourth,  such  Irish  as  fled  from  the  lands 
held  by  the  English  barons,  may  return  in 
peace  on  paying  the  above  tribute,  or  such 
other  services  as  they  were  anciently  ac- 
customed to  perform  for  their  tenures,  at 
the  option  of  their  lords:  should  they 
prove  refractory,  on  complaint  of  such 
lords,  Roderic  was  to  compel  them  ;  and 
they  were  to  supply  Henry  with  hawks 
and  hounds  annually. 

From  the  terms  of  this  peace,  as  deliv- 
ered by  English  writers,  I  think  it  is  evi- 
dent that  Henry  did  not  even  pretend  to 
impose  English  laws  on  the  people,  though 
the  tenor  of  the  bulls,  on  whose  authority 
he  gained  his  present  footing  in  Ireland, 
seemed  to  require  some  alterations  of  this 
kind.  On  the  contrary,  this  peace  seemed 
no  more  than  such  as  would  pass  between 
princes  upon  an  equality,  if  we  exclude  the 
performance  of  homage  required  of  Rod- 
eric, which,  for  my  own  part,  I  am  satis- 
fied was  neither  done  nor  required  of  him. 
As  to  everything  else,  Roderic  agreed  to 
pay  a  certain  subsidy  to  Henry,  for  sup- 
porting him  against  any  adventitious  ene- 
mies that  might  arise ;  and,  in  return,  Rod- 


eric engaged  to  defend  and  protect  his 
barons  and  dependents  in  their  new  acqui- 
sitions. We  do  not  find  by  this  treaty  that 
even  those  parts  of  Ireland  which  acknow- 
ledged Henry  for  their  sovereign,  had  the 
least  idea  of  English  tenure.  Such  of  the 
people  as  fled  from  the  tyranny  of  the  new- 
comers, were  required  to  re-occupy  their 
lands  according  to  the  ancient  modus.  The 
distinction  is,  as  clear  and  precise  as  pos- 
sible, this :  Henry,  as  sovereign  of  Leath- 
Mogha,  engaged  to  support  and  defend 
Roderic  in  the  sovereignty  of  Leath-Cuin ; 
and  as  this  compact  was  of  greater  conse- 
quence to  Roderic  than  to  Henry,  he 
agreed  to  pay  Henry,  over  and  above  the 
troops  he  might  occasionally  want,  a  cer- 
tain subsidy,  such  as  we  see  happens  every 
day  between  princes  independent  of  each 
other.  This  will  appear  more  evident 
from  the  Irish  account  of  this  transaction, 
simple,  plain,  and  unadorned  with  turgid 
words;  and  which  Gratianus  Lucius  de- 
livers from  our  annals  without  the  smallest 
hint  at  tribute  or  homage — "Catholicus 
O'Dubhthy  returned  from  England,  with 
peace  agreed  to  on  these  conditions,  with 
the  king  of  England,  that  Roderic  should 
be  king  of  the  Irish — (probably  this  im- 
plied no  command  over  the  new-comers) — 
"  and  that  the  provinces  should  be  governed 
by  their  kings,  as  usual,  but  subject  to 
chiefry  to  Roderic."  This,  in  eflfect,  is  the 
same  with  the  English  account,  but  that 
no  mention  is  made  either  of  homage  or 
tribute,  and  I  believe  none  were.  We  find 
English  writers  of  these  days  so  shamefully 
tripping  on  every  other  occasion,  that  we 
are  justified  in  doubting  them  on  this. 
Cambrensis  has  given  us,  as  acts  of  the 
council  of  Cashell,  articles  agreed  and  sub- 
scribed to  above  half  a  century  earlier,  in 
the  most  ample  manner,  in  the  presence 
not  only  of  the  clergy,  but  of  the  monarch 
and  provincial  kings ;  which  is  what  can- 
not be  said  to  this  council  of  Cashell.  An- 
other explains  the  cause  of  the  pretended 
canon  of  this  council,  relative  to  baptism, 
by  affirming — "  That  it  was  the  custom  in 
Ireland,  that,  on  the  birth  of  a  child,  his 
father  or  any  other  person  plunged  him 


A.D.  1171>] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


315 


three  times  in  water,  but  if  rich,  he  was 
washed  in  milk,  and  these  liquors,  after  this 
ablution,  were  thrown  into  the  sink;  to 
prevent  which    ptofanation,  the    council 
made    this    decree    for   baptizing  in  the 
church."     But  who  could  suppose  that  this 
ablution  of  new-bom  infants  implied  the 
sacrament  of  baptism  ? — though  it  is  af- 
firmed by  a  reverend  divine,  Benedict,  ab- 
bot of  Peterborough!     Are  not  all  new- 
bom  infants  first  washed  and  cleansed  be- 
fore they  are  dressed  ?  and  yet  it  is  thus, 
this  profound  theologian  explains  the  mean- 
ing of  this  imaginary  canon  of  Gerald ! 
Baptism  is  acknowledged  as  a  sacrament, 
by  all  sects  and  denominations  of  Chris- 
tians ;  and  yet  a  nation,  whose  piety,  zeal, 
and  leaming  was  confessed  by  all  Europe, 
a  nation  from  whom  the  very  ancestors  of 
these  new  reformers    received  the   doc- 
trines of  Christ,  were  declared  ignorant  of 
the  first  principles  of  Christianity !     Nor 
are  their  writers  entitled  to  better  credit, 
w^hen  they  confidently  tell  us—"  That  the 
Irish  were  not  governed  by  written  laws, 
but  by  tradition  and  barbarous  customs  !" 
They  were  always  governed  by  written 
laws ;   and  a  body  of  men  in  every  age, 
fi"om  the  remotest  antiquity,  even  to  the 
decline  of  the  last  century,  were  set  apart 
for  this  study.     Their  books  were  nume- 
rous, and  we  have  still  preserved  codes  of 
laws,   written   before   the   Christian   era ! 
Is  the  ignorance  of  these  writers  of  such 
facts,  any  extenuation  of  the  crime  of  im- 
position on  the  public  ?     With  still  greater 
confidence  and  certainty  they  affirm,  that 
Henry  introduced  the  English  laws  into 
Ireland,  which  the  Irish  swore  to  observe ; 
and  that  he  established  sheriffs  in  counties, 
judges,  etc.     If  the  authority  of  writers 
from  age  to  age,  from  that  epoch  to  this 
day,  can  add  weight  and  certainty  to  these 
false  assertions,  nothing  is  clearer  than  that 
this  new  code  of  foreign  laws  was  then 
agreed,  subscribed,  and  swom  to  by  the 
Irish.     But  if  notorious  falsehoods  of  six 
hundred  years  standing,  are  as  little  true 
this  day  as  the  day  of  their  promulga- 
tion, it  must  necessarily  follow,  that  the 
present  assertions  are  entitled  to  no  more 


credit  now  than  when  first  published.  Not 
only  the  old  but  the  new  Irish,  (the  Pale 
excepted,)  were  govemed  by  the  ancient 
laws  of  the  country,  from  the  days  of 
Henry  to  those  of  James  I.,  inclusive. 
Henry,  if  you  will,  made  sheriffs,  judges, 
etc.,  to  govern  Ireland  after  the  English  mo- 
dus ;  and  the  popes  at  this  day  consecrate 
bishops  to  dioceses  in  which  they  have  nei- 
ther power  nor  subjects.  In  this  light,  I 
shall  have  no  objection  to  Henry's  making 
sheriff^s  for  every  county  in  the  kingdom, 
convening  of  parliaments,  sending  judges 
itinerant  on  circuit,  etc. ;  but  that  they  as- 
sumed any  acts  of  power  out  of  the  circuits 
of  the  Pale,  is  what  cannot  be  credited. 
Nor  was  it  for  a  considerable  time  after 
his  decease,  that  even  in  this  district,  the 
English  laws  were  regularly  adopted ;  and 
even  after  they  were,  there  are  not  want- 
ing evidences  to  prove  that  the  Irish  within 
this  Pale  might  choose  to  embrace  or  re- 
ject them. 

From  these  irrefragable  facts  it  must  fol- 
low, that  the  famous  statute  of  Sir  Edward 
Poyning,  (giving  to  it  the  utmost  force  and 
power  that  its  warmest  advocates  can 
wish,)  is  a  law  which  no  sophistry  can 
make  to  extend  beyond  the  limits  to  which 
it  was  originally  confined.  Could  the 
province  of  Munster,  a  considerable  part 
of  Leinster,  and  the  entire  provinces  of 
Connaught  and  Ulster  become  subject  to  a 
law  they  knew  nothing  of,  never  were  con- 
sulted about,  nor  in  the  framing  of  which 
were  ever  represented  ?  The  laws  of 
the  Pale,  from  the  days  of  Henry  III.  to 
more  than  a  century  after  the  death  of 
Poyning,  are  acknowledged  as  full  as  words 
can  make  them,  to  he  acts  binding  this  lit- 
tle district,  and  it  only  !  With  as  much 
propriety  and  justice  might  it  be  pretended, 
in  a  century  or  two  hence,  that  a  law  now 
passed  in  Genoa  or  Florence,  is  then  to 
bind  all  Italy,  as  that  this  law  of  Poyning 
should  now  bind  all  Ireland.  But  I  have 
dilated  so  largely  on  this  in  the  third  part 
of  my  Introduction  to  Irish  History,  and 
brought  the  proofs  so  home,  that  to  it  I 
must  refer  those  who  wish  to  be  more  fully 
informed  in  this  matter. 


310 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


{A.  D.  1171. 


It  was  from  ignorance  of  the  ancient  his- 
tory of  Ireland,  from  want  of  proper  in- 
quiry into  the  nature  of  the  revolution  in 
1172,  and  for  want  of  knowledge  of  the 
force  and  extent  of  the  English  mode  of 
legislation,  from  the  time  of  its  first  intro- 
duction into  a  CORNER  of  the  kingdom  to 
its  UNIVERSAL  ACCEPTATION  in  thc  rcign  of 
James  I.,  that  made  thc  writings  that  were 
published  from  time  to  time  against  this  fa- 
mous act,  appear  so  extremely  defective 
and  nugatory.  They  began  their  inqui- 
ries where  they  should  end  them.  Shame- 
fully inattentive  themselves  to  the  ancient 
history  of  their  country,  and  not  disposed 
to  encourage  those  whose  genius  and  in- 
clinations would  naturally  lead  them  to 
explore  so  untrodden  a  passage,  and  so 
long  neglected  a  subject,  they  have  taken 
for  granted  whatever  early  English  writers 
have  BOLDLY  advanced  on  the  subject,  and 
by  this  means  have  left  their  country  ex- 
})osed  to  general  contempt,  and  themselves 
unable  to  defend  its  cause  !  For  nothing 
is  more  certain  than  this : — that  all  the  ef- 
fects attending  the  intrusion  of  Henry  into 
the  government  of  Ireland,  were,  the  total 
cessation  of  the  monarchical  power  in  the 
native  princes.  The  order  of  succession 
was  broken  in  upon,  in  the  person  of  Brien 
Boirumhe,  and  the  custom  of  obtruding  a 
person  into  the  monarchy  without  a  pre- 
vious election,  began  with  his  successor 
Malachie.  This  last  rank,  or  something 
nearly  approaching  to  it,  was  what  Henry 
aspired  to.  From  this  time  down  to  the 
accession  of  James  I.  the  power  of  the  pro- 
vincial kings  continued.  Certain  it  is  that 
during  this  period,  the  Irish  of  English  ex- 
traction extended  their  power  and  acqui- 
sitions in  the  different  provinces,  by  alli- 
ances, by  intrigues,  and  by  dint  of  the 
sword ;  but  it  was  as  Irish  feudatory  chiefs 
only,  obeying  no  commands,  and  acknowl- 
edging no  laws  but  the  ancient  ones  of 
their  country.  All  these  facts  are  evident, 
even  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  ;  and  if  there 
are  some  instances  of  particular  chiefs  sur- 
rendering their  allodial  tenures  to  this  prin- 
cess, and  to  her  father,  is  it  not  clear  by 
the  grants  given  again  by  them  of  these 


very  tenures,  that  it  was  only  altering  the 
nature  of  them  ?  In  the  first  instance  they 
held  by  the  laws  of  their  country,  and  were 
not  liable  to  suffer  loss  of  life  or  property 
by  any  overt  act  against  the  power  of 
England  or  the  Pale.  In  the  second,  they 
became  subjects,  or  more  properly  speak- 
ing, vassals  to  the  crown  of  England,  and 
thereby  became  amenable  to  her  laws.  I 
have  examined  many  of  these  grants ; 
some  I  have  now  before  me ;  particularly 
one  of  my  much  esteemed  friend.  Sir 
John  O'Flaherty.  His  great  ancestor.  Sir 
Murrogh  O'Flaherty — called  in  this  patent 
Sir  Murrogh  ni  Doe  O'Flaherty — agreed 
to  surrender  his  title  of  O'Flaherty,  and 
chiefry  over  certain  districts;  his  right  of 
presentation  to  livings,  and  all  his  other 
powers  as  a  taoiseach,  or  Irish  chief,  to 
queen  Elizabeth,  under  certain  conditions ; 
and  she,  by  her  deputy  Sir  John  Perrot, 
agreed  to  confirm  him  in  his  tenures,  and 
most  of  his  former  powers,  he  acknowl- 
edging to  hold  them  under  the  crown. 
This  charter  of  agreement  was  signed  the 
12th  of  January,  1588,  and  in  the  thirtieth 
year  of  her  reign. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Containing  an  alphabetical  list  of  ancient  Irish 
territories,  and  by  what  Milesian  families  pos- 
sessed, both  before  and  after  the  invasion  of 
Henry  II. 

Agiinenure,  bordering  on  Loch-Corrib, 
in  the  county  of  Galway,  the  regal  resi- 
dence of  the  O'Flaherties,  kings  of  Jar- 
Connaught ;  the  extensive  remains  of 
which,  at  this  day,  proclaim  its  ancient 
state  and  magnificence.  My  esteemed 
friend,  Sir  John  O'Flaherty,  is  the  present 
chief  of  this  illustrious  house. 

Aharloe,  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  the 
estate  of  a  branch  of  the  O'Briens. 

Aidhne,  or  Ibh-Fiarcharch-Aidhne,  in 
the  county  of  Galway,  the  lordship  of 
O'Heyne. 

Aine-Cliach,  in  the  county  of  Limerick, 
the  lordship  of  O'Kirwick. 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


317 


Aos-Greine,  extending  from  Cnoc-Greine 
to  near  Limerick,  was  the  patrimony  of 
O'Connel,  and  Castle-Connel  his  chief  resi- 
dence. 

Aradh-Cliach,  in  the  county  of  Tippe- 
rary,  near  Killaloe,  the  estate  of  Mac 
O'Brien-Arad.  Its  first  proprietor  was 
O'Donnegan,  of  the  Ernian  race. 

Ardach,  in  Carbury,  in  the  county  of 
Cork,  the  lordship  of  O'FUn,  called  O'Flin- 
ardah. 

Ardah,  east  of  Cashell,  in  the  county  of 
Tipperary,  the  lordship  of  O'Dea. 

Ardes,  in  the  county  of  Down,  belong- 
ing to  a  branch  of  the  O'Neills. 

Ardmir,  the  lordship  of  O'Dogherty. 

Areghaile,  or  Anally,  in  the  county  of 
Longford,  the  territory  of  OTerral,  called 
also  Comhaichne. 

Aron,  in  Carbry,  the  estate  of  O'Baire. 

Bally-Hallinan,  in  the  county  of  Limer- 
ick, the  ancient  estate  of  O'Hallinan  ;  but 
in  later  times,  of  the  Mac  Sheetries. 

Bally-Shehan,  in  the  county  of  Tip- 
perary, possessed  by  a  branch  of  the 
O'Briens. 

Beara,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  now  divi- 
ded into  the  baronies  of  Beare  and  Bantry, 
possessed  by  the  O'SulIivans  and  O'Dris- 
cols.  The  chief  of  the  O'SulIivans,  which 
is  the  present  count  of  Beerhaven,  in 
Spain,  was  called  O'Sullivan-Beare. 

Breasal-Macha,  in  the  county  of  Ar- 
magh, the  estates  of  O'Donnegan,  O'tLav- 
argan,  and  O'Eidi. 

Bregmuin,  now  called  the  barony  of 
Braony,  in  West  Meath,  the  territory  of 
O'Braoin,  or  O'Byrne. 

Breifne  comprehended  a  large  tract  of 
country,  and  was  divided  into  East  and 
West  Breifne.  East  Breifne,  or  the  pres- 
ent county  of  Cavan,  was  the  principality 
of  O'Reily.  The  present  [1778]  O'Reily, 
or  chief  of  this  illustrious  sept,  is  captain- 
general  of  Andalusia,  and  inspector-general 
of  the  Spanish  infantry. 

West  Breifne  comprehended  the  present 
county  of  Leitrim,  and  was  the  princi- 
pality of  O'Ruark.  These  territories 
were  called  Breifne-O'Reily,  and  Breifne- 
aRuark. 


Brurigh,  a  royal  mansion  in  the  county 
of  Limerick,  the  seat  of  O'Donovan,  chief 
of  Kenry. 

Burrin,  or  Eastern  Corcamruadh,  a  bar- 
ony in  the  county  of  Clare,  the  principality 
of  aLoghlin. 

Cahir,  in  the  county  of  Tipperary,  the 
estate  of  O'Lonargan. 

Cairbre-Aodhbha,  now  called  Kenry,  in 
the  county  of  Limerick,  the  ancient  estates 
of  O'Donovan,  O'Clereine,  and  O'Flan- 
ery. 

Cairbreacha,  called  anciently  Corca- 
Luidhe,  stretching  from  Bantry  to  Crook- 
haven,  and  the  river  Kinmare,  was  the 
territory  of  the  Ithian  race,  or  Irish  Bri- 
gantes.  O'Driscol  was  the  chief,  and 
O'Baire,  O'Cobhthig,  ^Leary,  O'Henegan, 
O'Flin,  O'Fitrilly,  O'Dead,  and  aHea,  etc. 
were  feudatory  lords  of  this  district. 

Callain,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the  ter- 
ritory of  O'Hehir. 

Callain,  in  the  county  of  Kilkenny,  the 
estate  of  O'GIoherny,  and  O'Ceally. 

Carran-Fearaidhe,  or  Cnoc-Aine,  in  the 
county  of  Limerick,  the  estate  of  O'Grady. 
This  ancient  race  continue  still  a  numerous 
and  respectable  family  in  this  county ;  and 
the  present  countess  [1778]  of  Ilchester 
is  daughter  to  Standish  O'Grady,  Esq.,  of 
Capercullan,  than  whom  a  more  respect- 
able character  cannot  anywhere  be  found. 

Carrig  a  Foile,  in  the  county  of  Kerry, 
the  principality  of  O'Connor  Kerry. 

Ceil-Tanan,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the 
estate  of  O'Mollony. 

Cian-Cora,  the  royal  seat  of  North 
Munster,  on  the  borders  of  the  Shannon. 

Cianachta,  in  the  county  of  Derry,  the 
territory  of  O'Connor-Cianachta,  and  of 
O'Cahan. 

Cineal-Amhailge,  a  large  tract  in  Ulster, 
the  patrimony  of  O'Millane  and  O'Murcha. 

Cineal-Aodha,  in  the  county  of  Galway, 
the  territory  of  O'Shaughnessy. 

Cineal-Aodha,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  the 
principality  of  O'Mahony. 

Cineal-Conail,  or  Tyrconnel,  the  princi- 
pality of  CDonnel. 

Cineal-Enda,  in  Meath,  the  estate  of 
O'Brennan. 


318 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


Cineal-Fearadeach,  in  Ulster,  the  lord- 
ship of  O'Maol  Patrick. 

Cineal-Fermaic,  in  Thomond,  the  estate 
of  O'Dae. 

Cineal-Fiachra,  county  of  West  Meath, 
the  principality  of  Mac  Geoghagan. 

Cineal-Luchain,  in  the  county  of  Lei- 
trim,  the  estate  of  Mac  Durchuighe,  or 
Darae. 

Cineal-Mbinnc,  in  Tyrconnel,  belonging 
to  a  branch  of  the  O'Donnells. 

Cineal-Mbracuidhe,  in  Tyrconnel,  the 
estate  of  O'Brodie  and  O'Mulfavil. 

Cineal-Neanga,  in  ancient  Oirgial,  the 
estates  of  O'Goran,  of  O'Linschan,  and 
O'Brieslan. 

Cineal-Ncanga,  in  Meath,  the  country  of 
Mac  Ruark. 

Cineal-Neni,  in  the  county  of  Tyrone, 
the  estate  of  O'Neny. 

Cineal-Noangusa,  in  Meath,  the  territory 
of  O'Heacha. 

Clan-Aodh-Buidhe,  North,  in  the  county 
of  Antrim,  held  by  the  O'Neills. 

Clan-Aodh-Buidhe,  or  Clanaboy,  South, 
in  the  county  of  Down,  possessed  by  a 
branch  of  the  O'Neills. 

Clan-Brcasail,  in  Connaught,  the  estate 
of  O'Donnellan. 

Clan-Breassil,  in  the  county  of  Armagh, 
the  lordship  of  Mac  Cahan,  or  Kane. 

Clan-Colman,  in  Meath,  the  principality 
of  O'Malochlin. 

Clan-Derla,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the 
ancient  territory  of  Mac  Mahon. 

Clan-Feargal  comprehended  twenty-four 
town-lands,  situated  on  the  east  of  Loch- 
Corrib,  in  which  the  city  of  Galway  now 
stands,  was  the  territory  of  O'Halloran,  of 
the  Hy-Brune  race,  and  line  of  Heremon. 
Aileran,  surnamed  An  Teagna,  or  the 
Wise,  regent  of  the  university  of  Clonard, 
in  the  seventh  century,  and  one  of  St.  Pat- 
rick's biographers ;  and  St.  Finbar,  first 
bishop  and  founder  of  the  cathedral  of 
Cork,  were  of  this  sept ;  as  also  William 
Halloran,  better  known  by  the  name  of 
William  Ocham,  or  Ogham,  (on  account  of 
his  profound  knowledge  in  the  ancient  hie- 
rographic  character  of  the  Irish.)  He 
was  styled  prince  of  the  Nominals,  taught 


in  the  university  of  Oxford,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  was 
the  great  opponent  of  the  celebrated  Sco- 
tus  in  that  university.  From  the  house  of 
Clan-Feargal  is  the  present  writer  de- 
scended. 

Clan-Malugra,  or  GlanmaHer,  part  in 
the  King's  and  part  in  the  Queen's  county, 
the  lordship  of  O'Dempsey. 

Cleanagh,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the 
property  of  Mac  Mahon. 

Cleir,  or  Cape  Clear,  in  Carbury,  the 
mansion  of  O'Driscollmor. 

Cluan  Mac  Diarmada,  in  the  county  of 
Clare,  the  estate  of  the  Mac  Clanchys,  he- 
reditary lords-justices  of  Thomond. 

Clin-Uadach,  in  Connaught,  the  estate  of 
O'Fallon. 

Coilte-Maibineacha,  near  Mitchel's-town, 
in  the  county  of  Cork,  the  estate  of  a 
branch  of  the  O'Caseys. 

Conal-Gabhra,  or  Ibh-Conal-Gabhra,  the 
present  baronies  of  Connello,  in  the  county 
of  Limerick,  the  ancient  territory  of 
O'Connel ;  but  afterwards  we  find  it  pos- 
sessed by  the  O'Kinealies,  and  O'Cuileans, 
or  Collins. 

Conal-Murtheimhne,  or  the  present  coun- 
ty of  Lowth,  otherwise  Machaire-Chonal, 
was  so  called  from  the  renowned  Co- 
nal-Ceamach,  master  of  the  knights  of 
Ulster,  a  little  before  the  Incarnation. 
The  Mac  Genises  are  the  principal  re- 
presentatives of  this  illustrious  house  in 
Ulster. 

Conmaicne,  in  the  county  of  Leitrim,  the 
patrimony  of  the  Mac  Ranells. 

Conmaicne-Cuile-Tola,  or  the  barony  of 
Kilmain,  in  the  county  Mayo,  the  lordship 
of  O'Talcairn. 

Conmaicne-Dunmore,  in  the  county  of 
Galway,  the  estate  of  O'Siodhlan. 

Conmaicne-Mara,  in  the  county  of  Gal- 
way, was  the  country  of  the  O'Ceilies. 

Conmaicne-Moiren,  otherwise  Analy,  in 
the  county  of  Longford,  the  territory  of 
O'Ferral. 

Conuil-Jachtarach,  or  Lower  Conella,  in 
the  county  of  Limerick ;  besides  the  O'Cin- 
ealies,  and  O'Collins,  we  find  the  O'Shee- 
hans  had  lordships  there. 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


31d 


Conuil-Uachtarach,  or  Upper  Conella, 
the  lordship  of  Mac  Ennerie. 

Corafin,  a  territory  in  the  county  of 
Clare,  the  estate  of  O'Quin  and  O'Heffer- 
nan. 

Coran,  in  the  county  of  Sligo,  the  estate 
of  Mac  Donough,  of  the  Heremonian 
line. 

Corca-Bhaisgin,  now  the  barony  of 
Moiarta,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the  an- 
cient territory  of  O'Baisein  and  O'Donal, 
but  for  some  centuries  past  the  estate  of 
the  Mac  Mahons  of  Thomond. 

Corca-Duibhne,  and  Aobh-Rathach,  in 
the  west  of  Kerry,  the  lordships  of  O'Fal- 
vie,  and  O'Shea. 

Corca-Eachlan,  in  the  county  of  Ros- 
common, the  estates  of  O'Hanly,  and 
O'Brenan. 

Corca-Luidhe.     See  Cairbreacha. 

Corcamruadh,  a  principality  in  the  coun- 
ty of  Clare,  the  territory  of  O'Connor-Cor- 
camruadh,  of  the  Irian  race. 

Corcard,  in  the  county  of  Longford,  the 
estates  of  O'Mulfinny,  O'Curgavan,  O'Daly, 
O'Slaman,  and  O'Skully. 

Corcraidhe,  in  the  county  of  Meath,  the 
estate  of  O'Higin. 

Cosmach,  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  be- 
longing to  a  branch  of  the  O'Briens. 

Crioch-Cairbre,  or  Siol-Muireadha,  the 
territory  of  O'Connor-Sligo. 

Crioch-Cnobhadha,  in  Meath,  the  lord- 
ship of  O'Dubhan,  or  O'Duan. 

Crioch-Cualan,in  the  county  of  Wicklow, 
the  property  of  OKelly,  of  the  Lagenian 
race. 

Crioch-Cuire,  or  the  country  of  Core, 
the  ancient  name  of  Burren  and  Corcam- 
ruadh, in  the  county  of  Clare,  so  called 
from  Core,  of  the  Irian  line,  who  there  ruled 
before  the  Incarnation. 

Crioch-Feidhlim,  in  the  county  of  Wex- 
ford, the  lordship  of  O'Murphy. 

Crioch-na-Ceadach,  in  Meath,  the  patri- 
mony of  CFallon. 

Crioch-o-Mbairce,  bordering  on  the 
King's  county  and  county  of  Kildare,  the 
ancient  estate  of  Mac  Gorman. 

Crioch-ui-Maine,  in  the  Queen's  county, 
the  estate  of  CCowley. 


Cuallachda,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the 
patrimony  of  CDubhgin,  or  Dugin. 

Cuircne,  a  territory  in  West  Meath,  the 
lordship  of  O'Tolarg. 

Culrelamhain,  in  Meath,  the  estate  of 
O'Murray. 

Dairbre,  in  the  county  of  Kerry,  the  es- 
tate of  O'Shea. 

Dal-Araidhe,  a  considerable  territory 
in  Ulster,  including  almost  the  entire  coun- 
ty of  Down,  and  a  considerable  part  of  the 
county  of  Antrim.  It  was  the  territory  of 
the  Clana  Ruighruidhe,  or  line  of  Ir,  after 
the  ruin  of  Emania,  and  so  called  from 
Fiacha  Araidhe.  The  Magenises,  O'Dun- 
levy's,  O'Loingfidhs,  O'Mathgamhnaidhs,  or 
Smiths,  Mac  Cartans,  Mac  Bhairds,  or 
Wards,  the  O'Maol  Creabhs,  or  Ovaghs, 
etc.,  were  the  proprietors  of  this  country. 

Dal-Fiathach,  so  called  from  Fiathach- 
Finn,  monarch  of  Ireland  in  the  third  cen- 
tury, was  a  territory  bordering  on  Loch- 
Erne,  inhabited  by  the  posterity  of  this 
prince. 

Dal-Riada,  a  large  territory  in  Ulster, 
in  the  possession  of  Cairbre  Riada,  who 
first  formed  an  Irish  colony  in  Scotland. 

Darach,  in  Thomond,  the  patrimony  of 
Mac  Donnel,  descended  from  Brian-Boi- 
ruhme. 

Darinne.     See  Cairbreacha. 

Dartraidhe,  in  the  county  of  Roscom- 
mon, the  country  of  O'Fin,  Mac  Flancha, 
and  a  branch  of  the  O'Carrols. 

Dartraidhe,  in  the  county  of  Sligo,  the 
estate  of  Mac  Lanchy. 

Dartraidhe,  in  the  county  of  Monaghan, 
the  principal  seat  of  Mac  Mahon,  chief  of 
that  country. 

Dealbhna,  or  Delvin.  There  were  seven 
districts  of  this  name,  all  originating  from 
Luigh-Dealbha,  who,  at  the  head  of  his 
six  sons,  and  his  forces,  marched  into 
Meath  and  Connaught,  where  he  gained 
these  possessions,  which  still  go  by  the 
name  of  the  Delvins. 

Dealbhna-Beg,  in  Meath,  was  the  terri- 
tory of  CMaolchailin. 

Dealbhna-Cual-Feabhar,  in  the  same, 
and  Dealbhna-Nuadhat,  in  the  county  of 
Roscommon,  were  also  Fearan-Cloidhimh, 


320 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  1171. 


or  Sword-Lands,  acquired  by  Dealbha  and 
his  posterity. 

Dealbhna-Eathra,  in  the  King's  county, 
is  still  the  lordship  of  O'Coghlin. 

Dealbhna-Feadh,  in  the  county  of  Gal- 
way,  the  estate  of  Mac  Conroi. 

Dealbhna-Mor,  in  Meath,  was  the  lord- 
ship of  O'Fenellan,  who,  being  dispossessed 
in  the  decline  of  the  twelfth  century,  by 
Hugo  de  Lacy,  it  was  granted  to  the  Nu- 
gents,  who  were  created  lords  of  Delvin. 

Dealbhna-Tan-Moi,  in  Meath,  the  patri- 
mony of  O'Scully, 

Deasmuinhain,  Desmond,  or  South  Mun- 
ster,  was  principally  inhabited  by  the  Eo- 
ganachts,  or  posterity  of  Eoghain-More, 
by  the  Clana  Ith,  or  Irish  Brigantes,  by 
some  of  the  issue  of  Deagha,  and  some 
branches  of  the  line  of  Ir. 

Deisebh,  or  the  Deasies,  divided  into 
North  and  South  Deasies.  O'Felan,  and 
O'Brie,  of  the  Heremonian  line,  were  chief 
princes  of  the  Deasies,  under  whom  were 
many  subordinate  lords. 

Diseart-ui-Deagha,  in  the  county  of 
Clare,  the  estate  of  O'Dae. 

Domhnac-Mor-ui-Healuigh,  in  Muscry, 
in  the  county  of  Cork,  the  estate  of 
O'Healy. 

DufFerin,  in  the  county  of  Down,  a  part 
of  Mac  Artin's  country. 

Duhallo,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  the  es- 
tate of  Mac  Donough,  a  branch  of  the 
Mac  Carthies. 

Eile-ui-Chearabhail,  in  Ormond,  or  East 
Munster,  the  principality  of  O'Carrol. 

Eile-ui-Fhogerta,  in  the  county  of  Tip- 
perary,  the  ancient  territory  of  O'Fogerty. 
My  worthy  friend,  Dr.  O'Fogerty,  the 
present  [1778]  representative  of  this  great 
house,  still  possesses  a  respectable  part  of 
the  domains  of  his  ancestors. 

Emhain-Macha,  or  Emania,  near  Ar- 
magh, the  royal  residence  of  the  kings 
of  Ulster,  of  the  Irian  race. 

Eoganacht  was  a  name  given  to  princi- 
palities possessed  by  the  immediate  issue 
of  Eoghan-Mor,  and  his  posterity :  as 

Eoganacht-Aine-Cliach,  in  the  county  of 
Limerick,  the  lordship  of  O'Kerwic. 

Eoganacht-Cashell,  extended  from  Ca- 


shell  to  Clonmel ;  its  principal  chief  was 
Mac  Carthy,  head  of  the  Eugenian 
line. 

Eoganacht-Gleanamhain,  in  the  county 
of  Cork,  was  the  lordship  of  O'Keeffe. 

Eoganacht-Locha-Lein,  or  Killamey,  in 
the  county  of  Kerry,  was  the  lordship  of 
O'Donoghoe,  and  part  of  this  territory  is 
still  possessed  by  that  princely  race. 

Eoganacht-Graffan,  in  the  county  of 
Tipperary,  the  lordship  of  O'Sullivan ;  and 
their  principal  seat  was  at  Cnoc-GrafFan, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Shure. 

Eoganacht-Raith-Lean,  in  the  county  of 
Cork,  was  the  territory  of  O'Mahony 
Fionn. 

Faith-ui-Halluran,  extending  from  Tulla 
to  near  Clare,  in  Thomond,  the  estate  of 
O'Halloran,  of  the  Heberean  race. 

Fanait,  in  the  county  of  Tyrconnel,  the 
patrimony  of  a  branch  of  the  Mac  Swee- 
nies. 

Fearan-Saingil,  called  Single-Land,  but 
more  properly  the  Land  of  the  Holy  Angel, 
near  Limerick,  the  ancient  estate  of  the 
CConuins  or  Cuneens. 

,FearcaiI,  in  Meath,  the  principality  of 
O'Molloy. 

Fearmoighe,  in  the  county  of  Antrim, 
the  estates  of  O'Ciaran,  and  O'Tierny. 

Fearmoighe-Fene,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 
the  ancient  territory  of  CDugan,  and 
O'Coscraig,  but  encroached  upon  in  the 
ninth  century  by  their  powerful  neighbour 
O'Keeffe  ;  they,  in  their  turn,  were  dispos- 
sessed by  the  Roches,  who  were  after- 
wards created  viscounts  of  Fermoy. 

Feartullach,  in  the  county  of  Meath,  the 
estate  of  O'Dooley. 

Fermanagh  county,  the  lordship  of 
Mac  Guire. 

Fionn-Ruis,  in  Tyrconnel,  the  estates  of 
O'Foranan,  and  O'Camahan. 

Fogharta,  in  Leinster,  the  country  of 
the  O'Nualans. 

Gabhran,  or  Goran,  in  the  county  of 
Kilkenny,  the  estates  of  O'Shillilan,  and 
O'Guidthin,  or  Getin. 

Galinga-Beg,  a  district  in  Meath,  the 
estate  of  O'Henessy. 

Gallinga-Mor,  now  the  barony  of  Galen, 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


321 


the  lordship  of  O'Hara.  (I  find  mention 
made  in  the  Leabhar-Lecan,  and  other 
MSS.,  of  many  other  Gallingas,  but  cannot 
ascertain  their  ancient  proprietors.  All 
these  territories  were  so  called  from  Cor- 
moc  Gallengach,  great-grandson  to  Olliol 
Olom,  by  whom  they  were  conquered  in 
the  third  century. 

Glan-Omra,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  the 
ancient  patrimony  of  the  Mac  Auliffs. 

Gleanamhain,  O'Keeffe's  country.  See 
Eoganacht  Gleanamhain. 

Glean-Fleisg,  in  the  county  of  Kerry, 
the  lordship  of  O'Donoghoe-FIeisg. 

Glean-Malier,  in  the  county  of  Kildare, 
the  lordship  of  O'Dempsy. 

Gort-Innse-Guare,  in  the  county  of  Gal- 
way,  the  mansion  of  O'Shagnassie. 

GrafTan,  or  Cnoc-Graffan,  in  the  county 
of  Tipperary,  one  of  the  royal  palaces  of 
Munster  in  early  days,  afterwards  the  par- 
ticular mansion  of  O'Sullivan. 

Ibh-Bruin,  the  name  of  many  ancient 
territories  in  Connaught,  so  called  as  being 
inhabited  by  the  posterity  of  Brian,  son  of 
Eocha-Moivone,  monarch  of  Ireland  in  the 
fourth  century,  as  other  territories  there 
got  the  name  of  Ibh-Fiacharach,  as  being 
possessed  by  the  issue  of  his  brother  Fia- 
chara. 

Ibh-Cinselach,  in  the  county  of  Wexford, 
the  ancient  principality  of  Mac  Murcha, 
or  O'Cavenagh,  King  of  Leinster ;  in  later 
periods  they  were  transplanted  to  the  bar- 
ony of  Idrone,  in  the  county  of  Carlow. 
The  present  [1778]  O'Cavenagh  resides  at 
Borass,  in  said  county. 

Ibh-Cinselach,  in  the  county  of  Wexford, 
the  seat  of  O'Kinselagh. 

Ibh-Diarmada,  in  Connaught,  the  estate 
of  O'Concanan. 

Ibh-Eachach,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  the 
property  of  the  O'Mahonys. 

Ibh-Failge,  a  very  ancient  territory, 
stretching  into  the  county  of  Kildare,  and 
into  a  part  of  the  King  and  Queen's  coun- 
ty, was  the  principality  of  Rosa-Failge, 
eldest  son  to  Cathoir-Mor,  monarch  of 
Ireland  in  the  second  century.  His  partic- 
ular mansion  was  in  the  county  of  Kildare, 

and  from  him  is  it  yet  called  the  barony 

41 


of  OfTaly.  The  representative  of  this 
princely  race  was  O'Connor  Failge,  or 
Faly.  O'Dempsy,  and  O'Dun,  etc.,  were 
lords  in  this  country.  The  present  [1778] 
Count  O'Falia,  captain-general  of  the  coast 
of  Grenada,  in  Spain,  is,  I  take  it  for 
granted,  the  chief  of  this  first  branch  of  the 
royal  line  of  Leinster. 

Ibh-Fiarach,  in  the  county  of  Galway, 
included  the  territories  of  O'Heyne,  and 
O'Shagnassy. 

Ibh-Fiarach,  now  called  Tuam-ui-Mhea- 
ra,  in  the  county  of  Tipperary,  the  lord- 
ship of  O'Mara.  The  present  chief  of 
that  ancient  house  is  not  inferior  to  any  of 
his  ancestors  in  hospitality  and  the  social 
virtues. 

Ibh-Kerin,  or  Ikerin,  in  Upper  Ormond, 
the  O'Meaghirs  country. 

Ibh-Laoghaire,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 
O'Leary's  country. 

Ibh-Laoghaire,  in  Meath,  the  estate  of 
O'Cindealvin,  or  Cindellan. 

Ibh-Liathan,  now  called  Barrymore,  in 
the  county  of  Cork,  the  country  of  O'Le- 
han,  or  O'Line. 

Ibh-Mac-Cuille,  or  Imokilly,  in  the  coun- 
ty of  Cork,  formerly  possessed  by  the 
6'Ceilies,  O'Mactre,  O'Glassin,  O'Ciaran, 
and  O'Bregan. 

Ibh-Maile,  in  the  county  of  Mayo, 
O'Mailly's  country. 

Ibh-Maine,  in  the  county  of  Galway,  and 
part  of  the  county  of  Roscommon,  the 
country  of  O'Kelly  and  his  subordinates. 
O'Kelly  was  hereditary  treasurer  of  Con- 
naught. 

Ibh-Maoile,  in  the  county  of  Wicklow, 
the  O'Tooles  country. 

Ibh-Oneach,  a  large  territory  in  the 
county  of  Roscommon,  the  principalities 
of  O'Connor-Don,  and  O'Connor-Roe,  the 
lineal  descendants  of  Roderic  O'Connor, 
last  monarch  of  Ireland,  and  which  great 
families  still  subsist,  and  have  preserved 
some  remnants  of  the  extensive  domains 
of  their  ancestors. 

Ibh-Neill-Deisgeart,  or  Southern  O'Neills, 
comprehended  all  Meath  and  the  adjoining 
places,  which  were  bequeathed  by  the  will 
of  NialL  the  Grand  to  four  of  his  sons,  and 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


in  this  name  is  included  all  the  branches  of 
his  family  there  residing. 

Ibh-Neill-Tuasgeart,  or  Northern  O'Neill, 
included  Tyrone,  Tyrconnel,  and  all  those 
other  territories  bestowed  by  the  above 
monarch  on  the  rest  of  his  children,  and  in 
this  name  is  comprehended  the  posterity  of 
this  prince  in  the  North. 

Ibh-Regan,  in  the  Queen's  county,  the 
lordship  of  O'Regan,  but  since  possessed 
by  the  O'Duns. 

Ibh-Seratha,  in  the  county  of  Kerry,  the 
territory  of  O'Falvie,  hereditary  admiral 
of  South  Munster. 

Ibh-Tuirtre,  in  Meath,  the  patrimony  of 
the  O'Donnellans. 

Inis-Eoghain,  in  the  county  of  Donegal, 
the  lordship  of  O'Doherty. 

Irris-Domhain,  in  the  county  of  Mayo, 
the  great  house  of  the  Connaught  knights, 
of  the  Damnonian,  or  Danaan  race. 

Iveach,  in  the  county  of  Down,  the  lord- 
ship of  the  Magenises. 

Laoiseach,  in  the  Queen's  county,  the 
lordship  of  O'Moora,  or  More ;  O'Moore, 
of  Ballyna,  in  the  county  of  Kildare,  is  the 
chief  of  this  great  house. 

Loch-Lein,  or  Killamey,  the  lordship  of 
CDonoghoe. 

Luin-Con,  in  the  west  of  Carbury,  the 
territory  of  O'Driscol-Oge. 

Magh-Breagha,  now  called  Fingal,  near 
Dublin.  Who  were  its  ancient  proprietors 
I  cannot  learn.  The  Danes  very  early 
made  a  solid  settlement  there  ;  and  from 
them  the  Irish  gave  it  the  name  of  Fingal, 
or  the  country  of  the  White  Strangers. 

Magh-Cullin,  in  the  county  of  Galway, 
CFlaherty's  country. 

Magh-Druchtan,  in  the  Queen's  county, 
belonging  to  a  branch  of  the  O'Kellys. 

Magh-Gaibhle,  in  the  county  of  Kil- 
dare, possessed  by  a  branch  of  the 
CCeilies. 

Magh-Ithe,  in  the  county  of  Derry,  the 
country  of  the  (yBoyles,  O'Maolbriassals, 
the  O'Quins,  and  O'Cannies. 

Magh-Leamhna,  in  the  county  of  Antrim, 
the  estate  of  the  Mac  Lanes,  or  Maclins, 
O'Commins,  etc. 

Magh-Liffe,  the  plains  of  Dublin,  the  an- 


cient territory  of  the  O'CuUius,  the  OBra- 
chanes,  and  other  tribes. 

Magh-Lurg,  in  the  county  of  Roscom- 
mon, the  Mac  Dermods  country.  Mac 
Dermod  was  hereditary  marshal  of  Con- 
naught;  and  the  present  chief  of  this 
princely  line  is  Mac  Dermod,  of  Coolavin, 
in  the  county  of  Sligo. 

Magh-Muirthiemhne,  in  the  county  of 
Louth,  famous  for  the  defeat  and  death  of 
Cucullin,  captain  of  the  Ulster  knights, 
before  the  Incarnation. 

Maon-Maigh,  now  called  Clanrichard, 
in  the  county  of  Galway,  the  ancient  pat- 
rimony of  the  O'Mulallies,  or  Lallys,  and 
of  the  O'Nachtans. 

Monaghan  county,  the  principality  of 
Mac  Mahon. 

Muiceadha,  in  the  county  of  Limerick, 
the  lordship  of  Mac  Enery.  The  remains 
of  a  large  monastery,  and  other  public 
buildings,  at  Castle-Town-Mac-Enery,  yet 
bespeak  the  piety  and  splendour  of  this 
family,  of  which  there  are  scarce  any  re- 
mains at  this  day. 

Muintir-Gilgain,  the  estate  of  O'Quin,  in 
the  county  of  Longford. 

Muintir-Tir-Conlachta,  (I  suppose  the 
present  Tuam-Greine,)  in  the  county  of 
Clare,  the  ancient  lordship  of  O'Grada,  or 
O'Grady. 

Muiscridhe-na-tri-Magh,  now  the  half 
barony  of  Orrery,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 
the  country  of  the  O'Cuillenans  and  O'Don- 
egans. 

Muiscridh-Jarrar-Feimhin,  near  Emly, 
in  the  county  of  Tipperary,  the  estate  of 
O'Carthy. 

Muiscridh-Luachra,  near  Kilmalloc,  in 
the  county  of  Limerick,  the  estate  of 
aHea. 

Muiscridh-Miotane,  in  the  county  of 
Cork,  the  territories  of  O'Flain,  and 
aMaolfavil. 

Muiscridh-Tire,  the  ancient  name  of 
Lower  Ormond,  the  early  property  of  the 
O'Donegans,  of  the  Eman  race ;  since  then 
possessed  by  Mac  O'Brien,  of  Arradh, 
O'Kennedy,  O'Donnellan,  etc. 

Murtha-Imhanachan,an  ancient  territory 
in  Connaught,  the  lordship  of  O'Beime. 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF    IRELAND. 


323 


Nas,  or  Nas-Laighean,  (so  called,  as 
being  the  place  of  meeting  of  the  estates 
of  Leinster,  now  the  Naas,  in  the  county 
of  Kildare,)  the  residence  of  the  Mac 
Murroghs,  or  O'Cavenaghs. 

Oghbhadh,  in  the  county  of  Meath,  the 
estate  of  a  branch  of  the  O'Heas. 

Oirgial  comprehended  the  present  coun- 
ties of  Louth,  Armagh,  and  Monaghan, 
conquered  by  the  three  CoUas,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourth  century. 

Ormond,  or  East  Munster,  the  principal- 
ity of  O'Carrol. 

Ossruidhe,  or  Ossory,  now  in  Leinster, 
was  the  principality  of  Fitz-Patrick,  O'Car- 
rol, O'Delany,  O'Doncha,  O'Niachal,  or 
Nihil,  and  many  other  ancient  septs. 

Ouen-ui-Clearna,  now  Six-Mile-Bridge, 
in  the  county  of  Clare,  the  estate  of 
O'Keamey. 

Pobul-ui-Brien,  now  a  barony,  in  the 
county  of  Limerick,  the  country  of  a  branch 
of  the  O'Brien  family. 

Pobul-ui-Ceallachan,  is  the  name  of  a 
territory  in  the  county  of  Cork,  extending 
from  Mallow  westward,  on  both  sides  of 
the  Black- Water,  the  ancient  principality 
of  O'Ceallachan.  The  family  were  trans- 
planted to  Ceil-Chomey,  in  the  county  of 
Clare,  by  Cromwell,  which  estate  is  still 
preserved  entire. 

Pobul-ui-Healuighe,  in  Muskry,  in  the 
county  of  Cork,  the  patrimony  of  the 
O'Healies. 

RafTan,  the  seat  of  O'Sullivan.  See 
GrafTan. 

Rath-Conan,  in  the  county  of  Limerick, 
the  estate  of  0*Casey.  The  present  [  1 778] 
speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
representative  for  the  city  of  Limerick, 
enjoys  a  part  of  this  estate,  in  right  of 
his  great  grandmother,  the  heiress  of 
O'Casey. 

Rinilough,  in  the  county  of  Wicklow, 
possessed  by  a  branch  of  the  O'Bymes. 

Rinn-Mhuintir-Bhaire,  an  head-land  in 
Carbury,  the  ancient  residence  of  the 
0*Baires. 

Roule.    See  Dal-Riada. 

Sathni,  in  Meath,  the  estate  of  O'Ca- 
sey. 


Silan-Machadh,  the  O'Maddins  country, 
in  the  county  of  Galway. 

Siol-Murrey,  near  Sligo,  O'Connor  Sli- 
go's  country. 

Sliabh-Scot,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the 
estate  of  the  Mac  Bruodins,  hereditary 
historians  of  North  Munster. 

Tanaiste  signifies  the  next  in  command, 
and  presumptive  heir  to  a  principality  or 
lordship. 

Teabhtha  or  TaafFel,  an  extensive  ter- 
ritory in  Meath,  the  principality  of  Maine, 
fourth  son  of  Niall  the  Grand,  whose  de- 
scendants were  the  O'Sheenachs  or  Foxes, 
Mac  Anlys,  O'Braoins,  O'Quins,  O'Dalies, 
O'Caham  or  Kerin,  O'Murrigan,  O'Haga. 

Tir-Amhalgaid,  in  the  county  of  Mayo, 
O'Hara's  country. 

Tir-Connel,  in  Ulster,  the  principality  of 
aDonnel. 

Tirone,  the  principality  of  O'Neil. 

Tirtuathal,  the  estate  of  Mac  Manus. 

Traidaire,  or  Tradraighe,  now  a  barony 
in  the  county  of  Clare,  before  the  Incarna- 
tion the  residence  of  the  Clana-Deagha,  or 
Munster  knights,  from  Daire,  the  son  of 
Deagha,  so  called,  and  which  words  im- 
port the  warriors  of  Daire.  From  this 
Daire  came  the  word  ridire,  or  ridare,  to 
signify  a  knight,  from  righ,  or  ri,  the  fore- 
arm, to  which  the  name  Daire  was  annexed. 
They  were  dispossessed  of  this  territory 
in  the  third  century  by  Cormoc-Cas,  King 
of  Leath-Mogha.  It  became  by  succes- 
sion the  property  of  Luigh-Lucius,  or  more 
properly  Louis,  called  Dealbha,  the  son  of 
Cas,  the  son  of  Conall-Eachluath,  in  the 
fourth  century,  which  he  resigned  to  his 
daughter  Aoife,  and  to  her  posterity ;  while 
he,  at  the  head  of  his  six  sons,  and  a  select 
body  of  troops,  marched  into  Leinster, 
where  he  acquired  large  possessions,  which 
from  him  were  called  the  Dealbhnas,  some 
of  which  are  continued  in  his  posterity  to 
this  day.  My  honoured  friend  Sir  Lucius 
O'Brien,  is  the  present  [1778]  chief  of 
Tradaire. 

Triocha-cead-an-Chala,  the  estate  of 
O'Ceadfa,  or  Coffie. 

Triocha-cead-o-Claisin,  the  barony  of 
Tulla,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the  estate 'of 


324 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.D.  1171. 


Mac  Namara,  hereditary  lord-marshal  of 
Thomond.  The  present  [1778]  represent- 
ative of  this  noble  house,  is  a  member  of 
the  Irish  parliament. 

Triocha-cead-CIadhac,  in  Fermanagh, 
the  estate  of  the  Mac  Kennas. 

Tuam-ui-Mhara,  in  the  county  of  Tippe- 
rary,  the  lordship  of  O'Mara. 

Tuath-Muimhain,  North  Munster,  or 
Thomond,  extended  from  the  isles  of  Aran 
to  Sliabh-Eibhline,  near  Cashell,  to  Carran- 
Fearaidh,  or  Cnoc-Aine,  in  the  county  of 
Limerick;  and  from  Luin-na-Con,or  Loops- 
Head,  to  Sliabh-Dala,  in  Ossory ;  but  it  was 
after  circumscribed  to  the  present  county 
of  Clare,  of  which  the  O'Briens  are  hered- 
itary princes.  The  present  [1778]  Earl 
of  Inchiquin  is  chief  of  this  branch  of  the 
royal  line  of  Heber,  eldest  son  to  Milesius, 
Mile-Espaine,  or  the  Hero  of  Spain. 

Tuatha-da-Danann,  the  Damnonii,  or 
fourth  colonv  of  Irish. 

Tulachog,  in  Ulster,  the  estate  of  O'Ha- 
gan,  and  O'Gormleys. 

Tullichrien,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  the 
estate  of  O'Gorman.  The  present  [1778] 
Chevalier  O'Gorman  is  chief  of  this  ancient 
house. 

Tullallaithne,  in  the  county  of  Tipperary, 
the  estate  of  O'Ryan,  or  O'Mul-Ryan. 

Turtra,  in  Oirgial,  possessed  by  the 
O'Donnellans,  O'Flins,  and  O'Heires. 

Uaithne,  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  the 
estate  of  O'Dinnahan,  or  Dinan. 

UUa,  now  the  county  of  Down,  the  prin- 
cipality of  Magennis. 

Ulladh,  the  province  of  Ulster,  so  called 
from  the  great  Ollamh-Fodhla. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Objections  to  the  authenticity  of  Milesian  pedi- 
grees answered — All  descended  from  three 
sons  of  Milesius,  and  from  his  uncle  Ith — Dif- 
ferent septs  of  the  same  name — Names  of  the 
Eoganachts,  of  the  line  of  Heber — The  Ithian 
race— Degaids  of  Munster  and  Irians — The  issue 
of  Cormoc  and  Cian,  of  the  line  of  Heber — The 
race  of  Ir — The  Heremonians  of  Leinster,  and 
the  other  septs  established  there — The  families 
of  Meath — Hi-Bruins  and  Hi-Fiacres  of  Con- 
naught — Families  of  Ulster,  of  the  CoUas,  etc. 


The  ancient  Egyptians  were  all  deemed 
noble,  and  so  were  the  ancient  Irish,  and 
certainly  with  the  greatest  justice,  both  de- 
riving their  origins  from  the  purest  foun- 
tains. But  it  may  be  objected  to  the  Mi- 
lesian Irish,  that  they  all  trace  their  gene- 
alogies to  royal  blood,  which  as  it  appears 
(viewed  in  the  most  favourable  light)  a  lit- 
tle paradoxical,  requires  to  be  adverted  to. 

Certain  it  is,  that  on  the  Milesians  first 
landing  in  Ireland,  the  country  was  thickly 
inhabited,  and  that  all  their  own  soldiers 
and  men-at-arms,  could  not  possibly  be 
from  the  same  stock  with  them,  any  more 
than  the  origmal  natives.  All  this  is 
granted,  and  yet  it  will  not  in  the ,  least  in- 
validate the  truth  of  these  genealogies. 
The  duty  of  the  hereditary  antiquarians, 
poets,  and  historians,  from  the  earliest  an- 
tiquity, even  to  the  decline  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, was  to  transmit  from  age  to  age,  with 
the  greatest  precision  and  perspicuity,  the 
genealogies,  the  exploits,  and  the  posses- 
sions of  the  different  families  of  the  king- 
dom, from  the  royal  stock  of  Milesius,  and 
these  only.  If  any  branches  of  these  fami- 
lies went  to  decay,  or  were  no  longer  able 
to  support  their  rank  in  the  state,  the  gene- 
alogists and  historians  ceased  pursuing 
them.  No  further  account  was  given  of 
them,  as  if  they  had  left  no  issue  ;  so  that 
such  natives  and  foreigners  as  suppose  from 
our  genealogies,  that  the  entire  kingdom 
were  the  issue  of  the  sons  of  Milesius,  are 
not  at  all  justified  in  their  suppositions  by 
the  history  of  the  country. 

The  monarchs  and  provincial  kings  were 
elected  from  certain  families  of  the  blood- 
royal,  who  had  preserved  power  and  pos- 
sessions sufficient  to  support  and  justify 
their  claims.  The  collateral  branches  of 
these  families  applied  to  the  profession  of 
arms,  to  the  church,  or  to  the  study  of  dif- 
ferent branches  of  the  sciences,  which  were 
all  deemed  noble.  The  genealogies  of  all 
these  were  most  carefully  preserved,  and 
of  course  it  will  naturally  explain,  and 
clearly  justify,  the  claims  of  all  the  Mile- 
sian families  in  tracing  their  ancestry  to 
Milesius,  to  Gathelus,  and  to  Phaenius — 
thus — Donatus,  Bishop    of  Fiesoli,  near 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


325 


Florence,  in  his  poem  on  Ireland,  of  one 
thousand  one  hundred  years  standing, 
treats  the  matter  in  hand : 

"  In  qua  Scotoram  gentes  habitare  merentur : 
Inclyta  gens  hominum !" 

Of  all  the  sons  of  Milesius,  as  well  natu- 
ral as  those  born  in  wedlock,  the  issue  of 
three  only  are  preserved  in  our  annals, 
with  those  of  his  uncle  Ith,  who  are  called 
the  Clana-Breogan,  or  Brigantes.  These 
three  sons  of  Milesius  are  Heber,  his  first 
begotten,  bom  in  Egypt;  Ir,  and  Here- 
mon,  whose  mother  was  Scota,  daughter 
to  the  king  of  Egypt.  The  line  of  Heber 
begins  with  the  three  sons  of  OilioU-Ollum, 
namely,  Eogan-Mor,  Cormac-Cas  and  Cian. 
The  posterity  of  the  two  first  are  from 
these  ancestors  distinguished  into  Eoga- 
nachts,  and  Dai-Gas.  About  the  middle 
of  the  tenth  century  surnames  became  first 
introduced  into  Munster,  and  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  next  age  became  adopted  all 
over  the  kingdom.  But  when  surnames 
came  into  general  use,  care  was  taken  that 
they  should  not  be  arbitrarily  assumed. 
Every  family  was  to  add  to  its  Christian 
name,  the  name  of  some  particular  ances- 
tor, renowned  for  his  superior  bravery,  vir- 
tue, or  sanctity.  To  this  was  to  be  pre- 
fixed the  words  O,  or  Mac,  which  signi- 
fied the  son  or  issue  of  that  person.  To 
illustrate  this  by  a  few  instances,  the 
O'Briens  were  so  called,  as  being  the 
descendants  of  the  renowned  Brien-Boir- 
umhe ;  the  O'Neils,  from  Niall,  the  hero  of 
the  Nine  Hostages;  O'Ceallachans,  from 
Ceallachan-Cashell ;  the  O'Sullivans,  from 
a  renowned  ancestor  so  called,  and  so  of 
the  other  names.*  The  surname,  with  the 
adjunct  O,  or  Mac,  was  assumed  by  the 
chief  of  each  name.  He  was  saluted  or 
addressed  by  no  other  title.  O'Brien,  Mac 
Carthy,  or  O'Niall,  imported  the  chief  of 
Thomond,  of  Desmond,  or  Tyrone.  To 
the  branches  the  Christian  name  was  added. 
It  was  the  custom  adopted  from  the  earli- 
est times  ;  it  is  the  mode  observed  by  well- 
bred  men  at  this  day  ! 

But  though  I  have  noticed  that  the  sur- 
names of  Milesian  families  were  taken  from 
*  Introdaction  to  Irish  History,  p.  188. 


some  remarkable  ancestor ;  yet  it  is  neces- 
sary to  observe  that  gentlemen  of  the  same 
name  are  by  no  means  to  be  taken  as  if 
descended  from  the  same  stock  and  blood ; 
and  this  remark  will  at  the  same  time 
prove  the  extreme  care  and  accuracy  of 
our  ancient  genealogists.  For  instance, 
though  O'Connor  is  a  general  name  through 
the  kingdom,  and  was  formerly  infinitely 
more  so,  yet  we  are  not  to  suppose  that 
they  are  all  from  the  same  root.  The  dif- 
ferent septs  of  the  O'Connors  of  Connaught, 
as  O'Connor-Don,  O'Connor-Roe,  O'Con- 
nor-Sligo,  etc.,  are  of  the  same  stock,  be- 
ing all  descended  from  Brien,  eldest  son  to 
Eochaidh,  monarch  of  Ireland  in  the  fourth 
century.  O'Connor-Fali,  chief  of  the  O'Con- 
nors of  Leinster,  is  descended  from  Rossa- 
Failge,  or  Fall,  eldest  son  to  Cathoir  the 
Grand,  monarch  of  Ireland  in  the  second 
century.  The  O'Connors  of  Ulster  are  of 
the  house  of  Heber,  and  sprung  from 
Cian,  son  to  Oilliol,  king  of  Munster,  in  said 
century ;  and  the  O'Connors  of  Kerry,  and 
all  South  Munster,  as  well  as  those  of  Cor- 
comruadh  and  Thomond,  are  of  the  royal 
line  of  Ir  ;  the  Mac  Mahons  and  Mac  Don- 
nels  of  Ulster  and  Thomond,  are  of  differ- 
ent septs,  and  so  are  the  O'Carrols.  The 
same  remark  will  hold  good  with  respect 
to  many  other  great  namfes ;  yet  the  names 
of  O'Brien,  Mac  Namara,  O'Grady,  and 
others  of  North  Munster,  as  well  as  the 
entire  stock  of  the  Eoganachts  of  South 
Munster,  wherever  dispersed,  are  of  the 
same  blood. 

The  posterity  of  Eogan-Mor,  eldest  son 
of  Oilliol,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  (the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  Desmond,)  are,  first,  Mac 
Carthy-Mor,  or  the  Great,  with  the  differ- 
ent branches  of  that  name,  proceeding  from 
this  great  source.  The  O'Sullivans,  O'Ce- 
allachans, O'Keefes,  O'Donoghoes,  O'Ma- 
honies,  O'Donovans,  O'Connells,  Mac  Kil- 
lecoddy,  O'Kerwics,  O'Riarden,  Mac  Fini- 
ghins  or  Fannins,  O'Fogherty,  Mac  Auliffs, 
O'Finigin,  O'Moriarty,  O'Houregan,  O'Cu- 
illane  or  Collins,  O'Hehir,  O'Mechan,  Mac 
Elligod,  O'Davoran,  Mac  Arteri  or  Arthur, 
O'Lechan  or  Line,  O'Treasagha  or  Tracy, 
O'Ledeen,  O'Gar  van,  Mac  Grath,  O'Kinealy, 


326 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


CCIerein,  O'FIanery,  O'Anamachda,  O'Da- 
ly :  the  ancient  Stuarts  of  Lenox  and  Man 
in  Scotland,  and  their  posterity,  are  of  the 
race  of  Heber.  O'Crowley-Lugha,  son  of 
Ith,  uncle  to  Milesius,  had  settlements  as- 
signed to  him  and  to  his  followers  in  the 
present  county  of  Cork,  immediately  after 
the  reduction  of  Ireland,  and  which  from 
this  prince  were  called  Corca-Luighe. 
From  him  are  descended,  first,  O'Driscol- 
Mor,  with  the  different  branches  of  his 
name,  and  from  these  O'Leary,  O'Cob- 
thig,  O'Baire,  O'Flin,  O'Hinegan,  O'Hea, 
O'Dead,  O'Fin,  Mac  Crochan,  Mac  Amal- 
gad,  O'Kearnan,  O'Cormac,  Mac  Crath, 
O'Dooly,  CEnrichty,  (yRothlan  or  Row- 
land, O'Sungin,  O'Kerwic,  0'Fineen,0'Hal- 
linan,  with  the  twenty-seven  bishops  of 
Ross,  and  many  saints.  The  dukes  of  Ar- 
gyle,  hereditary  lords-justices  of  Scotland, 
with  all  the  Campbells  of  that  country,  the 
Mac  Aliens  and  other  noble  septs  of  North 
Britain,  are  the  issue  of  Mac  Con,  of  the 
line  of  Ith,  and  monarch  of  Ireland  in  the 
commencement  of  the  third  century.  It  is 
to  be  noticed  that  the  people  of  Corca- 
Luighe,  and  indeed  the  most  parts  of  Mun- 
ster,  were  Christians  long  before  the  arri- 
val of  St.  Patrick. 

About  a  century  before  Christ,  Munster 
received  a  new  colony  in  the  Clana-Dea- 
gha,  called  sometimes  Degaids,  from  this 
Deagha,  as  also  Ernains  of  Munster,  from 
their  first  settlement  about  Loch-Erne,  in 
the  North.  They  were  the  issue  of  the 
monarch  Aongus  III.,  (see  p.  78,)  of  the 
line  of  Heremon ;  and  from  this  house  pro- 
ceeded some  kings  of  Munster  Eidersgoil, 
Conaire  I.,  and  Conaire  IL,  monarchs  of 
Ireland,  with  the  royal  line  of  Scotland, 
from  Fergus  to  his  present  majesty.  This 
family  were  the  restorers  of  military  disci- 
pline, and  of  the  equestrian  order  of  Mun- 
ster. Of  this  great  house,  the  following 
families  in  Munster  are  descended :  O'Fal- 
vie,  O'Shea,  O'Connel,  O'Cuillenan,  O'Don- 
negan,  O'Flin,  chief  of  Muiscridh,  Miotane, 
CKMaolfavil,  O'Cronacan,  O'Samplin,  (prob- 
ably Suple,  an  ancient  family  in  Kerry,) 
aMael-Ceallig,  O'Conaire,  aFithilly,  O'- 
Cuire,  O'Lochin,  O'Conuing,  O'Corcoran, 


O'Cineth,  aRobartaig,  O'Fergus,  and  O'Bu- 
chan.  The  O'Dwyers,  O'Brenans,  and 
O'Ryans,  of  the  line  of  Heremon,  became 
also  denizens  of  Munster,  as  did  the  O'Fe- 
lans,  descended  from  Fiacha-Suidhe,  O*- 
Scanlan,  O'Camoge,  O'Henessy,  O'Eagan, 
etc.,  of  this  race. 

Besides  these,  Ciar,  one  of  the  three  sons 
of  Fergus,  grandson  to  Ruighridhe  the 
Great,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  monarch  of  Ireland, 
gained  possessions  in  Kerry,  from  him  so 
called.  From  him  are  descended,  first, 
O'Connor- Kerry,  chief  of  this  branch  of  the 
Irian  line ;  and  from  him  sprung  the  O'Du- 
gains,  O'Conway,  O'Cathil,  which  are  the 
chief  Milesian  families  in  South  Munster. 

Thomond,  or  North  Munster,  was  the 
inheritance  of  Cormac-Cas,  reserving  the 
principality  of  Ormond,  or  East  Munster, 
to  his  brother  Cian;  but  the  sovereignty 
was  confined  to  the  houses  of  Eogan  and 
Cormac  only. 

From  Cormac  are  descended,  first, 
O'Brien,  chief  of  Thomond,  Mac  Mahon, 
lord  of  Corca-Bhaisgin,  Mac  Namara,  mar- 
shal of  Thomond.  Mac  Clancy,  heredi- 
tary chief-justice,  Mac  Bruodin,  hereditary 
historian,  O'Hickey,  and  O'Nolan,  the  he- 
reditary medical  tribe,  Mac  Curtins,  hered- 
itary bards,  etc.  Besides  these  hereditary 
officers,  the  following  noble  families  are 
derived  from  this  great  source :  O'Dea, 
O'Hehir,  O'Quin,  Mac  Ennery,  O'Grady, 
O'Heffernan,  O'Kennedy,  0'Hogan,0'Shee- 
han,  O'Neachtan,  O'Hea,  O'Hurly,  O'Mol- 
lowny,  O'Bolan,  O'Casie,  O'Hanraghan, 
O'Spelan,  O'Coghlin,  O'Tuamy,  O'Lonar- 
gan,  O'Ceallachan,  O'Ahern,  Mac  Grath, 
O'Shanahan,  CHealy,  O'Morrony,  O'Mara, 
O'Henrighta,  O'Loinsigh  or  Linch,  O'Seas- 
nan  or  Sexton,  O'Honcen,  O'Cormocan, 
CFRiady,  O'Halloran,  O'Cashin,  CMule- 
quiny,  O'Heaphy,  O'Hartigan,  O'GioU-Io- 
sachta  or  Lysaghts,  Mac  Donnel,  O'Consa- 
din,  O'Regan,  Arturagin  or  Arthur,  O'Kear- 
ny,  O'Coning  or  Cuneen,  O'Liddy,  CKHin- 
nigan,  Mac  Conry,  O'Brody,  O'Conglach, 
O'Minane,  aMarchahan,  O'Duhig,  aNu- 
nan,  O'Collopy. 

From  Cian,  third  son  of  Oilliol,  are 
sprung,  first,  O'Carrol,  prince  of  Eile,  and 


v^*^*":^. 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


327 


chief  of  Ormond ;  O'Meaghir,  O'Riardan, 
aCorcran,  Mac  Keogh,  0'Flanagan,0'Dul- 
honty,  a  branch  of  the  O'Casies,  O'Connor 
Cianachta,  O'Hara,  O'Gary,  etc.  To  these 
septs  we  are  to  add  the  posterity  of  Core, 
brother  to  Ciar,  of  the  royal  Hne  of  Ir,  who 
acquired  a  large  territory  in  Thomond,  be- 
fore the  Incarnation,  from  him  called  Cor- 
camruadh,  East  and  West,  now  the  baro- 
nies of  Corcamruadh  and  Burren.  The 
ancient  chief  of  Corcamruadh  of  this  line, 
was  O'Connor ;  and  of  Burren  was  O'Logh- 
lin,  from  whom  O'Brock,  O'Casie,  O'Turny, 
Mac  Anister  or  Nestor,  O'Marchahan,  and 
O'Tyn,  are  descended.  Corca-Bhaisgin 
was  the  principality  of  Cairbre-Bhaisgin, 
of  the  posterity  of  Conaire  the  Grand,  and 
Emain  race.  This  territory,  bordering  on 
the  Shannon,  in  the  county  of  Clare,  though 
confined,  yet  was  powerful  in  commerce, 
in  riches,  and  inhabitants.  No  less  than 
six  saints  are  recorded  to  have  proceeded 
from  this  house,  among  whom  was  the 
great  St.  Senanus,  founder  of  the  churches 
of  Inis-Catha  or  Scattery,  on  the  Shannon, 
as  well  as  of  the  anchorite  tower,  yet  stand- 
ing, in  which  he  finished  his  days;  yet  all 
the  records  that  remain  of  this  house  are, 
that  O'Baiscin  and  O'Donnel  were  its  chief 
representatives  in  later  days !  The  O'Gor- 
mans,  of  the  Lagenian  race,  have  long 
flourished  in  Thomond. 

The  house  of  Ir,  by  right  of  seniority, 
demands  the  second  place,  though  the  Her- 
emonians  were  undoubtedly  the  most  pow- 
erful. From  Ruighridhe,  the  grand  mon- 
arch of  Ireland,  before  the  Incarnation, 
they  are  generally  called  Clana-Ruighridhe. 
We  have  seen  the  dominions  of  this  great 
house  reduced  to  very  confined  limits,  af- 
ter the  destruction  of  Emania  by  the  three 
CoUas,  and  of  consequence  their  posterity 
not  over  numerous :  yet,  at  this  day,  some 
of  them  make  a  distinguished  figure.  The 
chief  representative  of  this  house  is  Mac 
G«nnis  or  Mac  Aengus,  as  is  O'Moora  of 
the  Craobh-Ruadh,  (though,  I  think,  more 
properly  Crobh-Ruadh,  or  the  Red  or 
Bloody  Hand,)  or  hereditary  knights  of 
Ulster  of  the  Irian  line.  From  these  the 
Mac  Gabhnions    or   Smiths,   O'Garveys, 


O'Dunlevy,  O'Heochagan,  O'Lavery,  O'Lo- 
'^iisy,  O'Hanby,  O'Neachach,  Mac  Cartin, 
O'Morna,  O'Curry,  O'Coltrain,  Mac  Gil- 
larivig,  Mac-an-Bhaird  or  Ward,  O'Law- 
ler,  Mac  Gilligan,  O'Marchahan,  O'Tiemy, 
O'Conway,  O'Casie,  O'Brosnahan,  O'Har- 
rigan,  O'Hullachan,  O'Duan,  O'Maning, 
Mac  Gilmer,  O'Kenny,  O'Carrolan,  O'Keth- 
emy,  O'Scanlan,  the  O'Connors  of  Kerry 
and  Thomond,  O'Loghlin,  the  O'Ferrals  of 
Analy,  the  Mac  Rannels,  etc. 

The  other  Milesians  of  Leinster,  Ulster, 
and  Connaught,  are  mostly  of  the  line  of 
Heremon,  but  so  early  separated  from  each 
other  that  they  may  be  regarded  as  differ- 
ent houses.  The  line  of  Leinster  begins 
with  Joughaine,  the  great  monarch  of  Ire- 
land, some  centuries  before  Christ,  whose 
royal  residence  was  at  Rath-Joughaine, 
now  called  Jiggin's-Town,  near  the  Naas, 
the  ancient  capital  of  Leinster,  and  from 
his  two  sons.  Loaghaire  (Leary)  from 
whom  Dun-Leary,  near  Dublin,  was  the 
source  of  the  Milesians  of  Leinster;  as 
was  his  brother  Cobh-Thaig,  of  those  of 
the  rest  of  Leath-Cuin.  I  find  O'Baiscin, 
O'Dwyer,  O'Ryan,  O'Garchin,  Fitz-Patrick, 
and  O'Brenan,  to  carry  their  pedigrees 
higher  than  Cathoir-Mor,  from  whom  the 
other  great  families  claim  their  descents. 
This  prince  Cathoir  had  thirty  sons,  ten  of 
which  left  issue.  From  Rossa-Failge,  his 
eldest,  proceeded,  first,  O'Connor  Faly, 
O'Dun,  O'Dempsy,  O'Regan,  O'Colgan, 
O'Mulchiaran,  ^Bearra,  aHarti,  O'CuUin, 
O'AUilan,  O'Fin,  ^Maine,  aFlaherty, 
aDondon,  O'Foranan,  O'Henessy,  aUlla- 
chan,  O'Dugan,  and  O'Murrigin.  From 
Daire,  his  second  son,  sprung  O'Mooney, 
O'Gorman,  O'Melan,  O'Feall,  O'Brenan, 
aMallone,  O'Minchan,  O'Manning,  O'Co- 
main,  O'Guban,  and  O'Follachty.  From 
Criomthan,  the  people  of  a  district  in  Lein- 
ster, whose  names  I  know  not,  were  called. 
From  Breassal-Enachlas,  the  fourth  son, 
sprung  O'Dicolo,  O'Feardig,  O'Cuning, 
O'Eogan,  O'Cruchta,  etc.  From  Eochaidh- 
Timine,  came  O'Hanragan,  O'Bime,  and 
O'Coplig,  etc.  From  Olioll-Cetach,  sixth 
son,  the  O'Fallons  of  Crioch-Cetach,  O'Cro- 
nan,  and  O'Cathill,  etc.,  are  descended. 


338 


HISTORY  OF  IREI/AND. 


[A.  D.  1171- 


From  Fergus-Luscan  came  the  O'Los- 
cans,  O'Colman,  O'Ena,  O'Sinig,  O'Lal- 
lain,  O'Duban,  O'NowIan,  O'Tily,  O'Ciar- 
mac,  O'Geran,  O'Cillin,  etc.  Deremasach 
gave  rise  to  the  O'Deremasachs,  O'Cuanda, 
O'Uica,  etc.  The  issue  of  Aongus  is 
thrown  into  that  of  Rossa,  by  whom  he 
was  supported  ;  but  from  the  loins  of  Fia- 
cha,  the  youngest  son,  sprung  most  of  the 
succeeding  kings  of  Leinster.  The  chief 
representative  of  this  house  is  Mac  Mur- 
rogh  or  O'Cavenagh,  O'Murphy,  O'Byrne, 
O'Toole,  O'Maol-Ryan,  O'Cinselagh,  O'- 
Dowhng,  O'Maoldun  or  MuUin,  O'Duffy. 
Besides  these,  Leinster  received  into  its 
bosom  the  issue  of  other  states :  for,  in  the 
reign  of  Feidhlim,  the  legislator,  the  Ma- 
monians  had  overrun  all  Leinster.  In  this 
distress  Cuchorb  applied  to  Eochaid-Fionn, 
the  son  of  Feidhlim,  who,  with  his  precep- 
tor Laoigheasach,  of  the  line  of  Ir,  marched 
into  Leinster  at  the  head  of  twenty-one 
thousand  men,  and  cleared  the  country  of 
these  invaders.  To  reward  these  auxilia- 
ries Cuchorb  bestowed  on  Eocha  the  Foth- 
ards  in  Leinster,  from  a  surname  of  his  so 
called  ;  and  on  Laoigheasach,  the  country 
after  him  known  by  the  name  of  Leis,  or 
the  present  Queen's  county.  From  Eo- 
chaidh  are  descended  the  O'Maoltollas, 
CMingan,  O'Lochin,  O'Cainoge,  O'Comain, 
O'Luineachs,  O'Meathus,  O'Dermod,  O'Me- 
ragin,  etc.  From  Laoigheasach  came 
O'Moora,  O'Brocain,  CCormac,  the  Clan 
Flanegan,  Clan  Eilge,  etc.  Ossory,  though 
placed  in  Leinster,  was  always  tributary 
to  Munster,  and  sometimes  deemed  a  part 
of  it.  It  was  governed  by  its  own  princes 
of  the  line  of  Heremon,  and  Fitz-Patrick 
was  its  chief.  From  him  proceeded  O'De- 
lany,  ONiachol,  O'Cairn,  O'Fenan,  etc. 
Besides  these,  the  O'Coghlins  and  CFenel- 
lans,  etc.,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  and  the 
O'Ferrals  and  Mac  Rannels  of  the  Irian 
race,  acquired  considerable  lordships  in 
Leinster. 

Meath,  formed  into  a  fifth  province  by 
Tuathal,  in  the  second  century,  for  the  bet- 
ter support  of  the  monarchy,  and  which 
was  called,  "  The  mensal  territory  of  the 
monarchs  qf  Ireland"  comprehended  the 


present  counties  of  East  and  West  Meath, 
the  counties  of  Kildare  and  Dublin,  with 
other  adjoining  territories.  The  posterity 
of  Cobhthaigh  became  here  a  numerous 
and  powerful  race.  We  may  judge  of  their 
consequence  by  Eochaidh-Fionn,  brother  to 
the  monarch  Con,  being  able  to  raise 
twenty-one  thousand  fighting  men  to  assist 
the  Lagenians,  though  himself  but  a  prince 
in  Meath,  and  possessed  of  but  a  small  ter- 
ritory. But  how  great  and  populous  soever 
they  were,  the  present  race  of  MeathiaiM 
draw  their  pedigrees  from  the  four  sons  of 
Niall  the  Grand,  settled  here  in  the  fourth 
century,  but  who  were  lineally  descended 
from  the  same  stock.  The  names  of  these 
four  sons  were,  Loaghaire,  Conall-Criom- 
than,  Fiacha,  and  Maine.  The  posterity 
of  these  princes  were  distinguished  from 
the  issue  of  their  brethren  settled  in  Ulster, 
by  the  name  of  the  Southern  Hi-Nialls, 
Clan  Colman,  etc.  From  the  eldest  of  these 
sons,  the  country  called  Ibh-Laoghaire, 
took  its  name.  His  chief  representative 
was  O'Cindealbhin  or  Kendellan  ;  O'Cuan 
or  Quan,  O'Conrich,  O'Tuchar,  O'Licane, 
O'Fallon,  O'Leochal,  etc.,  are  from  this 
branch.  From  Conall-Criomthan  are  the 
O'Maloghlin,  or  Mealsachlins,  kings  of 
Meath;  on  the  arrival  of  the  English, 
O'Dooly,  O'Flanagan,  with  their  depend- 
ents, whose  names  I  cannot  trace.  The 
issue  of  Fiacha  are,  O'MoUoy,  prince  of 
Fearcale,  Mac  Geoghegan,  Mac  Cullin, 
O'Higgin,  Mac  Ruark,  O'Folarg,  etc.  The 
posterity  of  Maine  are,  CSheenach  or  Fox, 
Mac  Awly,  O'Daly,  O'Brien,  O'Quin,  O'Ha- 
gau,  O'Ronan,  O'Donellan,  O'Medog,  O'- 
Cithemig,  O'Cathlin  or  Callm,  O'Mulconry, 
O'Fagan,  CMurray,  O'Madegan,  O'Dig- 
nan,  O'Cerin,  O'Celachan,  O'Sligan,  O'Shiel, 
O'Mulciaran,  etc.  Besides  these,  O'Kelly, 
O'Comgallach,  O'Rury,  O'Mulcahill,  Mac 
Connin,  Mac  Carrigan,  O'Scully,  O'Curry, 
Mac  Gilla-Comog,  O'Donog,  O'Murcher- 
tach,  were  dynasties  of  this  country,  of  the 
Heremonian  line. 

The  Connaught  race  of  Milesians,  of  the 
royal  house  of  Heremon,  claim  their  pedi- 
gree from  the  same  source  with  those  of 
Meath,  through  Muiredhach,  called  Tire- 


A.  D.  1171.] 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


329 


ach,  or  the  Patriot,  the  son  of  Fiachadh, 
the  son  of  Cairbre,  the  son  of  Cormac,  etc. 
This  Muiredhach  was  king  of  Connaught 
before  he  succeeded  his  father  in  the  mon- 
archy, and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Eo- 
cha.  When  this  last  became  monarch,  he 
left  his  domains  in  Connaught  to  his  four 
sons  by  his  first  wife.  Of  these  two  only 
left  issue,  Brian  and  Fiachra.  From  Brian 
his  descendants  are  generally  called  Hi- 
Bruin,  and  those  of  his  brother  Hi-Fiacre. 
From  Brian  sprung  first,  O'Connor-Don, 
with  the  different  branches  of  this  name, 
O'Reily,  O'Ruark,  O'Flaherty,  Mac  Der- 
mod,  Mac  Donough,  O'Halloran,  O'Maily, 
O'Flanegan,  OTlin,  O'Hanly,  Mac  Manus, 
Mac  Brady,  O'Fallon,  Mac  Kernan,  O'Do- 
nellan,  O'Garvey,  O'Byrne,  O'Mallone,  O*- 
Mael-Brenan,  O'Mullally  or  Lally,  O'Cre- 
ane,  O'Galvey  or  Gallway,  Mac  Tigernau 
or  Ternan,  Mac  Brenan,  Mac  Teige,  O'- 
Crowley,  O'Concanon,  O'Finnegan,  O'- 
Murry,  O'Callinan,  O'Line,  O'Fin,  O'Cnam- 
hin  or  Neven,  O'Canavan,  O'Domhlin  or 
Doolin,  O'Breslin,  Mac  Aodh  or  Hugh, 
Mac  Eagan,  O'Mahidy,  O'Currin,  O'Maol- 
morra,  O'Carthy,  O'Moran,  O'Cahan,  O'- 
Maony,  O'Finachty,  Mac  Dorchey  or  Dar- 
cey,  Mac  Clancy,  O'Hea,  O'Ceamachin, 
O'Dearmady,  O'Gorman,  O'Mitrigan,  Mac 
Shanally.  From  Fiachra  are  descended 
O'Heyne,  prince  of  Ibh-Fiachra  Aoidhne, 
O'Shagnessy,  aDowd,  O'Kilkelly,  O'Cea- 
rig,  O'Clery,  O'Cemog,  O'CafFy,  aCrocan, 
O'Fahy,  O'Keady,  O'Comain,  etc.  The 
O'Haras,  O'Gara,  Mac  Conry,  with  then- 
dependants,  of  the  line  of  Heber,  formerly 
had,  and  still  possess  large  domains  in 
Connaught,  besides  many  great  septs  of  the 
Danaan  race. 

The  northern  line  of  Heremon  are  the 
offspring  of  Eogan  and  Conal-Gulban,  sons 
of  Niall  the  Grand,  and  of  the  three  Collas 
of  the  same  blood. 

From  Eogan  are  descended  CNeil,  with 
the  different  branches  of  his  name,  always 
kings  of  Tyrone,  and  sometimes  monarchs 
of  Ireland.  Even  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth, 
O'Neil  was  obeyed  as  monarch  by  his  own 
faction,  in  every  part  of  the  kingdom. 
From  O'Neil  proceeded  the  Mac  Sweneys, 

42 


O'Gormly,  O'Cahan  or  Kane,  O'Heasy, 
CFCraibh  or  Creagh,  O'Mulligan  called 
Molineux,  O'Mulvihil,  Mac  Loughlin,  O*- 
Donnolly,  O'Cathvil  or  Cauldfield,  Mac 
Kilkelly,  O'Duan,  O'Horan,  Mac  Gnaire, 
O'Hegarty,  O'Dubhderma,  O'Dunegan, 
Mac  Rury,  O'Kelly,  O'Maol-BreassaU 
aHamilly,  O'Murcha,  O'Maol-Fogarty, 
O'Daly.  From  Conall-Gulban,  whose  suc- 
cessors were  kings  of  Tyrconncl,  and  some- 
times monarchs,  are  sprung,  first,  O'Don- 
nel,  chief  of  this  great  house ;  and  from 
him  aDogherty,  O'Gallachar,  O'Buidhil  or 
Boyle,  Clan  Dala,  O'Hea,  O'Maolmony, 
Mac  Lonsechan,  O'Mulligin,  O'Brelan, 
O'Kearnachan,  O'Dalachan,  etc. 

Fiacha,  monarch  of  Ireland,  in  the  de- 
cline of  the  third,  and  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century,  had  a  brother  called  Eo- 
chaid-Doimhlin.  This  Eochaidh  had  three 
sons,  famous  in  our  history  by  the  names 
of  the  three  Collas.  While  Muireadhach, 
son  to  Fiacha,  led  an  army  into  Munster, 
the  Collas  availed  themselves  of  his  ab- 
sence, attacked  their  uncle,  whose  troops 
they  defeated,  and  he  himself  was  left  on  the 
plains  among  the  dead.  Hereupon  the 
eldest  CoUa  succeeded,  but  the  usurper 
was  defeated,  and  the  brothers  fled  to  Scot- 
land. In  time  they  were  received  into  fa- 
vour, and  a  body  of  men  was  given  them, 
with  which  they  invaded  Ulster,  and  con- 
quered a  large  territory,  which,  from  them, 
was  called  Oirgial,  comprehending  the 
present  counties  of  Louth,  Armagh,  and 
Monaghan.  Here  their  posterity  remained, 
and  many  of  them  yet  retain  a  part  of  their 
ancient  domains. 

From  CoU-Hnais,  or  the  noble,  are  de- 
scended the  present  Earl  of  Antrim,  and  all 
the  Mac  Donnels  of  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
the  Mac  Dougals  or  Doyles,  the  Mac  Ro- 
ries,  lords  of  the  Hebrides,  Mac  Cartan, 
aDaire,  ^Geran,  Mac  SoUiv  or  Sally, 
Clan  Gerin,  etc. 

From  Colla-Mean  I  find  the  0*Cearuib- 
hils  or  O'Carrols,  sometimes  called  kings 
of  Oirgial,  are  descended,  as  also  the  Mac 
Sheekies,  Clan  Duncha,  etc.  From  CoUa- 
da-Crioch  are  sprung  the  Mac  Mahons, 
princes  of  Monaghan,  Mac  Guire,  chief  of 


390 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


Fermanagh,  Mac  Manus,  O'Hanlon,  O'No- 
lan,  Mac  Connel,  Mac  Cineth  or  Mac-Ken- 
zie,  O'Flanagan,  O'Rudagan,  O'Lorcan, 
O'Danbig,  Mac  Naghtin,  Mac  Cormoc, 
O'Davin,  Mac  Felan,  etc.,  besides  the 
O'Kellies,  CMaddins,  Mac  Eagan.  etc.,  of 
Connaught.  O'Henrighty,  O'Behellan,  O- 
Cosgrive,  O'Garvey,  O'Lonagan,  O'Col- 
train,  O'Hamby,  and  O'Morna,  are  reck- 
oned up  by  O'Dugan  as  chiefs  of  Oirgial. 

Of  the  Dal-Fiatachs  of  Ulster  I  can 
give  no  account,  and  very  little  of  the 
Dalriada. 

From  these,  and  many  other  families 
now  extinct,  are  the  ancient  and  (by  the 
maternal  line)  almost  all  the  modem  Irish, 
through  the  kingdom,  descended.  United 
thus  in  blood,  and  having,  in  fact,  but  one 
common  interest  (the  good  of  their  coun- 
try) to  pursue,  is  it  not  astonishing  that  the 
least  disunion  should  subsist  among  them  ? 
What  would  become  of  Britain,  at  this 
day,  were  the  remains  of  the  ancient  Brit- 
ons, the  Saxons,  Danes,  Normans,  Flem- 
ings, and  Dutch,  to  regard  themselves  as 


distinct  colonies,  interested  only  in  the 
prosperity  of  their  particular  septs  ?  What 
would  be  the  state  of  France,  Spain,  Ger- 
many, and,  in  short,  of  the  whole  continent 
of  Europe,  were  they  to  act  on  principles 
so  contracted,  so  impolitic,  so  subversive 
of  public  good  ?  To  affirm  that  the  His- 
tory of  Ireland,  from  the  time  that  Henry 
II.  was  proclaimed  king  of  Leath-Mogha, 
to  this  day,  is  not  a  continuation  of  the 
past,  would  be  as  absurd  as  to  say,  that 
the  History  of  England,  since  the  Revolu- 
tion, has  no  kind  of  relation  to  antecedent 
facts  !  I  have  laboured,  with  unremitting 
zeal,  to  lay  before  my  countrymen  the  his- 
tory of  their  ancestors,  from  the  most  re- 
mote antiquity  to  that  period.  I  have  nei- 
ther exaggerated  their  virtues  nor  glossed 
over  their  vices.  The  Irish,  of  modem 
days,  have  now  an  opportunity  of  renew- 
ing their  acquaintance  with  their  great — 
their  long-neglected  ancestors — and  I  am 
persuaded,  that  neither  they,  nor  their 
country,  will  be  the  worse  for  this  in- 
formation. 


END    OF    MR.    o'hALLORAn's    WORK, 


rORNIMO    THE    FIRST    DITISION    Or   THK   COMPLETE    HISTORT   OT  IRELAND. 


INDEX 


TO 


MR.    O'HALLORAN'S    FIRST    VOLUME, 


COMPRISING   THE    FIRST   SIX    BOOKS. 


Page. 
Abanhi,  the  ancient  name  of  the  Nile,  explained,  28 
Abaris,  the  Hyperborean,  an  Irishman,     -    36,  37 


when  sent  ambassador  to  Athens, 


52 

77 


Adamar,  monarch  of  Ireland, 
j^gypt,  receives  arts  and  letters  from  Niulus 
the  Phoenician,  the  great  ancestor 
of  the  Irish  nation,        -         -         -     19 

■ quitted  by  his  posterity,     -         -        -     20 

Africans,  early  possessed  of  part  of  Ireland,         1 
■ extend  their  power  over  the  kingdom,       3 

called  in  to  assist  Laoghaire,      -         -     63 

proved  to  have  been  Carthaginians,   -     64 

or  Carthaginians,  closely    connected 

with  the  Irish,  -  -  -  -  72 
Airgeadmhar,  monarch,  -  -  -  -  69 
Albany,  when  peopled  by  the  Picts,      -       49,  50 

when  made  an  Irish  settlement,  -  113 

Aldergoid,  directs  doctors  in  science  to  wear 

gold  rings,         -        -        -        - 
Alphabet,  first  invented  by  Phaenius, 

■ the  Irish  the  same  with  the  Phsenian, 

■  the  Cadmean,  one  of  the  Greeks,  and 

the  Irish  in  their  original  order, 

the  hierographic  one  of  the  Irish, 

other  Greek  and  Irish  modes  of  writing,  33 

Amhergin,  the  high-priest,  puts  his  brethren 

on  the  conquest  of  Ireland, 
•  is  sent  ambassador  to  the  Danaan 


57 
19 
21 

32 
32 


28 


pnnces,     - 
slain  in  battle, 


44 
49 
69 
55 

77 
78 


Aodh-Ruadh,  monarch, 

Aongus  overruns  Britain  and  Albany,    - 

II.  invades  Greece,  -         -         - 

III.  assists  the  Carthaginians,   - 

source  of  the  royal  line  of  British  Scots,  78 

Ancient  mode  of  interment  in  Ireland,  -        86,  87 
Aonach-  Tailtean,  its  origin,  -         -         -         -       7 

further  account  of  it,  -         -  101 

Art,  called  Imlioch,  the  first  introducer  of  for- 
tresses into  Ireland,    -         -         -         -     64 

Aon-Fkir,  war  between  him  and  Mac  Con,  113 

Arts  and  Sciences,  hereditary  professors  of 

them,         -        -       92,  93 
Atlantic,  isle  of,  the  Egyptians  and  Greeks, 

Ireland,        -        -        -        -       24,  25 
■  discovered  by  the  Carthaginians,       64,  65 

Attacotic  war  explained,        -        -        -        -    97 

Baoisgne,  from  whom  the  knights  of  Leinster 

were  called  Clana-Baobgne  -  89 
Bards,  their  ranks  and  immunities  in  the  state,  36 
——^  their  employment,    -        -        -        -     93 


Bards,  recited  odes  in  the  midst  of  battles. 
Battle  of  Muirtheimne,        .        -        - 

on  the  Grampian  Hills, 

of  the  Cneucha,       -        -        - 

of  Magh-Lena,         _         -         - 

of  Muircruinihe,      -         -         - 

of  Criona,        _         -         -         - 

of  Cnoc-Long,  -         -         - 

of  Gabhra,        _         -         -         - 

Bede,  mistakes  the  origin  of  the  Britons, 

his  account  of  the  Picts,  - 


Page. 
93 
83 
59 
106 
109 
113 
118 
121 
128 
14 
50 
Bel,  or  the  sun,  adored  by  the  Pbo;nicians  and 

Irish, 22 

Bel-Samhuin,  with  both,  implied  the  Supreme,  22 
Bel,  his  chief  temple  at  Uisneach,  -  53,  54 
Belgee,  or  Firbolgs,  land  in  Ireland,        -         -       4 

rule  the  kingdom  thirty-seven  years,     4,  5 

defeated  by  the  Damnonii  and  retire 

to  Britain,   -         -         -         -  6,  15 

spoke  the  Irish  language,  -         -         -     15 

when  and  where  they  settled  in  Bri- 

tain,    ------ 

Bein-Briot,  invades  Ireland  in  support  of  Mac 
Con,       ----- 

■  kills  Eogan  in  the  battle  of  Muu*- 

cruimhe,        -         -         -         - 
Biatadis,  the  third  order  in  the  state,     - 

the  conditions  by  which  they  pre- 

served their  ranks,      -         -         - 

their  number  in  Munster, 

Boirumhe,  or  tribute,  imposed  on  the  Lage- 

nians,  by  Conaire,      -        -        - 

imposed  on  them  by  Tuathal, 

a  remarkable  one  imposed  by  Cor- 

mac,  -         _         -         -         - 

Breasrigh,  defeats  the  Africans,     -         -         - 

Breasal,  a  great  contagion  among  homed  cattle 

in  his  reign,  _         -         -         - 

Briganles  when  settled  in  Britain, 

why  called  Clana-Breogan,  or  Bri- 

gantes,      ----- 

the  Spanish  and  Irish  from  the  same 

source. 


15 

112 

113 
33 

~3S 
33 

95 
103 

120 
64 

79 
14 

15 

27 


Brigantium,  when  founded,  and  why  so  called,  27 
Boustrophedon  of  the  Greeks,  the  same  with 

the  Cion-fa-Ete  of  the  Irish,  33 

Britain,  when  and  why  so  called,          -        -  14 

when  inhabited  by  the  Belgae,   -         -  15 

when  inhabited  by  the  Damnonii  and 

Brigantes,    -         -         -         -         -  15 
when  inhabited  by  all  Irish  emigrants, 

and  spoke  the  same  language,         15,  16 


333 


INDEX   TO   THE    FIRST   VOLUME. 


[vot.  I. 


Page. 
Britain^  Camden,  Lhuid,  and  Whitaker's  mis- 
takes, ------  16 

Britons  and  Irish  of  one  common  stock,          -  12 
Building  with  stone,  when   introduced  into 

Ireland,         -        -        -        -        -  70 

Burials,  the  ancient  mode,    -         -         -         -  86 

Byrsa,  its  etymology,  -        -        -        -        -  40 

Cadmus's  alphabet,  -  -  -  -  -  32 
Caledonians,  the  Picts,  why  so  called,  -         -     16 

when  they  landed  in  Ireland,      49,  50 

remnrkabie  alliance  between  the 

Irish  and  them,      -         -         -  50 
•  objections  to   their  early  estab- 
lishment in  Britain  answered,  51 
Cairbre-CinceaL,  usurps  the  monarchy,  -         -  97 
Cairbre-Liffeceur,  monarch  of  Ireland,  -    124,  125 

Riada,  forms  a  settlement  in  Britain,  113 

CarausitiSf  assisted  by  Cairbre,       ...  125 

Carthage,  its  etymology,        -         -         -         -  40 

possessed  by  the  Gathelians,       -  39 

Carthaginian    and    Irish    languages,  deities, 

etc.,  the  same,  -     22,  23,  40 

Carthaginians  and  Irish  closely  connected,      •  65 

assisted  in  their  wars  by  the 

Irish,  -         .         -         68-72 

Cathoir  the  Great,  his  remarkable  will,  -        -  105 

the  principal  families  descended  from 

him, 105 

Celtte,  early  possessed  of  letters,   -        -        .12 
Cenau,  a  curious  remark  of  his  explained,      .  76 
Cherine,  the  ancient  name  of  Cyprus,    -        -  38 
Chevaliers,  their  rank,  vows,  and  exalted  sen- 
timents, -         -         -         -         -  90 

the  emperors  of  Germany  and  kings 

of  France  created,     -         -         -  91 
Christianity,  established  here  long  before  the 

days  of  St.  Patrick,        -         -  123 
Cliivalry,  its  great  antiquity  in  opposition  to 

modems,   -         -        -        -        -  88 

five  different  orders  in  Ireland,  -         -  89 

Ciombaih,  builds  the  palace  of  Emania,  -  70 
Clana-Deagha,  the  Munster  knights,  why  so 

called,       -        -        .        .89 
Conairt  the  Grand,  some  genealogical  errors 

in  his  race  corrected,    -        -        -     49 

imposes  an  eric  on  the  Lagenians,      -     95 

Cobthaig,   murders  his  brother  and  ascends 

the  throne,         -         -         -         -     75 
Collas,  conquer  the  Irians  and  destroy  Emania,  131 

their  principal  posterity,    -         .         .  130 

Coins,  an  account  of  early  Irish  ones,  -  -  66 
Colours,  the  law  of,  -  -  -  -  52,  53 
Congal,  invades  Munster,  -  -  -  -  80 
Conn  of  the  Hundred  Battles,  his  reign  and 

expk)its, 106,  107 

his  famous  partition  of  Ireland,     -         -  108 

Connor,  King  of  Ulster,  his  wars  with  the  Co- 

nacians,        -         -         -         -        82,  83 

protects  the  literati,  -        -        -        -     85 

recovers  of  a  fractured  skull  by  the 

trepan,  -         -         -         -         -     67 

Core,   King  of   Leath-Mogha,  acknowledges 

Niall  as  monarch,  -  -  -  -  134 
Cormoc,  the  monarch,  his  history,  -  -  118-122 
Cormoc-Cas,  his  exploits  and  liberality,  -  -  115 
Criomthan,  invades  Britain  and  Gaul,  -  -  95 
Craobh-Ruadh,  the  knights  of,  -  -  -  89 
Cruachan  palace,  when  and  for  what  purposes 

erected,      -        -        -        -        -    82 


Page. 
Cucullin,  slain  in  the  battle  of  Muirtheimhne,     83 

Dalgas,  so  called  from  Cormoc-Cas,  -  -  114 
Dalriada,   the   Irish  colony  in  Scotland,  so 

called,     -         -         -         -         .  113 
Damnonii,  their  history,       -        -        -        -      5 

when  settled  in  Britain,  -         -     16 

Danemark,  invaded  by  Moghcorb,  .        -  128 

Dathi,  the  monarch,  his  history,  -  -  138-141 
Deagadh,  of  the  Ernian  race,  finds  an  asylum 

in  Munster,       -         -         -         -     80 

of  the  Ernian  race,  succeeds  to  that 

crowH,      -        -        -        -        -     80 

the   Munster  knights,    from    him 

called  Clana-Deagadh,  -  -  89 
Dealbha-Lidgh,  leads  his  troops  into  Meath, 

where  he  settles,  -  -  140 
Deirdre,  in  love  with  Naos,  who  carries  her  oflT,  84 
Dreams,  some  account  of,  -  -  -  -  119 
Druids,  part  of  their  theology,  -  -  -  119 
Ardi-Druid,  chief  of  the  literati,  -        -    92 

Duach,  monarch  of  Ireland,  -         -         -     80 

Dublin,  its  antiquity,  and  extensive  early  com- 
merce, .        -        -        -        -  109 

Eadhna-AirgOuach,   introduces    the  use  of 

silver  shields,      -  -  56 

II.  coins  money,     -         -         -  -  66 

Emania  palace,  erected  by  Ciombhaoth,  -  70 

destroyed  by  the  Collas,        -  131 

Eidersgoil,  monarch,  -  -  -  -  -  87 
Elim,  a  cruel  prince,  -----  lOO 
Eitlirail,    promotes    agriculture,    and    sends 

Abaris  to  the  Grecian  States,      -    52 
Eochaidh  II.   introduces   weapons  with  col- 
oured blades,     -         -         -         -     55 

Mumho,  from  whom  Munster  w«« 

called,       -        -        -        -        -    55 

— Uarcheas,   inventor  of  light  skiffs 

covered  with  hides,    -         -         -     67 

IX.  erects  the  palace  of  Cruachan,     82 

•  X.  regulates  the  modes  of  interment,  86 

King  of  Leinster,  the  cause  of  the 

Boirumhe  Laighean,  -    103,  104 

Moidhmheon,  defeats  the  Romans 

in  Britain,  -         -         -         .  133 

Fionn,  an  account  of  his  posterity,    122 

Eogan  the  Great,  his  history  and  exploits,    1 07-1 10 

Fair  of  Tailten,  its  rise,  -  -  -  _  7 
Fearaidach  the  Just,  restores  the  monarchy,  -  98 
Fearchorb,  King  of  Leath-Mogha,  his  exploits, 

129,  130 
Feargus,  in  his  reign  Italy  overrun  by  the 

Gauls,       -        -        -        -        -     78 

Roigh,  his  posterity,      -         -         -     81 

•  King  of  Ulster,  defeats  the  preten- 
sions of  Cormoc,        -         -         -  118 

is  slain  in  battle,    -        -        -        -  118 

FiacAarf/i-Labhruine,  invades  Albany,   -        -    55 

son  to  Feai"aidach,  invades  Britain,    100 

Feidhlim,  the  legislator,   establishes  the   lex 

talionis,  -  -  -  -  103,  104 
Fine-Eirin,  an  account  of  their  establishment,  125 
Fivnn-Mac-Cumhal,  his  history  and  exploits, 

106-110 
FioOiil,  chief  justice,  a  remarkable  tale  of  him,  124 
Fir-Bolg,  or  Belgse,  their  history,         -        -  4,  5 

when  settled  in  Britain,  -         .15 

Fire,  sacred  to  Bel  and  Samhuin,  .      53,  loi 


roL.  I.] 


INDEX   TO  THE   FIRST   VOLUME. 


333 


Fds-  Tamhrach,  when  held, ... 
objects  of  its  deliberataoDs, 


Page. 

60 
61 
Fomharraigh,  or  Africans,  accounts  of  them,  2,  64 
proved  to  hare  been  the  Car- 
thaginians, -         -         -     64 

Galicia,  when  possessed  by  the  Gathelians,  26,  27 
Galhelus,  the  Irish  from  him  called  Gathelians,  20 
Gauls,  their  ancient  state  misrepresented,      -    73 

possessed  arts  and  sciences,        -         73,  74 

Gold  rings  decreed  to  ollamhs  or  doctors,  -  57 
chains  and  corslets  to  the  knights,         -    57 

its  great  plenty  in  ancient  Ireland,         53,  57 

Gol-Mac-Moma,  his  exploits,  -  -  107-109 
Gomerians,  the  Welsh,  by  mistake,  so  called,  14 
Greeks,  receive  their  first  alphabet  from  the 

Gathelians,      -         -         -         -     29,  33 
■  their  account  of  the  Atlantic  island 

expkuned,        -        -         -         -     23,  24 

Hair,  constantly  worn  by  the  Irish  chiefs,      -  117 

its  loss  the  highest  reproach,         -        -  117 

Heber  and  Heremon,  conquer  and  divide  Ire- 
land,      -         -         -        -         -       44,  43 

and  Heremon  quarrel,  and  Heber  slain,      49 

Heremon,  assigns  habitations  in  Britiun  to  the 

Picts  and  Brigantes,  -         -       49,  50 

his  death  and  character,        -        -    51 

Hermioniens  of  Cenan  explained,  -  -  -  76 
Hi-Ntills,  northern  and  southern,  -   137,  138 

Historic  systems,  subversive  of  history,  -         -  8,  9 

system  of  population  refuted,    -         -       9 

History  of  Ireland,  throws  great  light  on  that 

of  Britain,  -     11,  12,  10,  17 

elucidates  those  of  Egypt 

and  Greece,      18,  20,  33-37 

elucidates  those   of  Car- 

thage and  Galicia,         39,  40 

objections  of  Mebi,  Strabo, 

etc.,  answered,     -         -     37 
Hospitality,  promoted  by  the  Irish  laws,       33,  34 
Hyperboreans,  Greek  accounts  of  them,  and 
Ireland    proved    to    be  the 
country  alluded  to,      -        35,  37 

Heraclitus's  relation  of  them 

defended,  -         -         -         -     74 

llbreachta,  or  the  law  of  coloui-s,  whet,  52,  53 
Illegitimate  children,  rank  with  those  bom  in 

wedlock,  -  -  -  -  78 
Josephus,  a  testimony  against  modern  population,  9 
Jrial,  the  prophet,  reclaims  several  tracts  of 

ground,  -         -         -         -         -        51,  52 
Irish,  the  descendants  of  Phsnius,         -         -     18 

the  voyages   of  their  ancestors  to  the 

conquest  of  Ireland,  -         -        19,  20 

the  voyages,  pi-oofs  and  illustrations  of 

these  relations,  -         -     20,  25,  28,  41 

language,  why  called  Gaoidhealag,         -     19 

Ith,  lands  in  Ireland,  and  b  mortally  woun- 
ded, -         -         -         -         -         -        42,  43 

some  account  of  his  posterity,        -        -  116 

Island,  Holy,  Ireland,  why  so  called,     -       .  -     19 
Jughaine  the  Great,  unites  with  the  Cartha- 
ginians,     -        -        -        -        -    72 

Kimri,  the  Welsh,  why  so  called,  -         -     14 

Knighthood,  Caesar  and  Pausanias,  etc.,  their 
account  of  its  antiquity  among 
the  Celts,  illustrated  by  Irish 
history,  -        -        -        -    88 


Page. 

Knighthood,  five  different  orders  in  Ireland,  89-91 
Knights,    instances    of   their  exalted    senti- 
ments,      -         -         -         -       58,  90 

Laighseach-Ceandmore,  his  posterity,  -  -  122 
Labhra-Loinseach,  his  history,  -  -  75,  76 
Laws,  reformed  by  Feidlimidh,  -  -  103,  104 
Lealh-Mogha  and  Leath-Cuin,  their  meaning,  108 
Letania,  the  ancient  name  of  Brittuny,  -  -  14 
Leinster  tribute,  called  Eric-ui-Dreiscoil,  why 

imposed,       -         -         -         -         -     95 

tribute,  called  Bourumhe-Laighean, 

what, 103 

tribute,  a  particular  one  imposed  by 

Cormoc, 120 

princes,    the    misconduct  of   some 

noted,  -----  104 

Lena,  the  battle  of,  -  -  -  -  -  109 
Letters,  when  and  by  whom  invented,    -        19,  20 

the  Irish,  the  same  with  the  Phaenian 

and  Cad  mean  of  the  Greeks,  21,  22 

objections  of  moderns  to  their  original 

number  answered,  -         -         -     31 

the  sacred,  or  ogham  of  the  Irish,      -     33 

Literary  order,  their  privileges  and  immunities,  92 
Luernus  of  Possidonius  explained,  -         -  117 

Lughaidh,  called  Mac  Con,  monarch,    -   115,  116 

mistakes,  as  to  the  length  of  his 

reign,  adjusted,  -         -         -  116 

murdered  while  dealing  his  liberality 

among  the  bards,        -         -         -  117 
Lugha-Laga,  his  exploits  in  the  battle  of  Cri- 

ona,       -----  148 
Luigh-LamJi-Fliada,  institutes  the  games  at 

Tailtean,  -         -       7 

Mac  Con.     See  Lughaidh. 
Mac  Neid's  remarkable  peace  with  the  mon- 
arch Con,      -         -         -         -  110 
MacJia,  gives  name  to  the  palace  of  Eniania,       70 
Moon,  called  Labhra,  his  story,     -        -        75,  76 
Meibhe-Cruacfina,  man-ies  a  Connaught  prince,  81 

singular  terms  of  her  second 

marriage,         -         -         -     82 

source  of  many  princely  fam- 

ilies,      -        -        -  -     82 

•  convenes    an     assembly  at 

Crunchan,       -         -  -     83 

is  treacherously  killed,  -     85 

Milf-Esjmine,  or  Milesius,  his  history,  -  27,  28 
Militia.     See  Fine-Eirin. 

Merchants  and  artisans  regulated,  -      62,  102 

Military,   early   regulations  with    regard   to 

them,  -  -  -  -  65,  66 
Mines,  early  worked,  -  -  -  -  53,  57 
Monarchs,  singular  requisites  to  entitle  them 

to  reign,  -----  117 

their  household,    -         -         -         -  119 

and  provincial  kings  how  placed  at 

Tara, 60 

Mona,  Tacitus's  account  of  its  conquest  ex- 
plained, -        -         -         -       98,  99 
Monty,  when  first  coined  here,      -         -         -     66 

why  so  scarce  to  be  met  with,  -       66,  67 

Moon,  worshipped  in  Ireland,         -         22,  54,  101 

its  priestesses,  -        -        -        -  120 

Mogh-Clwrb,  reduces  Danemark,  -         -  128 

falls  in  the  battle  of  Spaltrach,  -  129 

Moran,  an  account  of  him,  -  -  -  -  97 
Moses,  a  testimony  against  the  hypothesis  of 

population,     -----      9 


334 


INDEX   TO   THE   FIRST   VOLUME. 


[vol.  !• 


Page. 
Midreadach^  the  patriot,  receives  the  Collas 

into  favour  -  -  -  -  130 
— — —  enables    the  Collas   to  conquer 

Emania,  -  -  -  -  131 
Music  of  the  Irish, 93 

NavigtUion,  its  flourishing  state  in  remote 

times,    -        -        -         -   9,  10,  23 

the  only  ancient  conveyance  of 

colonies,  -  -  -  -  9 
Navies  of  the  Irish,  -  -  -  67,  68,  71-74 
Naos,  the  story  of  him  and  Deirdre,  -  -  84 
Niagha-Nase,  or  knights  of  the  collar,  89,  90 

Neimhidh  murders  Conaire  II.,  -  -  -  111 
Neimedius,  and  his  people,  their  history,  -  3 
ISiaU,  sumamed  of  the  Nine  Hostages,  135,  136 
Neptune,  an  Irish  deity,  and  why  so  called,  22 

NorUum  and  Southern  Hi-Neill,  who,  -        ••  138 

Ogygia  of  Homer  and  Plutarch,  Ireland,  -  24 
OUamh-Fodlda,  his  wise  laws  and  institu- 
tions. -  -  -  60-62 
Olioll-Ollum,  his  will  and  posterity,  -  113,  114 
Olioll-Flan-Mare,  a  story  of  him,  -  -  129 
Orffial,  what  and  why  so  called,  -  -  -  132 
Orgilians,  their  posterity,      -         -  .        -  130 

Partholan,  and  his  followers,  their  history,  1 ,  2 
PaiUinus,  Tacitus's  account  of,  reconciled  to 

Irish  history,    -         -         -      99,  100 
Pausanias's  account   of  the  Gaulish  knights 

justified,  -  -  -  -  88 
Pheenius,  tlie  inventor  of  letters,  founder  of 

the  Milesian  race,      -         -         -     19 
Pheeni,  the  Irish  and  Carthaginians  so  called 

from  Phaenius,      -         -        -        22,  23 
Pharaoh  gives  his  daughter  Scota  as  wife  to 

Niulus,       -         -         -        -        -     29 
Physicians  and  surgeons  celebrated  for  their 

skill,        -         -         -         -     87,  118 

and  surgeons  attendant  on  our  mi- 

litary corps,     -         -        -         -  126 
Picts,  land  in  Ireland,  -        -        -        -        -    49 

are  assigned  settlements  in  Britain,  and 

the  terms,        .....  49 

why  called  Calidones,  -        -        -        -  50 

Plague,  frequent  in  Ireland,  -        -        -        -  65 

• presumptive  proof  of  their  correspon. 

dence  with  Carthage,      ...     65 
Plutarch's  Atlantic  isle,  and  Ogygia,  Ireland,        24 

unjustly  censures  Heraclides.         -     74 

Population,  the  modern  system  refuted,  9,  10 

Possidonius.     See  Luernus. 

PownaVs  remarks  on  Irish  and  Carthaginian 

swords,      .....     65 
Procopius,  in  accord  with  Irish  writers,  -  140 

Refugees,  from  Britain  and  the  Continent,  find 

an  asylum  in  Ireland,  -  '      -  138 

Reachta,  reduces  Albany,  -  -  -  -  71 
Riada-Cairbre,  forms  a  settlement  in  Albany,  113 
Roman  writers,  considered  in  too  favourable  a 

light, 73 

writers  in  accord  with  the  Irish  on 

these  matters,    -     98,  99,  133,  134,  140 
Romans,  reprehensible  for  destroying  the  an- 
nals of  other  nations,  -         -        -     72 
opposed  by  Conaire  the  Grand,  and 

by  Criomthan,       -         -         -         -     95 
opposed  by  Connal  Ceamach,  -        -    83 


Page. 

Romans,  opposed  by  Fiachadh,      -  -      99,  100 

by  Fearaidach,    -  -       98,  99 

by  Tuathal,         -  -        -  102 

by  Conaire,        -  -        -  111 

by  Cormoc,         -  -      ,  -  120 

by  Caii-bre,         -  -  .     -  125 

by  Eochaidh,      -  -        -  133 

by  Criomthan,    -  -    133,  134 

by  Niall  tlie  Great,  -        -  135 

by  Dathi,  -        -  -    138,  139 

Ruighridhe  the  Grand,          -        -  .        -     79 

Sea  Nymphs,  or  syrens,  the  fable  of,     -        -  26 

the  fable  of,  explained,  39 

Sacred  books,  consulted  on  the  Irish  expedi- 
tion,       28 

Samhuin.     See  Moon. 

Samnothei,  or  priests  of  Samhuin,         -        -     54 

Scots,  the  Irish  why  so  called,       -        -        -     20 

their  first  settlement  in  Albany,     -        -  113 

declared  independent  of  the  Picts,   135,  136 

Scotland,  strictly  speaking,  the  part  of  North 

Britain  occupied  by  the  Scots,  135 
Seadhna,  author  of  a  code  of  military  laws,  65,  66 
Sitianorum   Colonia,   or    Terra  Metagonitis, 

explained,       -         -         -        -     40 
Stone  buildings,  their  great  antiquity  in  Ire- 
land,        70 

Tacitus  a  testimony  against  the  modern  sys- 
tem of  population,        -         -  9,10 

account  of   the  Romans    in    Britain 

illustrated,  -         -         -         -         -     98 
Tailtean  games,  when  and  why  instituted,     -      7 

described,   -        -        -        -  101 

Tara  palace,  when  erected,  -        -         -         -     49 

the   manner  of  the  estates  assembling 

there, 60,  61 

its  magnificence  in  the  days  of  Cormoc,    119 

psalter  of,  began  by  Ollamh  Fodhla,      -     61 

Ti ghermnas,  introduces  idolatry,  -  -  -  53 
Tiege,  appointed  general  to  Cormoc,  -  -  118 
Tlachta,  its  temple,  sacred  to  the  moon,  -  101 
Torna-Eigeas,  concludes  a   peace  between 

Niall  and  Core,  .         -  134 

Traffic,  very  extensive  in  ancient  Ireland,  57,  59,  65 
Transmigration  of  souls,  a  pait  of  Druid  the. 

ology,       -        -        -      64,  131 
Tribute,  of  O'Driscol,  what,  -        -        -     95 

of  O'Driscol,  paid   to  the  kings  of 

Munster,      .....  m 

called  Boirumhe  Laighean,  what,     -  102 

imposed  by  Cormoc,  ...  121 

Troops,  Irish,  their  number,  discipline,  and 

appointment,  ...  125,  126 
Tuatha-da-Danaans,  or  Damnonii,  -  -  5,  6 
Tuathal,  reforms  the  state,  ...    loi,  102 

Uisneach  temple,  sacred  to  the  sun,  -  -  101 
Voltaire,  his  erroneous  view  of  the  ancient 

state  of  Europe,        -        -        -    73 

Welsh,  why  called  Kimri,  -  -  -  -  14 
the  descendants  of  Briotan,         -         3,  17 

receive  their  music,  etc.,  from  Ireland,     12 

Wales,  invaded  by  the  Lugha,  ...  133 
Woods,  cut  down  and  reclaimed,  4,  48,  52,  55 

Zozimus's  account  of  the  Armoricans  in  accord 

with  the  Irish,  ...    140,  141 


INDEX 


TO 


MR.    O'HALLORAN'S    SECOND    VOLUME, 


COMPRISING    THE    LAST    SEVEN    BOOKS. 


Page. 
«   Abbeys  and  religious  houses,  an   account  of 

some, 186-197 

Academies  and  schools,  numerous  and  splen- 
did,        -        -        -        -    181,  182 
Adamnanus,  his  writings,      -         -         -         -  202 
Adrian  and   Alexander's    bulls   against  Ire- 
land,   305,  306 

and  Alexander's  bulls  proved   to   be 

genuine,        -         -         .         .    306,  307 

and  Alexander's    bulls,    remarks    on 

them, 307,  308 

•  and  Alexander's  bulls,  the  great  differ- 
ence in  style  and  sentiment  be- 
tween   them,    and    the    letter    of 

O'Ruark, 310 

Aldan,  his  zeal  in  converting  the  British  Sax- 
ons,        193 

Aileran,  the  sage,  his  writings,      -         -        -  194 
Albany,  an  account  of  the  Irish  or  Scottish 
settlement  there,  its  rise  and  pro- 
gress, -         -                 -         -    164-170 
distinguished  into  Pictish  and   Scot- 
tish,      168,  169 

Mbe,  Archbishop  and  patron  of  Munster, 
founds  the  see  of  Emly  before  the 
arrival  of  Patrick,  -     147,160,161 

Albin,  founds  the  university  of  Paris,    -         -  228 
Alexander  III.  and  Adrian  IV.,  their  conduct 

not  to  be  justified,     -         -         -  308 
Allodial  property,   a    branch  of  the  feudal 

system,      -        -        -        .    206,  207 
Alphabet,   the   Irish,   its    antiquity,  and   not 

taken  from  the  Latin,  -         -    151,  152 
Annual  revenues  of  the  Munster  kings,     250,  251 

subsidies  paid  by  them  to  the  subordi- 

nate states,  -         -         -         -    250,  251 
Archbishops  of  Ireland,  their  original  prece- 
dence, -----  150 

the  number  of  their  suffragans  in 

early  days,     -         -         -         .  150 

the  number  of  their  suffragans  in 

the  twelfth  age,      -         -        .  290 
ArMishoprick    of   Leinster,    transferred    to 

Ferns,  -  -  -  .  igo 
Armagh,  erected  into  a  university  by  Patrick,  151 
Arts  and  Sciences,  their  true  state  in  Ireland 

in  the  early  ages,  -        -    182,  184 

and  Sciences,  the  uncommon  protection 

afforded  to  them,      -        -        -    195,  195 
Asiatic  or  African  missionaries,   first    intro- 
ducers   of  Christianity    into    Ire- 
land,     146 


Asiatic  or  African  custom  of  celebrating  Eas- 
ter, strictly  adhered  to,  -    153-165 

Austin,  the  monk,  not  so  successful  in  convert- 
ing the  Saxons  as  were  the  Irish,      193 

Baodan,  the  consequences  of  his  death,  -  177 

Baptism,  Benedict  of  Peterborough's  account 

of  the  Irish  mode,       -         -    313,  314 
Bar,   or    Fin-Bar,   founds    the  cathedral   of 

Cork, 185 

Battles,  with   what  weapons,  fought  by  sea 

and  land,      ...         -    243,  244 
Battle  of  Magh-Albe, 226 

of  Dublin,  -        -        -        -        -  233 

■  of  Roscrea,        -----  234 

of  Limerick,     -----  236 

of  Cluantarff, 261 

Benchoir  abbey,  some  accounts  of,      181,  186,  191 
St.  Bernard's  censures  on  the  Irish  church 

examined,  -  -  -  287-290 
Biretrum,  the  term  explained,  -  -  4IM205 
BlatJimac,  a  dreadful  plague  in  his  reign,  -  189 
Brien-Boirumhe,  his  life,  exploits,  and  glorious 

death,      -         -         -    248-264 
St.  Briffid,  of  Kildare,  patroness  of  Leinster,  181 
Brigantes,  the  names  of  their  principal  poste- 
rity in  Ireland  and  Albany,        -  325 
Britain,  invaded  by  Loaghaire,     -        -        -  143 

the  Irish  made  a  diversion  there  in 

ftivour  of  the  Gauls  and  Germans, 

,  155,  156 

the  Saxons  called  in  there,  and  league 

with  the  Irish,      -        -        -        -  156 

Camden's  testimony  of  the  state  of  letters  in 

Ireland, 181 

Cashel,  dedicated  to  God  and  St.  Patrick,      -  277 
Catholics,  some   account  of  the  penal  laws 
against  them,  and  their  perni- 
cious effects,      -        -        -    217-220 
Ceallach,  the  monk,  attempts  the  sovereignty 

of  Connaught,  and  is  assassinated,  171 
Ceallachan,  proclaimed  king  of  Munster,  and 

the  manner,    -         -         -         -  236 

his  exploits  against  the  Danes, 

236,  237 

the  manner  of  his  captivity,         -  240 

the  taking  of  Armagh,  and  sea- 
fight  near  Dundulk,  by  which 
he  gained  his  liberty,       -    241-243 
Celestin,  sends  Palladius  to  Ireland,        -         -  147 
Celtic  Pater-noster  explained,        -        -        -  igg 


336 


INDEX    TO   THE    SECOND   VOLUME. 


[▼OL.  II. 


P««e. 

Chrism,  its  early  introduction  into  Ireland,  -  172 
Christianity,  the  state  of  it,  before  the  nrrival 

of  Patrick,     -         -     145,  146,  160 

its    flourishing   condition,  in  his 

days,  ...  -  149,  150 
Churches,  founded  in  earlier  times,  -  -  146 
Church  of  Ireland,  its  uncommon  privileges, 

278,  279,  286,  287 

its  flourishing  condition, 

196,  197 
dan  demands  the  crown  of  Munster,  and  its 

issue, 266-268 

Cineidi  relinquishes   his  pretensions    to  the 

Munster  crown,  -  -  -  -  235 
Character,  the  singular  one  of  Malachie  I.,    -  222 

of  Brien  Boirumhe,      -         -    263,  264 

of  Turlogh  O'Brien,      -         -         -  275 

of  Connor  O'Brien,       -         -    282,  283 

of  Turlogh  O'Connor,  with  a  moral 

reflection,           ....  285 
Clare  county,  made  Fearan-Cliomh,  or  Sword- 
Land,       207 

stations  judiciously  placed  there  and  in 

Ormond, 234 

Clement,  founds  the  university  of  Paris,  nnd 

mistakes  of  Fleury  conected,  228,  229 
Clodion,  why  called  Chevelu.  -  -  -  143 
Clunard,  the  synod  of,  -  -  -  -  -  184 
Columba,  apostle  of  the  Picts,  some  account 

of,     -         -         -         -     177-179,  184 
Cdumbanus,  his  defence  of  the  eastern  cele- 
bration of  Easter,  -         -  154 

some  account  of  his  life  and  wri- 

tings,     192 

Comhgtl,  founds  the  abbey  of  Bcnchoir,  182,  186 
Connaught,  its  first  archbishop,  -  -  -  184 
Corinac,  King  and  Archbishop  of  Munster,  -  225 
■ —  source  of  the  war  in  which  he  fell, 

*his  will,  etc.,         ...    225,  226 
I  of  Fiadh-Oengusa,  and  state  of  the 

Irish  church,       -         -         -    277,  278 

of  Kells,  and  the  reforms  made  there, 

286,  290 


Criomthan,  grants  territories  to  Luich-Dealb 

ha,  from  him  called  the  Delvins, 

^         Crowns  of  gold,  constantly  worn  in  public  by 

our  princes, 

Cruachan  assembly,  regarded  trade  and  manu 

factures  only,     - 
Cumian,  his  researches  on  the\rue  time  of 
celebrating  of  Easter,  - 


144 


172 


-  158 


-  194 

Dalgas,  deserted  by  Malachie  at  the  battle  of 

Cluantarff, 261 

their  loss  in  this  battle,  and  uncommon 

fortitude  in  their  retreat,       -    261,  262 

led  on  all  attacks,  and  covered  the  re- 

treat,  -         -         -  -         -  284 

the  names  of  their  posterity,     -         -  327 

Danes,  the  true  cause  of  their  invasions  and 

depredations  assigned,  -         -    209-212 

their  tyranny  under  Turgcsius,      214-216 

are  cut  off  by  Malachie,  -         -    220,  221 

the   means   by  which   they  acquired 

fresh  power,  -         -         .    222,  223 
their  final  ruin  in  the  battle  of  Cluan- 

tarflr, 262 

Degaids,  of  Munster,  the  names  of  their  prin- 
cipal posterity,    -         -         -         -  325 
Dagan,  the  bishop,  some  account  of,     -        -  192 


Page. 
Daniel,  the  monarch,  invades  Meatfa,  and  his 
army  breaks  up  through  supersti- 
tion, with  the  penance  im[x>sed  on 
him  by  St.  Fechin,        -         -    187,  188 
Dermod,  the  monarch,  receives  the  chrism  at 

his  coronation,    -         -         -         -  172 
Donogh  O'Brien,  by  the  death  of  his  brother, 

becomes  king  of  Leath-Mogha,      -  271 

a  powerful  league  formed  against  him  ; 

surrenders  the  kingdom,  and  retires 

to  Rome,      -         -         -         -    272,  273 

is  said  to  have  presented  his  crown 

to  Alexander  II.,  and  the  conse- 
quences of  this  supposed  surren- 
der,       -  273 

Dmcn,  the  monuments  of  St.  Patrick,  St.  Bri- 

gid,  and  Columba,  efliiced,       -         -  160 
Drom-Chette,  the  account  of  a  famous  session 

held  there,  -         -         -    178,  180 
Druids,  their  religion   and  rites,  an  account 

of, 144,  145 

declared  incapable  of  superintending 

the  national  records,  -  -  -  157 
Dublin,  its  capture,  etc.,  by  Cogan,  -  -  300 
Dundalk,  the  relation  of  a  celebrated  sea-fight 

near  it,     -         -         -         -    242, 243 

Easier,  an  account  of  this  festival,  and  of  the 
differences  between  Rome  and  the 
churches  of  Asia  thereon,  152,  153 

the    Irish    zealous   defenders  of  the 

Asintic  discipline,  -         -         -    153,  155 
Emania  assembly,  for  the  extension  of  com- 
merce, with  a  remark,         -         -  158 
Eoganachls,  the  names  of  tlieir  principal  jws- 

terity, 325 

Ere,  his  sons  invade  Albany,  -         -        -  164 

Ernians.     See  Degaids. 

Evinus,  an  account  of,  -  -  -  -  -  226 
Exchequer  revenues   of   the  mnnarchs   from 

Leath-Cuin,    -         -         -         -  258 
Ecclesiastics,  how  the  ancient  Irish  employed 

their  time,  -         -         -    196,  197 
English  laws,  their  force  and  extent  in  Ire- 
land to  the  reign  of  .Tames  I.,  313-315 

writers,  their  unjustifiable   vanity  in 

treating  of  the  exploits  of  their 
countrymen  there,  -    296,  299,  300 

their  insincerity  and  misrepresenta- 

tions,        313-316 

St..  Fachan,  founds  the  university  of  Ross,  -  181 
Fearghal,  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Almhuin,  199 
Feargal  Mac  Ruarc's  shield,  preserved  as  a 

trophy  by  the  Dalgas,  -         -  247 

Fechin,   his  conduct    towards  the  monarch 

Daniel, 188 

Feis-  Tamrach,  Patrick  presides  over  the  lite- 
rati there,  -         -         -  150 

consequences  of  a  private  quar- 

rel during  its  session,  -  174 

Ferns,  the  see  of  Leinster  transferred  to  it,  -  180 
Feudal  laws,  new  lights  thrown  on  them,  206-208 
Sf.  Fiacre,  patron  of  Meaux,  his  writings,  -  194 
St.  Finian,  succeeds  Aidan  in  the  church  of 

Northumberland,    -        -        -  193 
Fionachtu,   exonerates    the   Lagenians    from 

their  tribute,  -        -        -        -  190 
Flan  Siona,  a  singular  reason  for  his  invading 

North  Munster,     -        -        -  224 


vol.  ir.3 


INDEX   TO   THE    SECOND   VOLUME. 


337 


Forces  of  Munster,  an  account  of, 


Page. 

-  251 


St.  Gall,  his  pious  foundations,  etc.,      -        -  193 
Gauls,  the  Irish  invade  Britain,  to  cause  a 

diversion  in  their  favour,         -    155,  156 
Gaul  and  Germany,  Irish  bishops,  etc.,  conse- 
crated for  these  missions,  -    278,  287 
Gilbert,  the  first  Roman  legate  in  Ireland,       -  278 
Guaire,  defeated  by  Dermod,  and  his  singular 

submission,  -        -        -         -         -  175 

Hi-Bruins  and  Hi-Fiacres,  the  names  of  their 

principal  posterity,    -         -         -  328 
Henry  II.  permits    Mac  Murchad   to  raise 

troops  in  Britain   -         -         -         -  293 

applied  to  by  Strongbow  for  permission 

to  enter  into  the  service  of  the  king 
of  Leinster,  and  his  remarkable 
answer, 298 

by  proclamation,  recalls  his    subjects 

from  Ireland,  .        .        -        -  301 

Strongbow's  letter  to  him,  .         -         -  302 

prepares  to  invade  Ireland,  -         -  304 

Adrian  and  Alexander's  bulls  of  dona- 

tion to  him,  with  remarks,       -    305,  306 

acknowledged  sovereign  of  Leath-Mo- 

gha, 311 

did  not  alter  the  laws  or  constitution, 

312,  313 

the    nature    of    the    peace    between 

O'Connor  and  him,         -         -    313,  314 
Holy  and  religious  (die)  of  the  fifth  century, 
and  state  of  the  Irish 
church,        -         -    160-163 

of  the  sixth  age,      -    181-186 

of  the  seventh,        -    191-198 

of  the  eighth,  -    202-205 

of  the  ninth,   -         -    228-231 

of  the  tenth,   -        -    264-265 

of  the  eleventh,        -    277-280 

Horses,  a  curious  relation  of  English  ones,     -  295 

Jarlath,  first  archbishop  of  Connaught,  -         -  184 
Ibarus,  refuses  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy 

of  Patrick, 146 

Ir,  the  names  of  his  principal  posterity,  -  328 

Irish  literati,  their  great  privileges,  -         -  179 

the  great  protection  they  afforded    to 

letters,     -----    195-197 

missionaries  plant  religion   and  letters 

through  most  parts  of  Europe,     196,  197 

saints  classed  and  numbered,         -         -  197 

language,  presumed  well  known  on  the 

continent,         -         -        -         -        -  198 
Ireland,  its  antiquity  and  pre-eminence  over 

the  other  states  of  Europe,  proved,  173 

the  chrism  early  introduced  there,      -  172 

Ith,  the  names  of  his  principal  posterity  in 

Ireland  and  Albany,  -        -        -        -  326 

Knights- Service,  or  Sword-lands,  its  great  an- 
tiquity,   -        -        -        -  207 

LoaghairCy  invades  Britain,  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Lagenians,  and  recovers  his 
liberty  on  terms  he  refuses  to 
comply  with,     -        -        -    143,  144 

— " again  invaded  Britain — ^the  Saxons 

called  over,  and  league  with  the 
Irish,        .        -        -        -    156,  157 
43 


Page. 
Letters,  error  in  supposing  the  Irish  to  have 

taken  theirs  from  Rome,        -    151,  152 

their  flourishing  state,       -         -    195,  196 

Lughaidh,   wars   against  OUiol,  and  defeats 

him, 160 

Leinster,  the  names  of  its  chief  families,  -  328 
Lismore  university,  founded  by  St.  Carthage,  195 
Lorcan,  King  of  Munster,  his  exploits,  -        -  234 

Mac  Murchad,  carries  off  the  wife  of 
O'Ruark,  who  applies  to 
the  monarch  for  redress, 

291,  292 

requests    the   protection   of 

Henry  II.,  and  enters  into 
treaty  with  Strongbow,       293 

his  proceedings,  and  those  of 

his  followers,  -         -    295-300 
Magonius,    (not   Patrick)   the   name  of  the 

apostle  of  Ireland,  -         -  148 

— the  histoiy  of  this  apostle  to  his 

death,       -        -        -        -    148-155 
Mahon,  King  of  Munster,  his  history  and 

exploits,       -        -        -         -    246-248 
MalacMe  I.,    convenes    the   estates    at  Ar- 
magh,      -----  215 
oppression  of  the  nation  during  part 

of  his  reign,      -        -        -    215,  216 
conspires  to  destroy  the  Danes,  and 

the  cause,  -        -        -    220,  221 

II.  proclaimed  monarch,        -        -  252 

the  estates  agree  to  depose  him,  and 

appoint  Brien  his  successor,        -  254 
offers  to  surrender  the  crown,  but  is 

allowed  a  longer  time,        -    254,  255 
makes  a  formal  surrender  of  it  to 

Brien, 255 

and  Brien's  conduct  on  this  trying 

occasion,   -        -         -         -    256,  tWI 
again  saluted  monarch  by  the  Clan- 

Colman,     -----  269 
his  relation  of  the  battle  of  Cluan- 

tarff,  -         -        -         -    269,270 
his  exploits,  pious  foundations,  and 

death,        -        -        -        -    270,  271 
Maobnoradh,  the  cause  of  his  inviting  over  the 

Danes,  -        -        -        -  259 

falls  in  the  battle  of  Cluantarff,  -  263 

Marianus,  the  famous  chronologist,  some  ac- 
count of,  -         -        -         _  279 
Mezeray''s  account  of  the  Irish  missionaries  in 

Gaul, 196 

Metropolitans  of  Ireland,  their   great  privi- 
leges, -         -         -    278,  279 
Mon-Moir,  the  bloody  battle  of,     -         -         -  284 
Morrogh  O'Brien,  his  exploits  and  death  at 

the  battle  of  Cluantarff,        -  261,  262 
Mortogh,  the  establishment  of  an  Irish  colony 

in  Albany  in  his  reign,  and  the 

history  of  that  transaction,      164,  170 

O'Brien,  his  reign  and  exploits,      275-277 

O'Neill,  his  reign  and  exploits,  -         -  286 

Munster,  the  revenues  of  its  kings,        -         -  250 

subsidies  paid  by  its  kings  to  the  subor- 

dinate states,  -  -  -  -  251 
St.  Murus,  patron  saint  of  the  O'Neills,  192,  193 
Music  of  the  Irish,  some  account  of,      -         -  184 

Niall  II.,  many  presages  in  his  reign  of  tbe 

calamities  awaiting  the  nation,  -  200 


.r^ 


338 


INDEX    TO    THE    SECOND    VOLUME. 


[V0I»  II. 


i-'P 


Page. 

Niall  III.,  the  landing,  and  actions  of  Turge- 

sius  in  his  reign,       -        -        -    213-215 

IV.,  an  account  of  the   Danes   to  his 

death, 232,  233 

Olliol-Molt,  the  reforms  in  his  reign,  etc.,  157-159 
Orgial,   the    names  of  its  principal  septs  in 

Ireland  and  Albany,  -  -  -  326 
Ossian,  the  tendency  of  the  poems  attributed 

to  him,  and  its  refutation,  -  168-170 
Ossory,  the  tributes  of  its  princes  to  the  Mun- 

ster  kings,    -----  238 

subsidies  of  the  Munster  kings  to  its 

chiefs,  .  -  -  -    250,  251 

its  prince  demands  hostages  from  the 

sons  of  Brien,  and  the  unexampled 
behaviour  of  these  princes  and  the 
brave  Dalgas  on  this  occasion,    267,  268 

invaded  by  Mac  Murchad,         -         -  296 

■  the  names  of  its  principal  families,  -  328 
Ossorians,  confederate  against  Brien,  and  are 

defeated,  -----  252 

PaUtulius,  sent  by  Celestin  to  the  Irish  na- 
tion,          147 

Patrick,   not  the  name,  but  the  title  of  the 

apostle  of  Ireland,       ...  143 

his  history  to  his  death,    -         -    148-155 

Picts,  always  regarded  as  a  people  distinct 

from  the  Scots,       -        -        -        -  166 
PoyrdnfCs  law  of  parliament,  not  a  national 
law,  but  confined  to  a  small  dis- 
trict, not  a  tenth  part  of  the 
kingdom,  -         -         _         -  315 

Protector  of  Ireland,  an  account  of  this  title,     272 

Ratishon,  the  Irish  abbey  of,  restored  to  its 
original  splendour  by  Connor 
O'Brien, 283 

Raymond  le  Gros,  lands  in  Ireland,        -         -  298 

his  manner  of  taking  Water- 

ford,        -         -         -         -  299 

his   treacherous   capture  of 

Dublin,  and  the  carnage 
that  followed,  -         -  300 

Roderic  O'Connor  assumes  the  title  of  mon- 
arch,   -         -         -         -  290 

■  O'Ruark's    letter    to    him, 

and  its  effects,  -    291,  292 

invades  Ulster,  and  summons 

a  convention  of  the  estates 

of  Leath-Cuin,        -         -  292 

besieges  Dublin,  is  surprised 

in  his  camp,  and  his  army 
break  up,       -        -        -  302, 

concludes  a  peace  with  Hen- 

ry, and  the  nature  of  this 
peace  explauied,      -    314-316 


Page. 
Revolution,  in  Ireland  in  1172,  and  in  England 

in  1688,  compared,  -        -        -  316 
Rome,  not  the  introducer  of  Christianity  into 

Ireland,  -         _         _         -         -  146 

Palladius  the  first  missionary  sent  from 

Rome,  and  the  objections  of  Usher 
removed,        -----  147 

appoints  Magonius  the  Patrician,  his 

successor,       -----  14S 
and  Ireland,  not  in  accord  in  some  mat- 
ters of  discipline,  with  reflections,   -  153-155 

Saints  of  Ireland,  their  numbere,  -        -        -  197 

of  the  fifth  age.     See  Holy  and  Reli- 

gious Men. 
Scotland,  or  Albany,  account  of  the  different 
Irish  settlers  there  to  the  reign 
of  Mortogh,       -         -         -    165-167 

history  of  this  Irish  colony,  and  the 

objections  to  it  removed,         -    167-170 
Scots    of    North   Britain,    who  attended   the 

standard  of  Brien,    -         -         -         -  260 
Strongboto,  associates  with  Mac  Murchad  for 
the  recovery  of  his  kingdom  of 
Leinster,         -        -        -        -  298 

applies  to  Henry  for  permission  to 

attend  the  Irish  war,  and  his  re- 
markable answer,       -         -         -  298 

lands  in  Ireland,  and  possesses  him- 

self of  Waterford,       -         -         -  299 

marries   the   princess  of  Leinster, 

and  marches  to  Dublin,      -    299,  300 

his  distressed  situation  by  the  death 

of  Mac  Murchad,  and  siege  of 
Dublin,  offers  to  submit  to  the 
monarch,  etc.,  -        -        -    301,  303 

received  into  grace  by  Henry,  who 

invades    Ireland,   and    possesses 
himself   of   the    sovereignty    of 
Leath-Mogha,  -        -        -    304,  305 
Synod  of  Clonard,        -----  184 

of  Logh-Lene,  -----  191 

of  Northumberland,  -        -        -        -  194 

of  Tirdaglas, 200 

Turlogh  O'Brien,  nominal  monarch,  his  life 

and  exploits,        -         -         -    274,  275 

O'Brien  proclauned  king  of  Mun- 

ster,   283,  284 

O'Connor,    nominal     monarch,    his 

life,   exploits,  death,  and  chai^- 
ter, 280-285 

Fortigem,  elected  commander  of  the  Britons, 

and  the  Saxons  called  in,  -        -  156 

Wexford,  its  siege  and  surrender,  -        -    295,  296 
Waterford,  its  siege  and  capture,  -        -    299,  300 


THE 


HISTORY    OF    lEELAND, 


FROM    THK 


INVASION  BY  HENRY  THE  SECOND 


TO    THE 


PRESENT    TIMES. 


BEING  A  COMPILATION  OF  THE 


PHILOSOPHICAL  AND  STATISTICAL  POINTS    -i' 


TO   BE   FOUND   IN   THE 


MOST    APPROVED    WRITERS 


ON   THE   SUBJECT. 


WITH    INCIDENTAL    REMARKS    AND    MORAL    REFLECTIONS. 


By     WILLIAM     DOLBY; 

AIDED  AND  ASSISTED  BY 

A    COMMITTEE    OF    ADMIRERS    OF    IRISH    HISTORY, 

NATIVES  OF  DIFFEBENT  COUMTBIES, 

WHO  ARE  NOW  RESIDENTS  OR  CITIZENS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


EMBELLISHED    WITH 

MAGNIFICENT    STEEL     ENGRAVINGS, 

FROM    DRAWINGS    TAKEN    EXPRESSLT 

By    W.    H.    BARTLETT,    ESQ. 


IS^  tm    8  or  k: 
R.    MARTIN    &    CO.,    26    JOHN-STREET. 


MDCCCXLV. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  j'car  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  forty-five, 

Hy    R.    MARTIN    &   Co., 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District  of  New  York. 


STEREOTYPED  BT  NEWELL  fc  CO, 
No.  11  Sproci-Stribt. 


OBSERVATIOIS 


C  ONNEC  T INO 


THE    FIRST    AND    SECOND    DIVISIONS 


The  reader  who  has  patiently  examined 
the  attempts  of  Sylvester  O'Halloran  to 
form  a  connected  narrative  out  of  the  cha- 
otic confusion  which  thus  far  characterizes 
Irish  history,  will,  doubtless,  be  very  glad 
of  an  opportunity  to  pause  and  survey  the 
retrospective  and  prospective  points  ob- 
servable at  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  Ire- 
land by  King  Henry  the  Second  of  Eng- 
land. This  event  marks  an  epoch  whence 
custom  and  circumstances  have  combined 
to  give  us  very  voluminous  and  much  more 
comparative  evidence,  requiring  laborious 
investigation  to  select  for  adoption,  and 
great  skill  to  arrange  for  narration.  There- 
fore, the  historian  endeavouring  to  be  im- 
partial has  his  labour  much  extended,  and 
the  reader  in  search  of  instruction  has  the 
pleasure  of  perusal  much  increased. 

Studying  history  and  biography,  unless 
with  reference  to  scholastic  instruction  or 
conversational  improvement,  is  a  waste  of 
time  and  attention.  A  dry  recapitulation 
of  crimes  and  noble  deeds — of  base  in- 
trigues and  real  honesty — still  leaves  the 
reader  without  a  proper  estimate  of  human 
nature,  and  renders  the  teaching  of  experi- 
ence as  uninstructive  as  the  actualities  of 
the  present  hour,  because  the  mere  elements 
of  human  character  are  thus  made  more 
apparent  than  the  ultimate  tendencies  of 
generations.  The  most  trying  feelings  of 
a  devoted  patriot  arise  from  the  conscious- 
ness that  by  many,  many,  very  many,  of 
his  countrymen,  the  motives  of  his  conduct 
are  almost  certain  to  be  misunderstood. 
Such  incomprehensible  neglect  is  mainly 


produced  by  an  imperfect  study  of  history. 
Those  minds  which  have  been  enabled  to 
extract  the  moral  lessons  of  history  would 
never  act  upon  what  Edmund  Burke  has 
well  styled  "  the  merciless  policy  of  fear  :** 
on  the  contrary,  they  will  at  once  and  for 
ever,  throughout  all  lands  and  in  all  ages, 
rally  round  and  sympathize  with  any  and 
every  man  who  sincerely  stands  forward 
as  the  champion  of  right  or  the  redresser 
of  wrong.  History  therefore  teaches  us 
not  only  to  know  our  rights,  but  to  distin- 
guish our  real  friends  from  those  who 
would  be  enemies  if  they  had  the  power. 

In  reviewing  the  First  Division  of  the 
History  of  Ireland,  there  is  a  large  field  of 
observation  for  the  mind  of  the  reflective 
reader.  With  such  abundant  testimony  of 
the  existence  of  knighthood  and  feudal  ser- 
vice among  the  Irish  people,  (long  before 
any  similar  general  adoption  of  them  by 
other  nations,)  it  were  a  fruitless  task  now 
for  the  most  learnedly  fanatical  of  their  de- 
tractors to  deny  that  Ireland  must  have 
been  morally  improved  by  the  ennobling 
aspirations  and  restraints  of  chivalry.  A 
long  course  of  chivalric  obedience  to  the 
military  virtues  would  have  beneficially 
prepared  the  national  character  for  the  re- 
ception of  Christianity ;  and  the  real  truth 
is,  Irish  history  shows  a  succession  of 
proofs  that  such  has  been  the  result. 

At  the  present  time,  we  are  too  apt  to 
despise  the  operations  of  chivalric  institu- 
tions ;  but  it  can  be  easily  and  proudly 
proved  that  true  religion,  when  grafted 
upon  an  individual  character  possessed  of 


OBSERVATIONS  CONNECTING  THE 


those  powers  of  mind  which  are  requisite 
for   integrity  of  purpose,  finds  a  suitable 
representative,  and  enables  the  person  thus 
gifted  to  march  along  the  path  of  life  with- 
out  permanent  injury  from   the  contami- 
nating influence  of  worldly  passions.     The 
rules  of  chivalry  protected  all  ranks  of  peo- 
ple with  a  bond  of  independent  and  yet 
social  reliance,  which  diffused  a  general 
happiness  among  all  the  individuals,  each 
in  the  appointed  degree.     The  obligations 
of  social  servitude  (which,  unfortunately, 
no  other   country,  whatever  may  be   its 
boasted  "  education,"  has   yet  altered  for 
the  better)  were  then  much  alleviated  by 
the  cheerful  alacrity  arising  from  the  con- 
sciousness of  performing  the  duties  required 
by  station  and  circumstances.     It  is  very 
amusing  to  observe  the  one-sided  sympathy 
that  is  commonly  expressed  for  those  Irish 
people  who  lived  in  the  times  when  power 
was  represented  by  a  piece  of  metal  in  the 
shape  of  a  sword.     Ought  we  not  to  be 
really  sympathizing  when  we  observe  the 
debasing  influence  of  the  social  power  that 
is  represented  by  pieces  of  metal  in  the 
shape   of   money?      The    self-complacent 
money-getter  will   sneer  at  chivalry,  and 
call  it  "  mummery,"  but  the  thoughtful  stu- 
dent  will  always   venerate  its  important 
agency   in    the    civilization   of   mankind. 
There   are   feelings  in   the   manly  breast 
which  those  readers  who  are  easily  affected 
by  martial  music  will  not  require  or  ex- 
pect any  writer  to  define  with  exactness. 
These    feelings    and  "  high    resolves"  un- 
doubtedly have  their  proper  scope  and  ob- 
ject, known  only  to  the  great  Author  of 
our  being.     When  tempered  and  chastened 
by  chivalry,  (a  human  institution,)  and  di- 
rected and  controlled  by  religion,  (a  divine 
institution,)  the  whole  thoughts  and  feelings 
are  under  proper  subjection,  and  the  man 
is  surrounded  with  a  glorious  hope  of  fu- 
turity which  no  present  accident  or  tem- 
porary misfortune  can  take  away. 

The  Irish  reader,  on  referring  to  the 
proofs  of  ancient  greatness  and  splendour, 
(which  the  very  earliest  portions  of  Irish 
history  yield  so  abundantly  if  not  connect- 
edly,) will  perhaps  say  with  Nehemiah,  the 


cup-bearer,  "Let  the  king  live  for  ever! 
Why  should  not  my  countenance  be  sad, 
when  the  city  of  my  native  land,  the  place 
of  my  fathers'  sepulchres  lieth  waste,  and 
the  gates  thereof  are  consumed  with  fire  ?" 
The  sacred  historian  informs  us  that  all  the 
requests  he  afterwards  made  prevailed  with 
King    Artaxerxes,    and    that  "the    king 
granted  me,  according  to  the  good  hand  of 
my  God   upon  me."      True   greatness   is 
most   firmly  exercised   when    contending 
with  adversity,  and  a  sad  countenance  is 
seldom  seen  upon  those  who  (like  Nehe- 
miah) have  the  trust  of  goodness  with  a 
seasonable  distrust  of  mere  success.     For 
a  native  of  Ireland  to  show  a  sad  counte- 
nance (except  at  proper  times  and  places) 
would   indeed  be  a  lamentable  curiosity. 
A  trustful  and  hopeful  merriment  of  heart 
forms  the  noblest  trait  in  the  Irish  charac- 
ter ;  and  it  is  one  that  all  must  acknowl- 
edge, for  it  is  no  more  than  common  justice. 
We  have  generally  observed  that  persons 
who  are  cringing  and  miserable  during  ad- 
verse circumstances  will  be  mean,  sordid, 
and  treacherous  when  basking  in  the  sun- 
shine  of   unmerited   fortune.      Therefore, 
from  what  we  know,  positively  and  nega- 
tively, of  the  long-tried  character  of  the 
Irish  people,  (whatever  differences  of  opin- 
ion may  exist  as  to  the  proper  estimate  of 
Irish  history  and  Irish  hopes,)  there  cer- 
tainly is  much  instruction  in  the  past,  and 
plenty  of  room  for  improvement  in  the  fu- 
ture.    The  most  bitter  enemy  of  Ireland, 
if  really  a  well-wisher  of  mankind,  would 
surely  let  her   share  a  hope  for  govern- 
mental amelioration  and  general  happiness. 
AH  men  of  true  dignity  will  respect  the 
dignity  of  others,  and  the  dignity  of  the  un- 
fortunate is  sacred  to  all   observers  who 
are    not    absolutely    rude.     Shakespeare 
spoke  for  himself  where  he  says — 

" It  never  yet  did  hurt 


To  lay  down  likelihoods  and  forms  of  hope." 

Those  minds  which  can  cherish  a  hope  for 
the  deliverance  of  all  mankind  from  the  in- 
sidious combinations  of  power,  expediency, 
and  cruelty,  must  certainly  agree  with  the 
remarks  of  a  celebrated  British  essayist 
(Thomas  Dolby)  who  says: — "As  is  the 


FIRST   AND   SECOND   DIVISIONS. 


fragrance  of  the  choicest  flowers,  so  are 
the  promises  of  hope.  Happy  are  they 
who  suflfer  their  better  aspirations  to  infuse 
a  congenial  spirit  into  their  lives  and  ac- 
tions !  For  goodness  in  supposition  bc- 
cometh  a  blessing  in  reality,  and  a  good 
hope  is  better  than  a  bad  possession." 

If,  however,  the  right  of  hoping  for  bet- 
ter days  should  be  denied,  the  harmless 
satisfaction  would  yet  remain  of  looking 
back  to  the  days  when  one  hundred  and 
seventy-one  monarchs  (all  of  the  same  line 
and  lineage)  successively  governed  Ireland 
for  two  thousand  years  before  Henry  the 
Second  landed  there.  An  eminent  English 
lawyer  (Francis  Plowden,  of  the  nineteenth 
century)  has  remarked  that — "  The  pride 
of  ancestry  has  a  peculiar  effect  upon  the 
Irish,  and  that  no  people  can  boast  of  such 
irrefragable  proofs  of  their  origin  and  lin- 
eage, and  duration  of  government;  and 
that  it  has  been  a  pitiful  prejudice  in  too 
many  English  writers  to  endeavour  to 
throw  discredit  upon  the  early  part  of  Irish 
history." 

An  able  Irish  writer,  (John  Lawless,) 
who  never  wastes  his  eloquence  upon 
merely  visionary  distinctions,  says  that — 
"The  Irishman  has  often  found  refuge  from 
the  misfortunes  that  were  pressing  upon 
him,  in  the  cherished  and  sacred  reflection 
that,  however  afflicted  his  country,  or  borne 
down  her  liberties,  or  hopeless  her  cause, 
he  could  look  back  to  her  history  with 
complacency,  where  he  sees  her  described 
as  the  instructress  of  Europe,  the  dispenser 
of  justice,  and  the  island  of  saints." 

William  Sampson,  in  his  brilliantly  writ- 
ten "  conclusion"  to  Taylor's  "  History  of 
Ireland,"  among  many  very  valuable  addi- 
tions and  highly  interesting  facts,  stated 
with  nervous  precision  and  great  beautv 
of  language,  says : — 

"  It  is  certain  that  within  the  time  of  au- 
thentic history,  when  darkness  prevailed 
over  Europe  generally,  learning  and  piety 
were  cherished  in  that  hospitable  island, 
[Ireland,]  and  that  light  did  radiate  thence 
as  from  a  diverging  point  over  the  rest  of 
Christendom.  And  if  Irish  writers  have 
been  somewhat  vain-glorious,  it  was  a  ve- 


nial fault  compared  to  that  of  calumnies 
invented  for  the  ends  of  spoliation,  and 
perpetuated  by  bigotry  and  malice. .  Much 
has  been  lost  to  science  by  the  wilful  de- 
struction of  Irish  manuscripts,  and  the  dis- 
couragement thrown  upon  the  study  of 
a  language  which  might  have  been  emi- 
nently useful  at  this  day  in  that  interesting 
branch  of  learning  called  linguistic  history 
— a  language  which  is  now  written  and  spo- 
ken without  mixture  or  adulteration  as  it 
was  written  and  spoken  three  thousand 
years  ago ;  and  which,  though  long  ban- 
ished from  the  seats  of  academic  learning, 
from  the  forum,  the  senate,  and  from  sce- 
nic use,  remains  regular  in  its  construction, 
copious  and  expressive,  apt  for  the  purpo- 
ses of  poetry  and  lofty  elocution,  and  for 
the  utterance  of  such  elegant  turns  of 
thought  and  tender  and  delicate  sentiment 
as  never  could  have  originated  with  any 
but  a  civilized  and  highly  polished  people. 
This  language,  too,  has  been  found  to  pos- 
sess the  technical  terms  of  all  the  sciences 
known  to  the  civilized  nations  of  antiquity, 
and  has  been  traced  by  its  affinities  to  that 
in  which  the  word  of  God  was  delivered 
to  Moses  and  the  prophets." 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  Lady 
Morgan  takes  a  different  view  of  the  utility 
of  such  influences  on  the  Irish  mind.  She 
says  that — 

"  These  national  subjects  have  too  long 
led  the  Irish  from  the  better  career  of  na- 
tional improvement,  and  retrograded  intel- 
lect by  directing  it  back  to  barbarous  times, 
falsely  called  heroic ;  purely  Irish  :  know- 
ing nothing  of  modern  Ireland  but  her  suf- 
ferings and  her  wrongs  ;  of  ancient  Ireland 
but  her  fables  and  her  dreams  ;  deep  read 
in  O'Flaherty,  Keating,  and  O'Connor,  and 
the  genealogies  and  senachies,  ancient  and 
modern,"  etc. 

It  is  well  worthy  of  notice,  especially  to 
those  persons  who  study  to  select  pleasing 
subjects  of  conversation  in  female  society, 
that  lady-authors  are  generally  severe  in 
their  remarks  upon  those  men  who  permit 
their  minds  to  meditate  much  on  departed 
national  glories.  Madame  de  Stael,  in  re- 
ferring   to    this   mental    characteristic   of 


OBSERVATIONS  CONNECTING  THE 


Nicola  di  Rienzi  and  other  personages  of 
similar  rank  in  history,  speaks  of  them  as 
men  **qui  out  pris  les  souvenirs  pour  les 
esperances."  This  graphic  but  rather  in- 
considerate expression  appears  to  have  had 
its  origin  in  the  same  train  of  thought 
which  afterwards  prompted  Lady  Morgan 
in  relation  to  Irish  history. 

Considering  Lady  Morgan's  general  can- 
dour and  patriotism,  we  suspect  that  it  was 
the  extremely  remote  portions  of  Irish  his- 
tory to  which  her  ladyship  alluded  in  the 
words  "fables"  and  "dreams."  We  are 
quite  willing  to  believe  so,  for  doubly  painful 
is  a  doubt  of  Ireland's  former  glory  when 
expressed  by  the  lips  of  an  Irish  woman ! 
This  is  no  exaggeration,  as  the  reader  will 
perceive  that  at  the  time  when  the  Irish  peo- 
ple had  the  power  they  challenged  the 
admiration  of  the  world  by  their  much- 
cherished  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  female 
society ;  and  their  ancient  regard  for  legis- 
latively acknowledging  the  power  of  female 
influence  is  even  yet  but  slowly  and  bung- 
lingly  followed  by  imitative  nations. 

After  all,  perhaps  the  best  comment  upon 
these  "  fables"  and  "  dreams"  is  afforded  by 
those  persons  who  were  not  likely  to  be 
partial  to  Ireland,  but  who  were  quite 
willing  to  make  use  of  them  as  serious  ar- 
guments when  a  purpose  of  their  own  was 
to  be  gained.  A  very  striking  instance  of 
this  occurred  in  1414,  at  the  Council  of 
Constance,  and  has  already  been  alluded  to 
by  Sylvester  O'Halloran.  Bishops  had 
usually  been  considered  the  sole  members  of 
ecclesiastical  councils.  At  Constance,  how- 
ever, not  only  the  chiefs  of  monasteries 
but  the  ambassadors  of  Christian  princes, 
deputies  of  universities,  a  multitude  of  in- 
ferior theologians,  and  even  doctors  of 
laws,  claimed  a  right  to  sit  and  vote. 
These  persons,  feeling  the  pride  of  sudden 
elevation,  undertook  to  control  the  strong 
and  humiliate  the  lofty.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Italian  bishops,  confessedly  in  the  papal 
interest,  were  (by  the  force  of  circum- 
stances) so  numerous  that  their  suffrages 
would  generally  outweigh  the  agitations  of 
the  transalpine  delegates.  Hence  arose 
a  disgusting  struggle  for  power,  bringing 


in  its  train  the  usual  manoeuvres  of  party 
politics.  Finally,  it  was  agreed  upon,  that 
the  council  should  divide  itself  into  four 
divisions,  each  having  equal  rights, — ^the 
Italian,  the  German,  the  French,  and  the 
English ;  and  that  on  each  new  proposition 
being  separately  discussed,  a  majority  of 
the  whole  should  prevail.  Henry  Hallam, 
while  relating  his  version  of  these  circum- 
stances, makes  the  following  remarks  in  a 
note : — 

"  This  separation  of  England,  as  a  co- 
equal limb  of  the  council,  gave  great  um- 
brage to  the  French,  who  maintained  that, 
like  Denmark  and  Sweden,  it  ought  to  have 
been  reckoned  along  with  (Germany.  The 
English  deputies  came  down  with  a  profu- 
sion of  authorities  to  prove  the  antiquity  of 
their  monarchy,  for  which  they  did  not  fail 
to  put  in  requisition  the  immeasurable  pedi- 
grees of  Ireland." 

We  must  either  consider  that  the  Eng- 
lish deputies  believed  the  statements  they 
then  so  proudly  made  of  the  ancient  Irish 
ancestors  of  the  English  monarchs  or  that 
they  did  not.  If  they  did  not,  then  they 
were  acting  in  bad  faith,  and  proved  them- 
selves unworthy  of  consideration  in  either 
ecclesiastical  or  political  councils.  If  they 
did  believe  them,  then  these  facts  of  Irish 
history  (to  which  they  so  confidently  re- 
ferred as  being  already  well  known  to  the 
cardinals)  are  placed  beyond  the  possibility 
of  being  "  fables"  or  "dreams"  by* this  un- 
intentional and  indisputable  addition  of  tes- 
timony to  the  actual  truth. 

Further  argument  being  unnecessary  to 
prove  the  regular  monarchical  governments 
of  Ireland  for  two  thousand  years  before 
the  landing  of  Henry  the  Second,  some 
general  remarks  will  not  be  unacceptable 
to  the  reader  who  wishes  understandingly 
to  accompany  us  during  our  task  of  giving 
a  complete  and  connected  History  of  Ire- 
land from  the  earliest  times  down  to  the 
present.  A  practical  and  justifiable  patri- 
otism can  only  be  created  and  sustained  by 
sound  views.  Such  views  can  only  be 
formed  from  correct  information.  The 
study  of  history,  therefore,  is  essential  to 
the  formation  of  character  in  a  real  patriot 


FIRST   AND   SECOND   DIVISIONS. 


The  American  citizen,  in  particular,  recog- 
nizes the  importance  of  historical  inquiry, 
for  it  is  by  the  maxims  deduced  from  gen- 
eral history  that  he  is  enabled  to  properly 
understand  those  points  of  constitutional 
history  which  (under  different  govern- 
ments) illustrate  the  only  real  progress  of 
correct  principles.  The  best  evidence  of 
a  good  government  is  afforded  by  its  power 
of  adaptation  to  the  wants  and  circum- 
stances of  mankind.  To  comprehend  what 
those  wants  and  circumstances  are,  and  to 
consider  judiciously  whatever  the  history 
of  other  nations  may  have  taught  in  the 
experience  of  similar  cases,  is  the  duty"  of 
every  man  who  would  understand  his  posi- 
tion, either  as  a  legislator  or  as  a  citizen. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  but  that  much 
of  the  opposition  shown  in  Ireland  to  the 
acts  of  the  English  government  had  its  ori- 
gin in  the  differences  of  custom  and  usage. 
These  were  so  strong  that  many  modem 
writers  who  were  too  indolent  to  examine 
them,  have  avoided  the  difficulty  of  expla- 
nation and  increased  their  own  temporary 
popularity  by  laying  all  the  blame  on  the 
"  political  divisions"  (as  they  are  pleased  to 
say)  of  the  Catholic  Church.  If  we  con- 
sider how  slowly  customs  change  at  the 
present  time,  when  the  means  of  commu- 
nication between  different  countries  are 
rapid  and  regular,  we  can  easily  account 
for  the  existence  of  those  differences  in 
mere  discipline  which  peculiar  circum- 
stances had  caused  to  distinguish  Ireland 
from  England.  If  we  consider  also  the 
very  origin  of  the  grant  of  Pope  Adrian  to 
Henry  the  Second,  we  shall  find  a  proba- 
bility of  an  inordinate  desire  of  worldly 
conformance  to  ecclesiastical  supremacy 
and  unity  rather  than  the  much  more 
blameable  policy  of  creating  divisions. 
Christianity  of  itself  offers  no  ground  of 
controversy:  it  is  at  once  the  foundation 
and  pillar  of  truth :  but  human  government 
and  human  calculations  must  take  their 
chance  with  the  finite  powers  of  the  human 
mind.  Hence  we  find  that  during  three 
or  four  centuries  after  the  landing  of  Henry 
the  Second,  while  both  countries  were  of 
GDB  faith,  the  church  of  the  government 


dependents  and  the  church  of  the  native 
people  (in  Ireland)  were  almost  as  much 
separated  from  each  other  by  the  concur- 
rent differences  of  race,  language,  and  po- 
litical feeling,  nay,  even  sometimes  in  eccle- 
siastical discipline,  as  they  have  ever  been, 
at  any  period,  by  differences  of  creeds. 
Thomas  Moore  thus  ably  sums  up  in  a  few 
lines  the  mass  of  evidence  afforded  by  the 
industry  of  Dr.  Lanigan  upon  this  point : — 

"The  attempt  made  by  the  Synod  of 
Cashel  in  the  year  1172  to  assimilate  the 
Irish  church  (in  its  rites  and  discipline)  to 
that  of  England,  entirely  failed  of  its  ob- 
ject ;  and  the  native  clergy  and  people 
continued  to  follow  their  own  ecclesiastical 
rules,  as  if  the  decrees  of  that  memorable 
synod  had  never  been  issued." 

He  then  adds,  in  a  sentence  that  seems 
to  have  been  punctuated  with  sighs : — 

"  Disheartening  as  may  be  some  of  the 
conclusions  too  plainly  deducible  from  this 
fact,  it  clearly  shows,  at  least,  that  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  reformed  church,  in  that 
kingdom,  was  not  the  first  or  sole  cause  of 
the  bitter  hostility  between  its  two  races." 

It  is  unfortunate  that  in  western  Europe 
the  papal  claims  of  taxation,  such  as  first- 
fruits,  Peter-pence,  and  so  forth,  were  press- 
ed with  remarkable  rigour  even  as  late  as 
the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Brit- 
ain, Ireland,  and  Wales,  (perhaps  on  ac- 
count of  their  geographical  position,)  ap- 
pear to  have  been  treated  much  more 
harshly  than  the  continental  nations  in  this 
respect.  With  the  exactions  of  the  papal 
agents  on  the  one  side,  and  the  extortions 
of  the  crown  on  the  other,  we  cannot  won- 
der at  the  existence  of  violent  "  political 
divisions"  among  the  two  races.  John 
Lingard,  in  his  **  History  of  England," 
says : — 

"  In  the  obstinacy  with  which  the  court 
of  Rome  urged  the  exercise  of  these  obnox- 
ious claims,  it  is  difficult  to  discover  any 
traces  of  that  political  wisdom  for  which  it 
has  been  celebrated.  Its  conduct  tended 
to  loosen  the  ties  which  bound  the  people 
to  the  head  of  their  Church,  to  nourish  a 
spirit  of  opposition  to  his  authority,  and  to 
create  a  willingness  to  listen  to  the  decla- 


# 


8 


OBSERVATIONS  CONNECTING  THE 


mations  and  adopt  the  principles  of  reli- 
gious innovators." 

The  general  state  of  Europe  should  al- 
ways bo  considered  when  judging  of  the 
condition  of  any  particular  country  in  that 
quarter  of  the  globe.  After  a  searching 
comparison  of  the  evidence  we  have  of  the 
state  of  Europe  and  that  of  Ireland  at  (and 
since)  the  landing  of  Henry  the  Second,  the 
following  theories  have  been  suggested,  and 
the  various  proofs  supporting  them  are  sub- 
mitted throughout  these  chapters  as  likely 
to  please  by  their  variety  and  interest ; 
and,  although  an  entire  approval  of  senti- 
ment with  us  cannot  be  expected  on  all 
points,  still  the  reader  will  have  the  benefit 
of  reviewing  such  a  mass  of  contradictory 
evidence,  prepared  for  general  inspection. 
These  theories  are  six  in  number,  and  they 
are  here  introduced  more  for  the  purpose 
of  classifying  the  unavoidably  confused 
state  of  the  subject  (at  this  stage  of  Irish 
history)  than  as  wishing  to  put  forth  crude 
novelties  of  opinion  : — 

Theory  I. 

That  the  quiet  and  almost  theocratic  simpli- 
city which  prevailed  in  Ireland  before  the 
Anglo-Norman  invasion  took  place  was 
morally  superior  to  the  general  state  of 
society  throughout  Europe  at  that  time. 

To  satisfactorily  establish  this  theory 
would  require  a  long  life  for  the  writer  and 
unwearying  patience  from  the  reader.  But 
proof  enough  can  be  rendered  (even  in  the 
contracted  limits  of  our  chapters)  to  show 
that  the  position  is  correct.  If  we  approach 
the  subject  with  candour  and  impartiality, 
encouraging  a  proper  restraint  of  our  early 
and  deeply  rooted  prejudices,  we  shall  find 
that  the  whole  question  resolves  itself  into 
a  simple  comparison  (easily  made  in  can- 
dour and  fairness)  of  the  social  condition  of 
Ireland  with  that  of  other  nations  in  Eu- 
rope. If  our  first  theory  is  admitted,  the 
remaining  five  will  easily  recommend 
themselves  to  a  favourable  attention. 

Before  entering  into  the  merits  of  this 
comparison,  however,  it  would  be  useful  to 
consider  the  different  standards  of  civiliza- 


tion which  different  minds  may  have  un- 
consciously adopted.  Different  people 
have  differing  ideas  of  what  is  called  "  re- 
spectability," which  ideas  can  seldom  be 
properly  accounted  for,  even  by  their  pos- 
sessors, although  their  whole  time  and 
thoughts  are  engaged  in  pursuing  the  ob- 
ject that  is  thus  named.  So  also  the  hu- 
man mind  is  continually  forming  new  and 
differing  standards  of  what  is  called  "  civi- 
lization," although  the  history  of  the  hu- 
man mind  is  one  continued  series  of  varia- 
tions of  intellectual  power,  struggling  with 
the  difficulties  of  time  and  place.  To  sup- 
pose that  improvement  is  always  progres- 
sive would  imply  that  change  is  always 
improvement,  which  is  an  opinion  unwor- 
thy of  any  more  permanent  place  than  a 
newspaper  paragraph. 

The  consideration  of  standards  of  civili- 
zation may,  perhaps,  appear  like  a  digres- 
sion at  this  stage  of  our  argument.  But 
we  trust  that  impartial  readers  will  see  the 
importance  of  having  some  positive  under- 
standing of  what  is  meant  by  the  term 
"  civilization,"  before  entering  into  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  comparative  degrees  of 
civilization  in  different  countries.  We 
would  gladly  have  waived  the  inquiry  into 
this  subject,  for  the  circumstances  under 
which  it  is  brought  before  the  reader  pre- 
vent such  a  display  of  learning  as  would 
tempt  a  writer  to  bring  it  forward  volun- 
tarily ;  but,  justice  to  Ireland  (and  to  all 
the  other  nations  which  might  be  casually 
mentioned  while  instituting  a  comparison 
with  the  remainder  of  Europe)  requires 
that  the  reader  should,  as  soon  as  possible, 
decide  what  may  or  may  not  be  called 
"  civilization."  If,  for  instance,  an  historian 
has  occasion  to  speak  of  a  people  who  were 
once  happy,  contented,  and  equitably  pro- 
gressive, the  picture  is  not  to  be  viewed  in 
such  a  light  as  to  expect  that  the  fishermen 
are  all  Chesterfields,  or  the  cottagers  all 
Socratic  and  democratic  philosophers. 

To  some  minds,  a  great  effort  is  requisite 
to  form  suitable  ideas  of  any  other  people 
who  may  have  existed  under  different  laws, 
customs,  or  usages  than  those  uoder  which 
their  own  previous  ideas  have  been  formed. 


FIRST   AND   SECOND   DIVISIONS. 


9 


Those  who  have  larger  views  may  (with- 
out waiting  for  a  brain  like  Jupiter's)  pro- 
fitably imagine  that  they  can  see  through 
the  disguises  of  society  as  easily  as  Min- 
erva did  (according  to  worthy  old  Chap- 
man) those  of  Ulysses.  Still  there  is  al- 
ways more  and  more  to  learn  in  the  art  of 
sympathizing  with  other  people  of  distant 
lands  and  remote  ages.  A  great  poet  and 
philosopher  has  said  that  "  the  proper  study 
of  mankind  is  man."  He  might  have 
added,  with  perfect  propriety,  that  this 
study  lasts  as  long  as  we  live,  that  we 
may  always  be  learning,  and  that  when  we 
die  there  is  yet  left  more  to  learn. 

It  is  a  singular  fact,  showing  how  useful 
a  reflective  pause  is,  occasionally,  during 
what  is  commonly  called  "  the  march  of 
intellect,"  that  while  all  nations  are  con- 
tinually boasting  of  "  improvement"  they 
also  unanimously  agree  in  rejecting  the 
hypothesis  of  a  primitive  state  of  barba- 
rism. If  they  would  not  acknowledge  a 
barbarian  origin,  it  is  still  less  likely  (not- 
withstanding the  insatiable  promptings  of 
national  feeling)  that  they  would  consent  to 
receive  any  praise  for  having  "  improved" 
their  condition  from  a  savage  state.  This 
unanimous  and  unconscious  agreement  of 
all  nations  is  indicative  of  a  former  ex- 
istence, indisputably  anterior  and  better. 
The  historian  who  yields  to  his  convictions 
while  in  search  of  truth  will  find  little  to 
gratify  human  pride ;  and  the  more  he 
learns  the  more  will  he  feel  the  want  of 
further  information.  Well  has  "the  Preach- 
er" said — 

"  All  things  are  full  of  labour :  man  can- 
not UTTER  IT  :  the  eye  is  not  satisfied  with 
seeing,  nor  the  ear  filled  with  hearing. 

"The  thing  that  hath  been,  it  is  that 
which  shall  be  ;  and  that  which  is  done  is 
that  which  shall  be  done :  and  there  is  no 
new  thing  under  the  sun." 

In  seeking  a  definition  to  the  word  "  civ- 
ilization" we  are  partly  compelled  to  give 
a  glance  at  the  history  of  intellectual  phil- 
osophy, for  the  definition  of  an  idea  should 
have  the  nearest  possible  relation  to  the 
idea  itself;  and  the  real  lover  of  Ireland, 
satisfied  in  his  own  mind  of  the  great  an- 

2 


tiquity  of  her  people,  is  always  anxious  to 
promote  inquiry  into  cause  and  effect,  so 
that  the  "origin  of  knowledge"  may  be 
traced  as  far  as  possible,  and  the  relative 
positions  of  "  all  the  generations  of  men" 
may  be  studied  with  beneficial  results. 

There  is  scarcely  any  necessity  for  re- 
minding the  reader  that  the  worthies  of 
both  the  old  Greek  schools  of  philosophy, 
and  all  the  leaders  of  the  modern  systems 
derived  from  them,  concur  in  illustrating 
the  above  extract  from  the  inspired  lan- 
guage attributed  to  "the  Preacher."  If 
we  believe  sacred  writ  we  must  believe 
that  the  first  men  were  "  marvellous  men," 
and  that  they  were  favoured  with  commu- 
nications from  powers  superior  to  them. 
The  initiated  observer,  who  traces  the  la- 
tent thoughts  of  philosophers  and  poets, 
will  find  that  they  are  unanimous  on  this 
point.  The  partly  buried  monuments  (an- 
cient at  the  beginning  of  all  verbal  history) 
yet  visible  in  Africa,  the  scripturally  con- 
firmed traditions  of  Asia  and  Europe,  and 
the  geologically  rejuvenated  ruins  of  Ame- 
rica, all,  all,  perfectly  agree  in  handing 
down  this  great  truth, — that  the  races  of 
mankind  originated  with  knowledge  not 
only  different  but  superior  to  ours.  Such 
an  agreement  of  reason,  revelation,  and  of 
all  tradition,  could  only  be  contradicted  by 
those  who  have  not  given  the  subject  an 
examination  proportionate  to  its  impor- 
tance. All  material  facts  and  all  the  sci- 
ences are  but  secondary  rays  of  intellec- 
tual light  from  perfect  wisdom  and  ever- 
lasting truth.  The  desultory  glorifications 
of  "  science  and  progress"  generally  pro- 
ceed from  persons  who  are  as  ignorant  of 
the  history  of  intellectual  philosophy  as 
they  are  of  every  other  department  of 
history. 

There  must  surely  be  found  a  correct 
meaning  for  the  word  "  civilization,"  or  else 
we  shall  be  obliged  to  make  another  di- 
gression, endeavouring  to  discover  where 
such  a  word  (or  its  equivalents)  came  from. 
The  reader  will  therefore  please  to  put  such 
construction  on  the  term  as  may  now  be 
thought  proper.  Digressions,  like  delays, 
are  sometimes  dangerous.     To  make  a  di- 


10 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


gression  in  the  argument  of  our  first  theory 
may  appear  awkward ;  but,  in  reality,  the 
whole  subject  will  now  be  much  simplified 
by  this  inquiring  pause  and  its  suitable  re- 
flections. 

Whatever  differences  of  opinion  may 
exist  as  to  the  Asiatic  or  African  origin  of 
civilization  in  Ireland,  it  is  incontestably 
proved  that  among  all  the  nations  of  Eu- 
rope which  were  over-run  by  the  various 
tribes  commonly  classed  as  Celts,  Ireland 
is  the  only  country  that  may  be  said  to 
have  maintained  its  national  existence  and 
preserved  its  native  language.  At  the  pre- 
sent moment,  the  Irish  people  stand  before 
us  as  the  same  people  who  were  consid- 
ered ancient  even  in  the  days  of  Solomon, 
with  the  same  blood  in  their  veins,  the  same 
physical  characteristics,  and  speaking  the 
same  language.  This  fact  meets  us  at  the 
very  outset  of  our  comparative  view  of  the 
nations  of  Europe. 

Sir  James  Mackintosh,  England's  histo- 
rian and  Scotland's  pride,  says,  while 
closing  a  summary  account  of  the  Irish  an- 
nals : — 

"  The  chronicles  of  Ireland,  written  in 
the  Irish  language,  from  the  second  cen- 
tury to  the  landing  of  Henry  Plantagenet, 
possess  the  fullest  evidences  of  exactness. 
The  Irish  people  are  thus  entitled  to  boast 
that  they  possess  genuine  history  several 
centuries  more  ancient  than  any  other 
European  nation  possesses  in  its  present 
spoken  language." 

If  we  proceed  to  examine  the  social  con- 
dition of  Ireland  at  the  time  of  Henry's  in- 
vasion, we  shall  certainly  meet  with  little 
to  please  those  who  consider  that  "  business 
habits"  and  "rights  of  property"  are  the 
only  essential  requisites  for  social  happi- 
ness. According  to  all  the  evidence  that 
we  can  find,  the  Irish  people  were  pertina- 
ciously innocent  of  any  such  views,  on  their 
own  part.  The  law  of  gavel-kind  held 
property  in  a  state  of  certainty  for  families, 
but  with  great  uncertainty  as  regarded  in- 
dividual succession.  It  must  be  acknowl- 
edged that  the  operation  of  such  a  law  al- 
most entirely  excluded  the  probability  of 
individuals  becoming  classified  by  follow- 


ing any  mechanical  or  commercial  employ- 
ments. This  acknowledgment,  of  course, 
leads  to  the  consideration  of  the  merits  of 
different  legislative  policies,  with  which,  in 
this  argument,  we  cannot  interfere;  and 
the  reader  will,  perhaps,  prefer  making  a 
decision  without  us.  The  subject  of  social 
servitude  alone  would  require  a  separate 
study.  We  all  know  what  independent 
performers  the  Irish  boys  make  when  they 
"put  on  ye"  the  character  of  servants. 
But,  in  truth,  the  fun  and  fancy  of  the 
whole  "  livery"  are  more  universal  than  is 
generally  supposed :  we  may  trace  them 
from  Plautus  to  Cervantes,  and  from 
Shakespeare  to  Swift.  Seriously,  to  the 
Irish  people  belonged  the  formation  of  their 
own  manners  and  customs,  and  the  making 
of  their  own  laws.  The  practical  opera- 
tion of  the  law  of  gavel-kind  had  been  in- 
corporated in  the  law  of  tanistry ;  so  that 
we  may  presume  the  Irish  people  suited 
themselves  in  these  matters;  and  it  is 
proper  to  observe  that  the  motive  princi- 
ples and  evolved  results  of  these  two  laws 
were  equally  consistent  for  the  rich  and  for 
the  poor.  Can  we  say  as  much  for  the 
laws  of  other  nations  ? 

The  state  of  learning,  among  those  who 
studied  at  all  in  those  days,  was  such  as 
may  be  referred  to  with  pleasure  by  every 
lover  of  Ireland.  We  have  no  occasion 
here,  for  our  present  purpose,  to  do  more 
than  mention  the  names  of  those  whose 
claims  to  the  highest  rank  for  scholastic 
attainments  will  bear  a  scrutinizing  inspec- 
tion, and  well  reward  the  historical  student 
for  tracing  their  works. 

In  the  tenth  century  we  find  Probus; 
O'Floinn  ;  O'Artegan ;  Israel ;  Fingen ; 
Mimborin ;  and  Duncan.  In  the  eleventh, 
Tigernach ;  Marianus  Scotus  ;  Helias  ;  St. 
Colman ;  Mac  Liag ;  St.  Amnichad ;  Gilla- 
Coeman ;  Flann  ;  and  Dubdalethe.  In  the 
twelfth,  St  Malachy;  O'Brian ;  Gillibert; 
Felix ;  St.  Laurence  O'Toole  ;  Augustus ; 
Brictius  ;  Catholicus ;  and  Gilla-Moduda. 

To  prove  that  these  brilliant  lights  shone 
from  an  altar  of  learning  which  was  already 
illuminated  with  the  blended  rays  of  social 
contentment  and  religious  contemplation. 


FIRST   AND    SECOND   DIVISIONS. 


11 


we  may  briefly  notice  the  synods  that  were 
called  and  the  seminaries  of  scholarship 
which  were  instituted  in  addition  to  those 
already  founded  before  the  tenth  century. 
Among  the  synods,  the  most  prominent 
are  those  of  Fiodh-iEngusa,  Rath-Breasail, 
Kells,  Mellifont,  Meath,  Armagh,  and  Cash- 
el.  There  were  also  numerous  convoca- 
tions and  conventions,  introducing  benefi- 
cial reforms  and  regulations  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  education.  The  effects  of 
these  movements  may  be  seen  in  the  provi- 
sion made  for  future  improvement  by  estab- 
lishing additional  churches,  colleges,  and 
other  foundations  of  national  and  scientific 
learning. 

The  intelligent  observer  will  now  do 
well  to  make  a  comparison  of  Ireland  with 
the  general  state  of  Europe  in  the  twelfth 
century,  bearing  in  mind  the  importance  of 
a  correct  understanding  of  the  term  "  civil- 


ization. 


Theory  II. 


That  Henry  the  Second^ s  landing  and  inva- 
sion did  not  conquer  the  country,  except 
in  the  establishment  of  military  colonies  ; 
nor  did  he  acquire  any  territory  further 
than  what  was  mutually  agreed  upon  by 
cession^  treaty,  or  otherwise. 

Theory  III. 

That  (with  a  few  exceptions)  the  govern- 
mental regulations,  laws  and  customs,  in 


Ireland,  at  the  time  of  Henry's  landing, 
had  then  existed  in  the  same  unaltered 
state  for  about  two  thousand  years. 

Theory  IV. 

That  the  long-established  habits  and  govern- 
ment of  tile  Irish  people  prevented  them 
from  assimilating  with  the  usages  and 
customs  of  the  Normans  as  readily  as  the 
French  and  English  have  done. 

Theory  V. 

That  however  sanguinary  or  protracted 
might  be  the  quarrels  of  the  native  chiefs, 
we  generally  observe  that  they  showed 
great  regard  for  treaties  and  contracts  in 
their  public  affairs  before  the  Anglo-Nor- 
man invasion. 

Theory  VI. 

That  the  social  improvement  and  moral  hap- 
piness of  the  Irish  people  need  not  totally 
depend  upon  the  fluctuations  of  ecclesias- 
tical or  governmental  power,  after  the 
history  and  the  position  of  their  country 
are  fairly  explained  to  the  world. 

If  these  theories  are  kept  in  view  as  pos- 
tulates, the  proofs  (as  furnished  by  Sylves- 
ter O'Halloran's  division,  and  by  the  follow- 
ing chapters  of  this  work)  will  thus  be  more 
likely  to  convey  that  information  which 
properly  belongs  to  a  reasonable  and  dis- 
criminating History  of  Ireland. 


PEELIMIIAEY  DISCOUESE 


TO     THE 


SECOND    DIVISION 


There  will  be  little  occasion  for  future 
writers  to  honour  us  by  differing  about  the 
precise  point  of  connection  between  Syl- 
vester O'Halloran's  division  and  the  re- 
mainder of  this  work.  The  glorious  old 
wrangle  of  our  schoolboy  days,  while  tra- 
cing Grecian  history  to  find  out  where  Thu- 
cydides  left  off  or  Xenophon  began,  was 
one  of  those  sports  which  are  too  pleas- 
ing to  remain  unexplained  by  the  modem 
exactness  of  utilitarian  condensation.  In 
this  exact  and  exacting  phase  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  we  must  do  our  duty.  We 
shall  therefore  endeavour  to  be  as  legal  and 
lumbering  as  critics  will  expect ;  and  we 
feel  quite  certain  that  (without  any  effort 
at  all)  we  shall  be  as  often  left-handed  and 
loitering  as  digressions  from  dulness  are 
likely  to  tempt  both  writer  and  reader. 
In  "  fine  writing"  there  is  no  glory  to  be 
gained  when  coming  after  Thomas  Moore  ; 
in  religion,  there  is  every  probability  for 
human  beings  to  err  and  misjudge ;  in  poli- 
tics, the  adult  students  of  history  generally 
have  their  minds  "  made  up  ;"  in  morals, 
(Reader !  there  we  have  you !)  yes,  in 
morals,  we  hope  to  leave  our  subject  a 
little  better  than  we  found  it.  In  this  His- 
tory of  Ireland,  the  historian's  privilege  of 
pointing  out  the  moral  lessons  of  his  narra- 
tive, and  leaving  them  to  operate  upon  the 
reader's  mind,  will  be  exercised  with  a  da- 
ring license  which  may  as  well  be  ac- 
knowledged at  first  as  at  last. 

In  reviewing  the  five  hundred  and  twen- 
ty years  comprised  in  the  Second  Division 
of  this  work,  we  see  that  space  of  time  oc- 


cupied by  continual  conflicts  for  power, 
very  short  intervals  of  peace,  sudden  re- 
newals of  hostilities,  severe  oppressions  on 
account  of  sham  civil  wars,  and  concluding 
with  a  most  disastrous  adherence  "not 
wisely  but  too  well"  to  the  cause  of  the 
Stuarts, — all  which  brought  the  principal 
portion  of  the  Irish  people  and  their  affairs 
into  a  deplorable  state  of  bloodshed  and 
misery. 

The  history  of  Ireland  is  necessarily  af- 
fected by  the  reigning  King  of  England, 
of  whatever  line  he  may  be ;  and  Henry 
the  Second,  (the  first  of  the  Plantagenets,) 
although  he  might  have  intended  to  do 
good  to  Ireland,  left  behind  him  a  legacy 
of  tyranny  and  bloodshed,  which,  notwith- 
standing his  sagacity,  he  never  could  have 
foreseen.  That  great  prince,  who  added  to 
his  dominions  the  provinces  of  Anjou,  Gui- 
enne,  Gascony,  Maine,  Poictou,  Saintonge, 
and  Touraine,  was  not  the  man  to  leave 
Ireland  unconquered  if  it  had  been  in  his 
power  to  conquer  it.  Strange  as  the  opin- 
ion may  seem,  some  of  the  best  historians 
assert  that  the  Irish  as  a  people  would  have 
fared  better  since  the  twelfth  century  if  the 
conquest  of  their  country  could  have  been 
completed.  It  does  appear  that  the  unhap- 
py cause  of  many  of  Ireland's  troubles  may 
be  traced  to  the  peculiar  position  of  the 
people — too  divided  among  themselves  to 
drive  their  troublesome  invaders  away, 
and  yet  too  united  to  be  really  conquered. 
Having  for  a  long  period  been  accustomed 
to  jealously  abridge  the  power  of  their 
principal  monarch,  they  could  not  bring  for- 


14 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


ward  any  one  leader  who  might  have  been 
a  match  for  the  Anglo-Normans  if  the 
Irish  people  would  have  confided  their  ac- 
tual powers  to  him.  If  they  had  been 
finally  conquci'ed,  it  would  have  been  pre- 
ferable to  the  lingering  sufferings  endured 
for  the  last  seven  centuries ;  for  a  brave 
and  generous  people,  when  fairly  conquered 
by  an  enlightened  nation,  are  generally 
gainers  in  the  ultimate  results.  But  unfor- 
tunate Ireland  (like  some  individuals)  pays 
a  high  price  for  her  greatness,  besides 
bearing  heavy  losses  occasioned  by  the 
lack  of  worldly  wisdom. 

During  the  reign  of  Richard  the  First, 
who  succeeded  Henry  the  Second,  we  may 
observe  the  commencement  of  those  disas- 
trous influences  which  will  now  necessa- 
rily occupy  attention,  however  painful  they 
are  to  contemplate.  In  1198,  Roderic 
O'Connor,  the  last  of  the  Irish  monarchs, 
died  in  extreme  old  age,  after  having  re- 
tired for  twelve  years  from  public  life. 
The  unfilial  conduct  of  his  sons,  and  his 
inability  to  unite  his  countrymen,  fully  ex- 
plain his  misfortunes.  By  the  death  of 
Richard  the  First  in  the  following  year, 
and  the  accession  of  his  brother,  the  rights 
transferred  to  John  as  Lord  of  Ireland,  re- 
verted, with  the  title,  to  the  crown  of 
England. 

The  reign  of  John  is  generally  a  subject 
of  eulogy  in  English  history,  but  we  find 
little  during  his  actual  kingship  of  Ireland 
that  is  worthy  of  extended  notice.  His 
latter  treatment  of  courtesy  towards  the 
Irish  princes  did  not  take  place  until  after 
he  left  Ireland,  and  then  only  when  he  ap- 
pears to  have  had  no  ability  remaining  to 
act  otherwise.  The  Magna  Charta  was 
signed  with  such  a  bad  grace,  as  far  as  he 
was  concerned,  that  he  is  totally  undeserv- 
ing of  praise,  and  the  re-issue  of  it  to  his 
"  faithful  subjects  throughout  Ireland"  was 
a  mere  manoeuvre  of  mercantile  moonshine. 
On  Henry  the  Third  coming  to  the 
crown  of  England,  the  able  advocacy  of 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke  seemed  to  promise 
some  relief  for  Ireland,  and  the  people  were 
remarkably  quiet,  as  if  in  expectation  that 
Pembroke  would  devise  some  measure  for 


their  welfare.  But  his  death  in  1219  gave 
an  opportunity  for  Hugh  de  Lacy  to  em- 
broil the  native  princes  in  warfare  again. 
Henry  the  Third's  long  reign  left  the  power 
of  the  English  nobles  much  increased,  the 
native  septs  more  weakened,  and  the  cler- 
gy acting  with  such  turbulent  presumption 
as  to  call  forth  the  interposition  of  the  pope. 

Edward  the  First  was  favourably  inclined 
to  grant  the  applications  for  making  the 
English  laws  operate  equally  general  in 
Ireland  as  in  England,  but  his  wish  was 
counteracted  by  the  pride  and  power  of 
the  great  barons  who  were  interested  in 
keeping  up  a  style  of  princely  grandeur 
upon  their  Irish  possessions.  The  reigns 
of  Edward  the  Second  and  of  Edward  the 
Third  show  repeated  attempts  to  comply 
with  the  petitions  of  the  Irish  people  for  the 
benefits  of  English  laws,  but  the  fierce  sel- 
fishness of  the  barons  was  again  too  plainly 
the  barrier  between  the  good  intentions 
of  both  kings  and  people.  The  insurrec- 
tions that  were  headed  by  the  two  Bruces, 
and  the  English  war  with  Scotland,  caused 
the  Anglo-Irish  nobles  ultimately  to  in- 
crease their  power  by  taking  advantage  of 
the  royal  reliance  upon  their  social  position. 
Thus  it  was  that  self-interest  became  too 
powerful  for  all  the  principles  of  duty  or 
dictates  of  conscience,  and  the  "  lord  of  the 
manor"  had  no  higher  motives  than  a 
cattle-driver.  By  the  time  Edward  the 
Third  died,  we  find  two  well-organized 
systems  of  oppression  existing  in  Ireland  : 
— one,  by  the  English  Government,  opera- 
ting on  the  Anglo-Irish  and  the  Irish  ;  the 
other,  by  the  Anglo-Irish,  9perating  against 
the  Irish.  Of  course,  the  Irish  people  had 
to  endure  the  whole  weight  of  such  a  com- 
bination of  double  injury. 

During  the  civil  wars  between  the  houses 
of  York  and  Lancaster,  (1377  to  1485,) 
the  power  of  the  lords  of  the  Pale  became 
strengthened  by  the  royal  attention  being 
diverted  from  their  proceedmgs.  The  Irish 
factions  signalized  themselves  in  fighting 
on  both  sides,  for  their  troops  had  become 
noted  in  the  fighting  way  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  the  Fifth,  who  took  some  Irish 
troops  with  him  into  Normandy  when  he 


'^Trry^^. 


TO    THE    SECOND 


DIVISION. 


15 


made  his  second  invasion  of  France,  where 
they  won  high  commendations  from  all 
whom  they  met,  whether  friends  or  ene- 
mies. 

The  restoration  of  the  Lancasterian  line 
in  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  (the  first  of 
the  race  of  Tudor,)  appeared  to  indicate 
some  chance  of  relief  to  Ireland,  as  the 
Anglo-Irish  barons  were  nearly  all  pledged 
to  the  interests  of  the  house  of  York.  The 
latent  feelings  of  the  Irish  may  be  best  con- 
ceived by  the  fact  that  Ireland  was  chosen 
by  the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  (sister  of  Ed- 
ward the  Fourth,  of  the  house  of  York,)  as 
a  suitable  place  on  two  separate  occasions, 
to  bring  forward  two  pretenders  to  the  Eng- 
lish crown — Lambert  Simnel  and  Perkin 
Warbeck.  In  1504,  near  the  close  of  this 
reign,  the  native  chiefs  having  confederated 
against  the  English  government,  they  con- 
cluded (Mlithout  having  united  under  an 
efficient  leader)  to  meet  the  king's  lord- 
deputy,  the  Earl  of  Kildare.  He  summoned 
all  the  great  Anglo-Irish  lords,  and  an  ob- 
stinate battle  took  place  at  Knocktow,  near 
Galway.  The  Irish  placed  all  their  hopes 
on  this  struggle,  but  they  suffered  a  most 
disastrous  defeat  from  Kildare's  able  gen- 
eralship. We  mention  this  battle  here  be- 
cause it  marks  the  first  revival  of  English 
power  since  the  checks  given  by  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  Scots  when  led  on  by  the 
Bruces. 

Henry  the  Eighth's  long  reign  of  uncon- 
trolled sway  in  England  has  left  a  charac- 
ter so  notorious  that  we  need  not  now  stop 
to  notice  it  in  that  proportion  which  his  im- 
portant influence  on  Irish  history  would 
seem  to  require.  It  may  be  easily  ima- 
gined that  while  exercising  such  despotic 
power  (with  an  utter  disregard  of  all  con- 
stitutional restraint)  in  England,  the  in- 
terests of  Ireland  would  fare  badly  in  the 
hands  of  those  men  whose  power  was  del- 
egated from  such  a  tyrannical  source. 
The  old-fashioned  wag  who  said  that 
"  Henry  the  Eighth  was  a  king  with  a  pope 
in  his  belly"  certainly  understood  that 
king's  character,  and  was  his  equal  in  pop- 
ular declamation.  The  enormous  acces- 
sion of  power  acquired  by  the  crown  after 


the  seizure  of  the  Church  property,  and  the 
disfranchisement  of  the  bishops,  intimidated 
both  houses  of  parliament;  and  by  such 
means  the  real  voice  of  the  English  people 
was  scarcely  noticed  during  the  remainder 
of  this  reign.  The  degree  of  tyranny  thus 
acquired  may  be  partly  estimated  when 
we  reflect  that  taxation  and  representation 
had  long  been  involved  principles  in  the 
English  constitution. 

The  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth  marks 
the  crisis  of  what  is  commonly  called  "  the 
Reformation"  in  England  and  Ireland. 
John  Fox,  in  his  "  Book  of  Martyrs,"  calls 
him  "  the  pious  young  saint,  Edward  ;"  and 
perhaps  he  may  have  been  so,  for  we  can 
no  more  judge  in  such  a  matter  than  the 
"Rev.  John  Fox,  M.  A."  It  is  somewhat 
strange,  however,  that  history  does  not  ex- 
hibit the  ordinary  signs  of  sanctity  in  the 
conduct  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  nor  in  that 
of  any  of  his  sixteen  regents. 

Queen  Mary  (to  whom  John  Fox  gives 
an  epithet  with  the  same  license  of  fancy 
that  styled  her  brother  "  saint")  began  her 
reign  with  returning  the  title-deeds  for  sixty 
thousand  pounds  per  annum  to  the  English 
exchequer  which  she  considered  could  not 
be  conscientiously  held  by  her.  An  am- 
nesty was  granted  to  those  persons  who 
had  precipitately  piloclaimed  Lady  Jane 
Grey  in  Dublin :  she  restored  the  Earl  of 
Kildare  to  his  title  and  estates;  and  she 
liberated  O'Connor  of  Offally.  The  resto- 
ration of  the  Catholics  was  effected  (in  Ire- 
land) without  violence ;  no  persecution  of 
the  Protestants  (in  Ireland)  was  attempted ; 
and  several  English  Protestant  families 
found  a  safe  retreat  in  Ireland,  whither  they 
had  been  obliged  to  flee  from  the  zealous 
bigotry  of  Mary's  magistrates,  who  pre- 
sumed upon  the  temporary  restoration  of 
the  Catholic  influence  (in  England)  with 
the  same  eagerness  that  time-serving  place- 
men always  do  upon  similar  occasions  all 
over  the  world. 

Queen  Elizabeth's  reign,  comprising  the 
latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  is  one 
of  great  importance  in  the  history  of  Ire- 
land. At  present,  we  can  give  this  reign 
but  a  very  brief  notice.     The  first  "  inqui- 


16 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


sition"  in  England  (though  entirely  uncon- 
stitutional) was  established  by  Elizabeth, 
in  the  first  year  of  her  reign,  under  the 
name  of  "  The  Court  of  High  Commis- 
In  the  comically  comprehensive  Ian- 


sion. 


guage  of  "The  Universal  Biography," 
(3  vols.  8vo.  London,  1835,) — "She  pro- 
ceeded with  prudence  and  moderation  in 
the  arduous  task  of  settling  religion,  though 
she  very  soon  displayed  her  purpose  of 
bringing  hack  the  Reformation.^*  Many 
of  her  bravest  soldiers  were  Catholics,  and 
the  events  of  the  time  are  marked  by  sin- 
gular and  prominent  conflicts  of  duty,  opin- 
ion, and  interest.  One  of  Elizabeth's  gov- 
ernors in  Ireland,  Sir  John  Perrot,  un- 
doubtedly (notwithstanding  the  subsequent 
objections  of  many  writers)  instituted  a 
judicious  government  there ;  but  Fitz- 
William,  his  successor,  committed  excesses 
which  led  to  a  series  of  petty  insurrections, 
terminating,  however,  in  the  final  submis- 
sion of  the  chiefs  and  clans  to  the  English 
power,  near  the  close  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 
Mary's  bigoted  errors  in  England  were 
wantonly  and  pertinaciously  exceeded  in 
both  England  and  Ireland,  by  Elizabeth's 
policy  and  pride  of  opinion.  A  coloniza- 
tion system  had  been  arranged,  but  it  to- 
tally failed.  The  undertakers  violated  their 
contracts,  preferring  the  help  of  the  Irish 
serf  to  that  of  the  independent  freeholder ; 
and  if  we  charitably  suppose  that  Elizabeth 
really  desired  the  establishment  of  a  re- 
spectable middle-class  in  Ireland,  the  at- 
tempt certainly  failed,  and  undoubtedly  the 
failure  was  caused  by  the  selfishness  and 
venality  of  her  unprincipled  agents. 

In  James  the  First  we  see  the  first  Eng- 
lish monarch  who  could  boast  of  the  do- 
minion of  Ireland.  What  Matthew  Carey 
quaintly  calls  "  James's  predominating  pas- 
sion for  plunder  and  plantation"  was  clearly 
sh6wn  in  the  confiscation  of  eight  hundred 
and  eighty-five  thousand  acres  of  land  in 
Ireland  by  this  king.  He  died  while  de- 
bating with  himself  an  opportunity  that  he 
had  of  making  more  money  from  the  dis- 
tresses of  his  own  colonists  in  Connaught. 

The  reign  of  Charles  the  First  is  ren- 
dered important  by  the  administrations  of 


Lord  Falkland,  and  Wentworth,  Earl  of 
Strafllbrd.  The  chapters  relating  the  in- 
cidents of  this  reign  will  show  to  the  reader 
how  even  noble-minded  men  may  be  in- 
duced to  act  when  placed  in  such  circum- 
stances as  Charles,  Falkland,  and  Strafford 
were.  This  portion  of  Irish  history  is 
highly  instructive,  and  afibrds  us  a  key  to 
the  more  distant  circumstances  of  a  simi- 
larly incongruous  character. 

Oliver  Cromwell's  anti-monarchical  ad- 
ministration of  public  affairs  seems  to  have 
operated  well  for  the  English  people,  na- 
tionally considered,  but  even  his  boasted 
"  freedom"  brought  no  relief  for  unfortunate 
Ireland.  Quite  the  contrary.  Now  that 
we  are  able  to  look  back  calmly  at  the 
events  of  this  period,  we  need  not  wonder 
that  a  man  who  (styling  himself  an  inde- 
pendent republican)  would  accept  a  salary 
of  four  thousand  pounds  per  annum,  drawn 
from  the  confiscated  estates  of  persons  who 
preferred  the  rights  of  conscience  to 
worldly  possessions,  should  have  had  a 
peculiar  fancy  for  military  adventures  in 
Ireland  about  those  days.  In  the  comic- 
ally circular  language  of  "  The  Universal 
Biography,"  (3  vols.  8vo.  London,  1835,) — 
"  He  is  to  be  commended  for  the  dislike  he 
always  showed  to  religious  persecution, 
and  his  respect  for  the  rights  of  conscience, 
as  far  as  was  compatible  with  the  security 
of  his  government.**  This  description  is  so 
(unintentionally)  true,  and  so  much  like  a 
coil  of  rope  around  the  neck  of  a  thief,  that 
we  are  saved  the  trouble  of  further  circum- 
locution upon  Cromwell's  connection  with 
Ireland. 

The  restoration  of  Charles  the  Second 
was  viewed  with  hopeful  anxiety  by  the 
Irish  people ;  but  the  "  Act  of  Settlement" 
sent  out  from  England,  and  passed  by  the 
Irish  parliament,  in  1665,  was  shamefully 
perverted  by  the  commissioners  appointed 
to  carry  it  into  execution. 

The  violent  struggles  between  the  new- 
ly created  Protestant  influences  and  King 
James  the  Second  during  what  is  usually 
called  "  the  Revolution"  in  England,  caused 
that  King  to  take  sides  with  his  Irish  sub- 
jects in  his  attempt  to  regain  the  English 


TO    THE    SECOND    DIVISION. 


Yl 


crown.  He  appears  to  have  lacked  that 
subtle  ability  which  an  unscrupulous  politi- 
cian would  have  used  to  take  advantage  of 
his  position.  After  sustaining  repeated  de- 
feats for  about  four  years,  the  final  capitula- 
tions at  Limerick  caused  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  Ireland  to  submit  to  the  English 
government  under  William  and  Mary. 

This  summary  view  of  the  chronolo- 
gical ground  of  our  Second  Division  will 
now  be  followed  by  such  general  remarks 
as  may  assist  the  comprehensive  connec- 
tion of  the  events  related  in  the  historical 
chapters.  In  surveying  the  history  of  Ire- 
land, there  is  much  more  evidence  to  reject 
than  could  be  adopted  with  certainty.  By 
avoiding  such  particular  details  as  can  easily 
be  obtained  (if  desired)  from  our  voluminous 
and  illustrious  predecessors,  we  shall  en- 
deavour to  bring  the  essential  points  of  the 
whole  subject  before  our  readers. 

On  examining  the  writings  of  historians 
upon  the  fate  of  Charles  the  First,  there  is 
an  inconsistency  which  the  American  read- 
er will  not  fail  to  detect.  It  will  be  seen  in 
the  extravagant  praises  given  to  William  the 
Third,  (as  he  is  called,)  and  the  virtuous  in- 
dignation showered  upon  Oliver  Cromwell ; 
whereas,  in  the  total  of  comparison,  one 
man  was  as  good  as  (or,  perhaps,  we  should 
say  no  worse  than)  the  other.  After  all  the 
pious  horror  which  some  writers  have  dis- 
played when  alluding  to  the  ancient  Irish 
mode  of  kingly  succession,  we  may  ob- 
serve that  both  these  men  began  their 
agitations  by  bloodshed;  both  held  their 
power  by  parliamentary  tenure ;  and  both 
persecuted  Ireland  with  a  ferocity  which 
might  be  supposed  to  animate  the  heart  of 
a  butcher's  cleaver  rather  than  any  thing  in 
the  human  form.  If  we  admit  the  consid- 
eration of  William's  marriage  with  Mary, 
we  must  also  acknowledge  that  Cromwell 
was  a  native-born  Englishman,  with  Eng- 
lish feelings  and  views,  and  that  he  might 
originally  (like  Napoleon  in  later  times) 
have  intended  to  benefit  his  native  coun- 
try while  using  despotic  measures  in  his 
endeavours  to  break  the  chains  of  monar- 
chical misrule.  We  have  searched  in  vain 
for   any  such    honourable    probability  in 

3 


the  conduct  of  the  thick-skinned  Prince  of 
Orange.  To  use  a  wholesale  expression 
of  William  Cobbett's,  "  a  thousand  fellows 
calling  themselves  historians"  could  never 
overcome  the  efiect  of  this  comparison  in 
the  mind  of  an  intelligent  reader. 

Notwithstanding  the  disasters  the  Irish 
people  suffered  down  to  the  treaty  of  Lim- 
erick, their  unalterable  religious  fidelity 
(still  continued  to  the  present  day)  reflects 
more  real  honour  and  moral  greatness 
than  the  proudest  military  victories  ever 
could  bestow.  Daniel  O'Connell  must  help 
us  to  express  our  admiration  of  such  a  sus- 
tained sincerity  of  self-sacrifice.  He  says 
— "  Compare  their  conduct  in  this  respect 
with  that  of  any  other  nation  under  the 
sun  ;  and  admit  (for  truth  compels  the  ad- 
mission) that  the  glory  of  religious  fidelity 
supereminently  belongs  to  the  people  of 
Ireland.  You  may  say,  perhaps,  that 
their  faith  was  erroneous,  their  creed  mis- 
taken, and  their  practice  superstitious. 
Suppose  it  were  so.  Yet  their  fidelity 
was  religious  ;  it  was  attachment  to  the 
religion  they  deemed  the  true  one;  and 
this  national  trait  of  their  character  ought 
not  to  be  tarnished  even  in  the  opinion  of 
those  who  do  not  agree  with  them  as  to 
its  object.  It  will  not  be  thus  tarnished 
in  the  mind  of  any  just  or  generous  man." 

In  other  countries,  the  different  class- 
es of  society  are  checks  to  each  other, 
but  Ireland  (from  1171  to  1691)  had  no 
opportunity  for  either  generalization  or 
classification.  The  flimsy  webs  of  exclu- 
siveness  which  exist  with  the  hypocritical 
name  of  "  social  harmony"  among  various 
other  nations,  are  comparatively  harmless 
to  the  grasping,  debasing,  and  unceasing 
tyranny  which  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people 
had  to  endure.  The  reader  who  knows 
how  to  make  allowances  for  natural  self- 
ishness and  the  abuse  of  social  power  would 
still  be  puzzled  to  account  for  the  extraor- 
dinary and  protracted  sufferings  of  the  Irish 
people.  Daniel  O'Connell  may  well  reit- 
erate, as  he  does,  that  "  No  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  were  ever  treated  with 
such  cruelty  as  the  Irish."  Some  opinions 
on  this  subject  are  necessarily  connected 


18 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


with  our  task.  We  hesitate  not  to  say  that 
these  "  social  horrors"  have  originated  with 
the  tyranny  of  an  almost  irresponsible  aris- 
tocracy being  superadded  to  the  ordinary 
selfism  of  society.  However,  as  writers 
on  Ireland  are  generally  too  apt  to  make 
their  opinions  more  prominent  than  the 
main  subject,  we  shall  refrain  from  using 
our  own  arguments,  and  would  prefer 
bringing  forward  the  views  of  Gustave  de 
Beaumont,  one  of  those  French  writers 
whose  perspicuity,  absence  of  prejudice, 
and  almost  intuitive  perception  of  national 
character,  render  their  evidence  highly 
valuable  in  such  matters.  The  following 
extracts  are  selected  from  ^Vlrlande  ;  8q- 
ciahy  Politique,  tt  Religieuse"  a  work  on 
which  he  devoted  (to  use  his  own  expres- 
sion) "  four  laborious  years,"  after  paying 
two  long  visits  to  both  Ireland  and  England 
for  the  purpose  of  preparing  the  materi- 
als:— 

"All  aristocracies  founded  on  conquest 
or  inequality,  comprise,  undoubtedly,  many 
defects;  but  all  do  not  contain  the  same 
kind,  nor  do  they  possess  an  equal  number." 

Upon  this  general  ground  he  then  pro- 
ceeds : — 

"  The  Irish  aristocracy  have  exercised  a 
power  which  has  no  similar  example  in  any 
country  ;  they  have  reigned  in  Ireland  for 
six  or  seven  centuries  under  the  authority 
of  England,  which  country  has  shared  half 
the  advantages,  and  borne  all  the  expense. 
Provided  with  rights,  privileges,  and  con- 
stitutional guaranties,  the  Anglo-Irish  aris- 
tocracy have  made  use  of  all  the  instru- 
ments of  liberty  to  extort  all  the  profits  of 
oppression.  Ireland  has  thus  been  con- 
stantly the  prey  of  two  tyrants,  each  doub- 
ly formidable  because  one  always  protects 
the  other  whenever  the  people  are  to  be 
crushed." 
A   On  absenteeism  he  says — 

"  The  evils  of  Ireland  are  often  attributed 
to  the  non-residence  of  the  aristocracy ; 
but  this  is  taking  the  consequences  of  the 
evil  for  the  evil  itself.  The  aristocracy  of 
Ireland  are  not  bad  because  they  absent 
themselves:  they  absent  themselves  be- 
cause they  are  bad — because  nothing  at- 


taches them  to  the  country — no  good  feel- 
ings retain  them  there." 

The  next  extract  will  throw  much  light 
on  the  perplexities  of  Irish  misery : — 

"  In  general,  all  aristocracies  carry  with- 
in themselves  a  curb  that  moderates  (if  it 
does  not  stop)  their  selfishness.  Those  who 
do  not  love  the  people  either  fear  them  or 
have  need  of  them,  and  therefore  behave 
better  from  calculation  than  ever  they 
would  from  sympathy.  They  do  not  op- 
press too  much,  for  fear  of  losing  something 
by  rebellion ;  and  the  national  force  from 
which  they  derive  their  immense  advan- 
tages is  treated  with  some  show  of  consid- 
eration at  least.  But  the  Irish  aristocracy 
have  always  held  the  position  of  neither 
fearing  nor  hoping  any  thing  from  the  peo- 
ple placed  under  their  yoke.  Relying  upon 
England,  whose  soldiers  are  always  at 
hand,  they  have  been  able  to  indulge  their 
tyranny  without  reserve.  The  groans, 
the  complaints,  or  the  threats  of  the  people 
have  never  lessened  the  oppression,  because 
the  aristocracy  knew  there  was  nothing 
for  them  to  fear.  Docs  a  revolt  break  out 
among  the  Irish  people?  the  aristocracy 
of  the  country  need  not  move  ;  the  English 
troops  and  artillery  demolish  the  rebels. 
When  'order  is  restored,'  the  aristocracy 
step  forward,  as  usual,  and  pocket  the  rev- 
enue from  the  lands." 

The  following  paragraphs  are  so  philo- 
sophically pointed,  and  they  illustrate  the 
superiority  of  the  American  voluntary  prin- 
ciple with  such  clearness,  that  we  trust  the 
reader  will  (after  perusal)  excuse  this  last 
translation  from  such  an  able  and  impar- 
tial witness : — 

"  Why  is  it  that  all  the  efforts  which  have 
been  made  to  reform  the  Anglican  church 
of  Ireland  are  unsuccessful  ?  It  is  because 
Ireland  would  prefer  its  abolition  to  its  re- 
form. The  radical  defect  of  this  church  is, 
that  it  is  established  by  law  as  the  official 
worship  of  a  people  who  never  gave  their 
consent,  for,  in  fact,  they  have  another  form 
of  worship  in  their  hearts.  The  abuse  is, 
its  very  establishment.  Its  creation,  in  the 
bosom  of  a  Catholic  people,  is  a  wrong 
which  perpetuates  itself  while  the  estab- 


TO   THE    SECOND   DIVISION. 


19 


lishment  remains.  Its  great  evil  is  that  it 
has  been  forced  upon  the  population,  who, 
for  that  very  reason  repel  it  without  exam- 
ination. Its  riches,  its  luxury,  its  idleness, 
are  assuredly  great  defects ;  but  the  most 
enormous  of  all  its  defects  is  its  own  ex- 
istence. Its  destruction,  in  Ireland,  is  the 
first  step  requisite  for  the  restoration  of 
good  order. 

"  When  we  speak  of  abolishing  the  An- 
glican church  in  Ireland,  we  do  not  mean 
the  annihilation  of  the  Episcopalian  worship, 
but  we  do  mean  the  destruction  of  its  poli- 
tical superiority  over  all  other  denomina- 
tions. Nor  would  it  be  necessary,  in  abol- 
ishing the  predominance  of  the  Anglican 
worship,  to  replace  it  by  the  supremacy  of 
the  Catholic  worship.  Equality  of  worship 
is  the  real  want  of  Ireland.  She  is  mainly 
Catholic,  as  England  is  Episcopal,  and 
Scotland  is  Presbyterian ;  and  it  appears 
reasonable  that  Ireland  should  have  a  Cath- 
olic establishment,  in  the  same  manner  as 
Scotland  has  a  Presbyterian  establishment, 
and  England  its  own.  But,  in  the  first 
place,  it  is  a  great  and  important  question 
whether  it  is  advantageous  to  unite  church 
and  state.  Why  associate  human  and  per- 
ishable institutions  with  one  that  is  derived 
from  God  and  cannot  be  destroyed  ?  What 
would  be  the  effect  of  proclaiming,  in  Ire- 
land, the  Catholic  religion  as  that  of  the 
state,  except  the  transfer  of  privileges  and 
immunities  from  the  Protestants  to  the 
Catholics?  After  abolishing  the  injurious 
supremacy  of  the  Anglican  church  which 
ofifends  a  majority  of  the  Irish  people, 
would  you  wish  to  see  the  Protestant  mi- 
nority oppressed  by  those  whom  they  have 
so  bitterly  treated  for  such  a  length  of 
time? 

"  Perhaps  the  greatest  evil  to  which  Ire- 
land could  be  exposed  is,  that  after  having 
been  so  long  and  so  badly  ruled  over,  it 
should  now  wish  to  rule.  This  would  be  a 
fruitful  source  of  misfortunes  to  England 
and  to  itself:  to  England,  because  it  would 
not  listen  to  what  is  now  commonly  con- 
sidered as  only  one  sect  among  many ;  and 
to  Ireland  itself,  which  might  be  crushed 
anew  by  England. 


"  It  is  important  to  both  the  countries, 
that  Ireland  should  be  accustomed  to  reli- 
gious liberty.  By  placing  all  religions  on 
the  same  footing,  tolerant  customs  would 
prevail,  and  the  people  would  be  happily 
susceptible  of  the  highest  improvement. 
Now  is  the  time,  while  Ireland  is  under 
England's  protection,  that  she  ought  to  give 
the  Catholics  of  that  country  a  lesson  of 
this  sort.  Equality  among  sects  should  be 
conferred  as  a  benefit ;  soon,  perhaps,  the 
proposition  will  be  laughed  at.  This  will 
certainly  happen,  if  the  equality  is  not  pro- 
posed until  the  Catholics  become  political- 
ly superior  in  Ireland ;  they  will  then  very 
naturally  consider  equality  of  sects  as  only 
introduced  for  hostile  purposes." 

Whenever  the  cause  of  the  people  of  Ire- 
land is  properly  understood  as  being  iden- 
tified with  the  common  interests  of  all  man- 
kind, we  then  see  an  alacrity  to  accord 
them  justice.  The  sufferings  of  Ireland 
have  attracted  the  attention  and  excited  the 
sympathy  of  the  great  and  the  good  in 
all  lands,  and  particularly  in  France  and 
America.  In  America,  we  find  James  K. 
Paulding's  eloquence  animated  by  obser- 
ving the  oppressed  people  whose  history  he 
appears  to  have  examined  with  his  usual 
shrewdness,  and  his  native  benevolence  of 
heart : — 

"  As  Christians,  the  people  of  Ireland 
have  been  denied,  under  penalties  and  dis- 
qualifications, the  exercise  of  the  rites  of 
the  Catholic  religion,  venerable  for  its  an- 
tiquity ;  admirable  for  its  unity ;  and  conse- 
crated by  the  belief  of  some  of  the  best 
men  that  ever  breathed.  As  men,  they 
have  been  deprived  of  the  common  rights 
of  British  subjects,  under  the  pretext  that 
they  were  incapable  of  enjoying  them ; 
which  pretext  had  no  other  foundation 
than  their  resistance  of  oppression,  only  the 
more  severe  by  being  sanctioned  by  the 
laws." 

Peter  Parley  (S.  G.  Goodrich)  says,  in 
his  fine  old  patriarchal  style : — 

"  I  know  not  how  it  may  strike  others, 
but  to  me  this  subject  is  full  of  interest. 
How  is  it  to  be  accounted  for,  that  of  all 
the  numberless  millions  that  must  have 


20 


PRELIMINARY   DISCOURSE 


passed  from  Asia  into  Europe,  under  the 
general  name  of  Celt,  everywhere  but  in 
Ireland  they  should  have  been  supplanted 
by  other  tribes,  their  national  existence  ob- 
literated, and  their  language  for  ever  blot- 
ted out  ?  It  would  be  impossible  to  solve 
this  query  except  upon  the  supposition  of 
a  native  vigour  of  character  in  the  Irish,  as 
well  physical  as  moral,  which  perpetuates 
itself  from  age  to  age,  resisting  and  over- 
coming the  influences  of  time.  And,  if 
this  be  true,  does  it  not  imply  something 
of  greatness  in  the  native  Irish  stock ; 
something  distinct,  peculiar,  and  worthy 
of  our  respect  in  the  Irish  people  ?  I  con- 
fess that  I  cannot  look  upon  even  the  rudest 
specimen  of  these  people,  that  we  see 
among  us,  but  as  associated  with  these 
views.  Ignorant  and  unlettered  they  cer- 
tainly are,  superstitious  they  may  be, — but 
I  can  never  look  on  them  with  indifference 
or  contempt.  I  must  ever  regard  them  as 
allied  to  the  memory  of  ancient  days;  as 
<J^)ringing  antiquity,  living  and  breathing, 
into  our  presence ;  and,  above  all,  however 
shadowed  by  the  degradation  that  is  en- 
tailed by  political  slavery,  as  possessing,  in 
common  with  their  nation,  the  inherent  ele- 
ments of  greatness." 

Nathaniel  P.  Willis  has  given  a  passing 
testimonial'  which  is  highly  useful  in  assist- 
ing our  minds  to  separate  the  true  charac- 
teristics of  Ireland  from  the  adventitious 
circumstances  with  which  she  is  sur- 
rounded : — 

"The  prominent  association  with  the 
name  of  Ireland,  is  that  of  a  prolific  mother 
of  orators,  soldiers,  patriots,  and  poets. 
Out  of  sight  of  the  froth  that  is  thrown  up 
from  the  active  cauldron  of  her  political 
evils,  and  out  of  hearing  of  the  squabble 
and  fret,  the  jibe  and  jeer,  the  querulous 
complaint  and  the  growling  reply,  which 
form  the  perpetual  undertone  of  English 
news,  the  inhabitant  of  other  countries 
looks  at  the  small  space  Ireland  occupies 
on  the  map,  and  counts  her  great  names, 
and  reads  her  melancholy  but  large  and 
brilliant  page  in  history  with  wonder  and 
admiration.  Whatever  horrors  the  close- 
seen  features  of  her  abortive  revolutions 


may  present,  and  whatever  littleness  may 
belong  to  the  smaller  machinery  of  her  po- 
litical intrigues,  conspiracies,  and  the  like, 
the  distant  eye  reads,  in  the  prominent 
lines  of  the  picture,  an  undying  love  of  lib- 
erty, and  an  untamed  and  restless  energy 
of  genius  and  character." 

Although  we  have  purposely  avoided 
the  introduction  of  Irish  or  English  evi- 
dence as  much  as  possible  in  these  closing 
remarks,  yet  as  the  honoured  name  of  Mat- 
thew Carey  has  now  become  so  much  iden- 
tified with  America  we  must  admit  a  few 
words  of  his  writing.  He  characteristic- 
ally says,  in  his  "  Vindicice  HiherniccB^* 
that — 

"  The  sordid  and  selfish  views  of  the 
Anglo-Irish  administrations  issued  a  man- 
date of  proscription  against  the  Irish  peo- 
ple. Age  succeeded  age,  and  found  a 
wretched  system  in  constant  operation,  to 
prevent  the  amalgamation  of  the  two  na- 
tions into  one,  and  to  expose  the  unhappy 
natives  as  a  constant  incentive  to  the  ava- 
rice and  other  baleful  passions  of  the  in- 
vaders and  their  descendants,  and  a  con- 
stant prey  to  their  violence,  without  any 
protection  from  law  or  justice.  In  fact,  to 
the  unbridled  indulgence  of  those  passions, 
(which  it  has  been  the  steady  aim  of  all 
wise  legislators  in  other  countries  to  curb 
and  control  by  strong  penal  sanctions,)  this 
vile  code  held  out  every  encouragement. 
It  combined  almost  all  the  odious  features 
which  have  at  any  time  distinguished  the 
worst  governments  in  the  world.  Its  in- 
evitable tendency — indeed,  its  grand  ob- 
ject— was  to  draw  an  eternal  line  of  sepa- 
ration between  the  two  descriptions  of  in- 
habitants, the  English  (and  their  descend- 
ants) and  the  native  Irish,  and  to  perpet- 
uate a  deadly,  rancorous,  and  interminable 
hostility  between  them.  In  consequence, 
Ireland,  for  nearly  four  hundred  years,  was 
a  great  human  slaughter-house,  deluged 
with  blood." 

A  splendid  article  in  the  North  Ameri- 
can Review,  for  January,  1841,  contains 
the  following  brilliant  sentences : — 

"  Ireland  unfortunately  found  no  Caesar 
to  subdue,  no  Agricola  to  colonize,  no  T-a- 


TO   THE    SECOND    DIVISION. 


21 


citus  to  describe  her.  No  Roman  ever 
planted  a  hostile  foot  on  her  shores ;  and 
she  went  on,  from  century  to  century,  in 
isolated  obscurity,  with  the  poor  conso- 
lation of  certain  after-claims  for  learn- 
ing and  virtue,  that  are  at  best  apocryphal, 
and  too  often  a  by-word  for  ridicule  or 
doubt." 

It  is  humbly  conceived  that  these  theo- 
ries and  observations  will  amuse  and  in- 


struct such  readers  as  kindly  join  in  this 
our  attempt  to  replace  the  fallen  tre«ses 
which  ill  usage  has  brought  down  before 
the  native  charms  of  lovely  Ireland,  and  to 
search  for  the  sources  of  her  tears  in  that 
face  which  has  looked  upon  such  continual 
misfortunes  with  a  sorrow  that  perpetually 
blooms  forth  its  sparkling  and  diffusive 
beauty  in  the  warmth  of  a  hopeful  hap- 
piness. 


THE  REIGNS  OF  THE  SOVEREIGNS  OF  ENGLAND, 

FBOM  THE  DEATH  OP  HAROLD  THE  SECOND,  OF  THE  SAXON  LINE,  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  HASTINGS. 


A    TABLE    OP    RE-FERENCE, 

PREPARED  ESPECIALLY  TO  FACILITATE  THE  STUDY  OF  IRISH  HISTORY,  BY  TRACING  THE  NORMAN 
INFLUENCE  WESTWARD  OF  THE  CONTINENT  OF  EUROPE. 


LEGAL    DATE 

DURATION 

PRINCIPAL 

OF 

-i 
U 

OF 

LINES 

NAME 

ACCESSION. 

X  s 

REIGN. 

OF 

GENERAL  REMARKS. 

PS  5 

IN    THE 

• 

2^ 

. 

on 

^ 

i 

X 
H 

(^ 

en 

X 

en 

SUCCESSION. 

TITLE. 

< 
w 

o 

< 

s 

O 

< 
Q 

William  I. 

1066 

October 

14 

20 

10 

26 

X 

Crowned  at  Westminster  Abbey,  Dec.  25, 1066. 

William  II. 

1087 

September 

9 

12 

10 

23 

Norman 

Held  a  mortgage  on  Normandy  for  10,000  marks. 

Henry  I. 

1100 

August 

2 

35 

3 

30 

Line. 

Conquered  Normandy,  and  imprisoned  his  eld- 
er brother,  Robert,  28  years. 

Stephen 

1135 

December 

1 

18 

10 

25 

J 

Synod  at  Westminster,  1139. 

Henry  II. 

1154 

October 

25 

34 

8 

11 

\ 

Projected  occupation  of  Ireland. 

Richard  I. 

1189 

July 

6 

9 

9 

— 

Engaged  in  the  Crusades. 

John 

1199 

April 

6 

17 

6 

13 

Saxon 

Esubliahed  Courts  of  Law  in  Dublin. 

Henry  III. 

1216 

October 

19 

56 

— 

28 

Line 

Confirmed  the  Great  Charter  of  John. 

Edward  I. 

1272 

November 

16 

34 

7 

21 

Seized  the  crown  of  Wales.  Bards  exterminat'd. 

Edward  II. 

1307 

July 

7 

19 

6 

18 

Restored. 

Bom  in  Wales.    Wars  of  the  two  Braces. 

Edward  III. 

1327 

January 

25 

•v 

50 

4 

27 

Passage  of  the  Statute  of  Kilkenny. 

Richard  II. 

1377 

June 

21 

• 

OfS 

22 

3 

8 

< 

Visited  Ireland  mnsuccessftilly. 

Henry  IV. 

1399 

September 

29 

13 

5 

20 

Lancaster 

Renewed  laws  against  absenteeism. 

Henry  V. 

1413 

March 

20 

fi 

9 

5 

11 

Fumival'a  administration. 

Henry  VI. 

1422 

August 

31 

tf 

38 

6 

4 

J 

Duke  of  York's  administration. 

Edward  IV. 

1461 

March 

4 

H 

22 

1 

5 

York 

Earl  of  Desmond's  administration 

Itv^t  Edward  V. 

1483 

April 

2 

>• 
H 



2 

13 

Line. 

Earl  of  Kildare's  administration. 

Richard  HI. 

1483 

June 

22 

Sb; 

2 

2 

— 

J 

Richard's  neglect  and  Kildare's  power. 

Henry  VII. 

1485 

August 

22 

•s 

23 

8 

— 

^ 

Simnel  and  Warbeck  appear  in  Ireland. 

Henry  VIII. 

1509 

April 

22 

» 
^ 

37 

9 

6 

The 

Caused  the  titles  of  "  Miyesty"  and  "  King  of  Ire- 
land" to  be  conferred  on  him. 

Edward  VI. 

1547 

January 

28 

M 

6 

5 

8 

•     Houses 

Ecclesiastical  "Revolution"  or  -Reformation." 

Mary 

1553 

July 

6 

t4 

5 

4 

11 

united. 

Restoration  of  young  Kildare. 

Elizabeth 

1558 

November 

17 

H 

44 

4 

7 

J 

Butchery  of  one  half  of  the  Irish  population. 

James  I. 

1603 

March 

24 

» 

22 

— 

3 

Union 

Confiscated  850,000  acres  in  Ireland. 

Charles  I. 

1625 

March 

27 

H 

23 

10 

3 

of  the 

War  of  the  Irish  confederates. 

Charles  II. 

1649 

January 

30 

<«• 

36 

— 

7 

two  crowns 
'  of  England 

"  Inier-Regnum"  of  Oliyer  Cromwell. 

James  II.. 

1685 

February 

6 

4 

— 

7 

and 

"Revolution"  in  England. 

Wm.  &  Mary 

1689 

February 

13 

13 

— 

23 

Scotland. 
J 

Treaty  of  Limerick.  1691. 

Anne 

1702 

March 

8 

12 

4 

23 

U.  Kingdom 

Legislative  Union  of  England  and  Scotland,  1706. 

Greorge  I. 

1714 

August 

1 

12 

10 

10 

•    of  Great 

Crown-Prince  of  Hanover. 

George  II. 

1727 

June 

11 

33 

4 

14 

Britain. 

Scottish  rebellion,  1745. 

George  III. 

1760 

October 

25 

59 

3 

4 

U.  Kingdom 
of  Great 
Britain 

Legislative  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
January  1, 1801. 

George  IV. 

1820 

January 

29 

10 

4 

27 

Nine  years  Regent,  while  Prince  of  Wales. 

William  IV. 

1830 

June 

26 

6 

11 

24 

and 

Election  districts  specified  in  Ireland. 

Victoria 

1837 

June 

20 

Ireland. 

The  "salic  law"  excludes  Victoria  from  the 
Kingdom  of  Hanover,  which  is  held  by  the 

V 

next  heir,  the  Duke  of  Cumberiand. 

THE 


HISTOEY    OF    IRELAND 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Moral  aspect  of  Ireland  in  the  twelfth  century — 
Political  tendency  of  the  visit  of  Henry  the  Sec- 
ond— Jealousy  of  his  queen,  and  rebellion  of  his 
sons — Fair  Rosamond — Henry  summoned  into 
Normandy  to  account  for  the  death  of  Thomas 
k  Becket — Military  and  political  arrangements  by 
the  king — Meath  appropriated  to  Hugh  de  Lacy 
— Admiration  of  the  English  for  their  Saxon  no- 
bility a  parallel  case  to  that  of  the  Irish  for  their 
native  chiefs — Supjwsed  attempt  of  Henry  to 
coDciliate  the  relatives  of  Thomas  k  Becket — 
Summary  view  of  Henry's  general  policy  while 
in  Ireland — His  return  to  Wales. 

During  the  twelfth  century,  the  elements 
of  society  in  Ireland  were  in  that  state  of 
fusion  which  readily  yields  to  external  im- 
pressions. The  invasion  by  Henry  the 
Second,  who  was  unquestionably  a  wise 
and  powerful  prince,  might  have  been  in- 
tended to  benefit  the  country  he  invaded 
as  well  as  those  he  already  governed. 
Whatever  his  political  intentions  were, 
they  have  been  thwarted  by  combinations 
of  circumstances  that  he  could  not  control ; 
and  it  is  these  circumstances  which  we  now 
proceed  to  relate. 

While  Henry  was  busy  in  Ireland,  his 
sons  became  treacherous  and  refractory. 
Their  disobedience  was  instigated  by  the 
jealousy  of  his  queen,  Eleanor,  on  account 
of  the  untimely  attachment  of  their  father 
to  "  Fair  Rosamond"  Clifford.  The  same 
messengers  who  secretly  brought  him  in- 
formation of  the  conduct  of  Jiis  sons  also 
reported  that  the  two  cardinals,  Albert  and 
Theodine,  (who  had  been  delegated  by  the 
pope  to  make  an  investigation  of  the  death 
of  Thomas  a  Becket,)  were  now  impatient 
of  any  further  delay,  and  required  Henry's 


immediate  presence  in  Normandy,  where 
they  had  already  waited  for  him  about  at 
year. 

Allowing  three  weeks  for  preparations 
to  depart,  Henry  made  the  best  disposition 
of  his  affairs  in  Ireland  that  the  time  al- 
lowed.    Feeling   somewhat  distrustful  of 
Strongbow,  whose  influence  might  become 
too  great  for  the  interests  of  the  crown,  he 
now  addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  secur- 
ing the  good- will  of  the  very  earliest  Anglo- 
Norman  adventurers.     The   lands  which 
he  had  compelled  Fitz-Stephen  to  relinquish 
on  his  arrival  in  Ireland  were  now  com- 
pensated for  by   granting   him  a  consid- 
erable   district   in    the    neighbourhood   of 
Dublin,  to  be  held  by  knight-service ;  re- 
serving, however,  for  his  own  immediate 
dependents,  the  charge  of  maritime  towns. 
Waterford  was  entrusted  to  Humphrey  de 
Bohun,  Robert  Fitz-Bemard,  and  Hugh  de 
Gundeville.     In  Wexford   were  stationed 
William   Fitz-Aldelm,  Philip  of  Hastings, 
and  Philip  de  Braosa.     The  whole  territo- 
ry of  Meath,  (where  there  was  no  fortified 
place,  and  where  no  particular  reservation 
was  necessary,)  was  granted  to  Hugh  de 
Lacy,  to  be  held  by  him  and  his  heirs,  by 
the  service  of  fifty  knights,  as  fully  as  it 
had  ever  been  enjoyed  by  Murchard  Hu- 
Melaghlin,  (O'Melachlin.)     De  Lacy  was 
also  invested  with  the  title  and  office  of 
Governor  of  Dublin,  and  a  guard  of  twen- 
ty knights   placed  at   his  disposal.     Rob- 
ert Fitz-Stephen  and  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald 
were    appointed   as   his   coadjutors,   with 
an  equal  train.     Thus,  in  appearance,  he 


24 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1171. 


placed  the  most  confidence  in  De  Lacy ; 
but-  he  also  contrived  that  several  of  the 
first  adventurers  should  hold  offices  in  and 
about  Dublin,  so  that  they  might  enable 
him  to  retain  some  degree  of  espionage 
over  the  actions  of  De  Lacy,  w^hile  the 
united  presence  of  these  trains  of  knights 
would  contribute  to  that  sort  of  influence 
which  Henry  desired  to  operate  upon  the 
native  population. 

In  continuation  of  the  same  policy  of 
superseding  the  ancient  native  nobility 
in  the  estimation  of  the  people,  Henry 
availed  himself  of  his  implied  conquest  to 
create  and  introduce  various  offices  of 
emolument,  accompanied  by  high  and  he- 
reditary dignities,  such  as  had  been  attach- 
ed to  the  royal  court  in  England  since 
the  Norman  conquest.  The  English  at- 
mosphere certainly  had  had  a  most  won- 
derful effect  upon  the  Norman  appetite, 
and  hence  the  appointment  of  various 
household  dignitaries,  from  ^^  officier  du 
honche"  to  "pincerna  regis"  or  king's 
butler.  The  family  of  Dalbiac  have  hand- 
ed down  the  recollection  of  William  the 
Conqueror's  adoption  of  this  policy  in 
England  ;  and  the  present  Lord  (Tolle- 
mache)  Huntingtower  is  a  representative 
of  that  class  of  English  families  who  for- 
merly looked  upon  these  Norman  favourites 
as  modem  upstarts.  Tollemache,  Lord 
of  Bentley,  in  Suffolk,  was  a  powerful 
noble  in  the  sixth  century  ;  and  upon  the 
old  manor-house  at  Bentley  may  be  seen 
the  following  comparatively  modern  in- 
scription : — 

"  Before  the  Normans  into  England  came, 
Bentley  was  my  seat,  and  Tollemache  was  my  name." 

This  little  instance  may  serve  as  one  of 
the  many  proofs  which  might  be  adduced 
to  show  that  the  disposition  to  claim  im- 
portance from  antiquity  is  neither  so  un- 
natural or  peculiar  as  many  persons  affect 
to  suppose  when  speaking  of  the  regard 
that  is  still  manifested  by  the  Irish  people 
for  their  ancient  chiefs. 

Theobald  Walter,  (the  noted  ancestor 
of  the  earls  of  Ormonde,)  was  the  first  per- 
son in  Ireland  on  whom  Henry  conferred 
the  office  of  king's  butler ;  and  it  is  also 


said  that  the  family  of  Le  Boteler  (Butler) 
were  promoted  to  the  high  dignities  they 
enjoyed  from  the  king's  consideration  of 
their  relationship  to  the  late  Thomas  a 
Becket.  Camden  says  that  Henry  "  hoped 
to  redeem  his  credit  in  the  world  by  pre- 
ferring the  I'elations  of  Thomas  a  Becket 
to  wealth  and  honours."  As  for  Theobald 
Walter,  it  is  affirmed  by  both  Carte  and 
Lodge  that  the  butlership  was  not  confer- 
red upon  him  until  the  year  1177,  a  lapse 
of  time  which  Moore  is  of  opinion  "  seems 
to  lessen  a  good  deal  the  probability  of  the 
favour  having  originated  in  a  feeling  of  the 
king  respecting  Becket."  Nevertheless, 
after  allowing  for  individual  exceptions, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  of  the  general 
policy  of  Henry,  and  Moore  ably  remarks 
that — 

"  Thus  the  estates  and  dignities  confer- 
red by  him  upon  his  officers,  who  had  been 
already  most  of  them  tenants  in  capite  from 
the  crown,  were  granted  on  consideration 
of  homage  and  fealty,  and  of  military  or 
honorary  services  to  be  rendered  to  him- 
self and  his  heirs.  Of  such  importance  did 
he  conceive  the  general  acceptance  of  this 
system,  and  of  the  duties,  services,  and 
conditions  enforced  by  it,  that,  even  in  the 
instance  of  Strongbow,  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  acquired,  by  his  marriage  with  Eva, 
[daughter  of  King  Dermot,]  the  principal- 
ity of  Leinster,  it  was  imperatively  re- 
quired, that  he  should  resign  the  possession 
of  that  estate,  and  accept  a  new  grant  of 
it  from  the  king,  subject  to  the  feudal  con- 
ditions of  homage  and  military  service." 

Henry  not  only  took  every  precaution  to 
secure  the  lands  and  homage  ceded  to  the 
crown,  but  he  enlisted  all  the  aid  of  pri- 
vate enterprise  by  holding  out  rewards  for 
future  aggressions.  With  this  view,  the 
whole  of  Ulster  was  offered  to  John  de 
Courcy,  provided  that  he  would  undertake 
to  subdue  the  native  chiefs.  According 
to  Leland,  the  oflTer  was  accepted  by  De 
Courcy  upon  this  condition. 

Although  the  king  was  guided  by  the 
maxims  and  principles  of  the  feudal  pol- 
icy according  to  which  the  main  body  of 
the  English  laws  had  been  modified,  he  ta- 


A.  D.  117S.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


S6 


citly  allowed  to  remain  some  of  the  most 
inveterate  of  those  old  customary  abuses 
which  Ireland  could  well  have  spared  if 
prepared  for  the  change  by  judicious  le- 
gislation. At  the  Synod  of  Cashel,  under 
the  authority  of  Henry,  the  future  exemp- 
tion of  the  clergy  from  coyn,  coshering,  and 
the  payment  of  eric,  still  left  these  old  laws 
and  customs  in  full  force  as  regarded  the 
laity.  These  abuses  were  afterwards  com- 
municated to  the  descendants  of  the  Eng- 
lish who  settled  among  them  ;  and,  by  en- 
cumbering future  legislation  with  excep- 
tions, they  created  difficulties  which  will 
often  require  painful  notice  jn  the  follow- 
ing pages. 

The  severe  winter  of  1171-2,  which 
checked  Henry  from  being  as  much  in  the 
field  as  he  would  have  wished,  had  also 
prevented  the  ordinary  conveyance  of  in- 
telligence by  rendering  navigation  nearly 
impossible.  He  had  consoled  himself  with 
projecting  a  summer  campaign  to  compel 
the  subjection  of  Roderic  O'Connor,  (then 
the  actual  monarch  of  Ireland,)  but  every 
hour  was  now  of  importance  for  going  to 
Normandy.  He  therefore  sailed  from 
Wexford,  on  Easter  Monday,  April  17, 
1172,  and  arrived  the  same  dav  at  Port- 
finnan,  in  Wales.  In  relation  to  Henry's 
opportunities  and  intentions,  Moore  ob- 
serves that — 

"  Though  it  be  now  but  an  idle  and  mel- 
ancholy speculation,  to  consider  how  far, 
under  other  circumstances,  the  fortunes  of 
Ireland  might  have  been  more  prosperous, 
we  cannot  but  regret  that  he  was  so  soon 
interrupted  in  the  task  of  providing  for  her 
future  settlement  and  government ;  as  there 
can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that,  at  such  a  crisis, 
when  so  much  was  to  be  instituted  and  ori- 
ginated on  which  not  only  the  well-being 
of  the  new  colony  itself,  but  also  of  its  ac- 
ceptance with  the  mass  of  the  natives, 
would  depend,  the  direct  and  continuous 
application  of  a  mind  like  Henry's  to  the 
task,  would  have  presented  the  best,  if  not 
perhaps  sole,  chance  of  an  ultimately  pros- 
perous result,  which  a  work,  in  any  hands 
so  delicate  and  difficult,  could  have  been 
expected  to  aflford.     This  chance,  unluck- 

4 


ily,  the  necessity  of  his  immediate  depar- 
ture for  ever  foreclosed.  To  effect  good 
would  have  required  time,  and  the  imme- 
diate superintendence  of  his  own  mind  and 
eye  ;  whereas  mischief  was  a  work  more 
rapid  in  its  accomplishment,  and  admitting 
more  easily  of  being  delegated.  On  the 
ready  instruments  he  left  behind  him  now 
devolved  the  too  sure  accomplishment  of 
this  task ; — his  prodigal  grants  to  his  Eng- 
lish followers  and  their  creatures  having 
established  in  the^and  an  oligarchy  of  en- 
riched upstarts/who  could  not  prove  other- 
wise than  a  scourge  and  curse  to  the 
doomed  people  whom  he  now  delivered 
into  their  hands." 


CHAPTER    II. 

Real  extent  of  Henry's  conquest — Conference 
between  De  Lacy  and  O'Ruurc — Defeat  of  the 
English  by  O'Denipsey — Strongbow  called  to 
Normandy  ;  his  return — Raymond  le  Gros  re- 
tires to  Wales — General  rising  of  the  septs — 
Raymond  recalled ;  his  marriage — Confirmatory 
treaty  between  Roderic  and  Henrj' — Death  of 
Strongbow — Burning  of  Limerick — Strongbow's 
character. 

A  PANIC,  almost  general  enough  to  stop 
the  quarrels  of  the  native  chiefs,  appears 
to  have  prevailed  in  Ireland  during  the  six 
months  that  Henry  the  Second  remained 
there.  The  chiefs  who  showed  such  readi- 
ness to  tender  their  allegiance  viewed  this 
ceremony  as  a  pledge  of  merely  military 
service,  and  were  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
use  which  Henry's  lawyers  and  crown- 
officers  would  afterwards  make  of  their 
knightly  subordination  to  a  superior  mon- 
arch. Although  some  writers  are  very 
anxious  to  represent  Henry's  visit  as  a 
conquest,  it  is  certain  that  (on  this  occasion) 
the  utmost  credit  that  can  be  claimed  is — 
that  he  established  some  military  colonies 
in  Ireland.  This  was  not  Henry's  fault, 
but  his  misfortune ;  and  he  wished  to  im- 
prove the  "  fortune  of  war"  by  making 
what  he  could  from  the  chances  of  law. 

The  "  legal  grant"  of  the  whole  of  the 
prmcipality  of  Meath  to  De  Lacy  was  one 
of  the  first  of  these  attempts  at  encroach- 


26 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1172. 


meDt  on  the  hitherto  undisputed  Irish  pos- 
sessions. O'Ruarc,  who  was  the  party  most 
immediately  aggrieved,  appealed  to  Hugh 
de  Lacy  for  redress.  A  conference  was 
appointed  for  the  two  chiefs  to  meet  and 
settle  the  points  at  issue  between  them, 
(each  claiming  the  same  territory  by  gift 
from  their  respective  monarchs,)  but  a  ro- 
mantic and  fatal  termination  of  the  meet- 
ing was  brought  about  by  the  singular  offi- 
ciousness  of  one  of  De  Lacy's  attendants, 
Gryffyth,  the  nephew  of  Maurice  Fitz-Ger- 
ald.  Craftily  telling  his  uncle  and  De  La- 
cy that  a  warning  dream  had  informed  him 
O'Ruarc  intended  treachery,  the  objects  of 
the  interview  were  thwarted,  O'Ruarc  was 
killed,  his  corpse  was  beheaded,  the  head 
boiled  and  then  sent  over  to  England. 
There  are  some  variations  among  the  au- 
thorities on  this  subject,  but  all  accounts 
agree  that  O'Ruarc  was  killed  by  the  very 
same  young  gentleman  who  "  foretold"  the 
warning  dream. 

The  abbe  Mac-Geoghegan  has  repre- 
sented the  dispute  of  De  Lacy  to  have 
been  held  with  O'Melachlin  himself.  The 
mistake  (if  any)  is  not  in  the  name,  be- 
cause the  abbe  follows  it  with  a  descriptive 
title  and  narration  which  could  only  relate 
to  O'Melachlin.  Perhaps  the  expression 
"  Prince  of  Meath"  in  the  first  line  of  the 
succeeding  paragraph  was  unconsciously 
taken  from  Stanihurst,  who  actually  calls 
O'Ruarc  the  "  Prince  of  Meath."  Moore, 
in  noticing  Mac-Geoghegan's  version  of  this 
affair,  speaks  more  severely  than  usual,  and 
says  in  one  of  his  well-condensed  notes : — 

"The  abbe  Mac-Geoghegan,  with  the 
view  of  making  out  a  stronger  case  against 
the  English — as  if  the  story  of  their  wrongs 
towards  Ireland  needed  aid  from  the  col- 
ouring of  fiction — has,  in  place  of  O'Ruarc, 
who  was  himself  a  usurper  of  the  dominion 
of  Meath,  taken  upon  him  to  substitute, 
without  any  authority,  O'Melachlin,  the  he- 
reditary chief  of  that  territory,  as  having 
been  the  prince  thus  robbed  of  his  kingdom 
to  enrich  an  English  lord." 

Mac-Geoghegan  may  have  considered, 
however,  that  as  Roderic  O'Connor  had 
abused  his  own  power  as  monarch  to  usurp 


the  territory  of  Meath  from  O'MelachliD, 
and  that  as  O'Ruarc  was  merely  a  nominal 
chief  on  account  of  being  Roderic's  kins- 
man, therefore  the  difficulty  should  be  con- 
sidered as  solely  between  O'Melachlin  and 
Henry  the  Second's  representative.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  the  usurpation  by 
the  native  monarch  paved  the  way  for  the 
encroachment  of  the  foreign  invader.  Both 
monarchs  were  wrong,  both  their  represen- 
tatives were  wrong,  and  O'Melachlin  was 
the  really  injured  party.  In  this  view  of 
the  case,  we  consider  that  Mac-Geoghegan's 
statement  is  mainly  correct,  although  we 
should  be  very  unwilling  to  assist  the  cir- 
culation of  any  statement  which  might  in- 
flame national  prejudices. 

Moore  deplores  this  "standing  insult 
in  the  eyes  of  succeeding  generations, — 
the  spectacle  of  an  English  lord  holding 
possession  of  the  ancient  patrimony  of  the 
kings  of  Tara ;"  and  an  eminent  (Pro- 
testant and  English)  writer.  Lord  Lyttle- 
ton,  has  feelingly  observed : — "  The  trans- 
ferring an  ancient  kingdom  of  Ireland  from 
the  present  Irish  possessors,  and  from 
every  branch  of  that  race  which  could 
legally  claim  the  inheritance  of  it,  to  an 
English  lor<j[  and  his  heirs,  was  a  measure 
which  the  nation  would  not  easily  approve, 
or  even  forgive."* 

We  have  occupied  some  space  in  tra- 
cing this  subject,  and  it  will  serve  also  to 
explain  our  juridical  method  of  treating 
those  incidents  upon  which  the  best  au- 
thorities may  sometimes  disagree. 

The  first  disgrace  to  the  English  arms, 
after  the  departure  of  Henry,  took  place 
during  the  return  of  a  small  army  which 
Strongbow  had  sent  into  the  territory  of 
O'Dempsey  O'Fally,  a  lord  of  Leinster 
who  had  refifs^d  to  attend  Strongbow's 
court  at  Ferns.  The  army  had  spread 
desolation  on  its  whole  route,  but  O'Demp- 
sey managed  to  hover  on  the  rear,  and 
when  the  vanguard  under  Strongbow 
had  passed  through  a  defile  on  its  march 
towards  Kildare,  O'Dempsey  made  a  furi- 
ous assault  upon  the  remaining  divisions 
and  routed  them,  at  the  same  time  killing 

*  Hist,  of  Hen.  II. ;  book  iv. 


A.  D.  1173.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


27 


Robert  de  Quincy,  who  had  lately  mar- 
ried one  of  Strongbow's  daughters. 

While  Strongbow  was  planning  how 
he  might  dispel  the  moral  effect  of  this 
defeat,  he  received  orders  to  proceed  to 
Normandy,  whither  he  was  required  to 
bring  a  reinforcement,  and  join  Henry  in 
opposing  the  formidable  league  which  his 
refractory  sons  had  caused  to  be  brought 
against  him.  Strongbow  thought  proper 
to  obey  this  mandate  promptly,  although 
by  so  doing  he  left  his  possessions  exposed 
to  the  most  imminent  risk. 

Strongbow's  ready  obedience  was  quick- 
ly rewarded  by  Henry,  who  sent  him  back 
with  increased  and  extended  powers,  hav- 
ing invested  him  with  the  office  of  viceroy 
of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland,  and  bestowed 
on  him  also  the  city  of  Waterford,  and  a 
strong  castle  for  a  permanent  residence 
near  Wicklow.  On  returning  to  Ireland, 
he  found  that  his  troops  were  mutinous, 
and  insisting  that  his  uncle,  Hervey  of 
Mount-Maurice,  should  be  removed,  so 
that  Raymond  le  Gros  might  have  the 
chief  command.  Being  unable  to  pay 
the  troops  properly,  and  knowing  that 
Raymond  would  indulge  their  disposition 
to  plunder,  he  finally  yielded  to  their  de- 
mand. Raymond  immediately  ravaged 
Offallyand  Munster;  and,  after  plundering 
several  towns,  and  being  victorious  in 
every  battle,  he  returned  with  great  booty. 

From  the  first  mention  of  Raymond  le 
Gros  at  his  landing  near  Waterford,  we 
find  that  he  had  excited  the  jealousy  of 
both  Strongbow  and  Hervey  of  Mount- 
Maurice  by  his  popularity  with  the  sol- 
diers of  all  ranks,  who  appear  to  have 
been  attached  to  him  by  his  reckless  daring 
and  extraordinary  affability.  His  cogno- 
men was  expressive  only  of  a  personal 
characteristic,  for  his  real  name  was  Ray- 
mond Fitz- William.  The  success  of  these 
latter  enterprises  increased  his  naturally 
ambitious  views,  and  he  now  asked  of 
Strongbow  the  hand  of  his  sister,  Basilia, 
in  addition  to  the  appointment  of  constable 
and  standard-bearer  of  Leinster,  an  office 
■which  Robert  de  Quincy  had  held  when 
son-in-law  to  Strongbow.     The  viceroy's 


answer  was  sufficiently  explicit  to  show 
that  with  neither  of  the  two  requests  did 
he  mean  to  comply ; — a  repulse  which  so 
deeply  offended  the  ambitious  Raymond, 
that  he  threw  up  his  commission  and  retired 
into  Wales,  taking  with  him  Meyler  and 
others  of  his  followers  who  had  particular- 
ly distinguished  themselves  in  these  Irish 
wars. 

The  command  of  the  army  was  again  en- 
trusted by  Strongbow  to  his  uncle,  Hervey 
of  Mount-Maurice,  a  man  of  inferior  abili- 
ties, and  greatly  disliked  for  the  severity  of 
his  discipline.  Emulous  of  rivalling  Ray- 
mond's fame,  Hervey  persuaded  Strong- 
bow^ to  attempt  the  subjugation  of  Munster. 
The  army  advanced  to  Cashel  without  en- 
countering any  opposition;  but  an  auxili- 
ary force  of  Ostmen  from  Dublin  was  sur- 
prised by  O'Brien  near  Thurles,  and  cut  to 
pieces.  The  news  of  this  calamity  showed 
Strongbow  the  necessity  of  immediate  re- 
treat. He  retired  with  great  precipitation 
to  Waterford;  and  the  Irish,  magnifying 
this  advantage  into  a  decisive  victory,  de- 
clared that  they  would  never  make  peace 
until  they  had  expelled  the  invaders. 

Among  those  who  now  cast  off  their 
fealty,  is  said  to  have  been  Donald  Kaven- 
agh,  the  son  of  the  late  King  Dermot. 
Even  the  monarch,  Roderic  himself,  con- 
ceiving the  moment  to  be  favourable  for 
an  effort  to  recover  Meath,  made  an  irrup- 
tion into  that  province,  from  which  Hugh 
de  Lacy  was  then  absent,  and  destroying 
all  the  forts  built  by  that  lord,  laid  waste 
the  whole  country  to  the  very  confines  of 
Dublin.  Hugh  Tyrrel,  who  had  been  left 
to  act  for  De  Lacy,  finding  himself  unable 
to  defend  the  castle  of  Trim,  demolished  the 
fortifications  and  burned  it  down,  as  he  did 
also  the  castle  of  Duleek,  and  escaped  with 
his  soldiers  to  Dublin. 

Surrounded  with  these  dangers,  and  hem- 
med in  at  Waterford,  Strongbow's  only 
hope  of  deliverance  was  to  secure  the  re- 
turn of  Raymond  le  Gros.  To  effect  this, 
he  promised  to  reinvest  him  with  the  com- 
mand of  the  army,  and  assured  him  that  the 
hand  of  Basilia  should  be  his  on  arrival. 
Raymond's  response  may  be  easily  ima- 


S8 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1175. 


Joined.  He  collected  a  new  band  of  ad- 
venturers ;  and,  crossing  the  sea,  arrived  in 
Waterford  when  the  inhabitants  were  on 
the  point  of  attempting  a  general  massacre 
of  the  garrison.  The  nuptials  of  Raymond 
and  Basilia  were  celebrated  at  Wexford ; 
and  on  the  following  morning,  the  bride- 
groom proceeded  to  check  the  advance 
of  Roderic  O'Connor's  army,  which  now 
threatened  an  attack  on  Dublin.  But  the 
Irish  monarch  was  unable  to  bring  his  tu- 
multuous forces  to  an  engagement.  Eager 
to  secure  the  plunder  they  had  obtained  in 
Meath,  the  chieftains  insisted  on  returning 
home ;  nor  could  they  be  persuaded  to 
make  a  stand  when  Raymond  overtook 
their  rear,  and  slaughtered  several  compa- 
nies which  could  make  but  feeble  resist- 
ance. 

With  the  hand  of  Strongbow's  sister, 
Raymond  received  as  her  dowry,  the  lands 
of  Idrone,  Fethard,  and  Glascarrig,  and  was 
likewise  appointed  by  him  to  the  high  office 
of  constable  and  standard-bearer  of  Lein- 
ster.  It  is  said  to  have  been  also  on  this 
occasion  that  he  was  made  possessor  of 
that  great  district  in  Kilkenny,  called,  after 
him,  Grace's  Country ; — the  cognomen  of 
Gros,  which  he  transmitted  to  his  descend- 
ants, being  changed,  in  later  times,  to  Gras, 
and  at  last,  Grace. 

Having  repaired  the  castles  which  had 
been  destroyed  in  Meath,  Raymond  next 
led  his  army  intoMunster,to  punish  O'Brien, 
Prince  of  Thomond.  He  was  attended  by 
his  usual  good  fortune.  The  Irish  troops 
fled  everywhere  at  his  approach.  Limer- 
ick was  taken  with  little  loss,  and  its  plun- 
der enriched  the  victorious  army.  Rod- 
eric now  saw  that  nothing  but  a  timely  sub- 
mission could  save  him  from  total  ruin; 
but,  as  he  disdained  to  negotiate  with 
Strongbow,  ambassadors  were  sent  to  King 
Henr}%  who  was  then  in  England. 

About  this  time,  the  bull  of  Pope  Adrian 
granting  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  to  Henry 
the  Second,  and  obtained  by  this  sovereign 
from  the  holy  see  as  far  back  as  the  year 
11.51,  was  for  the  first  time  publicly  an- 
nounced to  his  Irish  subjects.  He  had,  in 
the  interval,  obtained  also  a  brief  from  Alex- 


ander the  Third,  confirming  the  grant  made 
by  the  former  pope,  and  under  the  same 
condition  of  the  payment  of  the  Peter- 
pence.  Henry  also  concluded  a  treaty 
with  Roderic  O'Connor,  confirming  him  in 
the  possession  of  his  hereditary  dominions, 
(Connaught,)  and  in  the  title  of  King  of 
Ireland. 

Such  favourable  prospects  were  not  of 
long  duration.  Hervey's  jealousy  of  Ray- 
mond impelled  him  to  send  Henry  frequent 
insinuations  against  Raymond's  fidelity. 
They  were  not  very  remote  from  the  truth, 
when  they  accused  Raymond  of  having 
converted  the  English  army  into  a  mere 
band  of  freebooters,  whose  continued  de- 
predations had  driven  into  revolt  not  only 
the  natives  themselves,  but  even  the  more 
friendly  disposed  population  of  the  Dano- 
Irish  towns.  Henry  therefore  sent  over 
four  commissioners,  two  of  whom  were 
charged  to  conduct  Raymond  into  England, 
and  the  others  directed  to  investigate  the 
proceedings  of  Strongbow.  The  com- 
missioners were  received  with  all  the  re- 
spect due  to  their  station.  Raymond  pro- 
fessed his  readiness  to  obey ;  but,  while  his 
departure  was  delayed  by  contrary  winds, 
news  arrived  that  O'Brien  of  Thomond  had 
again  renewed  the  war,  and  had  already  so 
vigorously  pressed  the  siege  of  Limerick, 
that  the  garrison,  unless  instantly  relieved, 
must  capitulate.  The  army,  zealously  at- 
tached to  Raymond,  and  conscious  of  its 
own  importance,  refused  to  march  unless 
headed  by  the  favourite  general ;  and  the 
commissioners  were  forced  to  yield  a  re- 
luctant assent  to  a  requisition  which  plainly 
confirmed  all  their  suspicions. 

About  this  time,  Dermot  Mac-Carty, 
King  of  Cork  and  Desmond,  wrote  to  Ray- 
mond, requesting  him  to  send  some  assist- 
ance against  Cormacleiavac,  his  eldest  son, 
who  had  rebelled  against  him.  The  Eng- 
lish deputy  marched  towards  Desmond,  at 
the  head  of  some  troops,  and  having  quelled 
the  revolt,  and  reinstated  Dermot  in  the 
possession  of  his  kingdom,  he  returned  to 
Limerick.  Mac-Carty,  filled  with  grati- 
tude for  the  services  he  had  received  from 
Raymond,  conferred  an  extensive  territory 


A.  D.  117C.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


99 


on  him  in  Kerry,  where  he  established  his 
son  Maurice,  who  became  powerful  by  his 
marriage  with  Catherine,  daughter  of  Milo 
de  Cogan,  and  gave  name  to  his  descend- 
ants, as  well  as  to  the  territory,  which  is 
called  Clan-Morris. 

While  Raymond  was  enjoying  these  tri- 
umphs in  Desmond,  whither  he  had  retired 
to  recruit  himself  and  troops,  he  received 
the  first  intimation  of  the  death  of  Strong- 
bow,  in  a  mysterious  letter  from  his  wife, 
enigmatically  conveying  intelligence  of  that 
event.  Her  great  tooth,  she  told  him, 
which  had  ached  so  long,  was  now  at  last 
fallen  out,  and  she  therefore  earnestly  be- 
sought of  him  to  return  to  Dublin  with  all 
possible  speed.  Feeling  how  necessary,  at 
such  a  juncture,  was  the  immediate  de- 
partui'e  of  himself  and  his  army  for  Lein- 
ster,  yet  unwilling  to  abandon  Limerick,  a 
conquest  redounding  so  much  to  his  in- 
terest and  fame,  Raymond  saw,  at  length, 
that  he  had  no  other  alternative  than  to  de- 
liver up  that  city  to  Donald  O'Brien,  to  af- 
fect reliance  on  his  faith  as  one  of  the 
barons  of  the  king,  and  to  exact  from  him 
a  new  oath  of  fealty,  taking  his  chance  for 
Thomond's  observance  of  it. 

Raymond  and  his  troops  had  scarcely 
passed  over  the  bridge  leading  from  Lim- 
erick when  they  had  the  mortification  to 
see  it  broken  down  behind  them ;  and  the 
flames  which  soon  arose  from  that  devoted 
city  showed  that  O'Brien  valued  an  oath 
no  more  than  his  persecutors.  Mac-Geo- 
ghegan  observes  that — 

"  This  action  of  O'Brien,  which  English 
writers  have  represented  as  a  signal  per- 
fidy, is  not  so  atrocious  as  may  seem  at 
first  view.  It  should  be  observed,  that  as 
it  was  the  want  of  any  other  defender 
which  induced  the  English  to  confide  the 
place  to  Donald,  it  is  evident  that  the  latter 
considered  himself  under  no  obligation  for 
a  forced  mark  of  their  confidence.  Be- 
sides, O'Brien  was  the  lawful  master  of  the 
country ;  it  therefore  appears  just  that  he 
should  have  used  the  only  means  left  to 
him  of  recovering  it  from  unjust  usurpers, 
namely,  to  destroy  their  settlements  alto- 
gether." 


On  the  arrival  of  Raymond  in  Dublin, 
the  earl's  remains  were  interred  with  the 
pomp  becoming  his  station,  in  the  Cathe- 
dral Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  now 
Christ  Church,  in  that  city.  Laurence 
O'Toole  presided  over  the  ceremonies. 

No  portion  of  Irish  history  exhibits  the 
contradictory  nature  of  its  evidence  more 
than  the  remarks  of  the  historians  upon  the 
life  and  career  of  Strongbow.  His  death 
was  caused  by  a  cancerous  sore  in  one  of 
his  legs,  and  as  his  time  shortened  he  be- 
came very  lavish  in  his  endowment  of  re- 
ligious establishments.  William  of  New- 
bridge, a  contemporary  English  chronicler, 
thus  speaks  of  his  death : — 

"  He  carried  to  the  grave  with  him  no 
part  of  those  Irish  spoils  he  had  coveted  so 
eagerly  after  in  life,  putting  to  risk  even 
his  eternal  salvation  to  amass  them ;  but 
at  last,  leaving  to  unthankful  heirs  all  he 
had  acquired  through  so  much  toil  and 
danger,  he  afforded  by  his  fate  a  salutary 
lesson  to  mankind." 

The  abbe  Mac-Geoghegan,  after  noticing 
the  fact  that  Strongbow's  daughter  Isabella 
(who  was  his  sole  heiress)  had  five  sons 
and  five  daughters,  and  that  the  sons  all 
died  without  issue,  says — 

"  Thus  the  race  of  this  celebrated  man 
became  extinct,  a  man  whom  the  English 
have  ranked  as  a  hero,  but  who  in  reality 
was  an  extortioner  and  a  tyrant :  it  might 
be  said  of  him,  as  the  royal  prophet  said 
of  the  wicked  man,  that,  having  been  raised 
above  the  cedars  of  Mount  Libanus,  there 
remained  no  vestige  of  him  but  a  horror 
for  his  memory."* 

Taylor  has  not  given  this  subject  his 
usual  pains-taking  consideration.  He  mere- 
ly says — 

"  Strongbow  left  behind  him  no  male 
heir,  which  circumstance  the  superstitious 
chroniclers  attribute  to  the  sacrileges  which 
he  had  committed  or  authorized.  His 
character  is  drawn  in  very  different  col- 
ours by  the  historians  of  the  English  and 
Irish  parties.  From  both  it  appears  that 
he  possessed,  in  no  ordinary  degree,  the 
military  skill,  romantic  daring,  and  high 

*  Psalm  xxxvi.  38,  39. 


30 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1177. 


chivalrous  valour  tha*  usually  belonged  to 
the  Norman  adventurers ;  but  that  his  mili- 
tary virtues  were  sullied  by  the  cruelty, 
rapacity,  and  recklessness  of  the  misery 
inflicted  on  the  vanquished  which  the  north- 
ern tribes  and  their  descendants  exhibited 
in  all  their  conquests." 

Moore  has  drawn  a  masterly  picture  of 
Strongbow's  character.  The  following 
is  one  of  the  views  in  it : — 

"The  political  position  occupied  by 
Strongbow,  in  relation  to  Ireland,  renders 
it  difficult  to  sum  up,  impartially,  any  gen- 
eral estimate  of  his  character ;  the  very 
same  qualities  and  achievements  which 
won  for  him  the  eulogies  of  one  party, 
having  drawn  down  on  his  memory,  from 
the  other,  the  most  bitter  censure  and  hate. 
What  his  own  countrymen  have  lauded  as 
vigour  and  public  spirit,  those  who  were 
the  victims  of  his  stern  policy  have  pro- 
nounced to  be  the  grossest  exaction  and 
tyranny.  Full  allowance,  of  course,  is 
to  be  made  for  the  difficulties  and  odium 
of  such  a  position ;  and  where  there  are 
great  or  shining  qualities  to  divert  censure 
from  the  almost  unavoidable  wrongs  which 
a  military  adventurer  in  a  foreign  land  is, 
by  the  very  nature  of  the  mission,  led  to 
inflict,  the  historian,  in  such  cases,  may 
fairly  suffer  his  judgment  to  relax  into 
some  degree  of  leniency  in  its  verdict." 

Reader !  such  are  the  feeble  attempts  of 
human  power,  when  engaged  in  judging 
those  who  have  preceded  us  ! 


CHAPTER    III. 

Fitz-Aldelm's  arrival — De  Courcy  enters  Ulster — 
Cardinal  Vivian's  liberal  exertions — Treachery 
of  Roderic  O'Connor's  eldest  son,  Murtagli — 
Devastation  of  Connaught — Superseding  grants 
given  by  Henry  to  John  and  his  followers — Ap- 
pointments and  recalls  of  De  Lacy — Death  of 
St.  Laurence  O'Toole — Bull  of  Pope  Lucius 
the  Third — Retirement  of  Roderic  O'Connor — 
Arrival  of  John  at  Waterford. 

After  the  death  of  Strongbow,  Ray- 
mond was  chosen  chief-governor  until 
Henr/s  pleasure  was  made  known  to  the 
commissioners.     As  no  opportunity,  how- 


ever, had  yet  been  afibrded  for  a  refutation 
of  the  charges  advanced  against  Raymond, 
the  king's  jealousy  of  the  influence  of  that 
officer  still  remained  unabated.  Accord- 
ingly, he  sent  into  Ireland,  as  his  justiciary, 
or  viceroy,  William  Fitz-Aldelm,  attended 
by  a  guard  of  ten  knights  of  his  own  house- 
hold, and  having  under  his  order,  with 
each  a  similar  train,  John  de  Courcy,  Rob- 
ert Fitz-Stephen,  and  Milo  de  Cogan.  On 
being  apprised  of  their  arrival,  Raymond 
hastened  to  meet  them,  on  the  borders  of 
Wexford,  with  a  chosen  body  of  cavalry ; 
and  having  received  them  with  all  due 
marks  of  respect,  went  through  the  cere- 
mony of  delivering  up  to  the  deputy  all  the 
cities  and  castles  held  by  the  English. 

Although  Fitz-Aldelm  made  great  and 
ostentatious  military  displays  before  the 
country,  he  was  actuated  in  his  government 
more  by  political  than  by  military  consid- 
erations. This  accounts  for  the  contemp- 
tuous impatience  with  which  he  was  sub- 
mitted to  by  the  colonists,  who,  being  for 
the  most  part  armed  and  rapacious  adven- 
turers, had  hitherto  prospered,  and  ex- 
pected still  further  to  prosper,  by  the  tren- 
chant policy  of  the  sword.  Among  those 
most  impatient  of  such  inaction  was  John 
de  Courcy,  a  baron  second  in  command  to 
Filz-Aldelm,  and  gifted  with  extraordinary 
prowess  and  daring.  Having  looked  to 
Ireland  as  a  field  of  spoil  and  adventure. 
De  Courcy  was  determined  not  to  be 
baulked  in  his  anticipations. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1177,  although 
forbidden  to  proceed  by  an  order  from  the 
king's  deputy,  De  Courcy  set  out  from  Dub- 
lin, and  in  four  days  he  arrived  at  Down- 
patrick,  the  metropolis  of  Down,  (Ulidia,) 
in  Ulster,  the  residence  of  Roderic  Mac- 
Dunlevy,  king  of  that  territory.  The  alarm 
caused  by  this  inroad  of  foreigners  into  a 
country  where  they  had  hitherto  been  known 
but  by  rumour,  and  where,  trusting  to  their 
distance  from  the  seat  of  conflict,  the  in- 
habitants were  unprepared  with  the  means 
of  defence,  was  at  first  so  general  and  over- 
whelming, that  scarcely  any  resistance  was 
made 

It  happened  that  the  pope's  legate.  Car- 


A.  D.  1177.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


31 


dinal  Vivian,  was  then  at  Downpatrick, 
having  arrived  there  a  short  time  before 
from  Scotland ;  and,  struck  with  horror  at 
this  unprovoked  aggression,  he  endeavour- 
ed to  mediate  terms  of  peace  between  the 
two  parties;  proposing  that  De  Courcy 
should  withdraw  his  army  from  Ulidia,  on 
condition  of  the  prince  of  that  country  pay- 
ing tribute  to  Henry.  This  oifer  De  Courcy 
sternly  refused  ;  and  Vivian,  provoked  by 
such  gross  injustice,  now  strenuously  advis- 
ed the  Ulidian  prince,  and  even  besought 
him,  as  he  valued  his  blessing,  to  stand  up 
manfully  in  defence  of  his  violated  terri- 
tories. 

Accordingly,  the  chief  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  a  large  tumultuary  force, 
hastily  collected  to  drive  the  enemy  from 
his  capital.  De  Courcy,  however,  advanc- 
ed to  meet  them,  as  he  preferred  a  field- 
fight  under  these  circumstances,  and  the 
result  was  a  total  defeat  and  rout  of  the 
natives. 

While  John  de  Courcy  was  thus  over- 
running Ulster,  Dalraida,  and  Tyrone,  the 
legate,  whose  mission,  notwithstanding  his 
generous  effort  in  favour  of  the  Ultonians, 
had  for  its  object  to  forward  Henry's  designs 
upon  Ireland,  proceeded  to  Dublin,  and 
there  convoked  a  general  council  of  bishops 
and  abbots ;  in  which,  setting  forth  the  right 
of  dominion  over  that  country  conferred  by 
the  pope  upon  Henry,  he  impressed  on 
them  the  necessity  of  paying  obedience  to 
such  high  authority  under  pain  of  excom- 
munication. He  also,  among  other  regula- 
tions, promulgated  at  this  council,  gave 
leave  to  the  English  soldiers  to  provide 
themselves  with  victuals  for  their  expedi- 
tions out  of  the  churches,  into  which,  as  in- 
violable sanctuaries,  they  used  to  be  re- 
moved by  the  natives ; — merely  ordering, 
that,  for  the  provisions  thus  taken,  a  reason- 
able price  should  be  paid  to  the  rectors  of 
the  churches. 

The  monarch  of  Ireland  having  had  a 
quarrel  with  his  eldest  son  Murtagh,  the 
young  prince  fled  to  Dublin,  and  invited 
Fitz-Aldelm  to  make  war  upon  his  father. 
Milo  de  Cogan  was  deputed  to  enter  Con- 
naught  with  a  powerful  army ;  but  the  Irish 


burned  their  provisions  and  destroyed  their 
cattle,  in  order  to  deprive  their  enemies  of 
subsistence.  Desmond  and  Thomond  were 
miserably  devastated  by  civil  wars  between 
rival  chieftains  and  ambitious  claimants  for 
the  oflice  of  tanist ;  and  the  whole  country 
was  laid  waste  in  these  unnatural  and  bloody 
quarrels.  All  that  had  hitherto  been  regard- 
ed as  sacred  was  disregarded  ;  the  churches 
afforded  no  shelter,  the  monasteries  yield- 
ed no  protection,  the  Norman  soldiers  paid 
no  reverence  to  the  sanctuaries,  and  the 
Irish  burned  them  down  when  they  found 
that  they  were  no  longer  a  safe  refuge. 

So  completely  did  this  mode  of  proceed- 
ing distress  and  baffle  their  invaders,  that 
at  the  end  of  eight  days  they  were  compel- 
led to  return,  and  without  having  gained 
a  single  advantage.  On  approaching  the 
Shannon,  they  were  suddenly  attacked  by 
Roderic  O'Connor,  who  had  waited  their 
coming,  with  a  large  force,  in  a  wood  not 
far  from  that  river ;  but,  after  suffering  con- 
siderable loss,  they  at  length  forced  their 
way,  and  succeeded  in  reaching  Dublin. 

These  circumstances  suggested  to  Hen- 
ry's mind  the  idea  of  investing  his  youngest 
son,  John,  (then  in  his  twelfth  year,)  with 
the  lordship  of  Ireland.  At  this  stage  of 
the  **  History  of  Henry  the  Second,"  Lord 
Lyttleton  observes — 

"  Some  method  to  supply,  so  far  as  it 
could  be  supplied,  the  want  of  his  presence, 
was  therefore  to  be  sought ;  and  he  judged, 
very  truly,  that  the  Irish  nation,  accustom- 
ed through  the  course  of  many  ages  to  be 
governed  by  princes  of  as  ancient  royal 
blood  as  any  in  Europe,  would  not  easily  be 
kept  patient  under  the  rule  of  his  servants.** 

In  accordance  with  these  views,  Henry, 
about  the  middle  of  May  in  the  year  1177, 
assembled  a  council  of  prelates  and  barons 
at  Oxford,  and,  in  their  presence,  constitut- 
ed his  son  John  the  King  of  Ireland.  Not- 
withstanding, however,  this  solemn  an- 
nouncement of  his  title,  the  young  prince 
was  never  afterwards,  in  any  document 
that  has  come  down  to  us,  styled  otherwise 
than  Lord  of  Ireland,  and  Earl  of  Moreton. 

We  are  not  told  whether  this  was  con- 
sidered a  violation  of  the  late  treaty  with 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1178. 


Roderic ;  but  certainly  the  rights  of  the 
Irish  monarch  were  disregarded  in  the 
transaction,  for  the  grant  to  John  contains 
precisely  the  same  stipulations  and  reserva- 
tions which  had  been  made  with  Roderic. 
With  an  equal  disregard  of  the  terms  on 
which  the  Irish  princes  had  given  their  al- 
legiance, the  kingdom  of  Cork  was  granted 
to  Milo  de  Cogan  and  Robert  Filz-Stephen, 
with  the  reservation  of  the  city  to  the 
crown.  The  territory  of  Waterford,  with 
a  similar  reservation,  was  given  to  Robert 
de  la  Poer ;  a  great  part  of  Connaught  to 
William  Fitz-Andclm  ;  and  the  territory  of 
Limerick  to  Herbert  Fitz-Herbert. 

These  lucky  adventurers  were  anxious 
to  avoid  the  difficulties  which  such  unprin- 
cipled cessions  were  likely  to  produce. 
They  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  na- 
tives; and,  having  obtained  possession  of 
some  districts,  they  left  the  rest  to  the  origi- 
nal inhabitants.  Herbert,  indeed,  resigned 
the  grant  made  to  him.  He  was  already 
sufficiently  wealthy,  and  too  indolent  to  en- 
gage in  any  new  adventure.  It  was  there- 
fore transferred  to  Philip  de  Braosa,  who 
was  as  little  inclined  to  brave  difficulties  or 
dangers.  When  Braosa  advanced  to  take 
possession  of  his  new  estate,  the  Irish  set 
fire  to  Limerick ;  and  Braosa,  affrighted 
by  this  act  of  desperation,  fled  precipitate- 
ly with  his  followers  to  Cork.  Nor  could 
any  persuasion  induce  them  to  renew  their 
eflforts. 

Hearing  of  these  confused  proceedings, 
Henry  determined,  in  1178,  to  remove 
Fitz-Aldelm  from  his  high  office.  There 
are  grounds  for  suspecting  that  his  having 
adopted  a  somewhat  more  just  and  concili- 
atory policy  towards  the  Irish,  was  not 
among  the  least  of  those  offences  by  which 
he  also  forfeited  the  good-will  of  the  colo- 
nists ;  and  that,  even  thus  early,  any  show  of 
consideration  for  the  rights  and  comforts  of 
the  natives  was  beginning  to  be  regarded 
with  fear  and  jealousy,  as  a  species  of  trea- 
son towards  their  masters.  "  He  was  the 
flatterer,"  says  Giraldus,  "of  rebels,  and 
full  of  courtesy  towards  the  foe."  Stani- 
hurst  says, "  He  was  a  friend  to  the  enemies 
of  the  state,  and  a  foe  to  his  friends." 


,That  Fitz-Aldelm  had  not  forfeited  much 
of  the  royal  favour  by  his  administration, 
appears  from  his  appointment,  at  this  time, 
to  the  custody  of  Leinster ;  that  province 
having,  on  the  decease  of  Earl  Strongbow, 
fallen  to  the  king,  as  supreme  lord  of  the 
fief,  during  the  infancy  of  the  heir.  In  like 
manner,  Wexford,  which  had  originally 
been  given  to  Fitz-Aldelm,  and  then  after- 
wards transferred  to  Strongbow,  was  now 
restored  to  the  former  lord ;  while  at  the 
same  time  Waterford,  with  its  dependen- 
cies, was  entrusted  by  the  king  to  Robert 
de  la  Poer. 

The  most  important  event  of  Fitz-Al- 
delm's  administration,  according  to  the 
estimation  of  the  native  Irish,  was  the  re- 
moval, bv  his  orders,  of  the  celebrated  Staff 
of  Jesus  from  Armagh  to  Dublin.  This 
staff  or  crosier,  which  was  said  to  have  be- 
longed to  St.  Patrick,  and  which  St.  Ber- 
nard describes  as  being,  in  his  time,  covered 
over  with  gold  and  set  with  precious  gems, 
had  been  for  many  ages  an  object  of  vene- 
ration with  people ;  and  its  removal  now, 
from  the  cathedral  of  Armagh  to  that  of 
Dublin,  was  but  a  part  of  the  policy  pursued 
afterwards  by  the  English,  of  concentrating, 
as  much  as  was  possible,  the  power  and 
wealth  of  the  Church  in  Dublin,  and  diverting 
it,  in  proportion,  from  the  see  of  Armagh. 
Fitz-Aldelm  was  also  the  founder,  by  order 
of  King  Henry,  of  the  famous  abbey  of  St. 
Thomas  the  Martyr,  (i.  e.  Becket,)  near 
Dublin,  on  the  site  now  called  Thomas 
Court. 

Hugh  de  Lacy  was  the  next  favourite 
whom  Henry,  in  his  exacting  jealousy, 
thought  proper  to  succeed  Fitz-Aldelm. 
His  administration  was  equally  vigorous 
and  prudent.  He  dealt  out  impartial  justice 
without  any  distinction  of  Irish  or  Normans. 
He  restrained  the  rapacity  of  the  latteY,  and 
endeavoured  to  conciliate  the  affections  of 
the  former.  His  marriage  with  the  daugh- 
ter of  Roderic  O'Connor  seemed,  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Irish,  to  give  him  a  claim  to 
Meath  more  legitimate  than  that  conferred 
by  the  grants  of  Henry,  and  but  little  oppo- 
sition was  made  to  his  movements.  But 
John  de  Courcy,  who  still  continued  to 


A.  D.  1180.] 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


M 


harass  Ulster,  met  with  severe  checks. 
Having  taken,  during  a  predatory  incursion 
into  Louth,  a  vast  number  of  cattle,  he  found 
himself  attacked  by  the  two  princes  of  Oriel 
and  of  Ulla ;  and  after  a  sharp  conflict,  in 
which  the  greater  number  of  his  troops 
were  cut  ofl",  he  was  obliged  to  fly,  attended 
by  only  eleven  horsemen,  without  either 
food  or  rest,  till  he  reached  his  own  castle 
near  Downpatrick.  He  was  likewise  un- 
successful in  another  incursion  which  he 
made  the  same  year  into  Dalraida. 

How  invidious  and  difl^cult  was  the  task 
of  administering  the  country's  affairs,  may 
be  judged  from  the  short  period  during 
which  each  of  the  deputies  was  allowed  to 
remain  in  office.  The  odium  excited,  as 
we  have  seen,  by  Fitz-Aldelm's  measures, 
had  induced  the  king  to  recall  him ;  and 
now  the  popularity  of  his  successor  awaken- 
ing in  a  like  degree  the  royal  jealousy,  led 
to  a  similar  result.  Hugh  de  Lacy  was 
therefore  removed  from  the  government, 
and  the  office  of  deputy  committed  to  the 
joint  care  of  John,  Constable  of  Cheshire, 
and  Richard,  Bishop  of  Coventry. 

The  year  1180  is  noted  in  the  annals  of 
Irish  history  by  the  death  of  St.  Laurence 
O'Toole.  '  In  the  course  of  this  year  he  had 
accompanied  to  England  a  son  of  Roderic 
O'Connor  who  had  been  sent  as  a  hostage 
to  Henry  for  the  payment  of  the  tribute 
stipulated  between  his  father  and  that 
prince.  Passing  afterwards  into  France, 
he  was  seized  with  fever,  when  arrived  on 
the  frontiefs  of  Normandy,  and  expired  the 
14th  of  November,  at  Augum,  where  his 
remains  were  temporarily  buried  in  the 
middle  of  the  church  until  the  year  of  his 
canonization,  by  Honorious  the  Third,  A.  D. 
1226,  when  with  great  solemnity,  they  were 
placed  over  the  high  altar,  and  preserved 
in  a  silver  shrine ;  some  of  his  relics  having 
been  sent  to  Christ  Church,  in  Dublin,  and 
some  to  different  places  in  France. 

Even  by  Giraldus,  the  general  slanderer 
of  all  other  persons  and  things  belonging  to 
Ireland,  Laurence  is  pronounced  to  have 
been  a  "just  and  a  good  man.**  An  ardent 
lover  of  his  ill-fated  country,  he  felt  but  the 
more  poignantly  those  wretched  feuds  and 


unnatural  treacheries  of  her  own  sons, 
which  were  now  co-operating  so  fatally 
with  the  enemy,  in  reducing  her  to  degrada- 
tion and  ruin ;  and,  a  short  time  before  his 
death  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed,  in  the 
Irish  language,  "  Ah,  foolish  and  senseless 
people,  what  is  now  to  become  of  you  ? 
Who  will  now  cure  your  misfortunes? 
Who  will  heal  you?"  When  reminded  on 
his  death-bed  of  the  propriety  of  making  his 
will,  he  answered,  "  God  knows,  I  have  not 
at  this  moment  so  much  as  a  penny  under 
the  sun." 

While  reviewing  this  record  of  blood- 
shed, devastation  and  ruin,  the  contempla- 
tion of  such  a  noble  character  is  sacredly 
soothing  to  the  otherwise  outraged  feelings 
of  humanity.     We  must  proceed. 

On  receiving  intelligence  of  Laurence's 
death,  Henry,  in  exercise  of  the  rights  which 
he  held  over  Ireland,  took  the  vacant  arch- 
bishopric into  his  own  custody,  and  de-  . 
spatched  Jeffrey  de  la  Hay  to  Dublin,  for 
the  purpose  of  seizing  on  the  revenues  of 
the  see,  and  collecting  them  into  the 
exchequer.  He  likewise  called  an  assembly 
of  the  clergy  of  Dublin,  by  whom,  on  his 
recommendation,  a  learned  Englishman, 
John  Gumming,  was  elected  Archbishop  of 
Dublin.  Still  more  to  strengthen  the 
English  influence  in  that  country,  a  bull 
was  procured  in  the  following  year  from 
Pope  Lucius  the  Third,  exempting  the 
diocese  of  Dublin  from  a  great  part  of  the 
jurisdiction  hitherto  exercised  over  it  by 
the  see  of  Armagh.  This  memorable  bull, 
the  immediate  purpose  of  which  was  to 
curtail  the  privileges  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Armagh,  but  which  had  also,  probably,  in 
view  the  object  of  transferring,  at  some 
future  time,  the  primacy  to  the  seat  of  the 
English  power,  Dublin,  became,  in  after 
ages,  a  subject  of  controversy  between  the 
two  sees. 

Five  or  six  years  had  now  elapsed  since 
Cogan  and  Fitz-Stephen  had  tranquilly  set- 
tled on  their  new  estates,  and  lived  on  ami- 
cable terms  with  their  neighbours.  Fitz- 
Stephen  had  every  prospect  of  terminating 
an  honourable  life  in  a  peaceful  old  age. 
The  jealousy  of  his  old  rival,  Cogan,  was 


34 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1184. 


averted  by  the  marriage  of  his  son  to  Co- 
gan's  daughter;  and  the  hostility  of  the 
Irish  toparchs  seemed  to  have  yielded  to 
time  and  familiar  intercourse.  But  these 
appearances  were  fallacious.  Cogan  and 
his  son-in-law  were  murdered  by  a  toparch, 
named  Mac-Tyre,  who  had  invited  them 
to  stay  at  his  house,  while  on  their  way  to 
Lismore  with  four  other  knights. 

In  May,  1182,  Flahertach  O'Meldory, 
Prince  of  Tyrconnel,  indignant  at  the  un- 
natural conduct  of  the  princes  of  Con- 
naught,  who  were  still  in  arms  against 
their  father  Roderic,  entered  their  province 
at  the  head  of  his  troops  and  gained  a 
complete  victory  over  them  and  their 
allies.  Many  lives  were  lost ;  and  among 
them  were  sixteen  persons  of  the  royal 
race  of  Connaught.  At  length,  in  the  year 
at  which  we  are  now  arrived,  the  wretch- 
ed Roderic,  wearied  out  with  the  unnatural 
conflict,  agreed,  as  the  only  means  of  bring- 
ing it  to  an  end,  to  surrender  the  kingdom 
to  his  eldest  son,  Connor  Manmoy,  and  re- 
tire into  a  monastery. 

Fitz-Stephen  was  now  compelled  to  pro- 
vide for  the  safety  of  Cork,  to  which  Mac- 
Arthy  had  laid  siege  as  soon  as  he  heard 
of  Cogan's  murder.  The  flame  of  revolt 
spread  rapidly  through  Desmond  and  Tho- 
mond.  The  toparchs  hasted  to  join  Mac- 
Arthy,  believing  that  Cogan's  death  afford- 
ed them  a  favourable  opportunity  of  expel- 
ling the  invaders  ;  and  Fitz-Stephen,  broken 
down  with  age  and  sorrow,  applied  to  his 
nephew  Raymond  for  assistance.  Le  Gros 
lost  no  time  in  marching  from  Wexford  to 
relieve  his  uncle.  He  soon  raised  the  siege, 
and  compelled  the  Prince  of  Desmond  to 
sue  for  peace  on  humiliating  conditions  ; 
but  Fitz-Stephen  was  no  longer  sensible  of 
this  success.  Grief  for  the  death  of  his  son 
had  deranged  his  intellects,  and  during  the 
rest  of  his  life  he  remained  a  lunatic. 

To  repair  the  injuries  which  the  late  in- 
surrection had  inflicted  on  the  English 
power,  Henry  sent  Richard  de  Cogan,  the 
brother  of  the  murdered  baron,  and  Philip 
Barry,  a  celebrated  knight  of  Wales,  with 
a  powerful  army  into  Munster.  The 
soldiers  were  accompanied  by  a  train  of 


ecclesiastics,  among  whom  was  Gerald 
Barry,  better  known  by  the  name  of  Giral- 
dus  Cambrensis,  an  ecclesiastic  tp  whom 
the  king  intrusted  the  education  of  his  son 
John.  Henry's  suspicious  nature  had  been 
kept  in  continual  alarm  by  the  increasing 
popularity  of  Hugh  de  Lacy  ;  and  being, 
for  the  third  time,  about  to  remove  that 
lord  from  the  government,  he  looked  for- 
ward, doubtless,  with  hope,  to  the  effects  of 
the  presence  of  a  prince  of  his  blood  in  that 
country,  as  being  likely  to  counteract  the 
dangerous  influence  now  exercised,  and 
help  to  rally  around  its  legitimate  centre, 
the  throne,  that  popular  favour  which  had 
been  hitherto  intercepted  by  bold  and  am- 
bitious subjects. 

Henry  again  recalled  Lacy  from  the 
government ;  and  nominated  in  his  place 
Philip  de  Braosa,  whose  expedition  in 
Limerick  has  been  already  commemorated. 
The  brief  administration  of  the  new  deputy 
was  distinguished  by  several  acts  of  out- 
rage and  rapacity,  among  which  his  ex- 
actions from  the  clergy  are  most  conspi- 
cuous. 

In  August,  1184,  Henry  commenced  a 
series  of  imposing  preparations  to  give  ef- 
fect to  the  ensuing  arrival  of  his  son  John, 
(who  being  left  without  any  provision,  and 
therefore  sumamed  "  Lackland,"  would  be 
very  likely  to  need  some  such  encourage- 
ment,) especially  as  he  was  yet  only  eighteen 
years  of  age.  The  new  archbishop,  John 
Gumming,  was  first  sent  out.  In  the  fol- 
lowing month,  Philip  of  Worcester  pro- 
ceeded thither,  attended  by  a  guard  of  forty 
knights,  to  take  possession  of  his  govern- 
ment, having  orders  from  Henry  to  send 
De  Lacy  over  into  England,  and  to  await 
himself  in  Ireland  the  coming  of  Prince 
John.  The  royal  youth  was  to  be  accom- 
panied by  Ranulph  de  Glanville,  the  great 
justiciary  of  England,  and  highly  distin- 
guished both  as  a  lawyer  and  a  soldier ; 
while  the  historian,  Gerald  of  Cambria,  who 
had  been  sojourning  for  some  time  in  Ire- 
land, was  appointed  to  attend  John  as  his 
secretary  and  tutor. 

John,  Earl  of  Moreton  and  Lord  of  Ire- 
land, having  been  previously  knighted. by 


A.  D.  1185.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


t5 


his  father,  embarked  (March  31,  1185)  for 
Ireland  at  Milford  Haven,  where  a  fleet  of 
sixty  ships  had  been  prepared  to  transport 
his  troops.  On  the  following  day,  (which 
we  shall  presume  was  the  1st  of  April,)  his 
juvenile  majesty  arrived  in  the  harbour  of 
Waterford. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

Administration  of  Philip  de  Braosa — John's  dis- 
courteous treatment  of  the  Irish  princes,  and  his 
impolitic  behaviour  towards  the  original  "  men 
of  iron" — Eight  months  of  tyrannical  folly  and 
unsuccessful  resistance — The  nature  of  Henry's 
grant  to  John — Retirement  of  Roderic  O'Con- 
nor to  the  monastery  of  Cong — Connaught  de- 
vastated— Argument  on  the  constitutional  conse- 
quences of  Henry's  grant  to  John — Death  of 
Henry  the  Second,  and  testimonials  of  his  cha- 
racter. 

Philip  de  Braosa  commenced  with  con- 
duct little  likely  to  inspire  confidence  in 
the  new  order  of  things  One  of  the  first 
acts  of  his  government — an  act  which, 
whatever  might  be  its  strict  justice,  was 
far  from  being  calculated  to  render  him 
popular — was  to  resume  all  the  lands  of 
the  royal  demesne,  which  De  Lacy  had 
parcelled  out  among  his  own  friends  and 
followers,  and  to  appropriate  them  to  the 
use  of  the  king's  household.  The  next 
measure  of  the  lord-deputy  was  to  march 
an  army  into  Ulster,  a  region  of  adventure 
hitherto  occupied  by  John  De  Courcy 
alone,  and  where,  ever  since  a  victory 
gained  by  him,  in  1182,  over  Donald 
O'Lochlin,  the  spirit  of  the  Irish  had  been 
considerably  broken.  The  leader  of  the 
present  enterprise  had  evidently  no  object 
but  plunder  and  extortion;  and  from  the 
clergy,  more  especially,  so  grinding  were 
his  exactions,  that  even  Giraldus,  (so  leni- 
ent in  general  to  all  misdeeds  against  the 
Irish,)  brands  the  spoiler  with  his  reproba- 
tion. "  Even  in  the  holy  time  of  Lent,"  says 
this  chronicler,  "  he  extorted  from  the  sa- 
cred order  his  execrable  tribute  of  gold." 

When  the  news  of  John's  landing  had 
spread  through  the  country,  there  came, 
soon  after,  to  wait  upon  him,  many  of  those 
Irish  chiefs  of  Leinster  who  had  ever  since 


the  time  of  their  first  submission  been  Uv- 
ing  quietly  under  the  English  government, 
and  now  hastened  to  welcome  the  young 
prince,  and  acknowledge  him  loyally  as 
their  lord.  But  the  kind  of  reception  these 
chieftains  experienced  showed  at  the  out- 
set how  weak  and  infatuated  was  the  policy 
of  sending  a  stripling,  a  mere  boy,  attended 
by  a  train  of  idle  and  insolent  courtiers, 
upon  a  mission  involving  interests  of  so 
grave  and  momentous  a  description.  The 
chieftains  returned  home  burning  for  re- 
venge ;  they  detailed  the  story  of  their  re- 
ception to  all  whom  they  met  coming  to 
the  court;  and  they  spread  everywhere 
the  account  of  their  wrongs,  until  the  en- 
tire island  was  animated  by  one  sentiment 
of  deadly  hate  against  the  English  govern- 
ment. Regardless  of  the  coming  storm, 
John  and  his  associates  proceeded  still  fur- 
ther to  alienate  the  affections  of  his  new 
subjects.  In  defiance  of  the  privileges 
which  Henry  had  griinted  to  the  maritime 
towns,  the  citizens  were  loaded  with  heavy 
taxes,  to  support  the  expenditure  of  an  ex- 
travagant court.  The  "  men  of  iron"  who 
had  conquered  Leinster,  were  studiously 
discouraged,  and  had  reason  to  dread 
that  their  estates  would  be  wrested  from 
them,  to  gratify  the  cupidity  of  the  silken 
flatterers  by  whom  the  prince  was  now 
accompanied.  Lacy,  whose  personal  in- 
fluence might  have  abated  these  evils, 
was  murdered  by  a  labourer  whom  he  had 
employed  in  erecting  a  castle.  The  news 
of  his  death  was  joyfully  received  by  the 
Irish,  who  dreaded  his  military  abilities; 
and  the  clergy,  attributing  it  to  the  ven 
geance  of  the  saints,  for  some  act  of  sacri- 
lege, contributed  to  increase  the  insurrec- 
tionary state  of  public  opinion. 

Lord  Lyttleton  observes — "  All  that  au- 
thority over  the  minds  of  the  Irish,  which 
the  courtesy,  gravity,  and  prudence  of 
Henry,  during  his  abode  in  their  island, 
had  happily  gained,  was  lost  in  a  few  days 
by  the  petulant  levity  of  John  and  his  cour- 
tiers; the  good  will  of  that  people,  on  which 
Henry  had  desired  to  establish  his  domin- 
ion, being  instantly  turned  into  a  national 
hatred  " 


36 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1188. 


A  singular  indolence  and  fatuity  appears 
to  have  prevailed  with  John  and  his  disso- 
lute  companions.     The  erection  of  three 
forts  or  castles  at  Tipperary,  Ardfinnan, 
and  Lismore,  was  the  only  measure  for  the 
security  of  their  power,  which  the  incapa- 
ble advisers  of  the  prince  had  yet  adopted. 
Even  these  castles,  however,  were  not  left 
long  unassailed.     That  of  Ardfinnan,  built 
upon  a  rock  overlooking  the  Suir,  was  at- 
tacked by  Donald  O'Brien,  Prince  of  Lim- 
erick, and   its  small  garrison  put  to  the 
sword.    In  Ossory,  Roger  de  Poer,  a  young 
officer  of  brilliant  promise,  was  cut  off: 
while,   in   an  assault   upon   Lismore,   the 
brave  Robert  Barry,  one  of  those  who  had 
accompanied    Fitz-Stephen    into    Ireland, 
was  taken   and   slain.      In  various   other 
quarters,  the  incursions  of  the  natives  were 
attended   with    equal    success ;    and   two 
other  English  leaders,  Raymond  Fitz-Hugh, 
who  fell  at  Olechan,  and  Raymond  Canton, 
slain  at  Odrone,  were  added  to  the  victims 
which  the  outraged  feelings  of  the  people 
now  offered  up  in  bitter  revenge  for  their 
wrongs. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  attack  upon  Cork, 
by  Mac  Carthy  of  Desmond,  was  so  vig- 
orously resisted  by  Theobald  Walter,  the 
chief  butler,  who  had  accompanied  John 
into  Ireland,  that  the  Irish  prince  and  the 
whole  of  his  party  were  slain  in  the  en- 
counter. A  like  success  awaited  the  arms 
of  the  English  in  Meath,  into  which  dis- 
trict, defying  the  measures  for  its  defence 
adopted  by  Hugh  de  Lacy,  the  septs  on  its 
western  borders  made  now  a  desperate  in- 
road ;  but  were  repulsed  with  immense 
slaughter  by  William  Petit,  a  feudatory  of 
De  Lacy,  who  sent  one  hundred  heads  of 
the  slain,  as  a  trophy  of  his  victory,  to 
Dublin.  Notwithstanding  these  occasional 
successes  on  the  part  of  the  invaders,  the 
general  fortune  of  the  war  was  decidedly 
in  favour  of  the  natives ;  and  according  to 
the  chronicles  of  the  English  themselves, 
John  lost,  in  the  different  conflicts  with  the 
Irish,  almost  his  whole  army. 

Eight  months  of  disorder  had  elapsed 
before  Henry  was  fully  informed  of  the 
ruin  which  threatened  his  Irish  interests. 


He  immediately  determined  to  recall  John 
from  a  government  which  he  had  so  wan- 
tonly abused,  and  to  intrust  the  administra- 
tion to  De  Courcy,  whose  desperate  valour 
seemed  the  best  qualification  in  this  mo- 
ment of  danger.  The  young  prince  and 
his  gaudy  train  gladly  quitted  a  country 
where  their  personal  safety  was  no  longer 
secure  ;  and  the  defence  of  the  English 
interests  was  again  confided  to  the  old 
settlers. 

Henry  certainly  appears  to  have  been 
either  very  inconsistent  or  else  very  subtle 
in  his  policy  respecting  his  son  John's  posi- 
tion before  the  world.  John's  discoveries 
on  the  "  royal  road"  to  government  must 
have  bewildered  himself.  Moore  has  fur- 
nished the  following  able  summary  of  the 
case : —     . 

"  On  the  subject  of  Henry's  grant  of  the 
realm  of  Ireland  to  his  son  John,  and  the 
supposed  effects  of  that  measure,  as  re- 
garded the  political  relations  between  the 
two  countries,  a  question  has  been  more 
than  once  raised,  among  constitutional  law- 
yers, upon  which  it  may  be  expected  that 
I  should  here  offer  some  remarks.     But  a 
more  direct  opportunity  will  occur  for  con- 
sidering this  controversy  when  we  come  to 
notice  the  events  of  the  subsequent  reign. 
Meanwhile,  a  brief  review  of  the  steps 
taken,  at  different  times,  by  Henry,  towards 
such  a  transfer  of  his  Irish  dominion,  may 
put  the  reader  more  clearly  in  possession 
of  the  bearings  of  the  question  that  has  since 
arisen  out  of  that  measure ;  and  will  also 
show  that  Henry  himself  was  not  without 
doubts  as  to  the  safety  and  policy  of  the 
step.     His  relinquishment,  indeed,  of  the 
design   originally  entertained   by  him  of 
bestowing  upon  John  the  title  of  king,  arose, 
most  probably,  from  the  apprehension  that 
the  establishment  of  a  separate  sovereignty 
over  that  country  might,  at  some  future 
time,  be  assumed  as  a  ground  for  question- 
ing the   dependence   of   Ireland    on    the 
English  crown.     On  no  other  supposition 
is  it  easy  to  account  for  the  great  uncertain- 
ty of  purpose  exhibited   by  him  on  this 
point.     Thus,  though,  in  the  year  1177,  he 
actually  intended  to  make  this  boy  King 


A.  D.  1189.] 


SECOND   DIVISION, 


37 


of  Ireland,  and  caused  him,  with  the  pope's 
permission,  to  be  so  declared  by  a  council 
or  parliament  at  Oxford,  it  is  yet  clear,  from 
numerous  records,  that  John  took  no  other 
title  than  that  of  Lord  of  Hibernia.  Not- 
withstanding this,  when  he  was  about  to 
proceed  to  that  country,  in  1185,  applica- 
tion was  made  by  his  father  to  Pope  Lu- 
cius the  Third,  requesting  that  he  would 
allow  the  young  prince  to  be  crowned  ;  but 
the  pope,  for  what  reason  is  not  known,  re- 
fused his  consent.  On  the  accession,  how- 
ever, of  Urban  the  Third,  the  same  request, 
it  appears,  was  renewed ;  for  that  pontiff, 
shortly  after  his  election,  granted  permission 
to  Henry  to  crown  any  one  of  his  sons 
whom  he  should  choose  King  of  Ireland. 
On  the  arrival,  however,  of  the  Cardinal 
Octavian  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  at 
the  coronation,  the  king,  who  in  the  mean- 
time had  given  up  his  project  of  sending 
John  again  into  Ireland,  abandoned  like- 
wise all  intention  of  crowning  hi/n." 

We  have  seen  that  De  Courcy  was  now 
left  to  his  own  resources.  He  was  ably 
seconded  by  young  De  Lacy ;  but  he  de- 
rived more  important  assistance  from  the 
dissensions  of  the  Irish  themselves,  who, 
even  at  this  most  important  moment,  re- 
newed the  feuds  which  had  previously 
proved  their  ruin.  The  northern  chieftains 
engaged  in  civil  war,  and  allowed  the 
English  to  recover  their  lost  ground  with- 
out interruption.  In  Connaught,  Roderic, 
being  deposed  by  his  sons,  retired  into  the 
monastery  of  Cong,  where  he  ended  his 
unfortunate  career ;  and  the  nominal  sov- 
ereignty of  Ireland,  now  the  very  shadow 
of  a  shade,  became  the  subject  of  a  violent 
contest  between  the  chieftains  of  the  west 
and  north.  Still  De  Courcy  was  unable  to 
surmount  all  the  difficulties  by  which  he 
was  surrounded.  In  his  attempt  to  invade 
Connaught,  he  was  compelled  to  retire  be- 
fore two  armies,  each  far  superior  to  his 
own.  The  ability  with  which  he  extricated 
his  army  was  more  honourable  than  any 
military  triumph ;  but  the  Irish  magnified 
their  slight  advantage  into  a  glorious  vic- 
tory, and  boasted  that  they  would  now 
drive  the  foreigners  from  their  shores.    A 


combined  effort  for  the  purpose  would 
probably  have  succeeded ;  but  this  was 
prevented  by  the  private  feuds  of  the  chief- 
tains, and  the  vacillation  of  the  superior 
leaders,  who  made  war  or  peace  on  the 
impulse  of  the  moment,  and  could  not  be 
persuaded  to  adopt  any  steady  or  sustained 
policy. 

After  De  Courcy's  retreat  from  Con- 
naught, the  authority  of  Connor  Manmoy, 
(Roderic's  soUj)  appeared  to  be  securely 
re-established.  But,  in  the  next  year,  1 189, 
some  of  the  nearest  friends  of  this  prince, 
having  joined  in  a  conspiracy  against  him 
with  the  late  vanquished  party,  he  was,  be- 
tween both  factions,  basely  murdered. 
Nor  even  then  did  the  curse  of  discord 
cease  to  hang  around  that  ill-fated  house ; 
as,  for  many  a  year  after,  Connaught  con- 
tinued to  be  torn  and  convulsed  by  the  re- 
mains of  this  unnatural  strife ;  while  the 
fallen  monarch,  Roderic  O'Connor,  still 
lived  to  witness,  from  his  melancholy  re- 
treat at  Cong,  the  judgments  which  a  long 
course  of  dissension  was  now  bringing 
down  on  his  ill-starred  realm  and  race. 

The  constitutional  question  which  has 
been  raised  in  later  times  respecting  the 
consequences  of  Henry's  grant  to  John 
would  afford  much  pleasure  to  those  having 
leisure  and  inclination  to  trace  the  whole 
subject.  Some  of  Ireland's  best  friends  have 
taken  different  sides  on  this  question.  Very 
warm  advocates  are  sometimes  drawn  into 
danger  by  attempting  to  "  prove  too  much." 
Moore  has  given  us  an  elaborate  argument, 
evolving  a  splendid  and  lawyer-like  expo- 
sition, from  which  we  have  separated  the 
following  quotations : — 

"  The  first  instance,  I  believe,  of  any  de- 
cided difference  of  opinion  on  this  point, 
occurs  in  the  decisions  of  the  judges  of 
England,  on  the  precedent  of  the  Staple 
Act,  (2  Hen.  VI.,)  when  to  the  question, 
'Whether  the  Staple  Act  binds  Ireland?' 
two  directly  opposite  opinions  were  given, 
on  the  two  several  occasions  when  the  case 
was  brought  under  their  consideration. 
The  opinion  pronounced,  however,  by 
Chief-Justice  Hu^ey  on  the  last  of  these 
two  occasions,  and  to  which  all  the  other 


38 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1189. 


judges  assented,  was,  that  'the  statutes 
made  in  England  did  bind  those  of  Ireland  V 
— a  view  of  the  case  confirmed,  in  later 
times,  by  the  high  authority  of  Chief-Justice 
Cook,  and  likewise  of  Sir  John  Da  vies." 

"  The  first  public  controversy  to  which 
the  question  gave  rise,  was  that  which  took 
place  on  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Adven- 
turers, (17  Car.  I.,)  between  Sir  Richard 
Bolton  (or,  rather,  Patrick  Darcy,  assuming 
that  name)  and  Sergeant  Maynart,  whose 
respective  pamphlets  on  the  subject  may 
be  found  in  Harris's  *  Hibernica.'  At  the 
close  of  the  same  century,  the  question  was 
again  called  into  life  by  Molyneux,  in  be- 
half of  the  Irish  woollen  manufacture,  and 
received  new  grace  and  popularity  from 
his  manner  of  treating  it.  About  fifty  years 
later,  the  Irish  demagogue,  Lucas,  revived 
the  topic,  in  his  own  coarse  but  popular 
strain.  Nor  has  the  subject,  even  in  our 
own  times,  been  permitted  to  slumber ;  as  a 
learned  argument  in  favour  of  Darcy's  and 
Molyneux's  view  of  the  question  has  ap- 
peared, not  long  since,  from  the  pen  of  Mr. 
Monck  Mason." 

"  By  one  of  the  parties  in  this  controversy 
it  has  been  contended  that  the  act  of  Henry 
in  making  his  son  King  of  Ireland,  produced 
a  great  and  fundamental  change  in  the  rela- 
tions between  the  two  kingdoms ;  that,  by 
this  transfer,  he  had  superseded  or  voided 
whatever  claim  he  could  pretend  to,  from 
conquest,  over  Ireland,  leaving  it  to  all  in- 
tents a  separate  and  independent  kingdom ; 
while,  by  the  introduction  among  that  peo- 
ple, as  well  in  his  own  reign  as  in  that  of 
his  son  John,  of  the  laws  and  institutions  of 
England,  they  were  provided  with  the 
means  of  internal  government,  and  thereby 
exempted  from  all  dependence  on  the  Eng- 
lish legislature." 

**  The  great  and  leading  mistake,  how- 
ever, of  those  now  obsolete  champions  of 
Ireland's  independence,  who  appealed  in  its 
behalf  to  the  Anglo-Norman  code,  was 
their  overlooking  the  fact,  that,  from  all 
this  boasted  system  of  law  and  polity  in- 
troduced by  the  invaders  into  the  country, 
the  natives  themselves  were  entirely  ex- 
cluded ;  that  neither  at  the  period  where 


we  are  now  arrived,  nor  for  many  cen- 
turies after,  were  the  people  of  Ireland, 
properly  speaking,  the  native  inhabitants 
of  the  land,  admitted  to  any  share  what- 
ever in  the  enjoyment  of  those  foreign  in- 
stitutions and  privileges  which  yet  have', 
been  claimed,  in  their  most  unrestricted 
form,  for  the  Ireland  of  modem  days,  on 
the  sole  presumption  of  their  having  been  at 
that  period  her  own.  It  will  be  found,  as 
we  proceed,  that  within  the  narrow  circle 
of  the  Pale  alone  were  confined,  for  many 
centuries,  all  the  advantages  resulting  from 
English  laws ;  and  the  few  instances  that 
occur,  from  time  to  time,  of  the  admission, 
at  their  own  request,  of  some  natives  of  Ire- 
land to  this  privilege, only  show,  by  the  few- 
ness and  formality  of  the  exceptions,  how 
very  general  and  strict  was  the  exclusion." 

"  It  is  clear  that  Molyneux,  though,  in 
one  sense,  so  warm  a  champion  of  Ireland's 
independence,  would  have  hailed  a  Union, 
such  as  now  exists  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, with  welcome.  In  noticing  the  fact 
above  stated,  he  says  : — *  If  from  these  last 
mentioned  records  it  be  concluded  that  the 
parliament  of  England  may  bind  Ireland, 
it  must  also  be  allowed  that  the  people  of 
Ireland  ought  to  h^ve  their  representatives 
in  the  parliament  of  England.  And  this,  I 
believe,  we  should  be  willing  enough  to 
embrace : — but  this  is  a  happiness  we  can 
hardly  hope  for.'" 

"  The  solemn  enactment,  in  our  own 
times,  of  a  legislative  union  between  the 
two  countries,  would  seem  to  have  reduc- 
ed the  question,  here  noticed,  to  a  mere 
theme  of  curious  historical  speculation ; 
and  certainly,  on  no  slight  grounds  should 
the  claims  of  Ireland  to  legislative  indepen- 
dence be  again  put  forth  as  a  practical  ques- 
tion. But,  should  the  course  of  political 
events  ever  bring  back  into  public  discus- 
sion a  subject  now  quietly  left  to  repose  in 
the  page  of  the  historian  and  the  antiquary, 
the  right  of  Ireland  to  legislate  for  herself 
must  assuredly  be  asserted  on  some  more 
tenable  grounds  than  the  obsolete  grant  of 
her  realm  to  a  stripling  king,  or  the  occa- 
sional pretensions  of  the  English  parliament 
of  the  Pale." 


A.  D.  1169.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


39 


Since  Moore  wrote  these  words,  "  the 
course  of  political  events  "  has  brought  for- 
ward the  post-union  subject  of  "  repeal," 
upon  what  some  persons  consider  "  more 
tenable  grounds "  than  any  that .  were 
broached  before  or  since  the  Union.  The 
question  of  "  repeal "  is  in  able  hands,  and 
requires  no  illustration  from  us,  except  that 
we  are  anxious  to  have  the  whole  connec- 
tion with  England  properly  laid  before  the 
reader's  judgment.  What  we  have  said 
inseparably  belongs  to  a  fair  and  candid 
statement  of  the  acts  of  Henry  the  Second. 
Moore  gives  the  authorities  which  may  be 
profitably  consulted  by  those  who  desire 
further  particulars. 

All  hopes  that  Henry  might  yet  find 
leisure  to  apply  himself  to  the  peaceful 
settlement  of  a  country,  which  according 
to  the  treatment  he  pursued,  would  become 
either  an  ornament  or  a  disgrace  to  Eng- 
land, were  now  decided  by  his  death,  in 
July,  1189,  at  the  castle  of  Chinon,  in  Nor- 
mandy. 

Strong  political  prejudices  have  increas- 
ed the  ordinary  difficulties  of  forming  a 
correct  estimate  of  Henry's  character. 
Leland  speaks  of  him  as  "  a  prince  whom 
impartial  judgment  and  reflection  must 
rank  among  the  first  characters  of  history." 

This  is  Protestant  and"Trin.  Coll.  Dub." 
testimony. 

Mac-Geoghegan  shows  him  no  more 
mercy  than  Cobbett  would  a  "  Hampshire 
Parson."  He  first  asks  the  question — 
"  What  was  Henry  the  Second  ?"  He  then 
answers : — 

"  A  man  who  in  private  life  forgot  the 
essential  duties  of  religion,  and  frequently 
those  of  nature ;  a  superstitious  man,  who, 
under  the  veil  of  religion,  joined  the  most 
holy  practices  to  the  most  flagrant  vices  ; 
regardless  of  his  word,  when  to  promote 
his  own  interest,  he  broke  the  most  solemn 
treaties  with  the  King  of  France.  He  con- 
sidered principle  as  nothing,  when  the  sa- 
crifice of  it  promised  to  produce  him  a 
benefit.  It  is  well  known,  that  without  any 
scruple,  he  married  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  so 
famous  for  her  debaucheries,  and  degraded 
by  the  evidence  on  her  divorce  from  Louis 


the  Seventh  of  France.  Henry  ungrate- 
fully confined  this  very  woman  in  chains, 
though  she  had  brought  him  one  fourth  of 
France  as  her  marriage  portion.  He  was 
a  bad  father,  quarrelled  with  all  his  chil- 
dren, and  became  engaged  in  wars  on 
every  side.  As  a  king,  he  tyrannized 
over  his  nobles  and  took  pleasure  in  con- 
founding all  their  privileges.  Like  his  pre- 
decessors, he  was  the  sworn  enemy  of  the 
popes  ;  he  attacked  their  rights,  he  perse- 
cuted their  adherents,  sent  back  their  le- 
gates with  contempt,  encroached  upon  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  the  Church, 
and  gloried  in  supporting  the  most  unjust 
usurpers  of  them ;  which  conduct  led  to 
the  martyrdom  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury. Again,  his  debaucheries  are  ad- 
mitted by  every  historian.  No  one  is  igno- 
rant that  he  went  so  far  as  to  seduce  the 
young  Alix,  who  had  been  betrothed  to 
his  son  Richard,  and  that  all  the  misfor- 
tunes which  filled  the  latter  part  of  his  life 
with  affliction,  were  caused  by  this  passion, 
as  obstinate  as  it  was  criminal  and  base. 
Behold  the  apostle,  the  reformer,  whom  the 
holy  see  is  said  to  have  chosen  to  convert 
Ireland  !" 

This  is  the  testimony  of  a  powerful  Cath- 
olic writer,  who  ably  supports  his  p)ositious 
by  quoting  witnesses  that  cannot  reason- 
ably be  suspected  of  unfairness. 

But,  as  neither  of  these  statements  are 
likely  to  be  impartial,  we  will  proceed  fur- 
ther. Hume  (or  rather,  Smollet,  for  he 
did  the  writing)  says — "  His  character, 
in  private  as  well  as  in  public  life,  is  al- 
most without  a  blemish ;  and  he  seems 
to  have  possessed  every  accomplishment, 
both  of  body  and  mind,  which*  makes  a 
man  either  estimable  or  amiable.  He 
loved  peace,  but  possessed  both  bravery 
and  conduct  in  war  ;  was  provident  with- 
out timidity,  severe  in  the  execution  of  jus- 
tice without  rigour,  and  temperate  without 
austerity." 

These  are  the  opinions  of  two  Scots- 
men, one  of  whom  is  commonly  classed  as 
an  Infidel,  the  other  as  a  Protestant.  They 
appear  to  have  a  surprising  sympathy  with 
Henry's  character.    But  these  extreme  va- 


40 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1189. 


nations  of  opinion  cannot  all  be  on  the  side 
of  truth ;  and  although  wc  think  that  no 
great  man's  character  is  fully  understood 
in  his  own  times,  we  shall  (modern  evi- 
dence being  almost  useless)  bring  forward 
the  evidence  of  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  the 
learned  and  courtly  chaplain  whom  Henry 
and  John  patronized.  We  quote  from  the 
famous  work  which  was  written  by  Giral- 
dus to  convey  the  impression  that  Ireland 
was  "  conquered,"  i.  e.  "  Hihernia  Expug- 
natcB."  Considering  all  the  circumstances, 
it  was  lucky  for  the  sagacious  chaplain  that 
he  wrote  in  the  Latin  language : — 

"  Henry  was  less  given  to  devotion  than 
to  hunting  ;  he  was  an  outrageous  violator 
of  the  marriage  contract,  and  a  ready 
breaker  of  his  promise  in  most  things. 
Whenever  he  got  into  difficulties  he  pre- 
ferred repenting  of  his  word  instead  of  his 
deed,  as  he  evidently  considered  it  more 
easy  to  nullify  the  former  than  the  latter. 
He  was  an  oppressor  of  the  nobility,  and 
daringly  audacious  in  his  usurpations  of 
sacred  things.  In  his  desire  to  monopo- 
lize the  administration  of  justice,  he  united 
the  laws  of  his  realm  with  those  of  the 
Church,  or  rather,  confounded  them  to- 
gether in  such  a  manner  as  showed  that  he 
did  not  scruple  to  appropriate  the  revenues 
of  vacant  churches  to  political  purposes."* 

We  think  the  reader  will  now  be  able 
to  unravel  the  differences  of  estimation  in 
which  Henry's  character  has  been  held. 
It  certainly  appears  that  the  less  we  say 
about  his  morals  the  better,  for  ourselves 
and  for  the  subject.  But  his  shining  abili- 
ties as  a  man  of  the  world  have  dazzled 
and  puzzled  those  who  tried  to  write  about 
him.  We  must  acknowledge  that  foreign 
princes  looked  upon  him  as  an  honourable 
arbitrator.  He  boldly  dispelled  the  bar- 
barous custom  of  plundering  wrecked  ves- 
sels ;  he  abolished  the  odious  tax  called 
Danegelt ;  and  he  governed  a  greater  ex-  j 
tent  of  dominion  than  any  of  his  predeces 
sors  on  the  throne  of  England. 

*  Hibem.  Expug.  book  i.  c.  45. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Accession  of  Richard  the  First — Administmtion  of 
young  De  Lacy — Succeeded  by  the  second  Earl 
of  Pembroke— Followed  by  Hamo  de  Valois — 
Death  of  Roderic  O'Connor — Educational  and 
religious  movements  during  Roderic's  reign — 
Character  and  circumstances  of  the  last  monarch 
of  Ireland. 

On  the  accession  of  Richard  the  First, 
Hugh  de  Lacy  was  appointed  by  John  to 
be  the  king's  deputy  in  Ireland.  Henry  the 
Second  had  passed  the  principal  portion  of 
his  life  on  the  continent.  When  abroad, 
he  was  surrounded  with  English  noblemen 
and  gentlemen.  When  in  England,  the 
French  gentry  and  nobles  accompanied 
him.  The  legislatures  were  similar,  and 
Norman-French  was  the  language  of  the 
law-courts.  Richard  the  Lion-hearted 
took  the  cross  at  the  same  time  as  his 
father,  on  receiving  intelligence  of  the 
great  successes  of  Sultan  Saladin  in  Pales- 
tine ;  and  he  seems  ever  after  to  have 
given  his  principal  attention  towards  the 
shores  of  the  Adriatic.  As  Henry's  second 
son,  Richard  was  invested  in  the  duchy 
of  Guienne  and  county  of  Poitou;  and,  al- 
though a  man  of  unquestionable  ability  as 
well  as  bravery, — shrewd,  eloquent,  and 
poetical, — he  appears  to  have  thought  no 
more  of  Ireland  than  he  would  of  any  old 
war-charger  in  his  stables. 

The  Hugh  de  Lacy  whom  John  ap- 
pointed was  a  son  of  the  first  Lord  of 
Meath.  John  de  Courcy,  finding  himself, 
unfairly,  as  he  thought,  supplanted,  retired 
dissatisfied  to  his  own  possessions  in  Ul- 
ster, and  there  assumed,  in  the  midst  of  his 
followers,  a  tone  and  attitude  of  independ- 
ence which  threatened  danger  to  the  Eng- 
lish interests  in  that  quarter.  In  the  mean- 
while the  native  princes,  encouraged  by  the 
diversion  to  the  shores  of  the  East,  under 
Richard's  banner,  of  the  energies  and  re- 
sources of  England,  began  to  form  plans 
among  themselves  of  combined  warfare 
against  the  foreigners,  and  even  to  suspend 
their  intestine  quarrels  for  the  general  ob- 
ject of  crushing  the  common  foe.  By  a 
truce  now  formed  by  the  native  princes, 
O'Brien  of  Thomond  was  left  free  to  direct 
his  arms  against  the  English ;  and,  having 


A.  D.  1198.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


41 


attacked  their  forces  at  Thurles,  in  O'Fo- 
garty's  Country,  gave  them  a  complete 
overthrow. 

The  English  colonists  now  began  to  ex- 
hibit symptoms  of  that  state  of  degeneracy 
and  insubordination  into  which  they  after- 
wards sunk.  The  independent  position  of 
Do  Courcy  on  his  usurped  territory,  by  thus 
setting  at  defiance  the  delegate  of  royalty, 
— the  spectacle  of  English  soldiers  opposed 
to  each  other  in  the  ranks  of  contending 
Irish  chieftains, — these  and  a  few  other 
such  anomalies,  which  began  to  present 
themselves,  at  this  period,  were  but  the 
foretaste  of  evils  inevitably  yet  to  come. 

After  a  short,  but  apparently  unsuccess- 
ful experiment  of  office,  Hugh  de  Lacy 
was  succeeded  by  William  Petit,  for  whom, 
shortly  after,  we  find  substituted  William 
Marshall,  or  Mareschall,  second  Earl  of 
Pembroke.  This  powerful  nobleman,  who, 
in  right  of  his  new  dignity,  bore  the  gold- 
en staff  and  cross  at  the  coronation  of 
Richard  the  First,  had  together  with  his 
earldom,  received  from  that  monarch  the 
hand  of  Isabel,  daughter  and  heir  of  the 
late  earl,  and  became  thus  invested  with 
her  princely  Irish  possessions.  But,  what- 
ever advantage  this  connection  with  the 
country  may  have  given  him,  the  results 
of  his  government  were  by  no  means  pros- 
perous. Presuming  on  the  tameness  with 
which  the  Irish  had  yielded  to  aggression, 
their  haughty  invaders  now  began  to  add 
insult  to  wrong  ;  but  not  with  equal  impu- 
nity. Far  more  alive  to  contempt  than 
to  injury,  those  who  had  witnessed  unmov- 
ed the  destruction  of  their  ancient  monar- 
chy, now  flew  to  arms  with  instant  alacrity, 
under  the  sure  goad  of  foreign  insolence 
and  scorn ;  and  the  two  most  active  and 
popular  of  the  native  princes,  Cathal  of 
Connaught  and  Mac  Carthy  of  Desmond, 
held  forth  their  ever-ready  banner  to  all 
whose  war  cry  was  vengeance  against  the 
English.  So  great  was  the  success,  ac- 
cordingly, of  the  national  cause,  that,  in 
spite  of  the  perfidy  which,  as  usual,  found 
its  way  into  the  Irish  councils,  Mac  Carthy, 
aided  by  the  forces  of  Cathal  and  those  of 

O'Lochliny  succeeded  in  reducing  several 

6 


of  the  garrisons  in  Munster,  and  compel- 
ling even  Cork  to  surrender. 

Disgusted  with  the  trials  of  office.  Earl 
Marshall  resigned  the  reins  of  authority  to 
Hamo  de  Valois,  who  finding,  on  his  arrival 
in  1197,  the  government  embarrassed  for 
want  of  means,  made  no  scruple  of  com- 
mencing his  career  by  a  forcible  invasion 
of  the  property  of  the  Church.  Notwith- 
standing the  remonstrances  of  Cumming, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  Hamo  persisted  in 
his  design, — seizing  several  lands  belong- 
ing to  the  see  of  Dublin,  and  taking  pos- 
session also  of  the  temporalities  of  the 
church  of  Leighlin,  together  with  the  pro- 
perty of  the  canons.  The  indignant  arch- 
bishop, after  having,  in  vain,  tried  entreaty, 
remonstrance,  and  excommunication,  in 
utter  despair,  at  length,  of  redress  from  the 
Irish  authorities,  laid  the  sentence  of  inter- 
dict on  his  diocese,  and  departed  for  Eng- 
land to  invoke  the  interference  of  the  throne. 
But  neither  Earl  John  nor  King  Richard 
appear  to  have  afforded  him  any  remedy. 

The  year  1198  is  ever  memorable  in 
Irish  history  by  the  death  of  Roderic 
O'Connor,  the  last  of  the  monarchs  of  Ire- 
land. For  ten  years  he  reigned  over  Con- 
naught  alone  ;  eighteen  following  years  he 
held  the  sceptre  of  all  Ireland  ;  but  the  last 
thirteen  years  of  his  existence  were  passed 
in  devotional  seclusion  from  the  world. 
He  died  on  the  28th  of  November,  at  the 
age  of  82  years.  His  body  was  buried  in 
the  church  at  Cluan-Mac-Noisk,  with  great 
pomp  and  solemnity. 

Roderic  left  numerous  legacies  to  the 
churches  of  Ireland,  Rome,  and  Jerusalem. 
He  also  established  and  endowed  the 
schools  of  Armagh,  which  were  frequented 
by  students  from  all  parts  of  Europe. 

While  we  are  speaking  of  this  last  prince 
of  that  monarchy  of  Ireland  which  is 
known  to  have  existed  for  two  thousand 
years,  we  ought,  in  justice,  to  examine  how 
he  left  his  dominions  supplied  with  moral 
and  religious  instruction.  In  our  anxiety 
to  continue  the  main  narrative  from  O'Hal- 
loran's  division,  we  have  been  obliged  to 
slight  the  ecclesiastical  and  scholastic  move- 
ments of  the  times.     As  the  reign  of  Rich- 


42 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


fA.  D.  1198. 


ard  the  First  is  so  scantily  supplied  with 
Irish  incident,  we  shall  now  bring  up  those 
arrears  of  detail,  and  continue  them  pro- 
perly in  the  succeeding  chapters. 

O'Halloran  has  already  informed  us  how 
Roderic  found  his  dominions  (1160)  pro- 
vided with  educational  institutions.  Almost 
the  first  public  act  by  Roderic  was  the 
calling  of  a  convention  at  Athboy,in  Meath. 
This  synodical  convention  was  composed 
of  St.  Gelasius,  Archbishop  of  Armagh 
and  Primate  of  Ireland;  of  St.  Laurence, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin  ;  Catholicus  O'Dub- 
thay,  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  and  many  of 
the  inferior  clergy.  The  princes  present 
were,  Roderic,  the  monarch  ;  Tighernan 
O'Rourke,  Prince  of  Breffny ;  Dunchad, 
Prince  of  Orgiell ;  Eochaid,  son  of  Duns- 
leve.  Prince  of  Ulad;  Dermod  O'Melachlin, 
Prince  of  Tara  ;  Asculph,  son  of  Torall, 
Prince  of  the  Danes  of  Dublin  ;  Dunchad 
O'Foelan,  Prince  of  the  Desies.  The  object 
of  this  meeting  was  the  regulation  of  the 
then  existing  police  and  educational  ordi- 
nances. Mac-Geoghegan  has  described 
these  arrangements  as  very  judicious  and 
successful. 

In  the  first  year  of  Roderic's  reign,  the 
priory  of  All-hallows,  near  Dublin,  was 
founded  by  Dermot  Mac-Murrough,  King 
of  Leinster,  for  regular  canons  of  the  fra- 
ternity of  Arouaise.  After  the  dissolution 
of  religious  houses  by  King  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  site  of  this  property  was  tem- 
porarily invested  with  the  mayor  and  citi- 
zens of  Dublin.  Elizabeth  then  gave  a 
royal  charter,  and  the  city  granted  a  mort- 
main license  for  the  land,  with  the  view  of 
establishing  a  college  as  the  mother  of  a 
university.  Circumstances  and  parchment 
ordained  that  it  should  have  the  following 
selfish  and  profanely  ambiguous  title, — 
"The  College  of  the  Holy  and  Undivided 
Trinity  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  near  Dublin."* 

Roderic  also  paid  great  attention  to  the 
health,  amusement,  and  invigoration  of  the 
people  generally.  Among  many  regula- 
tions for  these  objects,  he  solemnly  revived 

*  War.  dd  Antiq.  Hib.;  c.  iv.  See  also  Leiand ;  vol, 
ii.  book  iv.  chap.  iii.  Lelaud  was  a  Senior-Fellow  of 
"  Trin.  Coll.  Dub." 


the  gymnastic  and  other  games  at  Tailton, 
in  1168. 

About  this  time,  some  religious  houses 
were  founded  by  Donald,  otherwise  Dom- 
hnal  More  O'Brien,  King  of  Limerick,  in 
the  district  of  Thomond,  the  abbey  of  Clare, 
otherwise  Kilmony,  (or  de  Forgio,  from  the 
river  Forge,  by  which  it  was  watered,) 
under  the  name  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul ; 
and  the  priory  of  Inis-ne-Gananach,  for 
regular  canons,  in  nn  island  in  the  river 
Shannon.  He  also  founded,  in  the  county 
of  Limerick,  the  monasteries  of  St.  Peter  of 
Limerick,  of  the  order  of  St.  Augustin,  and 
that  of  St.  John  Baptist,  called  Kil-Oen. 
The  monastery  of  our  Lady  of  Inis-Lan- 
aught,  in  Tipperary,  of  the  order  of  Citeaux, 
otherwise  called  de  Surio,  situated  on  the 
river  Suire,  was  founded,  according  to 
some,  in  1159.  Others  say  it  was  founded 
in  11 84,  by  Donald  O'Brien,  King  of  Limer- 
ick, who  endovved  it,  in  conjunction  with 
Malachy  O'Felan,  Prince  of  Desie. 

At  Holycross,  in  Tipperary,  there  was  a 
celebrated  abbey  of  the  order  of  Citeaux, 
which  enjoyed  great  privileges,  and  where 
a  portion  of  the  true  cross  is  preserved. 
This  abbey  was  founded  in  1169,  by  Dom- 
nald  O'Brien,  King  of  Limerick,  as  appears 
by  the  act  of  its  foundation,  quoted  in  the 
" Monasticon  Anglicanum"  and  signed  by 
the  Bishop  of  Lismore,  legate  of  the  holy 
see  in  Ireland,  the  Archbishop  of  Cashel, 
and  the  Bishop  of  Limerick.  Some  say 
that  this  abbey  was  founded  in  1181. 

The  abbey  of  Kilkenny,  otherwise,  "  de 
valle  Dei*'  was  founded  and  dedicated  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin,  in  1171,  by  Dermod 
O'Ryan,  an  Irish  lord. 

The  abbey  of  Maur,  or  *'de  fonte  vivo,'* 
in  the  county  of  Cork,  was  founded  for 
monks  of  the  order  of  Citeaux,  under  the 
title  of  our  Lady,  by  Dermod,  son  of  Cor* 
mac  Macartach,  (Mac-Carty,)  King  of 
Cork  and  Desmond.  The  first  monks  who 
established  it  were  from  the  abbey  of  Bal- 
tinglass. 

Whoever  candidly  examines  the  state  of 
Ireland,  before  the  landing  of  Strongbow, 
will  probably  admit  that  the  "  degeneracy 
of  morals"  spoken  of  by  Giraldus  Cambren- 


A.  D.  1199.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


€S 


sis  in  relating  the  proceedings  of  the  synod 
held  by  order  of  Henry  the  Second,  at 
Cashel,  in  1172,  was  a  merely  political 
subterfuge.  Let  us  hear  what  Giraldus 
himself  says,  when  not  engaged  in  flattering 
his  royal  master.  Speaking  of  Ireland,  he 
says — "The  clergy  of  that  country,  are 
highly  to  be  praised  for  their  religion ;  and, 
among  other  virtues  with  which  they  are 
endowed,  their  chastity  forms  a  peculiar 
feature.  Those  who  are  intrusted  with  the 
divine  service,  do  not  leave  the  church,  but 
apply  themselves  wholly  to  the  reciting  of 
psalms,  prayers,  and  reading.  They  are 
extremely  temperate  in  their  food,  and 
never  eat  till  towards  evening,  when  their 
office  is  ended." 

We  should  recollect  that  when  one  coun- 
try endeavours  to  subjugate  another,  it  has 
been  customary,  from  time  immemorial,  to 
vilify  and  abuse  the  intended  victim.  The 
truth,  however,  breaks  through  the  conven- 
tional sagacity  of  Giraldus,  and  we  may 
hence  infer  the  falsehood  of  the  other 
charges  against  the  people  of  Ireland.  The 
priest  and  the  flock  will  resemble  each 
other,  according  to  the  old  saying, — "  Sicut 
populus,  sic  sacerdos." 

Upon  Roderic's  death,  Taylor  has  writ- 
ten the  following  sentence: — "His  death 
was  regarded  as  a  matter  of  little  moment ; 
and  the  last  monarch  of  Ireland  was  con- 
signed to  the  tomb  with  as  little  noise  as 
the  meanest  of  his  vassals."  Considering 
all  the  circumstances,  this  language  is  ex- 
tremely ungenerous,  and  the  whole  sentence 
betrays  an  injudicious  haste,  with  a  flippan- 
cy towards  mankind  generally. 

Moore  goes  back  to  Roderic's  reigning 
years,  and  then  comes  out  with  manly 
blame — 

"  A  mistaken  zeal  for  the  national  honour 
has  induced  some  writers  on  Irish  history 
to  endeavour  to  invest  the  life  and  character 
of  this  unfortunate  prince  with  some  sem- 
blance of  heroic  dignity  and  interest.  In 
their  morbid  sympathy  with  his  own  per- 
sonal ruin  and  fall,  they  seemed  to  forget 
that,  by  his  recreant  spirit,  he  brought 
down  a  kingdom  along  with  him,  and  en- 
tailed subjection  and  its  bitter  consequences 


upon  his  country  through  all  time.  But  it 
is  in  truth  idle  to  waste  words  on  the  per- 
sonal character  of  such  a  man ;  the  only 
feeling  his  name  awakens  being  that  of  pity 
for  the  doomed  country,  which,  at  such  a 
crisis  of  its  fortunes,  when  honour,  safety, 
independence,  national  existence,  were  all 
at  stake,  was  cursed  for  the  crowning  of  its 
evil  destiny  with  a  ruler  and  leader  so 
utterly  unworthy  of  his  high  calling." 

Leland  observes  that  Roderic  "  had  long 
ceased  to  exercise  the  regal  power"  before 
he  died.  He  also  says — "  We  know  that 
Roderic  led  great  armies  against  Dermot 
and  his  English  allies ;  but  they  were  col- 
lected by  inferior  chiefs,  many  of  whom 
hated  and  envied  him.  They  were  not 
implicitly  obedient  to  their  monarch  ;  they 
were  not  paid ;  they  were  not  obliged  to 
keep  the  field ;  but  were  ready  to  desert 
him  on  the  most  critical  emergency,  if  the 
appointed  period  of  their  service  should 
then  happen  to  expire.  The  disorders  of 
his  own  family  commenced  almost  with  his 
reign.  Their  progress  was  desperate  and 
bloody,  and  must  have  proved  an  afl[iicting 
embarrassment  in  all  his  actions  and  de- 
signs. If  Henry  the  Second,  with  his  vast 
abilities  and  resources,  was  driven  almost 
to  the  brink  of  ruin  by  the  rebellion  of  his 
sons,  we  are  the  less  to  wonder  that  a  like 
natural  defection  of  the  sons  of  Roderic 
could  meet  with  such  support,  and  be  at- 
tended with  such  success,  as  to  deprive  him 
of  his  throne." 

Doubtless  the  reader  will  now  join  us  in 
saying, — "  Pugna  suum  finem  cum  jacet 
hostis  hahet." 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Accession  of  John — Rivalry  between  De  Courcy 
and  De  Lacy — Removnl  of  Haino  de  Valois — 
Administration  of  Meyler  Fifz-Henry — Divisions 
in  the  O'Connor  family — Partition  of  Connnught 
— Arrival  of  John  in  Ireland — Donations  of  the 
Anglo-Irish  lords  to  the  Church — Building  of 
religious  edifices  in  Ireland  near  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century. 

On  the  death  of  Richard  the  First,  in 
April,  1199.  the  throne  of  England  was 


44 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1205. 


usurped  by  John,  in  defiance  of  the  rights 
of  his  nephew  Arthur ;  the  lordship  of  Ire- 
land was  thus  reunited  to  the  crown  of 
England,  and  it  was  expected  that  the  royal 
authority  would  consequently  command 
more  respect  than  it  had  hitherto  received. 
The  war  with  France,  the  discontent  of  the 
barons,  and  the  claim  of  Arthur  allowed 
John  little  leisure  for  regulating  the  affairs 
of  Ireland  ;  and  the  pacification  of  the 
country  seemed  as  impracticable  as  ever 
during  the  previous  thirty  years. 

The  mischief  of  the  policy  pursued  by 
Henry  the  Second,  in  deputing  to  an  up- 
start and  suddenly  enriched  aristocracy  the 
administration  of  Irish  possessions,  was  in 
few  instances  more  strikingly  exemplified 
than  in  the  rivalry  between  John  de  Courcy 
and  the  rich  and  powerful  baron,  Hugh  de 
Lacy,  son  of  the  first  Lord  of  Meath.  Fol- 
lowing the  example  of  De  Courcy  himself, 
this  baron  had  assumed  a  state  of  princely 
independence,  entering  into  treaties  with 
his  brother  lords  and  the  native  chiefs,  and 
aiding  the  latter  in  their  local  and  provincial 
feuds.  On  the  accession  of  John  to  the 
English  throne,  the  daring  openness  with 
which  De  Courcy  spoke  of  that  event,  as 
well  as  of  the  dark  and  guilty  deed  by 
which  it  was  followed,  drew  down  upon 
him  the  king's  heaviest  wrath ;  and  to  his 
rival,  Hugh  de  Lacy,  now  made  lord-justice, 
was  committed  the  not  unwelcome  task  of 
seizing  the  rebellious  baron,  and  sending 
him  prisoner  to  England. 

The  rapacious  exactions  of  Hamo  de 
Valois  provoked  the  resentment  of  the  cler- 
gy and  the  laity.  Urgent  petitions  for  his 
removal  were  sent  to  the  king,  and  John 
summoned  him  to  appear  and  plead  to  the 
charges  urged  against  him.  His  defence 
was  deemed  unsatisfactory,  and  he  was 
forced  to  pay  a  fine  of  a  thousand  marks  to 
the  king ;  but  when  this  was  paid,  he  was 
allowed  to  escape  without  making  restitu- 
tion to  those  he  had  plundered.  Meyler 
Fitz-Henry,  one  of  the  original  invaders, 
was  appointed  his  successor;  and  at  the 
same  time  John  confirmed  the  grant  of 
lands  in  Thomond  to  Philip  de  Braosa,  and 
assigned  their  custody  to  De  Burgh,  one  of 


the  Fitz-Andelm  family  which  had  formerly 
been  gifted  with  lands  in  Connaught.  De 
Burgh  was  not  a  man  disposed  to  lose  so 
rich  a  grant  by  negligence.  He  set  out 
immediately  with  a  gallant  train,  and  ex- 
erted himself  with  such  extraordinary 
vigour,  that  he  soon  obtained  possession  of 
Limerick,  and  established  there  a  power 
which  threatened  the  independence  of  Mun- 
ster  and  Connaught.  The  affairs  of  the 
latter  province  were  now  in  a  state  favour- 
able to  his  designs ;  the  popularity  of  Cathal 
O'Connor  had  declined  as  rapidly  as  it 
rose ;  and  a  strong  party  was  formed  to 
raise  his  cousin*  Carragh  to  the  throne. 
The  aspiring  Carragh  solicited  and  ob- 
tained the  assistance  of  De  Burgh.  By  his. 
aid  Cathal  was  dethroned,  after  a  brief  and 
faint  resistance.  He  fled  to  Ulster,  and  a 
large  share  of  his  domains  were  assigned 
to  De  Burgh  for  his  timely  aid.  Cathal  had 
sufficient  influence  with  the  northern  chief- 
tains to  obtain  from  them  a  powerful  army. 
He  even  contrived  to  gain  the  support  of 
Lacy  and  De  Courcy ;  and  thus,  for  the 
first  time,  the  Norman  barons  appeared  in 
hostile  array  against  each  other.  The 
reader  will  please  to  make  a  note  of  the 
motives. 

With  De  Burgh  on  his  side,  Carragh 
O'Connor  defeated  Cathal  and  his  allies  in 
a  desperate  engagement.  The  northern 
septs  attributed  the  calamity  to  the  incapa- 
city of  their  prince,  whom  they  immediately 
deposed  ;  and  Ulster,  like  Connaught,  was 
of  course  distracted  by  all  the  evils  of  a 
disputed  succession.  Cathal  did  not  yet 
despair  of  success.  He  solicited  the  friend- 
ship of  De  Burgh,  (who  felt  dissatisfied  with 
the  small  reward  given  him  by  the  usurper,) 
and  drew  him  over  to  his  side  by  more 
magnificent  promises,  which  he  had  no  in- 
tention to  fulfil. 

A  counter  revolution  now  ensued,  in 
which  Carragh  was  slain,  fighting  to  the 
last  moment.  Cathal  was  restored  to  his 
throne ;  but  De  Burgh  found  that  the  valu- 
able cessions  which  he  expected  were  not 

*  Moore  speaks  of  these  two  princes  as  if  they  were 
brothers.  Perhaps  he  was  yet  thinking  of  the  sons  of 
Roderic. 


A.  D.  1210.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


45 


to  be  obtained.  Stung  by  this  falsehood 
and  ingratitude,  the  proud  baron  invaded 
Connaught,  but  suffered  a  defeat ;  and,  be- 
fore he  could  take  measures  to  retrieve  his 
fortunes,  he  was  recalled  to  Limerick  by 
the  appearance  of  a  more  formidable  ene- 
my. The  lord-deputy,  finding  that  De 
Burgh  had  virtually  renounced  his  allegi- 
ance by  making  peace  and  war  at  his  pleas- 
ure, advanced  with  a  numerous  army  to 
reduce  him  to  obedience.  He  was  joined 
by  several  of  the  Irish  princes,  who  equally 
feared  and  hated  the  powerful  baron ;  and 
thus  reinforced,  Meyler  Fitz-Henry  soon 
forced  De  Burgh  to  submission. 

Down  to  this  period,  the  province  of 
Connaught,  the  hereditary  kingdom  of  the 
last  Irish  monarch,  had,  however  torn  by 
civil  dissension,  continued  to  preserve  its 
territorial  integrity,  as  guarantied  by  the 
solemn  treaty  between  Henry  and  King 
Roderic.  But  at  the  crisis  we  have  now 
reached,  this  inviolability  of  the  realm  of 
the  O'Connors  was  set  aside,  and  through 
the  act  of  its  own  reigning  prince.  Whether 
from  weariness  of  the  constant  dissensions 
he  had  been  involved  in,  or,  perhaps,  hoping 
that  by  the  cession  of  a  part  of  his  territo- 
ries he  might  secure  a  more  valid  title  to 
the  remainder,  Cathal,  of  his  own  free  will, 
agreed  to  surrender  to  King  John  two 
parts  of  Connaught,  and  to  hold  the  third 
from  him  in  vassalage,  paying  annually  for 
it  the  sum  of  one  hundred  marks. 

In  1210,  King  John  undertook  a  military 
expedition  against  Scotland  ;  and,  having 
succeeded  in  that  quarter,  led  soon  after,  a 
numerous  army  into  Ireland.  Between  the 
exactions  and  cruelties  of  the  English  on  one 
side,  and  the  constant  revolts  and  fierce  re- 
prisals of  the  maddened  natives  on  the  other, 
a  sufficient  case  for  armed  intervention 
was  doubtless  then,  as  it  has  been  at  almost 
all  periods  since,  but  too  easily  found.  The 
very  display,  however,  of  so  large  a  force 
was,  of  itself,  sufficient  to  produce  a  tem- 
porary calm.  No  less  than  twenty  of  the 
Irish  princes  came  to  pay  homage  to  the 
monarch,  among  whom  were  O'Neill  of 
Tyrone,  and  the  warlike  Cathal,  Prince  of 
Connaught ;  the  latter  offering,  for  the  first 


time,  his  homage  as  a  vassal  of  the  English 
crown. 

When  John  arrived  in  Dublin.  Braosa 
and  the  Lacys  fled  to  France,  where  the 
latter  were  reduced  to  such  distress,  that 
they  could  only  support  themselves  by  be- 
coming gardeners  in  a  monastery.  Their 
dignified  manners  after  some  time  betrayed 
their  rank  to  the  abbot ;  and,  having  learn- 
ed their  history,  he  interceded  so  power- 
fully for  them  with  John,  that,  on  paying  a 
heavy  fine,  they  were  eventually  restored 
to  their  titles  and  estates. 

John's  military  operations  were  confined 
to  the  reduction  of  several  castles  belong- 
ing to  the  Lacys  in  Meath  ;  and,  though  he 
received  the  homage  of  several  Irish  princes, 
he  did  not  in  any  instance  extend  the  bounds 
of  the  English  dominion.  The  allegi- 
ance tendered  by  the  toparchs  was  merely 
nominal  ;  and  one  of  them,  the  chief  of  the 
Hy-Nials,  set  the  king  at  defiance  a  few 
days  after  he  had  performed  the  idle  cere- 
mony of  submission.  There  was,  however,  a 
beneficial  change  made  by  the  introduction 
of  the  English  laws  and  jurisprudence  into 
those  districts  which  the  Anglo-Normans 
possessed,  and  which,  from  this  time  for- 
ward, were  usually  called  the  English 
Pale :  the  lands  subject  to  the  king  were 
divided  into  counties;  sheriffs  and  other  offi- 
cers necessary  to  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice appointed  ;  and  supreme  courts  of  law 
established  in  Dublin.  The  twelve  counties 
established  by  John  were,  Dublin,  Meath, 
Argial  or  Louth,  Kildare,  Katherlagh  or 
Carlow,  Kilkenny,  Waterford,  Wexford, 
Cork,  Kerry,  Limerick,  Tipperary.  To 
these  were  subsequently  added  Roscom- 
mon and  Connaught. 

In  Ireland,  after  John's  return  to  England, 
there  was  an  unusual  respite  from  strife ; 
and  the  chief  merit  of  this  unusual  calm 
may  doubtless  be  attributed  to  the  talent 
and  judgment  of  Henri  de  Londres  and 
Geoffrey  de  Marisco,  to  whom,  successive- 
ly, and,  for  a  time,  jointly,  was  intrusted 
the  task  of  administering  the  affairs  of  the 
realm. 

During  this  interval  of  quiet,  the  munifi- 
cent donations  of  the  Anglo-Norman  lords 


46 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1210. 


to  the  Church  were  now  carried  forward  to 
completion,  and  some  of  the  finest  buildings 
in  Ireland  were  erected  about  this  time. 
It  frequently  occurred  that  when  money 
or  land  had  been  bequeathed  for  archi- 
tectural purposes,  there  were  many  diffi- 
culties to  overcome,  on  account  of  wars 
and  troubles. 

Strongbow,  when  observing  the  approach 
of  death,  was  very  profuse  in  his  endow- 
ments towards  the  establishment  of  religious 
houses.  In  1174,  he  founded  a  priory  at 
Kilmainham,  near  Dublin.  This  place  had 
been  named  after  St.  Mainan,  a  bishop  who 
was  conspicuous  in  the  seventh  century. 
The  house  was  considered  one  of  the  finest 
in  the  kingdom  before  the  suppression  of 
religious  houses  in  Ireland.  It  was  the 
grand  priory  of  the  order  of  Templars, 
which  was  reunited  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury with  its  eight  commanderies,  namely, 
Kilclogan,  in  Wexford  ;  Killergy,  in  Car- 
low  ;  Kilsaran,  in  Louth  ;  Kilbarry,  Kilure, 
and  Crooke,  in  Waterford  ;  Clonaul,  in 
Tipperary  ;  and  Teach-Temple,  in  Sligo, 
to  the  order  of  Malta. 

The  order  of  Malta  was  inconsiderable 
before  this  reunion,  having  but  one  priory, 
namelv  that  of  Wexford,  and  nine  comman- 
deries,  which  were  Kilbeg,  Kilheal,  and 
Tully,  in  Kildare ;  Kilmainan-Beg,  and 
Kilmainan-Wood,  in  Eastmeath;  St.  John 
the  Baptist  of  Ardes,  in  Down  ;  Morne,  or 
Ballinemony,  in  Cork  ;  Any,  in  Limerick  ; 
and  Kilnalekin,  in  Galway  ;  so  that  by  this 
union  there  were  two  grand  priories  of  the 
order  of  Malta  in  Ireland,  and  seventeen 
commanderies. 

While  Cardinal  Vivian  was  in  Dublin,  in 
1176,  Fitz-Aldelm  founded  the  celebrated 
monastery  called  Thomas-Court,  in  that 
city,  by  order  of  the  king  his  master,  for 
regular  canons  of  the  order  of  St.  Victor. 
The  king  bestowed  for  ever  on  this  house, 
the  land  of  Donoure  as  an  offering  for  the 
souls  of  Geoflfrey,  Earl  of  Anjou,  and  the 
Empress  Matilda,  and  likewise  for  the 
souls  of  his  ancestors,  for  himself  and  his 
children,  as  is  expressed  in  the  charter. 
Upon  this  circumstance  Mac-Geoghegan 
remarks — ^"He    should    have    added  the 


souls  of  those  whom  he  had  deprived  of 
their  lands." 

In  1182,  Hugh  de  Lacy  founded  two 
chapels  or  priories,  for  regular  canons  of 
the  order  of  St.  Augustin,  one  at  Colpa, 
and  the  other  at  Duleek ;  one  of  these 
houses  depended  on  the  priory  of  Lauthon, 
in  Monmouthshire,  EnglanH,  and  the  other 
on  that  of  Lauthon,  near  Gloucester. 

While  De  Courcy  was  master  of  the 
episcopal  city  of  Down,  in  1 183,  he  changed 
the  constitution  of  the  cathedral  church,  by 
substituting  Benedictine  monks  for  the  sec- 
ular canons  to  whom  it  belonged  till  that 
time :  those  monks  came,  by  his  directions, 
from  St.  Werburgh's  Abbey,  at  Chester, 
and  he  appointed  William  Etleshalc,  a 
monk  of  their  fraternity,  as  prior  over 
them.  He  also  changed  the  invocation 
title  of  the  church  from  The  Holy  Trinity 
to  that  of  St.  Patrick.  Malachy,  Bishop 
of  Down,  endowed  this  church  with  seve- 
ral tracts  of  land,  reserving  for  himself  the 
title  of  warden,  or  abbot.  It  was  much 
frequented,  on  account  of  its  containing  St. 
Patrick's  tomb,  and  the  transferring  to  it 
of  the  bodies  of  St.  Columb  and  St.  Bridget. 

De  Courcy  founded  other  houses,  viz., 
the  priory  of  Toberglorie,  at  Down,  (so 
called  from  its  having  been  built  near  a 
fountain  of  that  name,)  for  the  cross-bearers 
of  the  order  of  St.  Augustin ;  and  the  ab- 
bev  of  Nedrum,  which  was  connected  with 
that  of  St.  Bega,  in  Cumberland.  De 
Courcy  also  suppressed  the  abbey  of  Car- 
rick,  founded  near  the  bridge  of  St.  Finn, 
by  Magnal  Mac-Eulof,  one  of  the  kings  of 
Ulster,  and  appropriated  its  revenues  to  a 
new  house  which  he  founded  at  Inis,  dedi- 
cated to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  to  which 
he  brought  over  Cistercian  monks  from  the 
abbey  of  Fumes,  in  England. 

The  abbey  called  Monasterevan,  or 
Ross-Glass,  de  Rosea  Valle,  in  the  county 
of  Kildare,  on  the  river  Barrow,  was 
founded  in  1189,  and  dedicated  to  the 
Blessed  Virgin  and  St.  Benedict,  for  Cis- 
tercian monks,  by  Dermod  O'Dempsy,  Lord 
of  Clanmalire ;  but  some  say  it  was 
founded  so  early  as  1178.  This  abbey 
was  a  branch  of  that  of  Baltinglass. 


A.  D.  1210.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


47 


About  this  time,  Alured  le  Palmer,  of 
Danish  extraction,  founded  the  priory  of 
St.  John  the  Baptist,  of  which  he  was  the 
first  prior,  outside  of  the  new  gate  of  Dub- 
lin. This  house  was  afterwards  endowed, 
and  changed  into  an  hospital,  with  accom- 
modations for  one  hundred  and  fifty-five 
patients,  besides  the  chaplains,  and  other 
necessary  attendants.  It  belonged  in  latter 
times  to  hermits  of  St.  Augustin. 

About  1190,  John  Gumming,  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  employed  himself  in  beautifying 
the  churches  of  that  city ;  he  had  the  ca- 
thedral, called  Christ's  Church,  repaired ; 
and  St.  Patrick's  Church,  which  was  fall- 
ing into  ruins,  completely  rebuilt.  He 
founded  thirteen  prebendaries,  which  num- 
ber was  afterwards  increased  to  twenty- 
two.  He  also  founded  a  nunnery  in  that 
city  for  regular  canonesses  of  St.  Augus- 
tin, called  De  Gratia  Dei,  "  of  the  grace 
of  God."  About  the  same  time  an  abbey 
of  Benedictines  was  founded  at  Glascarrig, 
in  the  county  of  Wexford  ;  an  abbey  also 
of  the  Cistercian  order  at  Ballinamore,  in 
Westmeath ;  and  another  in  the  city  of 
Down.  Two  priories  were  also  com- 
menced in  Eastmeath,  one  near  the  town 
of  Trim,  and  the  other  at  Kells,  in  the  same 
county.  Both  belonged  to  the  order  of  the 
Holy  Cross.  The  former  was  founded  by 
a  Bishop  of  Meath,  the  latter  by  Walter  de 
Lacy. 

In  1199,  William  Marshall,  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, being  in  great  danger  of  shipwreck 
while  sailing  from  England  to  Ireland, 
made  a  vow  that  as  soon  as  possible  after 
landing  he  would  build  a  religious  house. 
He  accordingly  founded  the  abbey  called 
Little  Tinterne,  in  Ireland,  in  a  village  of 
that  name  on  the  coast  of  Wexford.  The 
abbey  was  so  called  to  distinguish  it  from 
Great  Tinterne,  in  Wales,  where  the  Cis- 
tercian order  was  established,  and  of  which 
it  was  a  branch.  This  nobleman  also 
founded  two  more  such  houses ;  one  at 
Kilrush,  in  Kildare,  for  regular  canons,  and 
the  other  at  Wexford,  for  hospitallers  of 
St.  John  the  Baptist  of  Jerusalem.  Be- 
sides the  latter  house,  which  was  the  grand 
priory,  the  order  of  .Malta  had  nine  com- 


manderies  in  Ireland  before  the  suppression 
of  the  Templars. 

In  1200,  at  Nenagh,  in  Tipperary,  there 
was  a  priory  or  hospital  called  Teach-Eon, 
dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Baptist,  founded 
by  Theobald  Walter,  the  chief  of  the 
Butlers. 

In  1205,  at  Fermoy,  in  Cork,  there  was 
founded  an  abbey  called  " de  castro  Dei" 
by  the  noble  family  of  De  Rupe,  Roche,  or 
De  la  Roche,  lords  of  that  place.  The 
monks  of  this  abbey  were  of  the  Cistercian 
order,  and  came  from  the  abbey  of  Suire ; 
several  were  brought  afterwards  from  the 
abbey  of  Furnese,  in  England.  Jungeli- 
nus  says  it  was  founded  in  1170,  which 
would  not  agree  with  the  period  when  the 
founder  of  it  settled  in  h^land. 

About  this  time,  at  ^nol,  in  Kildare,  a 
rich  priory  was  established  for  regular 
canons  of  St.  Augustin,  by  Meyler  Fitz- 
Henry.  This  priory  depended  on  the  ab- 
bey of  Anthoni,  in  England,  and  the  origi- 
nal act  for  its  establishment  is  in  the  Bod- 
leian Library. 

Theobald  Fitz- Walter  imitated  his  fath- 
er's example,  and  in  1206,  founded  at 
Owny,  or  Wetheni,  in  the  district  of  Lim- 
erick, an  abbey  for  Cistercian  monks.  It 
was  a  branch  of  the  abbey  of  Lavigni,  dio- 
cese of  Avranche,  in  Normandy. 

At  Newtown,  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Trim,  on  the  river  Boyne,  there  was  a  rich 
and  handsome  priory,  founded  in  1206.  for 
regular  canons  of  St.  Augustin,  under  the 
title  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  by  Simon 
Rochford,  Bishop  of  Meath,  who  fixed  his 
abode  there.  This  prelate  having  removed 
the  episcopal  see  of  Clonard  to  Trim,  the 
bishops  of  that  diocese  were  afterwards 
called  Episcopi  Trimenses,  instead  of  C/it- 
anardenses ;  but  the  diocese  was  com- 
monly called  the  bishopric  of  Meath, — the 
name  of  a  county  being  more  suitable  than 
that  of  a  city. 

At  Inistiock,  in  Kilkenny,  there  was  a 
priory  for  regular  canons  of  St.  Augus- 
tin, named  after  St.  Columbanus,  and 
founded,  according  to  Ware,  in  1206,  by 
Thomas,  Seneschal  of  Leinster,  at  the  re- 
quest of  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Ossory. 


48 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1216. 


Ware  also  mentions  a  religious  house, 
founded  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Drogheda, 
which  was  called  de  Urso,  having  been 
founded  by  Ursus  de  Samuel :  it  was  a 
priory  and  hospital  for  the  order  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  the  monks  of  which  were 
called  cross-bearers.  Some  assert  that  it 
was  a  custodia,  or  hospital,  belonging  to 
the  regular  canons  of  St.  Augustin. 

In  1207,  a  religious  house  was  founded 
at  Douske,  in  Kilkenny,  by  William  Mar- 
shall, Earl  of  Pembroke,  for  Cistercian 
monks.  This  abbey  was  called  "Valley 
of  the  Blessed  Saviour."  Another  was 
founded  at  Atherdee,  or  de  atrio  Dei,  in 
Louth,  by  Roger  Pipard,  a  lord  of  that  dis- 
trict, for  monks  called  cross-bearers,  under 
the  title  of  St.  John  the  Baptist. 

The  year  1210  is  given  as  the  date  of 
foundation  for  an  abbey  at  Blackwater,  in 
Meath,  by  Walter  de  Lacy,  lord  of  that 
district.  This  abbey  was  of  the  Cistercian 
order,  and  a  branch  of  that  of  Beaubec  in 
Normandy.  It  was  afterwards  united  to 
that  of  Furnese  in  England.  Ware  also 
mentions  a  monastery  which  he  calls  Fort, 
founded  by  the  above-mentioned  nobleman. 

At  Lerha,  in  Longford,  there  was  an 
atbey  of  Bernardines,  founded  by  Richard 
Tuite,  an  Englishman,  Lord  of  Granard. 
The  first  monks  of  this  abbey  came  from 
that  of  our  Lady  of  Dublin,  of  the  order  of 
the  Clairvaux.  Some  say  that  this  house 
was  founded  in  1210,  Jungelinus  in  1211, 
and  Flatzburi  in  1212.  The  founder  was 
killed  the  following  year  at  Athlone,  by  the 
falling  of  a  tower,  and  his  body  interred  in 
this  abbey. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  Waterford,  there 
was  also  the  Priory  of  St.  Catherine,  of  the 
order  of  St.  Victor,  founded  by  the  Danes, 
or  Ostmans,  of  that  city,  and  confirmed  by 
Innocent  the  Third,  in  1210. 

While  the  Anglo-Irish  lords  were  thus 
exhibiting  their  worldly  rapacity  or  reli- 
gious fear,  many  of  the  Irish  princes  made 
similar  demonstrations,  with  more  particu- 
lar reference,  however,  to  the  interests  of 
general  learning  and  the  spread  of  charity. 
Those  who  wish  to  read  a  detailed  account 
of  them  should  consult  Mac-Geoghegan, 


who   has  furnished  a  faithful  description 
from  original  documents. 

Such  was  Ireland   at  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Accession  of  Henry  the  Third — Confimmtion  of  the 
Great  Charter — Death  of  the  enrls  of  Pembroke 
— Irish  troops  called  by  Henry  into  Wales,  Scot- 
land, and  Gnscony — Grant  of  the  kingdom  of 
Ireland  to  Prince  Edward — Feuds  between  the 
De  Burghs  and  the  Geraldines — General  rising 
of  the  septs — State  of  Ireland  at  the  close  of  the 
first  century  of  connection  with  England. 

The  history  of  Ireland  is  peculiarly  in- 
dependent of  chronological  proportion,  as 
the  reader  will  doubtless  have  observed 
already.  For  the  same  reasons  O'Halloran 
had  we  also  have  been  somewhat  diffuse  in 
relation  to  the  twelfth  century.  We  now 
proceed  with  a  clearer  path. 

The  death  of  King  John,  in  1216,  brought 
Henry  the  Third  on  the  throne ;  but  the 
new  king  being  only  ten  years  old,  it  be- 
came necessary  to  appoint  a  guardian  both 
of  the  king  and  of  the  realm  ;  and  the  Earl 
of  Pembroke,  who,  as  Marshal  of  England, 
was  already  at  the  head  of  the  armies, 
and  who,  though  faithful  to  John,  had  yet 
retained  the  respect  of  the  people,  was 
appointed  protector  of  the  realm.  To  this 
nobleman,  in  addition  to  his  immense  pos- 
sessions in  England  and  Wales,  had  de- 
volved, by  his  marriage  with  Isabella, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  Earl  Strongbow, 
the  lordship,  or  rather  royal  palatinate,  of 
Leinster.  Having  so  deep  an  interest  in 
the  English  settlement,  it  could  little  be 
doubted  that  affairs  connected  with  that 
country's  welfare  would  become  objects 
of  special  attention. 

Considering  the  small  portion  of  Ireland 
which  actually  owned  any  obedience  to  or 
benefit  from  the  English  laws,  we  must 
suppose,  on  reading  the  Magna  Charta  for 
Ireland,  that  the  English  government  had 
ordered  the  document  to  be  prepared  in 
reference  to  the  future  rather  than  the  then- 
existing  state  of  Ireland.  Historians  have 
left  it  too  much  to  be  implied  that  the 


A.  D.  1234.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


49 


charters  for  both  countries  were  exactly 
the  same ;  without  any,  even,  of  se 
adaptations  and  compliances  which  the 
variance  in  customs  between  the  two  coun- 
tries would  reasonably  require.  The  lan- 
guage of  Henry  himself,  in  transmitting  the 
document,  somewhat  favours  this  view  of 
the  transaction.  But  such  was  not  likely 
to  have  been  the  mode  in  which  an  instru- 
ment, then  deemed  so  important,  was 
framed.  Among  the  persons  by  whose 
advice  it  had  been  granted  were  several 
noblemen,  all  connected,  as  lords  of  the  soil 
and  public  functionaries,  with  Ireland,  and 
intimately  acquainted  with  tlfe  peculiar 
laws  and  customs  of  the  land.  As  might 
naturally  be  expected,  therefore,  several 
minute  but  not  unimportant  differences  im- 
ply a  desire  to  accommodate  the  laws  of  the 
new  settlers  to  the  customs  and  usages  of 
the  country  in  which  they  were  located.  It 
appears  strange,  however,  that  any  such 
deference  for  the  native  customs  and  institu- 
tions should  be  shown  by  legislators,  who 
yet  left  the  natives  themselves  almost  wholly 
out  of  their  consideration ;  the  monstrous 
fact  existing,  that  the  actual  people  of  Ire- 
land were  wholly  excluded  from  any  share 
in  the  laws  and  measures  by  which  their 
own  country  was  to  be  thus  disposed  of  and 
governed.  Individual  exceptions,  indeed, 
to  this  general  exclusion  of  the  natives  oc- 
cur so  early  as  the  time  of  King  John,  du- 
ring whose  reign  there  appear  "  charters" 
of  English  laws  and  liberties,  to  such  of  the 
natives  as  thought  it  necessary  to  obtain 
them ;  and  it  is  but  just  to  say  of  John,  as 
well  as  of  his  immediate  successors,  Henry 
and  Edward,  that  they  endeavoured  to  es- 
tablish a  community  of  laws  among  all  the 
inhabitants  in  the  country.  But  the  foreign 
lords  of  the  land  were  opposed  invariably 
to  this  wise  and  just  policy ;  and  succeeded 
in  substituting  for  it  a  monstrous  system  of 
outlawry  and  proscription,  the  disturbing 
effects  of  which  were  continued  down  from 
age  to  age. 

The  death  of  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  in 
1219,  caused  the  irregularities  of  warfare 
to  appear  again.  William,  the  young  Earl 
of  Pembroke,   was   suddenly  called   into 

7 


Ireland,  to  check  the  inroads  of  the  Lacys, 
who  had  attacked  his  castles,  and  deter- 
mined to  seize  his  estates.  While  this 
struggle  devastated  Leinster,  the  lord-de- 
puty was  engaged  in  war  with  the  Mac- 
Arthys  of  Desmond,  and  the  De  Burghs 
were  involved  in  a  fierce  struggle  with  the 
O'Connors  of  Connaught.  After  a  bloody 
but  desultory  warfare,  the  Lacys  were  de- 
feated, and  the  princes  of  Desmond  forced 
to  submission.  The  De  Burghs,  however, 
were  defeated  in  Connaught ;  and  Feidlim 
O'Connor,  taking  advantage  of  the  disgrace 
of  Hubert  de  Burgh  in  England,  not  only 
obtained  from  Henry  a  confirmation  of  his 
title  and  possessions,  but  a  mandate  to  the 
Lord-deputy  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald  to  assist 
in  restraining  his  enemy's  usurpations. 

On  the  death  of  William,  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, his  title  and  estates  devolved  on  his 
brother  Richard,  a  popular  young  nobleman, 
odious  to  the  king  and  his  unworthv  favour- 
ites,  on  account  of  his  spirited  resistance  to 
their  unwise  and  arbitrary  measures.  Under 
the  most  frivolous  pretexts,  an  attempt  was 
made  to  strip  him  of  his  inheritance  ;  but 
he,  provoked  by  such  outrage,  had  recourse 
to  arms.  He  levied  some  forces  in  Ire- 
land ;  and,  returning  to  Wales,  fortified  him- 
self in  his  castle  of  Pembroke.  The  royal 
forces  sent  against  him  were  defeated  ;  and 
the  unpopularity  of  the  ministry  rendered 
it  probable  that  this  example  of  successful 
resistance  would  lead  to  a  general  insur- 
rection. The  king  and  his  creatures,  un- 
able to  subdue  Earl  Richard,  determined 
to  deprive  him  of  his  Irish  estates,  and  sent 
over  letters  declaring  his  extensive  pos- 
sessions forfeited,  and  ordering  them  to  be 
shared  between  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  the 
lord-deputy,  the  De  Lacys,  the  De  Burghs, 
Geoffrey  De  Maurisco,  and  some  other 
barons. 

Such  an  allurement  was  not  to  be  resist- 
ed by  the  avaricious  adventurers.  They 
immediately  proceeded  to  take  possession  ; 
and,  just  as  tranquillity  was  restored  in 
Wales,  Earl  Richard  was  recalled  to  the 
defence  of  his  estates  in  Ireland.  On  his 
landing,  he  was  joined  by  the  treacherous 
De  Maurisco,  who  pretended  to  aid  his 


80 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1246. 


quarrel,  but  in  reality  to  ensure  his  destruc- 
tion. Several  successful  expeditions  were 
undertaken ;  but  at  the  moment  when  the 
earl  was  about  to  engage  his  enemies  in  a 
pitched  battle,  De  Maurisco  drew  off  his 
forces,  and  Richard  was  left  with  only 
fifteen  followers  to  support  the  attack  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  chosen  men.  Even 
under  these  circumstances,  the  gallant  earl 
disdained  to  yield.  His  followers,  with 
equal  spirit,  shunned  not  the  hopeless  con- 
test. They  fell,  overwhelmed  by  numbers  ; 
and  Richard,  having  received  a  dagger- 
wound,  was  carried  to  a  neighbouring  cas- 
tle, where  he  soon  expired.  The  death  of 
this  young  and  gallant  nobleman  attracted 
the  attention  of  all  Europe,  and  espe- 
cially England,  where,  Mathew  Paris  says, 
he  was  looked  up  to  as  "  the  very  flower 
of  the  chivalry  of  modern  times." 

Thus  we  see  that  the  barons  were  at 
war,  not  only  with  the  natives,  but  with 
each  other ;  and  the  devastations  commit- 
ted in  their  several  expeditions,  added  to 
the  failures  of  several  successive  harvests, 
reduced  the  wretched  country  to  a  state 
which  the  imagination  may  possibly  con- 
ceive, but  which  no  human  pen  can  pour- 
tray.  Feidlim,  the  new  dynast  of  Con- 
naught,  had  addressed  the  king  confiden- 
tially on  the  subject,  and  requested  leave 
to  visit  him  in  England,  for  the  purpose 
of  consulting  with  him  on  their  mutual  in- 
terests and  concerns.  After  due  delibera- 
tion, on  the  part  of  Henry,  the  conference 
with  his  royal  brother  of  Connaught  was 
accorded  ;  and,  so  successfully  did  Feidlim 
plead  his  own  suit,  and  expose  the  injustice 
of  the  grasping  family  opposed  to  him,  that 
the  king  wrote  to  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  then 
lord-justice,  and  with  a  floridness  of  style, 
caught,  as  it  would  seem,  from  his  new  Irish 
associates,  desired  that  he  would  "  pluck  up 
by  the  root  that  fruitless  sycamore,  De 
Burgh,  which  the  Earl  of  Kent,  in  the 
insolence  of  his  power,  had  planted  in 
those  parts,  nor  suffer  it  to  bud  forth  any 
longer." 

During  the  disputes  that  arose  between 
Henry  and  two  successive  sovereigns  of 
Wales,  Llewellyn  and  David,  respecting 


the  claim  of  feudal  superiority  advanced 
by  the  English  king,  a  perpetual  warfare 
continued  to  be  maintained  between  the 
borderers  of  the  two  nations,  which  grew, 
at  times,  into  sufficient  importance  to  call 
into  the  field  the  respective  sovereigns 
themselves.  On  an  occasion  of  this  kind, 
which  occurred  in  the  year  1245,  the  king 
being  then  hard  pressed  by  the  Welch,  and 
likewise  suffering  from  the  intense  severity 
of  the  winter,  summoned  to  his  aid  Maurice 
Fitz-Gerald,  with  his  Irish  forces.  The 
Welchmen  harassed  the  king's  troops  with 
so  much  pertinacity  that  he  looked  for 
his  Irish  forces  with  considerable  impa- 
tience. At  length  their  sails  were  descried  ; 
the  fleet  reached  the  shore  ;  and  Maurice 
Fitz-Gerald,  and  the  Prince  of  Connaught, 
presented  themselves  in  battle  array  before 
the  king.  But  the  tardiness  of  the  lord- 
justice,  on  this  pressing  occasion,  was  by 
no  means  forgiven  by  his  royal  master. 
Among  other  peculiar  rights  which  the 
Irish  barons,  in  those  times,  claimed,  it  was 
asserted  by  them  that  they  were  not  bound 
to  attend  the  king  beyond  the  realm  ;  dif- 
fering in  this  from  the  nobles  of  England, 
who  were  obliged  by  law  to  assist  the  king 
in  his  expeditions  as  well  without  as  within 
the  kingdom.  That  Henry  was  aware  of 
the  exemption  claimed  by  them,  is  clear, 
from  the  writs  issued  by  him  on  this 
occasion. 

The  Great  Charter  of  liberty  proved  a 
worthless  and  barren  gift.  In  vain  were 
new  writs  issued,  from  time  to  time,  by  the 
English  monarch,  ordering  the  charter  and 
laws  of  John  to  be  observed.  The  abso- 
lute will  of  the  petty  tyrants  among  whom 
the  country  had  been  parcelled  out  now 
stood  in  the  place  of  all  law  j  and  so  low 
was  the  crown  compelled  to  stoop,  in  sub- 
mission to  a  tyranny  of  its  own  creating, 
that,  in  a  writ  or  mandate  sent  over  by  the 
king  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  reign,  we 
find  him  enjoining  his  lay  and  spiritual 
lords,  for  the  sake  of  the  peace  and  tran- 
quillity of  the  kingdom,  they  should  "  per- 
mit" it  to  be  governed  by  English  law. 

In  the  course  of  this  reign,  there  were 
frequent  disputes  between  England  and 


A.  D.  1264.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


51 


Scotland,  arising  out  of  those  pretensions 
of  feudal  superiority  on  the  part  of  Eng- 
land, which  were  carried  to  their  highest 
pitch  and  realized  by  Henry's  successor. 
Among  other  preparations  for  war,  at  one 
of  those  junctures,  a  writ  was  addressed 
by  the  English  monarch  to  Donald,  King 
of  Tyrconnel,  and  about  twenty  other 
great  Irish  chiefs,  requiring  them  to  join 
him  with  their  respective  forces,  in  an  ex- 
pedition against  Scotland. 

Another  of  those  exigencies  in  which 
Henry  had  recourse  for  assistance  to  Ire- 
land, occurred  in  the  thirty-eighth  year  of 
his  reign,  when,  under  the  apprehension 
that  his  dominions  in  Gascony  were  about 
to  be  invaded  by  the  King  of  Castile,  he 
issued  writs  to  his  lord-justice  in  Ireland, 
pointing  out  how  fatal  to  both  countries 
might  be  the  success  of  such  an  aggres- 
sion, and  urging  him  to  embark,  with  all 
his  friends,  the  following  Easter,  at  Water- 
ford,  for  the  purpose  of  joining  him,  with 
horses,  arms,  and  trusty  soldiers,  in  Gas- 
cony. "Never,  at  any  time,"  he  adds, 
*'  would  their  aid  and  counsel  be  of  such 
importance  to  him  as  the  present."  The 
same  request  was  shortly  after  repeated, 
in  writs  directed  "  to  the  archbishops,  bish- 
ops, etc.,"  whereby  Queen  Eleanor  ac- 
quaints them  that  she  had  sent  over  John 
Fitz-GeofFrey,  Justiciary  of  Ireland,  to  ex- 
plain to  them  the  state  of  Gascony  and 
imminent  dangers  of  the  crown ;  while,  in 
another,  they  are  told  that  their  compli- 
ance with  these  requests  will  be  a  "  meas- 
ure redounding  to  their  eternal  honour." 

While  preparing  for  the  approaching 
marriage  between  his  son,  Prince  Edward, 
and  the  Infanta  of  Spain,  Henry  made  a 
grant  to  him  and  his  heirs  for  ever  of  the 
kingdom  of  Ireland,  subjoining  certain  ex- 
ceptions, and  providing,  by  an  express 
condition,  that  Ireland  was  never  to  be 
separated  from  the  English  crown.  Not 
content  with  this  provision,  he  also,  in 
more  than  one  instance,  took  care  to  assert 
his  own  jurisdiction,  as  supreme  lord  of 
that  land ;  and  even  reserved  and  set 
aside  certain  acts  of  authority,  such  as  the 
appointment  of  the  lord-justice,  the  issue  of 


a  writ  of  entry  out  of  the  Irish  Court  of 
Chancery,  and  one  or  two  other  acts  of 
power,  which  the  prince,  presuming  on  his 
supposed  rights,  as  Lord  of  Ireland,  had 
taken  upon  him  to  perform. 

In  1264,  the  families  of  the  De  Burghs 
and  the  Geraldines  became  engaged  in  as 
fierce  a  warfare  as  they  had  before  been 
waging  jointly  against  the  native  septs. 
Walter  de  Burgh,  who  in  consequence  of 
his  marriage  with  the  daughter  and  heiress 
of  Hugh  de  Lacy,  had  been  created  Earl 
of  Ulster,  was,  at  this  time,  the  head  of  the 
great  house  of  the  De  Burghs  ;  and  to  such 
a  pitch  had  arisen  the  feud  between  them 
and  the  Geraldines,  that,  at  a  meeting  held 
this  year  at  Castle  Dermond,  Maurice  Fitz- 
Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  assisted  by  John  Filz- 
Thomas,  (afterwards  Earl  of  Kildare,)  au- 
daciously seized  on  the  persons  of  Richard 
de  Capella,  the  lord-justice,  of  Richard  de 
Burgh,  Heir-Apparent  of  Ulster,  of  Theo- 
bald le  Butler,  and  one  or  two  other  great 
partisans  of  the  family  of  the  De  Burghs, 
and  committed  them  to  prison  in  the  castles 
of  Ley  and  Dunamase. 

At  length,  the  attention  of  the  English 
monarch,  already  sufficiently  distracted  by 
the  difficulties  of  his  own  position,  was 
drawn  to  the  disturbed  state  of  his  Irish 
dominions.  A  parliament  or  council  was 
held  at  Kilkenny,  by  whose  advice  the 
prisoners  so  arbitrarily  detained  by  the 
Geraldines  were  released;  and  the  king, 
recalling  the  present  lord-justice,  appointed 
in  his  place  David  Barry,  (of  the  noble 
family  of  Barrymore,)  who,  curbing  the 
insolent  ambition  of  the  Geraldines,  re- 
stored peace  between  the  two  rival  houses. 
David  Barry  had  been  but  a  few  months 
in  office  when  he  was  replaced  by  Sir 
Robert  de  Ufford,  during  whose  adminis- 
tration there  came  over  a  writ  from  King 
Henry  to  levy  aurum  regincs  for  Eleanor, 
the  wife  of  Prince  Edward.  This  act  of 
sovereignty,  exercised  by  Henry  in  Ireland, 
sufficiently  proves  how  far  from  his  inten- 
tion it  had  been  to  cede  to  his  son  the  ri^ht 
of  dominion  over  that  realm.  But  a  still 
stronger  proof  is  affiarded  by  a  writ  issued 
in  the  same  year,  wherein  he  annuls  a 


53 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A..  D.  1276. 


grant  of  some  lands  made  by  Edward, 
without  his  permission,  and  transfers  them 
to  the  son  of  his  own  brother,  Richard, 
Earl  of  Cornwall. 

In  1270,  the  Irish  made  a  great  effort 
to  free  themselves  from  the  complicated 
tyranny  which  they  now,  too  late,  began  to 
comprehend.  Rising  simultaneously,  they 
slaughtered  and  devastated  in  every  direc- 
tion. Every  fortified  place  in  Ofally  was 
destroyed ;  while,  in  the  mean  time,  the 
Prince  of  Connaught,  availing  himself  of 
the  ^  general  excitement,  took  the  field 
against  Walter  de  Burgh,  Earl  of  Ulster, 
and  putting  his  forces  to  rout,  killed,  among 
a  number  of  other  nobles  and  knights,  the 
lords  Richard  and  John  de  Verdon.  These 
movements  commenced  during  the  admin- 
istration of  Sir  James  Audley,  the  last  but 
one  of  the  numerous  chief-governors  during 
this  reign. 

Among  those  unerring  symptoms  of  a 
weak  and  vicious  system  of  policy,  which 
meet  the  eye  on  the  very  surface  of  the 
dreary  history  we  are  pursuing,  may  be 
reckoned  the  frequent  change  of  chief- 
governors  ; — showing  how  uneasy,  under 
such  laws,  was  power,  as  well  to  the  rulers 
as  the  ruled.  The  administration  of  jus- 
tice was  almost  wholly  neglected ;  the 
barons  generally  opposed  the  extension  of 
English  constitutional  privileges ;  and  the 
kingly  power  was  too  weak  to  withstand 
the  influence  of  the  aristocratic  love  of 
confusion  and  rapacity. 

Moore,  to  whom  we  are  mainly  indebted 
for  the  materials  of  our  compilation  of  this 
reign,  closes  his  own  chapter  as  follows  : — 

"In  the  year  1272,  this  long  reign  was 
brought  to  a  close :  and  the  few  meagre 
and  scattered  records  which  have  been 
strung  together  in  this  chapter  comprise  all 
that  Ireland  furnishes  towards  the  history 
of  a  reign  whose  course,  in  England,  was 
marked  by  events  so  pregnant  with  in- 
terest and  importance, — events  which,  by 
leading  to  a  new  distribution  of  political 
power,  were  the  means  of  introducing  a 
third  estate  into  the  constitution  of  the 
English  legislature.  It  is  somewhat  re- 
markable, too,  that  the  very  same  order 


of  men,  the  fierce  and  haughty  barons,  who 
laid  the  foundation,  at  this  time,  in  Ireland, 
of  a  system  of  provincial  despotism,  of 
which  not  only  the  memory  but  the  ves- 
tiges still  remain,  should  have  been  like- 
wise, by  the  strong  force  of  circumstances, 
made  subservient  to  the  future  establish- 
ment of  representative  government  and 
free  institutions  in  England." 

Thus  ends  the  first  century  of  Ireland's 
connection  with  England. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Accession  of  Edward  the  First — Seizure  of  the 
Welch  crown ;  and  massacre  of  the  Welch 
bards — Ambition  of  the  Geraldines — Continued 
application  by  the  Irish  to  Edward  for  English 
laws ;  and  usual  opposition  of  the  Anglo-Irish 
barons — New  coinage — Irish  parliament — Legal 
construction  and  social  effects  of  the  special  char- 
ters of  denization — Irish  troops  called  again 
by  the  troubles  in  Scotland — Rare  instance  of 
justice. 

The  news  of  the  death  of  Henry  the 
Third  reached  the  ears  of  his  successor. 
King  Edward  the  First  (of  the  Norman 
line)  as  he  was  passing  through  Sicily 
home  to  England,  after  his  expedition 
against  the  Saracens.  The  new  king 
pressed  forward,  and  took  possession  of  his 
crown  without  dispute.  His  opposition  to 
proud  nobles  and  his  punishment  of  cor- 
rupt judges  give  us  a  favourable  impres- 
sion of  him,  but  his  accession  produced  no 
beneficial  change  in  the  state  of  Ireland ; 
and  his  encroachments  in  Scotland  showed 
that  he  had  a  good  share  of  the  usual  dis- 
position of  his  Norman  ancestors. 

The  first  three  years  of  this  reign  w^ere 
occupied  by  a  continual  round  of  petty 
feuds  and  desultory  warfare  throughout  all 
Ireland,  occasionally  extending  to  the  Scot- 
tish isles,  and  even  to  the  Highlands  of 
Scotland. 

In  1276,  Llewellyn,  the  native  Prince  of 
Wales,  was  summoned  by  Edward  to  do 
him  homage ;  and,  upon  his  refusal,  except 
with  certain  conditions,  Edward  marched 
next  year  into  Wales,  and  compelled  him 
to  surrender,  at  discretion.     The  indigna- 


A.  D.  1283.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


53 


tion  of  the  Welch  at  the  very  humiliating 
terms  Edward  proposed  made  them  again 
take  up  arms.  The  result  was,  that  Lle- 
wellyn was  killed  in  battle,  his  brother 
David  executed  as  a  rebel,  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  Wales  destroyed,  in  1283. 
To  complete  the  business,  a  massacre  of 
the  bards  was  ordered,  and  immediately 
carried  into  effect. 

In  Ireland,  the  Geraldines,  now  become 
the  most  powerful  of  the  Norman  barons, 
waged  incessant  wars  both  on  the  native 
princes  and  their  rival  peers,  in  order  to 
extend  their  influence  and  possessions ; 
and  the  marriage  of  the  young  Lord  de 
Clare  to  a  daughter  of  their  house,  pro- 
mised them  the  means  of  gratifying  their 
ambition.  Having  thus  got  footing  in  Tho- 
mond,  De  Clare  proceeded  on  a  course  of 
open  and  flagrant  treachery,  such  as  prov- 
ed both  the  simplicity  of  his  victims,  and 
his  own  daring  craft.  Taking  advantage 
of  the  fierce  strife  then  raging  among  the 
O'Briens  for  the  succession  to  the  throne  of 
Thomond  ;  he  contrived  to  enrich  and  ag- 
grandize himself.  To  enter  into  the  de- 
tails of  these  treacheries  would  be  an 
almost  endless  task  ;  but  the  following  is 
a  brief  outline  of  the  events  as  they  are 
-^<S,  found  related  in  the  Annals  of  Inisfallen. 
^  Forming  an  alliance  with  Brian  Ruadh, 

whose  nephew  Tirlogh  was  then  contend- 
ing with  him  for  the  principality,  De  Clare, 
attended  by  Brian  himself,  marched  an 
army  of  English  and  Irish  against  his 
competitor.  In  the  battle  which  then  en- 
sued, the  allied  forces  under  the  English 
lord  were  utterly  defeated  ;  and  among 
the  slain  was  Patrick  Fitz-Maurice,  the 
son  and  heir  of  Fitz-Maurice  of  Kerry,  and 
brother  to  De  Clare's  wife.  As  it  was  in 
Brian's  cause  this  calamitous  defeat  had 
been  incurred,  the  conclusion  drawn  by 
the  barbarous  logic  of  De  Clare  was,  that 
upon  him  first  the  disaster  ought  to  be 
avenged  ;  and,  the  wife  and  father-in-law 
of  Fitz-Maurice  being  the  most  loud  in 
demanding  this  sacrifice,  the  wretched 
chieftain  was  put  to  death,  and,  according 
to  some  accounts,  with  peculiar  refinement 
of  cruelty. 


De  Clare  now  sent  to  Tirlogh,  (against 
whom  he  had  so  lately  fought  while  joined 
with  O'Brien,)  and  boasted  largely  of  hav- 
ing thus  removed  so  formidable  a  rival ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  he  entered  into 
negotiations  with  Donogh  O'Brien,  the  son 
of  the  murdered  prince,  and  engaged  to 
assist  him  in  gaining  the  throne  of  Tho- 
mond. To  effect  this  object,  and  put  down 
the  pretensions  of  the  usurper,  a  force  was 
collected  under  the  joint  command  of  De 
Clare  and  Donogh,  which,  making  an  im- 
petuous attack  upon  Tirlogh,  drove  him,  as 
the  annalist  describes  the  locality,  "  to  the 
east  of  the  wood  of  Forbair."  The  Irish 
chieftain,  however,  making  his  way  back 
through  defiles  and  by-ways  with  which 
he  was  acquainted,  fell  upon  the  confede- 
rates by  surprise,  and  gained  so  decisive  a 
victory,  that  they  were  forced  to  surren- 
der to  him.half  of  the  country  of  Thomond, 
leaving  the  remainder  in  the  hands  of  the 
rightful  successor,  Donogh.  De  Clare,  in 
drawing  off  his  troops  from  the  territories 
of  these  chiefs,  said  significantly,  that  "  the 
first  of  them  who  would  lay  waste  the 
other's  lands,  should  be  his  declared  friend 
for  life."  In  one  of  these  battles,  fought  by 
this  lord  with  the  Irish,  himself  and  his 
father-in-law,  Fitz-Maurice,  were  drawn 
into  a  pass  in  the  mountains  of  Sliene 
Bloom,  and  compelled  to  surrender,  with 
all  the  troops  they  had  taken  there. 

While  Thomond  was  in  this  distracted 
state,  similar  proceedings  were  going  on 
in  almost  all  the  neighbouring  districts,  and 
the  infatuated  natives  treated  each  other 
in  such  a  way  as  to  perform  all  the  bloody 
work  of  a  real  enemy.  In  a  battle  between 
the  King  of  Connaught  and  the  Mac-Der- 
mots  of  Moy-Lurg,  the  army  of  Connaught 
was  utterly  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  two 
thousand  men,  and  the  king  himself  slain. 
It  was  with  reference  to  this  battle  that  the 
lord-justice,  Robert  de  Ufford,  when  called 
to  account  by  King  Edward  for  permit- 
ting such  disorders,  replied  shrewdly,  that 
"  he  thought  it  not  amiss  to  let  rebels 
murder  one  another,  as  it  would  save  the 
king's  coffers,  and  purchase  peace  for  the 
land." 


54 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1295. 


The  troubles  in  Scotland  compelled  Ed- 
ward to  re-appoint  De  Ufford,  who  now 
became  still    more  rigorous    than    before. 
The  Irish   princes    seemed  to  despair  of 
ever   repelling  the  foreigners,  and   those 
whose  lands  lay  contiguous  to  the  English 
settlements  were  eager  to  secure  the  pro- 
tection of  the  English  law.     To  obtain  this 
valuable  privilege,  they  offered  to  the  king, 
through   his   deputy,   a   subsidy   of  eight 
thousand  marks,  on  condition  of  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  rights  of  English  subjects  ; 
and  Edward,  who  was  attached  to  justice 
when  it  did  not  interfere  with  the  schemes 
of  his  ambition,  eagerly  hastened  to  per- 
form their  reasonable  request.     In  this,  as 
in   a   thousand   subsequent   instances,  the 
wise  and  benevolent  measures  of  the  gov- 
ernment were  defeated  by  the  local  aris- 
tocracy.    They  preferred  their  own  ascen- 
dency to  the  interests  of  the  state.     They 
were   eager   to   prevent   a  body  of  men 
whom    they   could    tax    and   oppress    at 
pleasure  from  sharing  in  the  immunities  of 
English  subjects.     Exclusion  was  the  first 
and  almost  the  only  principle  recognised 
by  the  different  oligarchies  which  succes- 
sively held  under  their  control  the  destinies 
of  Ireland ;  and  to  preserve  this  darling 
principle,  they  unhesitatingly  sacrificed  the 
peace  and  prosperity  of  that  country,  and 
not   unfrequently   perilled   its    connection 
with  England.     An  evasive  answer  was 
returned  to   the  royal  mandate ;  but  the 
sufferings  of  the  people  urged  them  to  re- 
newed applications,  and  two  years  after 
they  repeated  their  request.     On  this  occa- 
sion, the  king  earnestly  recommended  the 
consideration  of  the  petition  to  the  lords 
spiritual   and    temporal   of  Ireland ;    but 
both  were  too  deeply  interested  in  perpetu- 
ating abuses,  and  Edward's  wise  designs 
were  again  defeated. 

In  1279,  under  the  administration  of  Sir 
Stephen  de  Fulburn,  a  new  kind  of  coin 
was  struck  by  order  of  the  king, — who, 
having,  highly  to  his  honour,  fixed  a  cer- 
tain rule  or  standard  for  money,  in  Eng- 
land, applied  the  same  rule  to  the  regula- 
tion of  the  mints  in  Ireland,  both  in  the 
weight  and  fineness.     He  also  descried,  a 


few  years  after,  by  proclamation,  the  base 
money  called  crockards  and  pollards. 

After  several  years  of  strife,  an  attempt 
was  made,  in   1295,  to  moderate  the  dis- 
sensions of  the  despotic  barons ;  and  a  truce 
for  two  years  having  been  agreed  upon 
between  theGeraldines  and  the  De  Burghs, 
the  lord-justice  was  enabled,  by  this  short 
respite  from  strife,  to   consider  of  some 
means  of  remedying  the  unquiet  and  dis- 
organized state  of  the  kingdom.     A  gene- 
ral parliament  was  accordingly  assembled 
by  him,  which,  though  insignificant  in  point 
of  numbers,  passed  some  measures  of  no 
ordinary  importance  and  use.     It  was  dur- 
ing this  reign,  as  the  reader  will  recollect, 
that  the  parliament  of  England,  after  a  long 
series    of    progressive    experiments,   was 
moulded  into  its  present  shape  ;  nor  did  a 
house  of  commons,  before  this  period,  form 
a  regular  and  essential  part  of  the  English 
legislature.     In  Ireland,  where,  from  obvi- 
ous causes,  the  materials  of  a  third  estate 
were  not  easily  to  be  found,  the  growth  of 
such  an  institution  would  be,  of  course,  pro- 
portionably  slow  ;  and  the  assemblies  held 
there  during  this  reign,  and  for  some  time 
after,   though   usually  dignified   with   the 
name  of  parliament,  differed  but  little,  it  is 
clear,   in    their    constitution,   from    those 
ancient  common  councils,  at   which  only 
the  nobles  and  ecclesiastics,  together  with, 
occasionally,  a  few  tenants  in  capite,  and, 
perhaps,  the  retainers  of  some  of  the  great 
lords,  were  expected  to  give  their  atten- 
dance. 

Among  the  acts  passed  by  this  parlia- 
ment, there  is  one  ordaining  a  new  division 
of  the  kingdom  into  counties  ;  the  division 
established  under  King  John,  as  well  as 
the  distribution  then  made  of  sheriffs,  hav- 
ing been  found  defective  and  inconvenient. 
Another  object  that  engaged  their  atten- 
tion was  the  defenceless  state  of  the  Eng- 
lish territory,  and  the  harassing  incursions 
of  the  natives  dwelling  upon  its  borders ; 
and,  as  this  scourge  was  owing  chiefly  to 
absence  of  the  lords-marchers,  it  was  now 
enacted  that  all  such  marchers  as  neglect- 
ed to  maintain  their  necessary  wards  should 
forfeit  their  lands.     Among  other  measures 


A.  D.  1301.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


55 


for  the  maintenance  of  a  military  force,  it 
was  ordained  that  all  absentees  should  as- 
sign, out  of  their  Irish  revenues,  a  compe- 
tent portion  for  that  purpose  : — a  proof  how 
early  the  anomalies  involved  in  the  forced 
connection  between  the  two  countries  began 
to  unfold  their  disturbing  effects.  To  check 
the  private  expeditions,  or  forays,  of  the 
barons,  a  provision  was  made  that,  for  the 
future,  no  lord  should  wage  war  but  by 
license  of  the  chief-governor,  or  by  spe- 
cial mandate  of  the  king.  With  a  like 
view  to  curbing  the  power  of  the  great 
lords,  an  efTort  was  made  at  this  time  to 
limit  the  number  of  their  retainers,  by  for- 
bidding every  person,  of  whatever  degree, 
to  harbour  more  of  such  followers  than  he 
could  himself  maintain ;  and  for  all  exac- 
tions and  violences  committed  by  these 
idle-men,  or  kerns,  (as  they  were  styled,) 
their  lords  were  to  be  made  answerable. 

To  this  parliament  is  likewise  attributed 
an  ordinance, — belonging  really  to  a  some- 
what later  period, — which,  in  reference  to 
the  tendency  already  manifested  by  the 
English  to  conform  to  the  customs  and 
manners  of  the  natives,  ordains  that  all 
Englishmen  should  still,  in  their  garb  and 
the  cut  of  their  hair,  adhere  to  the  fashion 
of  their  own  country;  that  whoever,  in 
the  mode  of  wearing  their  hair,  affected  to 
appear  like  Irishmen,  would  be  treated  as 
such ;  that  their  lands  and  chattels  would 
bte  seized,  and  themselves  imprisoned. 

O'Halloran  has  shown  that  Henry  the 
Second  granted,  by  special  charter,  the 
benefits  of  English  laws  to  the  Norman 
settlers,  to  the  citizens  of  the  principal  sea- 
ports, and  to  a  few  individuals  who  ob- 
tained charters  of  denization  as  a  matter 
of  favour.  Five  septs,  the  CNeiles  of  Ul- 
ster, the  O'Connors  of  Connaught,  the 
O'Briens  of  Thomond,  the  O'Lachlans  or 
Melachlans  of  Meath,  and  the  Mac-Mur- 
roughs,  called  also  Kavanaghs,  of  Leinster, 
were  received  within  the  pale  of  English 
law ;  but  all  the  rest  were  esteemed  aliens 
or  enemies,  and  could  neither  sue  nor  be 
sued,  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 
Edward  the  First  solemnly  confirmed  one 
of  these    charters   of   denization    which 


Henry  had  granted  to  the  "Ostmen,  or 
Esterlings,"  that  is,  the  Danes  of  Water- 
ford,  who  were  inhabitants  of  that  city  long 
before  his  coming  to  Ireland.  Upon  this 
latter  circumstance,  as  related  by  Sir  John 
Davies,  in  his  "  Historical  Tracts,"  page 
80,  O'Connell  remarks : — 

"  Nor  was  this  a  barren  privilege.  These 
Danes,  py  that  charter,  obtained  protection 
for  their  lives  and  properties,  which  none 
of  the  Irish  save  the  above-named  five  fam- 
ilies obtained.  The  Irish  could  not  sue  as 
plaintiffs  in  any  court  of  law.  They  were 
not  treated  as  conquered  enemies,  mutu- 
ally bound  to  accept  the  laws  of  the  con- 
queror as  well  as  entitled  to  the  protection 
of  those  laws.  They  were  treated  as  per- 
petual enemies,  whom  it  was  lawful  to  rob 
or  kill,  at  the  pleasure  or  caprice  of  an 
English  subject." 

In  1301,  (29  Edward  I.,)  before  the  jus- 
tices in  oyer,  at  Drogheda,  Thomas  Le 
Botteler  brought  an  action  of  detenue 
against  Robert  de  Almain,  for  certain 
goods.     The  defendant  pleadeth: 

"  That  he  is  not  bound  to  answer  the 
plaintiff,  for  this — that  the  plaintiff  is  an 
Irishman,  and  not  of  free  hlood,  \non  de 
libera  sanguine.^ 

"And  the  aforesaid  Thomas  says  that 
he  is  an  Englishman,  and  this  he  prays 
may  be  inquired  of  by  the  country.  There- 
fore let  a  jury  come,  and  so  forth  : — 

"  And  the  jurors  on  their  oath,  say  that 
the  aforesaid  Thomas  is  an  Englishman. 
Therefore  it  is  adjudged  that  he  do  receive 
his  damages." 

Upon  this  case,  among  others,  O'Connell 
observes: — 

"  Thus  these  records  demonstrate,  that 
the  Irishman  had  no  protection  for  his 
property ;  because,  if  the  plaintiff  had  been 
declared  an  Irishman,  the  action  would  be 
barred ;  though  the  injury  was  not  denied 
upon  the  record  to  have  been  committed. 
The  validity  of  the  plea  in  point  of  law 
was  also  admitted ;  so  that,  no  matter 
what  injury  might  be  committed  upon  the 
real  or  personal  property  of  an  Irishman, 
the  courts  of  law  afforded  him  no  species 
of  remedy." 


56 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1306. 


There  is  no  confirmation  needed  of  a 
legal  opinion  given  by  Daniel  O'Connell, 
but  we  will  add  also  the  statement  of  Sir 
John  Davies,  an  Englishman  and  a  Pro- 
testant, who  was  Attorney-General  of  Ire- 
land under  James  the  First.  He  says, 
"  Historical  Tracts,"  page  78  : — 

"  That  the  mere  Irish  were  reputed 
aliens,  appeareth  by  sundry  records,  where- 
in judgments  are  demanded  in  case  they 
shall  be  answered  in  actions  brought  by 
them." 

This  singular  state  of  society  is  not  only 
proved  by  the  musty  rolls  of  legal  record 
but  also  from  the  collateral  evidence  af- 
forded by  the  circumstances  of  the  times. 
If  the  reader's  nerves  are  firm,  the  next 
paragraph  may  be  ventured  upon. 

In  1305,  Murtogh  O'Connor,  King  of 
Offaley,  and  his  brother  Calvvagh,  were 
murdered  in  Pierce  Bermingham's  house, 
at  Carbery,  in  Kildare ;  and  in  the  same 
year.  Sir  Gilbert  Sutton,  Seneschal  of 
Wexford,  was  put  to  death  in  the  house  of 
Ramon  le  Gras ;  the  host  himself,  who  was 
of  the  ancient  family  of  Grace,  having  nar- 
rowly escaped  the  same  fate.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  O'Brien,  Prince  of  Thomond, 
was  also  murdered ;  and  Donald  Ruadh, 
King  of  Desmond,  met  with  the  same  vio- 
lent end,  at  the  hands  of  his  son,  Daniel 
Oge  Mac  Carthy.  About  the  same  time, 
on  a  wider  scale  of  murder,  the  sept  of  the 
O'Dempsys  made  great  slaughter  of  the 
O'Connor's,  near  Geashill,  in  Offaley  ;  and 
O'Dempsy,  the  chief  of  the  O'Regans,  was, 
on  the  same  occasion,  slain.  Shortly  after. 
Pierce  Bermingham  suflfered  a  defeat  in 
Meath,  and  Ballymore  was  burnt  by  the 
Irish.  On  this,  the  war  spread  rapidly 
throughout  that  whole  district,  and  the 
English  were  summoned  out  of  the  other 
provinces  to  the  relief  of  Leinster,  where, 
in  a  hard-fought  battle,  at  Glenfell,  Sir 
Thomas  Mandeville,  the  English  leader,  had 
his  horse  killed  under  him,  and  his  troops 
thrown  into  confusion  ;  and  only  succeeded 
in  making  a  retreat  by  very  skilful  gener- 
alship. 

It  will  be  seen  that  both  English  and 
Irish  were  alike  implicated  in  this  horrible 


state  of  private  warfare,  produced  by  legis- 
lation which  was  inapplicable  for  any  other 
purpose. 

On  the  renewed  revolt  of  the  Scots, 
under  the  regent,  John  Cummin,  the  Earl 
of  Ulster,  with  a  large  force,  and  accom- 
panied by  Eustace  de  Poer,  went  to  the 
king's  aid  in  Scotland.*  Among  those 
summoned  to  attend  the  king,  was  Edmund 
le  Boteller,  afterwards  Earl  of  Carrick, 
who  hastened  to  Dublin  to  embark  with  his 
followers  for  that  purpose.  But  some  dis- 
turbances having  just  then  occurred,  it  was 
not  thought  advisable  that  he  should  leave 
the  kingdom  ;  and  Edward,  oflTended  at  his 
absence,  refused  to  grant  him  livery  of 
some  lands  that  had  lately  fallen  to  him. 
On  being  made  acquainted,  however,  with 
the  truth  of  the  matter,  the  king  ordered 
the  livery  to  be  granted. 

Among  the  events  of  the  last  year  of  this 
reign,  we  find  recorded  the  murder  of  an 
Irishman,  Murtogh  Balloch,  by  an  English 
knight,  Sir  David  Canton,  or  Condon  ;  and 
the  circumstances  attending  the  act  must 
have  been  of  no  ordinary  atrocity,  as,  by  a 
rare  instance  of  justice  in  such  cases,  the 
English  knight  was  hanged,  at  Dublin,  in 
the  second  year  of  the  following  reign. 

An  interesting  comparison  might  be 
made  between  the  history  of  this  reign,  as 
shown  in  England  with  its  shining  achieve- 
ments in  legislation  and  warfare,  or  in  Ire- 
land with  its  social  perversions  and  con- 
flicting tyranny. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Accession  of  Edward  the  Second — Administration 
of  Piers  Gaveston — Succeeded  by  Sir  John  Wo- 
gan — Practical  operation  of  the  special  charters 
of  denization  as  regards  the  person  or  life  of  the 
native  Irish — Consequences  of  the  battle  of  Ban- 
nockburn — Edward  Bruce  lands  in  Ireland — 
Opposed  at  first  by  Feidlim  O'Connor — Treach- 
ery of  Feidlim  and  Walt«r  de  Lacy — Arrival  of 
Roger  Mortimer — Interposition  of  the  pope — 
Eloquent  remonstrance  of  the  Irish,  headed  by 
O'Neill,  Prince  of  TjTone— Defeat  of  Edward 
Bruce  at  the  battle  of  Dundalk — Internal  warfare. 

Edward  the  Second,  who  was  bom  at 

*  Lingard  states  that,  on  arriving  at  Roibargh.  the 
king  "found  himself  at  the  head  of  eight  thoasaad  horse 
aud  eighty  thousand  foot,  principally  Irish  and  Welch." 


A.  D.  1311.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


5T 


Caernarvon,  succeeded  his  father,  the  first 
Edward,  in  1307.  After  marching  a  little 
distance  into  Scotland  with  the  army  his 
father  had  collected,  he  returned,  disbanded 
his  troops,  and  resigning  all  serious  cares, 
abandoned  himself  to  sports  and  amuse- 
ments. He  recalled  to  court  Piers  Gave- 
ston,  (a  young  favourite  whom  his  father 
had  banished,)  and  now  made  him  Earl  of 
Cornwall,  and  married  him  to  a  beautiful 
niece  of  the  king's.  Edward's  shameless 
pertinacity  in  heaping  favours  upon  Gave- 
ston  caused  the  jealous  barons  to  insist 
upon  his  dismissal.  But  the  king  was  de- 
termined still  to  uphold  and  advance  his 
fortunes ;  and,  having  bestowed  upon  him 
new  grants  of  land,  both  in  England  and 
Gascony,  he  accompanied  him  on  his  pre- 
tended exile  as  far  as  Bristol.  From  that 
port  Gaveston  sailed ;  but,  to  the  surprise 
and  mortification  of  all  who  had  expected 
to  see  him  humbled,  it  was  now  discovered 
that  Ireland  was  the  chosen  place  of  his 
banishment,  that  he  had  been  sent  thither 
as  the  king's  lieutenant,  and  went  loaded 
with  the  royal  jewels. 

During  his  administration,  there  was  no 
want  of  activity  in  the  new  viceroy,  whom 
our  records  represent  as  being  almost  con- 
stantly in  the  field,  engaging  and  subduing 
the  refractory  chiefs,  and"  enforcing  obedi- 
ence to  the  English  power.  But  like  most 
governors  of  that  country,  both  before  his 
time  and  since,  he  applied  himself  solely  to 
the  task  of  suppressing  rebellion,  forgetting 
the  higher  duty  of  investigating  and  en- 
deavouring to  remove  its  causes. 

Among  the  benefits  resulting  from  Gave- 
ston's  government  is  mentioned,  particu- 
larly, the  attention  paid  by  him  to  public 
works ;  several  castles,  bridges,  and  cause- 
ways having  been  constructed,  we  are 
told,  during  his  administration.  But,  how- 
ever beneficial  his  continuance  in  that  post 
might  have  proved  to  the  country,— depra- 
vity of  morals  being,  in  him,  not  incom- 
patible with  shining  and  useful  talents, — 
the  infatuated  monarch  could  no  longer 
endure  his  favourite's  absence,  and  he  was 
immediately  recalled  to  England. 

Sir  John  Wogan  was  now  re-appointed 
8 


to  the  government.  He  came  in  time  to 
witness  a  new  civil  war  between  the  De 
Burghs  and  Gerald  ines,  whose  violence  it 
was  not  in  his  power  to  restrain.  The 
issue  of  the  contest,  however,  proved  fa- 
vourable to  a  temporary  restoration  of 
tranquillity ;  for  De  Burgh,  being  taken 
prisoner,  entered  into  terms  of  accommo- 
dation, which  were  confirmed  by  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughters  to  Maurice  and 
Thomas  Fitz-John,  afterwards  the  heads 
of  the  illustrious  houses  of  Desmond  and 
Kildare. 

We  have  seen  in  the  previous  chapter 
how  the  laws  were  construed  in  relation 
to  the  property  of  the  Irish  natives.  The 
records  of  this  reign  show  that  the  Irish 
were  quite  as  much  unprotected  in  person 
and  in  life.  The  following  quotation  from 
Sir  John  Davies  is  decisive : — 

"  The  mere  Irish  were  not  only  account- 
ed aliens,  but  enemies,  and  altogether  out 
of  the  protection  of  the  law ;  so  as  it  was 
no  capital  offence  to  kill  them :  and  this  is 
manifest  by  many  records.  At  a  gaol 
delivery  at  Waterford,  before  John  Wo- 
gan, Lord-Justice  of  Ireland,  the  4th  of 
Edward  the  Second,  we  find  it  recorded 
among  the  pleas  of  the  crown  of  that  year, 
*  That  Robert  Wallace  being  arraigned  of 
the  death  of  John,  the  son  of  Juor  Mac 
Gillemory,  by  him  feloniously  slain,  and  so 
forth,  came  and  well-acknowledged  that  he 
slew  the  aforesaid  John,  yet,  he  said,  that 
by  his  slaying  he  could  not  commit  felony, 
because  he  said,  that  the  aforesaid  John 
was  a  mere  Irishman,  and  not  of  the  five 
bloods,  and  so  forth;  and  he  further  said, 
that  inasmuch  as  the  Lord  of  the  aforesaid 
John,  whose  Irishman  the  said  John  was, 
on  the  day  on  which  he  was  slain,  had 
sought  payment  for  the  aforesaid  slaying 
of  the  aforesaid  John  as  his  Irishman,  he 
the  said  Robert  was  ready  to  answer  for 
such  payment  as  was  just  in  that  behalf. 
And  thereupon  a  certain  John  le  Poer 
came,  and  for  our  Lord  the  King  said,  that 
the  aforesaid  John,  the  son  of  Juor  Mac 
Gillemory,  and  his  ancestors  of  that  sur- 
name, from  the  time  in  which  our  Lord 
Henry  Fitz-Empress,  heretofore  Lord  of 


58 


HISTORY    OF    UlELAND. 


[A.  D.  1316. 


Ireland,  the  ancestor  of  our  Lord  the  now 
King,  was  in  Ireland,  the  law  of  England 
in  Ireland  thence  to  the  present  day,  of 
right  had  and  ought  to  have,  and  according 
to  that  law  ought  to  be  judged  and  to  in- 
herit.' And  so  pleaded  the  charter  of 
denization  granted  to  the  Ostmen  recited 
before ;  all  which  appeared  at  large  in  the 
said  record.  Wherein  we  may  note,  that 
the  killing  of  an  Irishman  was  not  punished 
by  our  law,  as  manslaughter,  which  is 
felony  and  capital,  (for  our  law  did  neither 
protect  his  Ufe  nor  avenge  his  death,)  but 
by  a  fine,  or  pecuniary  punishment,  which 
is  called  an  ericke,  according  to  the  Bre- 
hon,  or  Irish  law."* 

In  the  same  year,  (1311,)  we  find  a 
decision  on  the  same  general  principle  in  a 
case  at  Limerick  before  the  same  judge  : — 

"William  Fitz-Roger  being  arraigned 
for  the  death  of  Roger  de  Cantelon,  by  him 
feloniously  slain,  comes  and  says  that  he 
could  not  commit  felony  by  means  of  such 
killing;  because  the  aforesaid  Roger  [Ro- 
ger! de  Cantelon]  was  an  Irishman,  and 
not  of  free  blood.  And  he  further  says 
that  the  said  Roger  was  of  the  surname  of 
O'Hederiscal,  and  not  of  the  surname  of 
Cantelon ;  and  of  this  he  puts  himself  on 
the  country,  and  so  forth.  And  the  jury 
upon  their  oath  say,  that  the  aforesaid 
Roger  was  an  Irishman  of  the  surname  of 
O'Hederiscal,  and  for  an  Irishman  was 
reputed  all  his  life ;  and  therefore  the 
said  William,  as  far  as  regards  the  afore- 
said felony,  is  acquitted.  But  inasmuch  as 
the  aforesaid  Roger  O'Hederiscal  was  an 
Irishman  of  our  Lord  the  King,  the  afore- 
said William  was  recommitted  to  jail,  until 
he  shall  find  pledges  to  pay  five  marks  to 
our  Lord  the  King,  for  the  value  of  the 
aforesaid  Irish  man.''t 

These  legal  anomalies  may  well  explain 
the  unsettled  state  of  Ireland.  Still  there 
are  people  who  affect  to  wonder  what 
could  make  throat-cutting  so  fashionable 
and  profitable  in  that  country;  and  they 
are  the  very  people  who  express  them- 
selves with  such  pious  horror  on  the  re- 
sults of  the  Irish  law  of  gavel-kind. 

*  Hidt.  Tract* ;  p.  82.  t  Hist.  TracU;  p.  83. 


The  memorable  triumph  of  the  Scots 
over  the  mighty  army  of  England,  on  the 
field  of  Bannockburn,  produced  great  ex- 
citement in  Ireland,  particularly  in  Ulster. 
On  the  25th  of  May,  1315,  Edward  Bruce, 
at  the  head  of  six  thousand  hardy  veterans, 
landed  on  the  north-eastern  coast,  and  was 
immediately  joined  by  the  principal  to- 
parchs  of  Ulster.  There  was  no  force  in 
Ireland  able  to  resist  the  combined  armies. 
They  fell  on  the  unprotected  settlements 
in  the  north,  and  butchered  the  colonists 
with  as  little  mercy  as  they  had  themselves 
experienced.  Castles  were  stormed  ;  Dun- 
dalk,  Atherdee,  and  almost  every  town  of 
note  burned  ;  and,  in  a  very  short  space  of 
time,  no  trace  of  the  English  remained  in 
Ulster  but  the  desolation  of  their  former 
dwellings. 

The  news  of  these  transactions  spread 
dismay  through  the  English  Pale.  Several 
barons  were  disposed  to  make  terms  with 
the  invader ;  others  hastened  to  secure 
their  possessions  in  the  south  and  west. 
The  Earl  of  Ulster  and  the  lord-deputy 
alone  determined  on  a  courageous  resist- 
ance. The  unreasonable  pride  of  De 
Burgh,  exhibited  even  at  this  important 
crisis,  increased  the  danger.  He  rejected 
the  proferred  aid  of  the  lord-deputy,  and 
assumed  the  entire  conduct  of  the  war. 
Being  joined  by  Feidlim  O'Connor,  he  ad- 
vanced against  Bruce ;  but  was  defeated, 
though  not  decisively.  Before  the  earl 
could  retrieve  his  losses,  Feidlim  was  re- 
called by  an  insurrection  in  his  own  domin- 
ions ;  and  De  Burgh,  thus  weakened,  was 
soon  after  compelled  to  retire. 

The  army  of  Feidlim  suffered  so  severely 
in  this  retreat  from  the  hostility  of  the 
northern  septs  that  he  was  unable  to  resist 
his  rival ;  and  the  dispirited  forces  of  De 
Burgh  could  lend  him  no  effectual  assis- 
tance. He  was,  however,  soon  relieved 
by  the  arrival  of  Sir  Richard  Bermigham 
with  a  select  body  of  English  soldiers. 

By  the  aid  of  this  reinforcement  Feidlim 
was  enabled  to  take  the  field.  His  rival 
fell  in  the  engagement  that  ensued ;  and 
Feidlim  was  restored  to  his  former  dignity 
and   possessions.    But    gratitude   had  no 


m 


A.  D.  1318.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


99 


place  in  the  breast  of  the  Irish  prince. 
The  first  use  he  made  of  his  recovered 
power  was  to  enter  into  a  strict  alliance 
with  Bruce,  and  draw  his  sword  against 
his  deliverers.  The  O'Briens  of  Thomond, 
and  a  great  proportion  of  the  toparchs  of 
Munster  and  Meath,  followed  his  example. 
Even  the  descendants  of  English  settlers, 
and  especially  the  once-powerful  Lacys, 
declared  themselves  adherents  of  the  Scot- 
tish invader. 

Confident  of  success,  Edward  Bruce  was 
solemnly  crowned  at  Dundalk,  and  imme- 
diately afterwards  prepared  to  march 
southwards — a  step  now  become  impera- 
tively necessary,  for  the  recources  of  the 
north  were  exhausted,  and  his  army  suffer- 
ing the  extremity  of  famine. 

The  Earl  of  Ulster,  having  been  married 
to  a  sister  of  the  Scottish  king,  was  sus- 
pected of  favouring  the  pretensions  of 
Bruce ;  and  his  inaction  during  the  incur- 
sion seemed  to  prove  that  he  was  not  a 
steady  supporter  of  his  rightful  sovereign. 
On  this  account  he  was  seized  and  thrown 
into  prison  by  the  chief  magistrate  of  Dub- 
lin :  nor  could  all  the  remonstrances  of  the 
English  government  procure  for  a  long 
time  his  liberation.  Walter  de  Lacy,  after 
having  solemnly  disavowed  all  connection 
with  the  Scots,  joined  Bruce,  and  acted  as 
his  guide  in  the  march  of  the  invaders 
through  Meath  and  Leinster.  Led  by  this 
traitor,  Bruce  traversed  Ossory,  and  even 
penetrated  into  Munster;  but  the  savage 
devastations  of  his  licentious  soldiery  alien- 
ated the  affections  of  the  inhabitants,  who 
were  previously  disposed  to  regard  him  as 
a  liberator,  and  the  Geraldines  were  easily 
enabled  to  collect  an  army  sufficient  to 
prevent  his  further  advance. 

The  soldiers  of  the  Geraldines  were  too 
deficient  in  arms  and  discipline  for  the 
leaders  to  hazard  a  regular  battle ;  but  they 
were  soon  reinforced  by  the  new  lord- 
deputy,  Roger  Mortimer,  who  landed  at 
Waterford  with  a  train  of  forty  knights 
and  their  attendants.  Bruce  was  now 
compelled  to  retreat,  which  he  did  with 
precipitation,  leaving  the  Lacys  exposed  to 
all  the  consequences  of  their  rash  rebel- 


lion. Mortimer  exacted  a  heavy  ven- 
geance from  the  faithless  chieftains.  He 
seized  all  their  castles  and  estates  in  Meath, 
and  compelled  them  to  seek  refuge  in  the 
wilds  of  Connaught.  The  English  interest 
soon  began  to  revive ;  and  the  pope  lent 
his  powerful  assistance  to  restore  its  as- 
cendency. Sentence  of  excommunication 
was  solemnly  pronounced  against  Bruce 
and  all  his  adherents,  but  more  particu- 
larly those  priests  who  were  said  to  preach 
zealouslv  in  his  cause. 

This  interposition,  in  aid  of  the  views  of 
their  haughty  oppressors,  was  felt  the  more 
keenly  by  the  great  body  of  the  Irish  chief- 
tains, as  coming  from  a  quarter  to  which 
the  ancient  fame  of  their  country  for  sanc- 
tity and  learning  might  well  have  encour- 
aged them  to  look  for  sympathy  and  sup- 
port. In  the  warmth  of  this  feeling,  a 
memorable  remonstrance  was  addressed 
to  the  pope  by  O'Neill,  Prince  of  Tyrone, 
speaking  as  the  representative  of  his 
brother  chiefs  and  of  the  whole  Irish 
nation.  "It  is  with  difficulty,"  say  they, 
"  we  can  bring  ourselves  to  believe  that  the 
biting  and  venomous  calumnies  with  which 
we,  and  all  who  espouse  our  cause,  have 
been  invariably  assailed  by  the  English, 
should  have  found  admittance,  also,  into 
the  mind  of  your  holiness,  and  have  been 
regarded  by  you  as  founded  in  fact  and 
truth."  Lest  such  an  impression,  however, 
should,  unluckily,  have  been  produced,  they 
begged  to  lay  before  him  their  own  ac- 
count of  the  origin  and  state  of  their  nation, 
— "  if  state  it  could  be  called," — and  of  the 
cruel  injuries  inflicted  upon  them  and  their 
ancestors  by  some  of  the  English  monarchs 
and  their  unjust  ministers,  as  well  as  by 
the  English  barons  born  in  Ireland  ; — in- 
juries, they  add,  inhumanly  commenced, 
and  still  wantonly  continued.  It  would 
thus  be  in  his  power  to  judge  of  them  and 
their  rulers,  and  determine  on  which  side 
the  real  grounds  for  complaint  and  resent- 
ment lay. 

To  show  the  iniquity  of  the  code  under 
which  they  suffered,  the  writers  of  the  re- 
monstrance cite  the  following  instances  : — 

1.  That  no  Irishman,  however  aggriev- 


60" 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1318. 


ed,  could  bring  an  action  in  the  king's 
courts ;  though,  against  himself,  an  action 
might  be  brought  by  any  person  who  was 
not  an  Irishman.  ^ 

2.  That  if  an  Englishman  murdered  a 
native,  however  innocent  and  exalted  in 
rank  might  be  the  latter,  or  whether  he  was 
layman  or  ecclesiastic,  or  even  a  bishop, 
no  cognizance  would  be  taken  of  the  crime 
in  the  king's  courts. 

3.  That  no  native  woman  married  to  an 
Englishman  could,  on  his  death,  be  admit- 
ted to  the  claim  of  dower. 

4.  That  it  was  in  the  power  of  any 
English  lord  to  set  aside  the  last  wills  of 
the  natives  subjected  to  him,  and  dispose 
of  their  property  according  to  his  own 
pleasure,  appropriating  it  all,  if  such  was 
his  inclination,  to  himself. 

Moore  well  observes — "When  crime 
was  thus  sanctioned  by  the  strict  letter  of 
the  law,  what  a  host  of  evils  must  have 
been  let  loose  by  its  spirit !" 

The  following  extract  will  give  some 
idea  of  the  eloquent  style  of  the  above- 
mentioned  memorial  in  its  Latin  ori- 
ginal : — 

"  Ever  since  the  English  first  appeared 
upon  our  coasts,  they  entered  our  territo- 
ries under  a  certain  specious  pretence  of 
charity,  and  external  hypocritical  show  of 
religion,  endeavouring  at  the  same  time,  by 
every  artifice  malice  could  suggest,  to  ex- 
tirpate us  root  and  branch ;  and  without 
any  other  right  than  that  of  the  strongest, 
they  have  so  far  succeeded  by  base  frau- 
dulence  and  cunning,  that  they  have  forced 
us  to  quit  our  fair  and  ample  habitations 
and  inheritances,  and  to  take  refuge  like 
wild  beasts,  in  the  mountains,  the  woods, 
and  the  morasses  of  the  country ;  nor  even 
can  the  caverns  and  dens  protect  us  against 
their  avarice.  They  pursue  us  even  into 
these  frightful  abodes ;  endeavouring  to 
dispossess  us  of  the  wild  uncultivated 
rocks,  and  arrogate  to  themselves  the  pro- 
perty of  every  place  on  which  we  can 
stamp  the  figure  of  our  feet." 

In  1318,  an  early  harvest  in  those  dis- 
tricts not  wholly  wasted  by  war,  enabled 
the  two  parties  to  take  the  field  again ;  but 


peace  or  famine  must  soon  take  place. 
Robert  Bruce,  hearing  of  his  brother's  pre- 
carious situation,  made  hasty  preparations 
to  bring  him  relief;  but  by  this  means 
only  accelerated  his  ruin.  Jealous  of  his 
brother's  fame,  Edward  determined  that 
victory  should  be  entirely  his  own,  and 
hastily  led  his  forces  against  Sir  Richard 
Bermingham,  who  had  advanced  into  Ul- 
ster at  the  head  of  fifteen  thousand  men. 
The  fate  of  Ireland  was  decided  at  the 
battle  of  Dundalk.  The  famished  Scots 
were  broken  by  the  physical  strength  of 
their  opponents  ;  the  Irish  felt  that  they 
fought  under  the  curse  of  the  Church  ; 
while  the  English  were  roused  by  the 
belief  that  Heaven  was  on  their  side,  and 
that  the  blessing  pronounced  on  their  arms 
by  the  primate,  that  very  morning,  render- 
ed them  invincible.  In  the  midst  of  the 
engagement  Bruce  was  singled  out  by  an 
English  knight  named  Maupas  ;  and  so 
furious  was  the  encounter  that  both  fell 
dead  together  on  the  plain.  The  carnage 
was  frightful ;  for  quarter  was  refused  to 
wretches  who  had  incurred  the  penalties 
of  excommunication.  A  few  escaped  by 
their  superior  knowledge  of  the  country, 
and  carried  to  their  brethren  certain  intel- 
ligence that  their  hopes  of  independence 
were  frustrated  for  ever.  In  a  few  days 
after,  Robert  Bruce  arrived  on  the  coast ; 
but  hearing  of  his  brother's  fate,  he  imme- 
diately retired  ;  and  Bermingham,  thus 
freed  from  all  apprehensions  of  the  Scots, 
led  back  his  victorious  troops,  having  first 
expelled  from  their  lands  the  toparchs  that 
had  been  the  most  zealous  supporters  of 
Bruce.  The  successful  general  was  cre- 
ated Earl  of  Louth  and  Baron  of  Atherdee. 
The  remaining  nine  years  of  this  reign 
do  not  furnish  any  incidents  capable  of  il- 
lustrating our  subject,  or  of  imparting  any 
general  interest  to  the  reader.  They  only 
show  how  rapidly  evil  actions  grow  amid 
the  bad  feelings  which  have  contributed  to 
hand  them  down  for  the  patient  eyes  and 
harrowed  heart  of  the  historian. 


?Bpt 


A.  D.  1327.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


61 


CHAPTER    X. 

Accession  of  Edward  the  Third — Administration 
of  the  Earl  of  Kildare — Succeeded  by  the  Prior 
of  Kilmainham — Further  explanation  of  the  dis- 
tinctions between  the  Irish  feodary  and  the  Eng- 
lish subject — Remarks  of  Daniel  O'Conneil — 
Administration  of  Sir  John  Darcy — Succeeded 
by  Sir  Anthony  Lucy — Assassination  of  the  Earl 
of  Ulster — Edward's  rigour  towards  the  Anglo- 
Irish  nobles — Self-appointed  assembly  at  Kil- 
kenny— Administration  of  Sir  Ralph  Ufford — 
More  ••  English  law" — Administnition  of  the 
Duke  of  Clarence — Statute  of  Kilkenny — Ad- 
ministrations of  Sir  William  de  Windsor,  and 
the  Earl  of  Ormond — Astounding  discovery. 

In  1327,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  Edward 
the  Third  commenced  his  reign,  under  a 
council  of  regency,  while  his  mother's  par- 
amour, Mortimer,  really  possessed  the  con- 
trol of  state  affairs.  This  long  reign  pf 
fifty  years  will  be  found  to  differ  but  little 
from  its  predecessors,  in  the  cruelty  and 
rapacity  exercised  towards  a  defenceless 
(because  divided)  people. 

During  the  administration  of  the  Earl  of 
Kildare,  a  civil  war  commenced,  in  which 
the  greater  part  of  the  English  barons  were 
engaged.  The  cause  of  this  furious  con- 
test was  the  most  trivial  imaginable.  The 
Lord  de  la  Poer  had  called  Maurice  of 
Desmond  "  a  rhymer ;"  and  Maurice,  prob- 
ably believing  that  the  imputation  of  any 
literary  attainment  was  inconsistent  with 
the  barbarous  dignity  which  he  affected, 
resolved  to  revenge  the  affront  by  arms. 
The  Butlers  and  Berminghams  joined  the 
side  of  Maurice.  De  la  Poer  was  assisted 
by  the  De  Burghs.  The  struggle  was 
long  and  dubious ;  for,  though  Poer  was 
easily  driven  from  his  territories,  his  allies 
could  not  be  subdued  with  equal  facility. 
The  lands  were  laid  waste  by  the  furious 
inroads  of  the  rival  partisans ;  and  the  Irish 
septs  in  Leinster  took  advantage  of  these 
commotions  to  revolt.  In  the  midst  of 
these  tumults  Kildare  died,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Roger  Outlaw,  Prior  of  Kil- 
mainham 

Under  Roger  Outlaw,  the  lords  Arnold 
Poer  and  William  de  Burgh  having  re- 
turned into  Ireland,  the  principal  leaders 
of  the  late  disgraceful  baronial  feuds  were 
induced,  through  the  interposition  of  the 
lord-justice,  to  consent  to  terms  of  peace ; 


and  between  the  Poers  and  De  Burghs  on 
one  side,  and  the  Butlers,  Geraldines,  and 
Berminghams  on  the  other,  a  reconcilia- 
tion was  happily  effected,  in  celebration  of 
which  the  Earl  of  Ulster  gave  a  great  feast 
in  the  castle  of  Dublin  ;  and,  on  the  follow- 
ing day,  Maurice  Fitz-Thomas  commem- 
orated the  event  by  a  similar  banquet  in 
St.  Patrick's  church. 

Though  so  frequently  repulsed  in  their 
efforts  to  obtain  the  protection  of  English 
law,  the  natives  again,  in  the  second  year 
of  this  monarch's  reign,  preferred  a  peti- 
tion to  the  crown,  praying  that  the  Irish 
might  be  permitted  to  use  the  law  of  Eng- 
land without  being  obliged  to  purchase 
charters  of  denization  to  qualify  them  for 
that  privilege.  The  writ  of  the  king  re- 
commending this  prayer  to  the  "  unpreju- 
diced" attention  of  the  lord-justice  differs 
Jittle  in  phrase  or  tone  from  those  of  his 
predecessors  on  the  same  point ;  nor  is  any 
thing  more  said  of  the  petition  or  its  sig- 
nificant prayer,  during  the  remainder  of 
this  king's  reign. 

A  proper  understanding  of  the  nature  of 
these  repeated  applications  for  sharing  the 
benefits  of  English  laws  will  much  assist 
the  study  of  Irish  history.  It  should  be 
observed  that  the  Irish  septs  were  now 
hopeless  of  success  by  fighting,  and  hum- 
bly tendered  their  submission  to  the  king, 
who  as  sincerely  wished  to  bring  them 
over  to  be  his  subjects.  But  the  barons 
memorialized  Edward — ^"  That  the  Irish 
could  not  be  naturalized  without  being 
of  damage  to  them,  or  prejudice  to  the 
crown."  This  may  ^  be  seen  in  a  writ 
which  that  monarch  directed  to  the  Lord- 
Justice  of  Ireland,  (commanding  him  to 
consult  the  Anglo-Irish  lords,)  with  the  re- 
turn thereon,  among  the  rolls  in  the  Tower 
of  London.* 

Our  staunch  old  Protestant  authority, 
Dr.  Leland,  says  that  Henry  the  Third 
was  prevented  from  complying  with  the 
humble  petitions  of  the  Irish  natives  by 
similar  opposition  from  the  Anglo-Irish 
aristocracy.     Observe,  he  speaks  of  that 

*  See  the  documeat  itself,  as  given  by  Davies,  in  his 
Hist  Tracts;  p.  88. 


62 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1329. 


which  had  then  existed  "  for  a  long  time  " 
i.  e.  prior  to  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Third. 
Hear  him : — 

"  The  true  cause  which  for  a  long  time 
fatally  opposed  the  gradual  coalition  of  the 
Irish  and  English  races  under  one  form  of 
government,  was,  that  the  great  English 
settlers,  found  it  more  for  their  immediate 
interest,  that  a  free  course  should  be  left 
to  their  oppressions;  that  many  of  those 
whose  lands  they  coveted  should  be  con- 
sidered as  aliens ;  that  they  should  be 
furnished  for  their  petty  wars  by  arbitrary 
exactions  ;  and  in  their  rapines  and  massa- 
cres, be  freed  from  the  terrors  of  a  rigidly 
impartial  and  severe  tribunal."* 

Again,  under  Edward  the  Second : — 

*'  The  oppression  exercised  with  impu- 
nity in  every  particular  district ;  the  depre- 
dations everywhere  committed  among  the 
inferior  orders  of  the  people,  not  by  open 
enemies  alone,  but  by  those  who  called 
themselves  friends  and  protectors ;  and 
who  justified  their  outrages  on  the  plea  of 
lawful  authority ;  their  avarice  and  cruelty  ; 
their  plundering  and  massacres  ;  were  still 
more  ruinous  than  the  defeat  of  an  army  or 
the  loss  of  a  city  !  The  wretched  sufferers 
had  neither  power  to  repel,  nor  law  to  re- 
strain or  vindicate  their  injuries.  In  times 
of  general  commotion,  laws  the  most  wisely 
framed,  and  most  equitably  administered, 
are  but  of  little  moment.  But  now  the 
very  source  of  public  justice  was  corrupted 
and  poisoned."! 

And  again : — 

*'  Riot,  rapine,  and  massacre,  and  all  the 
tremendous  effects  of  anarchy,  were  the 
natural  consequences.  Every  inconsider- 
able party,  who,  under  pretence  of  loyalty, 
received  the  king's  commission  to  repel  the 
adversary  in  some  particular  district,  be- 
came pestilent  enemies  to  the  inhabitants. 
Their  properties,  their  lives,  the  chastity 
of  their  familes,  were  all  exposed  to  barba- 
rians, who  sought  only  to  glut  their  brutal 
passions ;  and  by  their  horrible  excesses, 
saith  the  annalist,  purchased  the  curse  of 
God  and  man."J 

*  Leiand ;  book  ii.  chap.  1.     t  Ibid. ;  book  ii.  chap.  3. 
t  Ibid. ;  book  ii.  cbiip.  3. 


O'Connell  remarks  upon  this  stage  of 
Irish  history — 

"  It  describes  the  modus  agendi  in  the 
oppression  of  the  Irish,  by  giving  power 
and  authority  to  persons  resident  in  Ireland, 
who  affected  to  be  the  only  friends  of  the 
English  interest.  *  *  *  * 
Power  was  given,  and  the  administration 
of  affairs  committed  to  the  persons  whose 
only  attachment  to  English  connection  was, 
that  it  gave  them  the  means  of  commit- 
ting crime  with  impunity.  These  persons 
fabricated  outrages ;  or  exaggerated  any 
crimes  that  might  have  been  really  com- 
mitted. They  were  accordingly  intrusted 
with  authority,  to  put  down  disturbances 
and  preserve  the  peace.  That  power  they 
naturally,  and,  indeed,  necessarily  abused." 

To  return  to  our  historical  narrative,  we 
observe  that,  under  a  new  governor,  Sir 
John  Darcy,  new  insurrections  broke  forth 
in  the  provinces  of  the  south ;  and  while 
Mac  Geoghegan  took  the  field  in  West- 
meath,  O'Brien  of  Thomond  led  forth  the 
septs  of  Munster.  At  this  critical  juncture, 
the  English  were  employed  in  murdering 
each  other;  and  a  treacherous  massacre 
which  took  place  in  Orgiel,  exhibited  the 
spectacle  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  and 
sixty  Englishmen,  among  whom  were  the 
Earl  of  Louth,  Talbot  of  Malahide,  and 
many  more  gentlemen  of  rank,  basely 
butchered  by  their  own  countrymen,  the 
Gernons,  Savages,  and  others.  At  the 
same  time,  the  Barrys,  Roches,  and  other 
English  in  Munster,  were  guilty  of  a  no 
less  atrocious  act  of  carnage  upon  Lord 
Philip  Bodnet,  Hugh  Condon,  and  about 
one  hundred  and  forty  of  their  followers, 
all  of  whom  were  made  victims  to  the 
factious  rage  and  perfidious  cruelty  of  their 
own  countrymen. 

It  was  but  just  that,  in  the  fair  and 
open  field  of  fight,  the  curse  of  defeat 
should  light  upon  the  arms  of  those  who 
had  dishonoured  the  name  of  soldier  by 
such  base  cruelty ;  and,  in  every  direction, 
discomfiture  and  disaster  appear  to  have 
attended  the  course  of  the  English  troops. 
The  force  marched  by  Lord  Thomas  But- 
ler into  Westmeath  was  put  to  rout  near 


A.  D.  1331.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


63 


Mullingar,  with  considerable  loss,  by  the 
chief,  Mac  G^oghegan.  Sir  Simon  Gene- 
vil,  in  like  manner,  suffered  a  signal  defeat  at 
Carbery,  in  Kildare ;  while  Brian  O'Brien 
ravaged,  at  will,  over  the  whole  country, 
and  burnt  down  the  towns  of  Athassel  and 
Tipperary. 

Being  unable  to  cope  with  so  general  a 
spirit  of  insurrection,  the  lord-justice  saw 
that  he  was  left  no  other  resource  than  to 
call  in  the  aid  of  that  powerful  and  popular 
nobleman,  Maurice  Fitz-Thomas,  who  had 
been  created  Earl  of  Desmond,  with  a 
grant  of  all  the  regalities,  liberties,  and 
other  royal  privileges  of  the  county  of 
Kerry. 

Thus  were  two  powerful  seignories  add- 
ed to  those  already  created,  empowering 
a  proud  and  upstart  oligarchy  to  domineer 
over  the  whole  land.  The  distracting  op- 
pression, indeed,  of  petty  kingship  under 
which  the  country,  in  its  old,  independent 
state,  groaned,  was  now  but  replaced  by  a 
form  of  toparchy  still  more  insulting  and 
odious,  inasmuch  as  the  multifold  scourge 
had  passed  from  the  hands  of  natives  into 
those  of  aliens  and  intruders.  The  palati- 
nate now  granted  to  Desmond  formed  the 
ninth  of  those  petty  sovereignties  into 
which  the  kingdom  had  been  wantonly 
parcelled  in  order  to  enrich  and  exalt  a 
few  favoured  individuals,  not  more  to  the 
injury  of  the  people  than  to  the  usurpation 
and  abuse  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown. 
For,  in  fact,  these  palatine  lords  had  royal 
jurisdiction  throughout  their  territories ; 
made  barons  and  knights,  and  erected 
courts  for  civil  and  criminal  causes,  as 
well  as  for  the  management  of  their  own 
revenues,  according  to  the  forms  in  which 
the  king's  courts  were  established  in  Dub- 
lin. They  made  their  own  judges,  sheriffs, 
and  coroners ;  nor  did  the  king's  writ  run 
in  the  palatinates,  though  they  comprised 
such  a  large  proportion  of  the  English 
settlements. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when 
Sir  Anthony  Lucy  was  appointed  to  the 
government.  He  was  an  English  knight, 
eminently  distinguished  for  wisdom,  firm- 
ness, and  valour,  and  there  was  rarely  an 


occasion  when  such  qualifications  were 
more  requisite  in  a  lord-deputy.  Suspect- 
ing that  the  Irish  were  secretly  encouraged 
in  their  depredations  by  the  barons,  he 
summoned  a  parliament  to  meet  him  at 
Kilkenny.  The  thinness  of  the  attendance, 
and  the  pretexts  used  by  those  who  did 
come  for  departing  again,  converted  his 
suspicions  into  certainty,  and  he  took  the 
decisive  measure  of  arresting  all  the  lead- 
ing nobles.  Desmond,  Mandeville,  the  two 
De  Burghs,  and  the  two  Berminghams 
were  thrown  into  prison  by  the  spirited 
deputy,  and  soon  after  brought  to  trial. 
William  Bermingham  was  convicted  on 
the  clearest  evidence,  and  immediately 
executed.  Desmond  was  forced  after  a 
long  confinement,  to  give  great  surety  for 
his  appearance,  and  was  then  sent  into 
England. 

The  public  announcement  at  this  time, 
by  the  king,  of  his  intention  to  pass  over 
into  Ireland,  and  apply  himself  personally 
to  the  task  of  reforming  the  state  of  that 
realm,  might  well  be  classed  with  those 
other  dawnings  of  better  fortune  which 
now  and  then  opened  upon  hapless  Ireland, 
merely  to  close  again  in  darkness,  were  it 
not  now  known  that  all  the  preparations 
made  ostensibly  for  the  king's  Irish  visit 
were  but  as  a  blind,  to  divert  attention 
from  the  formidable  expedition  then  pre^ 
paring  against  Scotland. 

The  forces  collected  on  the  western 
coast  of  England  were  suddenly  ordered 
to  march  northwards  ;  and  Ireland  was,  as 
usual,  neglected.  The  only  measure  taken 
to  tranquillize  the  country  was  the  most 
injudicious  that  could  possibly  be  adopted. 
The  Prior  of  Kilmainham  was  directed  to 
enter  into  terms  of  accommodation  with 
all  the  insurgents  of  English  and  Irish 
race.  He  thus,  indeed,  for  a  time  restored 
a  hollow  tranquillity ;  but  he  revealed  to 
the  disaffected  the  secret  of  their  own 
strength  and  the  royal  weakness. 

About  this  time  an  event  fraught  with 
the  most  pernicious  consequences  occurred. 
The  Earl  of  Ulster  was  assassinated  by  his 
own  servants  at  Carrickfergus ;  and  his 
countess,  with  her  infant  daughter,  fled  to 


64 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1341. 


England  in  consternation.  The  chiefs  of 
the  junior  branches  of  the  family,  fearing 
the  transfer  of  the  late  earl's  large  posses- 
sions into  strange  hands  by  a  marriage  with 
the  then  infant  heiress,  took  advantage  of 
the  opportunity  now  offered  of  seizing  up- 
on his  estates  ;  and  the  two  most  powerful 
of  the  family.  Sir  William,  or  Ulick,  and 
Sir  Edmond  Albanach,  having  confederated 
together,  and  declared  themselves  indepen- 
dent, took  possession  of  the  entire  terri- 
tory ; — the  town  of  Galway,  together  with 
the  country  as  far  as  the  Shannon,  falling 
to  the  lot  of  Sir  William.  Still  more  to 
enlist  the  sympathy  of  the  natives  on  their 
side,  they  renounced  the  English  dress  and 
language,  and  adopted  those  of  the  coun- 
try ;  carrying  the  metamorphosis  so  far  as 
even  to  change  their  names — Sir  William 
taking  the  title  of  Mac  William  Eighter, 
and  Sir  Edmund  that  of  Mac  William 
Oughter.  Similar  proceedings  were  ex- 
hibited in  almost  every  part  of  the  coun- 
try ;  and  it  soon  became  proverbial  that 
the  descendants  of  English  settlers  were 
Hibernis  ipsis  Hiberniores,  "  more  Irish 
than  the  Irish  themselves." 

William  de  Burgh,  third  Earl  of  Ulster, 
thus  cut  off  in  his  twenty-first  year,  left  an 
only  child,  a  daughter,  the  heiress  of  his 
great  possessions,  who  was  married  in  the 
year  1352,  to  Lionel,  third  son  of  King 
Edward  the  Third.  This  prince  was  then 
created,  in  her  right.  Earl  of  Ulster,  and  also 
Lord  of  Connaught ;  and,  after  him,  these 
titles  and  possessions  were  enjoyed,  through 
marriage  or  descent,  by  different  princes  of 
the  royal  blood ;  until  at  length,  in  the 
person  of  Edward  the  Fourth,  they  became 
the  special  inheritance  and  revenue  of  the 
English  crown. 

In  1341,  Edward  appears  to  have  fully 
understood  the  political  position  of  the 
Anglo-Irish  lords.  Abitrary  measures  were 
advised  against  the  old  English  settlers ; 
and  one  of  the  first  was  a  general  resump- 
tion of  all  the  lands,  liberties,  seignories, 
and  jurisdictions  that  had  been  granted  in 
Ireland,  not  by  Edward  himself  only,  but 
by  his  father.  In  all  cases,  likewise, 
whether  in  his  time  or  that  of  his  prede-  i 


cessors,  where  debts  due  to  the  crown  had 
been  either  remitted  or  suspended,  it  was 
now  declared  that  all  such  indulgences 
were  revoked,  and  that  these  debts  must 
be  strictly  levied  without  any  delay.  This 
rigorous  measure  he  endeavoured  to  excuse 
by  alleging  the  necessity  which  he  found 
himself  under  of  providing  for  the  expen- 
ses of  the  war  just  then  renewed  with 
France.  Among  the  ordinances  put  forth 
by  him,  there  were  some  for  the  correction 
of  official  abuses,  more  especially  those  of 
the  king's  exchequer,  which,  had  they  not 
so  openly  formed  a  part  of  one  fixed  and 
general  design  to  dislodge  from  its  strong- 
holds the  ascendency  of  the  Anglo-Irish, 
and  plant  in  its  place  a  purely  English 
dominion,  would  have  been  welcomed  as 
sound  and  rational  reforms. 

The  jealousy  long  felt  by  the  crown 
towards  those  great  Anglo-Irish  lords, 
whom  its  own  reckless  favours  had  nursed 
into  such  portentous  strength,  and  who 
were  now,  comparatively,  at  least,  with 
the  king  and  his  nobles,  become  the  natural 
heads  of  the  land,  had  already,  in  more  than 
one  instance,  declared  itself.  But  it  was 
not  until  now  that  this  feeling  had  found 
vent  for  itself  in  the  law ;  or  that  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  two  races,  the  English 
by  blood  and  the  English  by  birth,  was 
resorted  to  as  a  reason  or  pretext  for  the 
sacrifice  of  the  old  colonists  to  the  new. 

To  allay  the  excitement  caused  by  this 
measure,  a  parliament  was  summoned  by 
the  lord-justice,  to  meet  at  Dublin  in  Octo- 
ber ;  but  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  and  the 
lords  of  his  party,  refused  peremptorily  to 
attend  it ;  and,  confederating  with  other 
great  nobles,  as  well  as  some  cities  and 
corporations,  they  appointed,  of  themselves, 
without  any  reference  to  the  head  of  the 
government,  a  general  assembly  to  meet, 
in  November,  at  Kilkenny.  This  conven- 
tion, at  which  were  present  neither  the 
lord-justice  nor  any  other  of  the  king's  offi- 
cers, made  itself  memorable,  not  only  by 
the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  it 
met,  but  also  by  a  long  and  spirited  petition 
to  the  king,  which  was  the  result  of  its 
deliberations,  and    which,  though  not  ex- 


»J 


A.  D.  1353.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


65 


pressly  pretending  to  parliamentary  au- 
thority, purports  to  be  the  act  of  the«  pre- 
lates, earls,  barons,  and  commons  of  Ire- 
land. To  understand  clearly  the  complaints 
made  by  these  petitioners  of  the  encroach- 
ments, as  they  chose  to  consider  them,  of 
the  natives,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that, 
during  the  troubled  reign  of  Edward  the 
Second,  and  in  the  first  years  of  the  pre- 
sent, the  Irish  had  succeeded  in  more  than 
one  instance,  in  regaining  possession  of 
their  ancient  territories ;  and  that  the  great- 
er part  of  the  lands  of  Leinsler  had  been, 
for  some  time,  in  the  hands  of  Mac  Mor- 
rough  and  O'Moore,  the  descendants  of  the 
original  princes  of  that  province. 

Edward's  answer  to  this  petition  par- 
takes very  much  of  the  characteristic  usu- 
ally observable  in  a  speech  for  the  opening 
of  a  session  of  parliament — containing  no- 
thing beyond  itself. 

In  1343,  Sir  Ralph  Ufford,  who  had 
married  the  Dowager-Countess  of  Ulster, 
assumed  the  office  of  chief-governor.  His 
administration  lasted  one  year  and  nine 
months  ;  after  which,  there  were  no  less 
than  three  new  governors  appointed  within 
sixty  days. 

Through  the  influence  of  Sir  Walter 
Bermingham,  then  lord-justice,  Desmond 
was  permitted  to  proceed  to  England,  to 
lay  his  complaints  at  the  foot  of  the  throne ; 
and  was  not  only  graciously  received,  but, 
in  prosecuting  his  claims  for  redress,  was 
allowed  twenty  shillings  per  diem,  for  his 
expenses,  by  the  king.  All  the  estates,  too, 
of  those  who  had  become  bound  for  him, 
while  in  prison,  were  by  letters-patent  re- 
stored to  them. 

Three  years  before,  on  the  renewal  of 
hostilities  with  France,  the  king  had  ad- 
dressed a  writ  to  the  magnates  of  Ireland, 
summoning  them  to  join  him  with  their 
forces;  and  in  the  present  year,  (1347,) 
the  Earl  of  Kildare  went  with  thirty  men 
at  arms  and  forty  hobilliers,  to  serve  the 
king,  at  the  siege  of  Calais,  where,  for  his 
gallant  conduct,  Edward  bestowed  upon 
him  the  honour  of  knighthood. 

For  the  next  six  or  eight  years  we  find 
an  unusual  tranquillity  in  Ireland ;  and  the 

9 


causes  assigned  for  it,  namely,  the  favour 
extended  by  Edward  to  the  two  popular 
Anglo-Irish  lords,  (Desmond  and  Kildare,) 
and  the  daily  expectation  of  seeing  the  re- 
sumed lands  and  jurisdictions  restored, 
show  in  what  quarter  the  active  elements 
of  political  strife  and  disorder  principally 
lay.  During  this  period  the  office  of  lord- 
justice  was  filled  by  five  or  six  successive 
personages ;  of  one  of  whom.  Sir  Thomas 
Rokeby,  a  homely  saying  is  recorded, 
characteristic  of  the  simple  and  sound  in- 
tegrity of  the  man.  When  reproached  by 
some  one  for  suflfering  himself  to  be  served 
in  wooden  cups,  he  answered,  "  I  had 
rather  drink  out  of  wood  and  pay  gold  and 
silver,  than  drink  out  of  gold  and  make 
wooden  payment." 

We  shall  take  this  opportunity  to  bring 
forward  another  proof  of  the  actual  con- 
struction and  administration  of  "  English 
law"  in  Ireland. 

In  the  Common-Plea  Rolls  of  1355,  (28 
Edward  III.,)  preserved  in  Bermingham's 
Tower,  the  following  case  is  recorded : — 

"  Simon  Neal  complains  of  WiUiam  Ne w- 
lagh,  that  he,  with  force  and  arms,  on  the 
Monday  after  the  feast  of  Saint  Margaret, 
at  Clondalkin,  in  the  county  of  Dublin, 
broke  the  said  Simon's  close  and  his  herb- 
age with  oxen,  calves,  and  sheep,  con- 
sumed and  trampled,  contrary  to  the  peace, 
etc. ;  whence  he  says  that  he  is  damaged 
to  the  amount  of  twenty  shillings;  and 
thereof,  etc. 

"And  the  aforesaid  William  comes  now 
and  says  that  the  aforesaid  Simon  is  an 
Irishman,  and  not  of  the  five  bloods ;  and 
asks  judgment  if  he  be  held  to  answer  him. 

"  And  the  aforesaid  Simon  (the  plaintiff) 
says  that  he  is  one  of  the  five  bloods ;  to 
wit  of  the  O'Neiles  of  Ulster,  who,  by  the 
concession  of  the  progenitors  of  our  lord 
the  king,  ought  to  enjoy  and  use  the  liber- 
ties of  England,  and  be  deemed  as  free- 
men ;  and  this  he  offers  to  verify,  etc. 

"  And  the  aforesaid  William  (the  defend- 
ant) rejoineth — that  the  plaintiff  is  not  of 
the  O'Neiles  of  Ulster,  [nee  de  quinque  san- 
guinibus,"]  nor  of  the  five  bloods.  And 
thereupon  they  are  at  issue,  etc. 


66 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1367. 


"  Which  issue  being  found  by  the  jury 
for  the  plaintiff,  he  had  judgment  to  recover 
his  damages  against  the  defendant." 

In  1361,  King  Edward  resolved  to  com- 
mit the  government  of  Ireland  to  his  second 
son,  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  had 
married  the  heiress  of  the  late  Earl  of  Ul- 
ster. Extensive  preparations  were  made 
to  enable  the  young  prince  to  conduct  him- 
self with  vigour  in  his  new  government ; 
and  the  highest  expectations  were  formed 
of  the  benefits  that  were  to  follow  from  his 
visit.  By  one  fatal  error  all  these  well- 
grounded  hopes  were  disappointed.  The 
youthful  duke  was  surrounded  by  men  of 
English  birth,  who  induced  him  to  slight 
the  lords  of  the  Pale ;  and  these  haughty 
nobles  refused  to  give  him  the  least  assist- 
ance in  his  military  operations.  Left  to 
the  guidance  of  his  own  inexperienced  fol- 
lowers, Lionel  marched  Jigainst  the  O'Bri- 
ens of  Thomond :  but  from  his  ignorance  of 
the  country,  was  soon  involved  in  difficul- 
ties from  which  he  saw  no  means  of  escape. 
In  this  mortifying  condition,  he  was  obliged 
to  appeal  to  the  compassion  of  the  lords  of 
the  Pale,  by  whom  he  was  speedily  re- 
lieved, and  even  enabled  to  gain  some  ad- 
vantages over  the  enemy.  He  returned 
soon  after  to  England,  having  added  a  new 
and  dangerous  distinction  to  the  parties  by 
which  the  country  was  already  distracted. 
Henceforth  the  terms,  "  English  by  birth," 
and  "  English  by  blood,"  became  invidious 
expressions  of  separation,  causing  new  hos- 
tilities as  violent  and  inveterate  as  those  of 
preceding  centuries. 

In  the  course  of  the  three  following 
years  we  find  him  twice  again  intrusted 
with  the  same  office ;  although  on  both 
occasions  for  a  very  limited  period.  It 
was  during  his  last  administration,  in  the 
year  1367,  that  the  memorable  parliament 
was  held  at  Kilkenny,  in  which  the  two 
estates,  as  we  are  told,  sat  together,  and 
which  passed  the  celebrated  act  known 
generally  by  the  name  of  the  Statute  of 
Kilkenny.  This  remarkable  ordinance,  al- 
though directed  chiefly  against  those  old 
English,  or,  more  properly,  Anglo-Irish, 
who  had  adopted  the  laws  and  customs  of 


the  natives,  contains  also,  in  reference  to 
the  latter,  some  enactments  full  of  that 
jealous  and  penal  spirit  which  continued 
for  centuries  after  to  pervade  and  infect 
the  whole  course  of  English  legislation 
respecting  Ireland.  In  the  words  of  Lord 
Clare,  "  it  was  a  declaration  of  perpetual 
war,  not  only  against  the  native  Irish,  but 
against  every  person  of  English  blood  who 
had  settled  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Pale, 
and  from  motives  of  personal  interest,  or 
convenience,  had  formed  connections  with 
the  natives,  or  adopted  their  laws  and  cus- 
toms: and  it  had  the  full  effect  which 
might  have  been  expected  ;  it  drew  closer 
the  confederacy  it  was  meant  to  dissolve, 
and  implicated  the  colony  of  the  Pale  in 
ceaseless  warfare  and  contention  with  each 
other,  and  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  adja- 
cent district." 

The  following  are  among  the  principal 
provisions  of  this  famous  statute : — 

That  intermarriages  with  the  natives,  or 
any  connection  with  them  in  the  way  of 
fostering  or  gossipred,  should  be  consid- 
ered and  punished  as  high  treason : — 

That  any  man  of  English  race,  assuming 
an  Irish  name,  or  using  the  Irish  language, 
apparel,  or  customs,  should  forfeit  all  his 
lands  and  tenements : — 

That  to  adopt  or  submit  to  the  Brehon 
law  was  treason  : — 

That  without  the  permission  of  the  gov- 
ernment, the  English  should  not  make  war 
upon  the  natives  : — 

That  the  English  should  not  permit  the 
Irish  to  pasture  or  graze  upon  their  lands, 
nor  admit  them  to  any  ecclesiastical  bene- 
fices or  religious  houses,  nor  entertain  their 
minstrels,  rhymers,  or  news-tellers. 

There  were  also  enactments  against  the 
oppressive  tax  of  coyne  and  livery ;  against 
the  improper  use  made  of  royal  franchises 
and  liberties  in  allowing  them  to  be  sanc- 
tuaries for  malefactors,  and  one  or  two 
other  such  manifest  abuses. 

The  office  of  chief-governor,  however 
alluring  it  might  have  been  in  the  first 
palmy  days  of  plunder  and  usurpation, 
had  now  become  so  arduous  and  undesira- 
ble a  post,  that  Sir  Richard  Pembridge, 


A.  D.  1377.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


67 


one  of  the  king's  wardens  of  the  Cinque 
Ports,  on  being  ordered  to  go  over  to  Ire- 
land as  lord-justice,  positively  refused.  Nor 
was  his  refusal  adjudged  to  be  illegal ;  it 
being  held  that  even  so  high  an  appoint- 
ment was  no  better  than  an  honourable 
exile,  and  that  no  man  could  be  forced  by 
law  to  abandon  his  country,  except  in  the 
case  of  abjuration  for  felony,  or  by  aot  of 
parliament  The  king  sent  over,  therefore, 
Sir  William  de  Windsor,  already  once  be- 
fore  lord-lieutenant,  who  undertook  to  carry 
on  the  government  for  £11,213  65.  8d.  per 
annum, — a  sum  exceeding  (says  Sir  John 
Davies)  the  whole  revenue  of  the  realm  of 
Ireland,  which  did  not  at  that  time  amount 
to  £10,000  annually,  "  even  though  the 
medium,"  he  adds, "  be  taken  from  the  best 
seven  years  during  this  long  reign."  By 
De  Windsor  an  order  was  obtained  from 
the  king  and  council,  that  all  those  who 
had  lands  in  Ireland  should  repair  thither 
without  delay,  or  else  send  in  their  place 
men  competent  to  defend  the  country,  un- 
der pain  of  forfeiting  their  estates.  Not- 
withstanding, however,  all  this  preparation, 
so  little  had  the  government  of  that  king- 
dom to  do  with  the  Irish  people,  that,  ac- 
cording to  De  Windsor's  own  confession, 
he  had  never,  during  the  whole  course  of 
his  service  there,  been  able  to  get  access 
to  the  natives,  or  even  discover  their  se- 
cluded places  of  abode. 

The  successor  of  De  Windsor  in  the  of- 
fice of  lord-justice  was  James,  the  second 
Earl  of  Ormond,  under  whom  a  parliament 
was  called  to  provide  for  the  exigencies  of 
the  government,  but  refused  to  grant  the 
supplies.  In  this  emergency  writs  were 
issued  to  the  bishops  and  the  commons,  re- 
quiring them  to  choose  representatives  to 
be  sent  to  the  parliament  of  England — 
there  to  treat,  consult,  and  agree  with  the 
king  and  his  council  on  the  measures  ne- 
cessary for  the  support  and  safety  of  the 
government  of  Ireland.  In  complying,  re- 
luctantly, with  this  order  of  the  crown,  the 
clergy,  nobles,  and  commons  declare  that, 
according  to  the  rights,  laws,  and  customs 
of  the  land  of  Ireland,  from  the  lime  of  the 
conquest    thereof,  they  never  had    been 


bound  to  elect  or  send  any  persons  out  of 
the  said  land  to  parliaments  or  councils  held 
in  England,  for  any  such  purposes  as  the 
writ  requires. 

At  the  close  of  this  long  reign  of  fifty 
years,  we  find  the  following  curious  entry 
in  the  Issue  Roll  for  1376,  which  certainly 
enlightens  us  in  about  the  same  degree  that 
it  must  have  astonished  the  king.  Such 
wonderful  information,  especially  when 
brought  by  "  good-natured  friends,"  de- 
served all  the  hospitality  that  the  royal 
builder  of  Windsor  Castle  could  bestow  : — 

"  Richard  Dere  and  William  Stapolyn 
came  over  to  England  to  inform  the  king 
how  very  badly  Ireland  was  governed. 
The  king  ordered  them  to  be  paid  ten 
pounds  for  their  trouble." 


CHAPTER    XI. 

Accession  of  Richard  thes.  Second — Regency  up- 
pointed — Administration  of  the  Earl  of  March 
and  Ulster — Succeeded  by  his  son — Followed  by 
Philip  de  Courtenay — Duke  of  Ireland  created 
— Administration  of  Sir  John  Stanley — Suc- 
ceeded by  the  Earl  of  Ormond — Visit  of  King 
Richard  to  Ireland — Death  of  the  lEarl  of  March 
— Second  visit  of  King  Richard  to  Ireland — The 
campaign  with  Mac-Morough — Richard  recalled 
to  England  by  the  defection  of  Henry  of  Boling- 
broke — Deposition  of  Richard — Deaths  of  dis- 
tinguished men  in  Ireland  during  the  fourteenth 
century — Nature  of  the  darkness  during  that 
"  dark"  age — Death  of  Richard  the  Second. 

Richard  the  Second,  son  of  Edward  the 
Black  Prince,  and  grandson  of  Edward  the 
Third,  succeeded  his  grandfather  to  the 
throne  in  1377,  while  in  his  eleventh  year. 
No  express  regency  had  been  appointed 
by  the  deceased  king;  but  the  house  of 
commons  caused  nine  distinguished  per- 
sons to  be  nominated  for  an  administrative 
council,  although  the  chief  authority  was 
in  the  hands  of  Richard's  three  uncles. 

In  the  third  year  of  Richard's  reign,  Ed- 
mund Mortimer,  Earl  of  March  and  Ulster, 
and  son  to  Lionel,  Duke  of  Clarence,  was 
sent  over  to  Ireland  as  lord-lieutenant ;  and, 
about  the  same  time,  a  number  of  French 
and  Spanish  galleys,  which  had  done  much 


*' 


^ 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  I).  1381'. 


mischief  on  the  coasts  of  Ireland,  having 
been  driven  by  the  English  fleet  into  the 
harbour  of  Kinsale,  were  there  attacked 
by  a  combined  force  of  English  and  Irish, 
and  sustained  a  complete  defeat ;  their 
chief  captains  were  all  taken,  four  hundred 
of  the  sailors  slain,  and  a  great  number  of 
their  barges  captured. 

In  1381,  the  Earl  of  March  died.  The 
prelates,  magnates,  and  commons  of  the 
realm  were  immediately  summoned  to 
meet  at  Cork  for  the  purpose  of  electing 
a  worthy  successor  to  the  vacant  office. 
The  choice  falling  unanimously  upon  John 
Colton,then  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  this  dis- 
tinguished ecclesiastic,  who  became  after- 
wards Archbishop  of  Armagh,  was  raised 
to  the  post  of  lord-justice.  He  remained, 
however,  but  a  few  weeks  in  this  station, 
being  succeeded,  towards  the  end  of  Janu- 
ary, by  the  young  Roger,  Earl  of  March, 
son  of  the  former  lord-lieutenant ;  and,  this 
prince  being  still  under  age,  the  affairs  of 
the  realm  were  administered,  in  his  name, 
by  his  guardian  and  uncle,  Thomas  Morti- 
mer ;  so  that,  in  Ireland,  as  well  as  in 
England,  the  executive  power  of  the  realm 
was,  at  this  time,  in  tutelage. 

The  desire  evinced  by  the  regency,  at 
the  outset  of  Richard's  reign,  for  a  search- 
ing inquiry  into  Irish  affairs,  and  a  reform 
of  the  abuses  prevailing  in  all  its  depart- 
ments, was  now  further  shown  by  the  firm- 
ness of  their  measures  against  Philip  de 
Courtenay,  cousin  of  the  king,  who  had 
succeeded  the  young  Earl  of  March  as 
lord-lieutenant.  Being  the  possessor  of  a 
considerable  estate  in  the  country,  he  was 
thought  to  be  therefore  peculiarly  suited  to 
the  office  ;  and  by  special  favour,  a  grant 
was  made  to  him  of  this  high  post  for  the 
space  of  ten  years.  Presuming,  doubtless, 
on  this  long  tenure  of  power,  he  conducted 
himself  with  such  utter  disregard  to  law 
and  justice,  that,  by  order  of  the  English 
authorities,  he  was  taken  into  custody, 
while  in  the  exercise  of  his  vice-regal  func- 
tions, and  not  only  dispossessed  of  his  high 
office,  but  severely  punished  for  the  oppres- 
sions and  gross  exactions  of  which  he  had 
been  guilty. 


The  government  was  next  conferred  on 
the  king's  first  favourite,  Robert  de  Vere, 
Earl  of  Oxford  and  Marquis  of  Dublin, 
whom  the  king  now  created  Duke  of  Ire- 
land. Extraordinary  preparations  were 
made  for  his  departure  ;  but  when  he  had 
proceeded  as  far  as  Wales,  Richard  found 
himself  unable  to  part  with  his  minion,  and 
the  administration  was  managed  by  depu- 
ties. The  dominion  which  Oxford's  depu- 
ties attempted  in  Ireland  was  unanimously 
opposed.  He  went  to  Flanders,  and  short- 
ly after  died  at  Louvain. 

The  Irish  administration  was  now  given 
to  Sir  John  Stanley,  and  afterwards  to  the 
Earl  of  Ormond.  The  latter  acted  with 
more  vigour  than  his  predecessors.  He 
compelled  the  O'Neiles  of  Ulster  to  give 
hostages  for  their  fidelity ;  and  he  gained  a 
great  victory  at  Kilkenny  over  a  numerous 
army  of  Irish  insurgents.  The  disordered 
state  of  Ireland,  however,  continued  to 
be  the  subject  of  bitter  complaints  in  the 
English  parliament  ;  and  the  king  at 
length  resolved  to  lead  over  a  sufficient 
army,  and  complete  the  conquest  of  the 
country.  He  is  said  to  have  formed  this 
resolution,  partly  because  he  dreaded  the 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  whom  he  had  at  first 
nominated  to  the  command,  but  principally 
on  account  of  a  sarcasm  uttered  by  some 
princes  of  Germany,  while  Richard  was 
canvassing  them  for  his  election  to  the 
empire.  Having  married  a  Bohemian  prin- 
cess, he  trusted  that,  by  their  connection,  he 
had  acquired  sufficient  interest  to  be  chosen 
emperor.  But  the  electors  refused  to  con- 
fer the  dignity  on  one  who  had  been  un- 
able to  defend  the  acquisitions  made  by  his 
ancestors  in  France, — who  could  not  con- 
trol the  factions  of  his  English  subjects, — 
nor  subdue  the  enemies  of  his  authority  in 
Ireland.  The  truth  of  this  reproach  made 
it  the  more  bitter  ;  and  Richard  determined 
to  acquire  military  fame  in  Ireland. 

The  real  state  of  the  English  influence 
in  Ireland  is  virtually  acknowledged  in  the 
the  letters-patent  conveying  Ireland  to  the 
royal  favourite,  Robert  de  Vere  ; — the 
object  of  the  powers  thereby  intrusted  to 
him  having  been,  in  express  terms,  the 


A.  D.  1395.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


69 


**  conquest"  of  that  land.  For  this  yet  un- 
accomplished purpose  the  army  now  landed 
by  Richard  at  Waterford,  which  consisted 
of  four  thousand  men-at-arms,  and  thirty 
thousand  archers,  might  appear  to  have 
been  more  than  a  sufficient  force.  With 
such  a  force  to  command  submission,  there 
was  only  w^anting  sufficient  wisdom  to  lay 
the  foundations  of  social  improvement,  by 
extending  the  protection  of  English  law  to 
the  whole  native  population.  Had  this 
been  adopted  by  Richard,  it  is  fair  to  con- 
clude that  a  measure  granting  such  a  real 
boon  to  the  whole  kingdom,  and  even  en- 
forcing its  general  acceptance,  would  have 
been  hailed  with  joy  and  thankfulness  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  Irish  people. 

Richard,  like  his  progenitors,  Henry  the 
Second  and  John,  appears  to  have  been 
satisfied  with  an  outward  show  of  submis- 
sion and  allegiance ;  and  this  the  Irish 
chieftains  were,  as  usual,  quite  willing  to 
promise.  On  the  first  alarm  of  Richard's 
arrival,  heading  so  numerous  a  force, — the 
largest  ever  yet  landed  upon  the  Irish 
shores, — the  natives  had  fled  to  those  natu- 
ral fastnesses  which  a  country  intersected 
with  woods  and  morasses  afforded  to  them, 
and  so  were  enabled  to  elude  the  invader's 
approach.  But  all  intention  of  offering  re- 
sistance to  so  powerful  a  force  was  soon 
abandoned ;  and,  it  being  understood  that 
the  submission  of  the  chieftains  would  be 
graciously  received,  O'Neile,  and  other 
lords  of  Ulster,  met  the  king  at  Drogheda, 
and  there  did  homage  and  swore  fealty 
with  the  usual  solemnities. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Mowbray,  Earl  of 
Nottingham,  and  Lord-Marshal  of  Eng- 
land, had  been  specially  commissioned  by 
the  king  to  receive  the  homage  and  oaths 
of  fealty  of  the  Irish  in  Leinster.  At  Bal- 
ligory,  near  Carlow,  an  interview  was  held 
by  this  lord  with  Art  Mac  Morough,  the 
heir  of  the  ancient  kings  of  Leinster,  and 
several  other  southern  chiefs,  who  there 
went  through  the  same  ceremonies  of  sub- 
mission as  had  been  performed  in  the  king's 
presence,  at  Drogheda ;  after  which  the 
lord-marshal  gave  to  each  of  them  the  kiss 
of  peace.     They  were  likewise  bound  sev- 


erally, by  indentures,  and  in  large  penal- 
ties, payable  in  the  apostolic  chamber,  not 
only  to  continue  loyal  subjects,  but  to  an- 
swer, for  themselves  and  all  their  swords- 
men, that  they  would,  on  a  certain  fixed 
day,  surrender  to  the  king  and  his  succes- 
sors all  the  lands  and  possessions  held  by 
them  in  Leinster,  taking  with  them  only 
their  moveable  goods.  They  also  pledged 
themselves  to  serve  him  in  his  wars  against 
all  other  Irish.  In  return  for  this  total  sur- 
render of  their  ancient  rights  and  patrimo- 
nies, they  were  to  be  taken  into  the  pay  of 
the  crown,  and  receive  pensions  during 
their  lives,  together  with  the  inheritance 
of  all  such  territories  as  they  could  seize 
from  the  rebels  in  other  parts  of  the  realm  ; 
thus  giving  to  these  wretched  chieftains,  as 
a  sort  of  salve  for  the  injuries  perpetrated 
on  themselves,  full  license,  and  even  en- 
couragement, to  inflict  the  same  enormities 
upon  others.  The  pension  of  eighty  marks, 
bestowed  on  Mac  Morough,  of  the  Cava- 
naghs,  at  this  time,  was  continued  to  his 
posterity  till  the  time  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 

The  singular  state  of  society  exhibited 
in  onr  last  paragraph  seems  to  require  fur- 
ther explanation,  and  luckily  we  happen  to 
have  one  from  the  "  highest  authority,"  that 
is  to  say.  King  Richard  the  Second  himself, 
writing  to  his  own  council  in  England : — 

"  There  are,  in  this  our  land,"  he  writes 
from  Dublin,  "  three  classes  of  persons, — 
wild  Irish,  or  enemies,  Irish  rebels,  and 
English  subjects  ;  and,  considering  that  the 
rebels  have  been  made  such  by  wrongs, 
and  by  the  want  of  due  attention  to  their 
grievances,  and  that,  if  they  be  not  wisely 
treated,  and  encouraged  by  hopes  of  favour, 
they  will  most  probably  join  themselves 
with  our  enemies,  we  think  it  right  to  grant 
them  a  general  pardon,  and  take  them  un- 
der our  especial  protection."* 

According  to  the  account  given  of  the 
Irish  chiefs  by  Froissart,  who  received  his 

*  See  the  original  in  Proceedings  and  Ordinances  of 
the  Privy-Council  of  England,  edited  by  Sir  Norris  Har- 
ris Nicholas.  It  is  quoted  by  Moore,  and  has  been  in- 
geniously translated  from  the  most  kingly  and  crooked 
French  that  the  fourteenth  century  could  possibly  have 
produced.  Nevertheless,  his  majesty's  testimony  is 
explicit  and  decisive. 


70 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1399. 


information  from  their  instructor,  the  pro- 
gress made  by  them  in  the  forms  and  ob- 
servances of  courtly  society  was  by  no 
means  very  promising.  It  was  with  diffi- 
culty he  could  bring  them  to  relinquish 
their  practice  of  dining  at  the  same  table 
with  their  own  minstrels  and  servants,  or 
embolden  them  to  wear  breeches  according 
to  the  English  fashion.  Much  persuasion 
also  was  necessary  before  they  could  be 
induced  to  exchange  the  simple  mantle  of 
the  country  for  robes  of  silk  trimmed  with 
squirrel  skins  or  miniver.  When  informed 
of  the  king's  intention  to  make  them 
knights,  according  to  the  usage  of  France, 
England,  and  other  countries,  they  answer- 
ed that  they  were  already  knights  and 
needed  no  new  creation.  It  was  the  cus- 
tom, they  added,  of  every  Irish  king,  to 
confer  that  order  upon  his  sons,  when  very 
young,  and  they  themselves  had  been 
knights  since  they  were  seven  years  old  ; 
their  first  attempts  at  jousting  having  been 
to  run  with  small  light  spears  against  a 
shield  set  upon  a  stake  in  a  meadow  ;  and 
the  more  spears  each  of  them  broke  the 
more  honour  he  acquired. 

At  length,  by  the  intervention  of  the  Earl 
of  Ormond,  who  spoke  their  language,  and 
was  generally  respected  by  the  Irish,  they 
consented  to  submit  to  the  required  forms. 
Having  observed  the  vigils  in  the  church, 
they  were  knighted  on  Lady-Day  in  the 
cathedral  of  Dublin ;  and  the  ceremony 
was  followed  by  a  great  banquet,  at  which 
the  four  Irish  kings  attended  in  robes  of 
state,  and  sat  with  King  Richard  at  his 
table. 

Maunder,  in  his  "  Treasury  of  History," 
has  the  following  remarks — "  The  Irish 
were  not  learned  in  the  lore  of  chivalry, 
and  an  honour  which  would  have  been 
eagerly  coveted  by  the  high-born  and 
wealthy  elsewhere,  was  actually  declined 
by  these  untutored  men."  We  beg  pardon 
for  quoting  from  a  writer  so  contemptible 
as  an  historian,  but  almost  every  word  here 
given  displays  such  superlative  ignorance 
that  we  give  it  as  one  of  the  curiosities  of 
literature,  being  well  aware  that  those 
readers   who   are   acquainted  with   early 


Irish  history,  and  with  the  general  regula- 
tions of  military  rank  in  Europe,  will  at 
once  see  to  whom  the  words  "  untutored" 
and  "  not  learned"  properly  apply. 

The  young  Earl  of  March,  who  remained 
in  Ireland  as  lord-deputy,  fatally  experi- 
enced how  delusive  were  the  submissions 
which  Richard  had  accepted.  It  had  been 
stipulated,  that  the  Irish  septs  should  com- 
pletely evacuate  Leinster ;  but  when  the 
time  for  the  performance  of  the  agreement 
arrived,  they  not  only  refused  to  stir,  but 
boldly  took  up  arms.  In  this  petty  war 
the  Earl  of  March  was  slain,  with  several 
of  his  companions ;  and  Mac  Morough, 
who,  though  pensioned  by  the  king,  headed 
the  revolt,  severely  harassed  the  English 
settlements,  no  longer  protected  by  the 
forces  of  the  deputy. 

When  the  news  of  these  events  reached 
England,  Richard  at  once  determined  on  a 
second  expedition  into  Ireland,  to  avenge 
his  cousin's  death.  The  line  of  policy  pur- 
sued by  him,  in  England,  during  the  inter- 
val, had  been  such  as  to  render  him  at  once 
powerful  and  odious ;  to  remove  arbitrarily 
out  of  his  way  aU  individual  rivals  and  op- 
ponents, but,  at  the  same  time,  to  array 
against  him  the  combined  hatred  of  the 
great  mass  of  the  people.  Of  the  immense 
power  that  had  accrued  to  the  crown, 
during  the  struggle,  he  was  but  too  fully 
aware ;  but  the  amount  and  strength  of  the 
popular  reaction  against  his  tyranny,  he 
was  by  no  means  prepared  to  expect, — 
having  succeeded  meanwhile  in  lulling 
himself  into  that  false  sense  of  security 
from  which  successful  tyranny  is  in  gene- 
ral awakened  only  by  its  downfall.  In  no 
other  way  can  the  strange  fatuity  be  ac- 
counted for  which  led  him,  at  this  crisis  of 
his  fortunes,  to  absent  himself  from  his 
high  post,  as  sovereign  of  England,  and 
with  the  sole  view,  as  he  professed,  of 
avenging  the  death  of  his  cousin,  the  Earl 
of  March,  to  undertake  a  second  wild  and 
wasteful  expedition  against  the  rebellious 
chieftains  of  Ireland. 

Richard  appointed  his  uncle,  the  Duke 
of  York,  to  be  regent  during  his  absence. 
After  a  solemn  mass  at  Windsor,  chanting 


A.  D.  1399.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


71 


a  collect  himself,  he  took  wine  and  spices, 
at  the  door  of  the  church,  with  his  young 
queen,  who  was  then  but  eleven  years  of 
age.  Lifting  her  up  in  his  arms,  he  kissed 
her  several  times,  saying,  "  Adieu,  madam, 
adieu,  till  we  meet  again."*  He  then  pro- 
ceeded, attended  by  a  train  of  lords,  to 
Bristol,  where  some  reports  reached  him 
of  plots  against  his  government,  which 
were  treated  by  him  with  disregard.  For 
the  naval  part  of  the  armament,  the  prepa- 
rations had  been  on  a  grand  scale.  Im- 
pressment had  been  resorted  to  for  the 
manning  of  the  fleet ;  and  vessels  were 
ordered  to  assemble  at  Milford  or  Bristol 
from  all  ports  and  pUces  on  the  sea-coast 
northward  as  far  as  Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 
There  were  also  minstrels  attendant  upon 
the  army  ;  and  one  who  accompanied  the 
expedition  says,  ''  Trumpets  and  the  sound 
of  minstrels  might  be  heard  day  and 
night." 

Collecting  his  forces  at  Milford  Haven, 
Richard  embarked  with  a  fleet  of  two 
hundred  vessels,  and  in  about  forty-eight 
hours,  arrived  in  Waterford  harbour.  On 
landing,  he  was  received  by  the  merchants 
and  other  citizens  with  a  cordial  welcome. 
In  a  few  days,  his  active  ofiicer,  Janico  d'Ar- 
tois,  taking  advantage  of  the  approach  of 
the  grand  army,  began  to  attack  the  Irish ; 
and,  in  a  conflict  with  them  at  Kenlis,  in 
Kildare,  slew  two  hundred  of  their  force. 

After  remaining  about  a  week  in  Water- 
ford,  the  king  marched  his  army  to  Kilken- 
ny, where  he  was  detained  for  fourteen 
days,  expecting  the  arrival  of  the  Duke  of 
Albemarle.  This  nobleman,  who  was 
Richard's  cousin,  had  been  ordered  to  fol- 
low with  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  sail,  and 
his  long  delay  was  afterwards  attributed  to 
secret  concert  with  the  king's  enemies. 
When  joined  by  this  force,  the  monarch, 
though  straitened  for  want  of  provisions  for 
his  unwieldy  numbers,  directed  his  march 
towards  the  chief  Mac  Morough,  who,  re- 
tired within  his  woods  and  fastnesses,  with 
a  large  multitude  of  followers,  bade  defi- 
atice  to  the  arms  of  the  invaders,  denounced 
their  power  as  founded  in  force  and  in- 
*  Lingard. 


justice,  and  declared  his  resolution  "to 
defend  the  land  unto  his  death." 

The  royal  army  was  beset  with  diffi- 
culties and  delays,  the  road  being  encum- 
bered with  fallen  trees,  and  in  many  places 
so  boggy,  that  the  soldiers,  as  they  marched, 
sunk  into  it  up  to  the  middle ;  while,  in  the 
meantime,  flying  parties  of  Irish,  "  so  nim- 
ble and  swift  of  foot,  that,  like  unto  stags, 
they  ran  over  mountains  and  valleys," 
hovered  around  with  barbarous  howls, 
cutting  off*  the  stragglers  and  foragers,  and 
hurling  darts  or  short  javelins  with  a  degree 
of  force  that  no  armour  could  withstand. 

Richard,  forced  to  retreat  before  an 
enemy  whom  he  formerly  despised,  and 
being  in  a  difficult  country,  where  no  pro- 
visions could  be  procured,  had  recourse  to 
negotiation ;  but  his  terms  were  haughtily 
rejected  by  Mac  Morough.  The  king  was 
now  left  no  other  alternative  than  to  march 
immediately  for  Dublin :  nor  even  this  was 
he  allowed  to  effect  without  molestation, 
as  the  Irish  enemy  hung  upon  his  rear,  and, 
by  harassing  the  troops  by  constant  skirm- 
ishes, delayed  and  embarrassed  their  re- 
treat. 

Having  performed  thus  the  only  duty 
that  Ireland's  chiefs  were  now  left  the 
power  to  fulfil, — that  of  reminding  their 
proud  masters  that  the  conquered  still  had 
arms,  nor  wanted  the  spirit  to  use  them, — 
Mac  Morough  sent  to  request  of  the  king  a 
safe  conduct  to  the  royal  presence,  for  the 
purpose' of  tendering  his  humble  submis- 
sion ; — or,  if  this  proposal  should  be  found 
displeasing,  suggesting  that  Richard  should 
send  some  of  his  lords  to  treat  with  the 
chief  on  terms  of  peace.  The  news  of  this 
overture  was  received  with  delight  in  the 
English  camp,  where  all  were  weary  of 
the  hard  service  they  had  lately  been  en- 
gaged in,  and  joyfully  welcomed  a  chance 
of  rest.  By  advice  of  his  council,  the  king 
appointed  the  Earl  of  Gloucester,  com- 
mander of  the  rear-guard,  to  meet  Mac 
Morough. 

The  parley  which  ensued  at  the  appoint- 
ed place  was  maintained  for  a  considerable 
time;  the  English  lord  reproaching  the 
Irish  chief  with  his  various  acts  of  perfidy. 


72 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1399. 


his  murder  of  the  Earl  of  March,  and  of 
others  of  the  king's  loyal  subjects.  But  on 
neither  side  was  there  any  advance  made 
towards  reconcilement,  and  the  conference 
ended  in  leaving  the  parties  as  much  asun- 
der as  when  it  commenced ;  the  sole  con- 
ditions on  which  the  king  would  admit 
Mac  Morough  to  his  peace  being  such  as 
that  chief  declared  he  would  never  sub- 
mit to  while  he  had  life.  The  Leinster 
prince  had  therefore  to  return  to  his  woods 
and  fastnesses  ;  while  Gloucester  hastened 
back  to  report  the  result  to  his  royal 
master,  who,  thrown  into  a  violent  rage, 
on  hearing  it,  swore  by  St.  Edward,  that 
"  he  would  never  depart  out  of  Ireland  un- 
til he  had  Mac  Morough,  living  or  dead,  in 
his  hands." 

Soon  after  Richard  arrived  in  Dublin,  he 
was  joined  by  the  reinforcements  under  the 
Duke  of  Albemarle,  whose  arrival  he  had 
been  so  long  expecting ;  and,  having  re- 
solved to  carry  on  the  war  vigorously 
against  Mac  Morough,  he  divided  his  army 
into  three  portions,  with  the  view  of  sur- 
rounding the  fierce  chief  in  his  woody 
covert,  and  so  hunting  him  into  the  toils. 
He  had  also  proclaimed  that  whoever 
would  deliver  him  into  his  hands,  dead  or 
alive,  should  receive  one  hundred  marks 
of  gold. 

During  the  six  weeks  which  Richard 
passed  in  a  round  of  gayeties  and  pomps 
at  Dublin,  there  prevailed  such  a  course  of 
stormy  weather  that  all  communication 
with  England  was  interrupted  ;  and  when 
the  weather  changed,  the  news  of  Henry 
of  Bolingbroke's  invasion  and  its  rapid  suc- 
cess came  upon  him  like  a  thunderbolt. 
Even  in  this  crisis  he  neglected  all  reason- 
able precautions ;  he  delayed  in  Ireland 
until  the  Welch  army,  collected  by  the 
Earl  of  Salisbury,  dispersed  in  despair; 
and  he  returned,  with  a  scanty  train,  to  a 
country  where  he  no  longer  had  a  friend. 

Before  we  proceed  further  than  the 
deposition  of  Richard  the  Second,  a  glance 
at  the  really  bright  names  of  Ireland  dur- 
ing the  fourteenth  century  would  be  no  more 
than  proper ;  and  we  feel  sure  that  there 
are  many  readers  whose  tastes  and  dispo- 


sitions would  induce  them  to  inquire  about 
other  things  than  royalty,  rascality,  or  even 
resistance  to  tyranny. 

John  Duns  Scotus  flourished  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fourteenth  century.  He 
was  a  Franciscan  friar,  and  had  been  long 
designated  as  "  the  subtle  doctor."  He 
died  at  Cologne,  in  1308.  Three  nations 
claim  the  honour  of  having  given  birth  to 
this  great  man :  English  authors  maintain 
that  he  was  born  at  Dunston,  in  Northum- 
berland ;  for  which  purpose  they  advance, 
as  a  proof,  the  conclusion  of  the  manuscript 
works  of  this  great  man,  (which  are  at 
Oxford,)  in  the  following  terms  : — "  Here 
ends  the  readings  of  the  works  of  John 
Duns,  a  subtle  doctor  of  the  university  of 
Paris,  bom  in  a  certain  village  called 
Dunston,  in  the  parish  of  Emildune,  in 
Northumberland,  belonging  to  the  college 
of  Merton,  in  the  university  of  Oxford  ;" 
but  as  it  is  doubtful  whether  this  conclu- 
sion is  by  Scot  himself,  or  added  by  ano- 
ther, the  proof  drawn  from  it  in  favour  of 
his  being  a  native  of  England,  seems  insuf- 
ficient. The  Scots  say  he  was  a  native  of 
Duns,  in  Scotland,  a  village  about  eight 
miles  from  the  English  frontiers.  Finally, 
the  Irish,  seconded  by  Arthur  a  Monaste- 
rio,  and  the  Martyrology  of  Cavellus,  affirm 
that  he  was  born  at  Down,  (in  Latin  Du- 
num,)  in  Ulster.  The  Irish  had  not  yet 
given  up  the  name  of  Scod^  or  Scots ;  and 
it  is  therefore  probable,  that  on  this  account 
Doctor  John  Duns  has  been  surnamed 
Scotus. 

John  Taafe,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  died 
in  1306,  and  was  succeeded  by  Walter  de 
Jorse,  of  the  order  of  St.  Dominick.  He 
had  six  brothers,  all  in  the  same  order, 
one  of  whom  called  Thomas,  was  a  cardi- 
nal, under  the  name  of  St.  Sabina,  and 
another  named  Roland,  succeeded  him  in 
the  see  of  Armagh,  which  he  gave  up 
in  1321. 

Richard  de  Ferings,  Archbishop  of  Dub- 
lin, who  laboured  incessantly  to  establish 
peace  between  the  two  metropolitans  in 
that  city,  died  in  1307.  The  articles 
of  agreement  between  the  two  churchei?, 
Christ's  and  St.  Patrick's,  were,  that  each 


A.  D.  1399.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


73 


should  enjoy  the  title  of  metropolitan ;  that 
Christ's  Church,  as  being  the  largest  and 
more  ancient,  should  take  precedence  in  ec- 
clesiastical matters ;  that  it  should  have  the 
custody  of  the  cross,  mitre,  and  episcopal 
ring  ;  and  that  the  prelates  of  the  see  should 
be  buried  alternately  in  either  church.  This 
prelate  founded  three  prebendaries  in  St 
Patrick's  Church.  He  was  succeeded  by 
John  Lech. 

John  Lech,  or  De  Leeke,  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  died  about  1314.  The  claims  of 
the  two  cathedrals  in  this  city  were  always 
productive  of  some  controversy  respecting 
the  choice  of  a  prelate.  However,  the 
king's  influence  prevailed  over  these  elec- 
tions, and  John  Lech,  his  almoner,  was  ap- 
pointed. This  prelate  had  a  serious  mis- 
understanding with  Roland  Jorse,  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  respecting  the  right 
which  the  latter  claimed  of  having  the 
cross  carried  erect  before  him  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Dublin.  At  the  solicitation  of 
John  Lech,  Pope  Clement  the  Fifth  granted 
a  bull  for  the  foundation  of  a  university  at 
Dublin.  Some  time  previous  to  this  pre- 
late's death,  he  was  nominated  high-treas- 
urer of  Ireland.  His  successor  in  the  see 
of  Dublin  was  Alexander  de  Bicknor. 

An  Irish  Franciscan  friar,  named  Mala- 
chi,  after  having  lived  for  some  time  at 
Oxford,  went  to  Naples,  where  he  gained  a 
high  reputation  for  piety  and  learning.  He 
wrote  a  treatise  upon  mortal  sin ;  it  was 
published  in  Paris,  by  Henry  Stephens. 
Bale  says,  he  was  the  author  of  a  book 
of  sermons  and  other  tracts. 

At  Tully-Felim,  or  TuUagh-Felaghe,  a 
small  town  in  Carlow,  there  was  a  convent 
founded  in  1314,  for  Augustin  hermits,  by 
Simon  Lombard  and  Hugh  Talon. 

According  to  Ware,  a  convent  was  es- 
tablished for  Augustin  hermits,  at  Ross,  or 
Rosspont,  in  Wexford,  agreeing  with  the 
registries  of  the  Vatican,  according  to 
which  it  was  founded  in  1320,  as  Herrera 
observes.  The  same  author  mentions  a 
convent  for  this  order,  founded  at  Skrine, 
in  Meath,  by  Feipo,  who  was  then  lord  of 
that  place. 

Monaster-Eoris,  or  Totmoy,  situated  in 

10 


that  part  of  Offaly  which  lies  in  the  King's 
county,  was  a  celebrated  convent  for 
Franciscans,  founded  at  this  time  by  John 
Bermingham,  lord  of  that  country,  which 
is  still  called  Clan-Eoris. 

Maurice  Gibellan,  a  canon  of  the  church 
of  Tuam,  who  died  in  1327,  was  celebrated 
as  a  philosopher  and  a  poet. 

Adam  Godham,  a  monk  of  the  order  of 
St.  Francis,  wrote  commentaries  on  the 
four  books  of  Sentences,  which  were  print- 
ed in  Paris  in  1512  ;  he  wrote  likewise  a 
book  of  philosophical  directions.  Bale 
makes  mention  of  this  author,  but  calls  him 
Adam  Wodeham,  for  which  he  cites  the 
authority  of  John  Major,  who,  notwithstand- 
ing, calls  him  Adam  Godhamen.  The  fol- 
lowing are  his  words  : — *^  At  the  same 
time  flourished  Adam  Godhamen,  who  had 
heard  Ockam  at  Oxford ;  he  was  a  man  c{ 
modesty,  and  not  inferior  to  Ockam  in 
learning."  Bale  is  also  in  error,  (accord- 
ing to  Ware,)  in  saying  he  was  an  English- 
man ;  John  Major,  he  says,  calls  him  in 
another  place,  Adam  of  Ireland.  Oxford, 
(says  Major,)  formerly  produced  some 
celebrated  philosophers  and  theologians; 
namely,  Alexander  Hales,  Richard  Middle- 
ton,  John  Duns,  the  subtle  doctor,  Ockam, 
Adam  of  Ireland,  Robert  Holkot,  etc. 
Lastly,  Ware  supposes  that  Godham  is  the 
same  as  Gregory  de  Rimini,  so  often  quoted 
under  the  name  of  Adam  the  Doctor,  or 
the  Doctor  of  Ireland. 

William  Ockam,  a  Franciscan  friar,  is 
ranked  among  the  celebrated  men  of  this 
time ;  he  died  at  Munich,  in  Bavaria. 
Volateran  asserts  that  he  was  an  Irishman. 
"  Ireland,"  says  he,  "  had  also  her  saints, 
particularly  the  prelates  Malachy,  Cathal-* 
dus,  and  Patrick,  who  converted  her  peo- 
ple to  the  Christian  religion ;  and  also  a 
prelate  called  William  Ockams,  the  cele- 
brated logician,  a  Minorite  and  Cardinal  of 
Armagh,  under  the  pontificate  of  John  the 
Twenty-Second,  who  lived  in  1353,  and 
was  highly  esteemed  for  his  learning  and 
writings."  Philip  O'SuIlivan,  who  calls 
him  O'Cahan,  and  a  few  others,  agree 
with  Volateran  respeftting  the  country  of 
Ockam  ;  but  Ware,  convinced  by  the  rea- 


74 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1399. 


sons  assigned  by  Wadding,  thinks  other- 
wise. 

David  Obugey,  a  monk  of  the  Carmehte 
order,  of  the  convent  of  Kildare,  was  re- 
markable for  his  learning,  first  at  Oxford 
and  afterwards  at  Treves.  Having  been 
nominated  provincial  of  his  order,  he  re- 
turned to  Ireland,  where  he  held  chapters 
at  Atherdee  and  Dublin.  He  was  consid- 
ered a  great  philosopher,  an  elegant  orator, 
a  profound  theologian,  and  one  of  the  most 
learned  in  the  law  of  his  time.  He  wrote 
discourses  for  the  clergy,  epistles  to  various 
persons,  propositions  discussed,  lectures, 
and  rules  of  law;  also,  commentaries  on 
the  Bible.  This  learned  man  died  at  Kil- 
dare, advanced  in  years,  where  he  was 
buried  in  the  convent  of  his  own  order. 

Gilbert  Urgale,  so  called  from  the  place 
of  his  birth,  lived  in  1330.  He  belonged  to 
the  order  of  Carmelites,  and  was  author  of 
two  large  volumes,  one  of  which  was  a  Sum- 
mary of  Law,  and  the  other  on  Theology. 

Malachy  Mac-Aed,  Archbishop  of  Tu- 
am,  died  about  1348.  He  was  canon  when 
raised  to  the  see  of  Elphin,  in  1309,  by  a 
bull  from  the  pope.  Being  elected  shortly 
afterwards  by  the  canons  of  Tuam  to  be 
archbishop  of  their  see,  his  appointment  was 
confirmed,  in  the  beginning  of  1313,  by  the 
sovereign  pontiff.  Malachy  was  a  man  of 
deep  erudition ;  he  is  thought  to  have  been 
the  author  of  a  large  volume,  written  in  the 
Irish  language,  which  was  still  extant  in 
Ware's  time,  under  the  title  of  Leavas 
Mac-Aed,  and  which,  among  other  things, 
contained  a  list  of  the  kings  of  Ireland  from 
Niall  Noygiollach  to  Roderic  O'Connor. 

Alexander  de  Bicknor,  who  succeeded 
John  Lech  in  the  see  of  Dublin,  was  one 
of  the  greatest  men  of  those  days.  After 
long  holding  the  office  of  Lord-Justice  of 
Ireland,  he  was  sent  by  the  English  parlia- 
ment, with  Edmund  de  Woodstock,  Earl 
of  Kent,  brother  to  King  Edward,  as  am- 
bassador to  the  court  of  France.  He  had 
warm  debates  with  Richard,  Archbishop 
of  Armagh,  respecting  the  pre-eminence  of 
the  two  sees.  He  held  a  synod,  the  rules 
of  which  are  in  the  white  book  of  the 
church  of  Ossory.     A  country-house  was 


built  by  him  at  Taulaght,  for  himself  and 
his  successors  in  the  see  of  Dublin.  This 
prelate,  who  equalled  any  of  his  predeces- 
sors in  prudence  and  learning,  having  filled 
the  see  for  nearly  thirty-two  years,  died  in 
the  month  of  July,  1349. 

There  were  many  religious  houses  estab- 
lished about  this  time  which  were  not 
properly  reported  for  registry  at  Rome. 
The  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  is  the 
date  generally  given  for  the  following : — 

Three  convents  for  Carmelites  attract 
our  attention  first :  one  at  Little  Horeton, 
in  Wexford,  by  the  Furlongs ;  another  at 
Crevebane,  in  Galway,  by  the  Burkes  of 
Clanricard ;  and  another  at  Cloncurry,  in 
Kildare,  by  the  Roches. 

Two  houses  were  also  founded  for 
Augustine  nuns :  one  at  Killeigh,  in  Gaeshill, 
by  the  Warrens ;  the  other  at  Moylag,  in 
Tipperary,  by  the  Butlers  of  the  house  of 
Ormond. 

The  Franciscans  of  the  third  order  estab- 
lished two  houses  in  Sligo ;  one  was  at 
Ballimot,  the  other  at  Court ;  they  were 
founded  by  the  Mac-Donoughs  and  the 
O'Haras. 

At  Balli-ne-Gall,  in  Limerick,  there  was 
a  convent  established  for  Dominicans,  ac- 
cording to  Ware,  by  the  Roches,  but 
attributed  by  Ailemand  to  the  Clan-Gib- 
bons. There  was  another  of  the  same 
order  founded  in  Galway,  and  one  at 
Clonshanvil,  in  Roscommon,  by  Mac-Der- 
mot,  a  lord  of  that  country. 

John  Clynn,  a  Franciscan  friar  of  the 
house  belonging  to  their  order  at  Kilkenny, 
and  first  warden  of  the  Franciscans,  at 
Carrick,  wrote  annals  from  the  Christian 
era  to  1313.  He  continued  them,  with 
considerable  additions,  to  1349,  which  was 
probably  the  time  of  his  death.  He  also 
wrote  Annals  of  the  Kings  of  England, 
from  Hengist  to  Edward  the  Third;  like- 
wise of  the  wardens  of  his  order  in  Ire- 
land and  England ;  and  a  list  of  the  bishop- 
rics of  the  three  kingdoms.  His  works 
were  still  extant  in  Ware's  time,  (1705,) 
in  the  Franciscan  convent  at  Kilkenny. 
Sir  James  Lee,  Chief-Justice  of  the  King's 
Bench,  afterwards  Treasurer  of  England, 


A.  D.  1399.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


75 


and  Earl  of  Marlborough,  had  the  Annals 
of  Clynn,  and  other  writings  on  the  affairs 
of  Ireland,  transcribed,  and  given  to  Henry, 
Earl  of  Bath,  who  undertook  to  print  and 
publish  them. 

At  Quinchi,  in  Clare,  there  was  a  con- 
vent for  Franciscan  friars,  founded  bv  the 
Mac-Nemaras,  lords  of  Clancully,  or  Clan- 
cullane.     Speed  calls  this  place  Quint,  or 
Kint :  according  to  Wadding,  it  is  called 
Coinhe ;   and  Coinche  by  Father  Castet. 
It  might,  perhaps,  with  more  propriety,  be 
called  Inchequin.     There  are  various  opin- 
ions respecting  the  time  of  its  foundation ; 
Wadding  places  it  in  1350.     The  tombs  of 
the  founders  are  to  be  seen  in  the  church 
of  this  convent.     Pope  Eugene  the  Fourth 
allowed  Mac-Con-More  Mac-Nemara,who 
was  chief  of  that  noble  family  in  1433,  to 
establish  Observantine  Franciscans  in  this 
convent.     Wadding  observes  that  it  was 
the  first  of  the  Franciscan  order  in  Ireland, 
which  received  that  particular  rule.     Alle- 
mand   misrepresents   the  pope,  in  saying 
that  he  gave  the  title  of  Duke  of  Clancully 
to  Mac-Nemara   in  his  bull.     He  had,  in 
fact,  no  thought  of  creating  titles  of  dignity 
in  Ireland ;  the  word  dux,  or  duke,  having 
been  used  by  him  to  signify  chief  or  lord. 
Mac-Geoghegan  furnishes  a  very  interest- 
ing note  in  relation  to  the  Mac-Nemaras : — 
"  The  noble  tribe  of  the  Mac-Nemaras, 
of  Thomond,  are  the  descendants  of  Oilioll 
Olum,  King  of  Munster,  by  his  son  Cor- 
mac-Cas,  in  the   second  century.     They 
owned  a  considerable  territory  in  the  baron- 
ies of  Tulla  and  Burratty,  in  Clare,  for 
many  ages.     Gratianus  Lucius,  following 
the   ancient  poem   of  CDouvegan,   calls 
them  "  Muighaghair."     They  have  always 
been  distinguished  for  virtue  and  liberality. 
In  our  own  modern  days  we  have  wit- 
nessed   one,   a    man  of  great   celebrity, 
namely,  John  Mac-Nemara,  Governor  of 
the  Port  of  Rochefort,  who  died  in  1747. 
The  deceased  was  also  a  member  of  the 
grand  military  order  of  St.  Louis,  and  held 
the  rank  of  a  vice-admiral  in  the  navy  of 
France.** 

It  is  men  like  these  who  make  a  country 
truly  great ! 


William  of  Drogheda,  so  called  from  the 
place  of  his  birth,  lived  at  this  period.  He 
was  educated  at  Oxford,  where  he  became 
eminent  for  his  knowledge  of  law,  as  well 
as  of  arithmetic  and  geometry,  and  was 
Public  Professor  of  Law  in  that  university. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  author  of  the 
Golden  Summary,  which  is  in  the  college 
of  Caius  and  Gonville,  at  Cambridge. 
Doctor  Thomas  James,  in  his  catalogue  of 
manuscripts  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
places  him  among  the  list  of  writers  on 
civil  law. 

Geoffrey  O'Hogan,  of  the  order  of  the 
Minor  Brothers  at  Nenagh,  in  Tipperary, 
wrote  the  annals  of  his  time,  from  1336  to 
1370,  which  are  to  be  met  with  in  manu- 
script. 

Richard,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  died 
about  1360,  at  Avignon.  Having  taken 
the  degree  of  doctor  of  theology  in  the 
university  of  Oxford,  of  which  he  was 
chancellor  in  1333,  he  was  appointed  Dean 
of  Lichfield,  and  in  1347,  consecrated 
Archbishop  of  Armagh,  at  Oxford,  having 
been  named  to  that  see  by  Clement  the 
Sixth.  Raphael  Volateran,  in  his  com- 
mentaries, calls  him  Cardinal  of  Armagh  ; 
but  Alphonso  Ciaconius  and  Onuphrius 
Panvinius  make  no  mention  of  him  in  their 
list  of  cardinals.  This  prelate  was  a 
learned  theologian,  and  an  able  preacher. 
Ware  mentions  his  having  a  collection,  in 
manuscript,  of  sermons  preached  by  him 
at  Lichfield,  London,  and  other  places  in 
England ;  at  Drogheda,  Dundalk,  Trim, 
and  elsewhere  in  Ireland ;  and  at  Avignon. 

About  this  time,  too,  Radulphus,  or 
Ralph  O'Kelly,  Archbishop  of  Cashel,  died. 
This  prelate,  who  was  a  native  of  Dro- 
gheda, was  educated  by  the  Carmelites  in 
Kildare,  where  he  took  the  habit  of  their 
order.  In  1336,  he  distinguished  himself 
as  an  orator,  and  was  appointed  attorney- 
general  under  Peter  de  Casa;  in  1345,  he 
was  raised  to  the  archbishopric  of  Cashel 
by  Pope  Clement  the  Sixth.  After  la- 
bouring to  secure  peace  to  his  church,  he 
died  at  Cashel  in  1361,  and  was  interred  in 
the  church  of  St.  Patrick. 

The  archiepiscopal  see  of  Tuam  having 


76 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1399. 


become  vacant  in  1348,  by  tlie  death  of 
Malachy  Mac-Aodh,  Thomas  O'Carrol, 
Archdeacon  of  Cashel,  (of  the  noble  family 
of  the  O'Carrols  of  Eile,)  was  consecrated 
at  Avignon.     This  prelate  was  removed  in 

1364,  to  the  see  of  Cashel,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded at  Tuam  by  John  O'Grada. 

In  1362,  we  find  recorded  the  death  of  a 
prominent  friend  of  education  and  religion, 
John  de  St.  Paul,  Archbishop  of  Dublin. 
He  had  been  a  canon  of  that  citv,  and  was 
promoted  to  the  archbishopric  in  1349,  by 
the  pope.  This  prelate  added  greatly  to 
the  size  of  the  church  of  the  Holy  Trinity, 
and  built,  at  his  own  expense,  the  episcopal 
palace.  He  was  appointed  Chancellor  of 
Ireland  by  Edward  the  Third  ;  and  was 
the  first  Dublin  "  Primate  of  Ireland"  after 
the  question  of  the  primacy  of  Ireland  had 
been  arranged  by  the  College  of  Cardinals, 
under  Innocent  the  Sixth. 

Thomas  Minot,  successor  of  the  above, 
was  consecrated  on  Palm  Sunday,  1363. 
He  added  a  steeple  to  the  tower  of  St.  Pat- 
rick's Church. 

Thomas  O'Carrol,  Archbishop  of  Tuam, 
who  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Cashel  in 

1365,  governed  this  latter  church  for  the 
space  of  eight  years.  He  was  greatly 
esteemed  for  his  prudence  and  learning. 
He  died  at  Cashel,  in  1373.  His  succes- 
sor was  Philip  de  Torrington,  an  English- 
man. 

Milo  Sweetman,  Henry  Crump,  Robert 
de  Wikeford,  William  of  Emly,  Gregory 
of  Elphin,  and  Robert  Waldby  are  among 
the  great  names  connected  with  the  history 
of  Ireland  during  the  fourteenth  century. 
The  mere  enumeration  of  their  acts  and 
writings  would  fill  more  volumes  than  con- 
venient  for  a  very  large  majority  of  read- 
ers, and  we  have  presumed  to  give  the  pre- 
sent slight  notices  only  because  we  wished 
to  assist  the  inquiry  as  to  how  "  dark"  Ire- 
land was  at  the  time  abovementioned. 

We  have  already  shown  that  the  charge 
of  ignorance  and  barbarity,  which  is  some- 
times alleged  against  the  Irish  people, 
comes  from  very  suspicious  quarters.  If 
the  deposition  of  Richard  the  Second  had 
taken  place  in  Ireland  two  thousand  years 


previously,  it  would  have  been  added  to 
the  similar  cases  of  monarchical  mobism 
which  the  slavish  historians  of  almost  every 
country  except  Ireland  have  been  obliged 
to  gloss  over  and  mystify,  for  fear  that  the 
people  might  find  out  what  sort  of  men 
they  were  governed  by.  The  Irish  annal- 
ists were  prevented  from  giving  way  to 
such  base  considerations  by  the  national 
meetings  periodically  held  to  compile  and 
compose  the  records  of  that  country. 
Hence  we  have  such  a  book  as  O'Hallo- 
ran's,  which  the  enemies  of  Ireland  con- 
sider sufficient  proof  of  Irish  barbarity ;  but 
the  philosophical  observer  perceives  that  it 
contains  the  history  of  a  people  who  well 
knew  how  kings  are  made  or  unmade. 

Every  thing  about  the  deposition  of 
Richard  the  Second  is  "  remarkably  Irish," 
except  his  own  conduct  under  the  circum- 
stances. Perhaps  the  unfortunate  monarch 
was  influenced  by  a  knowledge  of  the  fate 
of  some  of  his  predecessors,  (particularly 
Edward  the  Second,)  when  they  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  really  barbarous  people 
of  England,  and  their  cruel  leaders.  His 
conduct  gave  rise  to  the  remark,  that  "  No 
prince  ever  gave  up  a  kingdom  with  so 
much  weakness  who  had  governed  with  so 
much  severity."  One  of  his  wisest  but 
most  unfortunate  successors  on  the  throne 
of  England  has  observed,  that  "  The  dis- 
tance from  the  prison  of  a  king  to  his  tomb 
is  but  short."  Yet,  notwithstanding  the 
many  barbaric  blots  on  the  chart  of  Eng- 
lish history,  it  is  partly  amusing  and  partly 
painful  to  observe  the  "  pious  horror"  of 
ordinary  English  writers  whenever  they 
have  occasion  to  mention  a  French  revolu- 
tion or  an  Irish  rebellion. 

The  ultimate  fate  of  Richard  the  Second 
has  always  been  suspiciously  mysterious. 
The  generally  received  and  most  charac- 
teristic opinion  was  that  his  keeper  and 
guards  killed  him  with  their  halberds  ;  but, 
according  to  a  story  long  considered  fabu- 
lous, though  recently  supported  and  illus- 
trated by  the  interesting  researches  of 
Tytler,  Richard  fled  in  disguise  to  Scot- 
land, where  he  is  stated  to  have  lived  many 
years,  enduring  the  pangs  of  grief  with 


A.  D.  1402.] 


SfiCOND   DIVISION. 


77 


such  hopes  as  the  world  could  not  hinder, 
although  he  was  a  deposed  king  and  a 
Plantagenet 


CHAPTER   XII. 

The  three  Lancastrian  kings — Accession  of  Henry 
the  Fourth — Administrations  of  Lionel  and  Tho- 
mas, dukes  of  Lancaster,  Gerald  of  Kildare,  Sir 
Stephen  Scroop,  and  Butler  of  Kilmainham — 
Accession  of  Henry  the  Fifth — Administration 
of  Lord  Furnival — Petitions  to  the  English  king 
and  to  parliament — Irish  troops  called  into  Nor- 
mandy— Administration  of  James,  Earl  of  Des- 
mond— Important  petition  to  the  King  of  Eng- 
land— Accession  of  Henry  the  Sixth — Romantic 
marriage  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond  ;  his  untimely 
death ;  and  the  reversion  of  his  large  estates  to 
his  uncle  James — Great  power  and  enormous 
possessions  of  the  Anglo-Irish  lords — State  of 
the  Irish  exchequer — Intrigues  of  Ormond  and 
Desmond — Administration  of  the  Duke  of  York 
— Rebellion  of  Jack  Cade — Rising  of  the  O'Con- 
nors and  O'Nials — Battle  of  Wakefield. 

Henry  Bolingbsoke,  the  first  king  of  the 
house  of  Lancaster,  was  the  eldest  son  of 
John  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  third  son  of 
Edward  the  Third  by  the  heiress  of  Edmund, 
Earl  of  Lancaster,  son  of  Henry  the  Third. 
After  landing  at  Ravenspur,  in  Yorkshire, 
he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  sixty  thou- 
sand men,  and  soon  began  to  speak  of  a 
right  by  conquest,  delivering  the  nation 
from  tyranny,  and  so  forth.  Although 
none  of  his  claims  would  bear  discussion, 
he  was  proclaimed  king,  in  a  tumultuary 
and  elective  manner,  by  the  title  of  Henry 
the  Fourth.  This  is  not  romance — it  is 
veritable  history.  This  did  not  take  place  in 
mercurial  Ireland,  but  in  solid  old  constitu- 
tional England.  This  did  not  occur  four- 
teen hundred  years  before  mankind  had 
the  benefit  of  Christianity,  but  fourteen 
hundred  years  afterwards.  These  are  facts 
and  comparisons  which  somebody  must 
point  out:  we  have  little  sympathy  for 
Richard  the  Second  ;  and  if  we  have  any 
feeling  at  all  on  the  subject  it  arises  from  a 
supposition  that  Wat  Tyler  would  have 
made  a  better  king  than  either  Richard  or 
Henry.  We  have  no  particular  fancy  for 
sledge-hammers  or  bloodshed,  and  we  are 
confident  that  the  tyranny  of  vulgarity  is 


the  most  intolerable  of  all  oppressions  ;  but 
we  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  wars  of 
the  Roses  were  totally  unworthy  and  ever- 
lastingly disgraceful  to  an  enlightened  peo- 
ple, who  would  cultivate  national  pride  or 
inspire  constitutional  freedom.  Should  such 
a  convulsion  occur  again  in  England,  we 
hope  the  people  will  ascertain  beforehand 
what  they  are  fighting  for. 

The  policy  which  prevailed  in  most  of 
the  preceding  reigns  of  sending  some 
member  of  the  royal  family  to  direct  the 
affairs  of  Ireland,  was  adopted  likewise 
under  the  present  king,  who  intrusted  to 
his  second  son,  Thomas,  Duke  of  Lancas- 
ter, the  responsible  office  of  lord-lieutenant. 
Shortly  after  his  arrival,  John  Drake,  the 
Mayor  of  Dublin,  marched  forth  at  the 
head  of  a  strong  body  of  citizens,  against 
the  O'Byrnes  of  Wicklow,  whose  force 
consisted,  it  is  said,  of  four  thousand  men, 
and  encountering  them  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Bray,  killed  near  five  hundred  of 
their  number  and  put  the  rest  to  rout. 

As  the  outward  and  specious  submission 
of  some  of  the  native  chiefs  formed,  in 
general,  a  part  of  the  pageant  prepared  to 
welcome  the  presence  of  royalty  on  these 
shores,  an  imposing  display  of  this  kind 
greeted  the  present  vicegerent ;  and  Achy 
Mac-Mahon,  O'Byrne  of  the  Mountains, 
and  Riley,  the  head  of  a  great  northern 
sept,  all  submitted  and  entered  into  cove- 
nants with  the  lord-lieutenant.  In  the 
instance  of  O'Byrne,  too,  a  pledge  of  no 
ordinary  value  was  obtained  ;  as  this  chief, 
in  assurance  of  his  sincerity,  granted  to  the 
king  the  castle  of  Mackenigan,  and  the 
appurtenances.  After  remaining  not  quite 
two  years  of  his  long  -term,  the  royal  duke 
returned  to  England,  leaving  as  deputy. 
Sir  Stephen  Scroop,  who,  in  the  following 
year,  resigned  to  a  new  lord-justice,  James, 
Earl  of  Ormond. 

Though  the  truce  that  ensued  between 
England  and  Scotland,  after  the  memora- 
ble victory  of  Homildon  Hill,  was  still  in 
force,  there  occurred  frequent  infractions 
of  it,  by  armed  merchantmen  and  cruisers. 
The  depredations  of  some  Scottish  pirates, 
in  the  Irish  seas,  provoked  reprisals  of  a 


78 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1409. 


similar  nature ;  and  the  merchants  of  Dro- 
gheda,  as  well  as  of  Dublin,  fitting  out  ships 
to  different  parts  of  Scotland,  succeeded  in 
bringing  from  thence  considerable  plunder. 
In  a  marauding  expedition  of  the  same 
kind  into  Wales, — where  the  heroic  chief- 
tain, Owen  Glendower,  was,  at  this  time, 
baffling  the  arms  of  the  Henrys,  both  father 
and  son,  by  efforts  of  valour  so  prodigious 
as  to  be  attributed  to  the  spells  of  necro- 
mancy,— there  was  now  carried  away, 
among  other  booty,  a  shrine  of  the  Welch 
saint,  St.  Cubin,  which  the  pious  plunderers, 
on  their  return  to  Dublin,  placed  as  an 
offering  in  the  priory  of  the  Holy  Trinity, 
now  called  Christ  Church. 

The  piratical  warfare  between  the  Irish 
merchants  and  the  Scots  was  put  an  end 
to  this  year,  by  a  sort  of  treaty  of  peace, 
the  negotiation  of  which  with  Macdonald, 
Lord  of  the  Isles,  was  intrusted  by  the  king 
to  John  Dongan,  Bishop  of  Derry,  and 
Janico  d'Artois. 

Gerald,  the  fifth  Earl  of  Kildare,  having 
been  for  a  short  time  lord-justice,  gave 
place  to  Sir  Stephen  Scroop,  who  again 
came  over  as  lord-deputy,  and  held  a  par- 
liament at  Dublin,  in  January,  which,  in  the 
following  Lent,  concluded  its  session  at 
Trim. 

Moore  here  observes — 

"  It  is  painful  to  be  compelled  to  remind 
the  reader  that  such,  and  such  only,  is  the 
quality  of  the  materials  furnished  by  Ireland 
to  the  pen  of  history,  at  a  period  that  wit- 
nessed the  dawning  glories  of  the  future 
hero  of  Azincourt,  and  which,  in  such 
storied  names  as  Hotspur,  Douglas,  Owen 
Glendower,  has  transmitted  recollections 
that  link  history  with  song,  and  lend  a  lustre 
to  the  humblest  legend  in  which  even  a 
trace  of  such  names  is  found." 

Art  Mac  Morough,  who  defied  so  boldly, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  his  rude  fortresses,  the 
showy  squadrons  of  the  late  King  Richard, 
had  remained,  for  the  first  few  years  of 
this  reign,  perfectly  quiet;  and  we  find 
that,  shortly  after  Henry's  accession,  the 
letters-patent  of  the  eighteenth  year  of 
Richard,  granting  a  pension  to  this  chief, 
were  inspected  by  the  king  and  ratified. 


But,  in  consequence  of  some  hostile  demon- 
stration on  his  part,  in  1407,  Scroop,  ac- 
companied by  the  Earls  of  Ormond  and 
Desmond,  the  Prior  of  Kilmainham,  and 
other  captains  and  gentlemen  of  Meath,  set 
out  from  Dublin  with  a  considerable  force, 
and  finding  Mac  Morough  prepared  to  re- 
sist, marched  their  army  into  his  territories. 
So  gallant  was  the  stand  made  by  the  Irish, 
that,  for  some  time,  the  fortune  of  the  field 
was  on  their  side.  But  at  length  the  Eng- 
lish, by  superior  soldiership,  prevailed,  and 
learning  that  another  body  of  insurgents 
was  up  at  Callan,  in  Kilkenny,  they  marched 
to  that  town  with  such  rapidity  as  to  take 
them  by  surprise,  and  about  eight  hundred 
of  the  rebels  were  put  to  the  sword. 

On  returning  to  Dublin,  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond, though  not  yet  of  age,  was  elected 
lord-justice,  and,  in  the  following  year,  held 
a  parliament  in  that  city,  by  which  the 
statutes  of  Dublin  and  Kilkenny  were 
again  confirmed. 

In  1408,  the  experiment  of  the  effects  of 
a  royal  presence  was  again  resorted  to  in 
the  person  of  Thomas,  the  young  Duke  of 
Lancaster,  but  apparently  not  with  im- 
proved success ;  although,  in  the  terms  on 
which  he  undertook  the  government,  the 
powers  and  means  he  stipulated  for,  and 
the  nature  of  the  reforms  contemplated  by 
him,  there  is  much  that  bespeaks  a  fair  and 
useful  administration.  Among  other  con- 
ditions, it  is  stipulated  that,  in  order  to 
strengthen  the  English  plantation,  he  may 
be  allowed  to  transport  into  Ireland,  at  the 
king's  charge,  one  or  two  families  from 
every  parish  in  England.  He  also  required 
that  the  demesnes  of  the  crown  should  be 
resumed,  and  the  act  against  absentees 
strictly  enforced. 

The  jealousy  naturally  felt  towards  the 
great  Anglo-Irish  lords  by  those  English- 
men who  were  sent  over  to  administer  the 
affairs  of  Ireland,  was  strongly  exemplified 
in  the  instance  of  the  present  viceroy,  who 
— apparently,  without  any  just  grounds  for 
such  violent  proceedings — caused  the  Earl 
of  Kildare  and  three  of  his  family  to  be 
arrested,  and  kept  the  earl  himself  a  pris- 
oner in  Dublin  Castle,  until  he  had  paid 


A.  D.  1414.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


79 


down  the  sum  of  three  hundred  marks.  It 
is  manifest  through  the  notices  of  his  gov- 
ernment transmitted  to  us,  that  the  royal 
duke  was  allowed  but  little  repose  or  secu- 
rity during  his  lieutenancy;  and  mention 
is  made  of  a  serious  encounter  at  Kilmain- 
ham,  in  which  he  was  desperately  wounded. 
No  further  particulars  of  this  affray  are 
recorded ;  but  that  it  was  serious  would 
appear  from  the  measures  soon  after  adopt- 
ed by  the  duke,  who  ordered  proclamation 
to  be  made  that  all  who  were  bound  by 
their  tenures  to  serve  the  king,  should  forth- 
with assemble  at  Ross.  He  also  summoned 
a  parliament  to  meet  at  Kilkenny,  in  order 
to  have  a  tallage  granted.  How  far  he 
succeeded  in  the  object  of  these  assemblies 
does  not  appear ;  the  only  remaining  event 
recorded  of  his  administration  being  its 
final  close,  on  the  13th  of  March,  1409, 
when  the  prince  set  sail  for  England, 
leaving  his  brother,  Thomas  Butler,  the 
Prior  of  Kilmainham,  his  deputy. 

In  1410,  a  parliament  was  held  by  the 
prior,  at  Dublin,  which  made  it  treason  to 
exact  coyne  and  livery ;  and  shortly  after, 
having  imprudently  ventured,  with  about 
one  thousand  and  five  hundred  kerns,  or 
Irish  infantry,  to  invade  the  O'Byrnes' 
Country,  one  half  of  his  followers  deserted 
to  the  enemy,  and  he  narrowly  escaped  a 
serious  and  disgraceful  defeat. 

No  other  event  deserving  of  particular 
notice  occurs  in  our  records  for  the  few 
remaining  years  of  this  reign,  which  was 
brought  to  a  close  by  Henry's  death,  in  the 
Abbot's  Chamber,  at  Westminster,  on  the 
20th  of  March,  1413. 

Moore  observes  that — 

"  Of  the  reign  we  have  just  reviewed,  a 
great  historian  has  pronounced,  that  it 
produced  few  events  worthy  of  being 
transmitted  to  posterity :  and  if  this  may 
be  said,  with  truth,  of  the  records  of  Eng- 
land during  that  period,  we  cannot  wonder 
that  those  of  Ireland  should  be  found  so 
blank  and  valueless.  But,  barren  as  are 
the  materials  of  our  history,  during  the 
time  of  the  Fourth  Henry,  they  are  even 
more  trivial  and  void  of  interest  in  the 
reign  of  his  heroic  successor,  who,  although 


he  had  been  invested  with  the  honours  of 
knighthood  in  Ireland,  having  made  there 
his  first  essay  in  arms,  does  not  appear  to 
have  at  any  time  afterwards  turned  his  at- 
tention to  the  affairs  of  that  kingdom." 

The  confidence  of  the  natives,  however, 
was  now  increasing ;  and  the  English  of 
Meath  sustained,  in  1414,  a  signal  defeat 
from  the  chieftain  O'Connor,  with  the  loss 
of  Thomas,  Baron  of  Skrine,  slain  in  the 
conflict,  and  two  or  three  other  men  of 
rank  made  prisoners.  In  consequence  of 
this  and  other  such  failures,  it  was  thought 
expedient  to  select  Sir  John  Talbot,  of 
Hallamshire,  Lord  of  Furnival,  who  after- 
wards so  nobly  distinguished  himself  in  the 
wars  against  France.  Landing  at  Dalkey, 
this  active  officer  lost  no  time  in  proceed- 
ing on  a  martial  progress  round  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Pale.  Beginning  with  O'Moore, 
of  Ley,  the  viceroy  invaded  that  chiePs 
territory,  and  laid  waste  almost  the  whole 
of  his  lands.  He  also  attacked  and  took 
by  storm  two  of  O'Moore's  strong-holds, 
and  having  released  from  thence  several 
English  prisoners,  put  to  death  the  officers 
who  held  them  in  charge.  Thus  driven  to 
extremity,  O'Moore  reluctantly  sued  for 
peace,  and  delivered  up  his  son  in  pledge 
of  his  faith.  But  still  further  humiliation 
awaited  this  chief; — he  found  himself  com- 
pelled to  join  the  English  banner,  and  as- 
sist in  inflicting  the  same  havoc  and  deso- 
lation on  the  territory  of  a  brother  chief- 
tain, Mac  Mahon.  Blftic  Mahon,  also,  in 
his  turn  overpowered,"  was  compelled  to 
follow  to  the  attack  of  two  other  great  Ul- 
ster captains,  O'Connor  and  O'Hanlon.  In 
this  manner  did  the  English  lord  pursue 
his  course,  making  of  each  successive  chief 
that  fell  into  his  hands  a  tool  and  scourge 
for  the  subjection  of  his  fellows  ;  or,  as  the 
letter  describing  the  expedition  more  briefly 
expresses  it,  "  causing  every  Irish  enemy  to 
serve  upon  the  other." 

This  achievement  occupied  about  three 
months;  and,  although  little  had  been 
gained  by  it  except  the  outward  form,  with- 
out any  of  the  reality,  of  submission,  so 
much  satisfaction  did  it  give  to  the  lords 
and  gentlemen  of  the  Pale,  that,  shortly 


80 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1421. 


after,  they  sent  to  the  king,  who  was  then 
in  France,  a  certificate,  in  the  French  lan- 
guage, expressing  their  sense  of  the  value 
of  this  great  public  service.  It  was  found 
eventually,  however,  that  this  circuit  of  the 
viceroy  had  been  productive  of  much  more 
evil  than  good ;  as  the  soldiers,  being  badly 
paid,  were  compelled  to  have  recourse  to 
the  odious  exactions  of  coyne  and  livery ; 
and  more  was  suffered  by  the  subjects  of 
the  Pale  from  the  revival  of  this  scourge, 
than  they  had  gained  by  their  slight  and 
temporary  advantage  over  the  Irish. 

On  the  return  of  the  king  to  England, 
after  his  victory  at  Azincourt,  the  Irish 
parliament  prepared  a  petition  to  be  laid 
before  him,  stating  the  grievances  of  his 
subjects  in  that  realm.  Their  object,  how- 
ever, was  frustrated  by  a  barefaced  stretch 
of  power.  Laurence  Merbury,  the  lord 
chancellor,  being  interested  in  preventing 
an  inquiry  into  official  abuses,  refused  to 
affix  the  great  seal  to  the  petition;  and 
thus,  in  defiance  of  the  will  of  the  legisla- 
ture, intercepted  and  set  aside  their  remon- 
strance. 

In  1417,  a  petition  addressed  to  the  Eng- 
lish parliament,  from  the  king's  subjects  in 
Ireland,  exhibits,  in  its  most  unsophisticated 
form,  that  hateful  spirit  of  exclusion  in 
which  the  government  of  that  realm  was  ad- 
ministered. The  petition,  after  stating  that 
Ireland  was  divided  into  two  nations,  the 
English  and  the  Irish,  the  latter  of  whom 
were  the  king's  enemies,  proceeds  to  the 
chief  purport  of  its  prayer,  which  was,  that 
no  Irishman  should  in  future  be  presented 
to  any  ecclesiastical  office  or  benefice ;  and 
that  no  bishops  who  were  of  the  Irish  na- 
tion should,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  their  tem- 
poralities, collate  any  clerk  of  that  nation 
to  a  benefice,  or  bring  with  them  to  parlia- 
ments or  councils  held  in  Ireland,  any  Irish 
servant.  This  notable  petition,  which 
shows  how  alert  was  then  the  persecuting 
spirit,  and  how  much  mischief  it  could  al- 
ready effect  without  any  help  from  religious 
differences,  received  from  the  English 
parliament  a  ready  assent  to  its  insolent 
prayer. 

The   only  symptom  shown  by  Henry 


during  his  reign,  of  any  interest  in  the  for- 
tunes of  that  country  where  he  had  first 
been  made  a  soldier,  was  his  summoning, 
in  1417,  when  about  to  invade  France  for 
the  second  time,  a  small  body  of  native 
Irish  to  join  him  in  Normandy,  under  the 
command  of  Thomas  Butler,  the  martial 
Prior  of  Kilmainham.  The  feats  of  valour 
achieved  by  this  troop  of  warriors,  at  the 
siege  of  Rouen, — so  much  beyond  what 
could  have  been  expected  from  so  small  a 
force, — naturally  led  to  that  overstatement 
of  their  numbers  which  is  found  in  the 
chroniclers  of  both  nations.  "  They  so  did 
their  devoir,"  says  the  English  chronicler, 
that  none  were  more  praised,  nor  did  more 
damage  to  their  enemies ;"  and  when,  in 
the  following  year,  the  king  had  got  pos- 
session of  Pontoise,  the  Irishmen,  according 
to  the  same  authority,  "  overcame  all  the 
Isle  of  France,  and  did  to  the  Frenchmen 
damages  innumerable."* 

In  1418,  a  success  of  some  importance 
was  achieved  by  Lord  Furnival,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  Mac  Morough  of  Lein- 
ster,  had  fallen  into  his  hands ;  and  how 
valuable  was  thought  the  possession  of  this 
representative  of  the  old  Lagenian  kings 
is  sufficiently  manifested,  by  his  being  con- 
veyed to  London,  and  committed  a  prisoner 
to  the  Tower.  Shortly  after,  the  captain 
of  the  sept  of  the  CKellys  was  taken 
prisoner  by  Sir  William  de  Burgh,  and  five 
hundred  of  his  followers  slain. 

The  lord-lieutenant  having  been  sum- 
moned to  England,  left  his  brother  Richard 
Talbot,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  to  act  as  his 
deputy ;  and,  in  April,  1419,  James,  Earl 
of  Ormond,  who  was  appointed  lord-lieu- 
tenant, with  very  extensive  powers,  landed 
at  Waterford. 

In  1421,  a  petition,  praying  for  the  re- 
formation of  the  state  of  the  land,  was 
transmitted  to  the  king,  through  the  hands 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh  and  Sir 
Christopher  Preston  ;  and  the  direct  insight 
it  affords  into  the  abuses  and  malpractices 
then  prevailing,  opens  so  clearly  to  us  the 
internal  condition  of  the  Pale  at  that  period 
— that  in  our  dearth,  especially,  of  more 

•  HaU. 


A.  D.  1422.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


8t 


lively  historical  materials — such  a  record 
is  of  no  ordinary  value.  This  petition  con- 
sists of  nineteen  articles,  from  which  the 
following  are  selected,  and  given  nearly  as 
they  stand  in  the  original  record. 

1.  Complaint  is  made  of  the  various  ex- 
tortions, oppressions,  non-payments,  levies 
of  coyne  and  livery,  practised  by  the  lieu- 
tenants and  their  deputies  ;  and,  also,  their 
non-execution  of  the  laws  : — all  which  evils, 
it  is  added,  are  incurable,  except  by  the 
presence  of  the  king  himself. 

2.  The  petitioners  state  that  all  the  suj)- 
plies  and  revenues  that  had  been  granted 
for  the  puposes  of  warfare  and  the  defence 
of  the  land  had  been  hitherto  applied  by  the 
king's  deputies  to  their  own  private  uses ; 
and  they  pray  that  the  king  will  retain  in 
future,  as  he  does  at  present,  all  such  reve- 
nues in  his  own  hands. 

3.  They  require  that  there  should  be  a 
coinage  of  money  in  Dublin,  in  the  same 
manner  as  in  England;  and  that  a  mint, 
with  all  necessary  officers,  should  be  there 
established. 

4.  Referring  to  the  submission  and  hom- 
age made  to  Richard  the  Second  by  cer- 
tain of  the  Irish  enemies,  and  the  recogni- 
zances entered  into  by  them,  payable  in  the 
apostolic  chamber,  to  keep  their  oaths  of 
allegiance,  the  petitioners  pray  of  the  king 
to  certify  the  same  to  the  pope,  in  order 
that  he  may  proceed  to  enforce  strong 
measures  against  the  offenders. 

5.  They  complain  of  the  conduct,  already 
noticed,  of  Lord  Chancellor  Merbury,  in 
refusing  to  fix  the  great  seal  to  the  peti- 
tion of  the  parliament ;  and  pray  that  he 
may  be  required  to  state  his  reasons  for 
such  refusal. 

6.  Owing  to  the  wars  and  the  intolerable 
burdens  of  the  country,  the  great  landhold- 
ers, the  artificers  and  workmen,  are  daily 
emigrating,  they  complain,  to  England,  in 
consequence  whereof  the  land  is  left  uncul- 
tivated and  undefended :  for  this  they  pray 
some  remedy. 

7.  They  state  that  the  late  Sir  John 
Stanley,  when  holding  the  office  of  lord- 
deputy,  paid  little,  if  any,  of  his  debts,  and 
died  enriched  by  acts  of  extortion  and  op- 

11 


pression :  they  therefore  pray  that  his  heirs 
and  executors  may  be  compelled  to  come 
into  Ireland,  to  discharge  his  just  debts, 
and  make  good  his  obligations. 

8.  They  extol,  as  an  example  worthy  of 
imitation,  the  conduct  of  Thomas  Cranley, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  who  had  succeeded 
Stanley  as  lord-justice,  and  always  deport- 
ed himself  in  that  office  benignly  and 
justly. 

9.  Of  Sir  John  Talbot,  they  allege,  that 
during  the  period  of  his  government,  he 
was  guilty  of  numerous  acts  of  extortion 
and  cruelty,  and  paid  little,  if  any,  of  his 
debts ;  and  they  pray  that  he  also  may  be 
compelled  to  come  to  Ireland,  to  discharge 
his  just  obligations,  and  repair  the  conse- 
quences of  his  oppression. 

10.  Since  the  coronation  of  the  present 
king,  no  commissioner,  they  complain,  had 
been  sent  over  to  Ireland,  as  was  usual  in 
the  times  of  his  predecessors,  to  make  in- 
quiry into  the  conduct  and  measures  of  the 
lord-deputy  and  other  great  officers :  and 
they  pray,  therefore,  that  such  a  commis- 
sion may  be  now  sent. 

11.  The  conduct  of  their  present  lord- 
lieutenant,  James,  Earl  of  Ormond,  is  praised 
by  them,  and  held  up  as  an  example  ;  be- 
cause, on  entering  into  his  office,  he  had 
made  a  declaration  in  parliament  that  he 
would  observe  the  laws,  would  pay  his  just 
debts,  and  also,  at  the  close  of  his  adminis- 
tration, would  assign  over  lands  without  any 
reserve,  until  all  such  debts  should  be  fully 
and  fairly  discharged :  and  likewise  be- 
cause that,  through  him,  the  extortion  of 
coyne  and  livery  had  been  abolished.  This 
earl  was  prepared,  they  add,  to  effect  still 
further  good,  if  possessed  of  the  means,  and 
they  therefore  pray  of  the  king  that  such 
means  should  be  supplied. 

12.  They  complain  that  a  number  of 
illiterate  persons  were  allowed  to  hold  offi- 
ces in  the  exchequer,  performing  the  duties 
of  them  by  deputy,  and  receiving  from 
thence  great  incomes,  owing  to  the  exces- 
sive fees  usually  extorted  from  the  suitors 
in  that  court.  In  many  instances,  two, 
and  even  three,  places  were  held  by  one 
individual,  and  the  duties  of  them  all,  of 


83 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1422. 


course,  proportionably  ill  performed.  For 
this  they  pray  the  king  to  grant  a  re- 
medy. 

13.  English  law  students,  they  complain, 
going  over  from  Ireland,  even  though  born 
in  the  best  part  of  that  country,  were,  by 
a  late  regulation,  excluded  from  the  inns- 
of-court,  in  England,  though  in  all  preced- 
ing periods,  from  the  time  of  the  conquest 
of  Ireland,  they  had  been  admissible  into 
those  societies. 

Of  the  remaining  articles  of  this  memo- 
rial, the  seventeenth  alone  is  of  sufficient 
interest  to  be  cited,  wherein  complaint  is 
made,  that  although  the  statute  (3  Ric.  II.) 
concerning  absentee  proprietors,  contains 
an  exception  in  favour  of  studious  persons, 
it  yet  daily  happened  that  Irish  students, 
devoting  their  leisure  to  learned  pursuits, 
in  English  schools  and  universities,  were, 
under  colour  of  said  statute,  obstructed  and 
annoyed.  It  was  therefore  prayed  that  a 
declaration  of  the  real  intention  of  this 
statute  should  be  certified  to  the  lord- 
deputy  and  other  officers  of  the  Irish 
government. 

During  the  last  year  of  this  reign,  a  suc- 
cession of  conflicts  took  place  between  the 
English  and  the  natives,  attended  with  the 
usual  vicissitudes  of  their  warfare  on  both 
sides.  Some  success  having  been  gained 
by  the  Irish,  in  Ley,  the  lord-justice  inva- 
ded that  country,  encountered  the  chieftain 
O'Moore,  and,  as  the  chronicler  describes 
the  event,  "  defeated  his  terrible  army  in 
the  Red  Bog  of  Athy."  He  then,  for  the 
lour  following  days,  burned  and  wasted  the 
lands  of  the  rebels,  until  they  themselves 
came  and  sued  for  peace.  About  the  same 
time,  the  chief  O'Dempsy,  notwithstanding 
his  oath  of  allegiance,  made  an  irruption 
into  the  Pale,  and  retook  the  castle  of  Ley 
from  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  to  whom  the  lord- 
justice  had  restored  it.  Mac  Mahon  of 
Orgiel,  or  Uriel,  had  in  like  manner  broken 
out  in  full  career  of  devastation.  But  the 
indefatigable  lord-justice,  after  having  dis- 
posed of  the  other  insurgent  chiefs,  reduced 
Mac  Mahon  also  to  obedience;  and  thus 
closed  this  triumphant  campaign,  during 
which  the  clergy  of  Dublin  went  twice 


every  week  in  solemn  procession,  praying 
for  the  success  of  his  arms. 

In  reference  to  the  conduct  of  O'Dempsy, 
an  old  historian,  extending  his  charge  to 
the  Irish  in  general,  remarks,  that,  notwith- 
standing their  oaths  and  pledges,  "  they  are 
no  longer  true  than  while  they  feel  them- 
selves the  stronger ;" — an  accusation  to 
which,  supposing  it  to  be  well  founded,  we 
may,  with  but  too  much  truth,  answer,  or 
rather  retort,  that,  if  any  excuse  could  be 
offered  for  such  perfidy,  on  the  part  of  the 
Irish,  it  was  to  be  found  in  the  still  grosser 
perfidy  of  those  with  whom  they  had  to 
deal. 

On  the  accession  of  Henry  the  Sixth, 
Moore  says — 

"  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  re- 
mark, as  one  of  the  anomalies  that  mark 
the  destiny  of  this  nation,  how  small  is  the 
portion  of  Ireland's  history  that  relates  to 
the  afllairs  of  the  Irish  people  themselves. 
Supplanted,  as  they  were,  on  their  own 
soil,  by  strangers  and  enemies,  the  task  of 
dictating  as  well  their  history  as  their  laws 
fell  early  into  foreign  hands,  and  the  people 
of  the  soil,  the  indigenous  Irish,  were  only 
remembered  to  be  calumniated  and  co- 
erced. In  the  course  of  time,  however,  a 
new  race  and  new  relationships  sprang  up, 
from  the  connection^,  by  marriage  and 
otherwise,  of  the  English  colonists  and  the 
natives,  which  worked  a  change  even  more 
in  the  political  than  in  the  social  condition 
of  the  country.  The  conquerors,  yielding 
to  these  natural  ties,  were,  in  their  turn, 
conquered  by  the  force  of  the  national 
spirit,  and  became,  as  was  said  in  later 
times,  even  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  them- 
selves. Even  English  gentlewomen  had 
begun  to  receive,  without  any  repugnance, 
the  tender  addresses  of  the  '  Irish  enemy  ;* 
and  it  appears  from  letters-patent  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  the  Fourth,  that  the  fierce 
and  formidable  chief.  Art  Mac  Morough, 
could  boast  of  an  English  heiress  for  his 
consort." 

Of  those  great  lords,  who  held  the  office 
of  lord-lieutenant  at  the  time  of  the  ac- 
cession of  Henry  the  Sixth,  the  Earl  of 
Ormond  was  one  of  the  most  active  and 


A.  D.  1438.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


83 


powerful ;  and  a  factious  feud  between  him 
and  the  Talbots  continued  to  disturb  the 
public  councils  through  a  great  part  of  this 
reign.  Soon  after  Henry's  accession,  the 
office  of  lord-lieutenant  was  resigned  by 
Ormond  to  Edward  Mortimer,  Earl  of 
March  and  Ulster,  who  appointed  as  his 
deputy,  until  he  should  be  able  to  assume 
the  government  in  person,  Edward  Dant- 
sey.  Bishop  of  Meath. 

Shortly  after,  announcement  was  made, 
by  a  king's  letter  to  Archbishop  Talbot, 
that  the  Earl  of  March,  with  a  large  army, 
was  about  to  proceed,  with  all  possible 
despatch,  to  Ireland  ;  and,  in  the  course  of 
the  year  1423,  this  prince  landed  on  the 
Irish  shores.  But  the  flattering  hope  held 
out  by  his  presence  was  of  very  brief  du- 
ration. Whatever  expectation  might  have 
been  formed,  from  his  nearness  to  the 
throne,  that  his  administration  would  have 
proved  both  popular  and  efficient,  such 
anticipations  were  soon  at  an  end,  as  at 
the  beginning  of  1424  he  was  seized  with 
the  plague,  and  died  in  his  own  castle  at 
Trim. 

The  prince's  successor  in  the  adminis- 
tration was  Talbot,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury, 
whose  services  in  Ireland,  some  years 
before,  had  received  so  honourable  a  testi- 
mony from  the  lords  of  the  Pale,  and  who 
afterwards  won  for  himself,  in  the  French 
wars,  the  title  of  the  English  Achilles.  Not 
quite  a  year  had  the  government  been  in 
the  hands  of  this  nobleman,  when  it  again 
fell  to  the  Earl  of  Ormond ;  and  from  that 
period,  through  the  ten  following  years, 
there  ensued,  at  intervals  nearly  annual,  a 
succession  of  chief  governors,  during  none 
of  whose  administrations  any  event  much 
worthy  of  notice  occurred, — with  the  sole 
exception,  perhaps,  of  the  lieutenancy  of 
Sir  Thomas  Stanley,  in  the  course  of  which 
some  seasonable  checks  were  given  to  the 
increasing  incursions  of  the  Irish  borderers. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  distractions  con- 
sequent on  the  king's  minority,  the  natives 
had  risen  in  considerable  numbers,  and 
were  from  every  side  encroaching  on  the 
Pale.  The  lord-lieutenant,  however,  lead- 
ing against  them  the  power  of  Meath  and 


Uriel,  made  a  great  slaughter  of  their  force, 
and  took  one  of  their  chiefs,  Moyle  O'Don- 
nell,  prisoner. 

The  influx  of  the  Irish  into  England  con- 
tinued, in  both  countries,  to  be  a  constant 
subject  of  complaint  and  legislation ;  and, 
in  consequence  of  a  petition  to  the  king, 
presented  by  the  English  house  of  com- 
mons, representing  the  manifold  crimes, 
of  every  description,  committed  by  the  Irish 
in  England,  it  was  enacted,  that  all  persons 
born  in  Ireland  should  quit  England  within 
a  time  limited ;  exceptions  being  made  in 
favour  of  beneficed  clergymen,  graduates 
in  either  university,  persons  who  held  lands 
in  England,  were  married  there,  or  had 
English  parents ;  and  even  these  to  give 
security  for  their  future  good  behaviour. 
In  1438,  likewise,  during  the  lieutenancy 
of  Lionel,  Lord  Wells,  while  a  second  law 
was  passed  in  England,  obliging  Irishmen 
to  return  home,  there  was  likewise  a 
statute  made  in  Ireland,  to  prevent  the  pas- 
sage of  any  more  of  them  into  England. 

Among  those  powerful  Anglo-Irish  lords, 
who,  by  their  own  extortion,  and  the  large 
grants  of  lands  and  liberties  so  recklessly 
lavished  upon  them  by  the  crown,  had  been 
raised  into  so  many  independent  counts 
palatine,  the  Earl  of  Desmond  held  at  this 
time  the  most  prominent  station.  This 
lord  was  uncle  to  Thomas,  the  sixth  Earl 
of  Desmond,  whose  romantic  marriage  and 
subsequent  fate  show  how  high,  in  those 
times,  were  the  notions  entertained  of  noble 
birth.  Returning  from  hunting,  the  young 
lord,  finding  himself  benighted,  sought  shel- 
ter under  the  roof  of  one  of  his  tenants 
near  Abbeyfeal ;  and  seeing,  for  the  first 
time,  his  host's  daughter,  the  beautiful  Cath- 
erine Mac-Cormac,  became  so  enamoured 
that  he  soon  after  married  her.  This 
alliance  drew  down  upon  him  the  anger 
and  enmity  of  all  his  family.  Friends, 
followers,  and  tenants  at  once  abandoned 
him ;  and  even  assisted  his  uncle  James, 
according  to  the  old  Irish  custom,  to  expel 
him  from  his  estates,  and  force  him  to  sur- 
render the  earldom.  Thus  persecuted  the 
unhappy  young  lord  retired  to  Rouen,  in 
Normandy,  where   he   died   in  the  year 


84 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1439. 


1420,  and  was  buried  in  a  convent  of  friars 
preachers,  at  Paris ; — the  King  of  England, 
it  is  added,  attending  his  funeral. 

In  1439,  the  then  Earl  of  Desmond  re- 
ceived a  grant  from  Robert  Fitz-GeofTrey 
Cogan,  of  all  his  lands  in  Ireland ;  being 
no  less  than  half  of  what  was  then  called 
the  kingdom  of  Cork ; — an  estate  which 
ought  to  have  descended  by  the  heirs 
general  to  the  Carew  and  Courcy  families, 
but  which  the  illegal  conveyance  from  Co- 
gan afforded  to  Desmond  a  pretence  for 
appropriating  to  himself. 

While  thus  this  lord  and  a  few  other 
Anglo-Irish  nobles  were  extending  their 
power  and  wealth,  the  king's  government 
was  fast  declining  as  well  in  revenue  as  in 
influence  and  strength.  Sir  Thomjis  Stan- 
ley, when  lord-lieutenant,  had  brought  over 
to  England  a  most  wretched  account  of  the 
state  of  affairs  from  the  privy  council, 
wherein,  entreating  that  the  king  himself 
would  come  to  Ireland,  they  added,  that  his 
presence  would  be  a  sovereign  comfort  to 
his  people,  and  the  surest  remedy  for  all 
the  evils  of  which  they  complained.  So 
little  did  this  state  of  things  improve,  that 
a  few  years  after,  in  the  time  of  the  lieu- 
tenancy of  Lord  Wells,  a  parliament  held 
in  Dublin  agreed  to  send  over  Archbishop 
Talbot,  to  represent  to  the  king  the  miser- 
able condition  of  Ireland ;  and  to  state  in 
proof  of  it,  that  the  public  revenue  of  the 
kingdom  fell  short  of  the  necessary  expen- 
diture by  the  annual  sum  of  £1456. 

During  a  part  of  the  period  of  Lord 
Wells's  lieutenancy,  Ormond  condescended 
to  act  as  his  deputy ;  and,  during  that  in- 
terval, had  a  grant  made  to  him  of  the 
temporalities  of  the  see  of  Cashel  for  ten 
years.  Seeing  reason  to  fear  that  this 
highly  favoured  and  popular  nobleman 
would  be  himself  again  selected  to  fill  the 
office  of  chief-governor,  the  party  opposed 
to  him,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the 
intractable  Archbishop  Talbot,  resolved  to 
defeat,  if  possible,  an  appointment  so  utterly 
adverse  to  all  their  designs.  With  this 
view,  in  a  parliament  assembled  at  Dublin, 
certain  "  Articles"  were  agreed  to,  and 
messengers  appointed  to  convey  them  to 


the  king,  of  which  the  chief  object  was  to 
prevent  Ormond  from  being  made  Lieuten- 
ant of  Ireland. 

These  articles  commenced  with  request- 
ing the  king  to  "  ordain  a  mighty  lord  of 
England"  to  be  the  lieutenant; — adding, 
that  they,  the  parliament,  considered  it 
most  expedient  to  confer  that  office  upon 
an  English  lord,  because  the  people  would 
more  readily  "  favour  and  obey  him  than 
any  man  of  that  land's  birth ;"  inasmuch  as 
Englishmen  "  keep  better  justice,  execute 
the  laws,  and  favour  more  the  common 
people,  than  any  Irishman  ever  did,  or  is 
ever  like  to  do."  The  articles  then  repre- 
sent how  necessary  it  is  that  the  lieutenant 
should  be  an  active  and  courageous  man, 
such  as  would  "  keep  the  field  and  make 
head  against  the  king's  enemies;  none  of 
which  qualities,"  it  is  added,  had  been  "  seen 
or  found  in  the  said  earl,  for  both  he  is 
aged,  unwieldy,  and  unlusty  to  labour,  and. 
hath  lost  in  substance  all  his  castles,  towns, 
and  lordships  that  he  had  in  Ireland. 
Wherefore  it  is  not  likelv  that  he  should 
keep,  conquer,  nor  get  any  grounds  to  the 
king,  that  thus  hath  lost  his  own." 

To  these  general  charges  against  the 
earl  are  subjoined  specific  instances  of  his 
mal-administration  and  abuse  of  power; 
and  among  others,  it  is  stated,  that  when 
he  before  governed  Ireland,  he  "had  made 
Irishmen,  and  grooms,  and  pages  of  his 
household,  knights  of  the  shire ;  that  he 
had  allowed  peers  to  absent  themselves 
from  parliament  on  payment  of  large  fines, 
which  he  applied  to  his  own  instead  of  the 
king's  use  ;  that  he  had  put  several  persons 
wantonly  in  prison,  and  then  made  them 
pay  large  sums  for  their  ransom."  The 
king  is  reminded,  in  conclusion,  that  Or- 
mond had  been  "  impeached  of  many  great 
treasons  by  the  three  previous  lord-lieuten- 
ants, which  charges  still  remained  unde- 
termined ;"  and  the  archbishop  adds,  speak- 
ing in  his  own  person,  there  have  been  also 
"  many  and  divers  other  great  things  mis- 
done  by  the  said  earl,  which  I  may  not 
declare  because  of  mine  order." 

Strongly  enforced  as  were  these  charges, 
and  containing  much,  that,  with  all  due  al- 


A.  D.  1447.] 


SECOND  DIVISION, 


85 


lowance  for  party  malice,  may  have  de- 
served reprehension,  if  not  punishment,  it 
appears  from  the  result,  that  but  little  im- 
portance was  attached  to  the  proceedings 
by  the  English  council.  For,  it  was  at  the 
close  of  the  year  1441,  that  these  articles 
of  impeachment  were  laid  before  the  king, 
and  on  the  27th  of  February  following,  the 
Earl  of  Ormond  was  appointed  Lieuten- 
ant of  Ireland  ;  with  the  peculiar  privilege, 
too,  of  absenting  himself  from  his  govern-" 
ment  for  many  years  without  incurring  the 
penalty  of  the  statute  of  Richard  the  Se- 
cond against  absentees. 

The  effects  of  the  triumph  gained  by  Or- 
mond over  his  accusers,  were  shared  in 
also  by  his  powerful  friend  and  supporter, 
Desmond,  on  whom,  already  enriched  and 
aggrandized  beyond  what  was  safe  in  a 
subject,  new  favours  and  new  distinctions 
were  now  showered.  It  was  about  this 
time  that  he  obtained  a  patent  for  the  gov- 
ernment and  custody  of  the  counties  of 
Waterford,  Cork,  Limerick,  and  Kerry ; 
and,  not  long  after,  a  privilege  was  ac- 
corded to  him,  no  less  remarkable  in  itself 
than  for  the  grounds  on  which  it  was 
granted.  Having  represented  to  the  king 
the  necessity  he  was  under  of  directing  in 
person  the  affairs  of  these  counties,  and 
likewise  the  dangers  to  which  he  was  ex- 
posed in  travelling  to  parliament,  through 
parts  of  the  country  inhabited  solely  by 
the  king's  enemies,  he  obtained  permission, 
during  his  life,  to  absent  himself  from  all 
future  parliaments,  sending  an  authorized 
and  competent  proxy  in  his  place ;  and 
upon  this  license  was  founded  the  privilege 
claimed  by  the  succeeding  earls  of  Des- 
mond, of  not  entering  into  walled  towns, 
nor  attending  any  parliament,  except  at 
their  pleasure. 

In  the  same  patent  which  granted  this 
exemption,  there  was  also  a  power  given 
to  him  to  purchase  any  lands  he  pleased, 
by  whatsoever  service  they  were  holden 
of  the  crown ; — a  license  intended,  it  was 
supposed,  to  screen  his  late  illegal  grant 
from  Cogan,  and  which,  by  the  liax  notions 
it  gave  rise  to,  respecting  titles  and  inher- 
itances, tended  to  unsettle  very  much  the 


rights  and  relations  of  property  throughout 
the  kingdom. 

Notwithstanding  repeated  attacks  upon 
him,  Ormond  still  continued  lord-lieutenant 
through  the  following  two  years,  and  on 
the  17th  of  July,  1446,  was  succeeded  by 
John  Talbot,  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  who  in 
consideration  of  his  great  military  services, 
was  soon  after  advanced  to  the  dignity  of 
Earl  of  Waterford  and  Baron  of  Dungar- 
van.  It  ought  not  to  be  forgotten,  as  a 
worthy  sample  of  the  legislation  of  this 
period,  that,  in  a  parliament  held  by  this 
earl,  at  Trim,  1447,  it  was  enacted,  that 
"  any  man  who  does  not  keep  his  upper  lip 
shaved,  may  be  treated  as  an  Irish  enemy." 
Another  enactment  of  the  same  parliament 
was  that  "  if  an  Irishman  who  is  denizened 
kill  or  rob,  he  may  be  used  as  an  Irish 
enemy,  and  slain  on  the  spot" 

The  practice  of  conferring  the  lieuten- 
ancy of  Ireland  on  some  personage  of  the 
royal  blood,  though  hitherto  attended  with 
but  little  advantage,  appears  to  have  been 
still  a  favourite  experiment ;  and  the  Duke 
of  York,  the  lineal  heir  to  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land, though  as  yet  his  claim  had  remained 
latent,  was  the  personage  selected  for  that 
office. 

This  prince  was  nephew  to  the  last  Earl 
of  March,  from  whom  he  inherited  the 
united  estates  of  Clarence  and  Ulster,  to- 
gether with  the  patrimonial  possessions  of 
the  family  of  March.  The  list  of  his  titles 
sufficiently  shows  how  large  was  the  stake 
he  possessed  in  that  country ;  as,  besides 
being  Earl  of  Ulster  and  Cork,  he  was  lord 
of  Connaught,  Clare,  Trim,  and  Meath, — 
thus  including  in  his  inheritance  at  least  a 
third  part  of  the  kingdom.  It  was  not, 
however,  through  any  wish  of  his  own  that 
he  had  now  been  selected  for  the  office  of 
viceroy.  On  the  contrary,  recalled  ab- 
ruptly from  France,  where  some  years  be- 
fore he  had  succeeded  the  Duke  of  Bedford 
as  regent,  it  was  most  reluctantly  he  ex- 
changed the  prospects  which  that  honour- 
able field  of  enterprise  opened,  for  the  con- 
fined sphere  of  Irish  warfare,  and  the  yet 
more  petty  and  inglorious  strife  of  the  rival 
factions  of  the  English  Pale. 


86 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1455. 


The  administration  of  the  Duke  of  York 
is  one  of  the  brightest  periods  in  Irish  his- 
tory. For  years  afterwards  it  was  quoted 
as  the  time  when  peace  and  prosperity 
ruled  the  land  ;  when  the  excesses  of  fac- 
tion were  restrained  by  impartial  justice  ; 
when  the  native  Irish,  the  English  by  birth, 
and  the  English  by  blood,  forgetting  former 
animosities,  seriously  applied  themselves  to 
improve  the  country  which  they  inhabited 
in  common.  Even  now,  after  the  lapse  of 
four  centuries,  the  memory  of  these  hal- 
cyon days  is  preserved  in  popular  tradi- 
tion ;  and  at  this  hour  the  white  rose,  the 
cognizance  of  the  house  of  York,  is  the  fa- 
vourite symbol  of  the  partisans  of  the  peo- 
ple. Though  aware  of  the  attachment  of 
Ormond  to  the  house  of  Lancaster,  the 
prince  received  him  with  the  same  kind- 
ness and  attention  that  he  showed  to  the 
Geraldines  and  De  Burghs,  his  own  faith- 
ful adherents. 

On  the  birth  of  his  son,  afterwards  the 
unfortunate  Duke  of  Clarence,  the  deputy 
invited  Desmond  and  Ormond  to  be  the 
sponsors  of  the  infant  prince ;  an  honour 
which  Desmond,  filled  with  the  ideas  of 
gossipred  that  prevailed  in  Ireland,  es- 
teemed as  almost  raising  him  to  an  equality 
with  the  duke,  but  which  Ormond  viewed 
in  its  proper  colours.  The  federal  trans- 
actions with  the  Irish  princes  were  marked 
with  a  regard  to  justice  and  good  faith  such 
as  had  been  rarely  exhibited  by  former 
governors ;  and  he  displayed  an  anxious 
desire  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
peasantry,  and  to  protect  them  from  the 
oppressive  exactions  of  their  lords.  Such 
a  paternal  government,  as  excellent  as  it 
was  rare,  was  rewarded  by  the  most  en- 
thusiastic attachment  of  all  classes.  Its 
longer  continuance  would  probably  have 
made  the  growing  reconciliation  of  hostile 
interests  permanent ;  but  unfortunately  it 
has  been  too  often  the  fate  of  Ireland  to 
lose  her  best  governors  at  the  very  mo- 
ment when  their  measures  were  most  likely 
to  be  beneficial. 

The  rebellion  of  Jack  Cade,  an  Irishman, 
who  assumed  the  popular  name  of  Morti- 
mer, was  supposed  to  have  been  secretly 


contrived  by  the  Duke  of  York,  in  order 
to  feel  the  pulse  of  the  English  people. 
Without  making  any  inquiry  into  the  truth 
of  this  surmise,  the  king,  at  the  instigation 
of  his  haughty  queen,  sent  letters  to  the 
sheriffs  of  the  western  counties,  declaring 
the  traitorous  designs  of  the  duke,  and  com- 
manding them  to  oppose  his  landing.  This 
indiscreet  declaration  of  the  fears  and  sus- 
picions entertained  by  the  court  afl!brded 
the  duke  a  pretext  for  returning  to  Eng- 
land. He  declared  his  anxiety  to  justify 
his  conduct,  and  his  determination  to  face 
his  accusers.  Embarking  with  a  small 
train,  he  landed  in  Wales,  and,  eluding  all 
opposition,  speeded  to  London,  where  he 
was  apparently  reconciled  to  the  king. 

The  duke  at  his  departure  intrusted  the 
administration  to  Ormond.  The  earl  being 
summoned  over  to  England,  was  succeed- 
ed by  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh;  but 
troubles  arising  which  the  peaceful  prelate 
could  not  allay,  he  resigned  his  charge  to 
Sir  Edward  Fitz-Eustace,  a  knight  of  great 
military  fame,  and  well  suited  for  a  govern- 
ment which  required  more  than  ordinary  ex- 
ertions. The  O'Connors  of  Ofally  were  the 
first  who  experienced  the  vigour  of  the  new 
deputy.  He  surprised  this  turbulent  sept 
while  engaged  in  a  predatory  expedition, 
and  inflicted  on  them  a  severe  defeat.  In 
the  rout,  the  toparch  O'Connor  fell  from 
his  horse.  He  was  remounted  by  his  son, 
the  companion  of  his  flight,  but  fell  a  second 
time  from  exhaustion.  It  was  long  before 
the  chieftain  could  persuade  the  youth  to 
leave  him  to  his  fate  ;  but  at  length  he 
commanded  him  to  fly,  under  pain  of  incur- 
ring his  displeasure.  O'Connor  remained 
a  prisoner,  but  was  only  detained  a  short 
time.  The  deputy,  finding  that  he  had  no 
design  of  revolting,  liberated  him  without 
ransom. 

The  sept  of  the  O'Nials,  ever  the  most 
hostile  to  the  English,  after  long  remaining 
quiet,  were  induced  to  take  up  arms  by 
the  hope  of  plunder.  Hearing  that  a  rich 
fleet  was  sailing  from  the  bay  of  Dublin, 
they  fitted  out  some  barks,  attacked  and 
took  the  ships,  plundered  the  cargoes,  and 
made  all  the  passengers,  among  whom  was 


A.  D.  1460.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


87 


the  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  prisoners.  The 
deputy  immediately  hastened  to  punish 
these  marauders  ;  and  O'Nial,  being  joined 
by  some  other  toparchs,  advanced  to  anti- 
cipate the  invasion.  The  two  armies  met 
at  Ardglass ;  and  after  a  fierce  engage- 
ment, the  Irish  were  defeated  with  the  loss 
of  seven  hundred  slain,  and  a  still  greater 
number,  including  all  the  principal  leaders, 
made  prisoners.  By  this  defeat  the  O'Nials 
were  so  humbled,  that  they  long  continued 
quiet,  and  afforded  the  deputy  leisure  to 
attend  to  the  regulation  of  public  affairs. 

In  the  meantime,  the  dissatisfaction  of 
the  English  public  had  produced  a  general 
revolt.  The  unfortunate  Henry  was  made 
prisoner  at  St.  Alban's,  and  the  whole  au- 
thority of  the  crown  was  transferred  to  the 
Duke  of  York.  To  strengthen  his  authority 
in  Ireland,  the  duke  appointed  the  Earl  of 
Kildare  lord-deputy ;  and  this  nobleman, 
being  considered  the  chief  of  the  old  set- 
tlers, was  gladly  acknowledged  by  the 
descendants  of  the  original  conquerors. 
The  death  of  his  great  rival,  Ormond,  and 
of  several  turbulent  toparchs,  freed  Kildare 
from  the  fear  of  civil  commotions.  The 
Butlers  indeed,  at  first,  made  some  resist- 
ance, but  they  were  quickly  subdued. 

Margaret  of  Anjou  was  by  no  means  dis- 
posed to  submit  to  the  loss  of  power  con- 
sequent on  her  husband's  degradation. 
She  assembled  the  partisans  of  the  house 
of  Lancaster,  and  defeated  the  Yorkists  at 
Blore  Heath  with  great  slaughter.  Desert- 
ed and  betrayed,  Duke  Richard  fled  for 
safety  to  Ireland,  while  he  and  his  adhe- 
rents were  attainted  by  the  English  parlia- 
ment. The  Irish  received  their  favourite 
governor  rather  as  a  sovereign  prince  than 
a  destitute  fugitive.  The  parliament  pass- 
ed an  act  for  his  protection  ;  and  further 
decreed,  that  whoever  should  attempt  to 
disturb  him  or  his  adherents,  under  pre- 
tence of  writs  from  England,  should  be 
deemed  guilty  of  high-treason.  An  agent 
of  Ormond's  violated  the  law,  and  was  im- 
mediately executed.  Several  laws  equally 
^designed  for  the  duke's  service,  were  pass- 
ed with  the  utmost  enthusiasm  ;  and  the 
prince,  who,  a  short  time  before,  wanted  a 


refuge,  now  found  himself  in  possession  of 
a  kingdom. 

Edward,  Earl  of  March,  the  duke's 
eldest  son,  had  followed  his  father  into  Ire- 
land, but  was  soon  summoned  to  Calais, 
where  the  Yorkists,  headed  by  the  earls  of 
Warwick  and  Salisbury,  had  prepared  a 
mighty  armament.  They  passed  into  Eng- 
land ;  and  having  obtained  a  great  victory 
at  Northampton,  invited  the  duke  to  come 
over  and  head  his  partisans  in  person.  On 
this  occasion  the  attachment  of  his  Irish 
adherents  was  eminently  displayed.  They 
crowded  to  his  standard  with  the  utmost 
zeal ;  and  the  district  of  Meath,  in  parti- 
cular, was  almost  deserted  by  the  English 
settlers,  who  hastened  to  enrol  themselves 
under  the  banners  of  the  white  rose.  With 
a  gallant  train  of  devoted  followers  Richard 
returned  to  London ;  but  Margaret  unex- 
pectedly renewed  the  war,  and  attacked 
the  duke  before  he  could  make  adequate 
preparations.  With  only  five  thousand 
men,  mostly  his  Irish  adherents,  he  was 
encountered  at  Wakefield  by  an  army  four 
times  more  numerous  than  his  own,  and,  in 
this  unequal  contest,  fell  with  a  greater 
part  of  his  followers. 

Had  this  excellent  prince  lived  to  ascend 
the  throne,  the  knowledge  acquired  by  him 
of  the  state  of  Ireland  during  his  residence 
in  that  country,  and  the  general  respect 
entertained  for  his  character  among  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Pale,  might  have  enabled 
him  to  extend  his  views  beyond  that  limited 
circle,  to  spread  the  blessings  of  equal  laws 
and  good  government  among  the  natives, 
and  adopt  the  best  mode  of  inspiring  them 
with  a  love  of  humanity  and  justice,  by 
stamping  the  impress  of  those  qualities 
upon  the  laws  with  which  they  should  be 
governed. 


88 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1460. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Results  of  the  battles  of  Wakefield  and  Towton — 
Accession  of  Edward  the  Fourth — Administra- 
tion of  the  Duke  of  Clarence  by  proxy — James, 
Earl  of  Ormond  beheaded — The  Geraldines  in 
favour — Earl  of  Desmond,  the  viceroy's  deputy — 
Parliaments  of  Wexford  and  Trim — Struggles 
between  the  Geraldines  and  the  Butlers — Earl  of 
Worcester's  parliament  at  Drogheda — Writs  of 
attainder  against  Desmond  and  Kildare — Des- 
mond beheaded — Kildare  pardoned,  and  appoint- 
ed deputy  for  viceroy — Penalty  of  attainder 
against  John,  the  sixth  Earl  of  Ormond,  removed, 
and  the  Butlers  again  in  favour — Then  again  Kil- 
dare and  the  Geraldines  in  favour — Ireland  held 
in  this  reign  by  a  deputy's  deputy  for  two  succes- 
sive infant  princes,  by  the  aid  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  soldiers — Interference  of  Richard, 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  with  the  accession  of  Ed- 
ward the  Fifth — Kildare  still  in  power — Short 
usurpation  of  Richard  the  Third — Ireland's  own 
affairs,  her  own  sons,  and  her  own  religion. 

The  battle  of  Wakefield  was  most  deci- 
sive and  disastrous  in  its  results.  The 
death  of  the  worthy  Duke  of  York,  and 
the  consequent  disappointment  among  the 
Yorkists,  also  affected  the  affairs  of  Ireland 
by  the  loss  of  many  of  the  best  Anglo-Irish 
lords  and  Irish  chiefs  who  had  mainly  con- 
tributed to  bring  the  duke's  forces  together. 
The  Yorkists  were  almost  despairing;  but 
Edward,  Earl  of  March,  who  inherited  his 
father's  grcatqualitics,  as  well  as  his  claims 
to  the  throne,  having  assembled  an  army 
of  twenty-three  thousand  men  on  the  fron- 
tiers of  Wales,  came  to  an  engagement 
with  the  king's  forces.  The  royalists  took 
to  flight,  leaving  three  thousand  eight 
hundred  men  dead  upon  the  field  of  battle, 
besides  several  prisoners,  among  whom 
was  Owen  Tudor,  a  Welch  nobleman  who 
had  married  Queen  Catherine,  widow  of 
Henry  the  Fifth,  and  mother  of  Henry  the 
Sixth,  and  who,  by  orders  of  the  Earl  of 
March,  was  sacrificed. 

After  this  action,  the  earl  marched  direct- 
ly to  London,  where  he  was  proclaimed 
king,  under  the  name  of  Edward  the 
Fourth,  in  consequence  of  the  act  of  parlia- 
ment by  which  his  father  Richard  had  been 
declared  successor  to  the  throne.  He  was, 
however,  forced  to  make  good  his  title  by 
the  sword.  Henry  and  Margaret  had  still  a 
considerable  army  in  the  north  of  England; 
which  Edward  thought  necessary  to  con- 
quer before   he  assumed  the  crown.     In 


1461,  he  marched  against  them,  and  de- 
feated his  rival  in  the  famous  battle  of 
Towton.  This  battle,  which  lasted  two 
days,  was  remarkable  for  the  number  of 
men  of  rank  who  fell  on  both  sides.  The 
loss  sustained  by  the  two  armies  is  said  to 
have  amounted  to  thirty-six  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-six  men ;  the  cause  of 
this  fearful  carnage  being  a  prohibition 
which  Edward  had  issued  throughout  his 
camp  the  day  before  the  action,  neither  to 
give  or  ask  for  quarter.  After  this  vic- 
tory, Edward  was  crowned  on  the  28th  of 
June,  at  Westminster,  under  the  title  of 
Edward  the  Fourth,  and  in  November  fol- 
lowing. King  Henry  and  his  son,  Edward, 
were  declared  to  have  lost  all  right  or 
claim  to  the  English  crown. 

With  regard  to  the  state  of  Ireland  im- 
mediately before  and  during  these  proceed- 
ings in  England,  Leland  has  furnished  us  a 
considerable  degree  of  light  while  relating 
the  departure  of  Lord  Furnival,  who,  it  will 
be  recollected,  was  a  chief-governor  in 
Ireland  during  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Sixth : — 

"  Furnival  departed  with  the  execration 
of  all  those,  clergy  and  laity  alike,  whose 
lands  he  had  ravaged,  whose  castles  he  had 
seized,  whose  fortunes  had  been  impaired 
by  his  extortion  and  exactions,  or  who  had 
shared  in  the  distress  arising  from  the 
debts  he  left  undischarged."* 

In  the  same  book  and  same  chapter,  Le- 
land makes  some  general  remarks  upon  the 
viceroys  Ireland  had  to  obey,  and  he  dis- 
courseth  as  follows : — 

"  At  a  distance  from  the  supreme  seat  of 
power,  and  with  the  advantage  of  being 
able  to  make  such  representations  of  the 
state  of  Ireland  as  they  pleased,  the  Eng- 
lish vicegerents  acted  with  the  less  reserve. 
They  were  generally  tempted  to  undertake 
the  conduct  of  a  disordered  state  for  the 
sake  of  private  emolument,  and  their  object 
was  pursued  without  delicacy  or  integrity ; 
sometimes  with  inhuman  violence." 

On  reviewing  the  same  historical  ground, 
O'Connell  observes : — 

"  That  these  disorders  and  crimes  were 

*  Lelaud  ;  book  iii.  chap  1. 


A.  D.  1463.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


89 


encouraged,  or  at  least  not  discountenanced, 
either  in  the  words,  or  by  the  example  of 
the  English  viceroys,  is  a  melancholy  fact, 
that  appears  in  every  page  of  Irish  history. 
They  could  not,  without  arrant  hypocrisy, 
discourage  in  others,  that  which  they  prac- 
tised on  a  larger  scale  themselves." 

The  designation  of  the  English  territory 
by  the  name  of  "  the  Pale,"  does  not  ap- 
pear to  have  come  into  use  before  the 
beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  the 
term  is,  in  general,  supposed  to  have  been 
confined  to  the  four  counties  of  Dublin, 
Louth,  Kildare,  and  Meath, — the  latter  in- 
cluding also  Westmeath.  But,  however 
reduced  were  the  English  limits  at  the 
period  we  have  now  reached,  the  Pale 
originally,  it  is  clear,  extended  from  the 
town  of  Wicklow  in  the  south,  to  the  point 
of  Dunluce  in  the  north  of  Ireland ; — thus 
making  Louth  (as  it  was  not  unfrequently 
styled)  the  "  heart"  of  the  Pale.  Spenser 
describes  the  Pale  as  having  once  included 
Carrickfergus,  Belfast,  Armagh,  and  Car- 
lingford,  "  which  are  now  (he  adds)  the 
most  outbounds  and  abandoned  places  in 
the  English  Pale,  and  indeed  not  counted 
of  the  English  Pale  at  all ;  for  it  stretcheth 
now  no  further  than  Dundalk  towards  the 
north." 

In  1460  so  small  was  the  portion  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Ireland  by  whom  the  autho- 
rity of  English  law  was  acknowledged, 
that,  from  the  four  small  shires  alone  which 
constituted  the  territory  of  the  Pale  were 
all  the  lords,  knights,  and  burgesses  that 
composed  its  parliament  summoned ;  and 
in  no  other  part  of  the  kingdom  but  those 
four  shires  did  the  king's  writ  run.  Nor, 
even  there,  was  the  English  law  allowed 
to  come  fairly  into  operation,  as,  on  the 
borders  and  marches,  which  had  at  this 
time  so  much  extended  as  to  include  within 
them  half  Dublin,  half  Meath,  and  a  third 
part  of  Kildare,  no  law  was  in  force  but 
that  which  had  been  long  since  forbidden 
by  the  Statute  of  Kilkenny,  as  "  a  lewd  cus- 
tom," under  the  denomination  of  March 
Law. 

The  fierce  septs  surrounding  the  Pale 

were  ready,  without  anv  extraneous  en- 
12 


couragement,  to  take  advantage  of  the 
general  confusion  to  which  the  contest  for 
the  English  crown  had  given  rise ;  and  the 
wretched  inhabitants  of  the  districts  border- 
ing upon  the  Irish  were  forced  to  purchase 
exemption  from  their  inroads  by  annual 
pensions  to  their  chiefs.  There  is  still  on 
record  a  list  of  these  contributions,  in 
which  are  given,  together  with  the  amount 
of  the  several  pensions,  the  names  of  the 
chieftains  who  received  them,  and  of  the 
counties  by  which  they  were  paid. 

Such  was  the  miserable  state  of  weak- 
ness, disorganization,  and  turbulence,  in 
which  Edward  the  Fourth  found  his  king- 
dom of  Ireland  on  his  accession  to  the 
throne.  At  the  time  of  that  event,  the 
office  of  lord-justice  was  held  by  Thomas, 
Earl  of  Kildare ;  but,  on  the  Duke  of 
Clarence,*  the  king's  brother,  being  ap- 
pointed lieutenant  for  life.  Sir  Rowland 
Fitz-Eustace,  afterwards  Lord  Portlester, 
was  sent  over  as  that  prince's  deputy. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Butlers  and 
the  Geraldines — under  which  latter  title 
were  comprised  the  two  noble  families  of 
Desmond  and  Kildare — had,  in  the  true 
spirit  of  hereditary  rivalry,  fought  on  op- 
posite sides  in  the  great  struggle  between 
the  two  rival  Roses.  Among  the  most 
distinguished  victims  to  the  late  triumph  of 
the  Yorkists,  was  James,  Earl  of  Ormond, 
who,  having  been  made  prisoner  in  the 
bloody  battle  of  Towton,  was,  in  a  few 
weeks  after,  beheaded ;  and,  throughout  a 
great  part  of  Edward's  reign,  all  belong- 
ing to  the  family  of  Ormond  remained  in 
disgrace.  At  present  the  fortunes  of  the 
Geraldines  were,  of  course,  in  the  ascend- 
ant,— though  destined,  ere  long,  to  undergo 
a  disastrous  eclipse. 

In  1463,  the  Earl  of  Desmond  succeeded 
Lord  Portlester,  as  deputy  of  the  Duke  of 
Clarence  ;  and  held  two  parliaments  in  the 
course  of  his  government,  one  at  Wexford 
and  another  at  Trim,  which  latter  passed, 
among  other  measures,  the  following  signi- 

*  Spenser  has  strangely  confounded  this  Duke  of 
Clarence  with  Prince  Lionel,  (third  son  of  Edward  the 
Third,)  who  married  the  Earl  of  Ulster's  daughter,  in 
135-2. 


90 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1467. 


ficant  enactments : — "  That  any  body  may 
kill  thieves  or  robbers,  or  any  persion  going 
to  rob  or  steal,  having  no  faithful  men  of 
good  name  and  in  English  apparel  in  their 
company."  "  That  the  Irish  vs^ithin  the 
Pale  shall  wear  English  habit,  take  English 
names,  and  swear  allegiance,  upon  pain  of 
forfeiture  of  goods." 

By  the  same  parliament  a  statute  was 
passed,  granting  to  Desmond  the  custody 
and  defence  of  the  castles  and  towns  of 
Carlow,  Ross,  Dunbar's  Island,  and  Du- 
garvan,  which  last  named  barony  had  be- 
fore been  granted  to  the  Earl  of  Shrews- 
bury, but  owing  to  his  negligence,  as  the 
statute  implies,  was  brought  once  more 
under  the  authority  of  the  Desmond  family. 
To  this  favour  succeeded  another,  in  the 
fallowing  year,  when  the  king  granted,  by 
letters-patent,  to  Desmond,  a  large  annuity 
chargeable  on  the  principal  seignories  be- 
longing to  the  crown  within  the  Pale. 

In  the  same  year  the  earl  founded  the 
noble  establishment  called  the  College  of 
Youghall,  endowing  it  with  several  bene- 
fices and  a  considerable  landed  estate, 
which  formed  in  later  times,  a  part  of  the  im- 
mense possessions  of  the  first  Earl  of  Cork. 
Shortly  after,  too,  at  the  instance  of  this 
spirited  nobleman,  a  parliament  convened 
by  him  at  Drogheda,  founded  a  university 
in  that  town,  with  privileges  similar  to 
those  enjoyed  by  the  university  of  Oxford. 

Thus  distinguished,  as  well  by  the  royal 
favour,  as  by  that  influence  and  popularity 
among  the  natives  which  his  Irish  birth 
and  munificent  spirit  were  sure  to  win  for 
him,  the  good  fortune  of  this  powerful  lord 
might  seem  secure  from  all  reverse.  But 
the  very  prosperity  of  his  lot  formed  also 
its  peril ;  and  the  designs  of  his  enemies, 
■which  had  been  held  in  check  as  long  as 
he  continued  to  be  lord-deputy,  were  re- 
sumed with  fresh  vigour  and  venom  on 
the  arrival  of  his  successor,  the  celebrated 
Lord  Worcester,  who,  in  addition  to  the 
natural  cruelty  of  his  character  came 
strongly  prepossessed,  it  is  supposed,  with 
the  suspicions  and  jealousies  then  commonly 
entertained  towards  the  great  Anglo-Irish 
lords.     It  was,  indeed,  natural,  as  we  have 


before  had  occasion  to  remark,  that  the 
high  official  personages  sent  over  from 
England  should  regard  with  jealousy  the 
dominion  exercised  by  those  lords  of  Irish 
birth,  whose  hold  on  the  hearts  of  their  fel- 
low-countrymen lent  them  a  power  such 
as  mere  official  rank  could  never  attain. 
In  the  instance  of  Desmond,  too,  this  sus- 
picious or  envious  feeling  found  more  than 
ordinary  ground  for  its  workings ; — the 
rare  combination,  in  this  lord's  position,  of 
immense  wealth,  royal  patronage,  and  pop- 
ular favour,  having  justified  in  many  re- 
spects the  epithet  bestowed  upon  him  of 
the  "  great"  Earl  of  Desmond. 

In  order  to  account  for  the  ease  and 
despatch  with  which  so  towering  a  struc- 
ture of  station  was  laid  low,  it  has  been 
said  that  he  had  provoked  the  vengeance 
of  the  queen  by  advising  Edward  not  to 
marry  her ;  a  secret  disclosed,  it  is  added, 
in  the  course  of  some  slight  altercation  be- 
tween her  and  the  king,  by  his  saying  pet- 
tishly that "  had  he  taken  cousin  Desmond's 
advice,  her  spirit  would  have  been  more 
humble."  It  is  also  stated  that  the  queen, 
to  make  sure  of  her  revenge,  obtained  by 
stealth  the  privy  seal,  and  affixed  it  herself 
to  the  order  for  his  execution.  But  these 
stories  rest  on  mere  idle  rumour ;  and  it 
appears  clearly,  even  from  the  scanty  evi- 
dence extant  on  the  subject,  that  by  no 
other  crimes  than  those  of  being  too  Irish 
and  too  popular,  did  Desmond  draw  upon 
himself  the  persecution  of  which  he  so  ra- 
pidly fell  the  victim. 

By  the  memorable  Statute  of  Kilkenny, 
the  customs  of  gossipred  and  fostering,  and 
intermarriage  of  the  English  among  the 
Irish,  were  declared  to  be  high  treason. 
On  this  statute  the  accusations  now  brought 
against  Desmond  were  founded ;  the  charge 
of  "  alliance  with  the  Irish"  being  made  an 
additional  and  prominent  article  in  the  im- 
peachment, though,  for  a  length  of  time,  so 
much  had  the  law  relaxed  its  rigour  with 
regard  to  this  oflfence,  that  it  was  not  un- 
usual as  we  have  seen,  to  grant  licenses  to 
the  English,  on  the  borders,  empowering 
them  to  treat,  traffic,  and  form  alliances 
with  the  natives.     In  the  south,  where  this 


A.  D.  1467.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


91 


earl's  estates  lay,  the  laws  against  inter- 
course or  alliance  with  the  Irish  had  long 
fallen  into  disuse ;  and  it  was  chiefly  the 
connections  formed  by  this  family  with 
some  of  the  leading  Irish  chiefs  that  had 
hitherto  enabled  the  successive  earls  of 
Desmond  to  uphold  the  king's  authority  in 
the  greater  part  of  Munster. 

By  none,  however,  of  these  considera- 
tions were  the  bitter  enemies  of  the  Geral- 
dine  race  induced  to  forego  their  stem  and 
factious  purpose.  The  hostility  at  this 
time  between  the  Geraldines  and  the  But- 
lers was  continually  manifested  by  preda- 
tory incursions  ;  and  the  eastern  counties 
of  Munster  were  incessantly  disturbed  by 
the  war-cries  of  the  contending  factions. 
The  Geraldines  of  Kildare  took  for  their 
warison  Croom-aboo,  from  the  Castle  of 
Croom,  in  Limerick,  where  the  chief  re- 
sided. The  Geraldines  of  Desmond  shouted 
Shannatt-aboo,  from  the  Castle  of  Shan- 
natt,  in  the  same  county,  where  the  earl 
maintained  a  kind  of  barbarous  court. 
The  Butler's  war-cry  was  the  name  of 
their  sept ;  and  Butler-aboo  was  the  cog- 
nizance of  the  troops  in  the  palatinate  of 
Ormond,  which  included  the  counties  of 
Kilkenny  and  Tipperary.  In  the  long 
contest  that  was  maintained  by  these  rival 
septs,  the  Geraldines  were  honourably  dis- 
tinguished by  dauntless  valour,  and  a  dar- 
ing heroism  which  bordered  upon  rashness. 
The  Butlers,  less  valiant  in  the  field,  were 
more  prudent  in  council.  Artful,  steady 
in  purpose,  crafty  in  intrigue,  they  fre- 
quently gained  the  fruits  of  victory  after 
the  severest  defeat ;  and  finally  destroyed 
the  gallant  house  of  Desmond  by  cunning 
and  fraudful  policy.  The  O'Briens  of 
Thomond,  whose  war-cry  was  the  im- 
posing sentence,  "  Lamh-laider-aboe,"  (the 
cause  of  the  strong  hand,)  sometimes  joined 
one  and  sometimes  the  other  of  these  fac- 
tions ;  but,  even  when  allies,  they  feared 
to  trust  the  Butlers.  "  Fair  and  false  like 
those  of  Ormond,"  was  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression with  the  sept,  which  is  still  pre- 
served, though  the  cause  is  forgotten. 

While  on  this  subject,  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  mention  some  few  particulars  of 


these  baronial  wars : — The  general  war- 
cry  of  the  native  Irish  was  "  Farrah  !  Far- 
rah!"  an  exclamation  of  encouragement. 
The  gathering  cries  of  the  different  chiefs 
were  taken  either  from  their  cognizance, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  O'Briens,  whose  crest 
is  a  naked  arm  holding  a  sword ;  or  from 
some  accidental  circumstance,  as  in  the  in- 
stance of  the  Geraldines.  The  other  most 
remarkable  warisons  were  of  the  O'Neals, 
"  Lamh-dearg-aboe"  (the  cause  of  the  red 
or  bloody  hand,)  from  their  cognizance ; 
of  the  Fitz-Patricks, "  Gear-laidir-aboe"  (the 
cause  of  the  strong  and  sharp,)  from  the 
same  circumstance ;  and  of  the  De  Burghs 
"  Galrirgh-aboe"  (the  cause  of  the  Red 
Englishman,)  in  honour  of  the  second  Earl 
of  Ulster,  who  was  commonly  called  the 
"  Red  Earl,"  and  looked  upon  as  the  founder 
of  the  prosperity  of  the  De  Burghs. 

The  Irish  and  baronial  cavalry  were 
mounted  on  small  but  active  horses,  called 
hobbies.  They  formed  part  of  the  forces 
with  which  Edward  invaded  France,  and 
were  found  very  useful  as  light  troops. 
The  Irish  hobellers  are  frequently  men- 
tioned in  the  early  English  chronicles,  and 
praised  highly  for  their  daring  and  activity. 
They  wore  scarcely  any  defensive  armour, 
and  used  short  spears  and  sabres,  or  battle- 
axes.  They  could  not,  of  course,  repel  the 
charge  of  mail-clad  Normans,  but  they 
could  act  efficiently  in  a  difficult  country 
where  the  others  would  be  wholly  useless, 
encumbered  by  the  weight  of  their  armour, 
and  unable  to  manage  their  heavy  steeds. 

There  were  two  kinds  of  infantry ;  the 
galloglasses  (a  corruption  of  "  gall-oglach," 
English  servant,)  a  heavy-armed  infantry ; 
they  wore  an  iron  head-piece,  a  coat  of  de- 
fence studded  with  nails,  and  bore  a  sword 
and  broad-axe.  The  light  troops  were 
named  kernes ;  they  used  no  defensive  ar- 
mour but  the  head-piece,  and  their  weapons 
were  a  retractile  javelin  and  a  long  knife 
called  a  skene.  In  the  wars  of  Edward  the 
Third  and  Henry  the  Fifth,  several  troops 
of  kernes  were  employed  in  the  invasion 
of  France.  They  performed  the  useful  but 
not  very  honourable  service  of  cutting  the 
throats  of  those  knights  and  men-at-arms 


92 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1472, 


who  were  overthrown  in  the  combat ;  and 
the  Irish  skene  was  more  dreaded  by  the 
French  knights  than  the  lances  of  the  Eng- 
lish. The  arbitrary  exactions  by  which 
these  irregular  armies  were  supported  have 
been  already  mentioned.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary to  add,  that  robbery  was  considered 
honourable  by  these  soldiers,  since  plunder 
enabled  them  to  avoid  becoming  burdens 
to  their  chieftain  and  their  friends. 

The  war  maintained  by  Desmond  against 
the  Butlers  was  desultory  and  of  varied 
fortunes ;  but  the  Lancastrian  fugitives 
from  England  were  found  of  little  service 
to  their  Irish  allies.  They  could  not  bear 
the  fatigues  of  marches  through  bogs  and 
mountains ;  they  eagerly  desired  to  try 
their  fortune  in  the  open  field,  and  pre- 
vailed on  their  leader  to  accept  the  chal- 
lenge of  Desmond.  The  battle  was  fought 
near  Wexford ;  and  the  overwhelming 
numbers  of  the  Geraldines  afforded  them 
an  easy  victory.  Kilkenny  and  the  other 
towns  belonging  to  Ormond  were  soon 
after  seized  and  plundered ;  the  Butlers 
were  driven  from  their  ancient  possessions, 
and  forced  to  seek  safety  in  their  mountain 
forts  and  fastnesses. 

As  a  reward  for  this  service,  Desmond 
was  created  lord-deputy — an  office  for 
which  he  was  every  way  unfitted.  In  his 
first  expedition  against  the  Irish  septs,  who 
had  seized  on  the  settlements  in  Meath,  he 
was  taken  prisoner,  but  was  soon  liberated 
by  O'Connor  of  Ofally,  who  had  been  al- 
ways a  zealous  partisan  of  the  Geraldines. 
Equally  inglorious  was  the  termination  of 
the  war  with  the  O'Briens  of  Thomond.  On 
the  advance  of  this  sept  and  some  others  be- 
yond the  marches,  Desmond  could  find  no 
better  method  of  securing  the  Pale  than 
purchasing  the  forbearance  of  the  invaders 
by  a  promise  of  regular  tribute. 

An  unsuccessful  attempt  to  remove  Des- 
mond being  defeated  by  the  partiality  of 
the  king,  he  was  encouraged  to  pursue  his 
career  of  headlong  extravagance.  The 
Earl  of  Worcester  was  secretly  instructed 
to  examine  his  predecessor's  conduct  with 
the  greatest  strictness,  and  to  punish  him 
with  the  utmost  rigour  if  any  charge  could 


be  established.  A  new  parliament  was 
summoned,  ready  to  sanction  any  measure 
that  their  rulers  would  propose.  Several 
acts  were  passed,  indirectly  condemning 
the  conduct  of  the  late  governor,  and, 
among  others,  one  against  paying  tribute 
to  the  Irish,  which  every  one  of  its  sup- 
porters was  notoriously  violating  at  the 
moment.  Another  act  of  this  parliament 
is  too  important  to  be  omitted.  It  declared 
that  the  kings  of  England  held  the  lordship 
of  Ireland  by  a  direct  grant  from  the  holy 
see ;  and  therefore  directed  that  all  arch- 
bishops and  bishops  of  Ireland,  on  a  moni- 
tion of  forty  days,  should  excommunicate 
all  disobedient  subjects  as  heretics. 

The  parliament  was  then  adjourned  to 
Drogheda  ;  and  deeming  it  unnecessary  to 
dissemble  any  longer,  they  hurried  through 
both  houses  an  act "  for  attainting  of  treason 
the  earls  of  Kildare  and  Desmond,  with 
Edward  Plunket,  Esq.,  for  alliance,  foster- 
ing, and  alterage  with  the  king's  Irish 
enemies,"  etc.  Kildare  was  arrested,  but 
luckily  made  his  escape  to  England.  Des- 
mond, confiding  in  his  innocence  or  his 
power,  came  boldly  to  the  chief-governor 
to  justify  his  conduct.  He  was  immedi- 
ately seized,  and  without  the  formality  of  a 
trial  hurried  to  instant  execution. 

As  soon  as  Worcester,  having  thus  ac- 
complished what  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  main  object  of  his  mission,  returned 
into  England,  the  Earl  of  Kildare  was  not 
only  pardoned  and  restored  in  blood  by 
parliament,  but  also  appointed  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  Ireland  as  deputy  of  the  Duke 
of  Clarence.  It  was  during  this  lord's  ad- 
ministration that,  in  consequence  of  a  doubt 
having  arisen  whether  the  act  (6  Richard 
II.)  "de  Raptoribus,"  was  of  force  in 
Ireland,  it  was  declared,  in  a  parliament 
held  at  Drogheda,  that  not  only  the  statute 
in  question,  but  all  other  English  statutes 
made  before  that  time,  were  binding  in 
Ireland. 

For  the  better  defence  of  the  English 
territory,  it  was  enacted,  in  a  subsequent 
parliament,  held  at  Naas,  in  1472,  that 
"  every  merchant  should  bring  twenty  shil- 
lings' worth  of  bows  and  arrows  iuto  Ire- 


A.  D.  1478.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


95 


land,  for  every  twenty  pounds'  worth  of 
other  goods  he  imported  from  England." 
It  having  been  found,  however,  that  in  the 
present  reduced  state  of  the  English  colony, 
some  measures  of  a  more  than  ordinary 
cast  were  called  for,  in  order  to  recruit  and 
support  the  spirit  of  their  small  community, 
a  fraternity  of  arms,  under  the  title  of  the 
Brothers  of  St.  George,  was  at  this  time 
constituted,  consisting  of  thirteen  persons, 
of  the  highest  rank  and  most  approved 
loyalty,  selected  from  the  four  cantons  of 
Dublin,  Meath,  Kildare,  and  Louth.  To 
the  captain  of  this  military  brotherhood, 
who  was  to  be  elected  annually,  on  St. 
George's  Day,  was  assigned  a  guard  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  archers  on  horseback, 
forty  other  horsemen,  and  forty  pages ;  and 
of  these  two  hundred  men  consisted  the 
whole  of  the  standing  forces  then  main- 
tained by  the  English  government  in  Ire- 
land. 

Had  the  natives  been  capable  of  that 
union  and  concert  by  which  alone  the 
strength  of  a  people  is  rendered  effective, 
the  whole  military  force  of  the  Pale  could 
not  have  stood  before  them  a  single  hour. 
But  divided,  as  the  native  Irish  were,  into 
septs,  all  more  suspicious  and  jealous  of 
each  other  than  of  the  common  foe,  it  was 
hardly  possible  that  a  public  spirit  could 
arise,  or  that  any  prospect,  however  prom- 
ising, of  victory  over  their  masters,  could 
make  them  relinquish  for  it  the  old  heredi- 
tary habit  of  discord  among  themselves. 
That  their  English  rulers,  though  now  so 
much  weakened,  did  not  the  less  confidently 
presume  on  their  victim's  patience  under 
injustice,  may  be  inferred  from  a  law  passed 
at  this  time,  in  a  parliament  held  by  Wil- 
liam Sherwood,  Bishop  of  Meath,  enacting 
that, "  any  Englishman,  injured  by  a  native 
not  amenable  to  law,  might  reprise  himself 
on  the  whole  sept  and  nation." 

The  adherence  of  the  Ormond  family  to 
the  fortunes  of  Henry  the  Sixth  had  drawn 
down  upon  John,  the  sixth  earl,  the  penalty 
of  attainder,  and  consigned,  during  the 
early  part  of  this  reign,  all  the  other  mem- 
bers of  that  noble  house  to  obscurity  and 
disgrace.    By  a  statute,  however,  made  in 


the  sixteenth  year  of  Edward  the  Fourth, 
the  act  of  attainder  against  John,  Earl  of 
Ormond,  was  repealed,  and  that  lord  re- 
stored to  his  "  lands,  name,  and  dignity,  as 
by  title  of  his  ancestors."  So  successful 
was  he,  too,  in  recommending  himself  to 
Edward,  by  his  knowledge  of  languages 
and  other  courtly  accomplishments,  that 
the  king  pronounced  him  to  be  the  "  good- 
liest knight  he  had  ever  beheld,  and  the 
finest  gentleman  in  Europe ;"  adding  that, 
"if  good  breeding,  nurture,  and  liberal 
qualities  were  lost  in  the  world,  they  might 
all  be  found  in  John,  Earl  of  Ormond." 

Encouraged  thus,  the  faction  of  the  But- 
lers again  appeared  with  refreshed  force, 
while,  for  a  time,  the  Geraldines  sunk  into 
disfavour.  It  was  not  long,  however,  be- 
fore the  influence  of  the  house  of  Kildare 
regained  all  its  former  ascendancy.  In 
1478,  the  same  year  in  which  the  Earl 
Thomas  died,  his  son  Gerald,  who  suc- 
ceeded him,  was  appointed  Lord-Deputy  of 
Ireland,  and  held  that  office,  at  dififerent 
intervals,  through  the  following  three 
reigns.  In  one  of  the  parliaments  held  by 
him  at  this  period,  it  was  enacted,  that "  the 
Pale  should  hold  no  correspondence  with 
the  Irish ;"  while  at  the  same  time,  his  own 
family  was  aflfording  examples  of  the  natu- 
ral tendency  of  the  two  races  to  come  to- 
gether, in  the  marriage  of  his  sister  to  the 
head  of  the  great  northern  sept  of  the 
O'Neills.  It  was,  indeed,  in  the  same  par- 
liament that  forbade  so  peremptorily  all 
communication  with  the  Irish,  that  the 
special  act  was  passed  for  the  naturaliza- 
tion of  Con  O'Neill,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
marriage  with  one  of  the  lord-deputy's 
sisters. 

On  the  death  of  the  ill-fated  Duke  of 
Clarence,  the  office  of  Lieutenant  of  Ireland 
was  conferred  by  Edward  upon  his  second 
son,  Richard,  Duke  of  York ;  and  it  was 
as  deputy  of  this  infant  prince  that  the  Earl 
of  Kildare  now  held  the  reigns  of  the 
government.  To  so  low  an  ebb,  however, 
was  the  Irish  revenue  at  this  time  reduced, 
that  a  force  of  eighty  archers  on  horseback, 
and  forty  of  another  description  of  horse- 
men, called  "  spears,"  constituted  the  whole 


94 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1485. 


of  the  military  establishment  that  could  be 
afforded  for  that  realm's  defence  :  and  lest 
the  sum  even  of  £600,  annually,  required 
for  the  maintenance  of  this  small  troop, 
might  prove  too  onerous  to  the  country,  it 
was  provided  that,  should  Ireland  be  un- 
able to  pay  it,  the  sum  was  to  be  sent  thither 
from  England. 

Edward  the  Fourth  left  two  sons  and 
seven  daughters.  The  elder  of  his  sons, 
named  Edward,  who  was  but  eleven  years 
old  at  his  father's  death,  was  to  have  suc- 
ceeded him  on  the  throne.  He  was  at 
that  time  under  the  guardianship  of  his  ma- 
ternal uncle,  Sir  Anthony  Woodville,  and 
other  friends  of  the  queen ;  whose  wish  it 
was  that  he  should  be  brought  to  London, 
attended  by  a  strong  guard,  in  order  to  be 
crowned.  Richard,  Duke  of  Gloucester, 
the  late  king's  brother,  was  then  in  the 
north  of  England,  and  solely  occupied  with 
a  design  upon  the  throne. 

During  the  normal  reign  of  the  fifth 
Edward,  and  the  short  usurpation  of  Rich- 
ard the  Third,  the  condition  of  Ireland 
remained  unimproved  and  unchanged. 
Throughout  this  brief  and  bloody  period, 
the  power  of  the  Pale  was  almost  entirely 
in  the  hands  of  the  Geraldines, — the  Earl 
of  Kildare  performing  the  functions  of  lord- 
deputy,  while  his  brother  Sir  Thomas  of 
Laccagh,  was  lord-chancellor  of  the  king- 
dom. In  a  parliament  held  at  Dublin,  by 
the  Earl  of  Kildare,  an  act  was  passed 
which,  for  its  unusually  peaceful  purport, 
may  deserve  to  be  remembered.  It  was 
enacted,  "that  the  Mayor  and  bailiffs  of 
Waterford  might  go  in  pilgrimage  to  St. 
James  of  Compostella  in  Spain,  leaving 
sufficient  deputies  to  govern  that  city  in 
their  absence."  By  another  act  of  this 
parliament,  the  corporation  and  men  of  the 
town  of  Ross  were  authorised  to  "  reprise 
themselves  against  robbers." 

In  England,  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  not 
content  with  having  deprived  his  nephews 
of  their  birth-right  to  the  crown,  had  them 
put  to  death.  He  also  caused  his  favourite, 
the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  who  had  taken 
up  arms  against  him,  to  be  executed.  The 
only  enemy  that  Richard  had  now  to  fear, 


was  the  Earl  of  Richmond,  the  last  of  the 
house  of  Lancaster,  who  was,  in  a  manner, 
prisoner  at  the  court  of  Brittany.  This 
prince,  however,  had  correspondents  in 
England.  Having  received  some  assist- 
ance in  money  from  Charles  the  Eighth, 
King  of  France,  he  sailed  from  Harfleur 
with  two  thousand  men,  and  landed  at  Mil- 
ford,  from  which  place  he  marched  towards 
Hereford,  where  he  was  joined  by  the 
Welch,  and  other  friends,  who  flocked  to 
his  standard,  and  in  a  few  days  collected 
a  considerable  force. 

In  August,  1485,  Richard,  having  re- 
ceived intelligence  of  the  success  of  Rich- 
mond, marched  to  meet  him,  and  gave  him 
battle  in  the  plains  of  Bosworth,  which 
proved  fatal  to  Richard,  who  lost  both  the 
crown  and  his  life.  Lord  Stanley,  in  the 
thick  of  the  fight,  having  discovered  the 
crown  upon  the  ground,  took  it  up  and 
placed  it  on  the  head  of  Richmond  ;  which 
circumstance,  together  with  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  troops,  shouting  "  Long  live 
the  king  !"  gave  to  the  earl  additional  title, 
by  a  sort  of  military  election. 

Such  are  the  principal  incidents  in  Irish 
history  during  the  reigns  of  the  three  kings 
of  the  York  line.  As  the  next  reign,  that  of 
Henry  the  Seventh,  would  carry  us  beyond 
the  termination  of  the  fifteenth  century,  we 
will  now  glance  at  the  domestic,  education- 
al, and  religious  affairs  of  Ireland  during 
these  reigns. 

Augustin  Magraidan,  a  regular  canon 
of  the  isle  of  All  Saints,  wrote  the  lives  of 
all  the  saints  of  Ireland.  He  also  contin- 
ued a  chronicle  down  to  his  own  time, 
which  had  been  already  commenced  by 
some  brother  of  his  house.  Ware  men- 
tions his  having  had  this  work  in  his  pos- 
session in  manuscript,  and  that  some  ad- 
ditions had  been  made  to  it  after  the  death 
of  Magraidan.  Coll  Deoran,  a  native  of 
Leinster,  who  lived  at  this  period,  also 
wrote  some  annals  which  are  still  in  manu- 
script. Patrick  Barret,  Bishop  of  Ferns, 
has  left  us  a  catalogue  of  his  predecessors 
in  that  see.  James  Young,  Notary  of  the 
City  of  Dublin,  wrote  some  political  max- 
ims on  government,  which  he  dedicated  to 


A.  D.  1485.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


95 


the  Earl  of  Ormjond,  then  lord-lieutenant. 
He  also  gave  in  writing  the  voyage  of 
Laurence  Rathold,  a  lord  of  Hungary,  to 
the  purgatory  of  St.  Patrick.  Patrick 
Ragged,  Bishop  of  Cork,  after  assisting  at 
the  General  Council  of  Constance,  wrote 
the  acts  passed  therein.  An  Irish  monk  of 
the  convent  of  St.  James  at  Ratisbon,  wrote 
various  tracts  on  Irish  saints,  and  on  the 
affairs  of  Charlemagne. 

William,  surnamed  Waterford,  wrote  a 
book  on  religion,  which  he  dedicated  to 
Cardinal  Julian  in  1433.  A  canon  of  the 
order  of  St.  Augustin,  at  Loghkey,  in  Ros- 
common, left  the  annals  of  Ireland  to  his 
own  time,  written  in  Irish  and  Latin.  Ware 
mentions  having  seen  that  part  of  his  work 
which  begins  with  the  year  1249,  and  ends 
with  1408. 

John  of  Ireland  flourished  in  1460.  Ac- 
cording to  Antonius  Alfonsus  Femandus, 
and  Michael  Plodius,  he  wrote  a  book  called 
the  "Bunch  of  Flowers,"  having  taken 
from  the  sacred  writers  the  most  valuable 
thoughts  on  each  subject  of  his  work.  John 
of  Ireland,  a  Dominican,  is  also  said  to  have 
been  the  author  of  a  book  called  "  Sea  la 
Dei,"  or  "  the  Ladder  to  Heaven." 

Philip  Norris,  having  taken  the  degree  of 
doctor  in  theology,  at  Oxford,  returned  to 
Ireland,  his  native  country,  where  he  was 
made  Prebendary  of  Yagogstown,  which 
depended  on  St.  Patrick's  Church  in  Dub- 
lin. He  was  afterwards  dean  of  that  cathe- 
dral, in  1457.  Like  Richard  of  Armagh, 
he  wrote  against  mendicants,  and  inveighed 
strongly  against  them  in  his  sermons,  which 
brought  disgrace  upon  him.  According  to 
Bale,  he  left  many  works,  namely  decla- 
mations, lectures  on  the  holy  scriptures, 
sermons  to  the  people,  a  treatise  against 
mendicants  in  health,  etc.  We  must  also 
mention  in  this  place  the  names  of  two 
great  writers  :  Thomas  Brown  a  secular 
priest,  who  wrote  the  Life  of  Nicholas 
Maguire,  Bishop  of  Lechlin,  to  whom  he 
was  chaplain  ;  and  Thomas  Fich,  a  regu- 
lar, and  sub-prior  of  Christ's  church,  Dub- 
lin, who  wrote  a  book  on  the  affairs  of  that 
church,  called  the  «  White  Book." 

Philip  Flatizbury,  of  John's-town,  near 


Naas,  in  Kildare,  according  to  Stanihurst, 
wrote  some  chronicles  at  the  request  of 
Gerald,  Earl  of  Kildare.  Ware,  who  has 
compared  these  chronicles  with  those 
written  by  Pembrige,  alleges  that  they  are 
the  same,  and  that  Flatizbury  made  only  a 
transcript  of  them  with  some  additions. 
George  Cogley,  notary  and  register  of  the 
bishopric  of  Meath,  wrote  a  catalogue  of 
the  prelates  of  that  see,  from  Simon  Roch- 
ford,  who  was  the  first  English  bishop  of  it, 
to  the  time  of  Hugh  Inge,  of  whom  Cogley 
was  contemporary. 

A  monk  of  the  Cistercian  order,  belong- 
ing to  the  abbey  of  Duiske,  in  Kilkenny, 
wrote  the  Annals  of  Ireland,  by  order  of 
his  abbot,  Charles  Cavenagh,  which  he 
continued  till  the  time  of  the  suppression  of 
monasteries.  He  inserted  them  afterwards 
in  the  registry  of  the  charters  of  this  abbey. 

Two  convents  for  the  third  order  of  St. 
Francis,  were  founded  in  1451,  in  Ireland: 
one  at  Slane,  in  Meath,  by  Christopher 
Fleming,  Baron  of  Slane,  and  his  wife 
Elizabeth  Stukely ;  the  other  at  Bunamargy, 
in  Antrim,  by  a  Mac  Donnel,  of  the  house 
of  Antrim. 

Nicholas  Fleming  was  appointed  to  the 
archbishopric  of  Armagh  by  Pope  Boniface 
the  Ninth,  and  consecrated  on  the  1st  of 
May,  1404.  He  drew  up  some  provin- 
cial statutes,  which  are  still  extant.  His 
death  is  said  to  have  occurred  about  1415. 
He  was  interred  in  the  church  of  St.  Peter 
at  Drogheda ;  and  was  succeeded  by  John 
Swayn. 

Thomas  Crawley  died  in  1417,  in  Eng- 
land, aged  eighty  years ;  and  was  buried 
at  Oxford,  in  the  new  college,  of  which  he 
had  been  the  first  warden.  According  to 
Leland  and  Marleburgh,  he  was  a  man  of 
singular  merit.  He  was  Chancellor  of  Ire- 
land under  Henry  the  Fourth,  and  lord- 
justice  under  Henry  the  Ffth.  His  suc- 
cessor in  the  see  of  Dublin  was  Richard 
Talbot. 

At  Dunmore,  in  Gal  way,  a  monastery 
was  founded  by  the  Berminghams,  barons 
of  Athenry,  for  hermits  of  St.  Augustin. 
The  registries  of  their  order  mention  it  to 
have  been  built  in  1425. 


06 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1485. 


Richard  O'Hedian,  Archdeacon  of  Cash- 
el,  was  consecrated  archbishop  of  that  see 
in  1406,  and  was  put  in  possession  of  its 
revenues  two  years  afterwards.  This  pre- 
late, finding  no  place  where  to  lay  his  head, 
(as  he  expresses  himself  in  the  roll  of  the 
revenues  of  that  church,)  demanded  back 
the  lands  belonging  to  the  archbishopric, 
which  were  neglected  by  his  predecessor, 
and  usurped  by  strangers.  He  had  a  house 
built  for  the  vicars  of  the  choir,  and  gave 
them  the  two  small  farms  of  Grange-Con- 
nel,  and  Baon-Thurlis-Beg,to  increase  their 
income.  He  also  rebuilt  some  archiepis- 
copal  houses,  and  re-established  the  cathe- 
dral church  of  St.  Patrick.  This  prelate 
died  at  an  advanced  age,  in  July,  1440,  and 
was  succeeded,  after  a  vacancy  of  ten 
years  by  John  Cantwell. 

A  convent  for  Franciscan  Friars  was 
founded  about  1435,  at  Irrialagh,  in  Kerry, 
by  Domnal  MacCarty,  lord  of  that  district. 

The  see  of  Tuam  was  held  in  1438,  by 
Thomas  O'Kelly,  Bishop  of  Clonfert,  who 
was  placed  there  by  the  authority  of  the 
pope.  The  annals  say  he  was  as  celebrated 
for  his  piety  as  his  liberality.  Having 
^governed  his  see  for  three  years,  he  died 
in  1441.     His  successor's  name  was  John. 

Some  houses  were  founded  about  this 
time  for  the  third  order  of  Franciscans. 
The  convent  of  Kil  O'Donnel  was  built  in 
the  beginning  of  this  century  by  O'Donnel, 
Prince  of  Tyrconnel.  There  were  two 
other  convents  belonging  to  this  order,  in 
the  same  district ;  one  at  Killybeg,  built 
by  M'Sweeny  Banach  ;  the  other  at  Fane- 
gara,  by  M'Sweeny  Panid,  both  Irish  no- 
blemen. 

A  convent  for  Franciscan  friars  was  also 
founded  at  Monaghan,  in  Ulster,  in  1443, 
by  Felim  Mac  Mahon,  a  lord  of  the  coun- 
try. Edward  White,  an  English  Protestant, 
having  obtained  this  house  afterwards  from 
Queen  Elizabeth,  had  it  pulled  down,  and 
built  a  fine  castle  for  himself  from  the  ma- 
terials. We  find  also  another  convent  dedi- 
cated to  St.  Michael,  at  Athenry,  in  Gal- 
way,  belonging  to  the  Observantine  monks. 
It  was  begun  by  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  but 
completed  by  some  other  benefactors. 


At  Kilcarbain,  in  the  county  of  Galway, 
a  convent  for  monks  of  the  third  order  of 
St.  Francis,  was  built  by  Thomas  Burke, 
Bishop  of  Confert,  who  granted  to'  that 
order  the  chapel  of  Kilcarbain,  which  do- 
nation was  confirmed  by  Pope  Eugene  the 
Fourth,  in  1444. 

John  Bole,  Abbot  of  our  Lady  of  Navan, 
in  Meath,  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Ar- 
magh, which  he  governed  for  about  thirteen 
years.  After  his  death,  which  took  place 
in  1470,  this  see  remained  vacant  for  four 
years,  during  which  the  temporal  affairs 
belonging  to  it  were  attended  to  by  Richard 
Lang,  Bishop  of  Kildare.  Charles  O'Mel- 
lan,  of  Armagh,  wrote  a  letter  to  Pope 
Sixtus  the  Fourth,  in  the  name  of  the  chap- 
ter, in  which  he  requested  that  Richard 
might  be  appointed  their  archbishop ;  but 
this  was  refused  by  the  pope,  who  nomi- 
nated John  Foxalls  to  the  see.  Foxalls, 
however,  died  in  England  the  year  after 
his  consecration,  without  having  seen  his 
diocese ;  and  was  succeeded  by  Edmund 
Connesburgh. 

In  1471,  the  death  of  Michael  Tregury, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  also  occurred ;  he 
was  a  man  of  profound  erudition,  and  left 
several  works  quoted  by  Bale  and  Pitseus. 
He  died  at  an  advanced  age,  at  Tawlaght, 
a  country  residence  belonging  to  the  pre- 
lates of  this  see.  His  body  was  removed 
to  Dublin,  and  buried  near  St.  Stephen's 
altar,  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Patrick,  where 
his  tomb  may  yet  be  seen  with  the  inscrip- 
tion upon  it.  He  was  succeeded  by  John 
Walton. 

Some  houses  were  founded  about  this 
time  for  Augustine  hermits :  one  at  Callan, 
in  Kilkenny,  by  the  earls  of  Ormond ; 
another  at  Athdare,  county  of  Limerick, 
by  an  Earl  of  Kildare  ;  and  two  in  the 
cities  of  Cork  and  Limerick,  the  founders 
of  which  are  not  known.  Father  Lubin 
places  a  convent  of  this  order  at  Clon- 
mine,  in  the  county  of  Cork,  which  was 
built  near  the  river  Avon-More,  on  the 
estate  of  the  O'Kelleghes.  Ware  places 
in  1473  the  foundation  of  a  house  at  Done- 
gal, for  the  Observantine  monks,  by  Hugh 
Roe   O'Donnel,   prince    of   that   country. 


A.  D.  1485.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


97 


According  to  this  author,  there  was  for- 
merly a  very  fine  library  attached  to  it 

Philip  Pinson,  an  Englishman,  of  the 
order  of  St.  Francis,  and  lecturer  in  theolo- 
gy, was  appointed  to  the  archbishopric  of 
Tuam  by  the  pope,  at  the  solicitation  of 
Henry  the  Seventh.  This  prelate  never 
went  thither,  having  died  of  the  plague  at 
Rome,  three  days  after  his  election. 

Two  years  after  the  death  of  Philip  Pin- 
son,  the  archbishopric  of  Tuam  was  given 
to  Maurice  O'Fihely,  or  Mauritius  de  Portu, 
a  man  celebrated  for  his  learning.  He  is 
mentioned  by  John  Camus,  in  the  following 
words : — "  Maurice  a  Porter,"  says  he,  "  a 
native  of  Ireland,  of  the  order  of  St.  Fran- 
cis, was  celebrated  for  his  profound  know- 
ledge in  theology,  logic,  philosophy,  and 
metaphysics.  It  is  impossible  to  give  an 
idea  of  his  polite,  and  at  the  same  time  holy 
and  religious  conversation.  Having  taught 
the  sciences  with  general  approbation  dur- 
ing many  years,  in  the  university  of  Padua,  II 
he  was  nominated  by  Pope  Julian  the 
Second  to  the  archbishopric  of  Tuam, 
whither  he  repaired,  Italy  being  at  the 
time  a  prey  to  the  calamities  of  war.  He 
died,  however,  soon  after  his  arrival,  deep- 
ly regretted  by  the  learned  world,  having 
just  attained  his  fiftieth  year.  He  left 
many  monuments  of  his  learning  in  manu- 
script, which  were  not  published  on  ac- 
count of  his  premature  death."  Francis 
Gonzaga  also  makes  mention  of  him : — 
"  Maurice,  an  Irishman,"  says  he,  "  revived 
the  doctrine  of  John  Scot,  by  his  commen- 
taries on  *  Universality.'  He  published 
also  a  dictionary  of  the  holy  scriptures." 
Possevinus  speaks  of  him  in  the  following 
manner : — "  Maurice,  an  Irishman,  a  Mino- 
rite Franciscan,  and  Archbishop  of  Tuam, 
composed  a  dictionary  of  the  holy  scrip- 
tures, which  was  first  printed  at  Venice,  in 
1603,  by  order  of  the  most  illustrious 
Matthew  Zane,  Patriarch  of  Venice ;  but 
what  remains  of  it  at  present  does  not  go 
beyond  the  letter  E.  inclusive.  Besides 
this  he  explains,  by  commentaries,  the 
whole  doctrine  of  Scot,  part  of  which  was 
printed  at  Venice,  in  1500.  In  his  exposi- 
tion of  Scot,  the  theorems  were  published 

13 


at  Venice,  in  1514.  His  •  Enchiridion  of 
the  Faith,'  was  published  in  1509,  by  Octa- 
vianus  Scotus."  John  Grace  also  publish- 
ed a  work  of  this  author,  entitled  "  Repor- 
tata."  It  is  said  that  he  wrote  the  "  Life 
of  John  Scot,"  with  a  book  of  distinctions, 
which  belongs  to  the  Franciscans  at  Raven- 
na. He  is  thought  to  have  been  the  author 
of  An  Abridgment  of  Truth,  in  verse ;  and 
a  work  on  Porphyrius,  published  at  Venice, 
in  1519. 

Nicholas  Maguire,  Bishop  of  Leighlin, 
wrote  a  chronicle  about  1495,  which  was 
of  much  benefit  to  Thaddeus  Dowling  in 
composing  his  Annals.  He  also  wrote  the 
life  of  his  predecessor,  Milo,and  began  other 
works,  which  his  death  prevented  him  from 
completing. 

It  is  hoped  that  these  slight  and  imper- 
fect notices  of  the  state  of  Ireland  during 
the  fifteenth  century  will  enable  the  rea  der 
to  judge  how  the  great  "  Reformation"  of 
the  succeeding  century  should  be  estima- 
ted, with  reference  to  the  domestic  and 
educational  benefits  proposed  to  be  thus 
conferred  on  the  Irish  people ;  and^also,  its 
effects  on  the  welfare  of  mankind  generally. 
As  comparison  is  a  safe  rule  of  judgment 
in  such  matters,  we  have  endeavoured  to 
show  the  actions  which  (then  as  now) 
adorn  the  lives  of  some  men,  while  others 
are  busy  in  the  perpetuation  of  slaughter, 
slander,  or  slavery. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

Policy  of  Henry  towards  the  Yorkists — Strength 
of  the  York  party  in  Ireland — Kildare  suspected 
by  the  king — Arrival  of  Simnel  in  Ireland — 
German  auxiliaries  for  Siranel — Invade  England, 
encouraged  by  lords  Lincoln  and  Lovell — Routed 
at  Stoke — Simnel  transferred  to  the  royal  kitchen 
— Henry  summons  the  lords  of  the  Pale  to  Eng- 
land— Appearance  of  Perkin  Warbeck — Kil- 
dare disgraced,  and  Sir  Edward  Poynings  ap- 
pointed lord-deputy — Poynings's  parliament — 
Warbeck's  marriage — Kildare  regains  the  king's 
confidence,  and  is  appointed  lord-lieutenant — 
Warbeck  makes  another  attempt  in  Ireland — 
Although  joined  by  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  is  un- 
successful, and  executed  for  treason — Battle  of 
Knocktow,  and  defeat  of  the  Irish — Collateral 
incidents  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  accession  of  Henry  the  Seventh  to 
the  throne  of  England  required  him  to  be 


98 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1480. 


as  circumspect  as  if  he  had  been  unfortu- 
nate instead  of  successful.  His  policy  was 
moderate,  but  he  unwisely  kept  up  the  dis- 
tinction of  party,  which  otherwise  might 
soon  have  disappeared ;  and  the  cruelty 
with  which  he  treated  his  queen,  for  no 
other  cause  than  her  family  descent,  con- 
vinced the  lovers  of  Edward's  memory 
that  the  new  king  was  their  deadly  enemy. 
The  moderation  of  his  policy  may  be 
ascribed  to  cautious  and  calculating  mo- 
tives, inasmuch  as  the  enmity  of  the  king 
to  the  Yorkists  continued  to  be  as  strong 
and  revengeful  as  ever.  That  he  was 
capable,  however,  of  sacrificing  this  feeling 
to  expediency,  appears  from  his  conduct 
towards  Ireland.  For  though  he  found,  in 
that  kingdom,  all  the  great  offices  filled  by 
partisans  of  the  house  of  York,  he  yet  not 
only  confirmed  all  these  Yorkists  in  their 
stations,  but  forbore  from  adding  any  of  the 
Lancastrian  party  to  the  council,  lest  he 
might  be  supposed  to  distrust  the  loyalty 
of  the  Irish  government,  or  regord  any  of 
its  members  with  insulting  suspicion  or  fear. 

While  Henry  took  pains  to  conciliate  the 
favour  of  the  pnrty  then  most  powerful, 
neither  was  he  forgetful  of  the  few  who 
had  always  been  staunch  to  his  family's 
cause  ;  and  among  these  stood  pre-eminent 
the  noble  family  of  Ormond.  Thomas  But- 
ler, the  seventh  earl,  declared  a  traitor  in 
the  first  year  of  Edward  the  Fourth,  was 
now,  by  an  act  of  the  Irish  parliament,  re- 
stored to  "  honour  and  estate,"  and  became 
distinguished  for  public  services,  military 
and  diplomatic. 

The  growing  strength  of  the  York  fac- 
tion in  Ireland  soon  began  seriously  to 
arrest  the  monarch's  attention.  The  popu- 
lar government  of  the  Duke  of  York  was 
still  fondly  remembered  in  that  country, 
and  the  cause  of  the  family  to  which  their 
favourite  prince  belonged  had  been  es- 
poused- with  ardour  by  the  great  bulk  of 
the  English  settlers.  The  implied  sanction, 
therefore,  lately  given  to  the  ascendancy  of 
their  party  by  the  king,  was  hailed  at  the 
time  with  a  warmth  of  joy  and  gratitude 
which  fostered  the  seeds  of  future  presump- 
tion and  excess. 


Having  reason  to  suspect  that  Kildare 
was  planning  mischief,  the  king  wrote  to 
him,  to  command  his  presence  immediately 
in  England,  assigning  as  a  pretext  for  this 
urgency,  that  he  wished  to  advise  with  him 
concerning  the  peace  of  his  Irish  realm. 
But  the  earl,  suspecting,  doubtless,  the  real 
intent  of  this  order,  submitted  the  case  to 
the  parliament  in  Dublin,  and  procured  let- 
ters to  the  king  from  the  peers,  represent- 
ing that  affairs  requiring  the  lord-deputy's 
presence  were  about  to  be  discussed  in 
parliament,  and  praying  that,  for  a  short 
time,  he  might  be  excused  from  obeying 
the  royal  command.  Among  the  names  of 
the  clergy  who  subscribed  is  found  that  of 
Octavian  de  Palatio,  Archbishop  of  Ar- 
magh ;  a  prelate  whose  subsequent  conduct 
removes  the  suspicion  of  his  having  been 
actuated  in  this  step  by  party  feelings. 
The  secular  subscribers  to  the  letters  were 
Robert  Preston,  Viscount  Gormanstown, 
and  the  six  most  ancient  Irish  barons,  Slane, 
Delvin,  Killeen,  Howth,  Trimleston,  and 
Dunsany. 

It  might  have  been  expected  by  Henry, 
that  the  favourable  circumstances  under 
which  he  had  commenced  his  reign,  and 
more  especially  the  reconcilement  of  the 
two  rival  houses,  which  seemed  to  have 
been  accomplished  by  his  marriage,  would 
assure  him  an  easy  and  uncontested  career. 
But  the  events  and  prospects  now  unfolding 
themselves  must  have  disabused  him  of  any 
such  hope ;  and  the  chief  source  of  much 
of  the  odium  now  gathering  round  him,  (as 
well  as  of  those  plots  by  which  his  throne 
was  afterwards  threatened,)  may  be  found 
in  the  impression  produced  by  the  odious 
harshness  of  his  conduct  towards  the  young 
Edward  Plantagenet,  son  of  the  late  Duke 
of  Clarence. 

This  prince,  whom  Edward  the  Fourth 
had  created  Earl  of  Warwick, — the  title 
borne  by  his  grandfather, — had  been  treat- 
ed by  Richard  the  Third,  as  heir-apparent 
to  the  crown  ;  but  he  kept  the  young  prince 
a  close  prisoner  in  the  castle  of  Sheriff-Hut- 
ton,  in  Yorkshire.  This  youth,  at  the  time 
of  Henry's  accession,  had  just  reached  his 
fifteenth  year ;  and  so  selfishly  blind  was 


A.  D.  1487.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


99 


the  new  monarch,  that,  although  the  contin- 
gency of  this  youth's  right  to  the  crown 
was  still  so  remote  as  not  to  be  calculated 
on,  while  any  of  the  posterity  of  Edward 
the  Fourth  remained  alive,  he  had  him  re- 
moved from  his  prison  in  Yorkshire  to  the 
Tower,  there  to  pine  in  hopeless  captivity, 
and  with  the  fate  of  his  murdered  cousins 
for  ever  before  his  eyes. 

The  birth  of  a  son  diminishing  the 
chance  of  a  change  in  the  royal  succession, 
furnished  conspirators  with  a  new  motive 
for  activity ;  and,  in  order  to  profit  by  the 
strong  feelings  in  favour  of  the  Yorkists 
that  prevailed  in  Ireland,  Dublin  was  the 
place  selected  for  the  opening  of  this 
strange  plot.  Early  in  the  year  1486,  there 
landed  in  that  city  a  priest  of  Oxford,  named 
Richard  Simons,  attended  by  his  ward, 
Lambert  Simnel,  a  boy  of  about  eleven 
years  of  age,  the  son  of  an  Oxford  trades- 
man. This  youth  he  presented  to  the  lord- 
deputy,  and  the  other  lords  of  the  council, 
as  Edward,  Earl  of  Warwick,  son  to 
George,  Duke  of  Clarence. 

To  attempt  to  personate  a  living  prince, 
so  near  at  hand  as  to  be  easily  confronted 
with  the  impostor,  was  a  contrivance,  it 
must  be  owned,  as  daring  and  difficult  as  it 
was  clumsy.  Nothing  appears,  however, 
to  have  been  wanting,  that  careful  rehearsal 
and  consummate  acting  could  accomplish, 
to  render  the  scheme  consistent  and  plausi- 
ble. The  scheme  was  instantly  and  com- 
pletely successful.  The  Earl  of  Kildare, 
far  less  from  credulity,  it  is  clear,  than  from 
the  bias  of  party  spirit,  gave  in  at  once,  and 
without  any  reserve,  to  the  fraud ;  and  his 
example  was  immediately  followed  by 
almost  the  whole  of  the  people  of  the  Pale, 
who,  admitting  at  once,  without  further  in- 
quiry, the  young  pretender's  title,  pro- 
claimed him  by  the  style  of  Edward  the 
Sixth,  King  of  England  and  France,  and 
Lord  of  Ireland. 

Amid  this  general  defection,  the  citizens 
of  Waterford  remained  still  firm  in  their 
allegiance  to  Henry  ;  even  the  Butlers  con- 
tinued likewise  faithful ;  while  almost  the 
only  ecclesiastics  who  refused  to  bow  be- 
fore the  impostor,  were  the  Archbishop  of 


Armagh,  Octavian  de  Palatio,  and  the  bish- 
ops of  Cashel,  Tuam,  Clogher,  and  Ossory. 

Though,  ostensibly,  Simons  was  the  only 
person  engaged  in  the  scheme  of  palming 
Simnel  on  the  Irish  as  Warwick,  it  seems 
generally  to  be  supposed  that  this  plot,  as 
well  as  others  during  this  reign,  had  origi- 
nated at  the  court  of  the  Duchess  of  Bur- 
gundy, third  sister  of  Edward  the  Fourth, 
— "  the  chief  end  of  whose  life,"  we  are  told, 
"  was  to  see  the  majesty  royal  of  England 
once  more  replaced  in  her  house."  No 
sooner  was  it  known  in  England  that  the 
Irish  had  declared  in  favour  of  the  pre- 
tended Warwick,  than  the  nephew  of  this 
princess,  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  suddenly  took 
his  departure,  and  repaired  to  the  court  of 
his  aunt,  whither  Lord  Lovell  also  had 
lately  betaken  himself,  after  a  short  and 
feeble  attempt  at  insurrection.  The  object 
of  this  movement  did  not  long  remain  a 
mystery.  The  fruit  of  their  councils  was 
seen  in  the  landing  of  a  force  of  two  thou- 
sand German  troops  at  Dublin,  under  the 
command  of  Martin  Swartz,  and  accom- 
panied by  Lincoln  and  Lovell. 

The  king  now  gave  orders  that  the  real 
Earl  of  Warwick  should  be  conducted,  in 
the  sight  of  all  London,  from  the  Tower  to 
St.  Paul's.  He  also  took  this  prince  with 
him  to  the  palace  of  Shene,  where  noble- 
men, attached  to  the  York  family,  and  well 
acquainted  with  his  person,  daily  visited 
and  conversed  with  him.  This  open  trial 
of  the  question  satisfied  the  people  of  Eng- 
land ;  but  the  Irish,  remote  from  such  means 
of  inquiry,  and  embarked  too  heartily  in 
the  general  cause  to  be  at  all  particular  as 
to  its  grounds,  not  only  persisted  in  their 
adherence  to  Simnel,  but  retorted  on  Henry 
the  charge  of  imposture,  and  maintaining 
their  "  lad,"  as  they  familiarly  styled  him,  to 
be  the  real  Plantagenet. 

In  this  state  of  weak  credulity  and  faction 
were  almost  the  whole  of  the  people  of  the 
Pale,  at  the  time  when  Svs^artz  and  his  Ger- 
mans landed  at  Dublin.  It  may  be  con- 
ceived that  their  spirits  were  elevated  by 
this  re-enforcement,  as  well  as  by  the  sanc- 
tion derived  to  their  enterprise  from  the 
high  rank  of  the  two  English  lords  who 


100 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1487. 


accompanied  it.  The  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
though  fully  aware  of  the  imposture,  recom- 
mended that  Simnel  should  be  crowned, 
and  accordingly  this  ceremony  was  per- 
formed by  John  Payne,  Bishop  of  Meath, 
in  the  cathedral  called  Christ  Church.  The 
boy  was  crowned  with  a  diadem  borrowed, 
for  the  occasion,  from  a  statue  of  the  Vir- 
gin, in  St.  Mary's  Abbey. 

The  Anglo-Irish  leaders,  presuming  the 
mass  of  the  English  people  to  be  quite  as 
ripe  for  revolt  as  themselves,  resolved  on 
the  bold  and  hazardous  step  of  an  immedi- 
ate invasion  of  England.  No  time  was  lost 
in  putting  this  project  in  execution ;  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln  was  intrusted  with  the 
command  of  the  armament ;  and  so  great 
was  the  zeal  with  which  all  classes  and 
conditions  joined  in  the  enterprise,  that 
Lord  Thomas  Fitz-Gerald,  the  brother  of 
the  Earl  of  Kildare,  resigned  the  high 
office  of  lord-chancellor  in  order  to  accom- 
pany the  expedition. 

About  the  beginning  of  June,  I486,  the 
force  destined  for  this  object,  consisting  of 
the  two  thousand  German  auxiliaries,  and 
"  a  great  multitude,"  says  the  chronicler,  of 
Irish,  set  sail  from  Dublin,  and  with  a  fair 
wind  reached  in  safety  the  Pile  of  Foudray, 
in  Furness.  There  landing,  they  directed 
their  march  through  Yorkshire.  The  hope 
held  out  to  them  of  a  rising  in  their  favour, 
by  the  Yorkists  of  the  northern  counties, 
proved  to  be  utterly  groundless*;  though 
of  all  that  could  be  done  for  them  by  the 
slowness  of  their  enemy,  they  appear  to 
have  had  the  full  advantage ;  for  such  was 
the  mismanagement  of  the  king's  army, 
that,  between  Nottingham  and  Newark,  it 
actually  lost  its  way,  and  was  forced  to 
wait  for  guides.  Had  such  a  mishap  be- 
fallen the  Irish  and  German  invaders,  it 
would  not  have  been  so  remarkable. 

Impatient,  at  length,  of  a  delay  which 
brought  no  promise  of  additional  strength, 
Lincoln  pushed  forward  his  force,  and 
coming  in  conflict,  at  Stoke,  with  the  van- 
guard of  Henry's  army,  under  the  Earl  of 
Oxford,  commenced  the  short  but  sanguin- 
ary action  which  finally  decided  the  fate 
of  the  mock  monarch  of  Ireland.     So  great 


was  the  advantage  of  strength  of  the  royal- 
ists' side,  that  but  a  third  part  of  the  king's 
force  was  engaged  in  the  action ;  while  of 
the  eight  thousand  men  who  formed  the  in- 
vading army,  half  were  left  dead  on  the 
field.  The  Germans  fought  with  the  cool 
courage  of  veterans ;  while  the  soldiers  of 
the  Pale,  though  armed  but  with  Irish  darts 
and  skenes,  and  therefore  unable  to  stand 
the  shock  of  cavalry,  displayed  bravery 
worthy  of  a  more  rational  cause.  Among 
the  slain  were  almost  all  the  leaders  of  the 
expedition,  the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  lords 
Thomas  and  Maurice  Fitz-Gerald,  Sir 
Thomas  Broughton,  and  Martin  Swartz. 
Lord  Lovell,  as  appears  from  the  journal 
of  the  herald  who  witnessed  the  conflict, 
was  seen  to  escape  from  the  field  of  battle, 
but  no  further  tidings  were  ever  heard  of 
him. 

The  fate  of  Simnel,  who,  with  his  tutor, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  victorious  party, 
chequers  the  story  of  this  sanguinary  strug- 
gle with  about  an  equal  mixture  of  the 
painful  and  the  ludicrous.  Seeing  no  fur- 
ther harm  to  be  apprehended  from  this  weak 
tool  of  faction,  before  whom  the  lords  and 
prelates  of  Ireland  had  so  lately  bowed  in 
homage,  the  king,  after  granting  him  full 
pardon,  made  him  a  turnspit  in  the  royal 
kitchen,  and,  not  long  after,  raised  him  to 
the  rank  of  a  falconer. 

Though  faction  was  doubtless  the  source 
of  this  farcical  conspiracy,  it  can  as  little 
be  questioned,  that  a  great  portion  of  the 
community  having  been  taught,  by  the 
example  and  language  of  their  superiors,  to 
regard  Simnel  as  their  rightful  prince, 
might  have  adopted  with  perfect  sincerity 
such  a  persuasion,  and  felt,  accordingly,  an 
earnest  zeal  in  his  service. 

Kildare,  though  conscious  of  the  daring 
enormity  of  his  oflence,  was  too  sensible  of 
the  extent  of  his  own  power,  to  despair  of  re- 
gaining his  former  hold  on  the  royal  favour. 
In  conjunction,  therefore,  with  other  great 
lords  of  the  Pale,  he  despatched  emissaries 
to  Henry,  acknowledging,  in  the  most  con- 
trite manner,  their  common  transgressions, 
and  humbly  imploring  his  pardon. 

Perceiving    that    the  storm  from  that 


A.  7>.  1488.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


101 


quarter  had  now  blown  over,  and  knowing 
it  was  only  by  the  power  and  influence  of 
Kildare  and  a  few  other  great  lords  that 
the  Irish  chieftains  could  be  kept  in  awe, 
Henry  preferred  the  dangerous  experiment 
of  pardoning  that  powerful  nobleman,  to 
the  still  more  serious  danger,  as  he  deemed 
it,  of  driving  him  into  new  and  confirmed 
hostility.  With  a  policy,  therefore,  which 
only  the  anomalous  position  of  Ireland  could 
account  for,  he  retained  him  still  in  the 
office  of  chief-governor  ; — still  confided  to 
his  hands  the  trust  which  he  had  just  so 
openly  and  treasonably  betrayed. 

In  the  late  factious  revolt  in  favour  of 
Simnel,  the  leading  lords  of  the  Pale  had 
hazarded  a  more  than  ordinary  defiance  of 
the  royal  authority ;  the  very  government 
itself  having  set  the  monstrous  example  of 
official  high  treason  and  vice-regal  revolt. 
But  the  humiliation  had  been  complete ;  nor 
could  the  crown  have  found  a  more  favour- 
able occasion  to  wrest  the  rule  of  that 
realm  from  the  hands  of  its  selfish  oli- 
garchy, to  remove  the  barrier  so  long  in- 
terposed between  the  native  race  and  the 
throne,  and  thus,  by  extending  to  all  as  a 
right,  that  legal  protection  which  was  now 
but  the  privilege  of  a  few,  to  make  the  law, 
rather  than  the  sword,  the  means  of  con- 
verting the  Irish  enemies  into  subjects. 

Henry,  instead  of  availing  himself  of  the 
present  reduced  state  of  the  Anglo-Irish 
satraps,  to  curtail,  at  least,  if  not  crush, 
their  powers  of  mischief,  and  thus  clear  the 
ground  for  future  reforms,  still  retained, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  full,  undiminished 
authority,  all  the  chief  authors  of  the  late 
daring  revolt ;  and  the  only  remedial  step 
taken  by  him  was  the  appointment  of  Sir 
Richard  Edgecomb,  a  gentleman  high  in 
his  confidence  and  the  controller  of  his 
household,  to  proceed  to  Ireland  with  a 
guard  of  500  men,  there  to  receive  new 
oaths  of  allegiance  from  the  nobility,  gentry, 
and  commonalty,  and,  after  binding  them 
by  law  to  the  observance  of  their  oaths,  to 
grant  them  the  royal  pardon. 

The  progress  and  acts  of  this  special 
commission  have  been  recorded  with  much 
minuteness.    At  Kinsale,  Sir  Richard,  de- 


termining not  to  land,  received  the  homage 
of  Thomas,  Lord  Barry,  on  board  his  ship ; 
but,  on  the  following  day,  at  the  earnest 
entreaty  of  James,  Lord  Courcy,  he  made 
his  entry  into  the  town,  where,  in  the  chan- 
cel of  St.  Melteoc's  church,  Courcy  did 
homage  for  his  barony,  and  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town,  following  his  example, 
took  the  oath  of  fidelity,  and  entered  into 
recognizances.  From  thence  Sir  Richard 
sailed  for  Waterford,  where  he  was  honour- 
ably entertained  by  the  inhabitants,  and 
returned  them  thanks,  in  the  king's  name, 
for  their  city's  constancy  and  faithfulness. 
Understanding  that  he  was  the  bearer  of 
the  royal  pardon  for  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  a 
nobleman  who  had  been  always  they  said, 
their  "  utter  enemy,"  on  account  of  their 
loyalty  to  the  English  crown,  they  prayed 
of  Sir  Richard  to  sue,  in  their  behalf,  to 
the  king,  that  if  ever  Kildare  should  again 
be  lord  of  that  land,  their  city  might  be 
exempt  from  his  jurisdiction,  as  well  as 
from  that  "of  all  other  Irish  lords  that 
should  bear  any  rule  in  their  land  for  ever- 
more, and  should  hold  immediately  of  the 
king  and  his  heirs,  and  of  such  lords  of 
England,  as  shall  fortune  hereafter  to  have 
the  rule  of  Ireland  and  of  none  others." 

Very  different  was  the  scene  prepared 
for  him  in  Dublin,  where,  arriving  on  the 
5th  of  July,  he  found  the  mayor  and  citi- 
zens waiting,  in  the  guise  of  suppliants,  to 
receive  him,  at  the  abbey-gate  of  the  Friars 
Preachers,  by  whom,  during  his  stay,  he 
was  to  be  lodged  and  entertained. 

After  various  consultations,  Kildare  did 
homage,  in  the  presence  of  the  royal  com- 
missioner, in  the  great  chamber  of  the 
abbey  of  St.  Thomas  ;  and,  being  after- 
wards absolved  of  his  excommunication, 
while  mass  was  sung,  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance,  and  bound  himself  in  recogni- 
zances to  the  due  observance  of  it.  Sir 
Richard  then  hung  round  Kildare's  neck  a 
golden  chain  which  the  king  had  sent  him, 
as  an  earnest  of  his  favour ;  after  which, 
the  earl  and  the  commissioner,  attended  by 
all  the  bishops  and  lords,  went  into  the 
church  of  the  monastery,  "  and  in  the  choir 
thereof,  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin  began  Te 


102 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1490. 


Deum,  and  the  choir,  with  the  organs,  sung 
it  up  solemnly  ;  and  at  that  time  all  the 
bells  in  the  church  rung."  When  these 
ceremonies  were  all  ended.  Sir  Richard 
entertained  thd  earl  and  the  other  lords  at 
a  great  feast  in  the  abbey  of  the  Friars 
Preachers. 

To  this  general  and  indiscreet  extension 
of  clemency  there  were  but  two  excep- 
tions ;  namely,  James  Keating,  the  turbu- 
lent Prior  of  Kilmainham,  and  Thomas  Plun- 
ket  Chief-Justice,  of  the  Common-Pleas, 
who,  of  all  the  authors  and  fomenters  of 
the  late  revolt,  had  been  the  most  active 
and  mischievous.  Through  the  interces- 
sion of  Kildare  and  others  of  the  nobilitv, 
Plunket  was  pardoned  ;  but  the  life  of 
Keating  having  been,  for  the  thirty  years 
he  was  Prior  of  Kilmainham,  one  constant 
course  of  outrage,  rapine  and  fraud,  he 
was  excluded  from  the  benefits  of  pardon, 
and  also  dispossessed  of  the  office  of  Con- 
stable of  the  Caslle  of  Dublin,  which  he 
had  for  several  years  violently  usurped. 

Though  Henry  had  deemed  it  prudent, 
notwithstanding  their  late  flagrant  treason, 
to  leave  still  in  the  hands  of  Kildare  and 
his  fellow  delinquents,  all  the  highest  offices 
of  the  state,  he  yet  failed  not  to  keep  a 
strict  watch  on  their  movements  :  and  see- 
ing reason,  doubtless,  to  apprehend  from 
them  some  new  scheme  in  favour  of  the 
house  of  York,  he  summoned  the  greater 
number  of  the  lords  temporal  of  that  king- 
dom to  repair  to  him  in  England.  In  con- 
sequence of  this,  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  the 
viscounts  Buttevant  and  Fermoy,  and  the 
lords  of  Athenry,  Kinsale,  Gormanstown, 
Delvin,  Howth,  Slane,  Killeen,  Trimleston, 
and  Dunsany,  waited  upon  the  king  at 
Greenwich. 

Instead  of  bringing  against  these  lords 
their  past  delinquencies, — an  account  clos- 
ed, as  he  felt,  by  the  royal  pardon, — Henry 
wisely  contented  himself  with  warning 
them  against  any  repetition  of  such  con- 
duct ;  and,  with  reference  to  their  choice 
of  a  creature  like  Simnel  to  be  their  sove- 
reign, told  them,  with  bitter  sarcasm,  that 
"  if  their  king  were  to  continue  absent  from 
them,  they  would  at  length  crown  apes." 


Shortly  after,  he  invited  them  to  a  splendid 
banquet,  where  a  significant  satire  on  their 
folly  was  presented  to  them  in  the  person 
of  Lambert  Simnel  himself,  who  had  been 
exalted,  for  that  day,  from  the  region  of  the 
kitchen,  to  wait  on  his  late  noble  subjects 
at  table.  During  the  visit  of  these  lords, 
they  accompanied  the  king  in  a  solemn  pro- 
cession to  church ;  and  when  they  took 
leave  of  him  to  return  to  Ireland,  were  dis- 
missed with  marks  of  the  royal  favour, 
among  which  was  a  gift  to  the  Baron  of 
Howth  of  three  hundred  pieces  of  gold. 

While  thus  the  leaders  of  the  small  col- 
ony of  the  Pale — from  whence  almost  solely, 
in  these  times,  are  furnished  the  materials 
of  what  is  called  Irish  history — were  in- 
dulging, as  usual,  in  the  two  alternate  ex- 
tremes of  treason  and  abject  loyalty,  the 
native  septs,  who  still  held  possession  of 
by  far  the  greater  and  more  fertile  portion 
of  the  island,  continued,  unmindful  of  the 
presence  of  the  foreigner,  to  make  war 
only  among  themselves  ;  and  appeared  to 
forget  that  they  had  any  enemies  in  the 
country  but  each  other.  There  were  a 
few,  indeed,  among  the  great  Anglo-Irish 
lords,  who,  by  long  mixture  of  blood,  by 
their  extensive  possessions,  and,  even  still 
more,  by  their  flattering  adoption  of  the 
laws  and  usages  of  the  land,  had  gained  a 
station  in  the  hearts  of  the  natives,  little  less 
home-felt  and  familiar  than  that  of  their 
own  native  chiefs.  Of  this  description  had 
been,  through  several  generations,  the  earls 
of  Desmond  ;  the  ninth  earl  of  which  family 
was,  in  the  third  year  of  this  reign,  murder- 
ed by  one  of  his  own  servants  in  his  house 
at  Rathkeal,  in  Limerick.  Among  the 
crimes  charged  against  this  lord's  father, 
and  for  which  he  was  executed,  as  we  have 
seen,  at  Drogheda,  alliance  with  the  Irish 
was  one  of  the  most  prominent ;  and  yet, 
the  son  of  that  very  lord,  James,  the  late 
earl,  was  not  deterred  by  his  father's  tragic 
fate  from  choosine  for  his  wife  a  ladv  of 
the  land,  the  daughter  of  O'Brien,  Chief  of 
Thomond. 

After  the  departure  of  the  king's  com- 
missioner, Kildare  was  called  to  suppress  an 
outbreak  of  the  Mac-Geoghegans,in  a  small 


A.  D.  1492.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


103 


territory  called  Moy-Cashel.  There,  hav- 
ing taken  and  destroyed  the  castle  of  Bele- 
ragh,  the  king's  troops  dispersed  themselves 
over  the  whole  district,  and  after  destroy- 
ing the  villages  and  farms,  returned  to 
their  quarters  loaded  with  spoil.  There 
was  also  much  fighting,  in  1489,  between 
the  new  Earl  of  Desmond,  the  tenth  of  that 
title,  and  the  Irish  chiefs  in  his  neighbour- 
hood. This  lord,  who  from  a  defect  in  his 
limbs,  had  been  nicknamed  the  Lame,  soon 
acquired,  by  his  feats  in  the  field,  the  title 
of  the  Warlike  ;  and,  following  the  exam- 
ple of  his  noble  progenitors,  lived  almost 
entirely  on  his  own  princely  domains, 
among  the  native  septs,  —  making  wars 
and  treaties  with  them  at  pleasure,  and 
continuing  in  his  ways  and  habits  all  the 
barbaric  grandeur  of  the  ancient  Irish  chief 
In  consistency  with  this  character,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  passed  his  life  in  warfare 
with  his  neighbours  ;  having  qualified  him- 
self, if  it  may  be  so  expressed,  for  this  state 
of  mutual  hostility,  by  becoming  one  of 
themselves.  In  a  victory  gained  by  him 
over  Morough  O'Carrol,  Prince  of  Ely, 
that  chief  was  slain  together  with  his 
brother,  Maol  Mury  ;  and,  in  another  great 
battle  fought  by  Desmond,  Mac  Carthy,  the 
rightful  Prince  of  Desmond,  was  vanquish- 
ed and  slain.  In  the  north,  O'Nial,  brother- 
in-law  of  the  deputy,  declared  war  against 
the  chieftain  of  Tyrconnel.  The  diploma- 
tic correspondence  between  these  petty 
princes,  before  the  declaration  of  war, 
evinces  a  Spartan  spirit  worthy  of  a  nobler 
contest.  O'Nial  wrote,  '  Send  me  tribute, 
or  else" — .  To  which  the  other  replied, "  I 
owe  you  none  ;  and  if" — .*  The  war  that 
followed  produced  no  incident  of  import- 
ance ;  but  it  terminated  to  the  disadvantage 
oftheO'Nials. 

The  plot  of  which  Simnel  was  made  the 
instrument  having  proved  so  signal  a  failure, 
it  would  seem  hardly  conceivable  that,  in 
but  a  few  years  after,  some  of  the  very 
same  personages  who  had  been  concerned 

*  For  the  benefit  of  landlord  and  tenaut,  and  of  all 
admirers  of  the  style  quari-elsouie,  we  give  the  ori- 
ginal : — 

"  Cuir  hogotn  me  kiesse,  no  mar  a  cuirhuir" — 
"  Neel  kietse  a  gut  orm,  agus  de  meh"-' 


in  this  abortive  scheme  should  have  brought 
forward  another  contrivance  of  nearly  the 
same  pattern  ;  and  moreover,  that  Ireland, 
or  rather  the  seat  of  the  English  power  in 
that  island,  should  have  been  again  chosen 
to  be  the  opening  scene  of  the  imposture. 
Of  this  plot,  as  well  as  of  the  former,  the 
ever-restless  Duchess  of  Burgundy  was  the 
prime  mover;  and  the  personage  whom 
she  now  prepared  to  bring  forward  was 
no  other  than  Richard,  Duke  of  York,  the 
second  son  of  Edward  the  Fourth,  who  had 
made  his  escape,  as  she  pretended,  from 
the  Tower,  when  his  elder  brother  was 
murdered. 

In  her  choice  of  the  personage  to  be  re- 
presented, she  showed  on  the  present  occa- 
sion, far  more  judgment  than  on  the  former, 
since  to  Richard,  were  he  still  living,  the 
crown  really  belonged :  whereas,  the  young 
Warwick  could  not  have  succeeded  as  long 
as  any  of  the  descendants  of  Edward  the 
Fourth  were  alive.  The  individual  she 
had  chosen  to  personate  her  royal  nephew, 
and  who  bore  some  resemblance  to  him,  it 
is  said,  in  his  person  and  features,  was  an 
accomplished  young  Fleming,  named  Peter 
Osbeck,  though  generally  called  Perkin 
Warbeck ;  and  from  the  time  it  must  have 
taken  to  educate  him  for  the  new  charac- 
ter he  was  about  to  assume,  it  is  clear  that 
the  indefatigable  duchess  began  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  this  second  bold  impos- 
ture almost  immediately  after  the  failure  of 
the  first. 

Having  succeeded,  as  she  hoped,  in 
diverting  attention  from  Flanders  as  the 
birth-place  of  the  plot,  she  sent  him  pri- 
vately, under  the  care  of  Lady  Brampton, 
into  Portugal. 

Whether  any  rumours  had  yet  reached 
Henry  of  this  new  plot  of  the  intriguing 
duchess,  does  not  very  clearly  appear  ;  but 
that  he  had  grounds,  at  this  time  for  sus- 
pecting the  Earl  of  Kildare  of  some  em- 
bryo mischief,  may  be  taken  for  granted, 
from  his  sudden  dismissal  of  that  powerful 
lord  from  the  office  of  deputy.  He  also,  at 
the  same  time,  removed  from  the  post  of 
high-treasurer,  which  had  been  held  by 
him  for  above  thirty-eight  years,  Kildare's 


104 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1494. 


father-in-law,  Fitz-Eustace,  Baron  of  Port- 
lester.  In  place  of  Kildare,  the  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  Walter  Fitz-Symons,  was  made 
lord-deputy  ;  while,  with  ominous  warning 
for  the  Geraldines,  Sir  James  Ormond, 
natural  son  of  the  late  earl,  was  appointed 
high-treasurer  in  the  place  of  Lord  Port- 
lester. 

It  was  now  seen  of  what  potent  efficacy 
had  been  the  mere  name  of  Kildare  in 
keeping  the  Irish  around  the  Pale,  in  a  state 
of  subjection  and  peace  ;  for  no  sooner  was 
his  removal  from  the  government  known, 
than  they  rose  in  tumultuous  revolt,  and 
laid  waste  and  burned  the  English  borders. 

In  this  condition  were  the  affairs  of  Ire- 
land, and  the  English  monarch  had  just 
embarked  in  a  war  with  France,  when  the 
Duchess  of  Burgundy,  timing  most  skilfully 
her  enterprise,  sent  orders  to  Perkin  to  sail 
without  delay  for  Ireland  ;  and  such  ready 
dupes,  or  instruments,  did  her  scheme  find 
in  that  country,  that  the  mere  announce- 
ment of  the  arrival  at  Cork  of  an  ordinary 
merchant  vessel  from  Lisbon,  with  a  youth 
on  board,  richly  attired,  who  called  him- 
self Richard,  Duke  of  York,  the  second  son 
of  Edward  the  Fourth,  appears  to  have 
been  sufficient  to  rouse  into  activity  the 
ever-ready  elements  of  Anglo-Irish  faction. 

A  merchant  of  Cork,  named  John  Wa- 
ters, who  had  been  lately  mayor  of  that 
city,  took  up  warmly  the  young  pretender's 
cause.  The  great  success  of  the  plot  in 
Cork  had  bestowed  on  it  a  stamp  which 
secured  its  currency  elsewhere  ;  and  the 
news  of  the  event  had  no  sooner  reached 
France,  than  the  king,  perceiving  what  use 
might  be  made  of  such  an  instrument,  in 
the  present  critical  state  of  his  relations 
with  England,  sent  off  messengers  in  haste 
to  Cork,  to  invite  Warbeck  to  his  court, 
and  assure  him  of  welcome  and  protec- 
tion. 

The  effect  produced  by  the  landing  of 
Warbeck  in  Ireland,  not  merely  as  regarded 
that  country  itself,  but  as  viewed  m  its 
possible  influence  on  other  nations,  had  led 
Henry  to  consider  more  seriously  the  state 
of  his  Irish  dominions ;  and  the  step  now 
taken  by  him  may  be  regarded  as  the  first 


real  effort  of  the  English  government  in 
Ireland  to  curb  that  spirit  of  provincial  des- 
potism which  it  had  itself  let  loose  and  fos- 
tered. Of  all  the  means  of  oppression  and 
mischief  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Anglo- 
Irish  aristocracy,  their  packed  and  irrespon- 
sible parliament  was  certainly  not  the  least 
efficient.  A  few  rich  and  mighty  lords 
combined  in  themselves  the  whole  weight 
of  the  body ;  and  of  these,  the  petty  parlia- 
ment of  the  four  shires  was  always  the  ob- 
sequious instrument.  According,  there- 
fore, as  the  Butlers  or  the  Geraldines  hap- 
pened to  be  uppermost,  so  were  the  justice 
and  favour  of  the  crown  dealt  out ;  while 
by  both  factions  equally,  the  subjects  of  the 
Pale  were  harassed  with  forays  and  exac- 
tions, and  the  hapless  natives  themselves 
hunted,  like  wild  beasts,  into  their  coverts. 

The  person  selected  to  effect  the  impor- 
tant reforms  the  king  now  meditated,  and 
also  to  trace  out  the  lurking  abettors  of 
Warbeck,  was  Sir  Edward  Poynings,  in 
whom  the  king  placed  much  confidence. 
There  went  likewise  with  him,  to  form  his 
council,  several  eminent  English  lawyers; 
and  he  was  attended  by  a  small  force 
amounting  to  about  a  thousand  men.  Find- 
ing that  some  of  the  most  active  abettors 
of  Warbeck  had  escaped  into  Ulster,  and 
were  there  protected  by  the  native  Irish, 
he  deemed  it  most  politic  to  begin  by  pun- 
ishing these  delinquents,  so  as  to  strike 
terror  among  the  disaffected,  before  he 
addressed  himself  to  those  measures  of  re- 
form which  had  been  the  chief  object  of  his 
coming.  Uniting  with  his  own  forces  such 
as  could  be  collected  for  him  within  the 
Pale,  he  directed  his  march  towards  Ul- 
ster, attended  by  Sir  James  Ormond,  and, 
notwithstanding  all  that  had  lately  oc- 
curred, by  the  Earl  of  Kildare. 

Such  influence,  indee<;l,  had  this  lord  ac- 
quired over  the  minds  of  the  natives,  that, 
whether  as  a  sanction  or  a  terror,  his 
name  was  indispensable  to  the  full  success 
of  every  dealing  with  them,  either  of  nego- 
tiation or  of  warfare  ;  and  this  ascendancy 
over  them  he  owed  not  more  to  his  reputa- 
tion for  warlike  deeds  than  to  the  pride 
they  took  in  him,  as  their  bom  country- 


A.  D.  1494.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


105 


man,  and  also  as  connected,  by  family 
alliances,  with  some  of  the  most  popular 
of  their  own  national  chiefs.  He  appears 
to  have  gone  far  beyond  most  of  his  brother 
lords  in  adopting  the  manners,  usages,  and 
tone  of  thinking  of  the  native  Irish;  and 
how  trying  and  equivocal  was  the  position 
in  which  his  relationship  with  both  races 
sometimes  placed  him,  is  strikingly  shown 
by  all  that  arose  out  of  his  expedition  under 
Poynings,  into  Ulster.  O'Hanlon  and  Mac- 
Genis,  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  there  col- 
lected, retired,  as  usual,  on  the  approach  of 
the  enemy,  into  their  bogs  and  forests  ;  and 
all  that  was  left,  therefore,  for  Poynings  to 
resort  to,  was  the  equally  usual  procedure 
of  burning  and  laying  waste  the  whole  of 
the  lands  of  the  two  chiefs. 

Strong  suspicions  arose  that  Kildare, 
from  a  feeling  of  revenge  for  his  late  treat- 
ment had  formed  a  plot,  in  concert  with 
O'Hanlon,  for  the  assassination  of  the  lord- 
deputy;  and,  still  further  to  corroborate 
this  suspicion,  intelligence  arrived,  that 
James  Fitz-Gerald,  the  earl's  brother,  had 
suddenly  seized  on  the  castle  of  Cather- 
lough,  and  strengthened  it  with  a  garrison. 
This  ominous  news  compelled  Sir  Edward 
to  hasten  his  return.  Making  what  terms 
he  could  with  O'Hanlon  and  Mac-Genis, 
and  binding  them  both,  by  oaths  and  hosta- 
ges, to  observe  the  peace,  he  immediately 
marched  his  army  to  Catherlough,  and, 
after  a  siege  often  days,  obtained  possession 
of  the  castle. 

In  November,  1494,  was  held  that  mem- 
orable parliament  at  Drogheda,  which  en- 
acted the  statute  called  Poynings's  Act. 
The  provision  made  by  this  particular  en- 
actment was,  that  no  parliament  should  be 
holden  in  Ireland  until  the  chief-governor 
and  council  had  first  certified  to  the  king, 
under  the  great  seal  of  that  land,  "  as  well 
the  causes  and  considerations  as  the  acts 
they  designed  to  pass,  and  till  the  same 
should  be  approved  by  the  king  and  coun- 
cil." This  noted  statute  was  meant  as  a 
preventive  of  some  of  those  inconveniences 
which  could  not  but  arise  from  the  existence 
of  a  separate  legislature  in  Ireland,  inde- 
pendent of,  and  irresponsible  to,  that  of 

14 


England,  and  therefore  liable,  in  the  hands 
of  a  factious  aristocracy,  to  be  made  tho 
instrument  of  selfish  rapacity  or  revenge. 
The  mischiefs  inseparable  from  the  nature 
of  a  body  so  constituted  were  shown  during 
the  contests  between  the  Yorkists  and 
Lancastrians ;  and  very  recently,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  mockery  had  been  exhibited 
of  a  parliament  summoned  to  sanction  the 
claims  of  Lambert  Simnel.  It  was  also 
enacted  that  all  the  statutes  made  lately  in 
England,  concerning  or  belonging  to  the 
public  weal,  should  be  thenceforth  good 
and  effectual  in  Ireland.  Among  several 
other  acts,  there  was  one  annulling  a  pre- 
scription claimed  by  rebels  and  traitors,  in 
Ireland,  by  reason  of  an  act,  passed  during 
the  lieutenancy  of  the  Duke  of  York,  or- 
daining that  Ireland  should  be  a  sanctuary 
for  foreigners,  and  that  it  should  be  trea- 
son to  disturb  any  refugees  in  that  country, 
by  any  writ,  letters  missive,  or  other  such 
authority,  from  England.  This  dangerous 
exemption  had  been  granted  by  Richard, 
Duke  of  York,  when  engaged  in  rebellion 
against  Henry  the  Sixth,  for  the  purpose 
of  encouraging  his  friends  to  repair  to  him 
in  Ireland ;  and  the  abettors  of  Simnel  and 
Warbeck  had  pleaded  it  in  excuse  of  their 
late  treason.  It  was,  accordingly,  now  re- 
pealed, and  all  receivers  and  maintainers 
of  traitors  were  declared  guilty  of  treason. 

One  of  the  abuses,  proved  by  these 
statutes  to  be  then  prevalent,  was  the  prac- 
tice, among  the  great  lords,  of  keeping 
crowds  of  retainers  ;  an  abuse  carried  also, 
at  this  period,  to  a  dangerous  extent  in 
England.  The  power  assumed,  too,  by  the 
lords  of  the  Pale,  of  making  war  or  peace, 
as  they  pleased,  was  likewise  prohibited ; 
and  to  stir  up  the  "  Irishry"  against  the 
people  of  the  Pale,  or  make  war  upon  the 
chief-governor,  was  declared  high  treason. 
The  renowned  statutes  of  Kilkenny  were 
revived  and  confirmed  by  this  parliament, 
with  the  exception  only  of  that  which  pro- 
hibited the  use  of  the  Irish  language ; — 
a  law  long  rendered  inoperative  by  the 
general  prevalence  of  the  native  tongue 
throughout  all  the  English  settlements. 

Doomed  to  suiTer  by  the  peculiar  op- 


< 


106 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1495. 


pressions  of  both  countries,  Ireland  was 
harassed  not  only  by  her  own  coyne  and 
livery,  but  also  by  the  English  purveyance  ; 
and  against  both  these  heavy  grievances 
one  of  the  acts  of  Poynings's  parliament 
was  directed.  The  use  of  bows  and  ar- 
rows was,  as  usual,  enjoined,  and  the  war- 
cries  adopted  by  some  of  the  English  fami- 
lies, in  imitation  of  the  natives,  were  for- 
bidden, as  provocatives  of  riot. 

As  the  chief  object  of  this  parliament 
was  to  break  down  the  enormous  power  of 
the  lords  of  the  Pale,  a  measure  was  again 
brought  forward,  which  had  been  more  than 
once  suspended  over  them :  and  an  act 
for  the  resumption,  with  some  few  excep- 
tions, of  all  the  grants  made  by  the  crown 
since  the  last  days  of  the  reign  of  King 
Edward  the  Second,  was  passed  in  this 
parliament.  With  the  same  view,  it  was 
held  to  be  necessary  to  make  an  example 
of  the  Earl  of  Kildare  ;  and  although  the 
charges  against  him  appear  to  have  rested 
upon  little  more  than  suspicion,  he  was  by 
an  act  of  this  parliament  attainted  for  high 
treason ;  and  his  brother  James  and  seve- 
ral other  Geraldines  were  also  declared 
traitors. 

Such,  with  the  addition  of  a  law  enact- 
ing that  "  the  lords  of  Ireland  should  wear 
in  parliament  the  same  sort  of  robes  as 
were  worn  by  the  English  lords  in  the 
parliament  of  England,"  were  the  statutes 
passed  at  Drogheda,  under  Sir  Edward 
Poynings.  These  laws,  when  first  enacted, 
extended  no  further  than  the  narrow  limits 
of  the  Pale  ;  but,  according  as  the  authority 
of  the  crown  increased,  their  effect  and  in- 
fluence gained  ground,  until  at  length  they 
came  to  be  in  force  over  the  entire  king- 
dom. 

In  the  "  great  treaty  of  commerce"  sign- 
ed, at  this  time,  between  England  and  the 
Netherlands,  a  provision  was,  at  Henry's 
desire,  inserted  expressly  stipulating  that 
the  Duchess  of  Burgundy  should  not  be 
permitted  to  aid  or  harbour  the  king's 
rebels,  under  pain  of  losing  her  domains. 
As  Warbeck,  therefore,  could  no  longer 
remain  in  Flanders,  he  set  sail  once  more 
for  Ireland,  hoping  to  enlist  the  people  in 


his  cause.  Finding,  however,  in  this,  his 
second  attempt,  but  little  support  or  en- 
couragement, he  set  sail  from  Cork  to 
Scotland,  having  been  recommended  to 
James  the  Fourth,  not  only  by  the  Duchess 
of  Burgundy,  but  in  private  letters  from  the 
King  of  France  and  from  Maximilian  the 
emperor. 

Having- been  announced  by  the  duchess 
to  James  as  "the  Prince  of  England," 
that  monarch  received  him  with  royal  hon- 
ours, addressing  him  publicly  as  "  cousin." 
Whether  James  really  believed  in  War- 
beck's  story,  it  is  not  easy  to  discover.  But 
that,  early  in  the  course  of  the  plot,  he  had 
been  engaged  in  secret  correspondence  with 
the  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  and  made  him- 
self on  one  occasion  the  medium  of  com- 
munication between  her  and  Ireland,  ap- 
pears from  Scottish  records.*  Whatever 
his  secret  opinion  or  knowledge  on  the 
subject  may  have  been,  his  whole  conduct 
implied  a  belief  in  the  truth  of  Warbeck's 
claims  ;  and  he  now  did  not  hesitate  to 
bestow  on  him  the  hand  of  the  fair  Catha- 
rine Gordon,  a  lady  of  remarkable  beauty, 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Huntley,  and  grand- 
daughter of  James  the  First  of  Scotland. 

About  this  time,  Hugh  O'Donnell,  the 
Chief  of  Tyrconnel,  returned  from  (a.  visit 
to  the  Scottish  court,  whither  he  had  gone, 
it  is  supposed,  to  consult  with  King  James 
on  matters  relating  to  the  cause  and  for- 
tunes of  Perkin  Warbeck.  But,  out  of  the 
English  Pale,  little  interest  appears  to  have 
been  taken  in  this  adventurer  ;  and  it  is  far 
more  probable  that  the  object  of  O'Don- 
nell's  visit  to  Scotland,  where  he  was  re- 
ceived by  the  king  with  all  due  honour  and 
state,  was  to  ask  for  aid  for  himself  in  the 
warfare  he  was  then  engaged  in  with  a 
brother  chieftain,  O'Connor  of  Connaught. 
On  his  return  a  great  battle  was  fought 
between  them,  in  which  O'Donnell  was  the 
victor;  and,  immediately  after,  he  laid 
siege  to  the  castle  of  Sligo.  But  on  the 
arrival  of  Ulick  Burke,  Lord  of  Clanri- 
carde,  with  a  large  army,  O'Donnell  hastily 
withdrew. 

Being   attainted   by   Poynings's  parlia- 

*  Tytler. 


A.  D.  1497.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


107 


ment,  the  Earl  of  Kildare  had  been  sent  in 
custody  to  England,  where  he  still  remain- 
ed a  prisoner ;  and  so  deeply  did  his  lady, 
the  countess,  feel  this  event,  that  it  was  the 
cause  we  are  told  of  her  death.  Great 
was  the  king's  astonishment  to  behold, 
instead  of  a  crafty  conspirator,  a  frank, 
blunt  soldier,  of  manners  so  simple  that 
they  bordered  on  rudeness,  and  of  a  de- 
meanour so  easy  and  confident,  that  it 
could  only  be  supported  by  conscious  inno- 
cence. Henry  advised  the  earl  to  provide 
himself  with  able  counsel.  "  Yea,"  replied 
Kildare,  grasping  the  king  by  the  hand,  "  I 
choose  the  ablest  in  the  realm  ;  I  take  your 
highness  to  be  my  counsel  against  these 
false  knaves."  Gratified  by  this  rude  com- 
pliment to  his  equity  and  discernment, 
Henry  looked  with  favour  on  the  accused, 
and  coldly  listened  to  the  long  catalogue 
of  suspicions  and  surmises  which  his  ad- 
versaries brought  forward.  The  charge 
of  treason  was  decisively  refuted,  the 
greater  part  of  the  others  were  found  to 
be  frivolous  and  vexatious.  At  length,  the 
accusers  alleged  that  he  had  sacrilegiously 
burned  the  church  of  Cashel.  "Spare 
your  evidence,"  exclaimed  Kildare,  "  I  did 
burn  the  church,  for  I  thought  the  bishop 
had  been  in  it."  This  extraordinary  justi- 
fication produced  a  shout  of  laughter, 
which  threw  ridicule  over  the  whole  pro- 
ceeding. Driven  almost  to  despair,  the 
accusers  exclaimed,  "  All  Ireland  cannot 
govern  this  earl."  "  Well,  then,"  replied 
Henry,  "  he  shall  govern  all  Ireland  !" — 
and  forthwith  he  appointed  him  lord-lieu- 
tenant. 

The  flattering  prospects  opened  to  War- 
beck  by  the  zealous  part  the  Scottish  mon- 
arch had  taken  in  his  behalf  having  now  ! 
entirely  vanished,  the  unfortunate  adventu- 
rer, whom  James  to  the  last  had  continued 
to  treat  with  all  the  respect  due  to  his  as- 
sumed rank,  resolved  to  try  once  more  his 
fortune  in  Ireland;  and  a  vessel  and  a 
guard  of  thirty  horse  having  been  provided 
for  him  by  his  generous  protector,  he  sailed, 
accompanied  by  his  beautiful  consort,  for 
Cork.  There  he  was  joined,  soon  after 
his  landuig,  by  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  with 


a  force  of  two  thousand  four  hundred  men. 
Warbeck,  however,  shortly  afterwards 
sailed  to  Cornwall,  being  closely  pursued 
by  four  ships  that  had  been  sent  from 
Waterford  to  apprehend  him. 

The  only  further  connection  with  Ireland 
that  remains  to  be  noticed  in  this  adven- 
turer's fate,  was  the  closing  scene  of  his 
strange  life,  which  took  place  in  1499; 
when,  having  been  condemned  as  guilty  of 
treason,  he  was  executed  at  Tyburn,  and, 
with  him,  suflTered  the  first  who  espoused 
his  adventurous  cause,  John  Waters,  Mayor 
of  Cork.  His  other  Irish  abettor,  the  Earl 
of  Desmond,  was  far  more  fortunate  in  his 
fate.  Notwithstanding  the  overt  and  daring 
part  he  had  taken  in  this  youth's  behalf,  the 
king,  with  that  clemency  which,  throughout 
his  reign,  he  had  so  many  opportunities  of 
evincing,  freely  pardoned  him  all  his  oflfen- 
ces,  and  even  received  him  into  favour. 

The  petty  warfare  in  which  Kildare  be- 
came involved  with  some  of  the  northern 
chiefs,  and  which  raged  at  intervals  through 
the  following  two  or  three  years,  partook 
too  much  of  the  clannish  character  to  be 
narrated  at  length  as  matter  of  history.  In 
consequence  of  the  unnatural  murder  of 
Con  O'Neill,  by  his  brother  Henry,  some 
years  back,  the  territory  of  Tyrone  had 
been  divided  between  Henry  and  Daniel 
O'Neill ;  and,  in  the  present  year,  Henry 
himself  was  barbarously  assassinated  by 
Tirlogh  and  Con,  the  sons  of  his  murdered 
brother.  This  act  produced  a  fresh  explo- 
sion of  violence  among  the  whole  family; 
and  Kildare,  in  abetting  Tirlogh,  was  actu- 
ated by  feelings  of  relationship  no  less  than 
by  policy,  as  Tirlogh  was  his  own  nephew. 
Being  now  joined  by  O'Donnell,  Mac-Guire, 
and  other  friends  of  his  kinsmen,  he  laid 
siege  to  Dungannon,  the  chief  seat  of  the 
O'Neills,  and  compelled  Neal  Mac  Art 
O'Neill,  the  opponent  of  his  nephew,  to 
submit.  Shortly  after  his  return  from  this 
expedition,  the  earl  marched  to  Cork,  and 
exacted  similar  terms  of  submission  from 
that  city  and  from  Kinsale. 

In  like  manner,  through  the  following 
two  or  three  years,  we  find  this  indefatiga- 
ble veteran  carrying  triumphantly,  through 


108 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1504. 


different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  the  terror  of 
the  English  name  and  arms.  In  the  course 
of  an  expedition  into  Connaught,  he  took 
and  garrisoned  the  castles  of  Athleague, 
Roscommon,  Tulsk,  and  Castlereagh,  and 
again  marching  into  Ulster,  at  the  instance 
probably  of  his  nephew,  seized  the  castle  of 
Kinard,  and  made  Tirlogh  governor  of  it. 

All  this  active  course  of  aggression  could 
not  fail,  in  the  end,  to  awaken  a  proportion- 
ate spirit  of  resistance ;  and  the  native 
chiefs,  finding  how  unable  they  were  to 
cope  separately  with  Kildare,  resolved  to 
try,  at  last,  the  experiment  of  confederating 
among  themselves.  Ulick  Burke,  Lord  of 
Clanricarde,  called  commonly  Mac-Wil- 
liam,— the  head  of  a  powerful  sept  of  "  de- 
generate English," — was  the  principal  lead- 
er of  this  league,  in  which  were  joined  also 
O'Brien  of  Thomond,  Mac-Namara,  Mel- 
rony,  O'Carrol,  and  other  chieftains. 

Kildare  collected  together  all  the  forces 
he  was  able  to  muster ;  and  being  accom- 
panied by  all  the  great  Anglo-Irish  lords, 
as  well  as  by  the  Mayor  of  Dublin,  with  a 
band  of  armed  men,  the  Bishop  of  Ardah, 
and  one  or  two  native  chiefs,  he  advanced 
the  royal  standard  against  the  rebels.  At 
Knocktow,  about  seven  miles  from  Galway, 
the  two  armies  encountered ;  and  after  an 
obstinate  conflict,  the  result  of  which  was 
for  some  time  doubtful,  the  victory  fell  to 
the  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  the  Irish  were 
routed  with  great  slaughter ;  their  loss 
being  variously  estimated  at  two,  four,  and 
even  nine  thousand  men ;  while,  by  a  sort 
of  miracle,  it  is  said,  not  a  single  English- 
man in  Kildare's  army  was  even  hurt. 
Among  the  prisoners  were  the  two  sons  of 
Ulick  of  Clanricarde ;  and  the  towns  of 
Galway  and  Athenry  surrendered  to  the 
victor. 

Leland  relates  that — "  Immediately  after 
the  victory  of  Knocktow,  Lord  Gormans- 
town  turned  to  the  Earl  of  Kildare,  in  the 
utmost  insolence  of  success,  *We  have 
slaughtered  our  enemies,'  said  he ;  *  but  to 
complete  the  good  deed,  we  must  proceed 
yet  further, — cut  the  throats  of  those  Irish 
of  our  own  party.' " 
.    It  would  appear,  from  some  Irish  annals 


of  this  period,  that  in  private  pique  and 
family  differences,  between  Kildare  and  the 
Lord  of  Clanricarde,  lay  the  real  source  of 
the  hostility  that  led  to  this  sanguinary 
battle.  But,  whatever  may  have  provoked 
the  warfare,  its  result  was  of  the  utmost 
consequence  to  the  interests  of  the  crown 
and  of  the  English  colony ;  as  the  power  of 
the  natives  to  combine  successfully  against 
their  oppressors  had  now,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, been  tried,  and  had  failed ;  and  the 
result  was,  an  increased  confidence  in  their 
own  strength,  on  the  part  of  the  settlers, 
with  a  proportionate  decline  in  the  spirit 
and  self-reliance  of  the  Irish.  So  pleased 
was  the  king  with  his  deputy's  services  on 
this  occasion,  that,  on  receiving  the  account 
of  the  victory,  he  created  him  a  knight  of 
the  garter.  In  spite  of  all  the  suspicion  at- 
tached occasionally  to  Kildare,  we  find 
him  in  the  last  year  of  this  reign,  at  the 
head  of  the  government,  as  he  had  been  iu 
the  first. 

As  an  historical  illustration  of  the  times, 
it  may  be  proper  to  mention  that,  in  1491, 
six  muskets  were  sent  from  Germany  to 
the  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  were  made  use  of 
by  his  guard  while  they  stood  sentinel  in 
his  apartments.  They  were  considered  a 
rare  present  at  that  time,  although  Baker 
asserts  that  Edward  the  Third  had  them  at 
the  siege  of  Calais,  in  1347. 

Among  the  religious  houses  founded 
about  this  time  in  Ireland,  Ware  mentions 
the  convent  at  Rosserelly  to  have  been  es- 
tablished in  Galway,  in  1498,  for  Observan- 
tine  monks,  by  an  English  lord  called  Gan- 
nard.  At  Invert,  in  Antrim,  there  was  a 
convent  founded  for  the  third  order  of 
Franciscans,  by  a  Scottish  nobleman.  One 
also  for  the  same  order  was  founded  at 
Dungannon  in  Tyrone,  by  Con  O'Neill, 
prince  of  that  district.  A  house  was  estab- 
lished for  them  about  the  same  time,  at 
Clonrahan,  in  Roscommon,  by  O'Connor 
Roe,  an  Irish  nobleman,  of  the  illustrious 
O'Connors  of  Connaught. 

Among  the  writers  Ireland  produced 
about  this  period,  we  observe  Philip  Hig- 
gins,  a  Franciscan,  who  wrote  some  sacred 
poems :  he  died  in  1487.     Panderus,  who 


A.  D.  1509.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


109 


is  thought  to  have  been  the  author  of  a 
book  called  "  Salus  Populi,'*  flourished  at 
the  same  time.     He  treats  in  it  on  the  cause 
of  the  miseries  with  which  Ireland  was 
afflicted,  and  points  out  a  mode  by  which 
they  might  be  remedied.   Charles  Maguire, 
Canon  of  Armagh,  flourished  at  this  time 
also.     He  was  a   learned   philosopher,  a 
profound  theologian,  and   well  versed   in 
history.     He  wrote  the  annals  of  Ireland 
down  to  his  own  time,  and  died  in  1495,  at 
the  age  of  sixty.     Donald  O'Fihely,  a  na- 
tive of  the  county  Cork,  wrote  also  the  an- 
nals of  his  country  to  his  own  time,  in  the 
Irish  language,  which  he  dedicated  to  Flor- 
ence O'Mahony.     Sir  J.  Ware   mentions 
having  seen  them  in  manuscript  in  London. 
The  reign  of  Henry  the  Seventh  is  re- 
markable for  being  the  era  of  that  depres- 
sion of  the  feudal  noblity  and  elevation  of 
the  "  middle  ranks"  of  societv,  to  which 
England  is  mainly  indebted  for  her  money- 
ed prosperity  and  commercial  influence.  By 
a  mere  accident,  the  discoveries  of  Colum- 
bus were  not  made  under  the  "  patronage" 
of  Henry,  for  he  had  answered  an  appli- 
cation  from    that    navigator   through  his 
brother,  and  had  sent   him  an  invitation 
to  his  court ;  but  the  capture  of  the  brother 
by  pirates  prevented  him  from  arriving  in 
time.     Henry  afterwards  employed  Sebas- 
tian Cabot,  the  Venetian,  who  discovered 
Newfoundland  and  a  portion  of  the  North 
American   continent.      Whatever   project 
Henry  had  in  view,  he  never  remitted  his 
favourite  pursuit  of  filling  his   coflfers  by 
breaking  of  entails  and  the  alienation  of 
landed  estates  from  noblemei\  and  gentle- 
men ;  for  which  purpose  he  constantly  em- 
ployed two  lawj'^ers,  Empson  and  Dudley, 
who,  by  their  skill  in  such  matters,  were 
eminently  qualified  for  the  work  of  extor- 
tion.    Henry's  eldest  son,  Prince  Arthur, 
being  married  to  Catharine  of  Arragon,  but 
dying  before  their  union  was  consumma- 
ted,* the  king  obliged  his  remaining  son 
Henry,  (afterwards  Henry  the  Eighth,)  to 
be  contracted  to  his  brother's  widow,  in 
order  that  he  might  retain  the  large  dowry 
paid  with  her  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 

•  Sander.,  de  Schia.  Anglic;  lib.  i.  page  2. 


of  whom  she  was  the  fourth  daughter.  It 
is  true,  some  of  Henry  the  Seventh's  apo- 
logists assert  that  of  the  treasure  thus 
amassed  he  occasionally  advanced  sums  of 
money  without  interest  to  merchants  and 
others,  to  enable  them  to  carry  on  lucra- 
tive enterprises  ;  but  we  have  heard  of 
highwaymen  who  practised  a  similar  de- 
gree of  virtue,  under  the  guidance  of  a 
more  modern  money-morality.  On  the 
whole,  the  spirit  of  this  reign  was  arbitrary 
and  aggressive,  although  carried  on  by  the 
apparent  approbation  of  pacific  principles. 
For  three  or  four  centuries  before  the 
time  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  there  had  been 
a  constant  political  struggle  between  the 
influence  belonging  to  morals  and  that  be- 
longing to  wealth.  Near  the  termination 
of  this  reign  there  was  a  gradual  increase 
of  the  money  power,  particularly  in  the 
west  of  Europe.  Romantic  adventure, 
commercial  enterprise,  and  sudden  accu- 
mulation of  wealth  were  the  principal  mo- 
tives in  public  transactions  ;  and  the  next 
two  centuries  will  show  how  such  elemen- 
tal antagonism  overwhelmed  Europe  and 
involved  Ireland  in  one  tremendous  deluge 
of  selfishness,  cruelty,  and  rapacity. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Accession  of  Henry  the  Eighth — Condition  of  the 
Pale — Death  of  Kildare — Succeeded  by  his  son 
Gerald — Removed  by  Wolsey  to  make  way  for 
the  Earl  of  Suirey — Kildare  summoned  to  Eng- 
land— Duke  of  Richmond's  administration — Re- 
turn of  Kildare — Summoned  again  to  England — 
Insurrection  headed  by  Kildare's  son,  Lord 
Thomas — Sir  William  Skefiington's  adminis- 
tration— Lord  Thomas  and  his  five  uncles  exe- 
cuted at  Tyburn — Henry's  endeavours  to  seize 
the  next  son  of  the  earl — Sir  William  Brereton's 
administration — Succeeded  by  Sir  A.  St.  Leger 
— Coinage  in  Ireland — The  parliament  confer- 
ring on  Henry  and  his  successors  the  title  of 
*'  King  of  Ireland" — Execution  of  Lord  Leonard 
Grey — Irish  troops  called  for  France,  and  for 
Scotland — Henry's  necessity  for  money,  and 
consequent  desperate  proceedings  —  Singular 
death  of  the  Grand-Treasurer  of  Ireland,  etc. 
etc.  etc. 

Henry  the  Eighth  received  his  crown 
under  happy  circumstances.  He  found  a 
full  treasury,  an  undisputed  title,  subjects 


\ 


110 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1513. 


flourishing  in  the  arts  of  peace,  and  his 
native  country  in  friendship  with  all  the 
neighbouring  powers.  For  the  sake  of 
appearances  he  was  obliged  to  sacrifice 
Empson  and  Dudley  to  the  national  odium, 
but  took  care  to  retain  the  lion's  share  of 
their  extortions.  His  principal  favourite 
was  the  Earl  of  Surrey,  who  promoted 
those  schemes  of  magnificence  and  dissi- 
pation which  suited  the  inclination  of  his 
young  master,  Harry,  and  very  soon  di- 
minished the  hoarded  treasures  of  the  late 
reign. 

The  little  attention  paid  to  Ireland  dur- 
ing the  first  years  of  Henry's  reign,  left  to 
a  bold  and  self-willed  ruler  like  Kildare  so 
wide  a  range  of  power,  and  exemption  from 
responsibility,  as  could  not  fail  to  be  grossly 
presumed  upon  and  abused.  Of  the  great 
lords  of  the  Pale  in  general,  we  have  more 
than  once  had  occasion  to  observe,  that, 
while  so  unmanageable  as  subjects,  they 
were  no  less  rash  and  oppressive  as  rulers  ; 
brute  force  being  the  sole  instrument  of 
their  policy,  and  conquest,  not  pacification, 
their  leading  object.  The  very  qualities 
indeed  that  rendered  them  popular  among 
the  natives,  were  such  as  unfitted  them  to 
be  useful  or  civilizing  leaders.  They  were 
loved  for  their  leaning  to  the  old  customs 
of  the  land  ;  and  having,  by  marriage,  be- 
come connected  with  some  of  the  principal 
Irish  lords,  were  regarded  in  general,  rather 
as  chiefs  of  a  great  leading  sept,  than  as 
acknowledged  rulers  of  the  whole  king- 
dom. 

The  termination  of  Kildare's  career  was 
now  at  hand.  Resolving  to  invade  Ely 
O'Carrol,  he  marched  towards  that  terri- 
tory ;  but  being  taken  ill  on  his  way,  at 
Athy,  he  was  from  thence  removed  to  Kil- 
dare, where,  in  September,  1513,  he  died, 
and  was  buried  in  St.  Mary's  Chapel,  in 
the  choir  of  Christ  Church,  Dublin.  On 
the  earl's  decease,  the  council  nominated 
his  son  Gerald  lord-justice,  and  the  king 
afterwards  made  him,  by  patent,  lord- 
deputy. 

Gerald  inherited  the  valour  of  his  illus- 
trious family,  but  unfortunately  a  more 
than  ordinary  share  of  their  characteristic 


pride  and  imprudence.  He  was  soon  call- 
ed on  to  display  his  military  skill,  by  a  dan- 
gerous insurrection  of  the  Irish,  whom 
some  fabricated  prophecies  had  stimulated 
to  revolt.  The  Irish  were  everywhere  in 
arms  ;  but  the  promptitude  and  celerity  of 
Kildare  baflfled  all  their  efforts.  They 
were  vanquished  in  detail,  and  forced  to 
remain  quiet  until  the  calculations  of  some 
more  accurate  seer  should  discover  another 
period  more  fortunate  for  the  cause  of  in- 
surrection. 

Though  Kildare  was  able  to  subdue  his 
enemies  in  the  field,  he  could  not  contend 
with  his  secret  foes  in  the  intrigues  of  the 
cabinet.  Too  haughty  to  court  the  favour 
of  Wolsey  by  meanness  and  subserviency, 
he  incurred  the  displeasure  of  that  proud 
prelate ;  while  his  rival,  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  submitted  to  every  degrading  com- 
pliance, in  order  to  conciliate  the  powerful 
cardinal.  In  consequence  of  these  machi- 
nations, Kildare  was  removed,  and  the 
Earl  of  Surrey  appointed  in  his  stead. 

One  of  the  first  tasks  to  which  the  new 
lord-lieutenant  applied  himself  was  that  of 
endeavouring  to  collect  from  the  servants 
and  Irish  followers  of  Kildare  such  loose 
accusations  against  him,  such  half  truths 
mixed  with  fiction,  as  might  when  artfolly 
put  together  assume  the  semblance  of  proof. 
A  letter  alleged  to  have  been  addressed  by 
him  to  O'Carrol,  one  of  the  bravest  and 
most  refractory  of  the  Irish  chiefs,  was,  in 
particular,  the  object  of  the  lieutenant's  in- 
quiry ;  as,  in  that  letter,  according  to  the 
account  he  had  received  of  it,  the  earl  had 
said  to  his  correspondent,  "  Keep  good 
peace  to  the  Englishmen  in  Ireland  until 
an  English  deputy  come  there.  But  when 
any  English  deputy  shall  come  thither,  then 
do  your  best  to  make  war  upon  the  Eng- 
lish." To  bring  home  to  Kildare  by  any 
evidence,  however  procured,  the  charge  of 
having  written  such  a  letter,  no  pains  were 
spared  on  either  side  of  the  channel ;  and 
even  Surrey  gave  in  so  far  to  the  cruel  and 
treacherous  policy  by  which  the  counsels 
of  his  royal  master  were  too  often  marked, 
as  to  suggest  that  the  earl's  secretary,  Wil- 
liam Delahide,  the  person  in  whom  he  most 


:^' 


A.  D.  1530.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


Ill 


confided,  should  be  sent  to  the  Tower,  and 
there  tortured,  to  force  him  to  give  evi- 
dence respecting  this  lettef. 

The  Earl  of  Kildare  was  summoned  to 
England,  to  give  an  account  of  his  conduct. 
Soon  after  his  arrival,  he  obtained  the 
daughter  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset  in  mar- 
riage, and  by  the  aid  of  this  influential 
nobleman,  was  enabled  to  baffle  the  mahce 
of  the  cardinal.  Conscious,  however,  that 
his  absence  would  give  his  enemies  a  great 
advantage,  he  resolved  to  remain  at  court. 
He  attended  Henry  to  Calais  at  the  time 
of  his  celebrated  interview  with  Francis, 
and  contributed  largely  to  the  splendour 
of  the  "  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,"  by  the 
brilliancy  of  his  suit  and  equipage. 

Between  the  Earl  of  Desmond  and  the 
Earl  of  Ormond  there  had  prevailed,  for 
some  time,  dissensions,  in  which  the  old 
feud  of  their  families,  during  the  wars  of 
the  Roses,  was,  in  another  shape,  revived  ; 
the  Earl  of  Ormond  being  a  staunch  friend 
to  the  English  interests,  while  Desmond, 
from  the  mixed  relationship  in  which  he 
stood  to  the  two  races,  combining  the  aris- 
tocracy of  the  one  with  the  chieftaincy  of 
the  other,  was  alternately  trusted  and  sus- 
pected by  both  parties,  and,  according  as  it 
chanced,  was  friend  or  traitor  to  each  in 
their  turns.  By  the  judicious  management 
of  Surrey,  a  reconciliation  was  effected  be- 
tween these  two  lords.  In  the  account 
Surrey  has  given  of  this  transaction,  we 
find  the  following  eulogium  on  these  two 
Irish  chiefs : — ^"  They  are  two  wise  men ; 
and  I  found  them  more  conformable  to 
order  than  some  Englishmen  here."  In  the 
same  discriminaing  spirit  he  suggests  that 
power  should  be  delegated  to  him  to  confer 
the  order  of  knighthood  on  such  of  the  Irish 
captains  as  should  appear  worthy  of  such 
a  distinction ;  and  the  king,  in  adopting  his 
suggestion,  thus  creditably  extends  and  im- 
proves upon  it: — "We  grant  that  ye  not 
only  make  O'Neill  and  such  lords  of  the 
Irishrie  as  ye  shall  think  good,  knights,  but 
also  to  give  unto  the  said  O'Neill  a  collar 
of  gold  of  our  livery." 

Throughout  the  remaining  period  of 
Surrey's  administration,  so  far  were  the 


efforts  made  by  him  for  the  pacification  of 
the  kingdom  from  being  attended  with  any 
success,  that  even  the  faint  dawnings  of 
order  and  peace  were  all  again  clouded 
and  lost;  and  the  settled  conclusion  to 
which,  as  he  himself  states,  his  personal 
knowledge  -of  the  country  had  led  him, 
was,  that  by  conquest  alone  could  the  Irish 
be  ever  reduced  to  order  or  peace ;  and 
that  to  conquer  them  would,  for  reasons 
forcibly  stated  by  him,  be  difficult,  if  not 
wholly  impossible.  He  was  himself,  in- 
deed, sufficiently  versed  in  the  warfare  of 
the  Irish,  to  enable  him  to  judge  on  this 
point, — having  been  engaged  in  constant 
struggles,  during  his  lieutenancy,  with  the 
O'Carrols,  the  O'Moores,  the  O'Connors, 
and  the  Connells.  Having,  for  some  time, 
earnestly  entreated  of  the  king  to  release 
him  from  his  arduous  and  hopeless  charge, 
Surrey  was  permitted  to  vacate  his  office, 
towards  the  close  of  the  year  1521. 

The  principal  accusations  against  Kil- 
dare were — 1.  That  he  had  not  according 
to  the  king's  orders  apprehended  the  Earl 
of  Desmond.  2.  That  he  had  formed  alli- 
ance with  several  of  the  king's  Irish  ene- 
mies. 3.  That  he  had  caused  certain  loyal 
subjects  to  be  hanged  for  no  other  reason 
but  that  they  were  dependants  on  the 
family  of  the  Butlers.  4.  That  he  had  con- 
federated with  O'Neill,  O'Connor,  and  other 
Irish  lords,  to  invade  the  territories  of  the 
Earl  of  Ormond,  then  lord-deputy. 

From  Wolsey,  who  had  always  been  his 
enemy,  no  mercy  could  be  expected  by 
Kildare.  He  was  immediately  committed 
to  the  Tower,  and,  according  to  some  ac- 
counts, condemned  to  suffer  death.  After 
lying,  for  some  time,  in  prison,  he  was  at 
length  released  by  the  interposition  of  Sur- 
rey, now  Duke  of  Norfolk,  who,  together 
with  the  Marquis  of  Dorset,  Kildare's 
father-in-law,  and  several  other  persons  of 
high  station,  became  sureties  for  his  future 
faith  and  allegiance. 

In  June,  1530,  the  Duke  of  Richmond, 
the  king's  natural  son,  was  appointed  Lieu- 
tenant of  Ireland ;  and,  shortly  after.  Sir 
William  Skeffington,  the  new  lord-deputy, 
arrived  in  Dublin,  accompanied  by  the  Earl 


112 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  153^. 


of  Kildare.  A  solemn  procession  of  the 
mayor  and  citizens  came  to  meet  them,  on 
the  green  of  St.  Mary's  Abbey;  and  the 
sight  of  the  popular  favourite,  Kildare,  re- 
turning once  more,  triumphant  over  his 
enemies,  excited  among  all  classes  the 
liveliest  feelings  of  joy. 

This  victory  over  his  rivals  would  have 
dangerously  elated  a  man  of  stronger  mind 
and  cooler  passions  than  Kildare  possessed ; 
and  his  actions  soon  showed  that  his  little 
remnant  of  prudence  was  destroyed  by  the 
recent  occurrences.  It  is  said  also  that  his 
intellects  were  partially  injured  about  this 
time,  in  consequence  of  a  wound  in  his 
head ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  have  re- 
course to  such  an  explanation  for  the  extra- 
vagant effects  produced  by  repeated  tri- 
umphs on  a  character  naturally  weak  and 
haughty.  The  officers  of  the  Irish  govern- 
ment became  reasonably  alarmed.  They 
met  in  secret  conclave,  and  prepared  a 
representation  of  the  evils  by  which  Ireland 
was  affected,  which  was  soon  laid  before 
the  king. 

Though  Kildare  was  not  named  in  this 
petition,  the  evils  mentioned  were  such  as 
could  not  have  occurred  without  his  sanc- 
tion or  connivance.  The  jealous  temper 
of  Henry  was  fired  by  the  recital,  and  he 
sent  Kildare  a  peremptory  mandate  to 
come  at  once  to  London.  Aware  that  his 
conduct  would  not  bear  a  strict  investiga- 
tion, the  earl,  by  means  of  his  wife's  rela- 
tions, endeavoured  to  obtain  delay ;  but, 
finding  that  the  king's  resolution  was  not  to 
be  shaken,  he  supplied  his  castles  with  arms 
and  ammunition  from  the  royal  stores,  and 
intrusted  the  government  to  his  son  Thom- 
as, a  youth  scarcely  twenty  years  old. 

However  amiable  may  have  been  the 
natural  qualities  of  this  young  lord, — and 
he  is  represented,  in  general,  as  brave, 
open,  and  generous, — the  scenes  of  violence 
among  which  he  had  been  brought  up,  and 
the  examples  of  ambition,  family  pride,  and 
uncontrolled  self-will,  which  his  own  ill- 
fated  race  supplied,  formed  but  an  ominous 
preparation  for  the  grave  duties  now  so 
rashly  assigned  to  him.  In  addition  to  the 
perils  arising  from  his  own  inexperience, 


he  was  surrounded  by  watchful  enemies, 
full  of  hatred  to  him  and  his  race ;  and  the 
opportunity  which  alone  they  wanted  for 
the  indulgence  of  this  rancorous  feeling, 
their  ingenuity  was,  of  course,  not  slow  in 
creating.  A  report  was  spread  by  them 
that  the  Earl  of  Kildare  had  been  beheaded 
in  the  Tower,  and  that  Lord  Thomas  and 
all  his  uncles  were  menaced  with  the  same 
fate.  Too  readily  trusting  to  this  rumour, 
the  young  lord,  at  the  head  of  a  guard  of 
one  hundred  and  forty  armed  horsemen, 
rode  through  the  city  of  Dublin  to  Dame's 
Gate,  and  crossing  the  river,  proceeded  to 
St.  Mary's  Abbey,  where  the  council,  ac- 
cording to  appointment,  waited  his  coming. 
There,  surrounded  by  armed  followers, 
who  had  crowded  with  him  into  the  coun- 
cil-chamber, the  youth  solemnly  renounced 
his  allegiance  to  the  English  monarch,  and 
proceeded  to  deliver  up  the  sword  and 
I'obes  of  state. 

While  the  other  lords  remained  aston- 
ished and  silent,  Cromer,  who  was  both 
chancellor  and  primate,  rose,  and  taking 
the  young  lord  by  the  hand,  remonstrated 
with  him  in  terms  the  most  affectionate  and 
winning.  Unfortunately,  an  Irish  rhymer 
at  the  end  of  his  address,  burst  forth  into  a 
wild  rhapsody  on  the  glory  of  the  Geral- 
dines,  and  the  high  destiny  for  which  the 
present  heir  of  the  house  was  designed ; 
and  Thomas,  kindling  with  enthusiasm, 
made  no  reply  to  the  chancellor,  but  rushed 
out  of  the  house. 

The  war,  thus  madly  begun,  was  sup- 
ported with  the  same  disregard  to  the 
simplest  dictates  of  prudence ;  and  it  is  but 
fair  to  add,  with  the  same  generous  atten- 
tion to  the  laws  of  humanity.  Excepting 
the  murder  of  Archbishop  Alan,  Lord 
Thomas  sanctioned  no  act  of  cruelty,  but 
laboured  strenuously  to  restrain  the  exces- 
ses of  his  followers.  His  career,  however, 
was  brief  Without  adequate  force  or 
means,  he  laid  siege  to  Dublin,  and  wasted 
his  time  and  forces  in  vain  assaults  on  the 
city.  Succours  soon  arrived  from  Eng- 
land ;  and,  though  one  division  was  se- 
verely defeated,  and  almost  annihilated, 
others,  commanded  by  Sir  William  Brere- 


A.  D.  1536.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


113 


ton,  made  good  their  entrance  into  the  city, 
and  soon  forced  Lord  Thomas  to  raise  the 


siege. 


The  new  lord-deputy,  Sir  William  Skef- 
fington,  who  landed  at  Dublin  soon  after 
the  truce  concluded  with  Lord  Thomas, 
was  in  so  infirm  a  state  of  health  on  his  ar- 
rival as  to  be  unable,  for  some  time,  to  take 
the  field  ;  and  not  only  himself,  but  almost 
the  whole  of  his  army  and  officers,  lay,  for 
a  considerable  time,  shut  up  and  inactive, 
within  the  walls  of  Dublin  and  Drogheda. 
Meanwhile,  there  raged  throughout  the 
whole  kingdom  a  confused  medley  of  petty 
warfare,  in  which,  from  tlic  consanguinity 
of  the  Geraldinc  families  with  both  of  the 
rival  races,  the  rebel  camp  was  filled  with 
a  motley  array  of  English  and  Irish ;  while, 
on  the  royal  side,  the  greater  number  of 
the  northern  chieftains  had  ranged  them- 
selves under  the  flag  of  the  English. 

The  deputy,  infirm  in  body  and  vacilla- 
ting in  mind,  made  no  efforts  to  follow  up 
this  success.  Lord  Thomas  not  only  es- 
caped, but,  by  entering  into  a  treaty  with 
the  O'Connors  and  O'Nials,  soon  became 
formidable.  Roused  by  the  strong  repre- 
sentations of  the  military  officers,  Skeffing- 
ton  at  length  took  the  field,  and  laid  siege  to 
Maynooth ;  one  of  the  strongest  Geraldine 
fortresses.  The  spirit  of  the  garrison  and 
the  strength  of  the  place  baffled  the  besieg- 
ers for  fourteen  days.  They  were  about 
to  raise  the  siege,  when  the  unexpected 
treachery  of  Lord  Thomas's  foster-brother 
laid  it  at  their  mercy.  Skeffington  paid 
this  double  traitor  the  stipulated  reward, 
and  then  ordered  him  to  be  instantly  exe- 
cuted— an  act  of  substantial  justice,  which 
may  well  redeem  many  of  the  deputy's  mis- 
demeanours. The  greater  part  of  the 
irregular  army  assembled  by  the  young 
Geraldine  dispersed  when  the  capture  of 
Maynooth  became  known,  and  as  the  heir 
of  the  great  Desmond  had  been  gained  by 
Henry,  Lord  Thomas  was  driven  to  main- 
tain a  desultory  warfare  in  the  woods  and 
mountains.  Even  thus,  he  made  such  a 
formidable  resistance  that  he  obtained  from 
the  English  general.  Lord  Leonard  Grey, 
the  most  solemn  assurances  of  safety  and 

15 


protection  on  condition  of  dismissing  his 
troops. 

O'Connor,  to  whom  there  remained  now 
no  other  alternative  than  either  to  submit, 
or  to  be  utterly  ruined,  surrendered  himself 
to  the  lord-deputy.  Deprived  thus  of  his 
only  efficient  ally,  Lord  Thomas  saw  that 
all  further  struggle  was  hopeless.  He, 
therefore,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Leonard,  en- 
treated that  lord  to  be  his  intercessor  with 
the  king,  and  to  obtain  for  him  "  his  pardon, 
his  life,  and  lands."  He  was  accordingly 
admitted  to  a  parley,  and  confessing  hum- 
bly his  offences  towards  the  king,  gave  him- 
self up  into  the  hands  of  Lord  Leonard  and 
the  council,  to  be  disposed  of  according  to 
the  royal  pleasure.  In  communicating 
these  terms  to  the  king,  the  council  added  an 
humble  prayer,  that  in  consideration  of  "the 
words  of  comfort  spoken  to  Lord  Thomas, 
to  allure  him  to  yield  himself  up,"  the  royal 
clemency  might  be  extended  towards  him, 
"  more  especially  as  regarded  his  life." 

In  August,  1535,  the  young  lord  was 
sent  prisoner  to  England  ;  and  such  was 
the  importance  attached  to  the  security  of 
his  person,  that  Lord  Leonard  Grey  was 
specially  appointed  to  conduct  him  to  Eng- 
land and  deliver  him  safe  into  the  hands  of 
the  king.  But,  however  welcome  to  of- 
fended majesty  was  such  a  victim,  the  hopes 
of  mercy  held  out  to  Fitz-Gerald  not  only 
damped,  but  considerably  embarrassed,  the 
royal  triumph.  His  five  uncles,  too,  though 
all  obnoxious,  and  some  of  them  known  to 
have  been  as  deeply  involved  in  the  rebel- 
lion as  himself,  were  still  left  at  large. 
About  the  beginning,  however,  of  the  fol- 
lowing year,  these  five  brethren  surren- 
dered themselves  to  the  Lord  Grey,  and 
were  by  him  sent  prisoners  to  England, 
where,  together  with  their  ill-fated  nephew, 
to  whom  hopes  of  pardon  had  been  so  de- 
lusively held  out,  they  were  all  executed  at 
Tyburn,  February  3,  1536. 

Even  these  were  not  enough  to  glut  the 
royal  appetite  for  blood.  A  child  of  the 
previous  earl,  twelve  years  old,  whom  his 
aunt  had  conveyed  to  Munster,  was  sought 
for  so  eagerly,  that  he  was  fSteed  to  be 
sent  to  the  continent  for  safety.    There  he 


114 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1541. 


was  followed  by  the  enmity  of  the  tyrant. 
Henry  had  the  inconceivable  meanness  to 
demand  him  from  the  King  of  France  as  a 
rebellious  subject ;  but  the  French  monarch 
connived  at  his  escape  to  Flanders.  A 
similar  demand  was  made  to  the  German 
emperor ;  but,  before  an  answer  was  ob- 
tained, the  youth  had  been  taken  under  the 
protection  of  Cardinal  Pole,  by  whom  he 
was  treated  as  a  son. 

Through  the  munificence  of  that  illustrious 
man,  and  the  patronage  of  Cosmo  the  First, 
Grand-Duke  of  Tuscany,  the  youth  was 
enabled  to  acquire  such  learning  and  ac- 
complishments as  befitted  the  rank  of  his 
family.  This  rank  he  partially  recovered 
in  the  course  of  the  follovving  reign,  when 
he  was  taken  into  favour  by  Edward  the 
Sixth  ;  and  Queen  Mary  at  once  restored 
the  honours  and  estates  of  his  ancestors  by 
letters- patent. 

The  escape  of  young  Gerald  into  France 
had  removed  the  only  common  rallying- 
point  or  standard  around  which  could  be 
collected  a  sufficient  number  of  mal-con- 
tents  to  endanger  seriously  the  peace  of 
the  country.  In  1540,  shortly  after  this 
youth's  departure.  Lord  Leonard  Grey, 
who  had  long  been  entreating  of  the  king 
permission  to  return  to  England,  was  grant- 
ed a  temporary  recall,  and  Sir  William 
Brereton  was  appointed  lord-justice  during 
his  absence.  The  mutual  ill-will  so  long 
existing  between  the  late  deputy  and  the 
Earl  of  Ormond,  though  apparently  sup- 
pressed, had  again  broken  out  with  fresh 
bitterness  ;  and  the  enmity  of  Ormond  to 
Lord  Leonard  had  found  ready  and  sym- 
pathiiing  abettors  in  Lord  Chancellor  Allen, 
and  Sir  William  Brabazon,  the  vice-trea- 
surer. In  the  ominous  summons,  therefore, 
of  these  three  personages  to  confront  him 
in  England,  Grey  must  have  seen  a  fore- 
token of  the  fate  that  there  awaited  him. 

It  was  clearly  the  policy  of  the  new  lord- 
justice's  government  to  make  the  worst  of 
the  state  in  which  Grey  had  left  the  king- 
dom, in  order  by  bringing  thus  heavier 
odium  upon  his  measures,  to  enhance  pro- 
portionably  their  own  merit  in  repairing  the 
evils  which  he  had  caused. 


Brereton  was  replaced  by  Anthony  St. 
Leger,  a  knight  of  the  order  of  the  garter, 
and  gentleman  of  the  bed-chamber ;  the 
king  having  sent  him  to  Ireland  in  July,  as 
deputy.  On  his  arrival,  he  took  the  usual 
oath  in  Christ's  Church.  St.  Leger  brought 
with  him  three  experienced  commissioners, 
Thomas  Walsh,  John  Myn,  and  William 
Cavendish,  who  were  of  great  assistance 
to  him  in  regulating  the  rolls  of  the  crown 
lands.  The  court  commissioned  Brown, 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  Robert  Cowley, 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  to  take  an  inventory 
of  the  personal  goods  which  Lord  Grey 
had  left  in  Ireland,  with  orders  to  give  up 
every  thing  to  St.  Leger,  to  be  disposed  of 
according  to  the  king's  will. 

Brereton  having  been  appointed  Lord- 
Marshal  of  Ireland,  was  sent  by  the  deputy  to 
Munster,  to  receive  the  submission  of  James 
Fitz-John,  Earl  of  Desmond  ;  but  the  lord- 
marshal  fell  sick  on  his  way,  and  died  at 
Kilkenny,  where  he  was  interred  in  the 
church  of  St.  Canice.  This  accident  did 
not  prevent  the  earl  from  repairing  in  the 
January  following,  to  Cahir,  on  the  river 
Suire,  where  he  submitted,  in  presence  of 
the  deputy  and  council ;  and  renounced 
the  ancient  privileges  of  his  family,  by 
which  he  had  the  right  of  being  absent 
from  parliament  during  pleasure,  and  of 
refusing  to  enter  or  sojourn  in  walled  cities. 

Money  was  coined  at  this  time  in  Ire- 
land, by  orders  of  the  king  ;  namely, 
four-penny,  two-penny,  and  penny  pieces, 
stamped  with  the  harp.  This  coinage  was 
afterwards  prohibited,  under  pain  of  confis- 
cation and  fine. 

In  a  parliament  appointed  to  be  held  at 
the  beginning  of  1541,  but  which  did  not 
meet  till  the  13th  of  June,  an  act  was  pass- 
ed, conferring  on  Henry  and  his  succes- 
sors the  title  of  King  of  Ireland.  This 
measure  was  adopted  in  consequence  of  a 
notion  said  to  be  prevalent  among  the 
natives,  that  the  regal  dominion  of  the 
kingdom  of  Ireland  was  vested  in  the  pope 
for  the  time  being ;  and  that  from  him  the 
King  of  England  held  the  lordship  of  that 
realm.  It  was  therefore  hoped  that  Henry's 
adoption  of  the  royal  title  would  disabuse 


A.  D.  1545.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


115 


the  Irish  chieftains  of  their  error,  and  lead 
them  to  acknowledge  with  less  hesitation 
his  paramount  dominion. 

This  statute  was  solemnly  published  on 
the  following  Sunday  in  St.  Patrick's 
Church,  Dublin,  and  in  London,  in  the 
month  of  January.  St.  Leger,  the  deputy, 
James,  Earl  of  Ormond,  James,  Earl  of 
Desmond,  the  other  peers  in  their  parlia- 
mentary robes,  with  several  distinguished 
laymen  and  ecclesiastics,  attended  at  this 
publication.  Some  prisoners  were  restored 
to  liberty,  and  the  ceremony  terminated 
with  feasting  and  fire-works. 

On  the  11th  of  July,  Plunket  was  raised 
to  the  peerage,  under  the  title  of  Lord- 
Baron  of  Dunsany,  in  Meath,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing month,  Oliver  Plunket  was  honour- 
ed with  the  title  of  Loi'd  Baron  of  Louth. 

Edmond  Butler,  Lord  of  Dunboyne,  near 
Dublin,  was  created  a  peer  of  the  realm, 
under  the  title  of  Lord-Baron  Dunboyne. 
He  was  descended  from  Theobald,  fourth 
Grand-Butler  of  Ireland,  and  Jane,  daughter 
of  John  Fitz-Geoffry,  Earl  of  Essex,  sister 
and  coheiress  of  John  and  Richard  Fitz- 
John,  earls  of  Essex,  who  died  without 
issue.  The  king  also  granted  the  title  of 
Baron  of  Carbry,  in  Kildare,  to  William 
Bermingham ;  and  that  of  Viscount  of 
Clontarf  to  John  Rawson,  Prior  of  Kil- 
mainham.  Thomas  Eustace  was  likewise 
made  a  peer  of  the  realm,  under  the  title  of 
Viscount  BaltingUss, 

In  England,  Lord  Leonard  Grey,  the 
victim  of  an  official  cabal,  was  publicly 
executed  on  Tower  Hill.  The  ninety  writ- 
ten charges  against  him,  evince  the  desire, 
far  more  than  the  power,  to  substantiate 
actual  guilt.  His  family  connections,  both 
with  the  Geraldines,  and  with  some  of  the 
leading  chiefs,  had  given  him  a  hold  on  the 
hearts  of  the  Irish,  which  excited  the 
jealousy  of  Ormond,  and  was  one  of  the 
main  sources  of  the  hatred  with  which 
that  lord  so  long  pursued  him.  Even  in 
the  articles  of  accusation.  Grey's  popularity 
is  made  one  of  the  leading  charges  ;  and  it 
is  alleged  against  him,  as  an  act  degrading  to 
his  royal  master,  that  he  had  passed  through 
the   heart  of    Thomond  into  Connaught, 


without  any  other  guard  than  a  single 
galloglass  of  O'Brien's,  bearing  an  axe 
before  him.  Another  charge,  founded  evW 
dently  on  mere  surmise  and  rumour,  shows 
sufficiently  the  spirit  that  actuated  his  ac- 
cusers. It  is  intimated,  that  the  king's  ar- 
tillery had  been  left  by  him  at  Galway,  that 
it  might  be  ready  there  for  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  or  the  Spaniards,  in  case  they  should 
land  in  those  parts  ;  and  a  report,  it  is  add- 
ed, was  then  prevalent,  that  Cardinal  Pole, 
young  Gerald's  uncle,  was  soon  to  arrive 
there  with  a  large  army. 

There  is  an  incident  worth  mention- 
ing, as  showing  curiously  the  state  of  so- 
ciety. Two  of  the  Geraldine  lords  of 
Munster,  Lord  Roche  and  the  White 
Knight,  having,  by  their  constant  quarrels 
and  inroads,  wasted  each  other's  territo- 
ries, the  king  sent  orders  to  the  Earl  of 
Desmond  to  take  them  both  into  cus- 
tody. They  were  accordingly  seized  and 
imprisoned  in  Dublin  castle,  "  where,"  says 
the  lord-deputy,  in  stating  the  particulars 
to  the  king,  "  they  now  agree  very  well 
together,  lying  both  in  one  bed  ;  although, 
before  they  could  not  agree  in  a  country  of 
forty  miles'  length  between  them."  He 
adds, — "  I  purpose  they  shall  there  remain 
till  their  amity  be  better  confirmed,  and 
then,  God  willing,  I  intend  to  send  them 
home  free,  apparelled  like  Englishmen  ;  for 
at  present  they  are  in  their  saffi-on  shirts 
and  kemoghe's  coats." 

Sir  A.  St.  Leger  has  given  us  a  few 
particulars  respecting  O'Donnell,  the  great 
Irish  chieftain,  after  an  interview  he  had 
with  him  : — "  His  coat  was  of  crimson 
velvet,  with  twenty  or  thirty  pairs  of  aiglets 
of  gold  ;  over  that  a  great  double  cloak  of 
crimson  satin,  bordered  with  black  velvet ; 
and  in  his  bonnet  a  feather  set  full  of  aiglets 
of  gold.  He  was  attended  by  his  chap- 
lain, a  learned  young  man,  brought  up  in 
France." 

Preparations  being  now  on  foot  for  a 
grand  campaign  in  France,  orders  were 
sent  by  the  king  to  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  to 
furnish  him  speedily  with  a  small  troop  of 
kerns,  or  Irish  light  infantry,  to  assist  in  the 
sieges  of  Boulogne  or  Montreuil.     Shortly 


116 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1545. 


before,  this  earl  had  been  commanded  by 
his  majesty  to  raise  and  equip  a  force  of 
three  thousand  of  these  troops.  On  con- 
siderinfj,  however,  the  danger  of  leaving 
Ireland  to  the  risk  of  invasion,  without  an 
adequate  number  of  troops  for  her  defence, 
the  king  countermanded  a  part  of  this  force, 
and  desired  that  one  thousand  only  should 
be  sent.  The  kerns  destined  to  serve  in 
France  were  placed  under  the  command 
of  two  nephews  of  the  Earl  of  Ormond, — 
Lord  Poer  and  Piers  Butler.  The  praises 
bestowed  on  the  gallant  bravery  of  this 
Irish  corps,  at  the  siege  of  Boulogne,  may 
safely  be  credited,  even  though  we  should 
reject  some  of  those  marvellous  stories  with 
which  the  chronicler  of  this  part  of  our 
history  has  enlivened  his  task.  According 
to  this  authority,  such  were  the  feats  of 
courage  performed  by  these  kerns,  that  the 
French,  astonished,  sent  an  ambassador  to 
inquire  of  Henry  "  whether  he  had  brought 
with  him  men  or  devils." 

Matthew  Stewart,  Earl  of  Lenox,  having 
been  obliged  to  leave  Scotland,  sought 
refuge  in  England,  where  he  was  honour- 
ably received  by  the  king  who  gave  him 
in  marriage,  some  time  afterwards,  his 
niece,  Margaret,  daughter  of  his  eldest 
sister  Margaret,  and  Archibald  Douglas, 
Earl  of  Angus.  The  Earl  of  Lenox  had  by 
this  marriage,  Henry,  Lord  Darnley,  who 
was  father  to  James  the  Sixth  of  Scotland. 

After  the  marriage  of  the  Earl  of  Lenox, 
Henry  sent  him  to  Ireland,  in  1545,  with 
orders  to  the  deputy,  St.  Leger,  to  have 
troops  raised  with  all  possible  dispatch,  in 
order  to  assist  him  in  the  recovery  of  his  in- 
heritance in  Scotland.  He  landed  in  Dub- 
lin on  St.  Michael's  Day.  The  deputy  lost 
no  time  in  obeying  the  king's  mandate; 
and  before  the  middle  of  November,  he 
raised  a  new  body  of  fifteen  hundred  men, 
under  the  command  of  Sir  John  Travers. 
These  were  soon  joined  by  an  equal  num- 
ber which  had  been  raised  by  the  Earl  of 
Ormond  in  his  own  district;  and  the  little 
army,  commanded  by  the  earl^in  person, 
set  sail,  in  twenty-eight  vessels,  for  Scot- 
land. The  Earl  of  Lenox  had  his  corres- 
pondents in  the  country,  and  thought  that 


his  friends  would  be  prepared  to  assist  him, 
but  either  through  fickleness  on  their  part, 
or  from  their  being  prevented  by  the  fac- 
tion of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  who  was 
opposed  to  him,  when  he  was  preparing  to 
land  near  his  castle  at  Dumbarton,  he  per- 
ceived the  enemy  had  a  superior  army  on 
the  shore  ready  to  oppose  him.  He  there- 
fore determined  on  returning  to  Ireland 
without  making  any  attempt  on  Scotland. 

Such  was  the  reckless  extravagance  with 
which  Henry  had  disgraced  his  reign  that 
he  was  driven  to  desperate  resources  for 
money.  The  Irish  exchequer  being  com- 
pletely exhausted,  the  deputy  proposed  a 
tax  on  the  people  ;  but  the  Earl  of  Ormond 
arraying  his  influence  against  the  measure, 
a  quarrel  arose  between  the  two  dignitaries, 
each  accusing  the  other  of  treason,  and  they 
were  ordered  by  the  king  to  repair  to  Eng- 
land, Brabazon  being  nominated  deputy 
during  the  absence  of  St.  Leger.  At  the 
same  time,  Allen,  the  chancellor,  having 
been  accused  of  prevarication  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  office,  was  put  into  confine- 
ment. Sir  Thomas  Cusack  was  appointed 
keeper  of  the  seals  in  his  stead,  and  Sir 
Richard  Read,  chancellor.  St.  Leger  and 
Ormond  were  summoned  to  appear  before 
the  king  and  council ;  but  their  accusations 
against  each  other  not  amounting  to  high 
treason,  they  were  discharged,  St.  Leger 
being  sent  back  to  Ireland  as  deputy. 
James  Butler,  Earl  of  Ormond,  Grand- 
Treasurer  of  Ireland,  died  of  poison  at  a 
repast  at  Holborn,  near  London ;  James 
White,  the  master  of  his  household,  and 
sixteen  of  his  servants,  having  shared  the 
same  fate. 

During  the  administration  of  Brabazon, 
the  Baron  of  Upper  Ossory  having  had 
some  cause  of  complaint  against  his  son 
Thaddeus,  sent  him  prisoner  to  Dublin, 
where  he  was  tried,  condemned,  and  exe- 
cuted. In  July,  Patrick  O'Morra  of  Leix, 
and  Bryan  O'Connor  Faly,  with  their  united 
forces,  made  inroads  on  the  English  prov- 
ince, and  burned  the  town  of  Athy,  in  Kil- 
dare.  Brabazon  marched  in  pursuit  of 
them,  carrying  fire  and  sword  everywhere 
he  went.     The  poor  inhabitants  were  sacri- 


A.  D.  1545.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


117 


ficed  to  his  resentment:  He  had  the  fort 
of  Dingen,  now  Philipstown,  in  the  King's 
county,  repaired,  and  obliged  O'Connor  to 
seek  an  asylum  in  Connaught.  The  terri- 
tories of  Leix  and  Offaiy,  with  the  neigh- 
bouring estates,  namely,  Slievmargy,  Irris, 
and  Clanmalire,  were  confiscated  some 
years  afterwards  for  the  king's  use. 

As  the  consequences  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  the  Eighth  have  been  very  important 
to  Ireland,  and  as  that  reign  extended  to 
nearly  thirty-eight  years,  we  shall  be  obliged 
to  appropriate  other  chapters  for  its  com- 
pletion. Luckily,  we  need  not  notice  so 
much  of  the  savage  conduct  of  this  irre- 
claimable brute  as  if  we  were  considering 
the  history  of  England;  nevertheless,  as 
we  shall  have  occasion  continually  to  refer 
back  to  the  period  of  this  reign  for  the 
origin  of  many  important  changes  in  politi- 
cal history,  it  is  requisite  now  to  show  how 
they  became  introduced  into  England,  and 
what  relation  they  bear  to  the  history  of 
Ireland. 

In  this  and  the  previous  chapters,  we  have 
weighed  all  the  authorities  and  then  given 
the  statement  we  believed  to  be  correct, 
without  encumbering  the  pages  with  notes 
or  references.  Subsequent  to  the  period 
we  have  now  arrived  at  something  more 
than  human  power  seems  required  to  un- 
ravel the  torturings  of  the  various  narra- 
tions which  prejudice,  calumny,  and  indi- 
vidual interest  have  contributed  to  hand 
down  for  our  observation.  All  we  can  do 
at  present  is  to  give  warning  that  there  is 
a  storm  of  words  near  at  hand,  and  (to  ex- 
press an  Irish  wish)  "  God  be  with  you," 
dear  reader ! 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

Ecclesiastical  changes  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
the  commencement  of  their  political  influence 
upon  the  history  of  Ireland — Character  and 
death  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 

We  now  approach  a  portion  of  our  task 
where  but  little  encouragement  cheers  the 
duty;   for,  in  addition  to  the  inseparable 


difficulties  appertaining  to  its  performance, 
there  is  more  probability  of  displeasing  than 
pleasing  the  large  circle  of  readers  whose 
approbation  we  desire  to  obtain.  If  this 
were  a  work  intended  for  merely  partisan 
purposes,  its  construction  would  be  much 
easier ;  but  as  we  have  aimed  at  neutrality 
and  impartiality,  we  hope  that  our  main  in- 
tention will  be  accepted  whenever  an  im- 
perfection is  observed. 

Before  closing  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  we  cannot  any  longer  postpone  the 
consideration  of  the  "  Revolution"  or  "  Re- 
formation" as  different  parties  have  called 
that  convulsion  in  ecclesiastical  affairs 
which  began  to  exert  a  political  influence 
in  England,  and  consequently  Ireland,  about 
this  time. 

The  comprehensive  and  powerful  mind 
of  F.  Schlegel  has  thus  shed  its  light  over 
the  whole  ground  now  under  considera- 
tion : — 

"  The  most  singular  phenomenon  at  this 
momentous  epoch  was  Henry  the  Eighth 
of  England, — a  prince  who,  while  he  ad- 
hered to  the  Catholic  doctrines,  and  zeal- 
ously asserted  them  against  Luther,  yet 
severed  his  kingdom  from  the  Church, 
declared  himself  its  spiritual  head,  and  by 
that  monstrous  and  unchristian  combina- 
tion of  the  two  powers,  appeared  in  the 
midst  of  Christendom  like  the  Caliph  of 
England.  When,  too,  we  take  into  con- 
sideration the  private  life  of  this  prince,  his 
endless  series  of  divorces,  and  the  execn- 
tions  of  his  queens, — his  conduct  was  a 
greater  scandal  to  his  contemporaries,  and 
fixes  a  deeper  stain  on  the  history  of  his  age, 
than  any  other  earlier  example  in  Italy  or 
elsewhere.  The  executions  on  account  of 
religion  which  took  place  under  Henry, 
and  which,  as  he  was  occasionally  opposed 
to  both  Catholics  and  Protestants,  affected 
the  two  parties  alike,  were  of  a  peculiarly 
odious  and  blood-thirsty  character.  On 
this  subject,  I  wish  to  make  one  observa- 
tion. From  the  connection  which  then  sub- 
sisted between  church  and  state,  a  case 
might  easily  arise,  where  a  religious  error 

WOULD  become  a  POLITICAL  CRIME."* 
•  rhilos.  of  Hist.;  lect.  xv. 


118 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1545. 


Schlegel  thus  concludes  this  splendid 
lecture : — 

"  A  vindictive  criminal  jurisprudence, 
which  was  then  dictated  by  the  mutual 
rage  of  contending  parties,  and  which  was 
made  still  more  revolting  to  Christian  feel- 
ings by  the  religious  colouring  it  assumed, 
remains  a  stigma  on  that  age,  for  it  was  the 
work,  not  of  one,  but  of  both  religious  parties, 
or  to  speak  more  properly,  of  members  of 
both  parties.  The  commencement,  indeed, of 
this  great  disorder — of  this  great  departure 
from  the  law  of  love — is  to  be  found  in  the 
middle  age,  during  the  strife  of  exasperated 
factions ;  but  how  small  are  those  begin- 
nings when  compared  with  the  excesses  of 
subsequent  times  !  When  we  hear  the 
middle  age  called  barbarous,  we  should 
remember,  that  (hat  epithet  applies  with 
far  greater  force  to  the  truly  barbarous 
era  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  religious 
wars  which  that  event  produced,  and 
which  continued  down  to  the  period  when 
a  sort  of  moral  and  political  pacification 
was  re-established,  apparently  at  least,  in 
society  and  in  the  human  mind." 

Taylor  very  ably  condenses  his  views 
among  the  historical  narrative,  and  has 
furnished  a  vivid  picture  of  the  time.  Be- 
fore proceeding  further,  however,  we  have 
a  remark  of  our  own  to  make,  in  justice  to 
ourselves  and  with  deference  to  our  readers 
of  every  class, — which  is,  that  we  are  not 
responsible  for  the  epithets  ditTerent  writers 
may  think  proper  to  employ  in  their 
language.  We  quote  them  for  the  sake 
of  comparison,  and  leave  them  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  reader's  judgment.  Taylor 
remarks : — 

"The  great  moral  convulsion  which  I 
chanffcd  the  ecclesiastical  establishment 
throughout  the  north  of  Europe  produced 
a  new  era  in  Irish  history.  Hitherto,  the 
papal  and  priestly  influence  had  been  em- 
ployed in  the  support  of  the  English  govern- 
ment, because  the  interests  of  both  were  in 
a  great  degree  identified  ;  but  from  hence- 
forth we  must  look  upon  the  Romish  church 
as  the  great  engine  of  opposition  to  the 
royal  power,  and  find,  it  earnestly  support- 
ed by  a  people  which  it  had  long  injured 


and  insulted.  The  long  baronial  wars,  and 
the  desultory  struggles  of  the  natives,  had 
eflTaced  the  memory  both  of  the  learning 
and  piety  of  Ireland's  national  church  ;  the 
new  discipline  introduced  by  Henry  the 
Second,  had  triumphed  over  all  resistance ; 
and  the  Church  had  become  a  third  power, 
placed  between  the  king  and  people,  able 
to  command  and  control  both.  The  barons 
and  toparchs  looked  upon  the  influence 
of  the  clergy  with  no  little  jealousy.  Of 
doctrines  and  dogmas  they  knew  little  ; 
but  they  knew  that  there  had  been  a  time 
when  these  prelates,  now  their  rivals  and 
compeers,  depended  on  the  chieftains  for 
protection  and  support.  They  were,  there- 
fore, not  averse  from  any  change  by  which 
the  paramount  authority  of  the  Church 
might  be  diminished.  Henry,  in  conse- 
quence, found  as  little  trouble  in  introduc- 
ing the  first  principles  of  the  Reformation 
in  Ireland  as  he  had  experienced  in  Eng- 
land (A.  D.  1536.)  The  parliament  sum- 
moned by  Lord  Leonard  Grey  commenced 
by  enacting  a  declaratory  statute,  which 
excluded  from  the  privilege  of  voting  the 
proctors  that  had  been  previously  returned 
from  the  several  diocesses ;  and  having 
thus  secured  a  majority  of  the  laity,  pro- 
ceeded with  all  speed  to  the  regulation  of 
the  state.  The  king's  supremacy  was  for- 
mally established  ;  his  marriage  with  Ca- 
tharine of  Arragon  declared  null  and  void  ; 
and  the  succession  of  the  crown  pronoun- 
ced to  be  in  the  heirs  of  the  king  and  the 
Lady  Anne.  This  last  act  had  scarcely 
passed  when  the  news  of  Anne  Bullen's 
disgrace  reached  the  assembly.  With 
equal  readiness  they  changed  the  inherit- 
ance to  the  descendants  of  Queen  Jane  ; 
and,  in  default  of  such  heirs,  acknowledged 
the  king's  right  to  dispose  of  the  kingdom 
of  England  and  the  lordship  of  Ireland,  by 
letters-patent  or  by  will. 

"  Several  acts  of  a  similar  tendency  were 
passed  with  little  opposition ;  but  Lord 
Grey  was  too  politic  to  rely  on  statutes 
alone  ;  he  collected  a  numerous  army,  and, 
marching  through  Leinster,  received  not 
only  the  submission  of  the  septs,  but  hosta- 
ges for  the  fidelity  of  the  chieftains.     Un- 


A.  D.  1545.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


119 


fortunately,  he  at  the  same  time  showed 
that  the  government  was  about  to  adopt  a 
new  line  of  policy  in  other  matters,  fully  as 
beneficial  as  the  religious  reformation,  but 
one  for  which  the  country  was  not  pre- 
pared, and  which  consequently  added  to  its 
distractions.  Henry  had  firmly  resolved 
to  break  down  the  extravagant  power  of 
the  barons  and  toparchs,  and  check  the  in- 
solence of  an  oligarchy  whose  authority 
more  than  rivalled  his  own.  With  his 
usual  impetuosity,  he  overlooked  all  the 
difficulties  which  impeded  the  execution  of 
such  a  plan  ;  he  pushed  on  the  civil  and 
religious  reformation  together  ;  and  thus 
united  in  determined  opposition  the  advo- 
cates of  the  abuses  in  both.  The  Butlers, 
triumphant  over  the  Geraldines  of  Kildare, 
were  the  most  violent  antagonists  of  the 
deputy.  Secretly  encouraged  by  Cromer, 
Archbishop  of  Armagh,  the  most  zealous 
adherent  of  Rome,  they  openly  resisted  the 
deputy,  and  even  assailed  him  by  force  of 
arms.  They  were,  however,  too  wise  to 
undertake  open  rebellion ;  and,  while  en- 
gaged in  resisting  the  local  government, 
sent  over  the  most  fulsome  professions  of 
allegiance  to  the  court  of  England." 

Sampson's  fervid  eloquence  has  left  us  a 
thoroughly  philosophical  defence  of  Ireland, 
from  which  we  make  the  following  appli- 
cable extract : — 

"  There  is  little  of  that  philosophy  which 
history  should  teach  in  those  who  despatch 
the  character  of  a  nation  in  unconsidered 
words.  Human  nature  is  everywhere  the 
same.  It  is  circumstances  that  make  the 
difference,  and  these  are  infinite  in  their 
combinations.  Untutored  and  unimproved, 
man  appears  at  home  or  abroad  rude  and 
offensive ;  and  the  most  polished  nations 
have  passed  through  the  rudest  state,  and 
having  reached  the  highest  civilization, 
have  again  retrograded.  Some  circum- 
stances are  favourable  to  improvement, 
and  some  present  insurmountable  impedi- 
ments. "Slavery  has  its  vices,  ignorance 
its  vices,  and  poverty  its  vices.  War  has 
its  crimes ;  and  even  peace  and  prosperity 
are  not  unaccompanied  with  evils.  What- 
ever habitually  excites  the  angry  passions 


will  make  men  fierce  and  reckless ;  what- 
ever destroys  confidence  will  make  them 
suspicious ;  ill-treatment  will  make  them 
revengeful,  and  faith-breaking  will  make 
them  crafty  and  deceitful :  but  bad  example 
will  teach  every  vice ;  and  as  there  is  in 
general  an  aptitude  in  man  for  every  vice 
and  every  virtue,  that  will  prevail  which  is 
most  called  forth.  The  English  borderers, 
as  the  Minstrel  of  the  North  has  shown, 
became  clansmen,  and  the  ancient  English 
settlers  in  Ireland  became  degenerate,  (as 
it  was  called,)  and  more  Irish  than  the  Irish ; 
Ipsis  Hihernicis  Hiherniores:  and  so  the 
manners  of  a  people  might  be  determined  d 
priori,  by  knowledge  of  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  lived  ;  and  in  this  is  the 
great  use  of  history,  that  by  showing  the 
causes  it  points  to  the  remedies,  and  the 
past,  like  a  monument  before  our  eyes,  in- 
structs us  what  for  our  own  and  for  our 
country's  sake  we  should  adopt  or  imitate, 
and  what  to  shun  as  foul  in  its  inception 
and  disastrous  in  its  consequences. 

"  But  history  to  be  useful  must  be  true, 
and  this  can  hardly  be  when  rolls  and 
records  speak  not  truth  but  falsehood,  and 
where  contemporary  history  is  written 
after  bloody  conflicts,  when  one  party  is 
reduced  to  silence,  and  the  other,  possessed 
of  every  organ  of  publicity,  makes  it  to 
suit  his  own  views,  when  the  writer  is  he 
whom  THE  SPOIL  HAS  ENRICHED,  and  the 
hand  that  guides  the  pen  is  red  with  the 
blood  of  the  calumniated  victim.  Then, 
VcB  victis !  Then  venal  tongues  and  mer- 
cenary pens  will  herald  forth  the  triumphs 
of  successful  crime,  and  the  name  of  the 
patriot  who  felt,  and  dared,  and  bled  for  his 
country  will  be  consigned  to  obloquy  or  to 
oblivion.  None  will  then  dare  to  breathe 
his  name,  or  throw  one  flower  on  his  silent 
grave,  till  time,  the  great  detector,  brings 
truth  again  to  light,  restores  to  virtue  her 
true  lustre,  and  to  humanity  the  most 
precious  of  her  interests,  the  heart-stirring 
and  inspiring  example  of  generous  martyrs, 
whom  in  the  gloomiest  season  of  their  coun- 
try's fortunes  bribe  could  not  tempt,  nor  tor- 
ture move,  nor  death's  worst  terrors  daunt.** 

Once  more,  from  the  counsellor : — 


120 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1545. 


"  To  be  invaded  without  provocation, 
treated  as  enemies  though  veilling  to  be 
friends,  held  aliens  in  their  native  country, 
refused  even  naturalization  in  the  land  of 
their  forefathers,  punished  by  the  laws  of 
war  and  peace  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
(death  by  the  sword  and  forfeiture  by  the 
law,)  marked  for  destruction  by  deliberate 
plans  of  universal  extermination  from  the 
soil  that  was  their  heritage  under  the  hypo- 
critical PRETEXT  OP  PIETY  AND  CIVILIZA- 
TION,— all  this  was  hard,  and  hard  enough : 
but  to  be  still  put  in  the  wrong,  as  though 
they,  and  not  their  accusors,  had  been  the 
invaders  and  destroyers,  was  what  human 
nature  could  not  and  manhood  never  should 
endure.  And  with  all  the  cruel  and  too 
successful  endeavours  of  their  enemies  to 
bring  them  to  that  state  of  degradation  that 
might  make  them  answerable  to  the  de- 
scriptions first  invented  for  them,  when  it 
is  considered  in  what  school  of  cruelty  and 
corruption,  and  by  what  examples  of  in- 
iquity, their  manners  have  been  formed, 
their  very  turbulence  will  be  found  allied 
to  the  highest  virtues :  and  it  is  less  won- 
derful that  they  have  vices,  than  that  they 
have  still  preserved  so  many  of  their  indi- 
genous virtues." 

We  have  presumed  to  abridge  the  next 
ten  parasrraphs  from  Moore's  highly  useful 
comparison  of  England  with  Ireland  at  the 
time  of  the  Reformation: — 

"A  few  years  before  the  period  we  have 
now  reached,  that  great  religious  revolution 
of  which  Germany  had  been  the  birth- 
place, extended  its  influence  to  England, 
and  was  now  working  a  change  in  the 
condition  of  that  kingdom.  In  Germany, 
from  an  early  date,  the  struggles  of  the 
emperors  with  the  popes  had  conduced  to 
engender  a  feeling  of  ill-will  towards  Rome, 
which  required  but  little  excitement  to 
rouse  it  into  hostility.  In  the  German,  too, 
as  well  as  in  the  English  reformation, 
finance  may  be  said  to  have  gone  hand  in 
hand  with  faith :  as  it  was  the  abuse  of  his 
spiritual  privileges  by  the  pope,  for  the 
purpose  of  fiscal  exaction,  that  gave  to 
Luther  his  first  advantage  ground  in  attack- 
ing the  Roman  see. 


"  Nor  was  England  wholly  unprepared, 
by  previous  experience,  for  the  assaults 
now  made,  not  only  on  the  property,  but 
the  ancient  doctrines  of  her  church,  as  the 
sect  of  the  Lollards  may  be  said  to  have 
anticipated  the  leading  principles  of  the 
Reformation ;  while  the  suppression  and 
spoliation  of  the  alien  priories,  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  the  Fifth,  and  a  similar  plunder 
committed  by  Edward  the  Second,  on  the 
rich  order  of  the  Knights-Templars,  had 
furnished  precedents,  though  on  a  compara- 
tively small  scale,  for  the  predatory  achieve- 
ments of  the  present  monarch. 

"  The  first  decisive  step  taken  was  in 
1534,  when  the  pope,  by  declaring  the  va- 
lidity of  Henry's  marriage  with  Catharine 
of  Arragon,  pronounced  sentence  against 
the  union,  so  much  desired  by  the  king, 
with  Anne  Bullen.  As  this  sentence  was 
only  enforced  by  a  mere  threat  of  excom- 
munication, in  case  the  king  should  persist 
in  his  project  of  a  divorce,  an  opening  was 
left  through  which  some  compromise  might 
have  been  effected.  But  the  hasty  act  of 
Clement's  successor,  Paul  the  Third,  pre- 
cluded any  such  chance  of  reconciliation. 
From  that  moment,  the  boundaries  of  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  power  began,  on  both 
sides,  to  be  violently  transgressed.  Not 
content  with  declaring  Henry  himself  ex- 
communicated, and  laying  his  whole  king- 
dom under  an  interdict, — measures  which, 
whatever  might  have  been  their  prudence, 
where  within  the  scope  of  his  spiritual 
powers, — Paul,  by  this  bull,  deprived  the 
English  king  of  his  crown ;  dissolved  all 
leagues  of  Catholic  princes  with  him ;  re- 
leased his  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  alle- 
giance, and  delivered  his  kingdom  up  a 
prey  to  any  invader. 

"  While  the  pontiflT  was  thus  rashly  out- 
running the  bounds  of  his  spiritual  domin- 
ion, the  English  monarch,  on  the  other 
hand,  self-invested  with  the  supreme  head- 
ship of  the  Church,  was  bringing  the  ter- 
rors of  temporal  punishment  to  enforce  the 
new  powers  he  had  assumed,  and  show 
how  expeditiously  a  people  may  be  schooled 
into  reformation  by  a  free  use  of  the  rack, 
the  halter,  and  the  stake. 


A.  D.  1545.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


121 


"However  injudicious,  indeed,  as  re- 
garded mere  policy,  was  the  anathema 
hurled  at  Henry  by  the  Roman  pontiff,  it  is 
to  be  recollected,  that  intelligence  had  short- 
ly before  reached  Rome  of  the  trial  and  exe- 
cution of  the  venerable  Fisher,  Archbishop 
of  Rochester, — a  crime  which,  deepened,  as 
it  was,  by  the  insults  cast  on  the  aged  vic- 
tim, was  heard  on  the  continent  with  indig- 
nation and  tears.  Soon  after  followed  the 
sentence  on  the  illustrious  Sir  Thomas 
More,  who,  because  he  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge that  the  king  was  supreme  head  of 
the  Church, — a  proposition  which,  three 
years  earlier,  it  would  have  been  heresy  to 
assert, — was  sentenced  to  die  the  death  of 
a  traitor;  nor  could  all  his  genius  and 
knowledge,  his  views  extending  beyond  the 
horizon  of  his  own  times,  or  the  playful 
philosophy  that  graced  both  his  life  and  his 
writings  obtain  from  the  tyrant  any  further 
mark  of  mercy  than  the  mere  substitution, 
in  the  mode  of  executing  him,  of  the  axe 
for  the  halter. 

"  Having  achieved  thus  his  double  object, 
— supreme  sovereignty  over  the  church,  as 
well  as  the  state, — Henry's  next  step,  to 
which  the  former  had  been  but  preparatory, 
was  the  spoliation  of  the  clergy  ;  and  what- 
ever wrong  and  ruin  followed  in  the  wake 
of  his  predatory  course,  no  compassion  is, 
at  all  events,  due  to  the  higher  clergy  and 
spiritual  peers,  who  were  themselves  the 
obsequious  abettors  of  all  the  tyrant's  worst 
measures.  Whether,  like  Gardiner,  ad- 
hering still  to  the  creed  of  Rome,  or,  like 
Cranmer  and  others,  secretly  reformers,  the 
prelates  of  both  the  religious  parties  were 
equally  tools  of  the  throne ;  and  alike 
servilely  lent  their  aid  to  every  aggression 
on  the  rights  and  property  of  the  Church. 

"  Having  now  assumed  to  himself  a  sort 
of  spiritual  dictatorship,  and  usurped,  in  his 
own  person,  that  privilege  of  infallibility 
against  which  he  had  rebelled,  as  claimed 
by  the  pope,  Henry  proceeded  to  frame 
and  promulgate  a  formulary  of  faith  for  his 
whole  kingdom,  which,  instead  of  being 
submitted  to  the  boasted  tribunal  of  private 
judgment,  was  ordered  to  be  adopted  by  all 

implicitly,  under  pain  of  tortures  and  death. 

16 


"  The  king's  position,  in  thus  holding  su- 
premacy over  two  rival  creeds,  from  both 
of  which  he  himself  materially  dissented, 
was  such  as  entirely  suited  his  tastes,  both 
as  disputant  and  persecutor ;  and  even  en- 
abled him,  as  in  the  case  of  the  wretched 
Lambert, — with  whom  he  condescended  to 
hold  a  public  disputation, — first,  to  brow- 
beat his  trembling  antagonist  in  argument, 
and  then  to  complete  the  triumph  by  cast- 
ing him  into  the  flames.  The  penal  power 
was,  indeed,  in  his  hands,  a  double-edged 
sword,  for  whose  frightful  sweep  his  com- 
plaisant legislature  had  provided  victims 
from  both  religions.  For,  as  all  who  de- 
nied the  king's  supremacy  were  declared 
traitors,  and  all  who  rejected  the  papal 
creed  were  pronounced  heretics,  the  freest 
scope  was  afforded  to  cruelty  for  the  alter- 
nate indulgence  of  its  tastes,  whether  in 
hanging  conscientious  Catholics  for  trea- 
son, or  sending  Protestants  to  perish  in  the 
flames  for  heresy.  On  one  occasion,  sin- 
gled out  of  many,  the  horrible  fruits  of  this 
policy  were  strikingly  exTiibited.  In  the 
same  cart  were  conveyed  to  execution 
three  Catholics  and  three  Protestants ;  the 
former,  for  denying  the  king's  supremacy, 
the  latter,  for  denying  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation.  The  Catholics  were 
hanged,  drawn  and  quartered,  the  Protes- 
tants burned. 

"  Tn  1539,  the  last  of  those  spiritual  ordi- 
nances by  which  Henry  sought  to  coerce 
the  very  consciences  of  his  subjects,  made 
its  appearance,  in  the  form  of  An  Act  for 
abolishing  diversity  of  opinions ;  or,  as  it 
was  called, — from  the  savage  cruelty  with 
which  its  enactments  were  enjoined, — ^the 
bloody  Statute  of  the  Six  Articles.  This 
violent  law,  by  which  almost  all  the  princi- 
pal Catholic  doctrines  were  enjoined  per- 
emptorily, under  pain  of  death  and  forfeit- 
ure, was  aimed  with  ominous  malignity, 
against  those  of  the  king's  own  ministers, 
who,  while  appearing  to  adopt  so  obse- 
quiously all  his  views,  were,  he  knew,  se- 
cretly pledged  disciples  of  the  new  German 
school  of  faith.  Most  amply,  however,  has 
this  duplicity  been  avenged,  by  the  lasting 
stain  brought  upon  the  memories  of  those 


122 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1545. 


spiritual  peers — Crantner  himself  among 
the  number — who,  affecting  to  be  con- 
vinced by  a  speech  which  the  king  had  de- 
livered in  the  course  of  the  debate,  gave 
their  assent  to  this  arbitrary  statute  and 
the  barbarous  penalties  by  which  it  was 
enforced.  There  were  only  two  among 
the  prelates,  Latimer  and  Shaxton,  who 
had  the  courage  to  refuse  their  sanction  to 
this  sanguinary  act. 

"While  such,  in  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
was  the  odious  policy  of  this  monarch's 
reign,  the  spirit  of  its  civil  administration 
was  no  less  subversive  of  all  popular  right 
and  freedom.  By  an  act,  unparalleled  in 
servility,  the  parliament  gave  to  the  king's 
proclamation  the  same  force  as  to  a  statute 
enacted  by  their  own  body ;  thus  basely 
surrendering  into  the  hands  of  the  mon- 
arch the  only  stronghold  of  the  nation's 
liberties." 

Our  own  Whelpley,  a  warm  Protestant 
writer,  says — 

"  The  cruelty  and  crimes  of  Henry  in- 
creased progressively  with  his  years.  The 
noblest  blood  of  England  flowed  to  satisfy 
his  savage  barbarity  of  heart.  ***** 
But  we  will  not  waste  the  reader's  time  in 
tracing  the  atrocities  of  a  villain  of  the  first 
magnitude,  who,  considering  his  superior 
advantages,  deserves  to  sink  into  the  shades 
of  eternal  infamy,  ten  thousand  degrees  be- 
low Nero  or  Domitian."* 

Among  American  writers  generally,  and 
especially  since  Whelpley  wrote,  there  is 
a  desire  to  consult  and  compare  the  best 
authorities.  This  is  evident  from  the  gene- 
ral tone  of  our  current  literature,  where- 
ever  the  independence  of  the  writers  can 
be  at  all  proportioned  to  their  ability. 
There  is  an  article  in  the  North  American 
Review,  for  July,  1829,  almost  every  para- 
graph of  which  contains  a  volume  of  his- 
torical experience.  The  selections  we  give 
from  it  contain  the  essence  of  all  the 
various  foreign  statements : — 

"  If  the  student  would  make  up  a  cool 
and  deliberate  judgment  as  to  the  ecclesi- 
astical history  of  England,  from  the  Refor- 
mation to  the   great  measure  which  has 

*  Compend  of  Hiatoiy ;  toI.  ii  p.  60. 


carried  gladness  to  the  hearts  of  all  friends 
of  the  human  race  by  the  emancipation  of 
the  Catholic  population,  he  must   consult 
Dr.  Lingard  [Catholic]  and  Mr.  Hallam 
[Protestant.]     He   must  go  back  to   the 
religious  condition  of  England  before  the 
dissolution   of  monasteries ;   not   as   it   is 
represented  by  Protestants,  but  as  he  finds 
it  on  a  fair  comparison  of  conflicting  autho- 
rities.    He  will  there  see  that  what  is  called 
the   English   Reformation,   like   all    other 
human  events,  is  one  of  a  mixed  character. 
He  will  see  in  those  religious  communities, 
which  have  been  held  up  to  execration,  a 
great  deal  to  admire  and  commend.     The 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  which  has  been  the 
theme  of  so  much  reprehension,  will  ap- 
pear to  be  not  unsusceptible  of  plausible 
defence.      That   time  which  the  married 
clergyman  devotes  to  the  care  of  his  family, 
-was  supposed  to  be  given  up  to  the  duties 
of  charity  and  exercises  of  religion.     If  the 
testimony  of  Catholic  writers  may  be  relied 
on,  these  were  much  more  regularly. per- 
formed than  we  have  been  led  to  suppose. 
At  all  events  the  estates  which  by  the  gifts 
of  the  pious  had  been  appropriated  to  the 
poor  through  the  medium  of  these  establish- 
ments, were   certainly  in   most  instances 
devoted    to  their  relief.      Whether   these 
estates  were  not  much  greater  than  was 
consistent  with  good  policy,  is  of  no  mo- 
ment ;  nothing  could  justify  the  conduct  of 
Henry  the  Eighth  in  seizing  on  this  pro- 
perty, and  distributing  it  among  his  needy 
favourites,  in  violation  of  every  principle 
of  justice  and  humanity.     As  this  measure 
grew  out  of  his  rapacity,  so  the  Reforma- 
tion had  its  origin  in   a   more  unworthy 
motive.     His   resentment  at  the  firmness 
of  the  pope,  in  the  matter  of  his  divorce, 
transported  him  beyond  the  bounds  of  rea- 
son or  decency.     So  determined  was  he 
to  bring  about  an  entire  separation  from 
the  see  of  Rome,  that  the  scruples  of  the 
most  conscientious  and  the  services  of  the 
most  faithful  of  his  subjects  were  equally 
disregarded.     We  have  had  the  sufferings 
of  Protestant   martyrs  rung   in  our  ears 
from  our  cradles  ;  but  the  two  most  illus- 
trious of  English  martyrs,  the  enlightened 


A.  D.  1545.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


123 


Sir  Thomas  More  and  Bishop  Fisher,  died 
rather  than  abjure  the  faith  of  their  ances- 
tors at  the  bidding  of  a  tyrant." 

"  The  student  will  not  have  proceeded 
far  in  this  inquiry  before  he  will  begin  to 
suspect  that  it  is  one  thing  to  protest  and 
another  to  reform.  The  English  Reforma- 
tion (setting  aside  religious  belief,  with 
which  we  have  nothing  to  do  at  this  time, 
and  looking  at  its  effects  on  the  grand 
object  of  constitutional  inquiry,  tolera- 
tion) was  any  thing  but  a  change  for  the 
better." 

"  As  in  the  early  stages  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, the  professors  of  the  old  and  new 
religions  pursued  each  other  with  unrelent- 
ing fury — so  Churchman  and  Puritan,  who 
had  heartily  concurred  in  the  measures  of 
severity  against  the  Catholics,  soon  turned 
with  equal  rage  upon  each  other.  The  result 
of  this  controversey  is  too  well  known  to  be 
dwelled  upon.  The  Presbyterians,  when 
they  had  demolished  the  church,  found  a 
sturdy  band  of  Independents  all  ready  to 
be  persecuted  ;  and  the  Independents  them- 
selves, who  had  fled  to  the  rocky  shores  of 
New  England  for  religious  freedom,  had 
hardly  time  to  make  a  shelter  in  their  new 
country  when  they  fell  foul  on  the  refractory 
of  their  own  number." 

"  By  the  time  the  student  has  proceeded 
thus  far,  he  will  begin  to  ask  himself  why  it 
is  that  the  Catholic  religion  has  been  always 
identified  with  persecution,  while  Protest- 
antism and  toleration  have  been  considered 
synonymous.  The  answer  seems  to  us  a 
simple  one  : — Because  the  Catholic  religion 
has  been  the  most  powerful.  Wherever 
the  power  of  the  church  and  that  of  the 
state  are  the  same,  there  will  be  intolerance. 
The  cause  lies  not  in  this  creed  or  that, 
but  in  man.  A  weak  sect  is  always  liberal, 
b»t  we  never  have  yet  heard  of  any  which 
used  power  with  moderation.  The  further 
this  inquiry  is  pursued,  the  more  apparent 
will  be  the  good  sense  which  induced  the 
enlightened  framers  of  our  constitution,  to 
leave  this  matter  where  alone  it  belongs, — 
to  the  conscience  of  each  individual.  If 
there  is  any  thing  of  which  the  United 
States  may  justly  boast,  it  is  that  they 


HAVE  BROUGHT  THIS  GREAT  aUESTION  TO  THE 
TEST  OF  EXPERIMENT  WITH  THE  MOST  TRI- 
UMPHANT SUCCESS."* 

The  necessity  of  keeping  to  our  main 
subject  precludes  us  from  any  further  dis- 
quisitions upon  the  general  ground  of  the 
"  Reformation,"  and  having  already  laid 
before  the  reader  as  much  argumentative 
matter  as  the  present  circumstances  will 
permit,  we  now  proceed  to  an  examination 
of  Henry's  policy  towards  Ireland.  It 
will  be  seen  that,  as  usual  in  times  of 
English  confusion  and  difficulty,  the  ruling 
policy  of  government  in  Ireland  was  deci- 
dedly peaceable  and  conciliatory  during 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth. 

In  Ireland,  the  only  test  or  symbol  of  the 
new  orthodoxy  required,  as  yet,  from  either 
ecclesiastics  or  laymen,  was  the  taking  of 
the  oath  binding  them  to  acknowledge  the 
king's  supremacy  ;  and  it  may  be  presum- 
ed that  neither  by  the  clergy  nor  laity  was 
this  substitution  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
crown  for  that  of  the  pope  considered  as  a 
change  seriously  affecting  their  faith,  since 
almost  all  the  native  lords  and  clergy  came 
forward  to  confirm  their  allegiance  by  this 
form  of  oath.  If,  in  place  of  a  mere  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  king's  supremacy, — 
a  claim,  the  extent  of  which  neither  the 
chiefs  nor  perhaps  the  clergy  themselves 
clearly  understood, — the  renunciation  of 
some  tenet  or  observance  endeared  and 
hallowed  by  old  tradition  and  daily  habit, 
had  been  demanded  as  the  pledge  of  ortho- 
doxy, the  same  tranquil  submission  would 
not  have  attended  the  first  advances  of  the 
reformed  creed. 

Without  pausing,  however,  to  consider 
what  were  the  causes  of  Ireland's  exemp- 
tion, at  this  period,  from  that  dragooning 
process  of  conversion  to  which  England 
was  so  brutally  subjected,  suffice  it  to  say, 
that  such,  at  this  time,  was  the  comparative 
state  of  the  two  kingdoms  ;  and  that  what- 
ever of  peace  and  religious  tolerance  those 
islands  could  boast  had  all  taken  refuge  on 
the  Irish  shore.  In  1538,  while  the  scaf- 
folds of  England  were  reeking  with  Chris- 
tain  blood,  and  men  were  expiring  by  a 

*  Art.  X. — CoDBtitational  History. 


IM 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1545. 


slow  fire,  with  the  words  **  none  but  Christ, 
none  but  Christ,"  upon  their  hps,  not  only 
were  the  axe,  the  faggot,  and  halter,  left 
entirely  without  employ  in  Ireland,  but  the 
harshest  punishment  we  find  inflicted  for 
religious  offences,  during  that  period,  was 
the  commitment  of  the  delinquents  to  Dublin 
Castle. 

Towards  the  Irish  chieftains,  there  now 
appeared  a  prospect,  not  merely  of  mercy, 
but  of  favours  and  honours,  at  the  hands  of 
royalty,  which  wanted  no  further  induce- 
ment to  draw  them  in  that  direction  ;  and, 
throughout  the  remaining  years  of  this 
reign,  little  else  is  left  to  the  historian  than 
to  pass  in  review  the  different  chiefs  who, 
with  an  almost  lavish  generosity,  were  in 
the  same  breath  pardoned  and  rewarded, 
and  some  of  whose  names  still  stand  memo- 
rials of  this  princely  policy,  among  the  most 
shining  and  honourable  titles  of  the  Irish 
peerage. 

The  accession  of  O'Donnell  to  the  ranks 
of  the  loyal  was  hailed  with  welcome  by 
the  government ;  and,  even  before  the  ad- 
hesion of  O'Neill,  we  find  Cusacke,  the 
speaker  of  the  Irish  house  of  commons, 
proudly  boasting  that,  as  long  as  O'Brien, 
O'Donnell,  Mac- William,  and  the  Earl  of 
Desmond,  were  true  to  the  king,  there  was 
nothing  to  be  feared  from  all  the  rest  of 
Ireland. 

Morough  O'Brien,  whose  constant  en- 
croachments on  the  country  eastward  of 
the  Shannon  had  kept  the  government  of 
the  Pale  in  continual  alarm,  was  created 
Earl  of  Thomond  for  life,  with  the  dignity 
of  Baron  of  Inchiquin  descendible  to  his 
heirs  male ;  while  Donough,  his  nephew, 
as  a  reward  for  his  unvarying  attachment 
to  the  English,  was  made  Baron  of  Ibrack- 
an,  and,  after  the  decease  of  his  uncle.  Earl 
of  Thomond  for  life.  On  another  equally 
active  chief,  O'Connor,  there  had  been,  as 
early  as  1537,  some  intention  of  bestowing 
the  title  of  Baron  of  Oflfaly.  But,  though, 
at  a  later  period,  the  king  gave  formally  his 
assent  to  this  grant,  it  was  never  carried 
into  effect. 

Mac-William  Eighter,  of  Clanricarde, 
the  captain  of  the  Anglo-Irish  clan  of  the 


De  Burghs,  had,  on  the  deposition  of  the 
former  Mac- William  by  Lord  Leonard 
Grey,  been  raised  to  that  name  and  seign- 
iory, in  his  place.  This  lord  was,  by  the 
natives,  called  Negan,  or  the  Beheader, 
from  his  having  constructed  a  mound  of 
the  heads  of  men  slain  in  battle,  and  then 
covered  it  over  with  earth.  On  making 
his  submission,  early  in  1541,  he  had  peti- 
tioned the  crown  for  a  grant,  or  rather 
restoration,  of  the  earldom  heretofore  en- 
joyed by  his  family ;  and  also  a  confirma- 
tion, by  letters-patent,  of  all  the  possessions 
which  had  descended  to  him  by  inheritance. 
It  was  supposed  that  he  had  counted  upon 
being  made  Earl  of  Connaught ;  but  against 
this  the  council  strongly  gave  their  advice, 
reminding  his  majesty  that  the  province  of 
Connaught  formed  a  fifth  part  of  his  Irish 
dominions.  It  was  therefore  fixed  that  he 
was  to  be  created  Earl  of  Clanricarde,  and 
Baron  of  Dunkellin,  while  his  relative,  Mac- 
Gill  Patrick,  was  to  be  made  Baron  of  Up- 
per Ossory. 

O'Neill,  although  the  last  to  tender  his 
allegiance,  was  the  very  first  to  hasten  to 
avail  himself  of  its  fruits,  set  sail,  in  1542, 
accompanied  by  Hugh  O'Cervallan,  Bishop 
of  Clogher,  for  England  ;  and  waiting  upon 
the  king  at  Greenwich,  made  a  surrender 
to  him  of  all  his  territory,  and  agreed  to 
renounce  the  name  of  O'Neill.  A  few  days 
after,  both  name  and  estates  were  regranted 
to  him,  by  letters-patent,  together  with  the 
title  of  Earl  of  Tyrone. 

In  1543,  in  the  queen's  closet  at  Green- 
wich, which  was  "  richly  hung  with  cloth 
of  arras,  and  well  strewed  with  rushes," 
for  the  occasion,  took  place  the  ceremony 
of  creating  O'Brien  Earl  of  Thomond,  and 
conferring  upon  Mac-William— or,  as  he 
had  been  styled  since  his  submission.  Lord 
Fitz-William — the  name  and  honour  of 
Earl  of  Clanricarde.  At  the  same  time, 
Donough  O'Brien,  who  was  attended,  as 
were  probably  all  the  other  lords,  by  an 
interpreter,  was  made  Baron  of  Ibrackan. 
By  a  very  thoughtful  act  of  munificence, 
the  king  granted  also  to  each  of  these  no- 
blemen a  house  and  lands,  near  Dublin,  for 
the  keeping  of  their  retinues  and  horses, 


A.  D.  1545.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


125 


whenever  they  resorted  thither  to  attend 
parliaments  and  councils. 

In  allowing  full  credit  to  the  English 
monarch  for  the  mild  and  tolerant  character 
of  his  policy  towards  Ireland,  it  must,  at 
the  same  time,  be  recollected,  that  the  fa- 
cility with  which  all  the  great  Irish  leaders 
agreed  to  reject  the  pope's  supremacy,  and 
acknowledge  the  king  their  spiritual  head, 
removed  all  grounds  for  any  such  sanguin- 
ary persecution  as  raged  at  the  same  period 
on  the  other  side  of  the  channel.  Not  con- 
tent with  his  formal  renouncement  of  Rome, 
O'Brien,  in  a  paper  entitled  "The  Irish- 
men's Requests,"  demanded  that  "there 
should  be  sent  over  some  well-learned 
Irishmen,  brought  up  in  the  universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  not.  being  infected 
with  the  poison  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and 
that  having  been  first  approved  by  the 
king's  majesty,  they  should  then  be  sent  to 
preach  the  word  of  God  in  Ireland.  The 
Irish  lords,  too,  following  the  example  of 
the  grandees  of  England,  readily  allowed 
themselves  to  be  consoled  for  whatever 
sacrifice  they  had  made  in  deserting  their 
ancient  faith,  by  the  rich  share  they  gained 
of  the  plunder  which  the  confiscation  of  its 
venerable  establishments  afforded.  One  of 
the  requests  made  by  O'Brien,  previously 
to  visiting  the  English  court,  was,  that  the 
grant  he  had  received  from  the  Irish  coun- 
cil, of  certain  abbeys,  lately  suppressed, 
should  be  confirmed  to  him  by  the  king, 
with  the  addition  also  of  a  grant  of  the 
house  of  Observants,  at  Ennis.  To  Don- 
ough  O'Brien  was  given  the  abbey  of  El- 
lenegrane,  a  small  island  in  the  mouth  of 
the  Shannon,  together  with  the  moiety  of 
the  abbey  of  Clare ;  and  among  the  rewards 
of  Mac-Gill  Patrick's  new  loyalty,  were 
the  house  of  the  late  friars  of  Hagheyo  and 
the  suppressed  monastery  of  Hagmacarte. 

But,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  those 
individual  chiefs  who  were  now  so  readily 
converted  from  rebels  into  apostates  and 
courtiers,  the  wise  policy  of  the  govern- 
ment, in  thus  diverting  into  a  safe  and  le- 
gitimate channel  the  wild  ambition  of  such 
powerful  subjects,  and  producing,  by  con- 
ciliation, a  state  of  peace  which  force  and 


repression  had  vainly  for  ages  endeavoured 
to  effect,  cannot  be  too  highly  praised, 
whether  for  its  immediate  effects,  or  the 
lasting  and  salutary  example  it  left  behind. 
Although  to  Henry  himself  no  small  share 
of  the  honour  of  that  policy  is  due,  un- 
doubtedly to  St.  Leger  belongs  the  far 
higher  praise  of  originating  this  system  of 
government,  and  continuing  manfully,  and 
even  importunately,  to  press  the  adoption 
of  it  upon  the  king. 

Before  closing  our  account  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  we  should  mention  that  by  his  un- 
controlled lust  of  sway,  the  complete  union 
of  Wales  with  England,  the  conversion  of 
the  English  power  in  Ireland  into  a  king- 
dom, and  the  title  of  "  Majesty"  annexed 
to  the  English  monarchs,  all  date  from  this 
reign. 

It  is  quite  time  now  that  this  monster  of 
iniquity  should  be  removed  from  the  scene. 
We  therefore  make  him  over  to  Mac-G«o- 
ghegan,  who  says  : — 

"  Previous  to  his  death,  Henry  the 
Eighth  became  so  large  and  unwieldly 
that  it  was  necessary  to  invent  a  machine 
to  change  or  move  him  from  one  place  to 
another.  He  sank  under  the  weight  of  his 
own  body,  which  had  become  bloated  from 
intemperance,  the  usual  companion  of  lust. 
His  body  might,  with  propriety,  be  termed 
the  sepulchre  of  himself,  in  which  his  plea- 
sures and  disappointments  had  entombed 
along  with  him,  his  religion,  his  conscience, 
his  glory,  and  every  sentiment  of  honour, 
justice,  and  humanity." 

Then  follows  the  learned  abbe's  sum- 
mary of  Henry's  character,  which  we  have 
preferred  to  all  others  for  its  comprehen- 
siveness, brevity,  and  impartiality  : — 

"  It  is  diflicult  to  delineate  with  accuracy 
the  character  of  this  unhappy  prince  :  his 
portrait  varies  according  to  the  different 
dispositions  of  the  historians  who  have 
written  on  the  subject.  The  partisans  of 
the  Reformation  consider  it  a  merit  in  him 
to  have  shaken  off  the  pope's  authority,  and 
thereby  established  the  new  religion.  His 
most  zealous  panegyrists,  however,  admit 
that  he  was  addicted  to  many  vices.  In 
truth,  the  different  opinions  of  writers,  with 


126 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


respect  to  religion  and  the  legitimate  suc- 
cession of  kings,  have  cast  so  many  doubts 
on  historical  facts,  from  the  period  of  the 
pretended  divorce  of  Henry  and  Catharine 
of  Arragon  to  the  present  time,  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  discriminate  between 
truth  and  falsehood. 

"  Notwithstanding,  however,  the  various 
opinions  of  writers  on  Henry's  character, 
it  may  be  affirmed  that  he  was  a  bad  king, 
a  bad  husband,  and  a  bad  Christian.  A 
tyrant  is  a  bad  king.  Henry  spent  the  first 
eighteen  years  of  his  reign  at  plays,  mas- 
querades, and  nocturnal  amusements.  He 
soon  squandered  the  eighteen  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling,  which,  through  the 
avarice  of  his  father,  Henry  the  Seventh, 
he  had  found  in  the  treasury  on  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne ;  so  that,  though  possess- 
ing more  considerable  revenues,  he  found 
himself  more  indigent  than  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors. He,  however,  supplied  the  de- 
ficiency by  tyranny :  the  immense  wealth 
of  the  monasteries,  colleges,  and  hospitals, 
which  were  suppressed ;  the  silver  orna- 
ments and  vessels  of  these  houses ;  the 
spoils  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  Cromwell, 
his  vicar-general ;  the  estates  of  several 
noblemen  of  the  first  distinction,  which 
were  confiscated  for  his  use,  and  the  large 
sums  that  were  extorted  from  the  clergy, 
under  pretext  of  the  praemunire  law,  in- 
creased the  king's  exchequer  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  but  were  not  sufficient  to  sup- 
port his  profligacy.  He  levied  exorbitant 
taxes  upon  his  people ;  raised  extensive 
loans  on  his  privy-seal ;  and  then  procured 
acts  of  parliament  to  annul  his  engage- 
ments, and  defraud  his  creditors  of  their 
right.  Finding  the  wealth  of  the  kingdom 
entirely  exhausted,  he  caused  the  money 
to  be  recoined,  and  made  spurious,  to  such 
a  degree,  that,  to  the  shame  of  the  English 
nation,  it  was  not  current  in  foreign  coun- 
tries, by  which  means  the  merchant  lost 
his  credit  abroad.  In  Ireland,  for  want 
of  gold  and  silver,  the  king  ordered  that 
copper  money  should  be  made  use  of,  to 
the  great  detriment  and  displeasure  of  the 
public. 

"  Of  Henry's  six  wives,  two  were  re- 


pudiated, two  were  beheaded,  and  one 
died  in  childbed  ;  the  survivor,  in  all  like- 
lihood, only  escaped  a  cruel  fate  by  the 
sudden  death  of  the  prince ;  all  which  facts 
fully  prove  him  to  have  been  the  worst  of 
husbands. 

"In  fine,  Henry  is  represented  as  a 
cruel  and  profligate  prince.  Neither  the 
most  depraved  of  the  Roman  emperors, 
(says  Higgins,)  nor  even  Christiern  of  Den- 
mark, Don  Pedro  of  Castile,  nor  Vasilowich 
of  Russia,  surpassed  him  in  cruelty  and 
debauchery.  This  writer,  indeed,  like  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  affirms,  that  were  the  por- 
trait of  tyranny  lost,  the  original  might  be 
found  in  the  life  of  Henry  the  Eighth.  He 
was  a  monster  of  humanity,  that  never 
spared  man  in  his  anger,  nor  woman  in 
his  lust ;  and  from  the  consciousness  of  his 
crimes,  he  died  in  utter  despair." 

Perhaps,  however,  we  had  better  allow 
a  countryman  of  Henry  the  Eighth's  to  say 
the  "  last  words"  over  the  deceased  mon- 
arch.    Hear  Cobbett : — 

"  Thus  expired,  in  the  year  1547,  in  the 
fifty-sixth  year  of  his  age  and  the  thirty- 
eighth  of  his  reign,  the  most  unjust,  hard- 
hearted, meanest,  and  most  sanguinary  ty- 
rant that  the  world  had  ever  beheld,  whether 
Christian  or  heathen.  That  England  which 
he  found  in  peace,  unity,  plenty,  and  hap- 
piness, he  left  torn  by  factions  and  schisms, 
— her  people  wandering  about  in  beggary 
and  misery.  He  laid  the  foundation  of 
immorality,  dishonesty  and  pauperism,  all 
which  produced  an  abundant  harvest  in 
the  reigns  of  his  unhappy,  barren,  mis- 
chievous and  miserable  children,  with 
whom,   at   the   end   of  a  few   years,  his 

HOUSE  AND  HIS  NAME.  WERE  EXTINGUISHED 
FOR  EVER." 

The  most  depraved  being  that  ever 
heard  of  his  horrible  crimes  cannot  con- 
template his  character  without  a  shudder, 
and  the  most  charitable  frame  of  mind  only 
could  indulge  the  hope  that  belongs  to  a 
Christian's  wish, — Requiescat  in  pace  ! 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


127 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

A  digression  on  digressions — Continental  progress 
of  the  "  Reformation" — Catholic  and  Protestant 
evidence  regarding  the  religion  which  Henry  the 
Eighth  thought  proper  to  oppose — Leo  in  Italy 
and  Luther  in  Germany  preparing  the  way  for 
Henry's  changes  in  England  and  Ireland. 

In  works  confessedly  interested  and  par- 
tial, so  many  admirable  arguments  have 
already  been  written,  ably  supported  by  all 
the  brilliancy  of  scholastic  disputation,  that 
we  have  no  wish  now  to  take  up  a  glove, 
(whetli,er  right  or  left,)  in  the  arena  of  con- 
troversy upon  the  subject  of  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  changes  which  began  to  show 
political  effects  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
We  would  rather  employ  ourselves  (step- 
ping softly  with  roselted  slippers)  in  point- 
ing out  the  banners,  translating  the  devices, 
and  recording  the  achievements  perform- 
ed ;  and  if,  in  so  doing,  we  should  advance 
the  noble  cause  of  human  improvement, 
gain  the  approbation  of  our  fellow-Chris- 
tians, or  win  the  patronage  of  "  ladies' 
eyes,"  our  reward  will  be  as  gratifying  as 
it  could  possibly  be  to  the  most  successful 
armour-clanking  champion  on  the  field. 

In  the  first  place,  our  duty  seems  to  re- 
quire that  we  should  show  what  was  the 
religion  of  England  and  Ireland  prior  to  the 
sixteenth  century.  As  this  is  not  the  sub- 
ject for  an  opponent's  evidence,  we  have 
extracted  the  following  from  the  "  Dublin 
Review,"  the  most  eminent  Catholic  au- 
thority in  the  English  language : — 

"Whatever  ills  afflicted  the  fair  realm 
of  England  from  her  conversion  to  Christi- 
anity under  St.  Augustine  down  to  the  fatal 
epoch  of  1534,  were  most  assuredly  not  at- 
tributable to  the  religion  which,  during  that 
long  and  interesting  period  of  her  history, 
grew  and  flourished  upon  her  soil  in  so 
singular  a  degree ;  for  that  was  a  religion 
more  peculiarly  adapted  to  bring  a  blessing 
upon  the  land, — *  a  vision  fair  of  peace  and 
rest ;'  making  it '  a  land  of  hills  and  plains 
expecting  rain  from  heaven,  and  which  the 
Lord  God  for  ever  visited,  keeping  His 
eyes  for  ever  on  it,  from  the  beginning  of 
the  year  unto  the  end  thereof;'*  devoting 
her  whole  substance  in  this,  to  the  interests 

•  Deut  xi.  11,  12. 


of  a  future  world,  and  consecrating  her 
whole  self,  both  spiritual  and  temporal,  to 
those  hallowed  purposes. 

"  For,  in  the  first  place,  it  was  a  religion 
which  ever  made  the  Church  her  home- 
stead. There  she  enthroned  her  God  in 
splendid  pageantry,  collecting  all  her  means 
to  honour  Him  whom  she  adored,  and  at- 
tracting to  His  worship  all  the  people  over 
whom  she  ruled.  There  was  enticing 
imagery  for  the  young,  and  solemn  service 
for  the  old ;  the  note  of  sorrow  or  of  tri- 
umph in  her  voice,  the  sign  of  mourning  or 
of  gladness  on  her  altars,  the  daughter  of 
Sion  robed  in  •  the  garments  of  her  glory,' 
or  clad  in  the  weeds  of  her  affliction,  as  the 
season  suggested ;  the  emblem  of  redemp)- 
tion  elevated  on  high,  that  while  they  gazed 
upon  the  sad  symbol  of  their  faith  it  might 
excite  compunction ;  and  with  compunc- 
tion, hope ;  and  with  hope,  charity.  More 
elevated  still,  they  beheld  the  representa- 
tion of  the  last  and  awful  doom,  with  Him, 
who  was  crucified  for  the  sins  of  men, 
coming  in  great  majesty  and  power  to 
judge  V  mankind  by  the  standard  of  the 
cross,  attended  by  choirs  of  angels  to  min- 
ister to  His  will,  with  companies  of  prophets 
and  armies  of  martyrs  to  attest  the  judg- 
ment, and  the  whole  host  of  heaven  to  do 
homage  to  His  wisdom  and  His  justice ;  the 
blessed  on  the  right  and  the  reprobate  on 
the  left,  a  gleam  of  eternal  brightness  indi- 
cating the  reward  of  the  one,  and  the  sul- 
phurous flame  and  tormenting  spirits  the 
portion  of  the  other.  But  this  was  not  the 
only  instruction  which  the  pious  votary 
might  read  in  the  decoration  of  the  material 
temple.  If  his  soul  were  oppressed,  or  his 
eyes  wearied  by  the  contemplation  of  this 
awful  scene,  and  he  sought  relief  by  cast- 
ing them  on  the  ground,  there  was  still  a 
lesson  ready  for  him,  for  they  but  rested 
on  the  memorials  of  the  dead.  If  he  were 
a  sinner,  he  was  again  struck  with  terror ; 
if  he  were  looking  with  pious  expectation 
for  what  was  to  come,  he  read  his  hope 
and  his  consolation,  for  he  knew  that  if 
death  were  the  destruction  of  the  wicked 
it  was  also  the  resurrection  of  the  just. 
Around  him  he  beheld  depictured  the  whole 


128 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


story  of  revelation,  to  elevate  the  mind  by 
teaching  it  the  dignity  of  a  Christian,  and 
the  value  of  an  immortal  soul ;  the  end  for 
which  it  was  created,  and  the  price  paid 
for  its  redemption.  There  were  all  appli- 
ances to  excite  devotion,  and  every  requi- 
site to  satisfy  it, — the  daily  sacrifice,  the 
varied  service,  the  frequent  prayer,  the 
priest  of  God  to  distribute  his  graces,  to 
give  strength  to  the  weak  and  fresh  vigour 
to  the  strong,  to  relieve  the  penitent  of  his 
burden  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  impress 
the  judgments  of  heaven  on  the  obdurate 
sinner, — to  afford  consolation  to  the  sor- 
rowful, courage  to  the  timid,  and  assurance 
to  the  diffident ;  in  fine,  through  the  pow- 
ers conferred  upon  her  ministers  by  her 
divine  Founder,  as  the  vicegerents  of  Him 
who  said,  '  Come  to  me,  all  ye  who  labour 
and  are  burdened,  and  I  will  ease  and  re- 
fresh you ;'  dispensing  relief  to  all  the  mis- 
eries, temptations,  and  afflictions  with  which 
the  poor  wayfarer  in  this  valley  of  tears  is 
sure  to  be  tried,  bewildered,  or  oppressed. 

"  It  was  the  religion  which,  from  St. 
Augustine  to  Sir  Thomas  More,  -  never 
omitted  to  put  forth  the  most  splendid  ex- 
amples of  the  noblest  virtues;  of  the  most 
steadfast  faith,  the  most  heroic  courage,  and 
the  most  ardent  charity;  leaving  monu- 
ments of  zeal  to  attest  the  disinterested  and 
benignant  piety  of  men  who  enthroned  the 
covenant  of  God  in  the  heart,  and  gave  it 
dominion  over  the  passions. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  which  ever 
possessed  within  herself  such  incentives  to 
virtue,  or  which  provided  such  safeguards 
against  vice ;  which  ever  realized  the  coun- 
sels of  the  gospel,  and  of  frail,  sinful  crea- 
tures, made  men  *  rich  in  virtue,' — burying 
them  in  peace,  but  giving  them  a  name 
which  liveth  unto  generation  and  genera- 
tion,* and  sending  their  souls  to  that  blessed 
abode  where  *God  shall  wipe  away  all 
tears  from  their  eyes :  and  death  shall  be 
no  more, — nor  mourning,  nor  crying,  nor 
sorrow, — for  the  former  things  are  passed 
away.' 

"  It  was  the  religion  which,  even  •  in  the 
darkest  times,  was  ever  found  to  be  fight- 

*  Eccles.  xliv.  6,  14. 


ing  the  cause  of  truth  and  right  against 
sin,  to  be  a  witness  for  God,  or  defending 
the  poor,  or  purifying  or  reforming  her 
own  functionaries,  or  promoting  peace,  or 
maintaining  the  holy  faith  committed  to 
her  ;'*  and  it  was  the  only  religion  that 
ever  put  forth  all  her  energies,  or  combated 
successfully  in  such  a  cause. 

"  And  thus  it  was  that  the  ancient  reli- 
gion of  the  realm  of  England  covered  the 
land  with  consecrated  spots,  where  men 
were  separated  from  this  troubled  world, 
and  carried  into  serene  and  tranquil  re- 
gions before  their  time — where  they  es- 
caped from  the  thorny  desert  to  dwell 
among  enamelled  meads— from  the  conta- 
gious atmosphere  of  every  vice  to  the 
salubrious  abodes  of  every  virtue.  They 
'  who  were  better  than  the  world  in  their 
youth,  or  weary  of  it  in  their  age ;'  they 
whose  sensitive  nature  rendered  them  alike 
incapable  of  resisting  either  the  soft  breeze 
or  the  rude  blast,  whose  sympathizing  ten- 
derness ever  melted  before  the  feelings,  or 
whose  unresisting  timidity  ever  yielded 
before  the  violence  of  others ;  they  whose 
iniquities  sat  heavier  on  them  than  they 
could  bear  to  carry  amid  the  haunts  of 
sin,  and  who  must  needs  lay  them  at  the 
foot  of  the  cross ;  they  whose  pilgrimage 
of  toil  and  mourning  had  so  bruised  the 
heart  that  it  could  alone  be  healed  within 
the  balmy  influence  of  the  cloister,  because 
there  alone  the  voice  of  God  could  reach  it 
amid  the  sacred  stillness,  converting  its 
sorrows  into  love, — all  found  their  solace 
and  their  joy  within  these  holy  precincts. 

"  There,  too,  it  was,  that  the  apostolic 
man  was  schooled  in  the  science  of  the 
saints,  till  he  went  forth  as  the  herald  of 
salvation  on  his  triumphant  course,  con- 
quering sin  and  death,  enlarging  the  boun- 
daries of  faith,  and  establishing  the  king- 
dom of  God  upon  earth. 

"  There  it  was  that  the  otorms  of  a  thou- 
sand years  swept  unheeded  over  the  virtue 
which  required  the  protection  of  the  sanc- 
tuary to  bring  it  to  maturity,  and  where 
alone  the  sublime  perfection  of  the  gospel 
could  be  attained:  there,  that  men  were 
*  British  Critic. 


A.  D.  1647.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


129 


congregated  together  to  pray  for  the  sins 
of  their  fellow-men — 'for  a  world  which 
forgets  to  pray  for  itself* — and  to  invoke  the 
blessings  of  God  upon  his  fallen  creatures. 

"  There  it  was  that  the  arts  and  scien- 
ces found  their  cradle  and  their  refuge  in  a 
rude  and  troubled  age :  there  the  lives  of 
the  saints  were  chronicled,  and  the  history 
of  passing  events  recorded  that  otherwise 
had  been  lost  in  oblivion. 

"  There  it  was  that  the  word  of  God  was 
treasured  up,  and  explored  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  had  less  learning  and  less 
leisure ;  and  there,  even,  that  the  classic 
lore  of  antiquity  was  preserved  for  the 
amusement  and  instruction  of  after  genera- 
tions, till  the  arts  of  more  modem  days 
were  to  place  them  beyond  all  future  dan- 
ger; then,  as  now,  'a  cloister  without  a 
library  was  said  to  be  like  a  castle  without 
an  armoury.' 

"  There  it  was  that  the  renunciation  of 
the  superfluities  of  life  was  reckoned  an 
honourable  and  meritorious  sacrifice,  and 
men  were  content  to  be  abstemious  them- 
selves to  enjoy  the  means  of  gratifying  the 
necessities  of  others  ;  for  there  the  hand 
of  charity  gave  out  the  daily  pittance  to 
the  destitute,  without  any  offensive  inquiry 
into  the  cause  of  a  distress  the  presence  of 
which  was  alone  a  sufficient  recommenda- 
tion for  relief.  The  spiritual,  too,  kept 
pace  with  the  corporal  works  of  mercy, 
and  while  food  for  the  body  was  distribu- 
ted without,  food  for  the  soul  was  abun- 
dantly supplied  within. 

"  It  was  the  monastic  rule  that  enabled 
the  possessors  of  the  abbey  lands  to  let 
them  on  easy  terms,  which,  together  with 
the  hospitality  and  charity  which  they 
practised,  served  as  a  check  on  the  rapa- 
city or  cruelty  of  the  feudal  baron ;  and, 
as  a  consequence,  a  prosperous  tenantry 
and  a  happy  people  were  sure  to  grow  up 
around  the  sanctuary.  The  same  benefits 
were  conferred  by  the  property  of  the  pre- 
lates and  dignitaries  of  the  Church,  so  that 
it  became  a  proverb  *  that  it  was  better  to 
be  governed  by  a  bishop's  crozier  than  by 
a  monarch's  sceptre;'  and  such  was  the 

condition  of  about  a  fourth  part  of  the 

17 


kingdom,  from  which  not  an  eighth  proba- 
bly of  the  revenue  was  collected.  Yet 
another  blessing  did  they  bring  with  them, 
that  when  war  and  misery  had  well  nigh 
desolated  the  land,  through  the  reckless 
ambition  of  some  daring  noble,  or  the 
rough  tyranny  of  some  lawless  sovereign, 
these  •  cities  of  refuge'  usually  escaped  the 
general  wreck,  and  remained  as  nurseries 
of  virtue  and  of  learning  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  people;  while,  if  the  Church 
also  fell  into  disorder  or  decay,  from  simi- 
lar causes  or  from  other  untoward  circum- 
stances, it  was  the  monasteries  that  ever 
furnished  the  materials  for  its  reform. 

"  Such  were  among  the  blessings  which 
the  religion  of  our  ancestors  conferred  upon 
the  country.  But  there  were  others  still : 
let  us  take  them  discursively,  as  they  pre- 
sent themselves  to  the  mind,  without  order 
or  method. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  which  has  ever 
really  dedicated  to  God  what  belongs  to 
God,  lavishing  the  richest  produce  both  of 
art  and  nature  in  His  service,  and  making 
all  things  subservient  to  her  sacred  and 
exalted  destinies  ;  adorning  the  world  with 
temples  for  His  worship,  which,  having 
taken  centuries  to  erect — and  as  many  cen- 
turies having  since  passed  over  them — still 
stand  to  excite  the  admiration  of  all  lovers 
of  the  beautiful  and  sublime,  and  to  attest 
the  superior  zeal  and  piety  inspired  by  the 
ancient  faith. 

"  It  was  the  religion  under  which  Eng- 
land was  governed  without  a  standing 
army,  a  star-chamber,  a  national  debt,  or 
poor-law  unions ;  under  which  all  the  best 
and  proudest  institutions  of  the  country 
arose  and  flourished,  and  attained  maturity  ; 
which  freed  the  nation  from  the  tyrannical 
exactions  of  the  forest  laws ;  and  which 
won,  and  then  consecrated  by  her  sanction, 
the  Great  Charter  of  our  liberties. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  ever  really 
provided,  without  any  state  assistance,  for 
the  education  of  all  classes — of  the  poor  as 
well  as  of  the  rich — in  school,  in  convent, 
or  in  college. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  has  ever 
filled  the  hospitals  with  unpaid  attendants. 


130 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


who,  actuated  solely  by  the  charity  of  the 
gospel,  have  brought  every  virtue  of  the 
gospel  with  them,  and  supplied  with  a  kind 
heart  and  a  devout  zeal  the  best  remedies 
for  the  body,  because  administered  in  con- 
junction with  the  best  medicines  for  the  soul. 

"  It  was  the  first  religion  that  ever  advo- 
cated the  cause  of  the  slave  in  the  face  of 
power  and  interest,  which  broke  down  the 
wall  of  separation  between  the  singular  and 
even  antagonist  diversities  of  the  human 
race,  and  placed  *  the  son  of  the  stranger' 
upon  an  equality  with  the  more  favoured 
and  cherished  of  her  children.  It  was  the 
only  religion  that  ever  established  a  com- 
pany for  the  redemption  of  captives,  even 
at  the  risk  of  their  own  liberty,  and  which, 
after  an  honourable  existence  of  six  hundred 
years,  still  survives  the  occasion  for  which 
it  was  created ;  the  only  religion  in  which 
piety  and  humanity  have  united  to  conquer 
the  repugnance  of  our  nature,  and  to  con- 
gregate men  of  feeling  hearts  and  enlight- 
ened minds  within  the  dark  caverns  of  the 
unhealthy  mine,  burying  themselves  alive 
within  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  in  the  sub- 
lime exercise  of  corporal  and  spiritual 
works  of  mercy  to  the  wretched  inmates  of 
those  dreary  abodes,  whom  the  avarice  of 
their  fellow-men  had  condemned  to  this 
service  of  privation  and  misery. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  ever  threw 
her  mantle  over  the  persecuted,  the  forlorn, 
and  the  unfortunate.  Her  voice  was  ever 
raised  in  their  defence,  and  her  laws  were 
ever  devised  for  their  protection.  She 
never  failed  to  provide  shelter  and  hospi- 
tality for  the  houseless  traveller ;  the  way- 
faring man  of  business,  the  prince,  the  pre- 
late, and  the  pilgrim,  all  equally  partook  of 
the  charity  which  the  pious  care  of  the 
faithful  of  old  had  so  munificently  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  men  bound  by  the  most 
solemn  compact  to  do  good  service  to  all 
comers ;  while  the  house  of  God,  which 
they  tenanted  and  served  more  especially, 
stood  open  to  yield  its  consolations  where 
more  was  lacked  than  mere  bodily  rest  and 
refreshment, — that  which  might  satisfy  the 
cravings  of  the  soul,  heal  the  scathed  spirit, 
and  ease  the  burdened  conscience.    Even 


the  most  bold  and  indifferent,  in  those '  ages 
of  faith,'  muttered  a  hasty  *  Pater'  and  *Ave! 
and  crossed  themselves  before  they  left  the 
hospitable  roof,  and  set  forth  upon  their 
perilous  way ;  while  the  sober  and  thought- 
ful made  their  more  fervent  orisons  at  the 
altar  of  God,  offered  up  their  griefs  and 
their  repentance,  their  hopes  and  their  sup- 
plications, to  the  avenger  of  evil  and  the  re- 
warder  of  good,  the  refuge  of  the  weak  and 
the  comforter  of  the  afflicted,  that  their 
pangs  might  be  assuaged  and  their  fears  dis- 
pelled, claiming  the  protection  of  Heaven  in 
the  true  feeling  of  a  Christian,  against  the 
wiles  of  Satan  and  the  machinations  of 
wicked  men;  but  more  especially  against 
the  hazards  with  which  those  devout  yet 
troubled  times  too  often  beset  the  path  of 
the  wanderer  in  this  wilderness  of  sin  and 
sorrow.  There  was  a  community  of  senti- 
ment also  between  the  casual  guest  and  his 
hospitable  hosts,  which  imparted  such  a 
consciousness  of  sympathy  in  all  his  feel- 
ings as  infinitely  to  heighten  the  boon  con- 
ferred upon  him — which  indeed  seemed  to 
be  rather  the  immediate  providence  of 
Heaven  than  the  extorted  charity  of  man, 
— and  sent  the  pilgrim  on  his  way  with  a 
hymn  of  gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  all  good 
gifts,  and  of  increased  confidence  in  his 
favour. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  ever  con- 
secrated matrimony  with  a  sacrament,  or 
honoured  celibacy  as  one  of  the  first  of 
virtues,  remembering  that  the  throne  of  the 
Lamb  is  surrounded  by  spotless  virgins, 
who  enjoy  the  blessed  privilege  of  waiting 
on  Him  wherever  he  goeth. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  ever 
peopled  the  desert  with  anchorites,  or 
filled  the  cloister  with  penitents  from 
among  the  gay  and  dissolute ;  the  only  one 
that  ever  gained  over  a  barbarous  people 
to  civilization  and  Christianity ;  the  only 
one  that  ever  sent  a  tide  of  devoted  war- 
riors to  stem  the  torrent  of  an  infidel  fana- 
ticism which  threatened  to  devastate  the 
whole  inheritance  of  Christ ;  the  only  one 
that  ever  converted  a  romantic  lover  into 
a  true  knight,  or  of  a  fanatic  made  a  saint. 

"  It  was  the  religion  that  made  Godfrey 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


131 


de  Bouillon  exclaim,  in  the  gratitude  of  his 
triumph,  that  '  he  would  never  wear  a 
crown  of  gold  in  that  city  wherein  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  had  worn  a  crown 
of  thorns;'  which  induced  Rodolph  of 
Hapsburg,  the  sceptre  not  being  at  hand, 
to  seize  the  crucifix,  saying,  *  This  is  my 
sceptre,  I'll  have  no  other ;'  and  when 
Gregory  the  Seventh  thus  expressed  him- 
self on  his  death-bed,  (surrounded  as  he  was 
by  every  worldly  sorrow,)  *  Because  I  loved 
justice,  and  hated  iniquity,  therefore  do  I 
die  in  exile,*  that  inspired  a  bystander  to 
comfort  him  by  the  reply, '  Sir,  there  is  no 
place  of  exile  for  you,  for  the  Lord  hath 
given  you  the  nations  for  your  inheritance, 
and  the  boundaries  of  the  earth  for  the 
limits  of  your  dominion.* 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  ever  knit 
all  hearts  together  in  blessed  unity,  which 
restrained  the  unlawful  wanderings  of  the 
human  mind,  stifled  schism  in  its  birth,  re- 
pressed error,  reduced  the  loftiest  spirits  as 
well  as  the  meanest  understandings  to  a 
just  obedience,  established  a  happy  sym- 
pathy between  the  greatest  and  the  least, 
placed  the  prince  and  the  peasant  side  by 
side  on  the  bare  pavement  of  her  splendid 
temples,  elevating  the  hopes  of  the  one  and 
depressing  the  pride  of  the  other,  and  in- 
structing both  in  the  wholesome  truth  that 
they  worshipped  a  God  who  was  no  respec- 
ter of  persons.  It  was  the  only  religion 
that,  by  sound  of  anointed  bell,  has  ever 
invited  the  poor  husbandman  to  prayer 
before  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  has  as- 
sembled him  again  at  the  termination  of 
his  labours,  when  crowds  of  pious  and 
believing  souls  came  to  sanctify  the  de- 
clining day  by  filling  the  house  of  God  with 
their  holy  chaunt,  and  proffering  their  sup- 
plications to  heaven  for  protection  till  the 
coming  morning. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  ever  re- 
spected the  censures  of  the  Church,  and 
exhibited  to  the  Christian  world  the  spec- 
tacle of  a  sovereign  prince  remaining  for 
three  hundred  years  without  sepulture — as 
did  Raymond  of  Toulouse  —  because  he 
died  under  the  ban  of  a  spiritual  attainder, 
the  open  enemy  of  God  ;  the  only  one  that 


ever  produced  a  prelate  bold  enough  to 
close  the  doors  of  the  sanctuary  against 
imperial  majesty,  considering  even  the 
presence  of  an  emperor — the  fountain  of 
honour,  the  anointed  of  God,  and  the  de- 
positary of  his  power — as  a  profane  in- 
trusion, when  excluded  by  his  crimes,  from 
the  communion  of  the  faithful. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  which,  at  the 
voice  of  outraged  virtue,  ever  shut  her  tem- 
ples, hushed  her  bells,  and  made  a  whole 
people  mourn  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  till 
the  sins  of  their  brethren  were  expiated 
in  repentance;  the  only  one  that  ever 
brought  an  oflfending  sovereign  to  kneel  in 
sorrow  and  humiliation  as  a  suppliant  for 
pardon  at  the  feet  of  the  common  father 
of  the  faithful,  the  common  protector  of 
afflicted  humanity. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  in  which  the 
rights  of  the  people  were  ever  respected, 
and  in  which,  for  ten  centuries  and  more, 
the  canonical  law  or  imprescriptible  usage 
required  their  consent  and  co-operation  in 
the  election  of  bishops  to  govern  the  Church 
of  God,  and  even  in  the  appointment  of  the 
sovereign  pontiflf  himself;  and  such  was 
the  confidence  reposed  in  their  decision, 
that '  vox  populi,  vox  Def  became  a  pro- 
verb ;  and  this  honourable  privilege  might 
have  remained  in  their  possession  to  this 
day,  had  not  the  vices  with  which  they 
became  infected,  and  the  new  order  of 
things  which  grew  up  within  the  republic 
of  Christendom,  justly  deprived  them  of  it. 

**It  was  the  only  religion  that  could 
ever  boast  of  the  miraculous  attestation  of 
Heaven  in  its  favour,  and  which,  in  every 
age,  has  gone  forth,  and  the  signs  have  fol- 
lowed, casting  out  devils,  speaking  strange 
tongues,  healing  the  sick,  curing  the  lame, 
giving  sight  to  the  blind,  and  raising  the 
dead  to  life. 

**  It  was  the  only  religion  that  has  ever 
sung  the  song  of  triumph  over  the  solitary 
grave  of  a  martyred  missionary  among  the 
trackless  deserts  of  the  New  World  ;  and 
which,  imparting  fresh  energies  to  their 
zeal,  has  carried  the  messengers  of  God 
with  an  heroic  perseverance  onward  in  their 
enterprise,  till  after  incredible  efforts  and 


133 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1647. 


sacrifices,  they  at  length  reduced  within 
the  boundaries  of  civilization  whole  tribes 
of  savage  wanderers,  almost  as  impatient 
of  control  as  the  wild  beasts  of  the  forests 
in  which  they  dwelled,  and  converted  them 
into  a  Christian  republic,  the  most  perfect 
that  ever  graced  the  annals  of  the  human 
race. 

"  It  was  the  only  religion  that  has  ever 
carried  the  glad  tidings  of  a  crucified  Re- 
deemer among  the  empires  of  the  east ; 
among  a  people  as  singular  for  their  civili- 
zation as  for  their  obstinate  repugnance  to 
the  light  of  the  gospel,  and  where  religion, 
after  struggling  under  alternate  destinies  for 
three  hundred  years,  fertilizing  the  fields  of 
Christianity  with  the  blood  of  one  hundred 
thousand  martyrs, — numbers  of  them  im- 
molated under  the  most  excruciating  tor- 
ments,—  still  presents  attractions  to  the 
pious  zeal  of  the  missionary,  who  at  the  peril 
of  his  life,  brings  succour  to  the  persecuted 
and  dispirited  remnant  of  what  were  once 
so  many  flourishing  proviHces  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  upon  earth.*  ^ 

"  It  was  the  only  religion,  ^ich,  by  its 
love  of  labour,  and  its  patient  industry,  has 
ever  converted  an  arid  desert  into  a  fruit- 
ful garden,  and  reared  the  standard  of 
the  cross  among  the  mountain  tops — that 
cross,  •  whose  breadth  is  charity,  whose 
length  is  eternity,  whose  height  is  almighty 
power,  and  whose  depth  is  unsearchable 
wisdom,* — hallowing  even  the  rugged  sum- 
mits of  some  desolate  rock  by  transform- 
ing it  into  the  abode  of  piety  and  virtue  ; 
or,  which,  planting  the  sacred  emblem  of 
our  redemption  along  the  common  thorough- 
fare, invited  the  weary  pilgrim  to  offer  up 
his  sorrows  on  the  altar  of  Cavalry,  to  drop 
a  tear  of  compunction  for  his  share  in  that 
tragedy  of  woe,  to  slake  his  thirst  at  that 
fountain  of  life,  and  gather  strength  and 
joy  through  the  merits  and  sufferings  of  his 
Saviour. 

"Il  was  the  only  religion  that  ever  en- 

*  In  1596,  there  were  in  China  about  five  hundred 
tbouaand  Cbristiaas,  with  more>thaa  two  hundred  aud 
fifty  churches ;  and  in  Japan,  in  17 15,  three  hundred 
thouEand  Christians,  with  three  hundred  churches ; 
living  witnesses  of  the  indefatigable  labours  of  the  Do- 
miuicaoB,  the  FronciscaQS  and  the  Jesuits. 


listed  a  society  of  volunteers  in  the  cause 
of  charity,  to  do  daily  duty  amid  the  dreary 
regions  of  the  Alps,  within  the  limits  of 
eternal  snows  and  incessant  storm,  beyond 
the  habitations  of  man,  and  the  boundary 
line  of  vegetation,  —  a  society  which  a 
thousand  years  of  ceaseless  labour  has  not 
lobbed  of  the  fresh  vigour  of  its  youth,  and 
i^hich  still  affords  shelter  and  protection 
from  the  dangers  of  those  inhospitable 
climes  to  all  who  need  it,  let  their  creed  or 
colour  be  what  it  may. 

"  It  was  the  religion  which  alone  has 
adorned  the  calendar  with  its  thousand 
saints, — with  an  Anthony,  a  Benedict,  a 
Bruno,  a  Bernard,  a  Dominick,  a  Francis, 
an  Ignatius,  a  Xavier,  a  Vincent  of  Paula, 
a  Borromeo,  a  Francis  of  Sales,  and  Philip 
Neri,  men  who  are  despised  and  dishonour- 
ed by  the  world,  but  who,  if  we  estimate 
greatness  by  the  only  true  criterion, — the 
benefits  conferred  upon  mankind, — are  in- 
finitely superior  to  those  who  contemn 
them  :  so  that  well  may  we  apply  to  them 
and  to  ourselves  those  prophetic  words  of 
wisdom  — '  We  fools  esteemed  their  life 
madness,  and  their  end  without  honour : 
Behold  how  they  are  numbered  among 
the  children  of  God,  aiW  their  lot  is  among 
the  saints  !'        , 

"  It  was  the  religion  in  which  *  the  cove- 
nant of  the  priesthood'  has  alone  remained 
for  ever  in  one  unbroken  line,  verifying  the 
promises  of  God  to  Peter,  and,  through 
Peter,  to  Peter's  successors,  *  Thou  art 
Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
Church,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vail against  it ;  and  to  thee  will  I  give  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  whatever  ye 
shall  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven, 
whatever  ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be 
loosed  in  heaven  ;'  and  then  confirming  the 
everlasting  compact  by  the  assurance  that 
'heaven and  earth  should  pass  away, but  that 
His  word  should  not  pass.'  Look  at  this  sin- 
gular verification  of  his  great  covenant  in 
that  eternal  and  mysterious  city,  which, 
serving  for  a  thousand  years  as  the  capital 
of  the  last  and  most  powerful  of  the  five 
great  empires,  was  appointed  also  as  the 
spot  wherein  the  grain  of  mustard-seed 


A.  D.  1647.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


133 


was  to  take  root  and  grow  into  a  tree, 
which,  nourished  by  the  blood  of  martyrs, 
soon  covered  with  its  shadow  all  the  limits 
of  the  earth ;  a  capital  which,  after  the 
lapse  of  a  few  ages,  in  which  the  rising 
religion  had  to  struggle  for  its  ascendancy 
with  all  the  powers  and  principalities  of 
this  world  of  pomp  and  vanity,  and  of  the 
world  of  darkness  and  of  Satan,  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  sovereignty  of  him  whose 
only  claim  was  his  rightful  heritage  from 
the  poor  fisherman  Peter,  who,  in  the  pride 
of  Rome's  imperial  sway,  had  been  barba- 
rously and  ignominiously  crucified  as  a 
worthless  and  ignorant  impostor.  The 
heir  of  Peter,  he  was  the  only  lawful  de- 
positary of  the  'perpetual  covenant,'  and 
which,  for  its  blessed  fulfilment  under  an 
over-ruling  and  almighty  Providence,  he 
has  faithfully  transmitted  to  every  succeed- 
ing generation  ;  while  the  covenant  itself, 
in  eternal  memorial  of  its  divine  origin,  like 
that  to  which  it  had  succeeded,  written,  as 
it  were,  upon  the  tablets  of  heaven  by  the 
finger  of  God  in  the  great  cathedral  of 
Christendom,  *  the  house  of  prayek  for 
ALL  nations'*  hangs  suspended  over  the 
tomb  of  Peter, — over  the  very  relics  of  the 
simple  unlettered  fisherman,  to  whom  that 
covenant  was  made,  with  all  the  splendour 
of  art  and  nature  collected  around  to  hon- 
our and  adorn  the  most  gorgeous  temple 
ever  erected  to  God,  or  the  most  superb 
monument  ever  raised  over  the  remains  of 
man  !  Can  any  one  doubt,  then,  of  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  prophetic  pledge  ? 
Behold  it  verified  to  the  letter  in  the  ma- 
terial Church  ;  while  history  and  the  attest- 
ing faith  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions 
of  Christians  dispersed  throughout  the  uni- 
verse, yet  all  professing  allegiance  to  this 
same  successor  of  Peter, — with  those  who 
first  afflicted  her  bowing  down  to  her,  and 
those  who  slandered  her  worshipping  the 
steps  of  her  feet,  and  calling  the  city  of 
Peter  the  city  of  the  Lord, — all  proclaim 
its  verification  in  the  spiritual  Tf 

We  now  proceed  to  examine  the  aspect 
of  real  life  furnished  by  the  state  of  Rome 
and  the  posture  of  ecclesiastical  affairs. 

*  Isaiah  Wi.  7.  t  See  Isaiah  Iv.  14,  alias  13. 


To  commence  then,  with  the  pope,  Leo 
the  Tenth.     Luther  thus  addresses  him : — 

**  Among  the  monsters  of  this  age  against 
which  I  am  waging  war  for  now  three 
years,  my  thoughts  revert  to  you,  O  holy 
father !  I  protest,  and  I  cannot  mistake  in 
this  protestation,  that  never  have  I  said  or 
writ  one  word  against  thee.  *  *  *  * 
You,  Leo,  you  are  a  lamb  in  the  midst  of 
wolves  ;  a  Daniel  amid  lions ;  an  Ezekiel 
among  scorpions." 

This  is  the  language  of  Luther;  and 
Erasmus  thus  writes  to  a  friend  : — 

"Never  shall  I  forget  the  grace,  the 
beauty,  the  elegant  manners  of  Leo  the 
Tenth;  they  at  once  struck  me  with  ad- 
miration ;  his  noble  and  lofty  bearing,  the 
blandness  with  which  he  received  me,  the 
indescribable  charm  of  his  conversation. 
The  treasures  which  Plato  required  of  a 
prince  shone  forth  in  him — wisdom  and 
goodness.  Others  are  distinguished  for 
feats  of  glory  and  of  arms  ;  to  Leo  belongs 
the  happiness  of  peace  and  the  triumph  of 
the  arts, — glories  which  never  cost  one 
tear  or  sigh." 

The  "  London  Quarterly  Review,"  while 
noticing  Ranke's  "Popes  of  Rome,  their 
Church  and  State  during  the  Sixteenth  and 
Seventeenth  Centuries,"  has  observed — 

"Leo  possessed  an  exquisite  taste,  and 
was  passionately  fond  of  music ;  and  Leo, 
the  most  fortunate  of  the  popes,  (as  Ranke 
observes,)  was  not  least  fortunate  in  his 
early  death,  before  these  splendid  scenes 
were  disturbed  by  the  sad  reverses  which 
were  in  some  respects  their  inevitable 
consequence. 

"  Had  Rome  been  merely  the  metropolis 
of  the  Christian  world,  from  which  emana- 
ted the  laws  and  the  decrees  which  were 
to  regulate  the  religious  concerns  of  man- 
kind, this  classical  and  epicurean  character 
of  the  court  would  have  been  of  less  con- 
sequence; but  it  was  likewise  the  centre 
of  confluence  to  the  whole  Christian  world. 
Ecclesiastics,  or  those  destined  for  the 
ecclesiastical  profession,  and  even  religious 
men  of  all  classes,  undertook  pilgrimages 
to  Rome  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  To 
such  persons,  only  accustomed  to  the  rude 


134 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


and  coarse  habits  which  then  generally  pre- 
vailed in  the  northern  nations — to  men  per- 
haps trained  in  the  severest  monastic  rules, 
who  had  been  taught  to  consider  the  au- 
sterest  asceticism  as  the  essence,  the  perfec- 
tion of  Christianity — what  must  have  been 
their  impressions  on  entering  this  splendid 
and  festive  city,  on  beholding  the  father  of 
the  faithful  in  the  midst  of  his  sumptuous 
entertainments,  amid  all  the  luxuries  of 
modern  art,  with  heathen  idols  in  his  cham- 
bers, and  heathen  poets  superseding  the 
study  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Bernard  ? 
No  doubt  much  relaxation  of  morals  pre- 
vailed in  this  gay  and  intellectual  court- 
circle,  though  Leo  at  least  respected  out- 
ward decency ;  yet  it  must  be  remembered 
how  thoroughly  the  whole  city  had  been 
vitiated  by  Alexander  the  Sixth ;  and  since 
the  davs  of  Cornelia,  the  mother  of  the 
Gracchi,  the  atmosphere  of  Rome  had  not 
been  too  favourable  to  matronly  virtue. 
No  doubt  much  freedom  of  opinion  was 
permitted  among  the  scholars  of  the  day. 
The  philosophy  as  well  as  the  art  of  Greece 
had  revived  in  all  its  captivating  influence  ; 
but  its  attempts  to  harmonize  with  Chris- 
tianity did  not  meet  with  equal  success. 
The  priesthood  itself  had  imbibed  irreli- 
gious or  sceptical  opinions." 

Ranke  says,  in  relation  to  Luther's  first 
visit  to  Rome,  in  1510; — three  years  before 
Leo  ascended  the  papal  throne : — 

"  How  astonished  was  the  youthful  Lu- 
ther when  he  visited  Italy !  At  the  mo- 
ment, at  the  instant,  that  the  offering  of  the 
mass  was  finished,  the  priests  uttered  words 
of  blasphemy  which  vitiated  its  value.  It 
was  the  tone  of  good  society  to  question 
the  evidences  of  Christianity.  No  one 
passed  (says  P.  Ant.  Bandino)  for  an  ac- 
complished man  who  did  not  entertain 
erroneous  opinions  about  Christianity.  At 
the  court,  the  ordinances  of  the  Catholic 
Church  and  passages  of  holy  writ  were 
spoken  of  onFy  in  a  jesting  manner — the 
mysteries  of  the  faith  were  despised." 

Upon  these  evident  allusions  to  "good 
society"  the  "London  Quarterly"  seems 
roused  to  observe — 

"  To  the  coarse  and  barbarous  minds  of 


the  less-civilized  nations  of  Europe  the  ele> 
gances  and  refinements  of  the  Roman  court 
would  be  no  less  offensive  and  irreligious 
than  their  laxity  of  morals  and  belief. 
•Luxury*  is  the  indefinite  and  comprehen- 
sive term  of  reproach  with  which  the  vulgar, 
in  all  ages  and  all  classes,  brand  whatever 
is  beyond  their  own  tastes  and  habits.  In 
nothing  are  men  more  intolerant  than  as  to 
the  amusements  and  less  serious  pursuits  of 
others.  The  higher  orders  mingle  up  with 
their  disgust  at  the  boorish  and  noisy  pas- 
times of  the  lower  a  kind  of  latent  feeling 
of  their  immorality;  the  lower  revenge 
themselves  by  considering  as  things  abso- 
lutely sinful  the  more  splendid  entertain- 
ments and  elegant  festivities  of  their  supe- 
riors in  wealth  and  refinement.  All  think 
they  have  a  right  to  demand  from  the 
clergy  an  exact  conformity  to  their  own 
prejudices  with  regard  to  their  less  severe 
and  even  their  intellectual  occupations ; 
and  the  priesthood,  which  is,  as  a  body,  far 
in  advance  of  the  national  standard  in  re- 
finement and  in  elegance  of  manners  and 
in  taste,  had  already  lost  its  hold  on  the 
general  feeling.  Hence  Leo  the  Tenth 
and  his  court,  even  if  its  morals  had  been 
less  questionable — its  philosophy  more  in 
unison  with  the  doctrines  of  Christianity — 
and  if  sacred  subjects  had  been  constantly 
treated  with  the  most  reverential  decency 
— would  have  stood  in  such  direct  oppo- 
sition to  the  tastes,  habits,  and  manners  of 
the  rest  of  Europe,  as  scarcely  to  have  es- 
caped the  suspicion  of  an  irreligious  and 
antichristian  tendency.  As  it  was,  the 
intelligence  of  the  mode  of  life  practised  at 
Rome  by  the  cardinals  and  by  the  pope 
himself,  darkening,  of  course,  as  it  spread, 
reached  every  part  of  the  Christian  world  ; 
and  thus,  even  if  the  lavish  expenditure  of 
Leo,  in  his  gorgeous  court  and  in  his 
splendid  designs  for  the  embellishment  of 
Rome,  had  not  increased  the  burden  of 
ecclesiastical  taxation  throughout  Christen- 
dom beyond  endurance,  his  pontificate  must 
greatly  have  loosened  the  hold  of  popery 
on  the  general  veneration." 

Ranke  describes  the  leading  policy  of 
Leo's  reign  as  being  one  continued  effort, 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


135 


even  at  the  greatest  sacrifices,  to  preserve 
the  independence  of  the  Roman  see  with  a 
balance  of  power  among  the  sovereigns  of 
France  and  Germany;  but  the  anti-reU- 
gious  and  revolutionary  influences  of  the 
age  were  never  lost  sight  of  by  the  official 
capacity  of  the  pontiff.  A  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  aggressive  policy  and  jealous 
disposition  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  is 
well  noticed.  It  appears  that  when  he 
(the  emperor)  was  pressed  by  the  papal 
influence  to  check  the  boldness  of  the 
young  reformer,  he  said,  "  No !  we  might 
want  him."  Vittori,  (who  has  left  a  manu- 
script compendium  of  the  aflair,)  says, 
"  He  excuses  himself  on  account  of  the 
passport  or  safety-conduct  he  had  granted, 
but,  in  reality,  it  was  to  keep  the  pope  in 
check  by  Luther  and  his  doctrines." 

At  the  age  of  forty-six,  after  a  pontificate 
of  eight  years,  Leo  the  Tenth  gave  place 
to  his  successor,  Adrian  the  Sixth.  Of 
Leo,  Ranke  has  remarked — 

"  His  life  passed  in  a  sort  of  intellectual 
intoxication,  and  in  the  unbroken  qualifica- 
tion of  all  his  wishes,  the  result  of  his  own 
kindly  and  bountiful  nature,  his  refined  in- 
tolleet,  and  his  sense  of  merit.  Towards 
the  close  of  his  reign,  all  the  currents  of 
his  policy  mingled  in  one  full  tide  of  tri- 
umph ;  and  it  may  be  counted  among  his 
felicities  that  he  died  when  he  did.  Very 
different  times  followed,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  suppose  that  he  could  have  successfully 
opposed  their  unpropitious  influences,  al- 
though his  name  be  stamped  on  a  century, 
and  on  a  great  epoch  of  human  advance- 
ment." 

The  expression,  "unpropitious  influ- 
ences," might  lead  to  the  supposition  that 
Ranke  is  to  be  classed  among  Catholic 
writers;  and  it  may  be  well  to  mention 
that  Ranke  and  his  judicious  translator, 
(Sarah  Austin,)  are  both  decided  Protes- 
tants. Leopold  Von  Ranke,  (a  Prussian, 
we  believe,)  is  the  Protestant  colleague  of 
the  great  Von  Raumer  in  the  historical 
department  at  the  University  of  Berlin. 
Possessing  opportunities  which  few  could 
possibly  attain  for  the  examination  of 
manuscripts  and  documents,  he  has  given 


way  to  his  feelings  amid  the  inconsistent 
grandeur  and  puzzling  contradictions  of  his 
subject,  and  has  produced  a  book  which 
has  brought  down  the  most  elaborate  hon- 
ours from  "  the  most  eloquent  pen  of  mod- 
em criticism," — Macaulay.  The  forgelful- 
ness  of  "  self"  is  the  real  charm  of  Ranke's 
writings,  even  during  his  most  inconsistent 
inferences,  and  the  "  London  Quarterly" 
well  observes — 

"  We  envy  the  dispassionate  and  philo- 
sophical serenity  with  which  the  German 
historian  may  contemplate  the  most  re- 
markable and  characteristic  portion  of  the 
annals  of  modem  Europe, — the  rise,  pro- 
gress, and  influence  of  the  papal  power. 
In  England,  the  still-reviving,  and,  it  is 
almost  to  be  feared,  unextinguishable  ani- 
mosity between  the  conflicting  religious 
parties,  the  unfortunate  connection  with 
the  political  feuds  and  hostilities  of  our  own 
days  would  almost  inevitably,  even  if  in- 
voluntarily, colour  the  page  of  a  writer ; 
while  perfect  and  unimpassioned  equali- 
bility  would  provoke  the  suspicious  and  sen- 
sitive jealousy  of  the  reader,  to  whichever 
party  he  might  belong.  On  one  side  there  is 
an  awful  and  sacred  reverence  for  the  chair 
of  St.  Peter,  which  would  shrink  from  ex- 
amining too  closely  the  political  iniquities 
which  the  most  zealous  Roman  Catholic 
cannot  altogether  veil  from  his  reluctant 
and  half-averted  gaze  ;  while,  on  the  other, 
the  whole  papal  history  is  looked  upon  as 
one  vast  and  unvarying  system  of  fraud, 
superstition,  and  tyranny.  In  truth — not- 
withstanding the  apparently  uniform  plan 
of  the  papal  policy — notwithstanding  the 
rapid  succession  of  ecclesiastics,  who,  elect- 
ed in  general  at  a  late  period  of  life,  occu- 
pied the  spiritual  throne  of  the  Vatican, — 
the  annals  of  few  kingdoms,  when  more 
profoundly  considered,  possess  greater  va- 
riety— are  more  strongly  modified  by  the 
genius  of  successive  ages — or  are  more 
influenced  by  the  personal  character  of  the 
reigning  sovereign.  Yet,  in  all  times,  to 
the  Roman  CathoHc  the  dazzling  halo  of 
sanctity, — to  the  Protestant  the  thick  dark- 
ness,— which  has  gathered  round  the  pon- 
tifical tiara,  has  obscured  the  peculiar  and 


136 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


(A.  D.  1547. 


distinctive  lineaments  of  the  Gregories,  and 
Innocents,  and  Alexanders.  As  a  whole, 
the  papal  history  has  been  by  no  means 
deeply  studied,  or  distinctly  understood : 
in  no  country  has  the  modern  spiritual  em- 
pire of  Rome  found  its  Livy  or  its  Polyb- 
ius ;  no  masterly  hand  has  traced  the 
changes  in  its  political  relations  to  the  rest 
of  Europe  from  the  real  date  of  its  temporal 
power,  its  alliance  with  the  Prankish  mon- 
archs — nor  the  vicissitudes  of  its  fortunes 
during  its  long  struggle  for  supremacy. 
Almost  at  the  same  time  the  slave  of  the  tur- 
bulent barons  of  Romagna,  or  of  the  fero- 
cious populace  of  the  city,  and  the  powerful 
protector  of  the  freedom  of  the  young  Ital- 
ian republics — the  unwearied  and  at  length 
victorious  antagonist  of  the  German  em- 
perors— the  dictator  of  transalpine  Eu- 
rope ;  now  an  exile  from  the  imperial  and 
holy  city,  yet  in  exile  swaying  the  desti- 
nies of  kingdoms — triumphing  even  over 
its  own  civil  dissensions,  and  concentrating 
its  power,  after  it  had  been  split  asunder 
by  schisms  almost  of  centuries,  not  merely 
unenfeebled,  but  apparently  with  increased 
energy  and  ambition:  no  subject  would 
offer  a  more  imposing  or  more  noble  theme 
for  a  great  historian  than  that  of  papal 
Rome ;  none  would  demand  higher  quali- 
fications,— the  most  laborious  inquiry,  the 
most  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
the  most  vivid  and  picturesque  powers  of 
description,  the  most  dignified  superiority 
to  all  the  prepossessions  of  age,  of  country, 
and  of  creed." 

We  will  again  return  to  the  pope  who 
was  a  contemporary  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
— that  pope  of  whom  Roscoe  and  Ranke 
have  rivalled  each  other  in  ascribing 
praises  for  every  royalty  of  character. 
Yet,  Guicciardino  says  of  him : — 

"  Leo  disappointed  the  world ;  he  was 
destined  by  the  highest  gifts  of  nature,  and 
the  best  earthly  principles,  to  benefit  the 
Church  ;  but  he  forgot  the  duties  of  the 
pontiff  to  enjoy  the  glories  of  the  prince." 

"  How  can  we  be  told"  (says  Audin,  in 
his  "  Life  of  Luther")  "  that  in  the  religious 
quarrels  in  which  Rome  had  such  a  stake, 
the  papacy  was  behind  or  remiss  in  its  ef- 


forts; that  what  religion  and  the  gospel 
maxims  required  was  left  unheeded  ? 
whereas,  the  treasures  of  patience  and 
the  resources  of  zealous  mildness  were 
fairly  exhausted  in  Luther's  regard." 
Once  more  from  Monsieur  Audin : — 
"  The  world  was  now  for  three  years 
full  of  Luther's  quarrels  about  indulgences ; 
every  village  in  Germany  rang  with  his 
name,  and  was  up  for  or  against  his  doc- 
trines. As  they  advanced  in  age  they 
acquired  boldness.  Luther  was  no  longer 
the  bashful  and  retiring  monk,  but  the 
most  popular  of  orators  ;  nay,  to  credit 
himself,  when  he  would  fain  be  silent,  the 
press  heralded  forth  his  doctrines.  At 
Rome,  Militz  will  tell  you,  they  would,  even 
then,  have  given  the  world  to  silence  him 
whom  neither  Francis  the  First  in  all  his 
glory  nor  Charles  of  Austria  (except  dur- 
ing the  intensely  interesting  event  of  his 
election)  could  throw  into  oblivion.  What 
did  not  Leo  do  to  avert  the  coming  tem- 
pest !  From  the  moment  the  integrity  of 
the  dogma  was  assailed,  briefs  were  ad- 
dressed to  arouse  the  archbishops  and 
bishops  of  Germany,  to  different  religious 
orders,  and  to  the  convents  of  Saxony 
and  Wirtemberg,  to  silence  the  innovator. 
Luther  was  deaf  to  their  remonstrance. 
Then  the  pope  has  recourse  to  the  Em- 
peror Maximilian,  but  without  effect.  Per- 
haps the  pomp  of  Rome  might  awe  the 
reformer  into  respect  ?  Luther  holds  two 
conferences  with  Cardinal  Cajetano,  ex- 
hausted his  patience,  and  leaves  his  emi- 
nence with  a  sneer.  Then,  Militz,  a  fellow- 
countryman,  is  the  intercessor,  and  in  order 
to  appease  him,  annihilates  Luther's  anta- 
gonists, (Tezel  and  his  questors,)  by  his 
severe  reprimands  ;  but  the  reformer  is  not 
satisfied.  Next,  Staupitz,  his  own  provin- 
cial, is  unsuccessful ;  and  his  bosom  friend, 
Jerome  Spalatin,  undertakes  the  commis- 
sion of  reconciliation,  but  in  vain.  Even 
the  poor  monks  of  Juterbock  tried  entreaty 
when  the  eloquence  and  learning  of  the 
former  pacifiers  had  failed  ;  but  to  no  pur- 
pose. Thus  bent  before  the  innovator, 
tiara  and  diadem,  the  cardinal's  purple  and 
monk's  coarse  cowl ;  his  inflexibility  was 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


137 


now  fanaticism  ;  to  believe  his  account  of 
himself,*  •  Deus  rapit  et  pellit,'  God  drove 
him  on,  etc." 

The  "  Reformation"  now  spread  across 
the  English  channel,  and,  as  faithful  chroni- 
clers, we  must  follow. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Digression  continued — Progress  of  the  "  Reforma- 
tion" through  England,  and  safe  arrival  in  Ire- 
land— Argumentative  evidence  of  Catholic  and 
Protestant  authorities — The  subject  sufficiently 
explained  to  proceed  with  the  historical  neurative 
in  the  next  chapter. 

The  many  important  changes  which  have 
accompanied  the  political  consequences  of 
the  "  Reformation,"  and  have  so  materi- 
ally influenced  the  government,  treatment, 
and  legislation  between  England  and  Ire- 
land, must  be  our  excuse  for  endeavouring 
to  throw  as  much  light  upon  that  period  as 
will  exhibit  its  original  connection  with  the 
history  of  Ireland.  To  do  this  fairly  and 
effectually,  we  now  proceed  to  trace  the 
"  Reformation"  through  England,  and  then 
to  the  Irish  shores  and  almost  unconscious 
inhabitants. 

On  reviewing  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  the  first  circumstance  that  attracts 
our  attention  is  the  fact  that  during  twenty- 
five  years  of  his  reign  only  two  persons 
were  condemned  for  capital  crimes.f  Bur- 
net also  says  that  it  does  not  appear  that 
Henry  was  "naturally  prone  to  cruelty  ;" 
but,  for  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life,  that 
is  to  say,  immediately  after  his  divorce,  his 
open  rupture  with  the  Church,  and  his 
usurpation  of  ecclesiastical  supremacy, — 
then  the  man  was  a  slave  to  his  passions, 
and  the  king  became  a  tyrant  to  his 
people. 

As  events  generally  follow  circumstances 
and  secondary  causes  which  have  a  mutual 
influence  one  upon  the  other,  the  source  of 
the  changes  which  took  place  in  England 
may  be  discovered  in  the  situation  of 
affairs  in  Europe  at  that  period,  and  the 

*  Luther's  letter  to  Silvias,  Feb.  20,  1519. 
t  Burnet. 

18 


opposing  interests  of  its  princes.  About 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  king- 
doms of  Castillo  and  Arragon  were  united, 
and  the  Moors  driven  out  of  Spain.  Mary, 
heiress  of  Charles,  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
brought  her  extensive  possessions  to  the 
house  of  Austria.  Louis  the  Eleventh, 
King  of  France,  having  instituted  proceed- 
ings for  felony  against  the  memory  of  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  confiscated  the  duchy 
and  the  county  of  Artois,  belonging  to  his 
heiress.  Charles  d'Anjou,  Count  de  Maine, 
(to  whom  his  uncle,  Rene  d'Anjou,  had 
given  Provence,)  bequeathed  that  country, 
and  his  right  over  Naples  and  Sicily,  to 
Louis  the  Eleventh  and  his  son  Charles  the 
Eighth.  And  lastly,  Charles  the  Eighth, 
by  marrying  the  heiress  of  Brittany,  united 
that  province  to  his  crown,  from  which  it 
had  been  separated  for  many  centuries. 
France,  which  had  thus  acquired  so  many 
provinces,  became  formidable  to  her  neigh- 
bours. A  league  was  formed  between  her, 
England,  and  Austria,  in  confirmation  of 
which,  Ferdinand  of  Arragon  gave  Jane, 
his  second  daughter,  in  marriage  to  Philip 
of  Austria,  son  of  Maximilian ;  and  another 
of  his  daughters,  called  Catharine,  to  Ar- 
thur, son  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  King  of 
England,  in  1501.  These  alliances  proved 
unfortunate.  The  love  of  Jane  for  her 
husband  was  so  excessive  that  she  injured 
her  reasoning  powers.  Catharine  was 
scarcely  married  when  she  became  a 
widow.  Her  husband,  Arthur,  had  been 
prematurely  born,  and  the  physicians  had 
been  of  opinion  that,  in  consequence,  he 
would  not  be  long-lived. 

The  same  motives  which  had  influenced 
Ferdinand  and  Henry  to  make  such  an 
alliance  still  existed,  and  gave  rise  to  the 
idea  of  forming  a  second,  by  giving  Ar- 
thur's widow  to  his  brother  Henry,  who 
was  then  the  only  son  of  Henry  the  Seventh. 
Rome  was  applied  to  for  a  dispensation, 
which  was  granted  by  Julius  the  Second. 
Such  was  the  state  in  which  matters  stood 
on  the  demise  of  Henry  the  Seventh.  All 
things  having  been  duly  considered,  the 
marriage  of  Henry  and  Catharine  was 
celebrated  in  the  month  of  June,  1509. 


138 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


V 


The  new  queen  possessed  in  an  eminent 
degree  all  those  private  virtues  which  are 
the  permanent  and  chief  ornaments  of  her 
sex.  In  piety  and  in  attention  to  her  hus- 
band she  was  exemplary :  seclusion  and 
employment  were  manifest  in  her  whole 
deportment,  and  she  was  looked  upon  as  a 
model  of  wisdom  by  all.  Her  virtues  ex- 
isted without  harshness,  and  she  possessed 
a  greatness  of  soul,  an  elevation  of  mind, 
which  far  more  than  her  birth,  gained  for 
her  a  universal  respect.  Henry  himself, 
even  in  withdrawing  his  affections,  still 
preserved  a  high  esteem  for  her. 

Catharine  had  three  children  with  Hen- 
ry ;  two  sons,  who  died  very  young,  and  a 
daughter  called  Mary,  who  afterwards  be- 
came queen.  She  experienced  several  mis- 
carriages, which  occasioned  infirm  health, 
and  which  probably  caused  displeasure  to 
a  husband  so  abandoned  to  the  indulgence 
of  his  passions. 

The  debaucheries  of  Henry  were  well 
known.  Having  already  seduced  some  of 
the  maids-of-honour  belonging  to  the  queen, 
he  fell  in  love  with  Anne  Bullcn,  daughter 
to  Thomas  Bullen,  and  a  sister  of  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk,  who  had  gone  with  Queen 
Mary,  (wife  of  Louis  the  Twelfth,)  to 
France,  where  she  was  educated.  She 
afterwards  became  maid-of-honour  to  the 
Queen  Claude,  and  after  the  death  of  this 
princess  was  taken  into  the  household  of 
the  Duchess  d'Alencon,  sister  of  Francis 
the  First,  where,  it  is  said,  she  first  imbibed 
the  principles  of  Luther. 

We  do  not  wish  to  vouch  for  the  narra- 
tive given  by  Sanders,  concerning  the  birth 
and  conduct  of  Anne  Bullen,  before  Henry 
became  enamoured  of  her,  namely,  that  she 
was  the  offspring  of  Henry's  own  inter- 
course with  the  wife  of  Thomas  Bullen, 
during  the  absence  of  that  nobleman. 
There  is  no  reason,  however,  for  denymg 
all  credence  to  this  historian.  He  was  an 
Englishman  by  birth,  and  a  contemporary 
witness  of  some  of  the  facts  which  he  re- 
lates. We  may  therefore  suppose  that  he 
wrote  what  he  had  seen  and  heard  from 
people  worthy  of  belief,  and  it  is  highly 
improbable  that  a  man  of  his  character  and 


talents  would  have  ventured  to  publish 
such  statements  at  a  time  when  many  who 
were  living  and  interested  might  have  re- 
futed him. 

Some  Protestant  writers  wrote  refuta- 
tions of  Sanders's  history  of  the  schism, 
among  whom  were  Doctor  Burnet,  who 
appeared  one  hundred  years  after  him,  but 
who  was,  however,  confuted  by  Joachim 
le  Grand,  a  learned  Frenchman,  who  un- 
dertook the  defence  of  Sanders  against 
him  ;  and  also  by  Bossuet,  in  his  "  Varia- 
tions." Burnet's  partiality,  and  the  inaccu- 
racy of  his  works,  (says  Higgins,  an  Eng- 
lish Protestant  author,)  have  made  him 
discredited,  even  by  the  honourable  men 
of  his  own  party. 

On  Anne  Bullen's  return  to  England  she 
appeared  at  court,  with  all  the  advantages 
arising  from  her  yonth,  and  being  niece  of 
one  of  the  prime  ministers.  She  was  not 
one  of  those  regular  beauties  without  de- 
fect, but  she  was  very  young,  and  of  an 
agreeable  figure ;  lively  in  her  manners ; 
sung  and  played  on  many  instruments,  and 
danced  still  better ;  so  that  she  easily  pro- 
cured the  same  rank  with  Catharine  that 
she  had  enjoyed  with  Queen  Claude  in 
France.  She  attracted  general  admiration. 
Several  noblemen  fell  in  love  with  her. 
The  monarch  himself  became  enamoured, 
and  ordered  a  marriage  to  be  broken  off 
that  was  about  to  take  place  between  her 
and  Percy,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Northumber- 
land. 

The  divorce  of  Henry  the  Eighth  from 
Catharine  of  Arragon,  after  a  marriage  of 
twenty  years,  began  now  to  be  spoken  of. 
Cardinal  Wolsey  gave  the  first  hints  of  it. 
He  first  brought  over  to  his  views  Long- 
land,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  king's  confes- 
sor, whom  he  found  ready  to  believe  all  he 
wished  upon  that  subject.  Wolsey,  de- 
lighted that  Longland  had  broached  the 
matter,  proposed  to  Henry  to  break  off  his 
alliance  with  Catharine,  and  marry  the 
Dowager  Duchess  d'Alencon,  sister  to 
Francis  the  First.  It  was  thus  the  cardi- 
nal, unintentionally,  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  greatness  of  a  girl  who  was  to  be  one 
day  the  cause  of  his  downfall.     Anne  Bui- 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


139 


len  was  not  ignorant  of  the  king's  passion 
for  her.  She  counterfeited  a  virtuous 
character,  and  gave  him  no  hope,  but  that 
of  marrying  her,  should  he  succeed  in  the 
divorce  proposed  to  him  by  the  cardinal. 
Henry  had  recourse  to  some  of  the  learned 
theologians  in  his  own  kingdom,  and  after- 
wards to  those  of  other  universities  of  Eu- 
rope, some  of  whom  were  favourable  to 
him.  Lastly,  he  sent  to  Rome,  begging 
very  humbly  that  the  pope  would  send  him 
a  judge  competent  to  decide  this  important 
matter. 

Clement  the  Seventh,  who  at  the  time 
filled  the  papal  chair,  had  just  escaped 
from  the  hands  of  Charles  the  Fifth,  ma- 
ternal nephew  of  Queen  Catharine,  by 
whom  he  had  been  detained  a  prisoner. 
The  holy  see  was  already  indebted  to  the 
zeal  of  the  King  of  England,  against  the 
heresies  that  were  springing  up,  and  the 
pope  in  particular,  to  whom  Henry  had 
rendered  services  during  his  captivity,  was 
desirous  of  obliging  him.  Besides,  the 
King  of  France  supported  Henry  by  strong 
solicitations  to  the  holy  see.  The  pope 
promised,  that  as  soon  as  he  should  be  free 
with  the  emperor,  he  would  give  to  his 
benefactor  all  the  satisfaction  in  his  power. 

Cardinal  Campegio,  whom  the  pope  had 
nominated,  in  conjunction  with  Cardinal 
Wolsey,  to  investigate  the  project  of  the 
divorce,  having  received  his  instructions 
from  his  holiness,  arrived  in  England  in 
October,  1528.  The  king  appointed,  by 
letters-patent,  Richard  Sampson,  the  dean 
of  his  chapel,  and  John  Bell,  a  doctor  of 
law,  as  his  advocates  and  pleaders ;  to 
whom  are  also  added  Peter  and  Trigo- 
nel.  The  queen  had  already  chosen  Wil- 
liam Warham,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
Nicholas  West,  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  some 
doctors  of  law,  besides  John  Fisher,  Bishop 
of  Rochester,  and  Henry  Standish,  Bishop 
of  St.  Asaph,  and  others,  according  to  the 
permission  which  had  been  previously 
granted  to  her. 

On  the  18th  of  the  same  month,  Sampson 
and  Bell  presented  the  commission  which 
the  king  had  given  them  to  act  in  his 
name;   but  the  queen  herself  appearing. 


declared  that  she  could  not  acknowledge 
the  legates  to  be  her  judges,  and  demanded 
the  act  of  her  protest.     Campegio  then  ad- 
journed their  sitting  to  the  21st,  on  which 
day  the  king    and   queen  both  appeared. 
When   their   names  were   called,   Henry 
answered ;    but  Catharine  not  wishing  to 
reply,  threw  herself  before  his  majesty's 
feet,  and  said  in  substance,  "  that  she  be- 
sought him  to  have  mercy  on  her ;  that  she 
only  asked  for  justice  ;  that  she  was  a  f)oor 
stranger,  far  from  her  relatives  and  friends  ; 
that  she  dared  not  follow  either  her  own 
judgment  or  the  advice  of  her  lawyers ; 
that    she    took   God   to    be    her   witness, 
whether  she  were  not  his  real  wife ;  that 
she  had  been  always  faithful  to  him ;  that 
during  more  than  twenty  years  of  marriage 
she  had  been  as  attached  to  him  as  woman 
could  be  to  her  husband ;  that  she  knew 
not  how  she  could  have  merited  his  dis- 
pleasure ;  that  he  knew  well,  if  he  would 
but  speak  according  to  his  conscience,  that 
he  had  found  her  a  virgin  at  her  marriage ; 
that  she  consented  to  be  expelled  with  in- 
famy, if  what  she  advanced  were  not  true ; 
that  their  parents,  who  were  wise  princes, 
had  not  decided  on  their  marriage  without 
proper  investigation;   that  among  all  the 
able  characters  by  whom  they  were  sur- 
rounded, none    had   noticed    the    protests 
which  were  now  sought  after ;  that  as  to 
herself,  she  could   not  discover   how  her 
marriage  could  be  called  into  doubt ;  that 
indeed  she  had  been  permitted   to  have 
counsel,  but  she  could  repose  no  confidence 
in  them  ;  that  her  lawyers  and  judges  were 
the  king's  subjects ;  that  she  could  not  ac- 
knowledge the  authority  of  the  legates ; 
that,  in  fine,  every  thing  now  appeared  to 
her  an  object  of  suspicion :   she  therefore 
besought  the  king  that  he  would  postpone 
the  proceedings  till  she  would  hear  from 
Spain ;  and  that  if  he  refused  her  that  fa- 
vour, he  might  act  as  he  thought  proper." 
Her  majesty  then  arose,  and  respectfully 
retired.     She  was  again  called,  but  would 
not    return.      The   whole    assembly   was 
moved  by  her  discourse.     The  king  him- 
self appeared  affected,  and  when  she  had 
withdrawn,  said,  "  that  he  had  no  com- 


140 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


plaints  to  advance  against  her ;  that  he  was 
satisfied  with  her  conduct;  and  that  her 
virtue  could  not  be  sufficiently  admired." 
He  declared,  likewise, "  that  he  would  con- 
tinue willingly  to  live  with  her,  if  his  con- 
science would  permit  him." 

The  divorce  question  continued  to  be  de- 
bated without  any  decision.  The  king, 
therefore,  sent  for  the  two  cardinals,  in 
order  that  they  might  induce  the  queen  to 
leave  the  matter  to  his  decision.  They 
immediately  repaired  to  her,  and  found  her 
busily  engaged  with  her  female  attendants. 
When  she  heard  Wolsey  continuing  to 
speak,  "  I  see  clearly,"  said  she,  "  that  you 
have  come  here  to  debate  on  matters  which 
surpass  my  capacity."  Then,  showing  a 
skein  of  silk  which  hung  upon  her  neck, 
"  Behold,"  she  continued,  "  what  I  am  ca- 
pable of,  and  what  is  my  only  suitable  oc- 
cupation." Wolsey  entreated  her,  through 
kindness  for  the  king,  not  to  await  the  re- 
sult of  a  lawsuit,  the  issue  of  which  could 
not  be  favourable  to  her.  "  I  do  not  know 
(replied  the  queen)  who  has  advised  the 
king  to  act  as  he  is  now  doing.  I  confess, 
cardinal,  that  it  is  you  whom  I  blame  for 
it.  Our  parents,  who  were  wise  princes, 
had  our  marriage  previously  investigated, 
and  obtained  from  the  pope  a  dispensation 
for  it,  of  which  I  hold  the  original.  The 
king  and  I  have  lived  for  almost  eighteen 
years  together,  during  which  no  censure 
has  been  cast  upon  us.  Your  pride,  how- 
ever, I  cannot  approve  of;  your  debauch- 
eries, your  tyranny,  and  insolence,  I  have 
spoken  of.  Through  the  influence  of  my 
nephew,  the  emperor,  you  have  failed  in 
being  appointed  pope,  which  is  the  source 
of  all  my  misfortunes ;  since  in  order  to  be 
revenged,  you  have  not  been  content  with 
kindling  a  war  throughout  all  Europe,  but 
have  been  likewise  the  secret  spring  and 
cause  of  all  my  misfortunes.  Every  thing 
that  I  suffer,  cardinal,  from  this  disgrace, 
is  known  to  God,  who  will  be  your  judge 
and  mine." 

Wolsey  wished  to  reply,  but  she  would 
not  hear  him.  Campegio  she  treated  with 
politeness,  but  protested  that  she  never 
would  acknowledge  either  one  or  the  other 


as  her  judges,  and  would  continue  in  the 
line  of  conduct  she  had  adopted.  After  the 
sitting  of  the  21st  of  June,  1529,  she  re- 
fused to  appear  before  the  legates.  A 
judgment  by  default  was  obtained  against 
her  on  the  25th,  and  the  examination  of 
witnesses  commenced. 

The  sittings  were  not  discontinued,  but 
frequently  adjourned.  The  ministers  of 
Charles  the  Fifth  and  of  Ferdinand  de- 
manded that  the  matter  should  be  brought 
to  a  higher  tribunal.  The  pope,  who  still 
feared  to  irritate  Henry,  postponed  the  sub- 
ject as  long  as  it  was  possible ;  but  being 
at  length  unable  to  refuse  any  longer,  he 
informed  that  prince,  in  a  letter  dated  the 
9th  of  July,  of  his  intentions,  and  without 
waiting  for  an  answer,  signed  the  evoca- 
tion, of  which  he  informed  him  and  Cardi- 
nal Wolsey  on  the  19th.  As  soon  as  in- 
telligence was  received  from  Rome  that 
the  cause  had  been  transferred  to  another 
tribunal,  the  king  went  to  Grafton  House 
with  Anne  Bullen,  where  Campegio  had  an 
audience  previous  to  his  departure. 

There  were  different  cabals  in  the  Eng- 
lish court,  all  of  which  tended  to  Wolsey's 
downfall.  Those  who  were  attached  to 
the  queen,  considered  him  as  the  author 
of  her  ruin.  The  relatives  and  partisans 
of  Anne  Bullen  were  convinced  that  his 
presence  at  court  was  inauspicious  to  their 
advancement.  Anne  Bullen  was  minutely 
informed  of  every  crime  Wolsey  had  com- 
mitted during  the  fifteen  years  that  he  ruled 
the  state  with  absolute  power ;  all  which 
she  communicated  to  the  king,  who  listen- 
ed to  her  with  pleasure.  Orders  were 
despatched  on  the  22d  of  October  to  Wol- 
sey, to  quit  Whitehall.  He  was  sent  from 
London  to  Asher.  All  his  furniture  and 
papers  were  also  seized,  by  which  conduct 
his  enemies  deprived  him  of  the  means  of 
defending  himself.  Sir  Thomas  More  was 
then  raised  to  the  dignity  of  lord-chan- 
cellor. 

The  new  parliament  met  in  London,  on 
the  3rd  of  November,  and  was  immediately 
adjourned  to  Westminster.  It  seemed  as 
if  it  were  convened  expressly  for  the  de- 
struction of  Wolsey,  so  determined  were 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


141 


his  enemies  against  him.  They  presented 
a  petition  to  the  king,  containing  many 
points  of  accusation,  and  threatened  to 
condemn  him  as  guilty  of  high  treason ; 
but  his  cause  was  ably  defended  by  his 
secretary,  Thomas  Cromwell,  a  member 
of  the  parliament.  They  then  dismissed 
the  accusations  of  high  treason  against  him, 
but  he  was  arraigned  under  the  law  of 
praemunire,  and  declared  to  be  out  of  the 
king's  protection.  His  property  was  con- 
fiscated, and  his  arrest  was  even  spoken  of. 
Several  members  of  parliament  were  at- 
tached to  the  new  doctrines,  and  laws  were 
enacted  against  the  clergy,  under  pretext 
of  their  exactions,  in  order  to  make  them 
appear  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people. 

Wolsey  having  fallen  sick  at  Asher,  the 
king,  who  yet  had  some  consideration  for 
him,  permitted  him  to  go  to  Richmond  for 
change  of  air  ;  but  his  enemies,  who  were 
jealous  of  his  being  so  near  the  court,  im- 
portuned Henry  so  strongly,  that  he  gave 
orders  to  have  him  removed  to  his  arch- 
bishopric of  York.  Fresh  complaints  being 
made  to  the  king,  he  ordered  Sir  Walter 
Walsh  and  the  Earl  of  Northumberland,  to 
arrest  him.  This  last  stroke  was  too 
heavy  for  Wolsey  to  bear.  The  shock 
and  surprise  were  so  powerful,  that  a 
dysentery  ensued,  by  which  his  constitu- 
tion was  soon  shattered.  He  set  out,  but 
his  disease  increasing,  he  was  forced  to 
stop  at  Leicester  Abbey,  where  he  died, 
and  was  interred  the  week  after  his  arrival, 
in  1531. 

The  cardinal's  death  was  the  signal  for 
commencing  a  violent  persecution  against 
the  clergy.  Henry's  parliament,  which 
had  been  so  frequently  prorogued,  met  in 
January.  The  clergy  were  accused  of 
having  incurred  the  penalty  of  the  law  of 
praemunire,  and  immediate  submission  to 
the  king,  together  with  the  payment  of  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  were 
made  the  sole  conditions  on  which  he 
granted  them  his  pardon. 

No  means  were  now  left  untried  to 
obtain  the  decision  of  the  several  univer- 
sities, or  the  learned  men  in  France  and 


England,  in  favour  of  Henry's  divorce. 
Bribes,  threats,  and  sums  of  money  were 
lavished  by  Fox,  Henry's  almoner,  and 
Gardiner,  secretary  of  state,  in  Cambridge 
and  Oxford,  to  gain  their  approval  of  the 
divorce.  The  English  began  to  murmur 
loudly,  and  it  was  publicly  declared,  that 
in  spite  of  whatever  might  be  decided  upon, 
he  who  married  the  Princess  Mary  should 
be  King  of  England.  Similar  sentiments 
were  entertained  by  the  nobles,  who  did 
not  express  themselves  so  freely.  The 
theologians  and  upper  house  were  as  un- 
favourable to  Henry  as  his  other  subjects. 
Few  could  be  found  to  write  in  favour  of 
the  divorce. 

John  du  Bellay,  Bishop  of  Bayonne,  was 
sent  to  England  to  negotiate  affairs  with 
Henry  the  Eighth.  As  he  was  partial  to 
the  divorce  he  could  not  fail  of  being  well 
received  by  the  prince.  He  was  there- 
fore commissioned  to  conciliate  the  French 
theologians  in  favour  of  Henry,  and  for 
that  purpose  returned  to  France.  He 
first  brought  the  university  of  Orleans  to 
publish  a  declaration  against  the  marriage 
of  Catharine  of  Arragon,  which  example 
was  followed  by  the  university  of  Tou- 
louse. The  question  produced  a  great 
sensation  among  the  theologians  in  Paris. 
Recourse  was  first  had  to  some  doctors 
who  were  easily  bribed,  and  who  promised 
to  do  every  thing  that  could  be  desired. 
Among  these  was  Gervais,  a  man  devoted 
to  those  who  sought  for  the  divorce,  and 
anxious  also  to  advance  himself  at  court. 
Noel  Beda,  a  man  possessing  great  merit, 
throughout  opposed  the  King  of  England, 
for  which  he  was  at  length  driven  into 
exile.  The  King  of  England  honoured 
the  theologians  so  far  as  to  write  to  them 
with  his  own  hand  on  the  subject ;  while 
his  ambassadors  expended  large  sums  of 
money,  seeking  and  even  begging  for  suf- 
frages from  door  to  door.  A  meeting  was 
at  length  convened ;  one  party  yielded  to 
Henry  in  every  thing  that  he  wished,  while 
another  declared  that  they  could  not  de- 
liberate upon  the  subject,  till  they  would 
first  write  to  the  pope,  who  had  already 
forbidden  any  one  to  interfere  in  a  matter 


142 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


of  such  moment.  A  third  party  was  then 
formed,  which  was  desirous  of  writing  to 
both  the  king  and  the  pope,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  the  deliberations  were  con- 
tinued. 

Having  purchased  from  the  English  and 
French  academies  decisions  favourable  to 
his  cause,  Henry  sent  some  noblemen  to 
the  queen  about  the  end  of  May,  to  inform 
her  of  these  results,  and  to  induce  her  to 
withdraw  her  appeal,  and  submit  her  in- 
terests to  the  arbitration  of  four  bishops 
and  four  noblemen,  in  order  that  the  mat- 
ter might  be  set  at  rest,  and  tranquillity 
restored  to  the  king's  mind.  The  queen 
replied  as  before,  that  she  was  the  king's 
wife  ;  that  she  would  persist  in  her  appeal, 
and  would  consent  to  nothing  without  the 
advice  of  her  nephew  the  emperor,  and  also 
that  of  the  pope,  who  was  the  best  judge 
of  her  rights. 

The  queen's  resolution  irritated  Henry  ; 
however,  he  dissembled  for  some  time,  and 
went  with  her  to  Windsor,  where  he  re- 
mained till  the  14th  of  July,  1531,  when  he 
left  her  and  proceeded  to  Woodstock. 
After  some  time,  she  was  ordered  to  East- 
hamstead,  which  was  the  commencement 
of  their  separation. 

William  Warham,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, one  of  the  greatest  men  that  England 
ever  produced,  was  succeeded  by  Cranmer. 
Parker,  Fox,  and  Burnet  think  that  Cran- 
mer was  a  man  of  noble  rank,  though 
others  do  not  agree  with  them.  All  that 
is  known  with  certainty  of  him  is,  that  he 
was  a  professor  in  the  university  of  Cam- 
bridge ;  that  he  was  expelled  for  breaking 
the  customary  vow  of  celibacy ;  and  that 
he  was  one  of  the  first  who  wrote  in  favour 
of  Henry's  divorce.  From  the  year  1529, 
Cranmer  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
party  who  wished  for  Catharine's  separa- 
tion, and  the  marriage  upon  which  the 
king  was  determined  with  Anne  Bullen. 
In  1530  he  wrote  a  book  against  the  va- 
lidity of  Catharine's  marriage.  He  was 
from  this  time  looked  on  as  a  favourite  at 
court,  and  considered  likely  to  succeed 
Cardinal  Wolsey  in  influence.  Cranmer 
had    already   adopted    the    principles    of 


Luther,  and  was,  (according  to  Burnet, 
the  most  esteemed  of  those  who  embraced 
them.  Anne  Bullen,  (continues  Burnet,) 
had  also  imbibed  the  same  doctrine.  He 
makes  it  appear,  too,  that  she  was  quite 
attached  to  the  opinions  of  those  who  were 
called  reformers.  Every  one,  (continues 
he,)  of  the  same  party,  had  declared  in 
favour  of  the  divorce. 

Cranmer  was  now  sent  to  Rome  to  sup- 
port the  divorce  question,  and  while  there, 
concealed  his  views  so  ably  that  the  pope 
made  him  his  penitentiary,  which  proves 
that  he  acted  under  the  priestly  seal ;  and 
although  a  Lutheran  in  belief,  he  accepted 
that  ofllice  from  his  holiness.  From  Rome 
he  went  to  Germany,  in  order  to  secure  the 
friendship  of  the  Protestants.  It  was  there 
that  he  married  the  sister  of  Osiander,  after 
having  first  seduced  her.  While  there  it 
also  was  that  the  archbishopric  of  Canter- 
bury became  vacant  by  the  death  of  War- 
ham.  The  King  of  England,  from  whom 
Cranmer's  marriage  had  been  concealed, 
appointed  him  to  that  see,  which  he  accept- 
ed ;  and  the  pope,  who  imagined  that  his 
only  fault  lay  in  supporting  the  invalidity 
of  Henry's  marriage,  a  question  which  was 
then  undecided,  gave  him  his  bulls. 

Shortly  after  Cranmer  returned,  the  pope, 
who  was  aware  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
King  of  England  was  acting,  commanded 
him  by  letter  to  send  away  his  mistress  and 
take  back  his  wife ;  and  in  case  that  he  dis- 
obeyed, ordered  him  to  appear  at  Rome 
with  Anne  Bullen,  to  answer  for  the  scan- 
dal they  had  caused,  by  living  together  as 
man  and  wife,  in  contempt  of  the  censures 
of  the  Church.  The  pope  concluded  by 
observing,  that  it  was  a  matter  of  deep  re- 
gret to  him  to  find  himself  obliged  to  have 
recourse  to  such  measures ;  that  if  it  were 
only  his  own  private  interest  that  was  con- 
cerned, he  would  gladly  submit  it  to  his 
own  decision;  but  that,  as  the  glory  of 
God,  his  own  conscience,  and  the  honour 
of  a  virtuous  princess  loaded  with  igno- 
miny, after  twenty  years  of  marriage,  were 
now  at  stake,  he  was  compelled,  in  spite  of 
himself,  to  have  recourse  to  these  measures. 

The  English  parliament  having  assem- 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


143 


bled  in  the  beginning  of  1532,  fresh  attacks 
were  projected  against  the  clergy  and  the 
pope.  The  commons,  who  were  accus- 
tomed to  complain  of  the  ecclesiastics,  ac- 
cused them  in  their  writings  to  Henry. 
They  complained  of  the  immense  sums 
drawn  by  the  popes  from  England,  as  first- 
fruits,  provisions  for  benefices,  bulls,  and 
various  other  things  of  the  same  character, 
as  being  all  contrary  to  English  freedom. 

Henry,  in  the  mean  time,  gave  himself 
up  to  his  passions.  The  longer  the  pope 
deferred  the  divorce  question,  the  more  his 
passion  for  Anne  BuUen  increased.  In  or- 
der to  prove  his  affection  for  Anne  Bullen, 
the  king  created  her  Marchioness  of  Pem- 
broke, by  letters-patent,  dated  the  15th  of 
September,  1532,  and  assigned  her  one 
thousand  pounds  sterling  a  year.  Henry 
could  not  bear  the  absence  of  the  new  mar- 
chioness, and  therefore  brought  her  to  Ca- 
lais in  October,  to  be  present  at  an  inter- 
view which  he  had  at  Boulogne  with  Fran- 
cis the  First,  and  on  his  return  to  England, 
married  her  secretly  on  the  14th  of  Novem- 
ber,* though  the  sentence  of  the  divorce  be- 
tween him  and  Catharine  was  not  yet  pro- 
nounced. Roland  Lee,  who  was  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Lichfield,  performed  the 
marriage  ceremony;  the  king  having  as- 
sured him  that  the  pope  permitted  him  to 
leave  Catharine,  and  take  another  wife, 
provided  he  would  marry  her  in  private, 
and  without  witnesses,  in  order  to  avoid 
giving  scandal. 

The  marchioness  being  in  a  state  of  preg- 
nancy, the  marriage  would  soon  be  avowed. 
Cranmer  now  laboured  hard  to  have  the 
king's  divorce  from  Catharine  sanctioned 
by  the  English  parliament!     Every  law 

*  Some  authorities  give  January,  1533,  as  the  date  of 
this  fraudulent  marriage.  Now  that  the  squabbles  of 
Henry's  politicians  are  over,  the  utmost  variation  of  these 
dates  would  prove  nothing.  For  the  sake  of  the  lady 
and  of  her  daughter,  we  have  given  the  earliest  date. 
Nevertheless,  Henry  the  Eighth's  claim  to  the  title  of 
bigamist  is  as  clear  as  it  is  to  that  of  adulterer ;  for  the 
parliamentary  divorce  had  not  been  pronounced,  and 
the  canonical  divorce  was  never  obtained.  Although 
Cranmer  was  a  witness  of  this  marriage,  (according  to 
Heylin,)  yet  that  very  convenient  functionary  six  months 
afterwards  gravely  pronounced  the  decree  of  divorce 
between  Henry  and  his  first  wife ! 


that  had  been  previously  enacted  against 
the  popes  was  re-enacted  by  this  assembly. 
It  was  prohibited  to  appeal  to  Rome  on  any 
subject  concerning  England,  as  that  king- 
dom should  not  submit  to  the  regulations 
of  any  foreign  power,  in  either  spiritual  or 
temporal  affairs  ;  and  that,  therefore,  all  ec- 
clesiastical matters,  on  which  appeals  had 
been  till  then  made  to  the  court  of  Rome, 
should  be  finally  determined  in  England, 
through  an  appeal  from  the  commissioner 
to  the  bishop,  from  the  bishop  to  the  arch- 
bishop, and  from  him  to  the  king :  that 
whatever  excommunications  might  arrive 
from  Rome,  the  divine  service  should  be 
nevertheless  celebrated,  and  the  sacraments 
administered  ;  and  if  difficulties  were  inter- 
posed by  any  of  the  clergy,  those  so  offend- 
ing should  be  condemned  to  one  year's  im- 
prisonment, and  a  fine  to  be  paid,  accord- 
ing to  the  king's  pleasure ;  and  that  those 
who  violated  any  of  these  acts  should  incur 
the  penalties  of  the  law  of  praemunire. 
Lastly,  it  was  concluded  that  matters  re- 
specting the  king's  interest  should  be  ad- 
justed by  a  sovereign  convocation  of  the 
clergy. 

This  was  the  prelude  to  the  ecclesiastical 
authority  which  Henry  afterwards  assumed 
to  himself,  and  in  which  he  was  confirmed 
by  an  act  passed  in  the  same  parliament, 
entitled  "  An  Act  to  Extinguish  the  Autho- 
rity of  the  Bishop  of  Rome."  Cranmer 
now  undertook  what  the  pope  had  not  dared 
to  do.  Being  invested  with  authority  by 
Henry  the  Eighth,  who  was  declared  by 
his  parliament  to  be  supreme  head  of  the 
English  church,  Cranmer  removed  to  Dun- 
stable in  the  beginning  of  May,  accompa- 
nied by  some  bishops  and  officers  of  justice, 
where  they  established  a  sort  of  tribunal, 
to  which  Catharine  of  Arragon  was  sum- 
moned, to  be  heard  on  the  subject  of  her 
marriage  with  the  king.  The  queen,  how- 
ever, who  still  adhered  to  her  first  resolu- 
tion, which  was,  to  acknowledge  no  tribu- 
nal but  that  of  Rome,  or  no  judge  but  the 
pope,  having  refused  to  appear,  was  con- 
demned for  contumacy.  The  sentence  of 
divorce  was  then  pronounced,  and  her  mar- 
riage with  the  king  declared  to  be  null. 


144 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


This  decision  was  confirmed  by  the  parlia- 
ment, which  deprived  this  princess  of  the 
rank  of  queen,  and  decreed  that  she  should 
thenceforward  be  called  dowager-princess, 
as  being  only  the  widow  of  Prince  Arthur. 
It  was  enacted  by  the  same  parliament,  that 
it  was  lawful  for  the  king  to  marry  a  se- 
cond time. 

Matters  being  thus  arranged,  the  Marchi- 
oness of  Pembroke  was  solemnly  crowned 
at  Whitehall,  with  the  usual  ceremonies, 
and  with  the  title  of  queen,  in  April,  1533. 
In  September  the  celebrated  Elizabeth  was 
born,  who  became  subsequently  Queen  of 
England. 

The  parliament  continued  their  endeav- 
ours, by  order  of  the  king,  to  annihilate 
the  pope's  authority  in  England.  The  king's 
second  marriage  was  confirmed,  and  the 
former  having  been  declared  null,  it  was 
enacted  that  the  children  born  of  that  alli- 
ance could  not  inherit  from  their  father,  and 
should  be  therefore  considered  illegitimate ; 
that  the  male  children  whom  the  king  might 
have  by  Anne  Bullen,  should  succeed  to  the 
crown,  and  that,  in  the  event  of  having  no 
male  issue,  the  daughters  should  succeed  ; 
so  that  the  Princess  Mary  was  disinherited, 
and  Elizabeth  declared  heiress  to  the  crown. 
But  this  law  was  continued  only  as  long  as 
the  king's  passion  lasted  for  Anne  Bullen, 
and  the  offspring  of  Henry's  connection 
with  her  was  afterwards  dealt  with  as  se- 
verely as  the  Princess  Mary ;  the  parlia- 
ment following  no  other  rule  in  making  or 
rescinding  laws,  than  the  caprices  of  the 
king. 

The  pope  was  aware  of  the  progress 
schism  was  making  in  England,  and  the 
attempt  (of  a  nature  hitherto  unheard  of 
among  Christians)  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
who  had  declared  himself  head  of  the 
English  church,  both  spiritual  and  tempo- 
ral. On  Monday,  the  23d  of  March,  1534, 
his  holiness  held  a  consistory,  at  which 
twenty-two  cardinals  were  present.  The 
divorce  question  having  been  proposed,  it 
was  under  discussion  for  a  very  short  time 
only  ;  every  member,  with  the  exception 
of  Trivolce,  Rodolphi,  and  Pesani,  being 
of  opinion,  that  the  King  of  England  should 


be  obliged  to  take  back  Catharine,  and  to 
keep  her  as  his  lawful  wife.  The  different 
opinions  being  then  collected,  the  sentence 
was  pronounced,  by  which  the  pope  de- 
cided that  having  heard  the  report  of 
James  Simoneta,  Bishop  of  Pisaro,  he, 
with  the  advice  of  the  cardinals,  con- 
demned the  proceedings  of  Henry  as  null 
and  unjust,  and  commanded  him  to  take 
back  his  wife  Catharine,  to  live  with  her, 
declaring  his  marriage  to  be  good  and 
valid,  and  the  children  of  such  marriage  to 
be  legitimate.  The  pope  forbade  him  also 
to  continue  the  separation  longer,  and  con- 
demned him  to  pay  all  the  costs  of  the  suit. 

It  much  afflicted  the  pope  to  pronounce 
so  absolute  a  sentence.  He  expressed  a 
desire  to  do  every  thing  in  his  power  to 
satisfy  the  King  of  England ;  and  it  was 
his  wish  not  to  grant  the  decision  before 
Easter,  though  he  had  been  required  to  do 
so  without  delay  by  many  of  the  cardinals. 
Clement  found  himself  in  a  dilemma;  he 
could  not  deny  justice  to  Catharine,  with- 
out giving  scandal  to  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tendom ;  and  by  condemning  Henry,  Eng- 
land might  be  lost  to  the  Church.  He 
deferred,  therefore,  as  long  as  he  was  able, 
coming  to  any  decision  upon  this  celebrated 
suit.  When  the  sentence  was  pronounced, 
he  spent  the  night  in  company  with  several 
divines,  deliberating  on  what  was  best  to 
be  done  in  the  unhappy  conjuncture ;  but 
Henry's  wicked  disposition,  which  would 
not  admit  of  any  control,  was  stronger  than 
the  good-will  of  the  pope. 

The  strength  of  the  English  faction  in 
favour  of  Spain,  the  justice  of  Catharine's 
cause,  the  wicked  conduct  of  Henry,  and 
the  continued  remonstrances  of  the  cardi- 
nals, at  length  forced  the  pope  to  issue  a 
bull  of  excommunication  against  Henry 
and  Anne  Bullen,  unless  they  made  their 
appearance  in  the  end  of  September,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  scandal  they  had  given. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  world  de- 
plored the  fate  of  the  two  men  in  England 
most  illustrious  for  their  learning  and  piety, 
Thomas  More,  lord-chancellor,  and  Fisher, 
Bishop  of  Rochester.  Burnet  himself  be- 
wails their  death,  and  considers  their  tragi- 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


145 


cal  end  as  a  stain  upon  the  life  of  Henry. 
They  were  the  two  most  distinguished 
victims  of  the  new  ecclesiastical  suprema- 
cy. When  More  was  urged  to  acknowl- 
edge it,  he  made  the  following  noble  reply : 
"  That  were  he  alone  against  the  whole 
parliament,  he  would  have  a  diffidence  in 
himself;  but  now,  though  the  grand  coun- 
cil of  England  were  opposed  to  him,  the 
whole  Church,  the  great  Council  of  Chris- 
tians, was  in  his  favour." 

The  martyrdom  of  Fisher  and  More,  and 
many  other  sanguinary  executions,  filled 
the  public  mind  with  horror.  The  people 
all  took  the  oath  acknowledging  Henry's 
supremacy,  no  one  daring  to  oppose  it. 
His  power  over  the  church  of  England 
was  established  by  several  parliamentary 
statutes  ;  and  his  first  act  was  to  confer  on 
Cromwell  the  rank  of  his  spiritual  vicar- 
general.  Discovering  that  the  king  was 
very  ambitious,  and  that  his  revenues  were 
not  sufficient  for  his  expenses,  Cromwell 
advised  him  to  take  possession  of  the  reve- 
nues of  the  religious  houses.  This  advice 
was  highly  gratifying  to  the  cupidity  of 
Henry,  who  thought  that  he  who  had 
given  it  would  be  the  fittest  person  to 
carry  it  into  execution.  For  this  purpose 
he  created  Cromwell  inspector-general  of 
all  the  convents  and  religious  houses  in 
England  ;  in  which  quality,  notwithstand- 
ing that  he  was  an  ignorant  layman,  he 
was  to  preside  at  all  the  assemblies  of  the 
clergy,  and  to  be  made  acquainted  with  all 
matters  of  an  ecclesiastical  kind.  Crom- 
well was  a  Zuinglian,  or  at  least  a  Luthe- 
ran :  Cranmer  belonged  to  the  same  party  ; 
he  was  the  intimate  friend  of  Cromwell, 
and  both  acted  in  perfect  accordance. 
The  Marchioness  of  Pembroke  supported 
them  with  all  her  influence  ;  and  in  order 
to  increase  the  party,  she  procured  the 
bishoprics  of  Salisbury  and  Winchester  for 
Schaxton  and  Latimer,  her  almoners,  who 
were  secretly  Protestants. 

Cranmer  paid  his  archiepiscopal  visit  to 
his  province,  with  the  royal  permission. 
Cromwell  also  paid  a  visit  to  his  diocese. 
These    visitations    were   followed    by  the 

suppression  of  three  hundred  and  seventy- 

19 


six  monasteries,  the  lands  and  revenues  of 
which  were  granted  to  the  king  by  an  act 
of  parliament.  This  was  one  of  the  first 
effi3cts  of  Henry's  supremacy,  who  made 
himself  head  of  the  Church  to  plunder  it 
with  impunity. 

The  marriage  of  Henry  with  Catharine 
was  declared  null  by  the  parliament  of  1536 : 
the  divorce  pronounced  by  Cranmer,  as  well 
as  the  king's  marriage  with  Anne  BuUen, 
was  declared  to  be  valid ;  the  succession 
to  the  throne  was  secured  to  the  heirs  male, 
who  should  be  born  of  this  or  any  other 
marriage,  and  in  case  of  there  being  no  male 
heirs,  to  the  females,  beginning  with  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  Anne  Bullen :  and  those 
who  might,  by  writing  or  otherwise,  op- 
pose this  marriage,  or  these  regulations  for 
the  succession  to  the  crown,  should,  it  was 
enacted,  be  convicted  of  high  treason.  A 
TOTAL  SILENCE  ou  these  affairs  was  enjoined 
upon  all,  under  pain  of  being  deprived  of 
the  benefit  of  the  sanctuary,  and  an  oath  to 
this  effect  ordered  to  be  taken  by  all  the 
king's  subjects  in  Ireland. 

The  parliament  of  Dublin  having  regula- 
ted the  affairs  of  state,  turned  their  thoughts 
to  those  of  religion,  of  their  knowledge  and 
judgment  regarding  which  they  felt  quite 
assured.  In  imitation  of  the  English  par- 
liament, they  confirmed  Henry  the  Eighth 
and  his  successors  on  the  throne,  in  the  title 
of  supreme  head  of  the  Church  in  Ireland, 
with  the  power  of  reforming  and  correct- 
ing heresies  and  errors  in  religion.  They 
prohibited  all  further  appeals  being  made 
to  Rome,  under  pains  and  penalties ;  and 
ordained  that  the  clergy  should  pay  the  an- 
nats,  or  first-fruits  of  their  livings,  to  the 
king.  They  also  enacted  a  law  to  abolish 
and  suppress  the  pope's  usurpation  and  au- 
thority ;  penalties  were  declared  against 
those  who  should  dare  to  support  them  ;  all 
persons,  both  lay  and  ecclesiastic,  who  held 
offices  or  livings,  were  ordered  to  take  the 
oath  to  maintain  the  king's  supremacy,  and 
their  refusal  was  to  be  considered  high  trea- 
son. This  act  met  with  many  opponents 
among  the  clergy. 

This  convenient  parliament  also  granted 
to  the  king  and  to  his  successors,  for  ever, 


146 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


a  twentieth  part  of  the  revenues  and  annual 
rents  of  the  secular  livings,  abbeys,  friaries, 
and  religious  houses  in  the  kingdom  of  Ire- 
land. Henry  was  so  well  pleased  with  this 
grant,  that  he  wrote  a  letter  of  thanks  to 
the  clergy.  An  act  was  passed  prohibiting 
any  but  those  who  spoke  English,  and  fol- 
lowed the  English  taste  in  every  thing,  to 
be  appointed  to  livings.  In  addition,  this 
parliament  decreed  the  suppression  of  the 
abbeys  of  Bectif,  St.  Peter,  of  Trim,  Dousk, 
Duleek,  Holm-Patrick,  Baltinglass,  Grany, 
Teagh- Moling,  Dunbroody,  Tintern,  Bally- 
bogan,  Iloggis,  and  Ferns,  and  confiscated 
their  property  to  the  king's  use.  The  pri- 
ory of  St.  Wolstan's,  in  Kildare,  was  also 
suppressed. 

The  parliament  which  had  fabricated  the 
above-named  laws,  and  by  which  the  schism 
of  Henry  the  Eighth  was  introduced  into 
Ireland,  was  the  parliament  of  the  English 
province,  and  not  that  of  all  Ireland ;  like 
the  preceding  ones,  it  was  composed  solely 
of  Englishmen  by  birth  or  origin ;  the  an- 
cient Irish  had  no  seat  in  it ;  they  were 
excluded  from  all  offices  in  the  militia  and 
magistracy,  which  is  the  cause  of  their  be- 
ing scarcely  ever  mentioned  by  Ehglish 
writers. 

The  first  person  sacrificed  for  his  attach- 
ment to  the  cause  of  the  pope,  was  John 
Traverse,  a  native  of  Ireland,  a  secular 
priest,  and  doctor  in  theology.  About  this 
time  he  published  a  book  entitled  the  "  De- 
fence of  the  Pope's  Supremacy,"  notwith- 
standing the  twenty-eighth  statute  of  Henry 
the  Eighth,  who  had  assumed  to  himself 
that  prerogative.  The  author  was  sum- 
moned to  appear  before  the  judges ;  and 
having  confessed  the  deed,  he  was  con- 
demned to  have  his  fingers  cut  oflT  and 
thrown  into  a  fire. 

Catharine  of  Arragon  had  retired  to  Kim- 
bolton  Castle,  in  Huntingdonshire.  She 
bore  the  unworthy  treatment  which  she 
received  as  a  true  Christian.  The  title  of 
queen  was  not  only  wrested  from  her  by 
act  of  parliament,  but  her  servants  were 
constrained  by  oath  to  address  her  with  no 
other  title  than  that  of  princess-dowager.* 

*  Sanders,  Heylin,  and  Baker. 


John  Forest,  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis, 
her  confessor,  suffered  martyrdom  in  her 
cause,  after  two  years'  imprisonment,  toge- 
ther with  thirty-five  others  of  the  same  or- 
der. She  was  aware,  too,  of  the  tragical 
end  of  Fisher,  More,  and  several  others 
who  were  sacrificed  on  her  account ;  so 
that,  being  unable  to  bear  up  against  such  an 
overwhelming  series  of  afflictions,  she  fell 
into  a  decHne,  which  terminated  her  exist- 
ence in  January,  1537.  Her  dissolution  ap- 
proaching, she  wrote  the  following  letter, 
which  she  sent  to  the  king  by  one  of  her 
maids : — 

"  My  very  dear  Lord,  King,  and  Husband, 

"  As  the  hour  of  my  death  is  now  ap- 
proaching, my  love  for  you  influences  me 
to  forewarn  you  to  prefer  your  salvation 
to  all  the  perishable  things  of  this  world, 
without  even  excepting  your  anxiety  for 
your  own  person,  which  has  produced  to 
me  the  heavy  calamities  that  have  been  in- 
flicted, and  caused  such  troubles  to  your- 
self; but  I  heartily  forgive  you  all,  and  pray 
that  the  Lord  may  also  forgive  you.  I  re- 
commend our  daughter  Mary  to  your  par- 
ticular care,  and  beseech  you,  as  I  have 
already  done,  to  act  with  all  the  tenderness 
of  a  father  towards  her.  I  beseech  you, 
likewise,  to  give  my  three  maids  a  mar- 
riage-portion, and  to  my  other  servants  a 
year's  wages,  besides  what  is  already  due 
to  them,  to  secure  them  against  want. 
Lastly,  I  declare  it  to  be  my  desire  to  see 
you  in  preference  to  any  thing  this  world 
affords.     Farewell." 

On  perusing  this  letter,  Henry  could  not 
refrain  from  tears  ;  and  when  informed  of 
her  death,  a  few  dajs  afterwards,  he  or- 
dered his  household  to  put  on  mourning. 
The  marchioness  had  herself  and  her  fe- 
male attendants  all  gayly  dressed  ;  but  her 
triumph  was  soon  changed  into  sorrow,  for 
shortly  after  this  she  was  delivered  of  a 
monstrous  abortion.  About  four  months 
after  the  death  of  Queen  Catharine,  Anne 
was  sent  to  the  Tower,  where  she  was  ac- 
cused and  found  guilty  of  adultery  with  se- 
veral persons,  and  of  incest  with  her  bro- 
ther George  ;  she  was  then  condemned  to 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


147 


be  beheaded.  Burnet  says,  "  The  two  sen- 
tences, the  one  of  attainder  for  adultery, 
the  other  of  a  divorce  because  of  a  pre- 
contract, did  so  contradict  one  another, 
that  one,  if  not  both,  must  be  unjust."  Tho- 
mas Bullen,  Anne's  supposed  father,  was 
one  of  her  judges,  and  the  first  to  pronounce 
her  guilty ;  she  was  executed  in  May,  1537. 
Three  days  afterwards,  George  Bullen, 
the  brother  of  Anne,  Henry  Norris,  Wil- 
liam Brereton,  Francis  Weston,  and  Mark 
Smeaton,  a  musician,  suffered  the  same  fate 
as  Anne,  the  first  for  incest  with  her,  the 
others  for  adultery.  The  day  after  her 
execution,  Henry  married  Jane  Seymour, 
daughter  of  Sir  John  Seymour  and  sister 
to  Lord  Edward  Seymour,  Earl  of  Hert- 
ford and  Duke  of  Somerset.  Anne  enjoyed 
but  for  three  years  the  elevation  to  which 
she  had  been  raised  by  so  many  troubles. 
The  same  passion  which  had  been  the  ori- 
gin of  her  greatness,  became  the  cause  of 
her  ruin ;  and  Henry,  who  had  sacrificed 
Catharine  of  Arragon  for  her  sake,  now 
sacrificed  Annb  for  the  youth  and  charms 
of  Jane  Seymour.  In  losing  the  king's  af- 
fections, however,  Catharine  preserved  his 
esteem  to  the  last  moment,  while  he  sent 
Anne,  like  the  most  infamous  criminal,  to 
die  on  a  scaffold,  and  caused  his  marriage 
to  be  annulled  in  favour  of  Jane  Seymour, 
as  he  had  previously  broken  his  marriage 
with  Catharine  for  the  sake  of  Anne.  Last- 
ly, he  caused  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Anne, 
to  be  declared  illegitimate,  as  Mary,  the 
daughter  of  Catharine,  had  before  been. 

Polydore  Virgil,  and  Sanders,  place  the 
death  of  Queen  Catharine  in  1535 ;  and  the 
latter,  that  of  Anne  Bullen  four  months  af- 
terwards. According  to  Baker,  the  death 
of  Anne  took  place  in '1537.  Many  excel- 
lent modern  writers  have  agreed  upon  using 
the  date  1536  to  save  trouble,  but  it  has  only 
increased  the  difficulty  of  our  examination. 

In  1538,  the  Irish  lord-deputy  burned  the 
cathedral  of  Down,  and  destroyed  the  mon- 
uments of  St.  Patrick,  St.  Bridget,  and  St. 
Columb-Kill.  He  then  made  war  against 
images,  which  were  destroyed  everywhere 
at  this  time,  particularly  those  that  were 
most  revered.     The  celebrated  statue  of 


the  Blessed  Virgin,  at  Trim,  was  burned, 
as  also  the  crucifix  of  the  abbey  of  Bally- 
bogen,  and  St.  Patrick's  crosier,*  which 
had  been  removed,  by  order  of  William 
Fitz-Adelm,  in  the  twelfth  century,  from 
Armagh  to  Dublin. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  demonstra- 
tions, the  schism  and  supremacy  of  the 
King  of  England  made  but  slow  progress 
in  Ireland.  They  were,  however,  warmly 
supported  by  Archbishop  Brown:  in  his 
letters  to  Cromwell,  he  complains  bitterly 
of  the  opposition  that  he  had  experienced 
from  Cromer,  the  primate,  and  the  clergy 
in  general,  which  he  ascribed  to  the  igno- 
rance and  zeal  of  the  nation.  The  conduct 
of  this  archbishop  in  his  diocese,  and  his 
close  intimacy  with  Cromwell,  who  was  at 
least  a  Lutheran,  are  strong  proofs  that  he 
did  not  confine  himself  exclusively  to  the  af- 
fair of  the  supremacy ;  but  that  he  intended 
to  carry  matters  further  than  even  he  whom 
they  pretended  to  make  head  of  the  Church. 
In  another  letter,  in  May,  1538,  the  arch- 
bishop informed  Cromwell  that  the  primate 
and  clergy  of  Ireland  had  received  a  brief 
from  the  pope,  to  excommunicate  all  those 
who  should  acknowledge  the  king's  su- 
premacy. He  also  added,  that  the  viceroy 
possessed  but  little  authority  over  the  an- 
cient inhabitants  of  the  country ;  that  the 
nation  (that  is,  the  English  province)  was 
poor  and  unable  to  subdue  them ;  that  since 
Ireland  had  been  in  possession  of  the  king's 
ancestors,  the  ancient  Irish  had  never 
ceased  to  solicit  the  aid  of  foreign  powers ; 
£uad  that  at  present,  the  English  by  descent 
and  the  ancient  Irish  were  beginning  to 
forget  their  national  animosities,  by  oppo- 
sing the  king's  ordinances,  which  might 
induce  some  foreign  power  to  invade  Ife- 
larid.  - 

*  Upon  this  circamstance,  Mac-Geoghegan  has  given 
an  interesting  note : — "  Providence  has  preserved  a 
crosier  to  posterity,  which  St  Patrick  had  used  at  the 
baptism  of  Aongns,  King  of  Cashel;  the  holy  apostle 
having  left  it  with  O'Keamy  of  Cashel,  (to  be  used  by 
the  bishops  of  that  church  on  days  of  ceremony,)  whose 
descendants  have  preserved  it  with  veneration  to  the 
present  time.  This  venerable  monument  of  Christian 
antiquity  is  still  in  possession  of  Brien  O'Keamy,  of 
Fethard,  in  Tipperary,  the  chief  of  the  ancient  family 
of  that  name." 


148 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1547. 


Such  was  Henry's  selfish  anxiety  for  le- 
gitimate male  issue,  that  on  the  confinement 
of  Queen  Jane  (Seymour)  at  Hampton 
Court,  in  October,  1538,  he  ordered  the 
Cesarean  operation  to  be  performed,  thus 
sacrificing  the  young  and  beautiful  mother 
for  the  expected  child,  which  proved  to  be 
a  male.  On  the  18th  of  the  same  month, 
this  child  was  created  Prince  of  Wales, 
Duke  of  Cornwall,  and  Earl  of  Chester,  and 
he  reigned  after  his  father  with  the  title  of 
Edward  the  Sixth. 

In  1540,  Henry  began  to  think  of  marry- 
ing again.  Among  the  many  matches  that 
were  proposed,  the  Princess  Anne,  sister  to 
the  Duke  of  Cleves,  was  one.  She  was  a 
Protestant,  and  therefore  approved  of  by 
Cromwell,  who  was  the  king's  favourite  at 
this  time.  The  king  having  conceived  a 
dislike  for  Anne  of  Cleves,  a  few  months 
after  his  marriage  with  her,  caused  Crom- 
well to  be  arrested  on  the  9th  of  July,  and 
brought  to  the  Tower.  He  was  then  tried, 
and  condemned  unheard,  in  accordance 
with  that  abominable  law,  of  which,  it  is 
said,  he  was  himself  the  author.  About 
the  end  of  the  same  month,  he  was  beheaded 
on  Tower  Hill.  He  suffered  this  punish- 
ment for  having  been  the  chief  adviser  of 
his  master's  marriage,  and  met  his  destruc- 
tion where  he  thought  to  have  found  sup- 
port. After  the  execution  of  Cromwell, 
the  king  resolved  to  break  his  marriage 
with  Anne  of  Cleves ;  and  his  parliament 
of  course  declared  it  was  null  and  void ; 
that  either  party  was  at  liberty  to  marry 
another :  and  that  the  queen  should  hence- 
forward be  called  the  Princess  Anne  of 
Cleves.     This  lady  died  a  Catholic. 

In  1541,  the  Jesuits  were  introduced  by 
permission  of  Pope  Paul  the  Third  into 
Ireland,  through  the  exertions  of  Robert 
Waucop,  a  Scotsman,  titular  Archbishop 
of  Armagh.  John  Codur  was  the  first  of 
the  society  that  was  received  into  Ireland. 
He  was  followed  by  Alphonso  Salmeron, 
Pachase  Broet,  and  Francis  Zapata,  all  of 
the  same  order.  Though  Waucop  was 
bom  blind,  he  applied  himself  so  closely  to 
study  that  he  became  a  doctor  of  theology 
in  the  faculty  of  Paris.     He  assisted  at  the 


Council  of  Trent,  from  the  first  to  the 
eleventh  session,  after  which  the  pope  sent 
him  to  Germany  as  legate  a  Latere,  which 
gave  rise  to  the  saying  among  the  Ger- 
mans : — "A  blind  legate  to  the  cleaV-sighted 
Germans." 

On  the  dismissal  of  Anne  of  Cleves,  the 
king  married  in  eight  days  afterwards, 
Catharine  Howard,  daughter  of  Lord  Ed- 
ward Howard,  and  niece  to  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk.  Henry  having  been  informed  of 
the  dissolute  life  of  Catharine  Howard, 
caused  her  to  be  arrested,  eighteen  months 
after  his  marriage.  In  1542,  she  was  ac- 
cused and  convicted  of  unchastity  both  be- 
fore and  after  her  marriage,  and  con- 
demned to  be  beheaded  with  Derham  and 
Colpeper,  the  accomplices  of  her  guilt.  On 
the  scaffold,  Catharine  declared  herself  in- 
nocent since  her  marriage,  but  admitted 
that  previously  to  it  she  had  been  guilty. 
This  gave  rise  to  a  ridiculous  act  of  legisla- 
tion, prohibiting,  under  the  penalties  of  high 
treason,  any  woman  who  was  not  a  virgin 
from  marrying  the  king,  without  first  de- 
claring the  fact. 

The  death  of  Cromer,  Archbishop  of  Ar- 
magh, took  place  in  1542.  He  was  a  pre- 
late of  great  celebrity  ;  grave,  learned,  and 
of  a  mild  disposition.  He  was  strongly 
opposed  to  Archbishop  Brown  respecting 
the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  which  had 
been  usurped  by  Henry  the  Eighth.  His 
successor  in  the  see  of  Armagh  was  George 
Dowdal. 

Henry  the  Eighth  now  adopted  the 
policy  of  bringing  the  Irish  people  to  the 
condition  of  subjects,  and  endeavoured  to 
win  them  by  a  display  of  kindness,  in  offer- 
ing to  confer  titles  of  honour  upon  their 
chiefs.  The  real  Irish  inhabitants  were 
divided  into  tribes  ;  each  tribe  possessing 
a  territory,  which  was  divided  between 
the  different  branches  of  the  tribe.  These 
branches  had  each  its  vassals,  these  vassals 
having  neither  origin  nor  name  in  common 
with  their  masters.  They  were  the  de- 
scendants of  the  Milesians  from  Spain,  and 
of  a  remnant  of  the  Firbolgs,  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  who  cultivated 
the  lands  belonging  to  their  masters.    They 


A.  D.  1547.} 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


149 


did  not  take  the  names  of  their  chiefs,  as 
has  been  asserted  by  persons  little  ac- 
quainted with  Irish  history.  Each  tribe 
acknowledged  one  sovereign  chief,  a  rank 
which  usually  devolved  upon  the  elder 
branch ;  but  was  sometimes  elective,  ac- 
cording to  circumstances.  The  chief  and 
the  branches  were  of  the  same  origin,  and 
bore  the  same  name,  preceded  by  the  ar- 
ticles O  and  Mac,  with  this  difference,  that 
these  articles,  without  any  other  addition, 
belonged  to  the  chiefs;  for  instance,  by 
Mac-Carty,  or  O'Donnel,  vere  meant  the 
heads  of  these  illustrious  tribes.  The 
branches  were  distinguished  by  their  first 
names,  or  some  other  prefix  to  the  sur- 
name ;  as  Cormac  Mac-Carty,  Mac-Carty- 
Riagh,  Niall  Garve  O'Donnel,  etc.,  and  so 
with  the  other  tribes.  Each  tribe  formed 
a  small  republic,  the  members  of  which, 
with  their  vassals,  united  under  the  chief 
for  general  safety,  and  followed  him  to 
war.  They  were  all  more  or  less  allied  ; 
and  when  the  principal  branch  became  ex- 
tinct, it  was  replaced  by  some  of  the  colla- 
teral ones,  who  assumed  the  title  of  chief; 
so  that  unless  a  whole  tribe  became  extinct, 
they  could  never  want  a  chief.  This  di- 
gression is  necessary  in  order  to  show  the 
political  views  of  Henry  the  Eighth.  That 
monarch  intended  to  subdue  the  Irish  chief- 
tains by  the  pompous  title  of  lords,  hoping 
that  they  would  bring  the  tribes  which  they 
governed  under  the  dominion  of  the  crown 
of  England  ;  but  in  this  he  was  doubly  dis- 
appointed. He  wrote  on  the  subject  to 
several  of  those  chieftains,  some  of  whose 
families  have  carefully  preserved  his  let- 
ters ;  but  the  proffered  favours  were  gen- 
erally despised  and  rejected. 

Notwithstanding  the  distaste  which  the 
Irish  had  evinced  for  English  titles,  Henry 
the  Eighth  found  some  who  were  willing 
to  accept  of  them.  The  principal  of  these 
were  O'Neill  of  Tyrone,  and  O'Brien  of 
Thomond  ;  but  their  example  was  so  far 
from  being  imitated,  that  they  were  de- 
spised and  avoided. 

In  conferring  titles  of  honour  on  several 
of  these  noblemen,  Henry  restored  to  them 
by  letters-patent  the  estates  which  they 


had  placed  at  his  disposal,  and  in  order  to 
attach  them  still  more  to  him,  he  became 
sacrilegiously  liberal.  Without  at  all  de- 
ducting from  his  own  wealth,  he  added 
largely  to  their  revenues,  by  bestowing 
upon  them  the  lands  of  the  churches,  and 
the  patronage  of  the  livings  within  their 
several  districts.  These  newly-created 
lords  subsequently  testified  their  gratitude 
for  the  king's  favours,  by  becoming  the 
most  zealous  destroyers  of  the  altars  which 
had  been  raised  by  the  piety  of  their  fore- 
fathers. In  this  manner  did  the  houses  of 
Thomond,  Ormond,  Clanricarde,  Inchiquin, 
and  some  others,*  increase  their  splendour 
by  the  spoils  of  the  churches  and  lands 
which  were  confiscated  on  the  pretence  of 
religion,  or  the  alleged  rebellion  of  their 
neighbours,  and  even  of  their  near  rela- 
tions— the  English  court  willingly  granting 
to  them  the  confiscated  estates  as  a  reward 
for  their  services. 

This  policy  of  corrupting  the  Irish  no- 
bility was  sustained  throughout  the  remain- 
der of  Henry's  reign,  and  he  employed  his 
time  in  regulating  (according  to  the  state 
of  his  feelings)  the  regal  successions  of  his 
family.  In  1543,  he  married  Catharine 
Parr,  the  widow  of  Lord  Latimer,  a  lady 
who  was  generally  considered  favourable 
to  the  "Reformation."  In  1544,  he  had 
regulated  the  succession  to  the  crown  by  a 
bill  in  parliament,  declaring  his  son  Ed- 
ward, and  any  future  male  issue,  his  imme- 
diate heirs  ;  and  after  them,  the  princesses 
Mary  and  Elizabeth,  who  were  thus  re- 
stored to  legitimacy  after  being  deprived 
of  it  by  act  of  parliament !  These  strange 
facts  of  history  would  lead  the  most  sober- 
minded  observer  to  inquire, — 1.  Why  did 
not  Henry  order  the  birth  of  Edward  the 
Sixth  to  be  accelerated  by  act  of  parlia- 
ment? 2.  Why  did  not  Henry  order  his 
own  life  to  be  prolonged  by  act  of  parlia- 
ment? 

We  are  partly  enabled  to  account  for 
Henry's  dislike  to  Luther  by  referring  to 
the  unrestrained  language  employed  by  the 
latter  during  the  famous  controversy  in 
1521,  when,  in  answering  Henry's  book, 

•  See  pp.  124, 125  of  this  work. 


150 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1517. 


Luther  had  called  him  a  "pig,  an  ass,  a 
dunghill,  the  spawn  of  an  adder,  a  basilisk, 
a  lying  buffoon  dressed  in  a  king's  robes,  a 
mad  fool  with  a  frothy  mouth  and  a  whore- 
ish  face  ;'*  and  had  afterwards  said  to  him, 
"  you  lie,  you  stupid  and  sacrilegious  king  !"* 
These  coarse  compliments  were  written  by 
Luther  when  Henry  was  young  and  com- 
paratively innocent ;  but  Burnet  has  since 
declared  that  "  such  a  man  as  Henry  the 
Eighth  was  necessary  to  bring  about  the 
Reformation." 

Archdallf  has  remarked,  in  relation  to 
the  monastic  life : — 

"  When  we  contemplate  the  universality 
of  that  religious  zeal  which  drew  thousands 
from  the  elegance  and  comforts  of  society 
to  sequestered  solitude  and  austere  mace- 
ration ;  when  we  behold  the  greatest  and 
wisest  of  mankind  the  dupes  of  a  fatal  delu- 
sion, and  even  the  miser  expending  his 
store  to  partake  in  the  felicity  of  mortified 
ascetics ;  again,  when  we  find  the  tide  of 
enthusiasm  subsided,  and  sober  reason  re- 
covered from  her  delirium,  and  endeavour- 
ing, as  it  were,  to  demolish  every  vestige 
of  her  former  frenzy,  we  have  a  concise 
sketch  of  monachism,  and  no  common  in- 
stance of  that  mental  weakness  and  versa- 
tility which  stamp  the  character  of  frailty 
on  the  human  species.  We  investigate 
these  phenomena  in  the  moral  world  with 
a  pride  arising  from  assumed  superiority  in 
intellectual  powers,  or  higher  degrees  of 
civilization :  our  vanity  and  pursuit  are 
kept  alive  by  a  comparison  so  decidedly  in 
favour  of  modern  times." 

Hume,  while  noticing  the  reports  drawn 
up  by  Thomas  Cromv/ell,  says — 

"  It  is  safest  to  credit  the  existence  of 
vices  naturally  connected  with  the  very 
institution  of  monastic  life.  The  cruel  and 
inveterate  factions  and  quarrels,  therefore, 
which  the  commissioners  mentioned,  are 
very  credible  among  men,  who  being  con- 
fined together  within  the  same  walls,  can 

*  See  Epis.  Luth.  ad.  Reg.  Angl.;  quoted  by  Sir 
Thomas  More.  Luther  afterwards  reproached  himself 
with  having  been  too  mild  towards  Henry,  Ad.  Maledic. 
Beg.  Angl.     See  also  Collier's  Ecc.  Hist. 

t  Hist,  of  Irish  Monasteries.    See  Preface. 


never  forget  their  mutual  animosities,  and 
who,  being  cut  off  from  all  the  most  en- 
dearing connections  of  nature,  are  com- 
monly cursed  with  hearts  more  selfish  and 
tempers  more  unrelenting  than  fall  to  the 
share  of  other  men.  The  pious  frauds, 
practised  to  increase  the  devotion  and  lib- 
erality of  the  people,  may  be  regarded  as 
certain  in  an  order  founded  on  illusion,  lies, 
and  superstition.  The  supine  idleness  also, 
and  its  attendant,  profound  ignorance,  with 
which  the  convents  were  reproached,  admit 
of  no  question.  No  manly  or  elegant 
knowledge  could  be  expected  among  men 
whose  life,  condemned  to  a  tedious  uni- 
formity and  deprived  of  all  emulation, 
afforded  nothing  to  raise  the  mind  or  culti- 
vate the  genius." 

In  Sharon  Turner's  "History  of  Eng- 
land," we  find  the  following  observation  by 
that  able  Protestant  writer : — 

"  No  tyranny  was  ever  established  that 
was  more  unequivocally  the  creature  of 
popular  will,  nor  longer  maintained  by 
popular  support ;  in  no  point  did  personal 
interest  and  public  welfare  more  cordially 
unite  than  in  the  encouragement  of  mon- 
asteries." 

The  "London  Quarterly  Review"  has 
luckily  favoured  us  with  some  evidence  on 
this  old  battle-ground  of  historians : — 

"  The  world  has  never  been  so  indebted  to 
any  other  body  of  men  as  to  the  illustrious 
order  of  Benedictine  monks ;  but  historians, 
in  relating  the  evil  of  which  they  were  the 
occasion,  too  frequently  forget  the  good 
which  they  produced.  Even  the  common- 
est readers  are  acquainted  with  the  arch 
miracle-monger,  St.  Dunstan,  while  the 
most  learned  of  our  countrymen  scarcely 
remember  the  names  of  those  admirable 
men  who  went  forth  from  England,  and 
became  the  apostles  of  the  north.  Tinian 
and  Juan  Fernandez  are  not  more  beautiful 
spots  on  the  ocean  than  Malmesbury,  Lin- 
disfame,  and  Jarrow  were  in  the  ages  of 
our  heptarchy.  A  community  of  pious 
men,  devoted  to  literature  and  to  the  useful 
arts  as  well  as  to  religion,  seems,  in  those 
days,  like  a  green  oasis  amid  the  desert. 
Like  stars  on  a  moonless  night,  they  shine 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


151 


upon  us  with  a  tranquil  ray.  If  ever  there 
was  a  man  who  could  truly  be  called 
venerable,  it  was  he  to  whom  the  appella- 
tion is  constantly  fixed,  Bede,  whose  life 
was  passed  in  instructing  his  own  genera- 
tion, and  preparing  records  for  posterity. 
In  those  days,  the  Church  offered  the  only 
asylum  from  the  evils  to  which  every 
country  was  exposed :  amid  continual 
wars,  the  Church  enjoyed  peace — it  was 
regarded  as  a  sacred  realm  by  men,  who 
though  they  hated  one  another,  believed 
and  feared  the  same  God.  Abused  as  it 
was  by  the  worldly-minded  and  ambitious, 
and  disgraced  by  the  artifices  of  the  design- 
ing, and  the  follies  of  the  fanatic,  it  afford- 
ed a  shelter  to  those  who  were  better  than 
the  world  in  their  youth,  or  weary  of  it  in 
their  age.  The  wise  as  well  as  the  timid 
and  gentle  fled  to  this  Goshen  of  God, 
which  enjoyed  its  own  light  and  calm 
amid  darkness  and  storms."* 

The  Rev.  James  Pycroft,  B.  A.  of  Trin- 
ity College,  Oxford,  has  judiciously  ob- 
served that — 

"  The  history  of  printing  and  the  revival 
of  learning  are  of  course  closely  connected 
with  the  Reformation.  Indeed,  with  all 
the  praise  due  to  Luther  and  his  friends, 
we  must  not  presume  that  the  most  promi- 
nent are  always  the  most  efficient  instru- 
ments in  the  hands  of  Providence.  The 
men  who,  like  Petrarch  and  others,  con- 
tribute to  the  expansion  of  the  human 
mind,  and  thus  lay  the  train  and  provide 
the  fuel,  act  a  part  of  greater  use,  though 
less  self-devotion,  than  those  who,  whatever 
be  their  piety  and  courage,  merely  add 
the  spark.  The  consideration,  though 
humbling  to  man,  is  no  less  true,  that  the 
barbarism  of  the  Turks  in  disengaging  and 
setting  free  the  pent-up  spirits  of  Constan- 
tinople, might  not  have  done  less  service 
to  the  cause  of  Christ  than  the  never-fail- 
ing faith  and  courage  of  those  whom  every 
true  Christian  to  the  end  of  time  must 
admire.  The  truth  is,  God  rolls  along  the 
still  untiring  stream  of  time  ;  and  whether 
its  surface  is  ruffled,  as  it  were,  by  a  ripple 
or  whirlpool — whether  it  bears  on  its  wide 

•  December,  1811. 


bosom  the  curling  leaf  or  rifted  oak — 
whether  the  licentious  poets  of  Italy  or  the 
faithful  scholars  of  Germany  are  struggling 
on  its  dark  and  mighty  waters,  still  it  on- 
ward moves,  for  purposes  transcending 
mortal  ken."* 

In  relation  to  the  reception  of  the  "  Re- 
formation" in  Ireland,  our  old  friend,  the 
"  London  Quarterly,"  has  thus  remarked — 

"  The  Reformation  under  Henry  the 
Eighth  took  place  in  1536,  and  is  in  all 
respects  the  most  remarkable  era  which 
occurs  in  Irish  history.  Ireland,  as  has 
often  been  lamented,  had  no  reformer,  and 
was  wholly  unprepared  for  the  benefits  of 
the  Reformation.!  It  was  purely  an  act 
OF  THE  legislature.  Neither  the  English 
settlers  nor  native  inhabitants  understood 
or  cared  about  it.  During  Henry's  time, 
little  change  was  required  or  enforced. 
Some  conformed,  others  did  not.  Gra- 
dually, the  people,  ignorant  though  they 
were,  came  to  have  an  indistinct  percep- 
tion of  the  consequences  of  the  alteration. 
From  that  moment  the  animosities  of  the 
great  parties  into  which  Ireland  was  divid- 
ed took  an  entirely  new  direction.  Al- 
though distinctions  had  occasionally  been 
made  in  preceding  times,  between  the  old 
and  new  English,  the  Englishmen  general- 
ly ranged  themselves  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  natives  on  the  other.  Henceforward 
the  distinctions  between  old  and  new  Eng- 
lish were  forgotten,  and  all  attempts  to 
expel  them  were  abandoned.  All  other 
differences  were  merged  in  that  of  religion. 
The  far  greater  part  of  the  English  became 
Protestants  ;  most  of  the  natives  remained 
Catholics ;  and  it  is  painful  to  reflect,  that, 
throughout  the  three  centuries  which  have 
since  elapsed,  religion  has  continued  to  be 
the  main-spring  of  all  the  troubles  and 
atrocities  which  have  disgraced  and  afl[lict- 
ed  Ireland."! 

There  is  one  very  singular  incident  in 
connection  with  the  state  of  Ireland  at  the 
time  of  the  "  Reformation,"  and  we  mention 
it  here  because  it  will  serve  to  explain  the 

*  Course  of  English  Reading ;  a  little  work  which 
we  cannot  sufficiently  recommend,  and  which  ought  to 
be  in  the  hands  of  every  reader  of  the  English  language. 

t  Leland.  X  April,  1836. 


152 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1547. 


reason  why  we  have  not  quoted  much  from 
Archbishop  Usher.  This  incident  is  thus 
related  by  O'Connell : — 

•'  When  Luther  commenced  the  great 
schism  of  the  sixteenth  century,  all  Chris- 
tendom was  Catholic.  Ireland  of  course 
was  so.  It  has  indeed  been  so  said — for 
what  will  not  religious  bigotry  say  ? — that 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland  did  not  re- 
cognize the  authority  of  the  pope,  and  was 
severed  from  the  church  of  Rome.  This 
assertion  was  gravely  brought  forward  by 
Archbishop  Usher,  who  was  indeed  its 
principal  fabricator.  But  the  Right  Rev. 
Dr.  Milner  has  distinctly  shown  that  there 
is  the  most  conclusive  historical  evidence 
in  the  works  of  Usher  himself,  to  demon- 
strate the  utter  falsehood  of  his  own  asser- 
tion. And  there  is  a  curious  incident  be- 
longing to  this  controversy  which  occurred 
before  Milner  wrote ;  namely,  that  the 
credit  of  Usher's  assertion  having  been 
much  impugned,  a  grandson  of  his,  a  Pro- 
testant clergyman,  determined  to  confute 
the  impugners  of  his  grandfather's  state- 
ment ;  and  with  that  view,  carefully  ex- 
amined the  authorities  upon  the  subject ; 
when,  to  his  utmost  surprise,  he  discovered 
the  total  falsehood  of  that  statement !  Be- 
ing led  by  this  circumstance  to  examine 
the  other  points  of  difference  between  the 
Catholics  and  Protestants,  he  ended  by  giv- 
ing up  his  living,  resigning  his  gown  as  a 
Protestant  clergyman,  and  embracing  the 
profession  of  a  Catholic  priest." 

Upon  the  changes  which  have  taken 
place  since  the  "  Reformation"  we  have 
the  following  evidence  from  the  "Dublin 
Review:" — 

"  We  have  already  seen  what  the  Church 
was  before  the  fatal  epoch  we  have  en- 
deavoured to  illustrate :  let  us  view  her 
for  an  instant,  in  her  present  condition. 
In  lieu  of  monasteries,  we  have  work- 
houses ;  in  place  of  voluntary  charity,  an 
unfeeling  compulsory  assessment  for  the 
poor ;  jails  are  multiplied  or  enlarged  ; 
whole  masses  of  the  population  are  unem- 
ployed and  starving  ;  while  vice  and  crime 
are  increased  beyond  all  former  precedent, 
and  discontent  and  turbulence  reign  through- 


out. We  have  principles  of  equality,  where 
before,  we  had  principles  of  subordination ; 
a  spirit  of  worldly  ambition  and  insatiable 
covetousness,  where  formerly  was  a  chiv- 
alrous sacrifice  of  self,  and  a  generous  out- 
lay of  riches  for  the  public  good.  Coarse, 
vulgar,  riotous  mirth  has  been  substituted 
for  the  light-hearted  innocent  amusements 
of  the  people  :  among  the  higher  ranks, 
society  is  overgrown,  and  the  best  feelings 
of  the  heart  are  supplanted  by  pride,  envy, 
hatred,  emulation,  and  contention ;  while  a 
universally  luxurious  extravagance  has  dis- 
sipated the  means  of  benevolence,  and 
handed  over  half  the  ancient  estates  of  the 
kingdom  to  the  Jew  and  the  stockjobber."* 

Our  John  Bull  authority,  Cobbett,  has 
something  to  say  on  this  subject : — 

"  Now,  my  friends,  a  fair  and  honest  in- 
quiry will  teach  us  that  this  was  an  altera- 
tion for  the  worse ;  that  the  '  Reformation,' 
as  it  is  called,  was  engendered  in  beastly 
lust,  brought  forth  in  hypocrisy  and  perfi- 
dy, and  cherished  and  fed  by  plunder,  de- 
vastation, and  by  rivers  of  innocent  Eng- 
lish and  Irish  blood  ;  and  that,  as  to  its  more 
remote  consequences,  they  are,  some  of 
them,  now  before  us,  in  that  misery,  that 
beggary,  that  nakedness,  that  hunger,  that 
everlasting  wrangling  and  spite,  which  now 
stare  us  in  the  face  and  stun  our  ears  at 
every  turn,  and  which  the '  Reformation'  has 
given  us  in  exchange  for  the  ease  and  happi- 
ness and  harmony  and  Christian  charity 
enjoyed  so  abundantly,  arid  for  so  many 
ages,  by  our  Catholic  forefathers." 

We  will  now  conclude  with  the  follow- 
ing beautiful  extract  from  the  glowing  sen- 
timents of  Sampson,  to  which  it  would  be 
a  sin  against  propriety  for  us  to  add  one 
single  word ; — 

"It  might  be  said, — why  at  this  time 
dwell  upon  these  scenes  of  discord,  and  re- 
vive the  memory  of  wrongs  that  can  have 
no  remedy  ?  And  certainly  if  it  were  for 
no  better  purpose  than  to  stir  up  the  em- 
bers and  rouse  the  flame  which  has  burned 
before  so  fiercely  and  destructively,  it  would 
be  reprehensible ;  but  there  is  more  safety 


•  May,  1843. 
CoQsequeaces. 


Art.  III. — The  Beformation  and  its 


A.  D.  1547.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


153 


in  the  truth  than  in  concealment.  Those 
who  know  nothing  of  the  history  of  their 
country  but  the  traditions  of  hereditary 
wrongs  and  present  griefs,  can  learn  no 
more  from  books  than  is  already  graven  on 
the  tablets  of  their  hearts.  It  is  for  such  as 
feel  not,  know  not,  nor  care  not  what  those 
people  suffer  that  truth  should  speak  with 
trumpet  tongue.  And  there  is  no  good 
cause  why  torturers  should  sleep  on  beds 
of  roses.  It  is  for  those  in  whose  hands 
yet  rests  the  power  of  good  or  evil  to  relax 
their  grasp,  or  the  conflict,  though  unequal, 
must  be  eternal.  There  must  be  some  good 
to  counterbalance  so  much  evil.  To  for- 
give injuries  is  indeed  a  godlike  act ;  but 
human  nature  has  its  principles  stamped  by 
the  Creator,  who  has  implanted  passions  in 
the  souls  of  men,  some  of  which  it  is  the 
office  of  reason  and  religion  to  watch  over 
and  restrain  ;  some  that  are  necessary  even 
to  the  preservation  of  the  species  or  the  in- 
dividual; some  that  exalt  and  dignify  the 
beinff  within  whose  breast  ihev  dwell :  and 
of  these  last  none  are  more  noble  than  the 
love  of  truth,  the  love  of  freedom,  and  the 
love  of  country.  Till  these  are  extinguished 
in  thtj  human  heart,  and  man  made  brute, 
he  will  seek  for  justice,  right  and  indepen- 
dence, by  the  means  within  his  reach,  let 
statesmen,  lawyers  or  divines,  say  what 
they  may.  Doubtless,  to  forbear  vengeance 
is  a  godlike  virtue  ;  but  there  is  no  precept 
(human  or  divine)  which  bids  us  bury  truth, 
or  blindly  pay  to  sinful  man  that  unreserved 
obedience  due  to  God  alone." 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

Accession  of  Edward  the  Sixth — Formation  and 
proceedings  of  the  council  of  regency — Funeral 
of  Henry  the  Eighth — Coronation  of  the  new- 
king,  and  subsequent  appointments — Domination 
of  Somerset — The  "  Reformation"  laid  before 
the  people  of  England  and  Ireland — Bellingham's 
administration — New  privileges  for  Dublin — 
The  English  government  send  an  Irish  brigade 
to  Scotland — The  Scots  return  the  compliment 
in  Ulster — Brabazon's  administration — Surren- 
der of  Boulogne — Enforcement  of  the  new  Eng- 
lish liturgy ;  opposition  of  Dowdal— Crofts's  ad- 
ministration— Execution  of  Somerset — Division 
of  the  O'Briens — Desolation  of  UUter — Death 
20 


of  O'Melaghlin— Death  of  Edward  the  Sixtli— 
Progress  of  the  Reformation — Intrigues  of  the 
Duke  of  Northumberland ;  unfortunate  effects 
upon  the  interests  of  Lady  Jane  Grey — Sum- 
mary of  the  reign  of  Edward. 

Edward  the  Sixth,  only  legitimate  son 
of  Henry  the  Eighth,  ascended  the  throne 
by  virtue  of  his  birthright,  and  (what  was 
far  more  important  at  that  time)  the  nomi- 
nation of  his  father's  will.  This  will  or- 
dered (of  course  the  word  "  will"  is  quite 
appropriate  and  "  in  order")  that  the  ma- 
jority of  Edward  should  commence  at  the 
age  of  eighteen.  Notwithstanding  this 
"  will"  of  Henry's,  the  unhappy  young 
prince  never  saw  his  eighteenth  year. 
However,  Edward  being  now  nine  years 
of  age,  the  government  was  during  his  mi- 
nority vested  in  sixteen  executors,  namely, 
Cranmer,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury;  Lord 
Wriottesley,  chancellor;  Lord  St.  John, 
great  master ;  Lord  Russell,  privy-seal ; 
the  Earl  of  Hertford,  chamberlain ;  Vis- 
count Lisle,  admiral ;  Tonstall,  Bishop  of 
Durham  ;  Sir  Anthony  Browne,  master  of 
horse ;  Sir  William  Paget,  secretary  of 
state  ;  Sir  Edward  Forth,  chancellor  of  the 
court  of  augmentations  ;  Sir  Edward  Mon- 
tague, chief-justice  of  the  common  pleas  ; 
Judge  Bromley,  Sir  Anthony  Denny,  and 
Sir  William  Herbert,  chief  gentlemen  of 
the  privy  chamber;  Sir  Edward  Wotton, 
Treasurer  of  Calais  ;  and  Dr.  Wotton,  Dean 
of  Canterbury. 

Not  only  did  Henry  the  Eighth  name 
these  councillors,  some  of  whom  were,  in 
station  at  least,  far  below  so  important  a 
trust,  but  he  laid  down  a  course  of  conduct 
for  them  with  a  degree  of  minuteness,  which 
shows  that  to  the  very  close  of  his  career 
his  unbounded  vanity  maintained  its  old 
ascendency  over  his  naturally  shrewd  judg- 
ment. The  very  first  meeting  of  the  coun- 
cillors showed  the  fallacy  of  the  late  king's 
anticipations.  He  had  intended  that  the 
co-ordinate  distribution  of  the  state  author- 
ity should  render  it  impracticable  for  the 
ambition  of  any  one  great  subject  to  trouble 
or  endanger  the  succession  of  the  young 
Edward ;  and  this  very  precaution  was 
done  away  with  by  the  first  act  of  the  coun- 
cillors, who  agreed  that  it  was  necessary 


*o 


154 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1647. 


that  some  one  minister  should  have  promi- 
nent and  separate  authority,  under  title  of 
protector,  to  sign  all  orders  and  proclama- 
tions, and  to  communicate  with  foreign 
powers.  In  short,  they  determined  to  place 
one  of  their  number  in  precisely  that  tempt- 
ing propinquity  to  the  throne  to  guard 
against  which  had  been  a  main  object  of 
Henry's  care  and  study.  The  Earl  of 
Hertford,  maternal  uncle  to  the  king, 
seemed  best  entitled  to  this  high  office,  and 
he  was  accordingly  chosen,  in  spite  of  the 
opposition  of  Chancellor  Wriottesley,  who 
from  his  talents  and  experience  had  an- 
ticipated that  he  himself,  in  reality  though 
not  formally,  would  occupy  this  very  po- 
sition. 

Having  made  this  important  and  un- 
authorized alteration  in  Henry's  arrange- 
ments, the  council  then  gave  orders  for  the 
interment  of  the  deceased  monarch.  The 
body  lay  in  state  in  the  chapel  of  Whitehall, 
which  was  decorated  with  fine  black  cloth. 
Eighty  large  black  tapers  were  kept  con- 
stantly burning ;  twelve  lords  sat  round 
within  a  rail  as  mourners  ;  and  every  day 
masses  and  dirges  were  performed.  At 
the  commencement  of  each  service,  Nor- 
roy,  king-at-arms,  cried  in  a  loud  voice, 
"  Of  your  charity  pray  for  the  soul  of  the 
high  and  mighty  prince,  our  late  sovereign 
lord,  Henry  the  Eighth."  On  the  14th  of 
February  the  corpse  was  removed  to  Sion 
house,  and  thence  to  Windsor  on  the  fol- 
lowing day,  and  on  the  16th  it  was  interred 
near  that  of  Lady  Jane  Seymour.  Gardi- 
ner, Bishop  of  Winchester,  performed  the 
service  and  preached  a  sermon.  As  he 
scattered  earth  upon  the  coffin  and  pro- 
nounced the  Latin  of  the  words,  "Ashes  to 
ashes,  and  dust  to  dust,"  the  principal  at- 
tendants broke  their  wands  of  office  into 
three  parts,  above  their  heads,  and  threw 
the  pieces  upon  the  coffin.  The  solemn 
psalm  de  profundis  was  then  recited,  and 
the  garter  king-at-arms,  attended  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishop 
of  Durham,  proclaimed  the  style  and  titles 
of  Edward  the  Sixth. 

The  coronation  next  followed,  but  was 
abridged  of  the  usual  ceremony  and  splen- 


dour, on  account  of  the  delicate  state  of  the 
king's  health.  The  executors  of  the  late 
king,  though  they  had  so  importantly  de- 
parted from  the  express  directions  of  the 
will  upon  some  points,  were  very  exact  in 
following  it  upon  others.  Thus,  Henry  had 
charged  them  to  make  certain  crea'ons  of 
promotions  in  the  peerage;  and  Hertford 
was  now  made  Duke  of  Somerset,  marshal 
and  lord-treasurer ;  his  opponent.  Chancel- 
lor Wriottesley,  Earl  of  Southampton ;  the 
Earl  of  Essex,  Marquis  of  Northampton ; 
Viscount  Lisle,  Earl  of  Warwick;  Sir 
Thomas  Seymour,  Lord  Seymour  of  Sud- 
ley  and  Admiral  of  England ;  and  sirs 
Richard  Rich,  William  Willoughby,  and 
Edmund  Sheffield,  barons.  Somerset  and 
some  of  the  other  peers  were  at  the  same 
time,  to  enable  them  to  support  their  dig- 
nity, gratified  with  deaneries,  prebends, 
and  other  spiritual  benefices. 

Wriottesley,  Earl  of  Southampton,  was 
greatly  disappointed  that  he,  instead  of 
Somerset,  had  not  been  chosen  protector ; 
and  this  feeling  tended  greatly  to  exasperate 
the  political  opposition  which  had  ever  ex- 
isted between  them.  Wriottesley,  with  a 
want  of  judgment  strangely  in  contrast 
with  his  usual  conduct,  gave  to  Somerset 
an  opportunity  to  distress  and  mortify  him, 
of  which  that  proud  noble  was  not  slow  to 
avail  himself.  Desiring  to  give  the  utmost 
possible  amount  of  time  to  public  business, 
and  as  far  as  possible  to  share  and  check 
the  authority  of  the  protector,  Southamp- 
ton, upon  his  own  authority,  put  the  great 
seal  into  commission,  empowering  four 
lawyers  to  execute  the  office  of  chancellor 
for  him ;  and  two  of  the  four  lawyers  thus 
named  were  canonists,  which  gave  some 
appearance  to  his  conduct  of  a  desire  to 
show  disrespect  to  the  common  law.  Som- 
erset and  his  party  eagerly  caught  at  this 
indiscretion  of  their  noble  and  resolute  op- 
ponent, and  easily  obtained  from  the  judges 
an  opinion  to  the  effect  that  Southampton's 
course  was  illegal  and  unjustifiable,  and 
that  he  had  forfeited  his  office  and  even 
laid  himself  open  to  still  further  punishment. 
Southampton  was  accordingly  summoned 
before  the  council;  and,  though  he  ably 


A.  D.  1548.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


155 


defended  himself,  he  w»s  condemned  to 
lose  the  great  seal,  to  pay  a  pecuniary  fine, 
and  to  be  confined  to  his  own  house  during 
the  pleasure  of  the  council. 

Having  thus  opportunely  removed  his 
most  powerful  and  persevering  opponent, 
Somerset  immediately  set  about  enlarging 
his  own  power  and  altering  its  foundation. 
Professing  to  feel  a  delicacy  in  exercising 
the  extensive  powers  of  protector  while 
holding  that  office  only  under  the  authority 
of  the  executors  of  the  late  king's  will,  he  ob- 
tained from  the  young  king  a  patent  which 
gave  to  him  the  protectorate  with  full  regal 
powers,  and  which,  though  it  re-appointed 
all  the  councillors  and  executors  named  in 
Henry's  will,  with  the  sole  exception  of 
Southampton,  exempted  the  protector  from 
all  former  obligations  to  consult  them  or  to 
be  bound  by  their  opinion. 

The  Reformation  was  now  openly 
preached  before  the  people.  Besides  Cran- 
mer  and  his  agents,  Richard  Cox  and  Hugh 
Latimer,  (whom  the  Lutherans  call  the  first 
apostle  of  England,)  and  other  English 
preachers,  the  country  was  visited  with 
swarms  of  them  from  Germany.  Martin 
Bucer,  Peter  Martyr,  Bernard  Ochin,  Fa- 
gius,  and  others,  all  and  each  preached  their 
own  several  doctrines.  Some  were  favour- 
able to  Lutheranism,  which  was  professed 
by  Cranmer ;  others  favoured  the  doctrine 
of  Zuingle,  which  was  that  of  the  protector. 
This  schism  appeared  dangerous  to  the  par- 
liament. That  tribunal  acknowledged  none 
other  in  religious  matters ;  it  received  its 
commission  expressly  from  the  king,  who 
caused  himself  to  be  declared  the  head  of 
it.  In  order  to  appease  all  parties,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  to  preserve  some  appear- 
ance of  unity,  these  senators  adopted  cer- 
tain articles  of  the  tenets  of  each  of  the 
sects  whereof  the  religion  of  the  country 
was  composed ;  and  in  order  that  none 
should  have  cause  to  complain  of  having 
been  excluded,  they  added  a  portion  of  Cal- 
vinism, which  was  at  that  time  becoming 
popular.  Calvin  now  had  the  hardihood  to 
write  to  the  Duke  of  Somerset,  the  protec- 
tor, to  exhort  him  to  make  use  of  the  sword 
to  reduce  the  Catholics,  and  force  them  to 


embrace  what  he  termed  the  doctrine  of 
the  gospel.  From  the  many  innovations 
which  were  introduced  that  had  never  be- 
fore been  attempted,  the  people  became 
alarmed.  The  celebration  of  the  mass  was 
abolished,  the  marriage  of  priests  allowed, 
the  images  were  removed  from  the  church- 
es, and  public  prayers  said  in  the  dialect 
of  the  country.  Finally,  the  six  articles 
which  had  been  established  by  Henry  the 
Eighth  were  annulled  ;  several  bishops 
were  deprived  of  their  sees,  and  thrown 
into  dungeons ;  the  revenues  belonging  to 
the  churches,  together  with  their  vessels 
and  ornaments,  were  converted  to  profane 
purposes;  and  a  new  liturgy  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  old  one,  by  act  of  parliament. 
All  these  things  alarmed  the  people,  and 
gave  rise  to  a  rebellion  in  many  parts  of 
England. 

In  1548,  the  effects  of  the  Reformation 
were  beginning  to  be  felt  in  Ireland.  Two 
young  noblemen,  named  Richard  and  Alex- 
ander, sons  of  Thomas  Fitz-Eustace,  "Vis- 
count of  Baltinglass,  having  caused  disturb- 
ances in  Kildare,  by  opposing  some  mat- 
ters connected  with  the  Reformation,  which 
was  beginning  to  be  introduced  among 
them,  the  government  immediately  sent 
troops,  commanded  by  the  viceroy,  attend- 
ed by  Bellingham  and  Brabazon,  in  order 
to  crush  the  rising  conspiracy.  A  well-dis- 
ciplined army,  headed  by  the  deputy,  was 
more  than  sufficient  to  disperse  a  body  of 
men  who  had  been  tumultuously  assembled, 
and  badly  provided  with  arms ;  their  lead- 
ers soon  surrendered  to  the  viceroy,  who 
procured  them  their  pardon,  and  that  of 
their  father,  the  Viscount  Baltinglass,  sup- 
posed to  have  favoured  their  insurrection. 

St.  Leger,  the  deputy,  having  received 
orders  to  return  to  England,  brought  O*- 
Morra  and  O'Connor  prisoners  along  with 
him.  These  noblemen  having  submitted, 
received  their  pardon,  and  a  pension  for 
life,  of  one  hundred  pounds  sterling  a  year, 
from  the  exchequer. 

Sir  Edward  Bellingham,  who  had  been 
sent  to  England  by  the  government  to  ren- 
der an  account  of  the  submission  of  some 
noblemen  in  Kildare,  returned  to  Ireland 


156 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A..  D.  1649. 


as  deputy  from  the  court.  He  landed  at 
Dalkey,  near  Dublin,  on  the  vigil  of  Pente- 
cost, and  in  two  days  afterwards,  received 
the  sword  of  office  according  to  custom, 
in  the  cathedral  church  of  Dublin.  The 
new  deputy  re-appointed  John  Allen  chan- 
cellor, instead  of  Read,  who  returned  soon 
afterwards  to  England. 

The  deputy  now  made  incursions  into 
the  territories  of  Leix  and  Offaly,  where  he 
quelled  some  disturbances  that  had  been 
caused  by  Cahir  O'Connor,  and  other  no- 
Wes.  He  then  marched  towards  Dealna, 
which  he  laid  waste,  and  reduced  to  obe- 
dience. He  was  the  first  after  Henry  the 
Third,  (according  to  Davis  and  Cox,)  who 
extended  the  frontiers  of  the  English  pro- 
vince in  Ireland.  This  deputy  established 
a  mint  in  Ireland,  by  orders  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  it  failed,  however,  for  want  of  means 
to  support  it.  In  April,  1548,  the  city  of 
Dublin,  which  had  been  at  first  governed 
by  a  provost,  and  subsequently,  from  Hen- 
ry the  Third,  by  a  mayor  and  bailiffs,  and 
was  honoured  with  the  sword  by  Henry 
the  Fourth,  obtained  permission  from  the 
court  to  change  its  bailiffs  into  sheriffs. 

About  this  time,  Francis  Brian,  an  Eng- 
lishman and  baronet,  having  married  Jane, 
Dowager-Countess  of  Ormond,  was  appoint- 
ed Marshal  of  Ireland,  and  Governor  of 
Tipperary  and  Kilkenny.  This  governor 
and  the  deputy  could  not  agree ;  the  one 
being  unwilling  to  acknowledge  a  superior, 
and  the  other  an  equal ;  their  animosity  was 
carried  to  such  a  pitch  that  Brian  wrote  to 
the  king  against  the  deputy,  and  had  him 
summoned  to  appear  at  court,  to  answer  the 
charges  which  he  now  advanced.  Teigue, 
or  Thaddeus  O'Carrol,  also  seized  upon  and 
destroyed  the  castle  of  Nenagh,  in  Tippe- 
rary, in  spite  of  the  spirited  resistance  of 
the  English  garrison.  He  then  expelled 
all  the  English  from  the  district. 

Some  differences  sprang  up  in  Ulster 
between  Manus  O'Donnel,  Prince  of  Tyr- 
connel,  and  his  son  Calvagh,  \yhich  ended 
in  an  open  war.  Both  parties  took  up  arms, 
and  in  February,  1548,  came  to  an  engage- 
ment, in  which  the  father  was  victorious, 
and  his  son  put  to  flight,  leaving  MacDon- 


ough  O'Cahan,  artd  several  other  noblemen, 
his  allies,  dead  on  the  field  of  battle.  A 
dreadful  misfortune  happened  shortly  af- 
terwards to  MacCoghlan:  his  district  of 
Dealna  being  laid  waste  by  the  united 
forces  of  Teigue  O'Melaghlin  and  Edmund 
Fay. 

Edward  being  at  war  with  the  Scots,  the 
viceroy  and  council  in  Ireland  sent  a  bri- 
gade of  Irish  troops  to  his  assistance,  under 
the  command  of  Donough,  son  of  O'Connor 
Fahy,  accompanied  by  the  sons  of  Cahir 
O'Connor. 

In  November,  1548,  Cormoc  Roe  O'Con- 
nor, who  had  been  proclaimed  a  traitor  and 
proscribed,  appeared  before  the  deputy  and 
council  in  Christ's  Church,  Dublin,  where, 
after  making  his  submission,  he  was  par- 
doned ;  but  being  possessed  of  considerable 
estates,  he  was  soon  furnished  with  fresh 
cause  to  rebel ;  he  was  then  arrested  by  the 
Earl  of  Clanricarde,  and  sent  to  Dublin, 
tried  and  condemned  to  death. 

About  Christmas,  1548,  the  deputy  wrote 
to  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  to  induce  him  to 
come  to  Dublin  on  some  important  business. 
The  earl  was  then  the  richest  of  the  kingr's 
subjects  in  landed  property,  and  though  not 
one  of  the  privy-council,  was  Treasurer  of 
Ireland.  The  deputy,  exasperated  at  his 
refusal  to  obey  the  summons,  set  out  on  a 
sudden  with  twenty  horsemen,  for  Munster, 
where  he  surprised  him,  and  brought  him 
prisoner  to  Dublin.  This,  however,  proved 
fortunate  for  him,  as  he  obtained  his  pardon 
some  time  afterwards,  and  was  restored  to 
favour,  through  the  interference  of  his  ad- 
versary. Cox  draws  a  very  disadvanta- 
geous portrait  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  for 
rudeness  and  ferocity  of  manners.  This, 
however,  is  contradicted  by  Ware. 

In  1549,  the  conquest  of  Ireland  had  not 
been  yet  completed.  Symptoms,  however, 
appeared  from  time  to  time  among  the  an- 
cient Irish,  which  portended  the  speedy  re- 
duction of  the  island.  When  the  lords  of 
inferior  districts  had  any  subject  of  com- 
plaint against  their  superior  lords,  instead 
of  having  recourse  to  the  usual  mode  of  ar- 
bitration, or  referring  their  differences  to 
the  Brehons,  who  were  the  ordinary  judges 


A.  D.  1549.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


157 


among  them,  they  carried  their  complaints 
before  the  English  governor.  This  politic 
tribunal,  while  effecting  between  them  an 
outward  reconciliation,  exerted  itself  to  se- 
ver the  ties  of  subordination  and  establish 
an  independence  among  them  ;  so  that  by 
a  separation  of  the  vassals  from  their  chief, 
the  body  became  imperceptibly  enfeebled, 
many  instances  of  which  occurred  about 
this  time.  Con  O'Neill,  Earl  of  Tyrone, 
having  had  a  dispute  with  Maguire,  Phelim 
Roe  O'Neill,  and  other  nobles  who  held  un- 
der him,  they  presented  themselves  before 
the  deputy  and  council,  in  Dublin,  in  June, 
1549.  The  tribunal  heard  their  mutual  re- 
criminations and  complaints,  and  had  them 
reconciled  on  certain  conditions ;  it  deci- 
ded, that  Maguire  should  be  exempt  for  the 
future  from  all  subjection,  homage,  and  de- 
pendence on  the  Earl  of  Tyrone  and  his 
successors ;  that  he  should  always  remain 
in  peace  under  the  deputy's  protection,  and 
that  he  should  be  bound  to  acquit  himself 
towards  his  excellency,  as  often  as  he  should 
be  required  by  the  council,  of  all  homage, 
debts,  and  generally  of  every  duty  which 
a  subject  owes  to  his  lord.  In  the  follow- 
ing month,  a  similar  decree  was  made  re- 
specting O'Donnel,  Prince  of  Tyrconnel, 
and  the  nobles  who  held  under  him.  These 
negotiations  were  followed  by  the  submis- 
sion of  Brian  and  Hugh  Oge  M'Mahon,  (the 
younger,)  to  the  deputy  at  Kilmainham,  and 
the  remission  of  a  fine  of  five  hundred  marks, 
to  which  they  had  been  condemned  some 
time  before. 

The  war  had  lasted  for  a  considerable 
time  between  the  English  and  Scots,  re- 
specting the  marriage  which  it  was  en- 
deavoured to  conclude  between  the  young 
king  and  Mary  Stuart,  in  order  to  unite 
England  with  Scotland.  The  Scottish 
nobility  having  refused  to  consent  to  this 
marriage,  the  lord-protector  marched  into 
Scotland  with  a  powerful  army,  where  he 
gained  the  battle  of  Musselborough.  Henry 
the  Second,  King  of  France,  whose  interest 
it  was  to  thwart  an  alliance  which  would 
produce  the  union  of  these  two  crowns, 
averted  the  blow  by  sending  for  the  heiress 
of  Scotland.     She  was  afterwards  married 


to  his  son,  Francis  the  Second.  The  Scots 
now  sent  a  body  of  troops  to  Ulster  to 
support  the  Irish  against  the  English,  and 
thereby  create  a  diversion  in  their  own 
favour ;  but  these  auxiliaries,  to  the  num- 
ber of  two  hundred,  were  defeated. 

Bellingham,  the  deputy,  having  been  re- 
called by  the  intrigues  of  his  enemies, 
sailed  from  Howth  in  December,  for  Eng- 
land. After  his  departure, Chancellor  Allen, 
by  the  orders  of  the  king,  having  convened 
a  meeting  of  the  nobility  and  privy  council, 
in  the  church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Dublin, 
in  order  to  appoint  a  successor,  the  choice 
fell  on  Sir  Francis  Brian.  The  adminis- 
tration of  this  new  deputy  was  of  short 
duration.  Having  undertaken  an  expedi- 
tion into  Tipperary,  to  quell  some  distur- 
bances, and  to  oppose  the  incursions  of 
O'Carroll,  he  fell  sick  at  Clonmel,  where 
he  died  in  February  following.  His  body 
was  removed  to  Waterford,  and  interred 
in  the  cathedral  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  After 
his  death  the  government  was  confided  by 
the  council  to  Sir  William  Brabazon,  and 
this  governor  intrusted  Edmund  Butler, 
Archbishop  of  Cashel,  with  the  superinten- 
dance  of  the  country  of  Ormond,  during 
the  minority  of  the  earl,  who  was  then  but 
twelve  years  of  age.  The  new  lord-justice 
marched  towards  Limerick,  where  he  re- 
ceived the  submission  of  Teigue,  or  Thad- 
deus  O'Carrol.  This  nobleman  undertook 
to  pay  an  annual  tribute  to  the  exchequer, 
and  also  to  maintain  a  certain  number  of 
troops,  both  horse  and  foot,  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, for  the  king's  service,  and  to  resign 
his  claims  on  the  barony  of  Ormond.  He 
also  placed  the  district  of  Eile  in  the  king's 
hands,  who  restored  it  to  him  afterwards, 
by  letters-patent,  with  the  title  of  Lord- 
Baron  of  Eile.  This  nobleman  having  got 
over  his  own  difficulties,  interfered  in  fa- 
vour of  M'Morrough,  O'Kelley,  and  O'Me- 
laghlin,  and  procured  letters  of  protection 
for  them.  The  lord-justice  at  the  same 
time  reconciled  the  earls  of  Desmond  and 
Thomond,  whose  differences  respecting 
their  frontiers  had  long  disturbed  the  peace 
of  the  province. 

Boulogne,   which  had  been  taken    by 


158 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1550. 


Henry  the  Eighth  six  years  before,  was  sur- 
rendered to  the  French,  in  April,  1550,  on 
condition  of  paying,  at  two  separate  periods, 
the  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand  crowns. 
The  King  of  England  expended  eight  thou- 
sand pounds  sterling  of  this  money  in  the 
service  of  Ireland.  He  also  sent  over  four 
hundred  men  from  that  garrison,  which 
enabled  the  lord-justice  to  pursue  the  rebels, 
among  others  Charles  Mac-Art  Cavanagh, 
who  had  already  been  proclaimed  a  traitor. 
He  devastated  the  country,  and  killed  sev- 
eral of  his  followers. 

In  1550,  the  Reformation  had  not  yet 
made  much  progress  in  Ireland.  In  May, 
Arthur  Magennis  was  appointed  by  the 
pope  to  the  bishopric  of  Dromore,  and 
was  confirmed  in  it  by  letters-patent  from 
the  king.  Thomas  Lancaster,  of  the  re- 
formed religion,  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  Kildare,  in  Dublin,  in  July,  by  George 
Brown,  archbishop  of  that  city.  He, 
however,  lost  his  bishopric  under  the  fol- 
lowing reign,  on  account  of  his  having 
married. 

The  English  again  sent  an  army  to  the 
frontiers  of  Scotland.  Henry  the  Second, 
King  of  France,  considered  this  step  against 
his  allies  as  an  infraction  of  the  peace  lately 
concluded  between  him  and  the  English : 
and  accordingly  sent  a  fleet,  consisting  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  vessels,  laden  with 
provisions,  powder,  and  cannon,  to  Scot- 
land ;  but  having  been  overtaken  by  a 
furious  tempest,  sixteen  of  the  largest  ves- 
sels were  wrecked  upon  the  coast  of  Ireland ; 
the  remainder  were  scattered  and  found 
considerable  difficulty  in  reaching  the  coast 
of  France.  The  King  of  England  wished 
to  counteract  the  designs  of  France  against 
his  dominions,  but  particularly  against  Ire- 
land. He  knew  that  his  power  was  not 
firmly  established  in  that  country ;  that  the 
people  were  in  general  dissatisfied,  and  that 
their  fidelity  being  founded  on  a  forced  sub- 
mission, they  only  waited  for  an  opportu- 
nity to  shake  off  the  English  yoke.  For 
the  purpose  therefore  of  guarding  it,  he 
sent  a  fleet  of  twenty  vessels  consisting  of 
large  ships  and  sloops,  under  the  command 
of  Lord  Cobham,  with  orders  to  cruise  in 


the  Irish  sea,  from  the  north  to  the  south 
of  the  island.  Henry  the  Second  found 
means,  however,  to  elude  these  precau- 
tions. He  sent  over  De  Forquevaux,  at- 
tended by  De  Montluc,  who  entered  into 
successful  negotiation  with  the  princes  of 
Ulster,  O'Neill  and  O'Donnell,  and  induced 
them  to  enter  into  a  confederacy  with 
France,  against  the  English.  The  peace 
afterwards  concluded  between  France  and 
England  rendered  this  league  with  the  Irish 
abortive. 

De  Serigny  speaks  in  the  following  terms 
of  this  negotiation,  in  his  registry  of  the 
nobility  of  France,  in  the  article  respecting 
Beccarie  de  Pavie,  Marquis  de  Forque- 
vaux : — "  In  the  mean  time,  as  the  king 
wished  to  bring  the  Irish  princes  under  his 
dominion,  and  withdraw  them  from  their 
allegiance  to  the  King  of  England,  who 
had  many  partisans  among  them,  and  was 
in  possession  of  some  fortresses ;  he  gave 
orders  to  De  Forquevaux  to  set  out  for 
Ireland  with  De  Montluc,  (John  de  Mon- 
tesquionde  Lnsseran  Massencomme,  brother 
to  Marshal  Blaise  de  Montluc,)  who  was 
then  Chancellor  of  Scotland,  and  after- 
wards Bishop  of  Valentia  and  Die  in  Dau- 
phiny.  Notwithstanding  the  delicacy  of 
this  affair,  they  carried  on  their  negotia- 
tion, which  was  a  dangerous  one,  with  so 
much  skill  and  dexterity,  that  in  February, 
1553,  they  received  the  oath  of  fidelity 
from  Prince  O'Donnel,  and  O'Neill,  Earl 
of  Tyrone,  in  the  castle  of  Donegal,  in 
Ulster,  which  princes,  both  in  their  own 
name,  and  in  the  names  of  the  other  lords 
of  the  country,  placed  their  lives,  forces, 
and  properties  under  the  protection  of 
France ;  it  having  been  agreed  upon,  that 
whoever  would  be  King  of  France,  should 
be  also  King  of  Ireland."  This  is  an  his- 
torical fact,  of  which  no  mention  is  made, 
either  by  our  most  correct  compilers,  or  in 
the  extensive  works  of  Du  Tillet,  De  Bel- 
leforet,  De  la  Popliniere,  and  others  ;  but 
concerning  which  no  doubt  can  exist,  since 
according  to  the  account  of  the  biographer 
of  Raymond  de  Beccarie,  the  Latin  tran- 
script of  the  oath  taken  by  the  Irish  lords 
is  to  be  found  in  the  king's  treasury,  and 


A.  D.  1551.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


159 


he  was  moreover  well  acquainted  with  the 
facts.* 

Allen,  Chancellor  of  Ireland,  was  re- 
called at  this  time  to  England,  and  suc- 
ceeded by  Sir  Thomas  Cusack,  of  Coffing- 
ton,  in  Meath,  who  had  been  master  of  the 
rolls.  The  office  of  chancellor  was  con- 
firmed to  him  by  letters  from  the  king,  in 
August. 

In  September,  Sir  Anthony  St.  Leger 
was  again  appointed  Lord-Lieutenant  of 
Ireland.  This  deputy  received  the  sub- 
mission of  M'Carthy,  and  restored  him  to 
favour.  Richard  Butler,  Lord  of  Mongar- 
ret,  in  Wexford,  was  created  a  peer  of  the 
realm  on  the  23d  of  October,  under  the 
title  of  Lord-Viscount  Mongarret.  He 
was  son  of  Pierce,  or  Peter,  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  and  of  Margaret,  daughter  of  Fitz- 
gerald, Earl  of  Kildare. 

Charles  Mac-Art  Cavanagh  having  ap- 
peared on  the  4th  of  November  before  the 
grand  council  in  Dublin,  made  his  submis- 
sion, and  surrendered  his  possessions  pub- 
licly, in  the  name  of  Mac-Morrough,  in 
presence  of  the  deputy,  the  earls  of  Des- 
mond, Tyrone,  Thomond,  and  Clanricarde, 
Viscount  Mongarret,  the  Baron  of  Dun- 
boyne,  and  other  noblemen.  The  sub- 
mission of  this  nobleman  produced  him  no 
advantage,  as  he  was  stripped  of  the  best 
portion  of  his  estates. 

Edmund  Butler,  Archbishop  of  Cashel, 
died  about  this  time ;  he  was  natural  son 
of  Peter,  Earl  of  Ormond.  This  prelate 
belonged  to  the  privy-council  of  Ireland, 
under  Henry  the  Eighth.  At  the  time  of 
the  suppression  of  monasteries,  he  surren- 
dered the  priory  of  St.  Edmund,  of  Athas- 
sel,  in  Tipperary,  to  which  he  had  been 
appointed.  Butler  was  succeeded  in  the 
see  of  Cashel  by  Roland  Barron. 

Now  the  King  of  England  sent  his  com- 
mands to  the  deputy  of  Ireland,  to  have  the 
liturgy  and  public  prayers  performed  in  the 
English  language;  with  a  direction  that 
orders  should  be  given  to  all  archbishops, 
bishops,  deans,  archdeacons,  and  parish 
priests,  throughout  the  kingdom,  to  conform 
in  all  these  matters  to  the  king's  will.  In 
*  Mac-Geoghegan. 


obedience  to  these  commands,  the  deputy 
convened  a  meeting  of  the  clergy,  to  inform 
them  of  the  orders  he  had  received,  and  the 
opinions  of  some  English  bishops,  who  had 
conformed  to  the  new  liturgy.  George 
Dowdal,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  and  Pri- 
mate of  all  Ireland,  who  was  firmly  at- 
tached to  the  Catholic  cause,  spoke  with 
vigour  against  this  innovation,  and  among 
other  things  said,  "Any  illiterate  layman 
might  soon  have  power  to  say  mass.** 
After  this  he  left  the  meeting  followed  by 
all  his  suffragans,  except  Edward  Staples, 
Bishop  of  Meath.  Brown,  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  was  more  submissive  than  Dow- 
dal :  he  received  the  king's  orders  respect- 
fully, observing  that  he  submitted,  as  Jesus 
had  done  to  Caesar,  in  all  that  was  just  and 
lawful,  without  inquiring  into  the  cause,  as 
he  acknowledged  him  to  be  his  true  and 
lawful  king.  On  Easter  Sunday,  1551,  he 
preached  upon  this  subject,  in  the  cathedral 
of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  Dublin,  taking  for 
his  text  the  following  words  of  the  Psalmist, 
"  Open  my  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  the 
wonders  of  thy  law." 

According  to  Ware,  several  lords  had, 
at  this  time,  the  title  of  baron,  though  they 
did  not  rank  among  the  nobles ;  it  is  proba- 
ble that  these  were  popular  distinctions, 
from  which  they  did  not  derive  the  privi- 
lege of  sitting  in  parliament.  The  follow- 
ing he  mentions  as  existing  in  his  time :  the 
barons  of  Burnchurch,  Navan,  Serine,  Gal- 
trim,  Rheban,  Norragh,  Sleumarg,  Browns- 
ford,  Thomastown,  Ardmail,  and  Loughno. 
When  the  country  was,  by  order  of  the 
English  governor,  divided  into  baronies, 
the  people,  through  courtesy,  gave  the  title 
of  baron  to  some  of  the  ancient  Irish,  to 
whom  the  lands  belonged ;  among  others, 
we  discover  those  of  Dartry,  Tuathra  Clan- 
mahan,  Tirereil,  Loghtee,  who  were  styled 
barons  of  their  own  estates.  All  who  had 
large  possessions  assumed  the  title  likewise, 
which  was  also  the  custom  in  England, 
previous  to  its  being  conferred  by  patent. 

St.  Leger,  the  deputy,  was  recalled  this 
year,  on  account  of  some  complaints  that 
were  urged  against  him  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  either  for  want  of  zeal  in  ad  van- 


160 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1552. 


cing  the  Reformation,  or  some  other  secret 
cause.  He  was  succeeded  by  Sir  James 
Crofts,  a  gentleman  of  the  king's  bedcham- 
ber. The  new  deputy  having  learned,  on 
his  arrival  in  Ireland,  that  St.  Leger  was 
in  Munster,  he  repaired  to  Cork,  where  he 
received  the  sword  from  him  in  May,  1551. 
Crofts  was  a  zealous  Protestant,  and  en- 
deavoured, but  in  vain,  to  induce  Dowdal, 
the  primate,  to  conform  to  the  king's  wishes 
respecting  the  liturgy.  Upon  his  refusal, 
the  king  and  council  of  England  deprived 
him  of  the  title  of  primate,  which  was  there- 
upon conferred  on  the  see  of  Dublin.  Dow- 
dal was  obliged  to  withdraw  to  a  foreign 
country,  and  Hugh  Goodacre  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Archbishopric  of  Armagh  in 
his  stead.  He  was  consecrated  in  Febru- 
ary, with  John  Bale,  Bishop  of  Ossory,  in 
the  church  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  Dublin. 

The  first  expedition  of  Crofts  was  into 
Ulster,  to  quell  some  disturbances  that  had 
been  caused  bv  the  inhabitants  of  that 
province,  in  conjunction  with  their  neigh- 
bours, the  Scots.  The  deputy  having 
reached  Carrickfergus,  sent  a  detachment 
under  the  command  of  Captain  Bagnall,  to 
surprise  Rachlin,  an  island  north  of  Fair- 
head.  This  expedition  did  not  succeed  to 
his  wishes :  the  detachment  was  repulsed 
with  a  heavy  loss,  and  one  of  the  vessels 
was  wrecked.  Bagnall  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Mac-Donnels,  and  afterwards  ex- 
changed for  Surly  Boy  Mac-Donnel,  their 
brother,  who  had  been  kept  in  confinement 
in  Dublin.  During  his  stay  in  Ulster,  the 
deputy  received  the  submission  of  some  of 
the  nobles  of  the  country.  The  rest  in- 
trenched themselves  in  inaccessible  fast- 
nesses, from  which  he  found  it  impossible 
to  dislodge  them. 

About  this  time,  the  king  changed  the 
title  of  the  Irish  king-at-arms.  This  ofh- 
cer,  who  had  till  then  enjoyed  that  oflSce 
for  all  Ireland,  was  thenceforward  called 
Ulster  king-at-arms,  the  cause  of  which 
change  is  not  known.  Nicholas  Narbon, 
one  of  the  English  heralds,  sumamed  Rich- 
mond, was  the  first  who  held  the  office 
under  the  new  title.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Bartholomew  Butler. 


When  the  deputy  returned  to  Dublin,  he 
had  the  Earl  of  Tyrone  arrested,  on  ac- 
count of  some  complaints  which  had  been 
made  as:ainst  him  bv  his  son  Ferdorach  or 
Matthew  O'Neill,  Baron  of  Dungannon. 
The  brothers  of  Matthew  took  up  arms 
and  devastated  the  lands  of  Dungannon,  to 
avenge  the  insult  which  had  been  offered 
to  their  father.  It  being  the  interest  of  the 
English  government  to  support  their  client, 
they  gave  him  a  body  of  English  troops  to 
enable  him  to  defend  his  possessions.  The 
matter  was  soon  decided  by  a  pitched  bat- 
tle, in  which  the  baron  was  defeated  and 
put  to  flight,  with  a  loss  of  two  hundred  of 
his  men,  killed  upon  the  spot.  The  Earl 
of  Tyrone  was  detained  three  months  more 
in  prison,  after  which  he  received  his  free- 
dom, upon  giving  hostages,  and  returned  to 
his  province. 

Brian  O'Connor  Faly,  who  was  a  pris- 
oner in  the  Tower  of  London,  having  found 
means  to  escape,  was  retaken,  and  again 
thrown  into  confinement.  MacCoghlan, 
who  had  been  expelled  from  his  territory 
of  Dealna,  or  Delvin,  was  now  restored, 
having  yielded  to  the  English  yoke.  The 
public  archives,  which  had  been  before 
deposited  in  Bermingham  Tower,  Dublin, 
were  now  removed  to  the  library  of  St. 
Patrick. 

About  this  period  died  Robert  Waucop, 
the  Jesuit,  who  was  either  a  Scot  or  an 
Irishman.  During  the  lifetime  of  Dowdal, 
he  was  nominated  Archbishop  of  Armagh, 
to  Pope  Paul  the  Third,  although  Dowdal 
was  a  Catholic.  It  appears  that  the  pope 
paid  no  regard  to  his  nomination,  it  having 
been  made  by  Henry  the  Eighth  during  his 
schism.  Two  bishops  appeared  now  for 
the  first  time  in  each  diocese  in  Ireland: 
the  one  was  called  titular,  appointed  by  the 
pope ;  the  other  received  his  mission  from 
the  kings  of  England,  with  the  possession 
of  the  revenues.  The  only  advantage 
which  Waucop  derived  from  his  appoint- 
ment, was  the  honour  of  being  titular  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh. 

Two  years  had  now  elapsed  since  the 
Duke  of  Somerset  was  liberated  from  the 
Tower,  and  deprived  of  the  protectorship ; 


A.  D.  1552.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


IM 


but  fresh  accusations  having  been  brought 
against  him,  by  his  rival  the  Duke  of  North- 
umberland, and  other  noblemen,  he  was 
impeached  and  convicted  of  high  treason, 
and  of  having  attempted  the  life  of  North- 
umberland, in  consequence  of  which  he  was 
beheaded  on  Tower  Hill,  in  1552.  Such 
was  the  end  of  this  ambitious  nobleman, 
who,  though  but  a  subject,  aspired  to  be  the 
equal  of  a  sovereign,  by  assuming  the  style 
of  "  Somerset,  by  the  grace  of  God."  He 
built  a  magnificent  palace  from  the  ruins 
of  churches  and  the  dwellings  of  the  bish- 
ops, and  from  the  revenues,  which  they  and 
the  chapters  were  obliged  to  surrender  to 
him. 

On  the  death  of  Morrough  O'Brien,  who 
was  created  Earl  of  Thomond  by  Henry 
the  Eighth,  his  nephew  Donough,  Baron  of 
Ibracan,  took  possession  of  the  estates  and 
title  of  Thomond,  according  to  a  compact 
made  between  them  by  the  king ;  but  as 
this  title  was  to  end  with  Donough,  he  sur- 
rendered his  patent  to  Edward  the  Sixth, 
who  conferred  a  new  one  on  him,  by  which 
the  title  of  Earl  of  Thomond  was  confirmed 
to  him  and  his  male  heirs  for  ever.  He 
was  soon  afterwards  killed  by  his  brother 
Donald. 

The  noble  family  of  the  Fitz-Geralds  of 
Kildare  was  now  restored,  in  the  person  of 
Gerald,  brother  to  Thomas,  last  Earl  of 
Kildare,  who  was  executed  in  England 
with  his  uncles  on  account  of  their  rebel- 
lion. This  nobleman  spent  several  years 
in  different  countries  of  Europe,  and  having 
been  restored  to  favour,  obtained  letters 
from  the  king,  empowering  him  to  take 
possession  of  Maynooth  and  other  estates 
belonging  to  his  family. 

Donough  O'Brien,  who  had  just  been 
created  Earl  of  Thomond  by  letters-patent, 
and  declared  heir  to  the  estates  annexed  to 
that  title,  was  disturbed  in  his  possessions 
by  his  brother  Donald.  This  nobleman 
was  exasperated  to  see  his  eldest  brother, 
and  the  head  of  his  family,  enter  into  an 
agreement  with  the  King  of  England,  so 
contrary  to  the  interests  of  his  country ;  he 
looked  upon  the  title  as  the  seal  of  his  sla- 
very, and  of  the  dishonour  of  a  house  which 

21 


had  been,  till  that  time,  free  and  indepen*> 
dent.  According  to  Cox,  Donald  had 
another  motive  for  declaring  against  his 
brother;  he  had  cause  to  apprehend  the 
loss  of  the  prerogatives  to  which  he  was 
entitled  by  the  old  custom  of  tanistry,  as 
the  submission  of  his  brother  to  the  English 
government  secured  the  possession  for  ever 
to  his  descendants.  This,  however,  is  mere 
conjecture,  on  the  part  of  Cox.  In  order, 
indeed,  to  give  an  appearance  of  truth  to 
what  he  advances,  Cox  says  that  Donald 
and  Turlough  were  uncles  to  the  Earl  of 
Thomond,  while,  according  to  every  other 
historian  who  wrote  on  Irish  affairs,  they 
were  his  brothers.  The  deputy,  in  con- 
junction with  some  of  the  members  of  the 
council,  made  use  of  his  authority,  and  set- 
tled the  matter  in  favour  of  the  earl. 

Sir  Nicholas  Bagnall  was  appointed  to 
the  command  of  a  force  which  was  sent 
against  MacMurrough.  Both  armies  hav- 
ing met,  they  fought  for  a  long  time  with 
doubtful  success ;  the  loss  was  heavy  on 
both  sides,  and  the  victory  remained  unde- 
cided. The  English  garrison  of  Athlone 
pillaged,  at  this  time,  the  cathedral  church 
of  Cluan-mac-noisk,  not  sparing  even  the 
books  or  sacred  vessels. 

Shortly  afterwards,  the  deputy  marched 
at  the  head  of  an  army  to  Ulster,  and  for- 
tified Belfast,  where  he  left  a  strong  garri- 
son. In  the  meantime,  the  Baron  of  Dun- 
gannon  having  marched  with  his  forces  to 
join  the  English  army,  he  was  surprised  in 
his  camp  by  his  brother  Shane  O'Neill,  who 
killed  several  of  his  men,  and  put  the  rest 
to  flight.  The  deputy  finding  himself  de- 
prived of  this  succour,  set  out  for  Dublin, 
with  the  intention  of  returning  to  England. 
The  English  monarch  having  learned  that 
Queen  Mary,  of  Scotland,  had  sent  over 
O'Connor  to  Ireland,  whose  father  was  a 
prisoner  in  England,  to  influence  the  Irish 
to  rebel  against  the  government,  he  gave 
orders  to  Sir  Henry  Knolles  to  repair 
thither  without  delay,  and  put  off  the  de- 
parture of  the  deputy  till  he  should  receive 
fresh  instructions:  but  finding,  soon  after 
this,  that  the  Queen  of  Scotland's  plan  had 
failed,  he  proceeded  to  England,  with  the 


162 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1553. 


King's  permission,  attended  by  Andrew 
Wise,  the  vice-treasurer.  Two  days  after 
his  departure,  the  privy  council  and  nobility 
met  in  the  cathedral  church  of  the  Holy 
Trinity,  in  order  to  appoint  two  justices,  to 
be  intrusted  with  the  government  during 
the  absence  of  the  deputy.  The  choice 
fell  upon  Thomas  Cusack,  the  chancellor, 
and  Gerald  Aylmer,  chief-justice,  both  of 
whom  were  knights,  as,  at  that  time,  the 
title  was  conferred  both  on  civil  and  mili- 
tary officers.  Some  time  afterwards,  one 
of  the  O'Neills,  of  the  house  of  Tyrone, 
was  arrested  in  Dublin  for  having  circu- 
lated opprobrious  reports  concerning  the 
deputy,  but  was  liberated  on  bail.  About 
this  period,  Hugh  Ogue  O'Neill,  Lord  of 
Clanneboy,  submitted  to  the  king,  in  pres- 
ence of  the  lords-justices,  and  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance.  The  king,  in  gratitude, 
gave  him  the  abbey  of  Carrickfergus,  with 
the  castle  of  Belfast,  and  permission  for 
three  secular  priests  to  reside  with  him. 

Ulster  was  desolated  in  1552  by  a  civil 
war  between  the  Earl  of  Tyrone  and  his 
son  John,  commonly  known  in  Irish  history 
by  the  name  of  Shane  O'Neill.  All  Ire- 
land was  visited  by  a  dreadful  famine  and 
a  scarcity  of  grain  ;  but  the  year  following 
was  a  most  abundant  one  ;  the  same  mea- 
sure which  cost  twenty-four  shillings  the 
preceding  year,  being  sold  for  five. 

The  sentence  pronounced  by  the  deputy 
in  favour  of  Donough,  Earl  of  Thomond, 
was  not  sufficient  to  thwart  the  designs  of 
his  brother  Donald  O'Brien  against  him. 
Donald,  who  was  seconded  by  his  brother 
Turlough,  and  a  few  other  lords  of  Tho- 
mond, with  their  vassals  attacked  Clon- 
roan,  or  Cluanroad,  in  Clare,  and  burned 
all  except  the  castle.  The  earl  defended 
himself  in  it  for  some  time,  but  being  at 
length  obliged  to  yield  to  a  superior  force, 
the  castle  was  taken  by  storm,  and  the 
garrison  put  to  the  sword ;  the  earl  being 
found  among  the  number  of  the  slain. 
Connor,  his  only  son,  whom  he  had  by  He- 
len, daughter  of  Peter  Butler,  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  being  supported  by  the  English  gov- 
ernment, succeeded  to  the  title  and  estates 
of  his  father.     This  was  the  source  of  the 


discord  which  prevailed  for  a  long  time 
between  the  houses  of  Thomond  and  In- 
chiquin,  and  other  branches  of  the  O'Briens. 

About  this  time,  Teugue  Roe  O'Melagh- 
lin  evinced  the  same  spirit  of  patriotism 
which  Donald  O'Brien  had  displayed.  Hav- 
ing received  some  insult  from  his  relative, 
Neil  Mac  Phelim,  who  was  in  the  interest 
of  the  English,  he  killed  him  on  the  road 
to  Mullingar.  The  chief  O'MeJaghlin  lost 
his  life,  some  time  afterwards,  in  a  battle 
against  the  garrison  of  Athlone,  commanded 
by  the  Baron  of  Delvin,  whereupon  his 
estate  was  confiscated.  The  quarrels  of 
the  Burkes  also  gave  rise  to  disturbances 
in  Connaught ;  Richard  Burke  having  quar- 
relled with  the  children  of  Thomas  Burke, 
called  Backagh,  gave  them  battle,  in  which 
he  was  made  prisoner,  leaving  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  of  his  men  dead  on  the  field. 
Richard,  Earl  of  Clanricarde,  having  had 
some  disputes  with  John  Burke,  he  entered 
his  lands,  sword  in  hand,  and  laid  siege  to 
his  castle ;  but  on  learning  that  Donald 
O'Brien  was  coming  to  his  assistance,  the 
earl  raised  the  siege,  not  thinking  it  pru- 
dent to  wait  the  event  of  a  battle. 

Edward  sent  three  large  vessels  this 
year  to  discover  a  passage  to  the  East  In- 
dies through  the  north  of  Europe  and  Asia, 
at  the  solicitation  of  Sebastian  Gabato,  a 
native  of  Bristol,  the  son  of  a  Genoese,  or, 
as  others  say,  of  a  Venetian.  The  king 
appointed  him  pilot  or  director  of  this  little 
fleet,  which  was  under  the  command  of 
Sir  Hugh  Willoughby.  On  reaching  the 
latitude  of  74  degrees  north,  Willoughby's 
ship  was  cast  upon  a  desert  shore,  where 
he  and  his  crew  were  found  frozen  to 
death.  His  lieutenant,  Richard  Cancella- 
rius,  was  more  fortunate,  having  discovered 
a  passage  into  Russia,  which  had  been  till 
then  unknown  to  the  English.  The  third 
vessel,  which  suffered  from  the  storm,  and 
was  separated  from  the  others,  returned  to 
England. 

On  the  6th  of  July,  1553,  Edward  the 
Sixth  died  at  Greenwich  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
years,  of  which  he  had  reigned  six.  The 
Reformation  advanced  with  rapid  strides 
during  his  time,  which  cannot  surprise  us, 


A.  D.  15o3.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


163 


since  this  prince,  who  began  his  reign  at 
the  age  of  nine  years,  was  wholly  under 
the  control  and  command  of  those  who 
were  intrusted  with  the  administration 
during  his  minority.  Edward  Seymour, 
Duke  of  Somerset,  the  king's  uncle,  gov- 
erned during  the  first  years,  as  protector, 
till  he  was  supplanted  by  John  Dudley, 
Duke  of  Northumberland.  The  former 
was  a  Zuinglian,  and  the  friend  of  Cran- 
mer ;  the  latter  conformed  to  the  religion 
which  suited  "his  own  purposes  best ;  so 
that  these  two  favourites,  and  the  other  no- 
bles belonging  to  the  court,  perverted  the 
authority  of  an  infant  king  to  gratify  their 
cupidity  with  sacrilegious  plunder.  The 
supposed  reformation  of  religion,  was  a 
pretext  made  use  of  by  them  to  seize  upon 
the  property  of  the  church.  They  first 
proclaimed  Edward,  as  they  had  done 
Henry,  head  of  the  church  of  England,  both 
in  spiritual  and  temporal  affairs.  The 
maxim  which  had  been  established  in  the 
time  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  was,  "  that  the 
king  held  the  place  of  the  pope  in  England ;" 
but  they  granted  prerogatives  to  this  new 
papacy,  to  which  the  pope  had  never  aspir- 
ed. The  bishops  were  newly  appointed 
by  Edward,  and  were  to  continue  in 
their  sees  according  to  the  king's  will,  as 
had  been  settled  by  Henry,  and  it  was 
taught  that,  in  order  to  accelerate  the  Re- 
formation, "  the  bishops  should  be  subject 
to  the  yoke  of  an  arbitrary  power."  The 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Primate  of 
England,  was  the  first  to  submit  to  this, 
which  is  not  surprising,  as  it  was  through 
him  these  opinions  were  propagated ;  the 
others  followed  his  example.  This  system 
was  afterwards  altered,  and  the  bishops 
were  forced  to  consider  it  as  a  favour  that 
the  king  conferred  the  sees  for  life.  It  was 
clearly  specified  in  their  commission,  as 
had  been  done  under  Henry,  agreeably  to 
the  doctrine  of  Cranmer,  that  episcopal 
authority,  as  well  as  that  of  secular  magis- 
trates, emanated  from  royalty, as  its  source; 
that  the  bishops  should  exercise  it  under 
a  precarious  tenure,  and  give  it  up  at  the 
pleasure  of  the  king,  from  whom  they  de- 
rived it ;  in  short,  every  branch  of  author- 


ity was  made  subject  to  royal  power. 
The  bishoprics,  which  had  thus  become 
offices  to  be  filled  by  persons  who  might 
be  recalled  at  the  pleasure  of  the  king,  like 
the  governors  of  provinces,  or  common 
clerks,  frequently  changed  their  bishops. 
The  most  zealous  suffered  imprisonment, 
and  by  their  perseverance  lost  their  sees  ; 
the  more  politic  subscribed  to  every  article 
of  the  Reformation,  and  were  satisfied  with 
a  small  portion  of  the  revenues  of  their 
rich  bishoprics,  scarcely  sufficient  (says 
Heylin)  for  the  support  of  a  curate ;  the 
vacant  ones  were  conferred  on  men  who 
readily  consented  to  the  dismemberment 
of  the  lands  of  their  churches,  which  were 
formed  into  baronies,  to  enrich  (as  Heylin 
observes)  the  pirates  of  the  court,  who  had 
no  right  by  birth  to  such  brilliant  fortunes. 

The  death  of  Edward  the  Sixth  was 
followed  by  a  kind  of  interregnum  of  a 
few  days.  The  Duke  of  Northumberland 
caused  Jane,  eldest  daughter  of  the  Duke 
of  Suffolk,  and  Frances,  daughter  of  Charles 
Brandon,  and  Mary,  sister  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  Queen  of  France,  and  widow  of 
Charles  the  Twelfth,  each  to  be  proclaimed 
Queen  of  England.  Jane  was  of  royal 
descent  through  the  female  line,  being 
grand  niece  of  Henry  the  Eighth ;  she 
was  also  daughter-in-law  to  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  being  married  to  Lord 
Guildford  Dudley,  his  fourth  son.  Upon 
this  was  founded  her  claim  to  the  crown, 
and  the  interest  which  the  duke  took  to 
have  her  proclaimed.  This  nobleman  was 
the  favourite  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  and 
finding  that  the  prince's  end  was  approach- 
ing, represented  to  him  that  his  conscience 
required  that  he  should  look  to  the  preser- 
vation of  the  new  religion,  not  only  during 
his  life,  but  also  after  his  death ;  that  his 
sister,  the  Princess  Mary,  was  opposed 
to  it,  but  that  he  could  not  exclude  her 
from  the  succession,  without  also  removing 
Elizabeth :  and  in  short  he  prevailed  so  far 
with  this  weak  prince,  that  he  brought  him 
to  make  a  will,  by  which  he  declared  his 
cousin  Jane  the  lawful  heiress  to  the  crown. 

The  Duke  of  Northumberland,  who  was 
determined  to  support  the  cause  of  Jane, 


164 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1553. 


put  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  ten 
thousand  men.  He  vf&a  attended  by  sev- 
eral noblemen,  many  of  whom,  however, 
deserted  him  on  their  march.  Mary,  who 
was  at  Framlingham,  in  Suffolk,  having 
heard  of  her  brother's  death,  had  herself 
proclaimed  queen,  whereon  all  the  nobility 
of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  flocked  to  her  stand- 
ard. The  nobles  who  were  in  London  met 
at  Baynard  castle,  and  acknowledging  Ma- 
ry's incontrovertible  right  to  the  throne, 
had  her  proclaimed  by  the  Lord-Mayor  of 
London.  The  Duke  of  Northumberland 
was  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  when  he  heard 
of  this  general  defection  in  favour  of  Mary, 
and  deeming  it  a  matter  of  prudence  to  fol- 
low the  current,  he  immediately  repaired 
to  Cambridge,  where,  for  want  of  a  herald, 
he  went  attended  by  the  Mayor,  and  pro- 
claimed Queen  Mary  in  the  market-place, 
throwing  up  his  cap  in  the  air  as  a  token 
of  joy.  This  show  of  loyalty,  however, 
availed  him  nothing ;  he  was  arrested  the 
day  following,  with  other  noblemen,  by  the 
Earl  of  Arundel,  in  the  queen's  name,  and 
gent  to  the  Tower.  In  the  meantime  the 
Duke  of  Suffolk  advised  with  his  daughter. 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  the  supposed  queen,  and 
informed  her  that  she  should  lay  aside  the 
insignia  of  royalty,  and  be  content  to  lead 
thenceforward  a  private  life.  She  answered 
him  with  modesty,  that  she  resigned  it  as 
obediently  as  she  received  it.  Thus  ended 
this  interregnum  of  "  nine  days'  wonder." 
Taylor  has  given  the  following  able  sum- 
mary of  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth : — 
**  The  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth  was  the 
crisis  of  the  Reformation  in  Ireland.  The 
guardians  of  the  young  king,  intent  on 
their  own  schemes  of  petty  ambition,  neg- 
lected the  important  interests  of  the  nation ; 
and  the  fabric  that  Henry  had  erected  with 
80  much  labour  soon  fell  to  ruin.  The  first 
recorded  incident  of  importance  in  the  new 
reign  is  a  monstrous  instance  of  impolicy 
and  injustice.  The  O'Moores  of  Leix,  and 
the  O'Connors  of  Ofally,  excited  some  dis- 
turbances in  Leinster.  An  army,  com- 
manded by  Bellingham,  was  sent  to  re- 
strain their  excesses,  and  soon  drove  them 
to  seek  refuge  in  their  fastnesses. 


"  Representations  were  made  to  these 
chieftains  of  the  favour  that  Henry  had 
shown  to  O'Niai  and  others  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances, by  which  they  were  easily  in- 
duced to  submit,  and  to  undertake  a  jour- 
ney into  England.  Scarcely,  however,  had 
they  arrived  at  court,  when  they  were 
treacherously  seized  and  thrown  into  pri- 
son, while  their  estates  were  seized  by  the 
rapacious  adventurers  who  had  advised 
this  base  act  of  perfidy.  The  high  spirit 
of  O'Moore  sank  under  the  indignity  of  con- 
finement. He  died,  bequeathing  to  his  fam- 
ily the  memory  of  his  wrongs,  and  a  heavy 
debt  of  vengeance,  which  they  failed  not 
subsequently  to  exact.  O'Carroll  was  less 
fortunate,  and  long  lingered  in  hopeless 
captivity  and  exile. 

"  The  effect  of  this  detestable  transaction 
on  the  mind  of  the  Irish  princes  and  the 
colonial  barons  may  be  easily  conceived. 
Their  nascent  confidence  in  the  govern- 
ment was  destroyed ;  and  Bellingham,  who 
had  been  appointed  deputy  for  his  treach- 
ery, found  it  impossible  to  restrain  the  agi- 
tation which  everywhere  prevailed.  At 
this  unfavourable  moment,  the  Protector 
Somerset  determined  to  introduce  the  re- 
formed liturgy  into  Ireland,  and  sent  over 
St.  Leger  again  as  deputy  for  the  purpose. 

"  The  Reformation  in  England  was  sup- 
ported by  the  majority  of  the  people,  and 
a  great  body  of  the  clergy,  weary  of  the 
papal  yoke.  Even  before  the  preaching 
of  Luther,  the  English  church  had  obtained 
a  qualified  independence,  and  the  nomina- 
tion to  its  dignities  was  virtually  vested  in 
the  crown.  The  sovereign,  in  asserting 
his  supremacy,  only  consummated  what 
had  been  commenced  by  the  constitutions 
of  Clarendon,  and  completed  an  influence 
which  had  been  already  exercised.  The 
condition  of  the  Irish  church  was  far  differ- 
ent. The  English  owed  their  possession 
of  Ireland  to  a  bargain  made  with  the  pope 
and  the  prelates.  The  Romish  church  was 
the  guaranty  of  their  security ;  and  they 
gladly  assisted  in  strengthening  the  power 
which  seemed  alone  able  to  ensure  their 
safety.  The  Romish  church  in  Ireland  had 
consequently  been  long  an  estate  of  the 


A.  D.  1653.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


165 


realm  paramount  to  all  the  rest,  compared 
with  which  the  power  of  the  crown  and  the 
oligarchy  was  as  nothing.  As  for  the  peo- 
ple, they  did  not  possess  as  yet  a  voice  in 
the  state.  Had  the  judicious  measures  of 
Henry  been  steadily  pursued — had  the  ba- 
rons and  toparchs  been  conciliated  by  kind- 
ness— had  the  people  been  won  by  gentle 
remonstrance,  the  papacy  would  soon  have 
lost  its  Irish  followers ;  but  measures  far 
different  were  pursued,  and  we  all  know 
the  consequence.  The  reformed  clergy 
were  strangely  and  culpably  negligent. 
We  are  told  by  an  Irish  chancellor  of  the 
time,  that  they  did  not  preach  more  than 
once  a  year ;  and  that  this  annual  sermon 
was  the  only  instruction  they  vouchsafed 
to  afford  their  flocks.  In  default  of  more 
efficacious  means,  they  placed  their  reli- 
ance on  acts  of  parliament  and  bands  of 
soldiers,  substituting  the  law  and  the  sword 
for  the  gospel  and  the  cross.  St.  Leger 
would  willingly  have  used  expedients  less 
violent,  but  more  efficacious.  He  was, 
however,  stripped  of  his  office,  on  the  re- 
presentations of  the  reformed  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  and  the  administration  given  to 
Sir  James  Crofts,  who  was  supposed  not 
to  be  troubled  with  uhnecessary  scruples. 

"The  means  of  conversion  which  the 
protector  designed  to  use  in  Ireland  were 
soon  exemplified.  A  party,  issuing  from 
the  garrison  of  Athlone,  attackefd  the  an- 
cient church  of  Clonmacnoise,  destroyed 
its  ornaments,  and  defiled  its  altars.  Sim- 
ilar excesses  were  committed  in  other  parts 
of  the  country  ;  and  the  first  impression 
produced  by  the  advocates  of  the  reformed 
religion  was,  that  the  new  system  sanc- 
tioned sacrilege  and  robbery. 

"  Dowdal,  who  had  been  appointed  to  the 
Archbishopric  of  Armagh  by  Henry,  on  the 
death  of  Cromer,  in  opposition  to  the  papal 
nominee,  unexpectedly  became  the  most 
violent  impugner  of  the  royal  supremacy. 
But  Dowdal  was  a  coward ;  and  when  the 
parliament,  to  punish  his  obstinacy,  trans- 
ferred the  primacy  from  Armagh  to  Dub- 
lin, he  abandoned  the  contest  and  his  dio- 
cese together.  O'Nial,  the  Earl  of  Tyrone, 
was  a  much  more  formidable  enemy.   The 


fate  of  the  O'Moores  and  the  O'Carrolls  ex- 
cited his  fears.  The  plundering  of  Clon- 
macnoise alarmed  his  prejudices ;  and  the 
eldest  of  his  legitimate  children,  Shane  or 
John  O'Nial,  successfully  laboured  to  pre- 
judice him  against  Matthew,  on  whom  the 
late  king  had  settled  the  inheritance.  While 
Tyrone  yet  wavered,  Matthew,  seeing  the 
danger  by  which  he  was  threatened,  made 
the  most  alarming  representations  to  Crofts, 
the  lord-deputy ;  and  the  governor,  with 
the  short-sighted  policy  which  character- 
ized his  administration,  contrived,  by  treach- 
ery, to  secure  the  persons  of  Tyrone  and 
his  countess,  whom  he  instantly  placed  in 
close  confinement.  The  inevitable  conse- 
quence was,  to  place  the  clan  entirely  at 
the  disposal  of  the  turbulent  Shane,  who, 
assisted  by  a  body  of  Scots,  committed  the 
most  fearful  depredations. 

"  While  affairs  were  thus  in  confusion, 
the  death  of  Edward  the  Sixth  produced 
a  new  revolution.  The  officers  of  state 
changed  their  religion  with  the  same  faci- 
lity they  had  displayed  on  former  occasions, 
and  the  great  body  of  the  clergy  followed 
their  example.  Unfortunately,  some  priests 
and  prelates  had  evidenced  the  sincerity  of 
their  conversion  by  marrying.  Wives  were 
not  so  easily  got  rid  of  as  creeds ;  and  they 
were  unwillingly  forced  to  preserve  their 
consistency,  and  retire.  Dowdal  was  re- 
stored to  his  see  and  the  primacy,  while 
the  most  violent  of  his  opponents  were 
compelled  to  fiy." 


CHAPTER   XX. 

Accession  of  Mary — Proclaimed  in  Dublin — Cath- 
olic influence  restored — Movements  of  O'Neill 
— Administration  of  Sir  A.  St.  Leger — Kildare 
reinstated — Mary's  marriage  with  Philip  of  Spain 
— The  O'Briens  and  O'Neills  at  variance — Brian 
O'Connor  Faly  reinstated — Administration  of 
Sussex — Claims  of  Shane  O'Neill — Restoration 
of  Dowdal — Death  of  Mary — Writers  of  Ire- 
land. 

Queen  Mary  having  been  proclaimed 
in  the  principal  towns  of  England,  left 
Framlingham  for  London  in  July,  1553. 
On  arriving  at  Wanstead,  in  Essex,  she 


166 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1554. 


was  met  by  her  sister  Elizabeth,  attended 
by  a  cavalcade  of  a  thousand  English  yeo- 
men on  horseback.  On  the  3d  of  August 
she  made  her  entry  into  London,  with  the 
usual  pomp  and  magnificence.  She  then 
took  possession  of  the  Tower,  where  Tho- 
mas, the  aged  Duke  of  Norfolk,  Edward, 
Lord  Courtney,  Gardiner,  deposed  Bishop 
of  Winchester,  and  the  Duke  of  Somerset, 
were  prisoners.  They  humbly  saluted  her 
on  their  knees ;  but  she  embraced  them, 
saying,  "  These  are  my  prisoners."  They 
were  soon  afterwards  restored  to  liberty. 
Gardiner  was  reinstated  in  his  see  of  Win- 
chester, and  appointed  Chancellor  of  Eng- 
land. All  the  other  bishops,  who  had  been 
dispossessed  in  the  preceding  reign,  name- 
ly, Bonner,  Bishop  of  London  ;  Tunstal,  of 
Durham ;  Day,  of  Chichester ;  West,  of 
Extcr ;  and  Heath,  of  Worcester,  were 
also  restored  to  their  sees.  All  married 
men,  who  possessed  livings  in  the  church, 
were  removed  by  Queen  Mary,  and  she 
herself  renounced  the  title  of  head  of  the 
church  of  England.  This  princess  was 
obliged  to  make  examples  of  some  distin- 
guished personages.  The  Duke  of  North- 
umberland, Sir  John  Gates,  and  Sir  Tho- 
mas Palmer,  were  executed  on  Tower  Hill, 
in  August.  Shortly  afterwards,  Cranmer, 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Lady  Jane 
Grey,  Lord  Guildford,  and  the  lords  Am- 
brosius  and  Henry,  sons  of  the  Duke  of 
Northumberland,  shared  the  same  fate. 
Queen  Mary  was  crowned  with  the  usual 
solemnities,  in  Westminster  Abbey,  by  the 
Bishop  of  Winchester. 

The  English  council  having  informed  the 
lord-justice  and  privy  council  of  Ireland  of 
all  that  had  taken  place  respecting  Mary's 
succession  to  the  throne,  she  was  proclaim- 
ed in  Dublin,  and  afterwards  in  the  other 
towns  and  burghs  in  the  kingdom  to  the 
great  satisfaction  of  the  people.  The  queen 
afterwards  sent  over  patents  to  continue 
the  lords-justices  and  other  magistrates  in 
office. 

As  Mary  was  already  planning  the  re- 
storation of  the  ancient  religion,  she  caused 
a  declaration  in  favour  of  the  mass,  and 
the  other  dogmas  of  the  Catholic  faith,  to 


be  published  in  Ireland,  that  is,  in  the  Eng- 
lish province. 

About  this  time,  O'Neill  made  some  at- 
tempts in  the  county  of  Louth,  which  drew 
the  attention  of  government  towards  Ul- 
ster. The  lords-justices  having  collected 
their  forces,  marched  towards  Dundalk, 
where  they  dispersed  his  troops,  after  kill- 
ing several  of  them.  Donough  O'Connor 
also  made  an  incursion  into  Offaly,  but 
was  put  down  by  the  superior  force  of  the 
lords-justices. 

Sir  Anthony  St.  Leger  was  appointed  by 
the  queen  Lord-Deputy  of  Ireland,  in  No- 
vember. Having  landed  at  Dalkey,  he  re- 
paired to  Dublin,  where  he  took  the  oath 
on  the  19th  of  the  same  month,  and  receiv- 
ed the  sword  from  Cusack  and  Aylmer, 
his  predecessors,  in  the  cathedral  of  the 
Blessed  Trinity  ;  the  patent  of  Cusack,  the 
chancellor,  was  renewed  at  the  same  time. 

In  November  also,  Cormac  MacCoghlan 
and  his  allies,  the  O'Ferralls,  having  applied 
for  assistance  to  Richard,  Baron  of  Delvin, 
against  MacCoghlan,  chief  of  Dealna,  the 
baron  entered  freely  into  their  confederacy, 
which,  however,  was  productive  of  no 
other  result  than  the  burning  of  some  villa- 
ges in  the  territory  of  Dealna.'  It  tended 
to  perpetuate  the  animosities  and  destruc- 
tive warfare  between  the  tribes  of  the  Mac- 
Coghlans  and  the  O'Ferralls. 

In  December,  Owen  Magennis,  chief  of 
Iveach,  in  the  county  of  Down,  surrender- 
ed ;  in  consequence  of  which,  he  was  ap- 
pointed governor  of  that  district  by  the 
deputy  and  council.  This  nobleman  paved 
the  way,  by  these  means,  to  the  title  of 
lord,  which  was  subsequently  taken  by  his 
descendants. 

In  the  following  spring,  George  Dowdal, 
Archbishop  of  Armagh,  who  had  with- 
drawn to  a  foreign  country,  was  recalled 
by  Queen  Mary,  and  restored  to  his  former 
dignities  of  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  and 
primate  of  Ireland,  in  1554.  The  priory 
of  Athird,  in  Louth,  was  added  to  his  reve- 
nues. The  primate  convened  a  provincial 
synod  in  Drogheda,  in  the  church  of  St. 
Peter,  in  which  several  deprees  were  pass- 
ed tending  to  the  restoration  of  religion. 


A.  D.  i554.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


167 


and  the  ancient  rights  of  the  Church  ;  and 
statutes  enacted  against  married  ecclesias- 
tics. In  the  month  of  April,  the  primate 
and  Doctor  Walsh,  who  was  appointed 
Bishop  of  Meath,  received  an  order  to  de- 
pose such  bishops  and  priests  as  had  mar- 
ried. This  order  was  put  into  execution, 
in  the  month  of  June  following,  against 
Edward  Staples,  Bishop  of  Meath,  who 
was  forced  to  give  up  his  see.  About  the 
end  of  the  same  year.  Brown,  Archbishop 
of  Dublin,  Lancaster,  Bishop  of  Kildare, 
and  Travers,  Bishop  of  Leighlin,  shared 
the  same  fate.  Bale,  Bishop  of  Ossory,  and 
Casey,  of  Limerick,  avoided  a  similar  pun- 
ishment by  leaving  the  country.  The 
bishoprics  were  then  filled  by  Catholic 
prelates.  Walsh  had  been  already  ap- 
pointed to  the  see  of  Meath  ;  Hugh  Cur- 
vin  succeeded  Brown  in  the  see  of  Dublin  : 
Thomas  Lavereuse  filled  that  of  Kildare ; 
Thomas  O'Fihely  was  appointed  by  the 
pope  Bishop  of  Leighlin ;  Hugh  Lacy  of 
Limerick,  and  Bale  was  replaced  by  John 
Thonory,  in  the  see  of  Ossory.  It  should 
be  observed  that  those  bishops  who  were 
dispossessed,  were  Englishmen,  and  the  first 
who  preached  the  Reformation  in  Ireland. 
Bale  and  Brown,  the  most  prominent  of 
those  who  introduced  the  Reformation,  were 
monks  who  had  been  expelled.  Brown  was 
an  Augustinian  monk  in  London.  He  be- 
came provincial  of  the  order  in  England, 
and  was  appointed  to  the  archbishopric  of 
Dublin  by  Henry  the  Eighth ;  but  a  desire 
to  marry  made  him  renounce  the  solemn 
vow  he  had  made  to  God,  when  he  em- 
braced the  monastic  state.  He  is  con- 
sidered as  the  first  who  endeavoured  to 
introduce  the  Reformation  into  Ireland. 
His  memory  is  held  in  veneration  among 
Protestants,  and  they  have  taken  care  to 
write  his  life,  as  worthy  of  being  handed 
down  to  posterity.  Bale  was  a  native  of 
E^and ;  he  began  his  studies  at  Norwich, 
came  a  monk  of  the  Carmelite  order, 
nd  afterwards  went  to  Cambridge  to  per- 
fect his  studies.  Having  abilities  for  preach- 
ing, he  never  ceased  to  declaim  against  the 
Roman  Catholic  religion  ;  he  was  arrested 
twice  and  put  into  prison,  first  by  order  of 


the  Archbishop  of  York,  and  afterwards  by 
the  Bishop  of  London ;  but  was  restored 
to  liberty  through  the  influence  of  Crom- 
well, the  spiritual  vicar-general  of  Henry 
the  Eighth.  He  was  at  last  forced  to  leave 
the  country,  and  withdrew  to  Germany, 
where  he  remained  for  eight  years,  after 
which  he  returned  to  England  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  the  Sixth,  who  appointed  him  to 
the  bishopric  of  Ossory.  This  prince  died 
six  weeks  afterwards,  and  Mary  having 
ascended  the  throne.  Bale  left  his  library  at 
Kilkenny,  and  fled  to  Basle  in  Switzerland, 
where  he  remained  till  her  death,  and  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth.  He  then  returned 
to  England,  and  was  content  with  a  canon- 
ship  in  the  church  of  Canterbury,  not  wish- 
ing to  go  back  to  his  diocese.  "  He  published 
several  works  both  in  Latin  and  English,  a 
catalogue  of  which  he  himself  gives  in  his 
book  on  British  writers. 

In  November,  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kildare, 
who  had  been  lately  restored  to  his  hon- 
ours, Thomas  Duff",  or  the  black,  Earl  of 
Ormond,  and  Brian  Fitz-Patrick,  Baron  of 
Upper  Ossory,  having  distinguished  them- 
selves in  the  war  in  England,  against  Sir 
Thomas  Wyat,  returned  to  Ireland.  Fitz- 
Patrick  was  noticed  on  account  of  the 
strict  and  reciprocal  friendship  that  sub- 
sisted between  him  and  Edward  the  Sixth. 
In  the  month  of  February  following,  Cahir 
Mac- Art  Cavanagh,  an  Irish  lord,  who  was 
highly  esteemed  in  Leinster,  and  descend- 
ed from  the  kings  of  that  province,  was 
created  (for  life  only)  Lord-Baron  of  Balian, 
in  Carlow.  He  was  succeeded  in  this  title 
by  his  brother  Dermot. 

The  queen  had  given  orders  at  this  time 
to  reduce  the  troops  in  Ireland  to  the  num- 
ber of  five  hundred  men ;  the  state  of 
afifairs,  however,  prevented  the  deputy  and 
council  from  carrying  that  measure  fully 
into  effect.  They  retained  six  hundred  foot 
soldiers,  four  hundred  horsemen,  and  some 
light  troops ;  and  were  obliged  soon  after- 
wards to  increase  the  number,  and  to  ask 
for  further  reinforcements  from  the  English, 
to  repel  the  Scots  of  the  Hebrides. 

Before  this,  mention  was  made  of  a  mar- 
riage between  Queen  Mary  and  Philip  the 


168 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1554. 


Second  of  Spain,  eldest  son  of  Charles  the 
Fifth.  When  this  news  was  spread  in 
England,  a  serious  disturbance  broke  out 
in  the  province  of  Kent,  and  other  places, 
in  which  Wyat  was  one  of  the  principal 
performers.  Some  dreaded  that  by  this 
marriage,  England  might  become  a  prov- 
ince of  the  Spanish  monarchy ;  while  the 
partisans  of  the  Reformation  feared  that 
the  alliance  of  the  queen  (who  was  already 
opposed  to  that  object)  with  a  Catholic 
prince,  might  put  an  end  to  the  principles 
which  had  made  such  rapid  a  progress  du- 
ring the  two  last  reigns.  The  queen,  how- 
ever, was  so  ably  seconded  hy  her  subjects, 
that  the  only  result  which  attended  this  out- 
break was  the  punishment  of  the  rebels. 

Charles  the  Fifth  would  let  no  opportu- 
nity escape  that  might  contribute  to  the 
aggrandizement  of  his  house.     In  January 
he  had  sent  ambassadors  to  England,  and 
among  others,  the  Earl  of  Egmond,  and 
John  de  Montmorency  ;  they  were  honour- 
ably received,  and  wer6  successful  in  their 
negotiation  concerning  the  marriage.     Phi- 
lip landed  at  Southampton,  in  England,  on 
the  19th  of  July,  and  proceeded  to  Win- 
chester on  the  24th,  where  the  queen  waited 
his  arrival,  and  the  marriage  was  celebra- 
ted on  the  following  day,  which  was  the 
festival  of  St.  James,  by  the  bishop  of  that 
see.     Mary  was  then  thirty-eight  years  of 
age,  and    Philip  but   twenty-seven ;   they 
were  immediately  proclaimed  by  the  garter 
herald-at-arms,  under  the  following  titles: 
— "  Philip  and  Mary,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
King  and  Queen  of  England,  France,  Na- 
ples, Jerusalem,  and  Ireland,  Defenders  of 
the  Faith,  Prince  and  Princess  of  Spain  and 
Sicily,  Archduke  and  Archduchess  of  Aus- 
tria, Duke   and    Duchess   of  Milan,  Bur- 
gundy, and  Brabant,  and  Count  and  Count- 
ess of  Hapsburg,  Flanders,  and  the  Tyrol." 
Although   the   queen   had   done   much, 
since  her  coming  to  the  throne,  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Catholic  liturgy ;  had 
the  mass  and  divine  offices  celebrated,  ac- 
cording to  the  canonical  rule  of  the  Roman 
church,  in  the  Latin  language ;   and  had 
caused  heresy  to  be  proscribed,  and  for- 
eign heretics  to  be  driven  out  of  the  coun- 


try, (of  whom,  it  was  said,  that  at  least 
thirty  thousand  had  by  various  routes  de- 
parted from  England.)  still  she  was  unable 
to  bring  back  the  people  to  their  obedience 
to  the  see  of  Rome.     The  parliament  first 
made  some  objections  on  this  head,  lest  the 
pope  might  insist  upon  the  restitution  of  the 
property  of  the  Church,  which  had  been 
seized  upon  by  the  nobles;   but  all  these 
difficulties   being  removed,  they  repealed 
the  laws  which  had  been  enacted  during 
the  preceding  reigns,  against  the  authority 
and  jurisdiction  of  the  popes.     They  also 
repealed  those  respecting  Cardinal  Pole, 
who  had  just  arrived   from  Rome;   and 
finally  submitted  to  every  thing,  avowing 
their  deep  regret  for  having  seceded  from 
the  obedience  due  to  his  holiness,  and  for 
having  consented  to  the  enactment  of  laws 
against  him.     They  then  asked  upon  their 
knees,  his  absolution  both  for  themselves 
and   the  people,  from  the  censures  which 
they  had  incurred  by  their  schism  ;  which 
was  granted  to  them  by  the  Cardinal  Pole, 
who  read  aloud  the  power  delegated  to  him 
by  the   pope.     A   splendid   embassy  was 
then  sent  to  Rome,  to  have  all  things  con- 
firmed by  the  sovereign  pontiff;  and  on 
their  being  thus  ratified  by  his  holiness, 
solemn  thanks  to  God  were  oflfered  through- 
out Italy,  for  the  happy  reconciliation  of 
England  with  the  holy  see. 

A  war  broke  out  between  Connor  O'- 
Brien, son  of  Donough,  Earl  of  Thomond, 
and   his   uncle  Donald   O'Brien.     Connor 
had  lost  the  affection  of  the  people  by  re- 
taining the  English  title  of  earl,  which  he 
had  assumed  after  his  father,  while  Donald 
became  very  popular  by  taking  the  name 
of  O'Brien  without  any  addition,  which  was 
considered  much  more  honourable  by  his 
countrymen  than  the  title  of  earl.     Donald 
was  very  powerful,  and  took-several  places 
from  the  earl,  who  required  the  aid  of  the 
English  to  maintain  himself  in  his  districts. 
An  alliance  and  close  friendship  had  sub- 
sisted for  a  long  time  between  the  houses 
of  Tyrone  and  Kildare,  which  made  them 
assist  each  other  mutually.    John,  or  Shane 
Doulenagh  O'Neill,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Ty- 
rone, having  had  a  dispute  with  Phelim 


A.  D.  1555.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


169 


Roe  O'Neill,  a  powerful  nobleman  of  his 
family,  demanded  assistance  from  Kildare. 
In  order  to  justify  the  confidence  of  his  ally, 
the  earl  joined  in  his  expedition.  The 
Baron  of  Delvin  thereupon  marched  at  the 
head  of  his  forces  to  Ulster ;  but  his  suc- 
cess did  not  equal  his  expectation.  He 
carried  away  some  booty,  but  lost  fifty  of 
his  men,  who  were  killed  in  a  skirmish 
against  Phelim  O'Neill.  Soon  after  this,  a 
bloody  battle  took  place  between  the  Earl 
of  Tyrone  and  Hugh  O'Neill  of  Clanneboy, 
respecting  some  claims  of  the  earl  on  his 
territory ;  the  earl  was  defeated. 

The  court  of  England  sent  to  Ireland  in 
October,  Sir  William  Fitz-William,  Sir 
John  Allen,  and  Valentine  Brown,  as  com- 
missioners, to  assist  the  deputy  in  the  regu- 
lation of  the  crown  lands,  by  which  means 
they  were  enabled  to  procure  settlements 
for  themselves  in  the  country.  Valentine 
Brown  was  a  Protestant,  but  his  son  em- 
braced the  Catholic  religion. 

Brian  O'Connor  Faly,  who  had  been  a 
prisoner  in  London  for  four  years,  was  re- 
stored to  liberty  this  year,  by  orders  of  the 
queen,  who  generously  continued  the  pen- 
sion which  had  been  granted  to  him  by  the 
court.  On  his  landing  in  Dublin,  however, 
notwithstanding  the  pardon  he  had  just  re- 
ceived from  the  princess,  he  was  confined 
in  the  castle,  under  pretext  of  preventing 
the  disturbances  he  might  cause  to  the 
state ;  but  in  reality  to  prevent  him  from 
reclaiming  his  property,  of  which  he  had 
been  unjustly  deprived.  We  witness  in 
this  a  surprising  contrast  between  the  con- 
duct of  the  queen  and  that  of  her  subjects  ; 
but  their  acts  were  influenced  by  different 
motives.  The  queen  found  O'Connor  inno- 
cent, and  from  a  motive  of  justice  gave  him 
his  freedom ;  the  council  of  Dublin  were 
desirous  of  condemning  him  as  a  criminal, 
and  from  a  mere  suspicion  that  he  might 
become  so,  deprived  him  of  the  benefit  of 
the  pardon  which  the  queen  had  granted 
him;  and  then  put  him  in  confinement, 
where  he  remained  till  he  had  given  host- 
ages. This  mysterious  affair  should  be  ex- 
plained.    Whenever  the  Irish  had  recourse 

to  arms,  it  was  not  so  much  in  opposition 

22 


to  the  king  and  his  government,  as  against 
their  English  neighbours,  who,  always 
eager  to  increase  their  possessions,  were 
continually  encroaching  upon  the  lands  of 
the  Irish.  None  but  the  English  being 
hearkened  to  by  the  government,  they  con- 
strued the  battle  of  one  individual  against 
another  into  rebellion  or  high  treason,  the 
Irish  were  consequently  declared  rebels, 
which  declaration  was  followed  by  the  con- 
fiscation of  their  estates  in  the  name  of  the 
king,  but  in  reality,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
informers,  who,  alleging  their  pretended 
services  against  the  rebels,  found  means  to 
have  the  possessions  of  the  supposed  crimi- 
nals conferred  upon  themselves.  These 
abuses  continued  to  increase ;  most  of  the 
public  offices  were  filled  by  Englishmen ; 
the  ancient  Irish  were  altogether  excluded 
from  them,  and  the  English  government 
reposed  no  confidence  in  those  who  had 
first  settled  in  Ireland.  These  were  called 
the  degenerate  English ;  and  in  every  suc- 
ceeding reign  fresh  colonies  came  over 
from  England,  who  were  enriched  at  the 
expense  of  the  old  inhabitants. 

The  cathedral  church  of  St.  Patrick,  in 
Dublin,  which  had  been  suppressed  in  the 
preceding  reign,  was  restored  by  letters- 
patent,  dated  the  25th  of  March,  1555. 
Thomas  Lever,  or  Levereuse,  was  made 
dean,  and  prebendaries  were  appointed  the 
May  following.  Levereuse,  who  had  been 
appointed  the  preceding  year  to  succeed 
Lancaster  in  the  bishopric  of  Kildare,  was 
confirmed  this  year  by  a  bull  from  the  pope, 
who  granted  him  a  dispensation  to  retain 
both  livings.  He  was  dispossessed  in  the 
succeeding  reign,  for  having  refused  to  take 
the  oath  of  supremacy  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 
and  was  obliged  to  become  a  schoolmaster 
in  Limerick  to  obtain  a  livelihood. 

In  June,  1555,  Pope  Paul  the  Fourth  is- 
sued a  bull  confirming  Ireland  in  the  title 
of  kingdom.  We  can  discover  no  neces- 
sity for  this  new  creation  of  the  title  of 
kingdom  for  Ireland,  since  it  was  considered 
in  that  light  long  before  the  English  were 
known  in  it,  and  even  before  the  institution 
of  the  popedom.* 

Mac-Geoghegan. 


170 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A..  D.  1556. 


In  July,  1555,  Cusack,  the  chancellor,  re- 
ceived orders  from  their  majesties  to  re- 
sign the  great  seal  to  St.  Leger,  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  and  in  the  following  month  Sir 
William  Fitz- William  was  appointed  to  this 
office,  and  Hugh  Curwin,  who  had  just  been 
consecrated  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  was  ap- 
pointed Chancellor  of  Ireland  in  October. 
He  convened  a  provincial  synod  during  the 
same  year,  in  which  several  regulations 
were  made  respecting  religion. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Scots  of  the  He- 
brides made  an  attempt  on  Carrickfergus, 
in  Ulster ;  but  the  plan  was  badly  laid  and 
executed.  A  misunderstanding  still  con- 
tinued between  Manus  O'Donnel,  Prince 
of  Tyrconnel,  and  his  son  Calouagh,  or 
Charles.  This  young  nobleman  crossed 
over  into  Scotland,  and  having  received 
some  assistance  from  Gilaspock  MacAllen, 
he  returned  to  Ulster,  entered  Tyrconnel, 
sword  in  hand,  and  took  his  father  prison- 
er, at  Rosrach.  This  prince  died  soon  af- 
terwards, in  confinement;  Calouagh  then 
made  himself  master  of  the  fortress  of  Inis- 
Owen  and  the  castle  of  Enagh,  which  he 
razed  to  the  ground,  and  in  the  May  fol- 
lowing dismissed  his  Scottish  allies.  The 
proximity  of  Ireland  to  Scotland,  and  the 
frequent  intercourse  of  the  inhabitants  with 
those  of  the  north,  was  often  productive  of 
quarrels  between  the  two  countries.  Hugh 
O'Neill,  Lord  of  Clanneboy,  on  the  confines 
of  Down  and  Antrim,  was  shot  in  a  skir- 
mish with  a  party  of  Scotsmen,  who  came 
to  attack  him  on  his  own  estate.  The  Eng- 
lish government  availed  themselves  of  the 
opportunity,  to  divide  this  extensive  district 
into  two,  between  Phelim  Duff  O'Neill,  and 
the  children  of  Phelim  Backagh,  (the  Lame,) 
in  order  to  weaken  this  princely  tribe. 

The  emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  being  de- 
sirous of  withdrawing  from  the  cares  of  the 
world,  first  gave  up  all  the  Low-Countries 
to  his  son  Philip,  King  of  England.  He 
soon  after  this  surrendered  to  him  all  his 
hereditary  dominions,  and  abdicated  the 
empire  in  favour  of  his  son  Ferdinand,  who 
was  already  King  of  the  Romans.  He 
withdrew  afterwards  to  a  convent  in  Es- 
tremadura,  in  Spain. 


In  May,  1556,  the  Cavanaghs  and  their 
allies  made  some  incursions  into  the  south- 
em  parts  of  the  county  of  Dublin  ;  but  they 
were  surprised  and  dispersed  by  the  garri- 
son of  the  city,  who  killed  several  of  them. 
A  troop  of  one  hundred  and  forty  men  with- 
drew to  the  fortress  of  Powerscourt,  where 
they  determined  to  defend  themselves. 
They  were  besieged  by  the  company  of 
the  lord-marshal  and  others  from  Dublin, 
under  the  command  of  Sir  George  Stanley ; 
and  being  unable  to  withstand  the  great 
number  of  their  besiegers,  were  obliged  to 
surrender.  They  were  ungenerously  treat- 
ed by  their  enemies,  and  brought  to  Dub- 
lin, where  seventy-four  of  their  number 
were  put  to  death  for  having  rebelled. 

St.  Leger,  the  deputy,  had  before  this 
been  recalled,  and  Thomas  RadclifTe,  Vis- 
count Fitz- Walters,  was  appointed  lord-lieu- 
tenant in  his  stead.  This  nobleman  land- 
ed in  Dublin  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and 
a  few  days  afterwards  took  the  usual  oath, 
in  Christ's  Cathedral,  where  St.  Leger  re- 
signed the  insignia  of  office  to  him.  The 
new  governor  was  accompanied  from 
England  by  Sir  Henry  Sidney  as  treas- 
urer, and  Sir  William  Fitz-Symons.  He 
also  brought  over  twenty-five  thousand 
pounds,  to  be  applied  against  the  Scottish 
and  the  Irish  rebels. 

Queen  Mary  sent  instructions  -to  the  dep- 
uty and  council  of  Ireland,  to  use  every 
means  for  advancing  the  glory  of  God,  and 
the  Catholic  faith,  and  to  support  the  honour 
and  dignity  of  the  holy  see.  Her  majesty 
ordered  them  to  assist  the  ministers  of  the 
gospel  against  the  heretics,  and  their  erro- 
neous principles ;  and  also  to  aid  the  com- 
missioners whom  Cardinal  Pole,  the  legate 
from  the  see  of  Rome,  intended  sending  to 
Ireland,  to  visit  the  clergy. 

The  deputy  having  collected  his  forces, 
marched  towards  the  north  of  Ireland,  in 
the  beginning  of  July  j  on  the  18th  of  the 
same  month  he  defeated  the  Scottish  island- 
ers near  Carrickfergus ;  two  hundred  were 
killed  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  several  pri 
soners  taken.  Thomas,  Earl  of  Ormond, 
and  Stanley,  lord-marshal,  distinguished 
themselves  in  this  engagement.     The  dep- 


A.  D.  1557.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


171 


uty  having  provided  for  the  necessities  of 
the  toven  of  Carrickfergus,  and  regulated 
the  affairs  of  Ulster,  where  he  left  Stanley 
as  lieutenant-general,  returned  to  Kilmain- 
ham.  Soon  after  this  he  went  to  Munster, 
where  he  received  the  submission  of  seve- 
ral Irish  and  Englishmen,  to  whom  he 
granted  protections. 

In  September,  Shane  O'Neill,  son  of  the 
Earl  of  Tyrone,  having  given  a  promise  of 
submission,  repaired  to  Kilmainham,  where 
he  made  peace  with  the  deputy.  Rory  and 
Donough  O'Connor  did  the  same  at  Dingen ; 
but  these  arrangements  were  of  short  dura- 
tion, the  occasions  to  rebel  being  too  fre- 
quent. The  O'Connors  soon  fell  into  the 
snares  which  had  been  laid  for  them.  On 
taking  up  arms  they  were  declared  traitors 
and  expelled  from  their  country,  which  was 
laid  waste  by  the  English  troops. 

In  June,  1557,  a  parliament  was  con- 
vened in  Dublin.  It  was  adjourned  to 
Limerick  the  month  following,  till  Novem- 
ber, and  from  thence  to  Drogheda,  till 
March.  But  the  lord-lieutenant,  who  be- 
came Earl  of  Sussex  by  his  father's  death, 
having  returned  to  England  in  December, 
the  parliament  ceased  its  sittings  during 
his  absence,  and  was  afterwards  prorogued. 
Cox  mentions  some  acts  of  this  parliament, 
which  had  not  been  printed.  In  them  the 
queen's  legitimacy  was  admitted  ;  she  was 
invested  with  royal  authority,  and  her  pos- 
terity declared  entitled  to  inherit  the  crown 
of  England  and  Ireland ;  heresy  was  made 
liable  to  punishment  and  ordered  to  be  sup- 
pressed ;  all  the  acts  which  were  passed 
against  the  pope  since  the  twentieth  year 
of  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  were  re- 
pealed, and  all  concessions  made  by  Arch- 
bishop Brown  were  declared  null  and  void ; 
the  first-fruits  too  were  restored  to  the 
Church:  but  all  these  statutes  were  an- 
nulled in  the  beginning  of  the  succeeding 
reign.  An  act  was  also  passed  for  grant- 
ing the  queen  a  subsidy  of  thirteen  and  four- 
pence  on  every  plough-land  ;  and  another, 
by  which  it  was  prohibited,  under  pain  of 
felony,  to  introduce  or  receive  armed  Scots- 
men into  Ireland,  or  to  intermarry  with 
them,  without  a  license  under  the  great  seal. 


On  his  return  from  England,  the  deputy 
undertook  an  expedition  into  Connaught  in 
July,  against  the  O'Maddens  of  Silanchie, 
at  present  the  barony  of  Longford.  This 
district  had  been  divided  the  preceding 
year  between  Malachy  More  O'Madden, 
and  Brassal  Dabh,  after  the  murder  of  John 
O'Madden,  to  whom  it  belonged.  The  ob- 
ject of  the  expedition  was  to  punish  the 
O'Maddens,  who  protected  Donough  O'- 
Connor, contrary  to  the  law  by  which  he 
had  been  declared  a  rebel.  The  deputy 
laid  siege  to  the  castle  of  Milick,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Shannon ;  and  being  unable 
to  resist  the  cannon,  it  surrendered  imme- 
diately. The  conqueror  placed  a  garrison 
in  it,  and  returned  to  Kilmainham  to  pre- 
pare for  another  expedition  against  the 
Scots,  who  had  invaded  Ulster.  Having 
collected  all  his  forces,  he  set  out  on  his 
march  in  August,  accompanied  by  the  earls 
of  Kildare  and  Ormond,  Viscount  Baltin- 
glass,  and  the  barons  of  Delvin,  Dunboyne, 
and  Dunsany.  His  preparations  were, 
however,  not  very  successful ;  the  Scots 
having  intrenched  themselves  in  woods, 
and  other  inaccessible  places,  the  exploits 
of  the  deputy  consisted  in  taking  booty, 
which  was  carried  off  by  his  soldiers,  and 
in  conferring  knighthood  on  Donald  Mac- 
Donnell,  and  Richard  MacGuillan,  who 
made  their  submission  to  him. 

The  deputy  returned  to  Ulster  in  Octo- 
ber. He  devastated  the  lands  about  Dun- 
dalk,  Newry  and  Armagh.  This  latter 
city  he  burned,  sparing  only  the  cathedral ; 
after  which  he  returned  triumphant  to  Dub- 
lin, about  the  end  of  the  month. 

Her  majesty's  service  required  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Earl  of  Sussex  in  England,  and 
in  order  to  secure  tranquillity  in  the  English 
province  during  his  absence,  he  exacted  a 
promise  of  peace  from  some  of  the  neigh- 
bouring nobles  whom  he  thought  likely  to 
disturb  it;  namely,  O'Carroll  of  Ely,0'Mol- 
loy  of  Fearcall,  Mageoghegan  of  Kina- 
lyach,  O'Duinne  of  Hy-Regan,  MacCogh- 
lan  of  Dealbna,  and  the  two  O'Maddens 
of  Silanchie  ;  and  received  hostages  from 
them. 

During  the  absence  of  Sussex,  Curwin, 


172 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1558. 


the  chancellor,  and  Sidney  the  secretary 
at  war,  were  appointed,  by  letters-patent, 
lords-justices  of  Ireland.  Having  taken 
the  oath  in  Christ's  Cathedral,  Dublin,  they 
received  the  royal  sword  from  Stanley, 
Lord-Marshal  of  Ireland,  to  whom  Sussex 
had  confided  it  for  that  purpose.  They 
filled  this  commission  together  till  the  6th 
of  February  following,  when  the  queen 
thought  fit  to  confer  it  on  Sidney  alone. 

The  new  lord-justice  carried  his  arms 
immediately  against  Arthur  O'Molloy,  Lord 
of  Fearcall,  under  pretext  of  his  having 
protected  the  rebels ;  and  having  pillaged 
and  burned  his  district,  he  granted  the 
lordship  to  Theobald,  Arthur's  brother,  on 
condition  that  he  would  give  his  son  as  a 
hostage,  to  serve  as  a  pledge  for  his  fidelity. 

In  the  parliament  we  have  mentioned  as 
having  been  held  this  year,  an  act  was 
passed  by  which  the  districts  of  Leix, 
OfTaly,  and  the  adjacent  baronies,  name- 
ly, Slewmarg,  Irris,  and  Clanmalire,  were 
confiscated  for  the  use  of  their  majesties. 
These  territories  had  belonged,  for  more 
than  twelve  centuries,  to  the  O'Morras, 
O'Connors  Faly,  and  the  O'Dempsys.* 
By  the  same  statute,  the  deputy  was  au- 
thorized to  divide  these  extensive  districts 
into  fiefs,  and  to  make  prudent  grants  of 
them  to  any  English  subject  whom  he  might 
deem  likely  to  advance  the  English  interest; 
and  in  order  that  such  concessions  should 
be  rendered  valid  by  law,  he  was  autho- 
rized to  have  the  great  seal  affixed  to  them 
by  the  chancellor,  or  whoever  had  custody 
of  it.  It  was  thus  that  those  masters  re- 
formed the  manners  of  the  Irish  nobility. 
This  was  an  important  privilege  for  the 
deputy,  since  by  his  signature,  he  possess- 
ed the  power  of  making  his  valet,  or  any 
other  favourite  servant,  a  rich  and  power- 
ful nobleman.  By  another  act  of  the  same 
parliament,  it  was  decreed  that  these  dis- 
tricts should  be  hereafter  called  the  King's 
and  Queen's  counties ;  that  the  fort  of 
Dingen  should  be  called  after  the  king's 
name,  Philipstown,  and  that  Leix,  which  was 
called  Protector,  under  Edward  the  Sixth, 
should  bear  the  name  of  Maryborough. 

*  Irish  Statutes. 


Sidney,  the  deputy,  having  terminated 
his  expedition  against  O'Molloy,  applied 
the  tax  which  had  been  raised  on  the  Eng- 
lish province,  in  revictualling  the  garrisons 
of  Leix  and  Offaly  ;  he  then  returned  to 
Dublin,  where  he  published  a  proclama- 
tion prohibiting  any  one  to  take  provisions 
out  of  the  English  province,  or  to  furnish 
any  to  the  Irish  who  were  living  without 
the  limits. 

The  lands  of  the  monasteries  and  abbeys, 
which  had  been  converted,  under  the  pre- 
ceding reign,  into  lay-fiefs,  and  divided 
among  the  courtiers,  remained  in  the  same 
state  in  Mary's  time,  except  the  estates  of 
the  priory  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  near 
Dublin,  which  were  restored  to  their  for- 
mer masters,  through  the  influence  of  Car- 
dinal Pole.  Oswald  Messingberd  was, 
about  this  time,  appointed  prior,  of  that 
house,  and  confirmed  by  letters-patent. 
The  queen  had  conceived  the  project  of 
restoring  all  things  to  their  former  state, 
but  her  reign  was  too  short  for  the  comple- 
tion of  so  great  an  undertaking. 

In  April,  1558,  O'Reilly,  chief  of  the 
O'Reillys  of  eastern  Brefny,  (Cavan,)  re- 
paired to  the  deputy  at  Kilmainham,  where 
he  surrendered,  and  took  the  oath  of  fidelity 
to  their  majesties. 

The  Earl  of  Sussex  was  again  appointed 
Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and  arrived  in 
Dublin  towards  the  end  of  April,  with  five 
hundred  armed  men,  who  were  to  be  em- 
ployed both  in  putting  down  the  rebels,  and 
repelling  the  Scots,  who  were  committing 
piracies  on  the  coasts.  Sussex  having  re- 
ceived the  sword  and  other  ensigns  of  his 
authority,  marched  at  the  head  of  his  army 
towards  Limerick,  whence  he  advanced 
into  Thomond,  in  order  to  reduce  Donald 
O'Brien,  who  had  renewed  the  war  against 
his  nephew,  Connor  O'Brien,  Earl  of  Tho- 
mond. Having  taken  the  castles  of  Bun- 
ratty  and  Clare,  he  quelled  all  disturbances, 
and  restored  those  places  and  the  territo- 
ries which  had  been  invaded  by  his  ene- 
mies, to  Thomond.  He  obliged  those 
possessed  of  freeholds  to  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance. 

Sussex  having  returned  to  Limerick,  re- 


A.  D.  1558.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


173 


ceived  the  submission  of  the  Earl  of  Des- 
mond ;  he  stood  sponsor  a  few  days  after- 
wards, to  his  son,  and  had  him  baptized 
James  Sussex,  and  gave  him  a  gold  chain ; 
he  conferred  another,  at  the  same  time, 
with  a  pair  of  gilded  spurs,  on  Dermod 
Mac-Carthy  of  Muskerry,  whom  he  created 
a  knight. 

The  Earl  of  Sussex  embarked  in  Septem- 
ber with  his  forces  at  Dalkey,  near  Dublin, 
to  go  in  pursuit  of  the  Scottish  islanders, 
who  had  taken  possession  of  the  isle  of 
Rachlin,  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  whence 
they  made  incursions  and  committed  pira- 
cies on  the  coast  of  Ulster.  On  the  arrival 
of  the  fleet  at  Rachlin,  it  encountered  a 
dreadful  storm,  in  which  one  of  the  vessels 
was  wrecked.  Sussex  landed  with  the 
remainder,  put  the  inhabitants  to  the  sword, 
and  pillaged  the  islands.  Thence  he  sailed 
to  Scotland,  laid  waste  Cantyre,  and  the 
isles  of  Arran  and  Comber ;  but  was  at 
length  checked  in  the  course  of  his  con- 
quests by  the  severity  of  the  weather, 
which  obliged  him  to  put  into  Carrickfer- 
gus.  He  burned  several  villages  inhabited 
by  the  islanders,  and  returned  to  Dublin  in 
November,  where  he  received  new  patents 
and  seals  for  the  chancellor,  for  the  chief- 
justices  of  the  other  courts,  and  the  chief- 
baron  of  the  exchequer.  In  the  meantime, 
some  families  of  the  Burkes  of  Connaught, 
having  received  cause  of  dissatisfaction 
from  their  chief,  Clanricarde,  called  the 
Scottish  islanders  to  their  assistance,  but 
they  and  their  allies  were  cut  to  pieces  in 
an  engagement  with  the  earl. 

Shane  O'Neill,  son  of  Con  O'Neill,  Earl 
of  Tyrone,  was  indignant  to  see  his  house 
degraded  by  the  title  of  earl,  which  had 
been  disgracefully  taken  by  his  father,  in 
place  of  hereditary  Prince  of  Tyrone,  and 
the  illustrious  title  of  O'Neill  given  up.  He 
was  jealous,  too,  of  the  preference  which 
his  father  evinced  for  his  natural  son  Mat- 
thew, (whom  the  Irish  call  Fardorach,)  in 
procuring  for  him  the  title  of  Baron  of 
Dungannon,  by  which  he  was  secured  in  the 
succession  to  the  principality,  in  prejudice 
to  himself.  Shane  was  continually  under 
arms,  either  against  his  father  or  O'Donnel, 


who,  as  well  as  his  rival,  the  Baron  of  Dun- 
gannon, was  supported  by  the  English  ;  the 
latter  was  killed  in  the  beginning  of  this 
war.  When  questioned  upon  his  conduct 
in  this  and  the  other  accusations  made 
against  him,  either  by  Sydney,  or  in  the 
presence  of  the  queen  in  England,  (accord- 
ing to  Camden,)  Shane  answered  that  he 
was  son  and  heir  of  Con  O'Neill  and  his 
wife  Alice  ;  that  Matthew  was  the  son  of 
a  blacksmith  in  Dundalk,  subsequent  to  the 
marriage  of  Con  O'Neill  and  Alice,  of 
whom  he,  Shane,  was  the  legitimate  son, 
and  consequently  had  a  right  to  succeed  to 
his  father's  property.  He  added,  that  the 
surrender  which  had  been  made  by  his 
father,  of  the  principality  of  Tyrone  to  the 
King  of  England,  and  the  restitution  he 
had  received  from  the  latter  by  letters- 
patent,  were  null,  since  his  father's  right  to 
that  principality  was  confined  to  his  life, 
while  he  himself  had  been  acknowledged 
the  real  O'Neill,  by  a  popular  election, 
according  to  custom,  notwithstanding  that 
he  claimed  no  other  superiority  over  the 
lords  of  his  province  than  that  which 
had  been  exercised  by  his  ancestors.  It 
appears  that  the  prince's  arguments  pre- 
vailed, as  he  retained  possession  of  Tyrone 
till  his  death,  which  occurred  a  few  years 
afterwards. 

Dowdal  having  gone  to  England  on  some 
affairs  of  the  church,  died  in  London,  in 
August,  1558.  This  prelate  having  been 
expelled  from  his  see,  under  Edward  the 
Sixth,  withdrew  to  the  Abbey  de  Centre, 
where  he  remained  till  the  death  of  the  king 
and  the  reign  of  Mary,  who  restored  him 
to  his  rights.  Even  his  enemies  acknowl- 
edged him  to  have  been  a  learned  man  and 
an  able  preacher.  The  successors  of  Dowdal 
in  the  see  of  Armagh  were,  it  is  probable, 
principally  of  the  reformed  religion,  as  the 
first  that  was  appointed  to  it  after  a  vacancy 
of  a  few  years,  was  Adam  Loftus,  Queen. 
Ehzabeth's  chaplain. 

In  October,  1558,  James,  Earl  of  Des- 
mond and  Treasurer  of  Ireland,  died,  leav- 
ing three  legitimate  sons.  After  repudiat- 
ing the  daughter  of  the  Viscount  of  Fermoy, 
he  married  the  daughter  of  O'Carroll,  by 


174 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1558. 


whom  he  had  Gerald,  otherwise  Garret, 
and  John.  His  second  wife  having  died, 
he  married  M'Carty's  daughter,  who  was 
mother  to  James,  his  third  son.  By  the 
daughter  of  the  Viscount  Fermoy  he  had 
a  son  called  Thomas  Ruadh,  (Rufus,)  who 
was  his  eldest;  but  some  doubt  having 
arisen  of  his  legitimacy,  he  could  not  suc- 
ceed to  his  father ;  from  which  important 
disputes  arose  between  the  brothers.  Gar- 
ret was  readily  acknowledged  successor  to 
James,  and  heir  to  his  titles  and  extensive 
estates. 

This  was  the  last  year  of  Mary's  reign; 
she  died  at  St.  James's  Palace,  in  the  forty- 
second  year  of  her  age  and  sixth  of  her  reign. 
The  Bishop  of  Winchester  died  just  pre- 
viously, and  Cardinal  Pole  survived  her 
but  sixteen  hours.  The  Catholics  thus  be- 
held their  three  principal  supporters  sud- 
denly carried  off. 

It  is  remarkable,  (says  Cox,)  that  though 
Mary  was  a  zealous  Catholic,  the  Irish 
were  not  more  tranquil  under  her  reign  than 
under  that  of  Edward  ;  on  the  contrary, 
their  antipathy  to  the  English  and  their 
government  hurried  them  to  commit  the 
same  excesses  as  under  the  preceding 
reigns.* 

The  most  celebrated  writers  in  the  two 
last  reigns,  were  Edward  Walsh,  a  native 
of  Ireland,  who  went  over  to  England 
about  the  year  1550,  and  was  received  into 
the  household  of  Edward  Seymour,  Duke 
of  Somerset,  uncle  to  Edward  the  Sixth, 
and  protector  of  the  kingdom ;  he  com- 
posed two  treatises,  one  entitled  "  De  Offi,- 
cits  Pugnantium  Pro  P atria"  or,  the  du- 
ties of  those  who  fight  for  their  country ; 
and "  the  other,  "  Ut  Hibemia  per  Verbum 
Dei  Reformetur,"  or  the  manner  in  which 
Ireland  ought  to  be  reformed — by  the  word 
of  God.  It  would  appear  by  this  treatise, 
and  the  attachment  of  the  author  to  the 
Duke  of  Somerset,  that  he  had  embraced 
the  new  religion. 

Sir  Thomas  Cusack,  of  Coflingston,  in 
Meath,  having  filled  the  offices  of  master 

•  "Although  she  endeavoured  to  protect  and  advance 
the  Cathulic  religion,  still  her  officers  and  lawyers  did 
not  cease  to  inflict  injuries  upon  the  Iri^h." — Cox. 


of  the  rolls,  keeper  of  the  seals,  chancel- 
lor, and  lord-justice  of  Ireland,  wrote  a 
long  epistle  to  the  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land, dated  8th  May,  1552,  on  the  state  of 
Ireland  at  that  time.  This  epistle  is  with 
the  books  of  Darcy  and  Finglass,  among 
the  manuscripts  of  Dr.  Sterne,  in  the  li- 
brary of  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

Thomas  Waterford,  called  by  others 
Waterfield,  Archdeacon  of  Leighlin,  wrote 
a  treatise  on  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  which  is 
quoted  by  Dowling  in  his  annals.  Nicho- 
las Stanihurst  wrote  a  small  work  in  Latin, 
entitled  "  Dieta  Medicorum,^  or  the  regi- 
men of  physicians.  Richard  Stanihurst 
mentions  it  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  the 
"  Description  of  Ireland."  Lastly,  George 
Dowdal,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  a  native 
of  Louth,  wrote  some  sermons,  and  also 
translated  the  life  of  the  celebrated  John  de 
Courcy,  the  imputed  conqueror  of  Ulster, 
from  Latin  into  English. 

Taylor  has  given  the  following  excellent 
review  of  this  unfortunate  queen's  govern- 
ment of  Ireland : — 

"The  queen  commenced  her  reign  by 
several  acts  equally  just,  humane,  and  poli- 
tic. She  granted  an  amnesty  to  those  who 
had  proclaimed  Lady  Jane  Grey  in  Dub- 
lin ;  she  restored  the  heir  of  Kildare  to  his 
title  and  estates ;  and  she  liberated  O'Con- 
nor of  Ofally,  who  had  been  so  long  a 
prisoner. 

"  The  restoration  of  the  old  religion  was 
effected  without  violence  ;  no  persecution 
of  the  Protestants  was  attempted ;  and 
several  of  the  English  who  fled  from  the 
furious  zeal  of  Mary's  inquisitors  found  a 
safe  retreat  among  the  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land. It  is  but  justice  to  this  maligned 
body  to  add,  that  on  the  three  occasions  of 
their  obtaining  the  upper  hand,  they  never 
injured  a  single  person  in  life  or  limb  for 
professing  a  religion  different  from  their 
own.  *  They  had  suffered  persecution  and 
learned  mercy,*  as  they  showed  in  the  reign 
of  Mary,  in  the  wars  from  1641  to  1648, 
and  during  the  brief  triumph  of  James  the 
Second. 

"  Even  in  Ireland,  however,  Mary  fully 
proved  her  right  to  the  title  of  *  Bloody.* 


A.  D.  1558.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


175 


The  septs  of  O'Moore  and  O'Carroll  ar- 
gued, with  great  justice,  that  they  had  no 
right  to  forfeit  their  lands  for  the  errors  of 
their  chiefs.  The  ground  was  the  property 
of  the  clan ;  and  the  guilt  of  the  leaders, 
though  ever  so  clearly  proved,  could  by  no 
means  involve  their  feudatories,  against 
whom  not  the  shadow  of  a  charge  could  be 
brought.  The  Irish  government  answered 
by  an  argument  sufficiently  characteristic. 
They  deigned  no  reply,  verbal  or  written, 
but  sent  an  army  to  drive  the  people  of 
Leix  and  Ofally  from  their  possessions,  and 
to  punish  by  martial  law  all  who  dared  to 
make  any  resistance.  Military  violence 
and  martial  law  are  the  species  of  reason- 
ing to  which  local  governors  of  Ireland 
have,  on  more  than  one  occasion,  had  re- 
course, to  silence  the  clamours  of  suffering 
innocence,  or  to  punish  resistance  to  intol- 
erable oppression.  In  this  instance  they 
were  successful.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
devoted  districts  were  pursued  with  fire 
and  sword.  In  the  words  of  an  old  histo- 
rian, '  the  fires  of  burning  huts  were  slaked 
by  the  blood  of  the  inhabitants ;'  and  it  was 
with  difficulty  that  a  miserable  remnant 
was  saved  by  the  generous  interference  of 
the  earls  of  Kildare  and  Ossory.  To  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  the  massacre,  it  was 
directed  by  the  government  that  Ofally  and 
Leix  should  for  the  future  be  named  the 
King's  and  Queen's  county,  and  their  chief 
towns  Philipstown  and  Maryborough,  in 
honour  of  King  Philip  and  Queen  Mary. 

"  The  turbulent  Shane  O'Nial,  or  O'Neill 
as  the  name  now  began  to  be  written,  was 
as  little  inclined  to  submit  to  Mary  as  he 
had  been  to  Edward.  In  contempt  of  the 
deputy's  remonstrance,  he  renewed  the 
war  against  his  brother  Matthew,  and  pro- 
cured his  assassination.  He  then  joined  a 
son  of  the  chieftain  of  Tyrconnel  in  an  at- 
tempt to  subdue  Calvah,  the  heir  of  that 
chieftaincy,  who  had  deprived  his  father 
of  power,  and  detained  him  in  prison. 
This  expedition  nearly  proved  fatal  to  the 
adventurous  youth.  His  camp  was  sur- 
prised by  night,  his  followers  routed,  and 
he  himself  escaped  with  difficulty  by  a 
rapid  flight.     John,  though  thus  defeated, 


lost  neither  his  courage  nor  his  spirit.  On 
the  death  of  his  father  he  unhesitatingly  took 
upon  himself  the  command  of  the  sept,  and 
thus  openly  set  the  government  at  defiance." 
This  eventful  reign  would  seem  to  de- 
serve a  longer  chapter,  but  there  is  very 
great  difficulty  in  constructing  a  correct 
statement  of  the  important  facts  of  Queen 
Mary's  reign,  which  occurred  at  a  critical 
period  in  history,  whence  printing,  preju- 
dice, and  political  pandering  have  contribu- 
ted to  confuse  all  the  accounts  relating  to 
Ireland.  From  among  the  plausible  per- 
versions of  Hume  down  to  the  painful  ig- 
norance of  Maunder,  we  have  laboured 
diligently  to  extract  our  present  narrative 
of  Irish  affairs,  for  which  we  are  principally 
indebted  to  Mac-Geoghegan,  as,  after  com- 
paring his  account  with  all  the  most  promi- 
nent authorities,  it  was  found  to  come  the 
nearest  to  truth  and  probability. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

Accession  of  Elizabeth — 1558  to  1570 — Policy  of 
the  new  queen — Consecration  of  Parker — Ad- 
ministration of  Sussex — English  liturgy  reformed 
again — Intrigues  of  the  French  and  the  Scots — 
Treatment  of  the  dissenters  who  did  not  conform 
to  the  act-of-parliament  religion — ^O'Neill's  visit 
to  Elizabeth,  and  temporarily  amorous  regard 
of  the  lady — Disputes  between  Ormond  and 
Desmond — Mac-Carty  Mora's  visit  to  England — 
Blowing  up  of  the  fort  at  Derry — Death  of  Shane 
O'Neill — Dublin  parliament  of  1569 — Rebellion 
of  the  Ormond  family — Rising  of  Turlough  Ly- 
nogh  O'Neill — Illustrative  authorities. 

Elizabeth,  only  surviving  daughter  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  was  now  declared  by 
parliament  heiress  to  the  throne.  She  was 
crowned  Queen  of  England,  in  1558,  ac- 
cording to  the  Roman  ritual,  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey,  by  Oglethorp,  Bishop  of  Car- 
lisle: the  Archbishop  of  York  and  other 
bishops  of  the  kingdom,  refused  to  attend. 
This  princess  was  then  in  her  twenty-fifth 
year:  her  reign  was  long  and  eventful. 
The  contemporary  sovereigns  were  Ferdi- 
nand, Emperor  of  Austria,  Henry  the 
Second,  King  of  France,  Philip  the  Second, 
King  of  Spain,  and  Paul  the  Fourth,  who 
held  the  see  of  Rome.  Elizabeth  soon 
assumed  the  spiritual  and  temporal  govern- 


176 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1559. 


ment  of  the  state.  She  had  previously  de- 
termined to  make  a  cliange  in  religion,  but, 
in  order  not  to  excite  the  alarm  of  the 
Catholics,  or  depress  the  hopes  of  the 
Protestant  party,  she  selected  her  council 
from  among  noblemen  of  either  side,  after 
which,  ambassadors  were  sent  to  all  the 
princes  of  Europe,  to  announce  her  acces- 
sion to  the  throne  of  England.* 

The  ruling  passion  of  Elizabeth  was  am- 
bition. A  desire  of  reigning  alone,  and  of 
being  absolute  mistress  in  all  things,  made 
her  object  to  marriage,  though  she  was 
strongly  urged  to  it  by  her  parliament,  and 
solicited  by  many  princes,  the  most  con- 
siderable of  whom  was  Philip  the  Second, 
King  of  Spain,  her  brother-in-law.  Influ- 
enced by  political  motives,  this  prince  made 
the  proposal  to  her,  through  his  ambassa- 
dor, the  Count  de  Fcria,  undertaking,  at 
the  same  time,  to  obtain  a  dispensation 
from  the  pope.  Elizabeth  received  the 
ambassador  with  politeness,  but  gave  him 
no  hope  of  succeeding  in  his  project.  In- 
dependently of  her  dislike  to  a  master,  she 
perceived  how  strongly  such  a  dispensation 
would  tend  to  affect  her  honour  and  that  of 
her  mother,  Anne  Bullen.  She  knew  that 
by  submitting  to  the  pope  and  acknowledg- 
ing the  necessity  of  a  dispensation  in  this 
instance,  she  would  approve  of  the  marriage 
of  Henry  the  Eighth  with  Catharine  of 
Arragon,  whereby  Anne  Bullen  would  be 
stigmatized  as  a  concubine,  and  would 
establish  the  right  of  Mary  Stuart,  Queen 
of  Scotland,  to  the  crown  of  England. 
That  princess  had  been  just  married  to 
Francis,  son  of  Henry  the  Second,  she  was 
acknowledged  by  France  as  Queen  of 
England,  and  had  the  arms  of  that  kingdom 
quartered  with  her  own. 


*  The  commonly  received  story  about  the  remarks 
made  by  the  pope,  on  hearing  of  the  accession  of  Eliza- 
beth, has  been  dispelled  by  the  patient  researches  of 
Mr.  Howard,  of  Corby  Castle.  The  refutation  is  so 
satisfactory  that  Tierney  has  given  it  in  a  preliminary 
note  to  the  fourth  volume  of  his  valuable  edition  of 
"  Dodd's  Church  History."  Originating  with  Sarpi,  this 
Btory  had  never  been  doubted  when  Howard  made  the 
correction ;  and  even  Lingard  adopted  it  without  ex- 
amination. The  details  are  ably  explained  in  the  "  Dub- 
lin Review,"  for  May,  1812,  pp.  348—350.   • 


It  is  said  that  Henry  the  Second,  King 
of  France,  had  used  his  influence,  both  to 
thwart  Philip  the  Second,  who  was  solici- 
ting a  dispensation  for  the  marriage  he  was 
desirous  of  contracting  with  Elizabeth,  and 
to  induce  the  pontiff"  to  declare  that  prin- 
cess to  be  illegitimate.  However  this  may 
have  been,  Elizabeth  did  not  affect  to  ques- 
tion her  own  birthright ;  and  it  is  a  singu- 
lar fact  that  the  parliament,  which  by  a 
solemn  act  acknowledged  her  right  to  the 
throne,  never  passed  one  in  favour  of  her 
legitimacy,  nor  on  the  validity  of  her 
mother's  marriage,  whereon  she  founded 
her  claim. 

Elizabeth  now  commanded  that  the  holy 
scriptures  should  be  read  to  the  people  in 
the  English  language ;  she  next  published 
a  declaration,  prohibiting  all  disputes  on 
the  score  of  religion,  and  ordered  every 
preacher  to  observe  a  general  silence  on 
the  dogmas  which  had  been  the  theme  of 
controversy.  It  was  then  that  a  difference 
was  discoverable  among  pastors ;  some  con- 
tinuing to  preach  at  the  peril  of  their.liberty 
and  even  of  their  lives,  while  the  mercenary 
and  politic,  in  order  to  preserve  their  liv- 
ings, conformed  to  the  necessity  of  the  times. 
In  the  meanwhile,  the  queen  caused  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  which  had  been 
published  in  English  under  Edward  the 
Sixth,  to  be  corrected ;  for  which  purpose 
she  nominated  Parker,  Cox,  Sir  Thomas 
Smith,  an  emiiielit  lawyer,  and  other  doc- 
tors, who  were  favourable  to  the  Reforma- 
tion. 

Every  thing  being  thus  prepared,  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Liturgy 
translated  into  English  were  laid  before, 
and  approved  of  by  the  English  parliament. 
It  was  then  ordered  to  be  use'd  by  the 
whole  kingdom ;  the  sacrament  in  both 
kinds  was  established  ;  the  mass  was  abol- 
ished ;  and  an  act  passed  to  have  the  tithes, 
the  first-fruits,  and  the  revenues  of  the 
monasteries  which  had  been  re-established 
under  the  preceding  reign,  transferred  to 
the  crown.  A  warm  debate  arose,  in  the 
parliament,  respecting  the  ecclesiastical  su- 
premacy ;  the  majority,  however,  were  in 
the  queen's  favour,  and  she  was  declared 


A.  D.  1559.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


177 


sovereign  pontiff,  or,  to  avoid  the  ridicu- 
lous appellation,  supreme  governess  of  the 
church,  by  the  parliament,  which  had  now 
become  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal.  The 
same  parliament  reduced  the  number  of 
sacraments  to  two,  namely,  baptism  and 
the  holy  eucharist,  and  had  the  altars  de- 
molished, and  the  images  in  the  churches 
taken  down. 

The  queen  being  thus  confirmed  in  the 
ecclesiastical  supremacy,  the  taking  of  the 
oath  became  the  touchstone  of  faith ;  and 
those  who  refused  to  take  it  were  immedi- 
ately deprived  of  their  livings.  The  number 
indeed  was  inconsiderable,  and  amounted 
to  not  more  than  two  hundred  in  a  country 
where  there  were  more  than  nine  thousand 
ecclesiastics  in  orders ;  the  greater  part  of 
whom  acknowledged  the  supremacy,  with- 
out hesitation,  by  taking  the  oath;  some, 
from  zeal  for  the  Reformation,  others 
through  a  temporizing  policy.  It  was  at 
this  time  that  the  bishops  displayed  a  firm- 
ness truly  apostolical.  Many  sees  remained 
vacant,  the  number  of  bishops  amounting 
to  but  fifteen,  among  whom  there  was  but 
one  apostate,  viz.,  Kitchin,  Bishop  of  Lan- 
daff.  The  rest,  namely.  Heath,  Archbishop 
of  York,  Bonner,  Bishop  of  London,  Tun- 
stal  of  Durham,  White  of  Winchester, 
Tirlby  of  Ely,  Watson  of  Lincoln,  Pool  of 
Peterborough,  Christopherson  of  Chiches- 
ter, Brown  of  Wells,  Turbervil  of  Exeter, 
Morgan  of  St.  David,  Bain  of  Litchfield, 
Scot  of  Chester,  and  Oglethorp  of  Carlisle, 
being  determined  not  to  comply,  were 
thrown  into  prison  and  deprived  of  their 
bishoprics,  which  were  conferred  on  those 
who  were  more  influenced  by  political 
power. 

The  see  of  Canterbury  having  become 
vacant  by  the  death  of  Cardinal  Pole,  was 
given  to  Parker,  by  letters-patent.  It  is 
said  that  he  was  consecrated  by  Barlow  and 
two  others.  Parker  consecrated  all  those 
who  were  nominated  by  the  queen  to  fill  the 
sees  of  the  deposed  bishops.  Debates  on 
the  validity  of  those  ordinations  occupied 
many  writers  of  that  day,  and  even  of  the 
present,  who  undertook  to  refute  the  book 

of  Coroyer ;  namely,  Fennell  and  Quin. 

23 


Here  Mac-Geoghegan  remarks : — "  Such 
was  the  reformed  religion,  which  was 
firmly  established  in  England  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Elizabeth's  reign.  That  capricious 
nation  which  accuses  its  neighbours  of  in- 
consistency, changed  her  religion  five  times 
within  thirty  years.  The  English  were 
Catholics  in  1529;  immediately  after  this 
they  became  schismatics  and  formed  a  re- 
ligion, no  part  of  which  they  understood ; 
in  Edward's  reign,  the  heresy  of  Zuingle 
prevailed ;  under  Mary  the  Catholic  reli- 
gion was  restored ;  and  on  the  accession 
of  Elizabeth,  another  was  established,  com- 
posed, with  some  alterations,  of  the  tenets 
of  Luther  and  Calvin,  to  which  was  given 
the  name  of  the  English  church.  Such 
was  the  state  of  affairs  in  England,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth." 

Sidney  governed  the  English  province 
in  Ireland,  as  deputy.  The  privy  council 
informed  him  of  what  had  taken  place  in 
England,  the  news  of  which  was  highly 
gratifying  to  the  partisans  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. Tlie  funeral  ceremonies  for  Mary, 
and  the  coronation  of  Elizabeth,  were  suc- 
cessively celebrated  in  Dublin. 

Thomas,  Earl  of  Sussex,  was  appointed 
Lord-Deputy  of  Ireland  for  the  second 
time,  in  1559.  He  arrived  in  August,  with 
thirteen  hundred  and  sixty  foot  soldiers, 
and  three  hundred  horsemen  accompanied 
by  Sir  William  Fitz- William.  This  gover- 
nor repaired  to  Christ's  Church,  where,  for 
want  of  clergymen,  the  litany  was  recited 
in  the  English  language,  by  Sir  Nicholas 
Dardy,  after  which  the  deputy  took  the 
oath,  and  the  Te  Deum  was  sung  in  the 
same  language,  to  the  sound  of  trumpets. 
The  Earl  of  Ormond  took  the  oaA  also  as 
member  of  the  privy  council.  Soon  after- 
wards a  proclamation  was  issued  to  abol- 
ish the  mass. 

Sidney  convened  a  parliament  in  Janu- 
ary, in  Christ's  Church,  Dublin,  to  repeal  all 
the  acts  that  had  been  passed  two  years 
before,  in  another  parliament,  at  which  that 
nobleman  had  presided. 

Several  acts  were  passed  in  this  parlia- 
ment for  the  establishment  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  Ireland ;  all  the  spiritual  and  eccle'^ 


178 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1559. 


siastical  authorities  were  annexed  to  the 
crown,  and  all  foreign  influence  (which  im- 
plied that  of  the  pope)  was  prohibited  ;  all 
acts  appertaining  to  appeals  were  renewed ; 
the  laws  that  had  been  enacted  in  the 
reign  of  Philip  and  Mary,  concerning  reli- 
gion or  heresy,  were  repealed ;  the  queen 
and  her  successors  were  given  the  power 
of  exercising  clerical  jurisdiction  by  com- 
mission ;  every  individual,  whether  lay  or 
ecclesiastic,  in  possession  of  livings  and 
offices,  was  obliged  to  take  the  oath  of  su- 
premacy, under  pain  of  losing  their  livings, 
or  appointments  ;  whoever  would  introduce 
or  support  a  foreign  power  was  to  be  pun- 
ished by  having  his  property  confiscated, 
or  by  a  year's  imprisonment,  for  the  first 
offence  ;  for  the  second,  he  was  to  undergo 
the  penalty  of  the  law  of  praemunire,  and 
for  the  third,  that  of  high  treason.  It  was 
decided,  that  no  opinion  should  be  consid- 
ered heretical,  unless  it  were  so  according 
to  the  scriptures,  or  to  the  four  first  general 
councils,  or  by  an  act  of  parliament. 

This  parliament  also  passed  acts  ordain- 
ing the  uniformity  of  common  prayer,  regu- 
lating the  sacraments,  particularly  that  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  and  also  the  consecra- 
tion of  prelates  according  to  the  ritual  of 
the  book  of  Common  Prayer,  as  approved 
of  by  Edward  the  Sixth,  under  pain  of  a 
fine  to  be  paid  by  the  delinquents.  The 
first  refusal  led  to  the  confiscation  of  a 
year's  income  of  the  culprit,  and  six 
months'  imprisonment ;  the  second  to  the 
loss  of  his  living,  and  a  year's  imprison- 
ment ;  and  the  third,  to  imprisonment  for 
life.  In  the  same  statutes  the  restitution  of 
the  first-fruits  was  decreed,  and  the  pay- 
ment of  a  twentieth  part  of  the  revenues  of 
livings  to  the  crown ;  lastly,  it  was  enacted 
that  the  queen's  right  to  the  crown  should 
be  acknowledged,  and  it  was  prohibited  to 
all  persons,  under  the  penalties  of  praemu- 
nire, or  high  treason,  to  speak  or  write 
against  it. 

The  English  church  retained  some  of 
the  privileges  of  the  old  religion.  Every 
bishop  had  his  tribunal  for  the  settlement 
of  matters  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  or  as 
it  is  termed  "  officiality ;"  excommunication 


retained  its  full  force,  and  pastors  were 
authorized  to  refuse  communion  to  whom- 
soever they  considered  unworthy  of  it, 
without  being  accountable  to  any  but  the 
established  judge,  as  appears  from  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  printed  at  that 
time  in  London. 

It  appears,  (says  Ware,)  that  these  de- 
crees met  with  resistance  from  the  Irish,  and 
that  many  members  of  the  parliament  were 
opposed  to  them.  Consequently  the  deputy 
was  obliged  to  dissolve  it  in  February,  and 
repair  to  England,  to  inform  the  queen, 
leaving  Williams  in  Ireland,  with  the  title 
of  deputy.  Although  the  Irish  had  been 
deceived  in  religious  matters,  under  Henry 
the  Eighth,  from  his  quarrel  with  the  pope 
being  represented  to  them  as  a  civil  ques- 
tion, merely  relating  to  temporal  govern- 
ment ;  and  though  they  had  been  confirmed 
in  this  opinion  by  the  example  of  the  king 
himself,  and  his  English  parliament,  who, 
though  at  variance  with  the  pontiff,  still 
professed  the  Catholic  faith,  and  had  in 
consequence  passed  some  acts  against  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  pope  ;  yet  we  discover 
that  this  people,  having  relinquished  their 
errors,  and  displayed  their  zeal  for  the 
Catholic  cause,  in  a  parliament  held  in  the 
reign  of  Mary,  repealed,  with  one  voice,  all 
their  preceding  acts. 

Authors  who  flourished  about  this  time 
affirm,  that,  as  to  the  parliament*  we  now 
speak  of,  instead  of  being  an  assembly  com- 
posed of  persons  from  all  the  estates,  those 
alone  were  appointed  who  were  known  to 
be  devoted  to  the  queen,  or  who  were  eas- 
ily bribed.  The  nobles  of  the  country, 
who  were  all  Catholics  at  the  time,  were 
carefully  excluded ;  so  that  by  these  and 
other  similar  means,  any  act  could  have 
been  passed  into  a  law.  However,  it  is 
well  known  that  such  acts  were  not  pub- 
lished during  the  lifetime  of  those  who  sat 
in  the  parliament,  nor  rigorously  enforced 
till  after  the  defeat  of  the  celebrated  Span- 
ish Armada,  in  1588. 

Elizabeth's  moderation  was  the  result  of 

*  "  It  should  be  remembered  that  though  this  was 
called  the  Irish  Parliameut,  it  was  composed  of  English- 
men either  by  origin  or  by  birth." — Mac-Gsoghegan. 


A.  D.  1560.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


179 


the  dangerous  situation  in  which  she  was 
placed  at  this  time.  Her  enemies  were 
numerous ;  Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots, 
had  no  small  claim  on  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land ;  Henry  the  Second,  King  of  France, 
instead  of  withdrawing  his  troops  from 
Scotland,  sent  over  secretly  fresh  rein- 
forcements, with  the  intention  of  having 
ifllizabeth  declared  heretical  and  illegiti- 
mate by  the  pope ;  the  emperor  and  the 
King  of  Spain  joined  in  this  confederacy, 
and  the  Irish  were  waiting  an  opportunity 
to  shake  off  their  yoke. 

Elizabeth  foresaw  all  these  circumstan- 
ces and  their  results.  She  prepared  to  de- 
fend herself  against  foreign  power,  to  quell 
the  disturbances  caused  in  England  by  the 
Reformation,  and  secure  Ireland  by  send- 
ing over  frequent  succours.  She  judged  it 
prudent,  also,  to  put  off  to  a  more  favoura- 
ble time  the  execution  of  the  acts  of  the 
Irish  parliament,  which  she  knew  would 
tend  to  rouse  the  Irish  to  rebel  against  her. 
Time  proved  that  she  was  not  mistaken. 
Henry  the  Second  died ;  the  Huguenots 
having  raised  some  disturbances  in  France, 
she  frequently  sent  them  assistance,  and 
supported  the  rebels  in  the  Netherlands 
against  Philip  the  Second.  She  proposed 
to  the  Protestants  of  Scotland  to  form  a 
league  with  her,  by  which  she  violated  the 
laws  of  nations,  by  encouraging  subjects  to 
rebel  against  their  lawful  princes.  Finally, 
she  reduced  the  Irish  by  a  long  and  fatal 
warfare,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the 
Spaniards  to  assist  them ;  and  then  found 
herself  able  to  enforce  any  law  which  she 
wished  to  establish  over  them. 

The  severity  which  was  exercised  in  the 
beginning  of  Mary's  reign  against  the  re- 
formers, forced  many  of  them  to  seek  an 
asylum  in  foreign  climes.  It  is  said  that 
they  amounted  to  eight  hundred  persons. 
Embden  was  the  only  city  in  which  the  re- 
ligion of  Luther  prevailed  that  would  re- 
ceive them ;  these  looked  with  horror  on 
the  English  Protestants,  on  account  of  their 
having  denied  the  real  presence.  The  re- 
fugees were,  however,  received  at  Zurich, 
Geneva,  and  Frankfort,  as  confessors  of  the 
faith.     The  many  privileges  which  were 


granted  them  in  Frankfort,  soon  drew  them 
thither  in  crowds.  The  fame  of  this  new 
church  at  Frankfort  having  spread  itself 
abroad,  John  Knox  left  his  retreat  at  Ge- 
neva to  join  it. 

When  Knox  was  expelled  from  Frank- 
fort, by  order  of  the  government,  he  re- 
turned to  Geneva,  where  he  was  appointed 
preacher,  together  with  Goodman.  They 
then  rejected  the  English  reformation,  con- 
formed to  the  ritual  of  the  church  of  Gene- 
va, and  adopted  the  doctrine  of  Calvin. 
This  was  the  foundation  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian religion,  and  the  sect  of  Puritans  which 
afterwards  prevailed  in  Scotland. 

Open  enemies  to  hierarchy  in  the  church, 
and  monarchy  in  the  state,  they  opposed 
episcopacy,  and  resisted  lawful  princes. 
By  such  principles  as  these  their  conduct 
was  regulated  ;  they  deposed  the  dowager 
queen  who  held  the  regency,  and  forced 
her  daughter  Queen  Mary,  their  legitimate 
sovereign,  to  seek  an  asylum  in  England, 
where  she  was  put  to  death  after  eighteen 
years'  imprisonment ;  and  lest  King  James 
the  Sixth  might  be  any  obstacle  to  their 
undertaking,  they  drove  him  from  Edin- 
burgh, and  kept  him  in  confinement  at  Stir- 
ling. All  his  faithful  servants  were  re- 
moved, and  possession  taken  of  his  principal 
fortresses. 

In  1560,  the  Earl  of  Sussex  having  spent 
some  months  in  England,  returned  to  Ire- 
land as  lord-lieutenant.  He  was  commis- 
sioned by  the  queen  to  prevail  on  the  Earl 
of  Kildare,  who  was  creating  disturbances 
in  the  latter  country,  to  go  to  England,  and 
in  case  he  refused  to  have  him  arrested. 
He  also  received  orders  to  have  castles 
built  and  fortified  in  Leix  and  Offaly ;  to 
people  these  districts  with  Englishmen,  and 
confer  estates  on  their  chiefs  and  male 
children  ;  to  establish  order  in  the  province 
of  Ulster,  and  admit  Surley  Boy  (M'Donnel) 
into  the  possession  of  the  lands  which  he 
claimed  as  fiefs,  on  condition  that  he  would 
contribute  to  the  public  welfare.  He  was 
further  ordered  to  reduce  Shane  O'Neill, 
either  by  force  or  otherwise  :  to  invest  the 
Baron  of  Dungannon  with  the  government 
of  the  county  of  Tyrone  ;  and  to  have  the 


180 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1562. 


O'Briens,  who  resisted  the  Earl  of  Tho- 
mond,  arrested. 

Queen  Elizabeth  was  particularly  desi- 
rous of  having  the  Protestant  religion  es- 
tablished in  Ireland.  She  sent  orders  to 
Sussex  to  call  a  meeting  of  the  clergy  for 
that  purpose ;  but  the  attachment  of  the 
bishops  to  the  ancient  religion  rendered  the 
attempt  abortive,  notwithstanding  the  offers 
which  were  made  in  order  to  bribe  them. 
After  this  meeting  William  Walsh,  Bishop 
of  Meath,  who  was  particularly  zealous  in 
the  Catholic  cause,  having  preached  at 
Trim,  in  his  own  diocese,  against  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  was  arrested,  thrown 
into  prison,  and  deposed  shortly  afterwards 
by  orders  from  the  queen.  This  prelate  was 
sent  into  banishment,  and  died  at  Complute, 
in  Spain,  in  1577,  where  he  was  interred 
in  a  monastery  of  the  Cistercian  order,  of 
which  he  was  a  brother.  The  bishopric  of 
Meath  having  remained  vacant  for  two 
years,  Elizabeth  conferred  it  on  Hugh 
MacBrady,  who  was  more  accommodat- 
ing than  Walsh  :  he  died  at  Dunboyne,  the 
place  of  his  birth,  having  held  this  see  for 
twenty  years.  Thomas  Leverous,  Bishop 
of  Kildare,  was  treated  almost  in  the  same 
manner  as  Walsh.  Having  refused  to  take 
the  oath  of  supremacy,  he  was  deprived  of 
his  bishopric,  and  of  the  deanery  of  St. 
Patrick.  In  order  to  gain  his  livelihood, 
he  was  reduced  to  the  alternative  of  keep- 
ing a  school  in  Limerick,  and  died  at  Naas, 
in  1577,  at  the  age  of  eighty  years.  He 
was  succeeded  in  the  bishopric  of  Kildare 
by  Alexander  Craike.  The  latter,  not 
content  with  the  revenues  of  the  bishopric 
and  the  deanery  of  St.  Patrick,  which  he 
held  together,  exchanged  most  of  the  estates 
of  that  see,  with  Patrick  Sarsfield,  a  lord  of 
the  country,  for  tithes  of  little  value.  By 
this  means  the  ancient  see  of  Kildare  was 
reduced  to  great  distress. 

The  Irish  Catholics,  particularly  the  an- 
cient inhabitants,  were  much  alarmed  at 
these  symptoms  of  persecution ;  the  con- 
tinuance of  which  they  foresaw,  by  the 
changes  which  took  place  in  church  and 
state.  They  saw  no  security,  either  for 
their  churches  or  the  preservation  of  their 


estates,  but  by  arms.  Having  received 
promises  of  assistance  from  the  pope  and  the 
King  of  Spain,  they  assembled  in  great 
numbers,  under  the  command  of  Shane 
O'Neill,  at  that  time  the  bravest  and  most 
powerful  nobleman  in  the  country. 

Mac-Geoghegan  says  : — "  This  resist- 
ance of  the  Irish  differs  from  that  of  sub- 
jects, who  under  pretext  of  religion  or 
otherwise,  rebel  against  their  lawful  prin- 
ces, conduct  which  will  never  receive  the 
approbation  of  polished  and  well-informed 
nations.  Ireland  had  not  yet  been  sub- 
jugated ;  her  people  acknowledged  only 
the  authority  of  the  English  by  compul- 
sion, whatever  their  adversaries  may  ad- 
vance to  the  contrary,  who  always  denomi- 
nated them  rebels,  an  epithet  which  can 
only  apply  to  insurgent  subjects.  They 
deemed  it  just  to  resist  a  foreign  power 
which  was  endeavouring  to  direct  their 
consciences,  by  introducing  a  new  religion 
among  them." 

O'Neill  finding  his  countrymen  zealous 
in  the  common  cause,  took  the  command 
willingly,  and  marched  into  the  English 
province,  where  he  carried  on  the  war 
with  success.  When  the  campaign  was 
over,  this  prudent  general,  not  willing  to 
spend  the  winter  in  a  hostile  country,  which 
was  already  laid  waste,  returned  to  Ulster 
with  an  intention  of  renewing  hostilities  in 
the  spring.  In  the  mean  time,  Sussex  made 
active  preparations  to  oppose  him.  He 
received  from  England  fresh  troops  to  the 
number  of  four  hundred  men,  four  pieces 
of  cannon,  a  mortar,  sixty  barrels  of  gun- 
powder, and  other  ammunition  ;  but  not  be- 
ing satisfied  with  this  reinforcement,  he 
sailed  thither  to  receive  fresh  instructions 
respecting  the  operations  of  the  campaign. 

Sussex  returned  to  Ireland  in  June,  1561, 
with  the  title  of  lord-lieutenant,  which  he 
had  previously  enjoyed.  He  now  thought 
seriously  of  an  expedition  against  O'Neill. 
He  therefore  set  out  from  Dublin  for  Ul- 
ster on  the  1st  of  July,  at  the  head  of  five 
hundred  men,  attended  by  John  Bedlow, 
one  of  the  sheriffs  of  the  city,  who  com- 
manded eighty  men.  Another  detachment 
of  eighty  archers  and  fusiliers  followed  him 


A.  D.  1562.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


181 


soon  after,  under  the  command  of  Gough, 
another  sheriff;  all  of  whom  were  supplied 
with  provisions  for  six  weeks.  O'Neill's 
forces  being  inferior  both  in  numbers  and 
discipline  to  the  army  of  Sussex,  he  posted 
himself  so  as  not  to  be  surprised ;  and  the 
only  fruit  of  the  expedition  was  a  suspen- 
sion of  hostilities,  and  a  reconciliation  be- 
tween the  chiefs.  O'Neill  went  over  to 
England  in  December,  where  he  concluded 
an  honourable  peace  with  Elizabeth ;  and 
returned  to  Ireland  in  May,  much  pleased 
with  the  reception  he  had  met  with  from 
her  majesty.  In  the  meantime,  the  Earl  of 
Sussex  was  recalled,  and  William  Fitz- 
William  appointed  Lord-Justice  of  Ireland 
in  his  stead. 

Roland  Fitz-Gerald,  Archbishop  of  Ca- 
shel,  died  about  1561.  This  prelate  was 
descended  from  the  Fitz-Geralds  of  Bum- 
church,  in  Kilkenny,  who  held  the  title  of 
non-parliamentary  barons.  This  see  hav- 
ing remained  vacant  for  six  years,  Eliza- 
beth nominated  James  MacCaghwell  to  it; 
but  his  successor  was  Maurice  Gibbon,  or 
Reagh,  whom  the  Protestants  accuse  of 
having  stabbed  MacCaghwell.  Gibbon  was 
afterwards  driven  into  exile,  and  died  in 
Spain.  The  ancient  see  of  Emly  was  uni- 
ted at  this  time  with  that  of  Cashel,  by  au- 
thority of  parliament.  The  hierarchy  has 
been  always  preserved  in  the  church  of 
Ireland,  and  every  see  has  two  bishops, 
one  a  Catholic,  appointed  by  the  pope,  and 
the  other  a  Protestant,  nominated  by  the 
king. 

In  1562,  the  Earl  of  Sussex  was  again 
made  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland.  Having 
taken  the  oath,  the  first  act  of  his  adminis- 
tration was  to  change  some  of  the  districts 
into  counties ;  to  the  ancient  territory  of 
Annaly,  on  the  borders  of  Meath,  he  gave 
the  name  of  the  county  of  Longford.  He 
then  divided  the  province  of  Connaught  into 
six  counties  ;  namely,  Clare,  Galway,  Sli- 
go.  Mayo,  Roscommon,  and  Leitrim. 

O'Neill's  enemies  were  continually  en- 
deavouring to  have  him  suspected  by  the 
government.  Loftus,  who  had  just  been 
appointed  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  on  the 
deposition  of  a  domestic,   wrote   against 


O'Neill  to  the  lord-lieutenant,  in  1563. 
The  suspicions  against  him  having  gained 
ground,  the  lord-lieutenant  advanced  his 
troops,  and  O'Neill  was  forced  to  have  re- 
course to  arms.  The  English  army  set 
out  in  the  beginning  of  April  for  Ulster. 
In  a  skirmish  near  Dundalk,  with  O'Neill's 
troops,  twenty-one  of  them  fell  on  the  field 
of  battle.  Sussex  crossed  the  Blackwater 
on  the  16th,  at  the  head  of  his  army;  but 
fearing  that  he  might  be  surprised,  he  re- 
turned to  Dundalk,  whither  he  carried  great 
booty  in  cattle.  In  June  he  proceeded  to 
Dungannon.  The  day  following  he  endea- 
voured, but  in  vain,  to  dislodge  O'Neill, 
who  was  advantageously  posted  in  the 
wood  of  Tulloghoge,  after  which  he  re- 
turned with  his  army  to  Drogheda,  plun- 
dering every  place  on  his  march. 

The  Earl  of  Kildare  was  deeply  inter- 
ested for  O'Neill,  who  was  both  his  rela- 
tive and  friend.  He  entreated  him  to  lay 
down  his  arms  and  submit ;  and  O'Neill 
was  so  swayed  by  the  arguments  of  the 
earl,  that  he  went  to  England,  where  he 
made  peace  with  the  queen,  in  presence  of 
the  ambassadors  of  Sweden  and  Savoy. 
That  princess  granted  him  her  friendship, 
and  sent  him  back  with  rich  presents. 

The  Earl  of  Sussex  published  an  edict 
this  year  against  the  Catholic  clergy,  by 
which  monks  and  popish  priests  were  in- 
terdicted either  to  meet  or  sleep  in  Dublin. 
The  head  of  every  family  was  ordered, 
under  pain  of  being  fined,  to  attend  every 
Sunday  at  the  Protestant  service.  Those 
who  were  unable  to  pay  the  fine  went  to 
mass  in  the  morning,  and  to  the  Protestant 
sermon  afterwards ;  but  in  order  to  pre- 
vent this,  the  inhabitants  were  registered, 
and  their  names  called  during  service  in 
the  Pi'otestant  churches. 

When  O'Neill  returned  to  Ireland,  in 
1564,  he  declared  war  against  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  Hebrides,  defeated  them,  and 
killed  their  chief.  While  the  Prince  of 
Tyrone  was  putting  down  his  enemies,  and 
labouring  to  establish  peace  and  good  or- 
der in  his  own  district,  he  drew  upon  him- 
self the  hatred  of  the  nobility  of  the  coun- 
try, whom  he  looked  upon  as  his  vassals. 


182 


HISTORY   OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1564. 


Maguire,  Magennis,  and  others,  presented 
their  complaints  against  O'Neill  to  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  in  consequence  of  which  he  was 
reduced  to  the  alternative  either  of  taking 
up  arms  against  the  government,  or  of  sub- 
mitting to  the  decision  of  the  lord-lieuten- 
ant ;  but,  unwilling  to  acknowledge  the 
power  of  the  governor,  he  adopted  the  for- 
mer as  the  more  honourable  alternative. 

The  lord-lieutenant  took  care  to  inform 
the  queen  of  O'Neill's  movements,  and  to 
explain  how  much  was  to  be  feared  from 
such  an  enemy.  Elizabeth  sent  him  the 
following  reply : — "  Let  not  your  suspicions 
of  Shane  O'Neill  give  you  uneasiness  ;  tell 
my  troops  to  take  courage,  and  that  his 
rebellion  may  turn  to  their  advantage,  as 
there  will  be  lands  to  bestow  on  those  who 
have  need  of  them." 

O'Neill  was  now  levying  troops,  under 
pretext  of  defending  his  boundaries  against 
the  Scots.    The  government  became  alarm- 
ed, and  the  lord-lieutenant  issued  aj)rocla- 
mation,  which  declared  that  any  one  enlist- 
ing under  an  officer  who  had  not  received 
his  commission  from  her  majesty,  or  from 
him,  should  be  considered   a  traitor :  he 
therefore  enjoined  all  those  who  had  en- 
rolled  themselves   for  O'Neill's   army,  to 
come  forward  and  lay  down  their  arms 
within  a  limited  time,  under  pain  of  death 
and  confiscation  of  their  properties.     The 
deputy  collected  his  forces  on  the  borders 
of  the  English  province,  but  nothing  could 
check  the  rage  of  O'Neill.     In  order  to  be 
revenged  on  Loftus,  the  Protestant  Arch- 
bishop of  Armagh,  who  had  written  against 
him,  he  burned  his  church,  on  which  ac- 
count the  Protestant   prelate  pronounced 
sentence  of  excommunication  against  him. 
O'Neill  then  entered  Fermanagh,  sword  in 
hand,  from  which  he   expelled   Maguire. 
After  this  he  laid  siege  to  Dundalk,  which 
was  relieved  by  William  Sarsfield,  Mayor 
of  Dublin,  at  the  head  of  a  chosen  body  of 
men,  who  forced  him  to  raise  the  siege,  but 
was  not  able  to  prevent  him  from  devasta- 
ting the  country  around. 

A  serious  difference  had  arisen  between 
the  earls  of  Ormond  and  Desmond,  respect- 
ing the  boundaries  of  their  estates,  which 


was  followed  by  a  bloody  conflict.  It  may 
be  necessary  to  observe  that  the  earl  of 
Desmond  in  question  was  Garret  Fitzger- 
ald, son  of  James,  and  grandson  of  John, 
who  successively  held  that  title.  His  first 
expedition  was  against  MacCarty  Riagh, 
by  which  he  acquired  great  honour.  He, 
however,  was  not  so  successful  in  his  bat- 
tle with  Edme  MacTeugue,  son  of  Mac- 
Carty of  Muskerry. 

The  several  families  of  the  O'Briens  were 
continually  at  war  against  their  chief,  the 
Earl  of  Thomond  ;  as  they  imagined  that 
his  title  of  earl  authorized  him  to  oppress 
them.  Teugue  MacMurrough  O'Brien  hav- 
ing been  besieged  in  his  castle  of  Inchiquin 
by  this  earl  and  Clanricarde,  sent  to  solicit 
assistance  from  his  friend  Garret,  Earl  of 
Desmond.  Garret  sent  him  word  to  keep 
up  his  courage,  promising  to  be  with  him 
on  a  certain  day :  he  then  crossed  the  Shan- 
non at  Castle-Connell,  above  Limerick,  at 
the  head  of  five  hundred  foot  soldiers,  with 
about  sixty  horsemen,  under  the  command 
of  his  brother,  and  marched  directly  for  In- 
chiquin, intending  to  raise  the  siege.  The 
earls  having  received  intelligence  of  the 
march  of  Desmond,  were  determined  to  op- 
pose him.  Unable  to  withstand  the  shock, 
they  fled,  leaving  Desmond  at  liberty  to 
relieve  his  friend. 

Jealousy  continued  to  prevail  between 
Desmond  and  Ormond.  Desmond  was  of 
an  ingenuous  and  upright  character ;  Tho- 
mas Butler,  surnamed  Duff,  or  the  Black, 
was  cautious  and  politic.  Being  brought 
up  at  the  English  court,  he  imbibed  Protest- 
ant opinions,  in  consequence  of  which  he 
was  more  favoured  by  the  queen  than  Des- 
mond. The  estates  of  these  noblemen  were 
adjoining;  they  made  frequent  incursions 
on  each  other's  lands,  and  their  animosity 
ran  so  high  that  the  ambition  of  power  fre- 
quently drove  them  to  arms.  In  one  of 
their  battles  Desmond  was  wounded,  and 
taken  prisoner  to  Clonmel,  where  he  was 
attended  by  a  surgeon,  but  ever  after  con- 
tinued lame.  As  soon  as  he  had  recovered 
sufficiently  he  was  sent  prisoner  to  Lon- 
don. 

The   Earl   of  Sussex  was   recalled,  in 


A.  D.  1566.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


183 


1565.  Sir  Nicholas  Arnold  was  appointed 
lord-justice,  and  sworn  in,  during  May. 
This  new  magistrate  brought  over  a  rein- 
forcement of  fifteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
six  men.  His  stay  was  of  short  continu- 
ance, since  some  complaints  being  made 
at  court  against  him,  he  was  recalled  in 
the  following  January. 

Sir  Henry  Sidney  was  the  next  lord- 
deputy.  His  instructions  enjoined  him  to 
form  a  privy  council,  to  be  sworn,  in  his 
presence ;  which  he  was  to  consult,  and 
which  should  co-operate  with  him  for  the 
general  good  of  the  people.  Being  assem- 
bled together,  affairs  were  found  to  be  in  a 
very  bad  state.  The  province  was  harass- 
ed and  oppressed  by  a  licentious  and  un- 
disciplined soldiery,  who  became  also  ob- 
jects of  suspicion  to  the  government  on 
account  of  their  intercourse  with  the  Irish. 

In  Leinster,  Kilkenny  was  in  particular 
attacked  by  the  O'Tools,  the  O'Birns, 
O'Kinsellaghs,  O'Morroghs,  the  Cavanaghs, 
and  the  O'Morras. 

In  Munster,  the  counties  of  Tipperary 
and  Kerry  were  brought  to  the  verge  of 
ruin  by  the  wars  between  the  partisans  of 
Ormond  and  Desmond.  The  barony  of 
Ormond  was  devastated  by  Pierce  Grace  ; 
the  country  of  Thomond  suffered  greatly 
by  the  warfare  of  Sir  Daniel  O'Brien  and 
the  Earl  of  Thomond. 

Connaught  was  torn  by  the  factions  of 
the  Earl  of  Clanricarde  and  other  families 
of  the  Burkes.  Finally  the  whole  of  Ulster, 
commanded  by  Shane  O'Neill,  was  in  arms 
against  the  English  government. 

Cox  and  Hooker  remark,  that  in  addition 
to  the  miseries  with  which  Ireland  was 
then  afflicted, religion  had  become  almost  ex- 
tinct, the  clergy  dispersed,  and  the  churches 
stripped ;  and  that  scarcely  any  vestige  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  God  could  be 
found  in  that  ignorant  and  barbarous 
nation. 

Upon  these  statements  Mac-Geoghegan 
remarks  : — "  An  insinuation  is  thrown  out 
by  these  authors,  that  either  the  pretended 
reformed  religion  was  generally  received 
at  that  time  in  Ireland,  and  abandoned  in 
consequence  of  the  dispersion  of  its  min- 


isters, or  that  the  Irish  Catholics  opposed 
to  the  new  doctrine,  after  losing  their  pas- 
tors, had  become  at  one  stroke  ignorant 
barbarians.  These  two  propositions  are 
equally  false  and  deceitful.  Some  Catholic 
bishops  had  been  deposed,  and  were  suc- 
ceeded by  Protestant  bishops ;  but  the 
number  was  inconsiderable,  not  amounting 
to  more  than  five  or  six.  The  new  doc- 
trine which  was  preached  had  not  made 
great  progress  in  so  short  a  time  among  a 
people  strenuously  attached  to  their  ancient 
religion.  The  persecution  which  had  been 
commenced  was  not  directed  against  the 
Protestants,  since  they  were  protected  by 
the  very  power  from  which  it  had  arisen. 
All  Ireland  was  still  Catholic  ;  for  it  may 
be  affirmed,  that  among  every  five  hundred 
scarcely  one  Protestant  appeared  ;  conse- 
quently the  dispersion  of  the  clergy,  to 
which  the  above  authors  allude,  cannot 
apply  to  the  Catholic  clergy.  It  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at,  that  a  religion  should 
suffer  much  in  a  country  where  it  is  strong- 
ly opposed,  but  it  is  impossible  that  it  should 
be  effaced  in  five  or  six  years,  so  as  that 
no  knowledge  of  God  could  be  discovered. 
They  were,  however,  Englishmen,  who  put 
forward  the  above  statement." 

Mac  Carty  More  went  to  England  about 
this  time,  and  placed  at  the  queen's  dispo- 
sal all  his  possessions,  of  which  she  made 
a  regrant  to  him  by  letters-patent,  together 
with  the  titles  of  Earl  of  Glencar  and  Baron 
of  Valentia.  This  prince,  the  chief  of  the 
Eoganachts,  was  descended  from  Heber, 
eldest  son  of  Milesius,  King  of  Gallicia,  by 
Oilioll-Olum,  and  his  eldest  son  Eogan- 
More,  and  Dermod  Mac-Carty,  King  of 
Cork,  in  the  twelfth  century,  who  was  the 
first  that  submitted  to  Henry  the  Second, 
King  of  England.  According  to  the  right 
of  primogeniture,  this  illustrious  house  is 
the  first  in  Ireland.  There  were  several 
branches  of  it,  namely,  the  Mac-Cartys  of 
Muskerry  and  Carbry ;  those  of  Cluan, 
Maolain,  Alia ;  and  many  others. 

The  deputy  returned  to  England  in  1566, 
to  receive  fresh  instructions,  and  give  an 
account  to  the  queen  of  the  situation  of 
affairs  in  Ireland.     During  his  absence  the 


184 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1566. 


troops  of  O'Neill  thrcatenod  Drogheda.  At 
the  request,  however,  of  Lady  Sidney,  wife 
of  the  deputy,  who  resided  there  at  the 
time,  Sarsfield,  Mayor  of  Dublin,  came  with 
troops  and  saved  the  city,  for  which  the 
deputy,  on  his  return,  conferred  on  him  the 
honour  of  knighthood. 

O'Neill  always  maintained  an  army  of 
four  thousand  foot,  and  a  thousand  horse  : 
he  was  a  prince  of  great  skill  and  talents  ; 
he  took  care  to  have  his  vassals  instructed 
in  discipline,  and  inspired  them  with  a  love 
of  war,  but  his  pride  rendered  him  insup- 
portable to  his  neighbours,  and  added  daily 
to  the  number  of  his  enemies.  Besides 
the  English  troops,  he  had  to  contend  with 
O'Donnel,  Moguire,  and  other  powerful 
noblemen  of  Ulster,  who  complained  of  his 
tyranny.  He  made  frequent  incursions 
upon  the  English  province,  and  laid  siege 
to  their  towns,  by  which,  though  sometimes 
unsuccessful,  he  became  formidable  to  the 
government.  He  defeated  also  a  Scottish 
legion,  killed  three  thousand  of  them,  and 
took  their  chief,  Mac  Donnel,  prisoner. 

O'Neill's  power  engrossed  much  atten- 
tion in  the  English  government  at  this  time. 
The  queen  offered  to  him  the  titles  of  Earl 
of  Tyrone,  and  Baron  of  Dungannon,  with 
a  promise  to  annul  the  patents  of  Henry 
the  Eighth,  which  secured  to  Matthew 
O'Neill,  of  Dungannon,  the  right  of  succes- 
sion to  the  estates  and  honours  of  Tyrone. 
O'Neill  received  the  proposal  with  a  haugh- 
tiness expressive  of  his  contempt  for  such 
titles,  which  he  looked  upon  as  beneath  the 
name  of  O'Neill.  The  commissioners  re- 
ceived from  him  the  following  reply  :  "  If 
Elizabeth  your  mistress  be  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, I  am  O'Neill,  King  of  Ulster ;  I  never 
made  peace  with  her  without  having  been 
previously  solicited  to  it  by  her.  I  am  not 
ambitious  of  the  abject  title  of  earl  ;  both 
my  family  and  birth  raise  me  above  it ;  I 
will  not  yield  precedence  to  any  one  :  my 
ancestors  have  been  kings  of  Ulster ;  I 
have  gained  that  kingdom  by  my  sword, 
and  by  the  sword  I  will  preserve  it."  He 
then  spoke  contemptuously  of  Mac  Carty 
More,  who  had  just  accepted  the  title  of 
earl. 


The  English  government  now  despatch- 
ed seven  hundred  men  to  Derry.  They 
took  possession  of  the  town,  and  converted 
the  ancient  church  of  St.  Columb  into  a 
magazine  for  powder  and  warlike  stores  ; 
the  priests  and  monks  being  driven  out, 
and  other  sacrileges  committed  in  the 
churches.  The  deputy  repaired  soon  after- 
wards to  Derry,  where  he  continued  a 
few  days.  Having  given  the  necessary 
orders  for  defending  the  town,  and  rein- 
forced the  garrison  with  fifty  horsemen 
and  seven  hundred  foot,  he  returned  to 
Dublin. 

O'Neill  saw  that  it  was  against  his  in- 
terest to  suffer  an  enemy  to  establish  a 
garrison  so  near,  and  always  in  readiness 
to  attack  him.  He  marched  therefore  to 
Derry  with  two  thousand  five  hundred  in- 
fantry, and  three  hundred  cavalry,  and 
posted  himself  within  two  miles  of  the 
town.  According  to  Cox,  Randulph,  the 
English  colonel,  made  a  sally  on  the  Irish, 
with  three  hundred  foot  and  fifty  horse,  and 
after  a  vigorous  attack,  killed  four  hundred 
of  them  and  put  the  rest  to  flight,  without 
any  loss  on  the  side  of  the  English  but  that 
of  Randulph  himself,  who  was  killed  in  the 
action  ;  but  this  account  appears  to  be  a 
mere  boast,  since,  independently  of  .  the 
sally  alluded  to  not  being  mentioned  by 
O'Sullivan  and  other  writers,  it  is  impossi- 
ble that  two  armies  could  have  come  to  so 
close  an  engagement,  with  only  the  loss  of 
the  commander  on  one  side,  while  four 
hundred  men  were  killed  on  the  other.  It 
is,  on  the  contrary,  certain,  that  the  powder 
magazine  took  fire,  and  that  seven  hundred 
Englishmen,  and  their  commander,  met  a 
miserable  end. 

Discord  still  prevailed  between  O'Neill 
and  O'Donnel.  The  latter  was  supported 
by  the  English,  whose  aim  was  to  weaken 
O'Neill,  as  his  power  was  an  obstacle  to  the 
Reformation,  which  they  wished  to  intro- 
duce into  Ireland,  and  to  the  conquest  of 
the  country,  which  was  not  yet  complete. 
These  two  princes  fought  many  battles 
with  unequal  success.  O'Neill,  at  length, 
having  collected  all  his  forces,  gained  over 
the  queen's  troops  that  were  sent  to  assist 


A.  D.  1567.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


185 


O'Donnel,  the  celebrated  victory  of  the  red 
Sagiims,*  called  in  the  Irish  language, 
"  Call  na  gassogues  Deargs."  In  this  bat- 
tle four  hundred  English  soldiers  were 
killed,  besides  several  officers  who  had 
lately  arrived  from  England. 

We  have  already  mentioned  that  Garret, 
Earl  of  Desmond,  was  a  prisoner  in  London. 
During  his  confinement  the  other  branches 
of  his  family  caused  many  disturbances  in 
Munster.  John,  his  brother,  defeated  in 
battle  and  killed  John  Butler,  brother  to  the 
Earl  of  Ormond.  James,  son  of  Maurice 
Fitzgerald,  undertook  to  defend  the  right  of 
Garret,  and  for  that  end  strenuously  op- 
posed the  attempts  of  Thomas  Rua,  who 
had  taken  the  title  of  Earl  of  Desmond. 
The  queen,  in  order  to  allay  the  disturban- 
ces caused  by  these  noblemen,  sent  to  Ire- 
land the  real  Earl  of  Desmond,  and  after 
exhorting  him  to  continue  loyal  and  at- 
tached to  the  crown  of  England,  said,  that 
he  might  hope  by  his  loyalty  to  obtain  fa- 
vours and  rewards.  The  earl  was  received 
with  universal  joy  throughout  the  kingdom, 
and  restored  to  his  title  and  the  estates  of 
his  ancestors.  Finding  himself  free,  he 
ordered  his  vassals  to  raise  troops,  and  to 
put  on  foot  an  army  of  two  thousand  men, 
conduct  which  caused  great  uneasiness  to 
Sidney,  the  deputy.  He  endeavoured  to 
fathom  the  designs  of  the  earl.  Whatever 
they  might  have  been,  he  obeyed  a  sum- 
mons that  he  had  received  from  the  deputy, 
and  proceeded  to  Dublin  with  a  troop  of  a 
hundred  horsemen,  accompanied  by  Sir 
Warham  St.  Leger,  who  had  been  commis- 
sioned to  guard  the  frontiers  of  the  English 
province  during  the  absence  of  the  deputy, 
while  absent  on  an  expedition  into  Ulster. 
Accompanied  by  the  Earl  of  Kildare  and 
other  noblemen,  the  deputy  set  out  from 
Drogheda,  in  September.  He  marched 
through  a  part  of  Ulster,  and  passed  near 
Clogher.  The  troops  of  O'Neill  harassed 
his  rear-guard  on  their  march.  O'Donnel 
on  this  occasion  paid  him  homage,  and  was 

*  "  The  Sagum  was  a  warlike  dress  in  use  amDng  the 
Persians,  Carthaginians,  and  the  Romans,  and  here 
signifies  the  red  uniform  of  the  English." — Mac-Geo- 

OHEGAN. 

24 


reinstated  by  him  in  the  possession  of  his 
estates,  particularly  the  castles  of  Bally- 
shannon  and  Donegal,  for  which  O'Donnel 
agreed  to  pay  to  the  crown  a  revenue  of 
two  hundred  marks  a  year.  Thus  the 
Prince  of  Tyrconnel  leagued  himself  with 
the  enemies  of  his  country  to  save  himself 
from  the  attacks  of  a  powerful  neighbour. 

After  this  the  deputy  marched  into  Con- 
naught,  where  he  retook  the  castle  of  Ros- 
common. Sir  Edward  Fitton  was  ap- 
pointed president  of  the  province :  the 
O'Connor  Sligoe,  the  O'Connor  Don,  O'- 
Flinn,  and  others,  made  their  submissions 
to  the  deputy,  who  obliged  them  to  pay  an 
annual  revenue  to  the  crown.  He  marched 
afterwards  to  Athlone,  where  he  caused  a 
bridge  to  be  built,  and  then  sent  his  troops 
into  winter  quarters,  after  placing  garrisons 
along  the  frontiers  of  the  English  province  ; 
but  all  those  precautions  did  not  prevent 
O'Neill  from  devastating  it  with  fire  and 
sword.  The  deputy  then  laid  siege  to  Dun- 
dalk,  in  which  he  failed. 

The  great  exploits  of  O'Neill  were  not 
sufficient  to  save  him  from  ruin.  He  was 
brave,  and  his  vassals  well  disciplined,  but 
they  fought  better  in  the  field  than  in  their 
attacks  on  towns,  or  in  defending  them. 
The  deputy  was  more  frequently  victorious 
by  stratagem  than  by  force  of  arms;  he 
was  in  possession  of  fortifications  and  garri- 
sons from  which  he  made  occasional  incur- 
sions on  the  lands  of  Tyrone,  and  was  art- 
ful enough  to  foment  discord  between  that 
prince  and  his  neighbours.  He  detached 
Maguire  of  Fermanagh,  a  powerful  noble- 
man of  the  country,  from  his  interest,  and 
always  supported  O'Donnel  against  him ; 
so  that  O'Neill,  finding  himself  hemmed 
in  on  all  sides,  and  his  forces  weakened, 
was  reduced  to  the  sad  alternative  of 
seeking  safety  among  his  enemies.  He 
had  twice  defeated  the  Scots ;  in  the  first 
battle  he  had  killed  their  chief,  James  Mac- 
Donnel,  and  in  the  second  Surly-Boy  Mae- 
Donnel,  brother  of  the  latter,  was  taken 
prisoner.  Still  his  misfortunes  forced  him 
to  have  recourse  to  those  whom  he  had  in- 
jured. He  restored  Surly-Boy  to  his  lib- 
erty, and  set  out  for  Northern  Clanneboy 


186 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1567. 


where  the  Scots  to  the  number  of  six  hun- 
dred were  encamped,  under  Alexander 
MacDonnel,  brother  to  Surly-Boy,  in  1567. 
O'Neill  appeared  with  a  few  attendants  in 
the  camp,  where  he  was  received  with  ap- 
parent politeness:  but  the  Scots,  either 
through  revenge  for  the  injuries  they  had 
received  from  him,  or  hoping  to  obtain  a 
considerable  reward  from  the  English  gov- 
ernment, stabbed  him,  with  all  his  follow- 
ers, and  sent  his  head  to  the  deputy,  who 
exposed  it  upon  a  pole  on  the  castle  of 
Dublin. 

O'Neill  left  two  legitimate  sons,  Henry 
and  John.  After  his  death,  he  was  accused 
and  convicted  of  the  crime  of  rebellion,  and 
his  estates  confiscated  for  the  queen's  use, 
in  1567,  by  an  act  of  the  parliament  held 
in  Dublin.  The  estates  of  the  other  nobles 
who  had  been  of  O'Neill's  party  in  the  war, 
were  also  comprised  in  this  act  of  confisca- 
tion ;  namely,  Clanneboy  and  Fews,  the 
patrimonies  of  the  two  branches  of  the 
O'Neills,  Kryne,  or  Coleraine,  the  country 
of  the  O'Cahans ;  Route,  belonging  to  the 
MacQuilins ;  the  territory  of  the  Glinnes 
in  possession  of  the  Scots,  of  which  James 
MacDonnel  styled  himself  the  lord  and 
conqueror ;  Iveach,  the  country  of  the 
Magennises  ;  Orior,  that  of  the  O'Hanlons  ; 
the  district  of  Ferny,  Uriel,  Loghty,  and 
Dartry,  belonging  to  four  branches  of  the 
MacMahons ;  Truogh,  the  estate  of  the 
MacKennas  ;  and  Clancanny  or  Clanbres- 
sail,  belonging  to  the  MacCanns.  These 
proprietors  were,  however,  conciliated  in 
some  measure.  Turlough  Lynogh,  one  of 
the  most  powerful  nobles  of  the  family  of 
O'Neill,  was  acknowledged  "  The  O'Neill," 
with  the  queen's  consent ;  but  in  order  to 
check  his  authority,  she  confirmed  Hugh, 
son  of  Matthew  O'Neill,  in  the  title  of 
Baron  of  Dungannon,  and  subsequently  in 
that  of  Tyrone. 

Peace  having  been  partly  restored  in 
Ulster,  war  broke  out  anew  in  Munster,  be- 
tween the  houses  of  Desmond  and  Ormond. 
Their  animosities  drove  them  to  the  fatal 
alternative  of  a  battle  near  Drumelin,  after 
which  the  earls  were  commanded  to  repair 
to  England,  in  order  that  their  quarrels 


might  be  investigated  in  council.  The  sub- 
ject, however,  being  too  intricate  to  be 
tried  in  England,  they  were  sent  back  to 
Ireland,  where  witnesses  might  more  con- 
veniently be  examined.  They,  however, 
would  not  submit  to  the  laws ;  but  again 
took  up  arms,  and  recommenced  hostilities. 
In  consequence  of  the  complaints  of  Or- 
mond, the  queen  sent  orders  to  the  deputy 
to  repair  to  Munster  without  delay,  and  to 
put  down  Desmond.  The  deputy  set  out 
with  a  few  troops  for  that  province,  where 
he  remained  three  months.  The  reasons 
and  complaints  of  both  parties  being  heard, 
he  decided  against  Desmond,  whom  he 
ordered  to  idemnify  his  enemy  ;  and  on  his 
refusal  to  submit  to  this  decision,  the  deputy 
had  him  arrested  at  Kilmallock,  and  brought 
to  Limerick,  where  he  was  accused  of  high 
treason  for  having  taken  up  arms  against 
the  queen.  While  the  deputy  was  waiting 
the  termination  of  the  trial  he  created  John 
Desmond,  the  earl's  brother,  a  knight,  and 
appointed  him  Seneschal  of  Desmond  ;  this 
promotion  gave  great  umbrage  to  the  Earl 
of  Ormond,  who  represented  to  the  queen 
that  the  deputy  was  partial  to  Desmond, 
which  had  excited  her  majesty's  displeasure 
towards  him. 

Sidney  began  to  feel  thwarted  in  his 
views  by  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  to  whom  he 
thought  the  queen  listened  too  attentively. 
He  was  also  importuned  with  the  complaints 
of  Oliver  Sutton,  a  gentleman  of  the  Eng- 
lish province,  against  the  Earl  of  Kildare ; 
and  accusations  were  brought  against  Sir 
Edmund  Butler  and  his  brother,  by  Lady 
Dunboyne,  MacBrian  Ara,  Oliver  Fitz-Ger- 
ald,  and  others,  so  that  he  begged  of  the 
court  to  appoint  a  chancellor  capable  of 
assisting  him  in  the  administration  of  affairs. 
This  office  was,  in  consequence,  conferred 
on  Doctor  Weston,  who  landed  in  Dublin 
in  the  July  following.  Sidney  still  contin- 
ued to  request  a  recall,  which  he  obtained 
at  length,  and  was  permitted  to  return  to 
England.  He  brought  with  him  the  Earl 
of  Desmond,  the  Baron  of  Dungannon,  O'- 
Connor Sligo,  O'Carroll,  and  others.  The 
Earl  of  Desmond  and  O'Connor  were  con- 
fined in  the  Tower,  and  Sir  John  Desmond 


A.  D.  1569.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


187 


sent  for  from  Ireland,  to  keep  them  compa- 
ny. O'Connor  submitted  to  the  queen,  and 
was  restored  to  his  liberty ;  the  same  fa- 
vour was  soon  afterwards  extended  to  the 
Earl  of  Desmond,  on  similar  conditions. 

In  the  absence  of  Sidney,  Weston  and 
Sir  William  Fitz- William  governed  Ireland 
as  lords-justices,  by  commission  under  the 
great  seal,  dated  the  14th  of  October,  1568. 
During  the  administration  of  the  latter, 
quarrels  arose  between  some  private  fami- 
lies, which  subsequently  degenerated  into 
religious  feuds. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  on  Sidney's 
return  to  Ireland,  in  1568.  He  landed  at 
Carrickfergus  about  the  end  of  September, 
and  had  an  interview  with  Turlough  Ly- 
nogh  O'Neill,  respecting  the  hostilities  which 
the  latter  had  committed  against  O'Donnel, 
the  Scots,  and  others  who  were  under  the 
protection  of  the  court.  O'Neill,  however, 
cleared  himself  with  the  deputy,  and  both 
noblemen  separated  on  good  terms.  The 
deputy  was  sworn  in  on  the  20th  of  Octo- 
ber, in  Dublin,  and  gave  orders  that  Sir 
Edmund  Butler  should  be  sent  for ;  he  did 
not,  however,  think  fit  to  obey  his  mandate. 

In  January,  1569,  the  deputy  convened 
a  parliament  in  Dublin,  in  which  angry  de- 
bates took  place  between  the  Catholics  and 
the  Protestants,  respecting  the  elections  of 
members.  The  matter  was  decided  by 
Dillon  and  Plunket,  judges  of  the  grand 
council,  and  by  the  report  which  was  made 
to  parliament  by  Sir  Luke  Dillon,  who  was 
then  attorney-general.  Several  acts  re- 
specting religion,  and  other  public  affairs, 
were  passed  by  this  parliament. 

After  the  death  of  Shane  O'Neill,  the  re- 
formed religion  began  to  spread  in  Ireland. 
Queen  Elizabeth  desired  nothing  more  ar- 
dently than  to  extend  the  ecclesiastical  ju- 
risdiction, and  to  rule  over  the  church  in 
that  country,  as  she  did  in  England.  The 
English  government  adopted  every  meas- 
ure likely  to  advance  her  views.  For  this 
they  took  care  to  send  over  English  con- 
formists, attached  to  the  opinions  of  the 
court;  on  whom  the  bishoprics  and  other 
ecclesiastical  dignities  were  conferred  ac- 
cording as  they  expelled  the  Catholic  min- 


isters. To  these  bishops  orders  were  given 
to  suppress  every  Catholic  institution  in 
their  several  dioceses,  and  to  establish  Pro- 
testant free-schools,  under  the  guidance  of 
English  Protestants.  Laws  were  enacted, 
compelling  parents  to  send  their  children 
to  these  schools,  and  to  attend  the  Protest- 
ant service  themselves  on  Sundays.  These 
laws  also  decreed  pecuniary  fines  against 
all  who  refused,  which  were  changed  af- 
terwards into  the  penalties  of  high  treason, 
so  that  by  acts  of  parliament,  the  fidelity 
and  attachment  of  the  Catholics  to  the  reli- 
gion of  their  forefathers  were  construed 
into  this  enormous  crime.  Every  individ- 
ual, both  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  was  com- 
manded to  acknowledge  the  ecclesiastical 
supremacy  of  Elizabeth,  and  to  renounce 
all  obedience  to  the  pope  and  church  of 
Rome.  Many  able  preachers,  both  Eng- 
lish and  Scottish,  were  sent  to  Ireland. 
The  principal  were  Goodman,  Cartwright, 
Knox,  Janson,  Burchley,  and  Brady.  It 
was  hoped  that  their  great  eloquence  would 
win  the  people  to  them  ;  but  the  court  find- 
ing these  missionaries  unsuccessful,  and  the 
Irish  still  adhering  to  their  own  tenets  in 
religion,  determined  to  change  matters  and 
attack  the  heads  of  the  Catholic  party. 
Richard  Burke,  Earl  of  Clanricarde,  a  pow- 
erful nobleman  in  Connaught,  was  arrested 
by  orders  of  the  queen.  Ulick  and  John, 
the  earl's  two  sons,  assembled  their  vassals, 
however,  and  took  up  arms  against  the  gov- 
ernment in  revenge  for  the  injury  done  to 
their  father,  and  thus  procured  him  his  free- 
dom. 

The  ecclesiastical  tyranny  of  the  Eng- 
lish government  excited  the  alarm  of  the 
Irish.  In  Munster  they  first  signalized 
themselves ;  the  chief  of  the  confederacy 
was  James  Filz-Maurice,  cousin  to  the  Earl 
of  Desmond,  MacCarty  More,  Earl  of  Glen- 
car,  MacDonogh,  and  other  branches  of 
the  MacCartys,  and  Fitz-Gerald  of  Imo- 
kelly.  The  hatred  of  the  Butlers  against 
the  house  of  Desmond  did  not  prevent  Ed- 
mund, Edward,  and  Peter  Butler,  brothers 
to  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  from  uniting  with 
Fitz-Maurice  in  defence  of  their  religion. 
The   Earl   of  Desmond,   whose   memory 


188 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1569. 


should  be  for  ever  dear  to  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  was  still  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower 
of  London.  He  had  intrusted  the  manage- 
ment of  his  estates  to  James  Fitz-Maurice, 
his  relative  ;  but  Ormond  and  Thomond 
had  already  sacrificed  their  religion,  and 
the  freedom  of  their  country,  to  ambition, 
and  a  desire  to  ingratiate  themselves  with 
the  English  court. 

The  first  step  of  the  confederates  was  to 
depute  the  bishops  of  Cashel  and  Emly, 
and  one  of  the  sons  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond, 
to  go  with  letters  to  the  pope  and  the  king 
of  Spain,  to  solicit  their  assistance.  Sid- 
ney being  informed  of  their  movements, 
proclaimed  them  all  as  traitors,  and  dis- 
patched Sir  Peter  Carew  with  a  body  of 
troops  against  Sir  Edmund  Butler.  Carew 
was  so  expeditious  that  he  took  the  castle 
of  Cloghgriman  by  surprise,  and  gave  it 
up  to  plunder.  He  then  marched  to  Kil- 
kenny, where  he  defeated  a  body  of  light 
troops. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  confederates  lost 
no  opportunity  of  harassing  their  enemies. 
James  Fitz-Maurice  intended  to  besiege 
Kilkenny,  but  having  no  artillery,  and  the 
garrison  being  strong,  and  provided  with 
every  thing  necessary  to  make  an  able  de- 
fence, he  abandoned  his  design,  and  had  to 
content  himself  with  ravaging  the  estates 
of  the  English  in  the  neighbourhood,  while 
his  allies  laid  waste  the  counties  of  Wex- 
ford, Waterford,  and  Ossory,  and  proceed- 
ed to  the  very  gates  of  Dublin.  The  cam- 
paign thus  passed  over  in  hostile  attacks 
on  both  sides. 

The  Earl  of  Ormond  was  in  England 
when  he  heard  with  regret  of  the  rebellion 
of  his  brothers  in  Ireland.  He  set  out  by 
leave  of  the  court,  for  Ireland.  He  landed 
at  Waterford,  or,  (according  to  Cox,)  at 
Wexford,  the  14th  of  August.  His  arrival 
was  immediately  communicated  to  the  dep- 
uty, whom  he  soon  after  joined  at  Limerick. 
Ormond  sent  for  his  brother  Edmund  to 
come  to  the  camp  of  the  deputy,  who  re- 
ceived his  submission,  enjoining  him  to  ap- 
pear before  him  on  his  arrival  in  Dublin. 
He  became  security  for  his  brother,  who 
proved  faithful  to  his  engagement,  by  his 


appearance  at  the  time  appointed.  To  the 
deputy's  questions  on  the  cause  of  his  hav- 
ing rebelled,  he  answered  the  representa- 
tive of  majesty  with  so  much  haughtiness, 
that  he  was  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  the 
castle  of  Dublin,  from  which  he  shortly  af- 
terwards escaped.  Ormond  himself  con- 
tinued faithful  to  the  queen,  whose  confi- 
dence he  had  gained.  The  rebellion  of  his 
brothers  he  considered  as  a  stain  upon  his 
family.  They  received  a  second  time,  by 
orders  of  \he  queen,  a  general  pardon  from 
the  council  in  Dublin,  without  being  obliged 
to  make  their  appearance. 

The  Irish  parliament  of  1569  passed 
several  acts :  among  others,  one  giving  to 
her  majesty  a  right  to  estates  and  lands  in 
the  county  of  Kildare,  belonging  to  Chris- 
topher Eustace,  Lord  of  Cotlanston,  who 
was  executed,  under  Henry  the  Eighth,  for 
high  treason.  By  a  similar  act,  the  estates 
of  Thomas  Fitz-Gerald,  and  his  son  Tho- 
mas, were-  confiscated,  for  rebellion.  The 
deputy  being  at  Cork,  entered  the  district 
of  Cirricurry,  and  seized  on  the  castle  of 
Carigoline ;  after  which  he  marched  to 
Orrery,  and  took  possession  of  Buttevant. 
He  intended  to  proceed  to  Kilmallock,  but 
was  prevented  by  James  Fitz-Maurice, 
who  scaled  the  walls,  and  made  himself 
master  of  the  town,  but  finding  it  impracti- 
cable to  hold  it,  he  set  it  on  fire.  The 
deputy  had  the  town  rebuilt,  and  put  a 
garrison  into  it,  of  four  hundred  soldiers, 
one  hundred  horsemen,  and  some  light 
troops,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Gil- 
bert, whom  he  appointed  governor  of  the 
province.  Having  received  the  oath  of 
allegiance  of  the  nobles  of  these  districts, 
viz.,  Roche,  Courcy,  Power,  Decye,  and 
some  others,  the  deputy  returned  to  Lim- 
erick. 

Soon  after,  Gilbert  was  created  a  knight, 
at  Drogheda,  for  his  services  during  his  ad- 
ministration in  Munster.  He  then  went  to 
England,  where  he  married  a  rich  widow ; 
but  having  died  suddenly.  Sir  John  Perrott 
was  appointed  President  of  Munster  in  his 
stead. 

As  war  still  raged  in  Leinster  and  Con- 
naught,  Sir  Peter  Carew  endeavoured  to 


A.  D.  1570.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


189 


reduce  the  Cavanaghs.  The  tyranny  of 
Fitton  over  the  inhabitants  of  Connaught 
was  so  great,  that  Conoghor  O'Brien,  Earl 
of  Thomond,  although  a  loyal  subject  to 
England,  was  obliged  to  take  up  arms,  and 
in  spite  of  the  mediation  of  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  who  was  sent  by  the  deputy  to  quell 
the  disturbances,  they  came  to  an  engage- 
ment. Thomond  was  defeated,  and  obliged 
to  fly  into  France,  where  he  met  Norris,  the 
English  ambassador,  who  procured  him  his 
pardon  from  Elizabeth.  The  earl  testified 
his  gratitude,  by  the  important  services  he 
afterwards  rendered  to  the  crown  of  Eng- 
land against  his  country. 

In  1570,  Turlough  Lynogh  O'Neill,  who 
had  been  acknowledged  chief  of  that  illus- 
trious tribe,  continued  to  support  the  Cath- 
olic cause  in  Ulster.  The  noblemen  of 
Ulster  and  Scotland  made  frequent  allian- 
ces about  this  time.  O'Neill  married  the 
Earl  of  Argyle's  aunt,  and  kept  Scottish 
troops  in  his  pay.  This  prince  was  plan- 
ning an  expedition  against  the  English 
province,  but  was  completely  prevented 
from  carrying  it  into  execution.  His  life 
being  endangered  by  a  wound  he  received, 
either  by  accident  or  by  design,  the  Scots 
began  to  desert  him,  and  the  tribe  was  about 
to  appoint  another  chief.  Having,  however, 
recovered,  while  preparing  to  accomplish 
his  first  project  against  the  English,  the 
deputy  dispatched  two  commissioners,  on 
the  part  of  the  queen,  to  his  camp  at  Dun- 
gannon  ;  and  a  treaty  was  entered  into  be- 
tween them  in  the  next  January,  which  was 
afterwards  ratified  by  the  deputy. 

Perrott  being  appointed  Governor  of 
Munster,  George  Bourchier,  and  George 
Walsh  were  appointed  his  colleagues.  This 
president  was  successful  in  a  war  he  car- 
ried on  against  the  confederates,  and 
obliged  some  of  their  chiefs,  namely,  Mac 
Carty  More,  Lord  Barry,  MacCarty  Riagh, 
Donough  MacTeigue  of  Muskerry,  Lord 
Courcy,  and  MacDonough,  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  the  war,  and  thus  weakened  the 
party  of  James  Fitz-Maurice. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XX. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  The  enemies  of  O'Neill  have  described 
him  in  the  most  inconsistent  colours.  They 
assert  that  he  was  addicted  to  the  most 
brutal  excesses,  particularly  to  beastly  in- 
toxication ;  that  he  was  rude,  ignorant,  and 
barbarous ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
represent  him  as  cautious,  circumspect, 
and  acute.  A  man,  however,  who  was 
able  to  win  the  confidence  of  the  gallant 
Sydney,  and  subsequently  to  obtain  a  more 
than  ordinary  share  of  Elizabeth's  favour, 
could  neither  have  been  uncivilized  nor 
brutal.  They  who  plundered  his  estates 
by  their  rapacity  slandered  him  by  their 
malice  ;  but  time,  the  redresser  of  injuries, 
permits  us  now  to  do  justice  to  the  unfor- 
tunate with  impunity. 

"  Warned  by  the  fate  of  O'More  and 
O'Carroll,  John  was  too  wise  to  enter  the 
English  eamp.  When  summoned  he  re- 
plied, that  he  was  engaged  in  celebrating 
the  christening  of  his  child  ;  and  added  a 
request  that  Sydney  would  come  and 
witness  the  ceremony,  and  become  spon- 
sor to  the  new-born  babe.  To  the  great 
annoyance  of  those  underlings  who  infested 
the  seat  of  government,  and  hoped  to  carve 
out  fortunes  for  themselves  by  confiscation 
and  plunder,  Sydney  accepted  the  invita- 
tion. He  was  entertained  with  great  hos- 
pitality, and  even  magnificence.  The  cere- 
mony was  performed  with  more  than  or- 
dinary solemnity,  and  Sydney  then  pro- 
ceeded to  enter  on  the  real  business  of  his 
visit.  To  his  great  astonishment,  the  ac- 
count given  by  O'Neill  of  all  former  trans- 
actions was  totally  different  from  the  re- 
presentations made  at  the  castle.  So  far 
from  being  an  obstinate  rebel,  he  proved 
himself  a  man  '  more  sinned  against  than 
sinning ;'  one  who  had  been  driven  to  take 
up  arms  as  the  only  means  left  for  protect- 
ing his  property  and  person.  With  great 
dignity  and  composure,  he  stated  his  right 
to  the  succession  of  Tyrone,  which  was 
equally  clear  by  the  English  and  the  Irish 
law.  According  to  the  former,  he  was  the 
heir,  as  being   the  eldest  legilirnate  son ; 


190 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1570. 


and,  in  accordance  with  the  latter,  he  had 
been  unanimously  chosen  tanist  by  the  sept. 
He  denied  the  authority  of  any  letters-pat- 
ent to  destroy  a  right  of  succession  derived 
from  a  long  line  of  illustrious  ancestors  ; 
and  though  he  professed  himself  a  liege 
subject  of  the  queen,  he  claimed  his  right 
to  the  sovereignty  of  Tyrone,  both  by  de- 
scent and  the  free  election  of  the  clansmen. 
Sydney  was  struck  with  the  force  and 
justice  of  these  arguments.  He  consulted 
his  counsellors,  whom  the  candour  and 
firmness  of  O'Neill  had  thrown  into  con- 
fusion. By  their  advice  he  declared  that 
the  matters  stated  were  too  important  for 
him  to  decide,  but  promised  to  lay  them 
before  the  queen.  In  the  meantime  he 
advised  the  chieftain  to  preserve  his  alle- 
giance, and  to  confide  in  the  royal  honour 
for  such  an  arrangement  as  would  be  found 
right  and  equitable.  O'Neill  promised  to 
observe  this  advice,  and  they  parted  in  the 
utmost  amity.  This  incident  has  been 
detailed  at  some  length,  on  account  of  the 
important  light  it  throws  on  the  character 
and  motives  of  this  gallant  but  unfortunate 
chief,  whose  future  career  must  occupy  no 
inconsiderable  portion  of  this  history." — 
Taylor. 

"  The  spirit  and  address  of  this  plea  do 
not  bespeak  the  sottishness  and  stupidity 
of  a  drunkard.  Sydney  consulted  his  coun- 
sellors :  his  counsellors  were  silenced  by 
the  reasoning,  and  astonished  at  the  firm- 
ness of  the  Irish  lord.  By  their  advice  he 
replied  that  the  points  now  stated  were 
of  too  great  consequence  to  receive  an 
immediate  decision  ;  that  they  were  first 
to  be  communicated  to  the  queen." — Le- 

LAND. 

"  The  actual  appearance  of  a  native 
chief,  attended  by  his  escort  of  wild  Irish- 
men, created  a  sensation  in  the  English 
capital  that  has  rarely  been  equalled. 
O'Neill  had  judiciously  selected  the  tallest 
and  best  looking  of  his  Galloglasses  ;  their 
heads  were  bare,  protected  only  by  long  and 
flowing  tresses  ;  they  wore  linen  vests  of  a 
deep  saffron  colour,  with  wide  open  sleeves, 
protected  by  a  light  and  graceful  coat-of- 
mail ;  their  arms  were  broad  battle-axes  and 


short  swords,  forming  altogether  a  specta- 
cle equally  novel  and  interesting.  The 
citizens  of  London,  then  as  now  ardent 
admirers  of  novelty,  were  enraptured  ; 
they  crowded  round  the  chief,  and  loudly 
cheered  him  as  he  passed  through  the 
streets.  Elizabeth  herself  was  delighted 
at  so  romantic  an  incident;  she  received 
O'Neill  with  more  than  ordinary  favour ; 
listened  to  his  allegations  with  complacen- 
cy ;  promised  to  do  his  claims  full  justice : 
and  added  to  these  substantial  benefits 
flattering  courtesies  of  a  more  intoxicating 
nature." — Taylor. 

"  Armed  with  the  battle-axe,  their  heads 
bare,  their  hair  flowing  on  their  shoulders, 
their  linen  vests  dyed  with  saffron,  with 
long  and  open  sleeves,  and  surcharged  with 
their  short  military  harness  ;  a  spectacle 
astonishing  to  the  people,  who  imagined 
that  they  beheld  the  inhabitants  of  some 
distant  quarter  of  the  globe." — Leland. 

"  He  [O'Neill]  reduced  the  north  so  pro- 
perly, that  if  any  subject  could  approve 
the  loss  of  money  or  goods,  he  would  as- 
suredly either  force  the  robber  to  restitu- 
tion, or  of  his  own  cost  redeeme  the  harme 
to  the  loosers  contentation." — Campion. 

"  Sydney  knew  the  most  effectual  method 
of  reducing  the  northern  chieftain,  and  pur- 
sued it  with  vigour  and  address.  It  had 
been  his  first  care  to  engage  the  northern 
Irish,  who  had  been  injured  by  O'Nial, 
firmly  to  the  interests  of  the  crown.  He 
conferred  with  Calvagh  of  Tyrconnel ;  re- 
instated him  in  full  possession  of  his  ter- 
ritory ;  and  so  wrought  upon  him  by  cour- 
tesy, that  he  acknowledged  the  queen  his 
rightful  mistress,  and  sovereign  of  Ireland, 
in  all  causes  ecclesiastical  and  temporal ; 
promised  due  obedience  to  her  deputy  ; 
engaged,  that  if  it  should  please  her  majesty 
at  any  time,  to  change  the  customs  of  his 
country,  and  to  govern  it  by  her  laws  ;  or 
to  confer  a  title  of  honour  on  him,  or  any 
of  his  people,  he  would  assist  and  co-ope- 
rate with  her  gracious  intentions  ;  but 
above  all,  he  bound  himself  to  oppose  the 
rebel  John  O'Nial  with  all  his  powers.  In 
like  manner  he  restored  Maguire,  Lord  of 
Fermanagh,  to  his  territory,  and  engaged 


A.  D.  1570.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


191 


him  in  the  service  of  the  queen,  with 
several  of  the  Irish  lords  of  Connaught. 
Thus  did  Sydney  raise  up  a  number  of 
neighbouring  enemies  against  John  O'Nial, 
provoked  by  his  injuries,  and  ever  ready  to 
seize  the  occasion  of  infesting  him  ;  while  he 
himself  took  his  station  on  the  northern  bor- 
ders with  a  considerable  force." — Leland. 

"  When  all  these  arrangements  were 
completed,  the  nobility  were  easily  insti- 
gated to  make  their  '  complaints,'  as  Sir 
James  Ware  states  ;  and  the  determination 
to  •  root  him  out,'  long  since  formed  and 
resolved  on,  was  announced.  The  lord- 
lieutenant,  Sussex,  who  preceded  Sydney, 
had  received  instructions  from  Elizabeth's 
council,  among  the  items,  *  To  reduce  Shane 
O'Nial  by  force  or  otherwise.'  *  Otherwise,' 
is  here  a  word  of  great  latitude — It  implies 
'  Flectere  si  nequeo  superos  Acheronta  mo- 
veboJ  The  object  must  be  accomplished 
by  force  or  fraud — by  fair  means  or  foul. 
Doubtless  Sydney  had  the  same  instruc- 
tions— and  fatally  for  O'Nial,  he  strictly 
obeyed  them." — M.  Carey. 

"  To  augment  the  king's  revenue,  in  the 
same  parliament,  upon  the  attainder  of 
Shane  O'Nial,  Sydney  resumed  and  vested 
in  the  crown  more  than  half  the  province 
of  Ulster." — Da  VIES. 

"Albeit  he  had  most  commonlie  two 
hundred  tunnes  of  wines  in  his  cellar  at 
Dundrum,  and  had  his  full  fill  thereof,  yet 
was  he  never  satisfied  till  he  had -swallow- 
ed up  maruellous  great  quantities  of  vsque- 
bagh,  or  aqua  vitae,  of  that  countrie ;  where- 
of so  vnmeasurablie  he  would  drinke  and 
bouse,  that  for  the  quenching  of  the  heat 
of  the  bodie,  which  by  that  meanes  was 
most  extremelie  inflamed,  and  distempered, 
he  was  eft  soones  conueid,  as  the  common 
report  was,  into  a  deep  pit !  and  standing 
upright  in  the  same,  the  earth  was  cast 
round  about  him,  up  to  the  hard  chin,  and 
there  he  did  rcmaine  vntil  such  time  as  his 
body  was  recouered  to  some  temperature  ! 
by  which  meanes,  though  he  came  after  in 
some  better  plight,  yet  his  manners  and  con- 
ditions became  daily  worse !" — Hollinshed. 

"  This  nobleman,  who  had  amazed  Syd- 
ney and  his  council  with  his  powers  and 


his  eloquence,  and,  what  is  more  remark- 
able and  striking,  who,  in  spite  of  the  pre- 
judices existing  at  the  court  of  Elizabeth 
against  the  Irish  in  general,  and  himself  in 
particular,  ingratiated  himself  by  his  ad- 
dress and  talents,  into  her  favour  and  that 
of  her  ministers,  is  represented  by  most  of 
the  English  writers  as  a  mere  brute  and 
savage,  destitute  of  humanity  and  cultiva- 
tion. Among  the  absurd  tales  fabricated 
against  him,  one  was,  that  he  hung  one  of 
his  followers  for  eating  English  bread ! 
Another,  that  he  was  lost  in  habits  of  the 
most  beastly  intemperance.  There  is  hard- 
ly the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  both  these 
stories  are  utterly  destitute  of  foundation. 
They  are  belied  by  the  whole  tenor  of  his 
history.  Campion  states  a  trait  of  his  daily 
conduct  which  displays  humanity  and  re- 
ligious feeling,  not  very  consistent  with 
the  tales  narrated  of  him  by  his  enemies — 
'  Sitting  at  meate,  before  he  put  one  morsel 
into  his  mouth,  he  used  to  slice  a  portion 
above  the  dayly  alms,  anil  send  it,  namely, 
to  some  begger  at  his  gate,  saying,  it  was 
meete  to  serve  Christ  first*  This  is  not  the 
act  of  such  a  deplorable  wretch  as  he  has 
been  pourtrayed.  The  idea  of  putting  one 
of  his  followers  to  death  for  eating  English 
bread  is  too  farcical,  and  is  a  mere  nursery 
tale.  Let  it  be  observed  that  while  Le- 
land and  other  writers  state  that  he  hung 
only  one  of  his  followers — Camden  extends 
the  story  to  the  plural  number — '  He  stran- 
gled some  of  his  own  men  for  that  they  fed 
on  English  bread.'" — M.  Carey. 

"Having  sent  an  embassy  to  Clan-hu- 
boy,  and  obtained  a  favourable  answer, 
O'Neill,  with  a  few  faithful  followers,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Scottish  camp.  But  an  em- 
issary of  government  had  preceded  him. 
Piers,  a  British  oflicer,  a  disgrace  to  his 
country  and  his  profession,  had  undertaken 
the  task  of  persuading  the  Scottish  chief  to 
murder  his  unsuspecting  guest.  The  desire 
of  revenge  united  with  the  thirst  of  gain  in 
seducing  Clan-hu-.boy  to  consent.  At  an 
entertainment  given  by  an  Irish  lord,  a  pre- 
concerted quarrel  was  raised  with  some  of 
O'Neill's  followers.  At  a  given  signal  the 
banqucting-room  was  filled  with  soldiers, 


192 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1574. 


and  all  the  Irish  were  slain.  O'Neill's  head 
was  sent  to  Dublin,  and  Piers  received  a 
thousand  marks  from  the  government  as  a 
reward  for  the  murder.  The  deputy  then 
marched  through  Tyrone  without  meeting 
any  resistance,  and  nominated  a  feeble  old 
man  tanist  of  the  sept,  to  prevent  the  clan 
from  choosing  a  more  efficient  leader. 

"  Thus  terminated  the  first  important 
civil  war  after  the  Reformation.  It  can- 
not without  a  gross  abuse  of  terms  be 
called  a  rebellion ;  and  the  authors  who 
have  chosen  to  describe  it  as  a  religious 
rebellion  are  guilty  of  positive  and  wanton 
falsehood.  The  burning  of  the  cathedral 
at  Armagh,  the  only  evidence  of  hostility 
to  the  newly  established  form  of  religion, 
was,  in  O'Neill's  circumstances,  an  act  of 
necessary  policy.  When  his  old  feudatories 
and  friends  were  bribed  to  desertion  ;  when 
his  allies  in  the  west  and  south  became 
either  neutral  or  hostile  ;  when  he  was  left 
almost  alone  amid  his  enemies,  the  only 
chance  of  escape  remaining  was  to  obtain 
aid  from  abroad.  The  orthodoxy  of  the 
chieftain  was  more  than  suspected.  In 
fact,  he  was  supposed  to  have  become  at- 
tached to  the  principles  of  the  Reformation 
during  his  visit  to  England,  and  to  have 
been  deterred  from  a  public  acknowledg- 
ment of  his  conversion  by  a  well-grounded 
fear  of  losing  the  confidence  of  his  follow- 
ers, without  in  the  slightest  degree  abating 
the  rancorous  and  rapacious  enmity  of  the 
Irish  government.  He  burned  the  cathe- 
dral as  an  evidence  of  his  sincerity  in  the 
cause  of  the  old  religion ;  but  the  Romish 
party  still  refused  to  trust  him  ;  and  some 
of  its  most  violent  supporters  united  with 
the  deputy  for  his  destruction.  But  though 
the  war  against  O'Neill  had  no  connection 
with  religion,  either  in  its  cause  or  pro- 
gress, its  consequences  were  most  injurious 
to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  The  de- 
testable policy  by  which  their  favourite 
leader  was  destroyed  inspired  the  Irish 
with  a  fierce  hatred  against  every  English 
institution,  civil  and  religious.  They  judged 
of  the  new  system  by  its  effects ;  and  these 
they  found  were  treachery,  robbery,  and 


assassination." — Taylob. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

Reifi;n  of  Elizabeth— 1571  to  1580— Visit  of  the 
Earl  of  Essex  to  Ireland — Opernlions  of  James 
Fitz-Maurice  in  Connaught — Liberation  of  the 
Earl  of  Desmond,  and  his  brother  John,  from  the 
Tower — Plague  in  Ireland — Sidney  re-appointed 
— Death  of  the  Earl  of  Essex — The  nobility  of 
Leinster  complain  against  Drury — James  Fitz- 
Maurice  sent  to  France  and  Rome  by  the  Earl 
of  Desmond — Death  of  Rory  O'Morra — Arrival 
of  Fitz-Maurice's  fleet  at  Smerwick — Death  of 
Theobald  Burke,  and  of  Fitz-Maurice — Subse- 
quent warfare — Treacherous  treatment  towards 
Desmond — Activity  of  Pelham  and  Ormond — 
Administration  of  Lord  Arthur  Grey — Sir  Wal- 
ter Raleigh  in  the  field — General  horror  thrdugh- 
out  Europe  at  Grey's  proceedings — Historical 
authorities. 

Sidney,  the  deputy,  obtained  permission 
to  return  to  England,  with  orders  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother-in-law.  Sir  William 
Fitz- William,  who  was  sworn  into  office  in 
St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  Dublin,  in  April, 
1571.  Types  of  the  Irish  characters,  for 
printing,  were  introduced  into  Ireland  the 
same  year,  by  Nicholas  Walsh  and  John 
Kerne.  Government  gave  orders  to  have 
prayer-books  printed  in  the  Irish  lan- 
guage. 

Brian  Cavanagh,  son  of  Cahir  MacArt, 
who  was  created  Baron  of  Balian  by  Queen 
Mary,  caused  great  disturbance  in  Lein- 
ster; he  was  a  brave  and  accomplished 
nobleman.  He  killed  Robert  Brown,  Lord 
of  Malrenkam,  for  having  insulted  him. 
Brian's  pride  made  him  so  formidable  to  his 
neighbours,  that  Sir  Nicholas  Dcvereux 
and  the  principal  inhabitants  of  Wexford, 
assembled  to  check  his  progress.  They 
came  to  an  engagement,  which  was  fatal  to 
Devereux. 

Connaught  was  also  in  a  state  of  rebel- 
lion, at  the  head  of  which  were  the  Burkes 
of  Clanricarde,  who  could  not  bear  the  ty- 
rannical government  of  Fitton.  Elizabeth 
saw  that  the  rebellion  in  Connaught  was 
caused  by  Fitton's  severity ;  he  was  con- 
sequently removed  from  the  government  of 
the  province,  and  appointed  treasurer.  The 
O'Morras  and  O'Connors  of  Leinster  made 
attempts  to  create  a  diversion  in  favour  of 
the  rebels  in  Connaught ;  they  burned  Ath- 
lone,  and  made  some  incursions  on  the  Eng- 
lish province,  where  they  committed  terri- 
ble  devastation.     In   Ulster,  Brian  Mac- 


A.  D.  1573.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


19i 


Phelim  O'Neill,  having  succeeded  in  taking 
Carrickfergus,  destroyed  the  town  by  fire. 

During  the  administration  of  Fitz- William, 
several  grants  of  the  forfeited  lands  were 
made  by  the  queen ;  but  the  selfishness  of 
her  agents  frustrated  any  corresponding  bene- 
fit to  the  English  crown.  Elizabeth  now 
began  to  form  a  project,  afterwards  executed 
by  her  successor,  namely,  the  plantation  of 
Ulster  with  English  colonies,  holding  their 
possessions  from  the  crown  by  a  direct  and 
n)ilitary  tenure.  Her  predecessors  often  pro- 
nounced sentence  of  confiscation  against  per- 
sons in  Ireland  who  not  only  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge such  authority  but  always  opposed 
it.  The  real  extent  of  this  authority  of  the 
kings  of  England,  (with  respect  to  the  greater 
part  of  Ireland,  particularly  Ulster,)  consisted 
in  the  permission  which  they  granted  to  their 
subjects,  of  seizing  on  the  possessions  of 
others  by  force,  any  resistance  to  which  was 
gladly  construed  into  rebellion. 

An  Englishman,  named  Thomas  Smith, 
who  was  one  of  the  queen's  counsellors, 
asked  permission  of  his  royal  mistress  to 
exercise  his  expansive  philanthropy  by  send- 
ing over  to  Ireland  his  illegitimate  son  for 
the  purpose  of  founding  an  English  colony 
at  Ardes,  in  Ulster,  and,  by  concealing  the 
ignominy  of  his  origin,  eventually  become  a 
powerful  nobleman.  The  queen  having 
given  her  consent,  young  Smith  sailed  for 
Ireland,  with  a  suitable  retinue.  On  ap- 
proaching the  place  of  his  destination,  he  met 
Brian  Mac-Art  O'Neill,  to  whom  Ardes  be- 
longed, ready  to  receive  him.  The  pretended 
master  of  Ardes  was  killed  in  a  skirmish,  and 
his  troops  were  dispersed  by  Brian  Mac-Art. 
Whether  young  Smith  was  a  deceiver  or  one 
of  the  deceived  before  he  left  England  we 
have  not  been  able  to  discover ;  but  it  appears 
certain  that,  after  landing  in  Ireland,  he  ac- 
quired knowledge  at  a  rate  altogether  incom- 
patible with  his  health. 

But  perhaps  the  most  prominent  adven- 
turer produced  by  these  remarkable  times 
was  Walter  Devereux,  Earl  of  Essex.  In 
order  to  gratify  him,  the  queen,  whose  most 
attached  favourite  he  was,  gave  him  the  half 
of  certain  leirge  estates  which  had  been  con- 

25 


fiscated  in  Ulster,  (with  the  title  of  captain 
general  of  that  province,)  on  condition  of  lead- 
ing thitlier  two  hundred  horse  and  four  hun- 
dred foot,  whom  he  was  to  support  for  two 
years  at  his  own  expense.  To  induce  men 
to  join  readily  in  this  expedition,  they  were 
flattered  with  the  hope  of  estates  ;  whoever 
should  have  served  without  pay  in  the  cavalry 
for  two  years,  was  to  receive  four  hundred 
acres  of  land,  and  those  who  served  in  the  in- 
fantry were  to  have  similar  terms,  namely,  re- 
ceive two  hundred  acres  on  condition  of  their 
paying  an  annual  rent  of  two  pence  per  acre. 

Sir  William  Fitz- William,  the  then  lord- 
deputy,  was  envious  of  his  new  rival ;  and 
fearing  that  his  own  station  would  be  eclipsed 
by  a  nobleman  invested  with  royal  authority, 
he  made  use  of  all  his  influence  to  counter- 
act this  enterprise.  In  order  to  reconcile 
both  parties,  the  queen  commanded  Essex  to 
receive  his  patents  for  the  government  of 
Ulster  from  the  deputy.  This  difficulty  be- 
ing removed,  the  earl,  accompanied  by  sev- 
eral English  nobles,  who  wished  to  be  Carers 
of  his  fortune,  and  witnesses  of  his  exploits, 
sailed  for  Ireland,  and  landed  at  Carrickfer- 
gus about  the  end  of  August,  1573.  He  was 
waited  upon  and  complimented  by  several 
Irish  nobles,  who  did  not  suspect  him  in  the 
beginning ;  but  on  seeing  the  train  that  ac- 
companied him,  they  suddenly  retired,  and 
joined  the  standard  of  Tirlough  Linogh 
O'Neill. 

The  year  1573  is  noted  in  the  annals  of 
Dublin  by  the  escape  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond 
from  the  custody  of  the  mayor  of  that  city. 
The  history  of  this  Earl  of  Desmond  is  also 
a  prominent  feature  among  the  aflairs  of  Ire- 
land in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Between  the  Desmond  and  Ormond  families 
deadly  hostilities  had  long  existed,  the  chief 
sources  of  which  were  disputes  arising  from 
ill-defined  boundaries  of  conterminous  estates. 
They  were  daily  augmented,  as  is  usual  in 
such  cases,  by  the  petty  broils  engendered 
through  the  insolence  and  impertinence  of  ten- 
ants, servants,  and  other  retainers.  On  the 
mediation  of  some  mutual  friends,  it  had  been 
agreed  that  the  points  of  difference  should  be 
submitted  to  the  decision  of  EUzabeth  and 


194 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  15Y3. 


her  council.  Sydney,  to  whom  they  had 
apphed  to  arrange  the  prehminaries,  bound 
them  to  abide  the  award  in  the  enormous 
penalty  of  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling. 
Elizabeth  had  long  been  hostile  to  the  Des- 
mond family.  Her  award  was  in  favour  of 
Ormond.  In  consequence  of  the  many  proofs 
of  her  partiality,  new  strife  took  place  between 
the  parties  and  more  blood  was  shed  on  both 
sides. 

Sydney  now  had  a  good  excuse  for  seizing 
Desmond,  and  carried  him  in  durance  round 
the  country  in  a  circuit  through  Munster. 
Afterwards,  Desmond  was  sent  to  England, 
committed  to  the  Tower  in  London,  and  kept 
in  close  confinement,  without  trial  or  any 
legal  process  whatever,  for  seven  years,  till 
1573,  when  he  was  sent  to  Dublin,  whence 
he  made  his  escape  in  a  few  months,  the 
mayor  having  informed  the  government  that 
the  earl  should  be  welcome  to  meat,  drink, 
and  lodging,  but  that  he  would  not  be  respon- 
sible for  him. 

The  escape  of  Desmond  may  have  been  a 
friendly  connivance  on  the  part  of  the  mayor, 
or  else  it  was  a  movement  of  the  policy  of  the 
government,  for  it  was  accompanied  by  the 
most  exasperating  treachery  towards  Des- 
mond. It  appears  that  James  Fitz-Maurice, 
who  frequently  defeated  Sir  John  Perrot  and 
the  government  troops  in  Munster,  so  alarmed 
the  queen,  that  she  sent  orders  to  her  deputy 
to  offer  him  terms  of  peace.  Fitz-Maurice 
agreed  to  lay  down  his  arms,  provided  that 
the  persecution  against  the  Catholics  of  the 
province  ceased ;  and  that  the  Earl  of  Des- 
mond and  his  brother  John,  who  were  pris- 
oners in  the  Tower,  should  be  set  at  liberty. 
These  conditions  were  willingly  accepted  by 
the  queen,  and  Fitz-Maurice  put  a  stop  to 
hostilities. 

Elizabeth  gave  orders  to  liberate  the  earl  ; 
and  his  brother :  she  had  them  brought  be- 
fore her,  and  admonished  them  to  put  an  end 
to  a  rebellion  which  disturbed  the  public 
peace.  The  earl  replied  that  he  never  wished 
to  rebel,  and  that  his  own  loyalty,  and  that 
of  his  ancestors,  to  the  kings  of  England, 
were  well  known,  but  that  he  could  not  bear 
the  tyranny  practised  by  her  majesty's  min-  ij 


isters  upon  the  people  for  their  religion. 
The  queen  dismissed  both  noblemen  with 
apparent  kindness,  promising  to  fulfil  the 
treaty  she  had  concluded  with  Fitz-Maurice. 
She  then  sent  orders  secretly  for  the  captain 
of  the  ship  that  was  to  bring  them  to  Dublin, 
to  give  them  up  to  the  deputy,  who  resided 
there.  She  also  despatched  a  secret  com- 
munication for  the  latter  to  retain  the  earl 
with  him  in  Dublin,  and  send  his  brother 
John  to  Munster,  in  order  to  bring  James 
Fitz-Maurice  with  him  to  that  city,  so  that 
the  three  might  confirm  and  sign  the  treaty 
made  with  the  queen.  Such  was  the  plau- 
sible and  treacherous  motive  assigned  ;  but 
the  secret  determination  was,  to  have  the 
three  beheaded  together.  The  earl,  how- 
ever, being  apprized  of  the  design,  fled  as  we 
have  described.  He  owed  his  life  to  the 
swiftness  of  his  horse,  by  which  means  he 
arrived,  after  travelling  five  days  with  his 
brother  John  and  his  cousin  James  Fitz- 
Maurice,  among  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
county  Kerry. 

Sydney  having  resigned  the  government, 
the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  Munster 
devolved  on  Sir  William  Drury,  who  pursued 
a  policy  which  resulted  in  the  destruction  of 
Desmond  and  the  desolation  of  the  largest 
part  of  the  province  of  Munster.  One  of  his 
first  measures  on  his  accession  to  office,  was 
eminently  calculated  to  exasperate  Desmond. 
The  county  of  Kerry  had  been  erected  into  a 
palatinate  by  Edward  the  Third,  and  royal 
jurisdiction  given  to  the  earls  of  Desmond, 
of  all  pleas,  reserving  only  four  capital  ex- 
ceptions for  the  authority  of  the  crown. 
These  high  privileges  had  been  considered 
sacred,  and  duly  respected  by  all  the  pre- 
ceding lords  deputies  and  justices.  But 
Drury  audaciously  violated  them,  in  all  pro- 
bability, judging  from  subsequent  events, 
with  the  hope  of  exciting  resistance — and 
thus  lead  to  military  executions,  attainders, 
and  confiscations.  If  these  were  his  views, 
he  was  disappointed.  Desmond,  how  griev- 
ous soever  was  the  violation  of  his  privileges, 
quietly  submitted,  allowing  free  course  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  Drury. 

Oj)posed  by  the  inveterate  hostility  of  the 


A.  D.  1677.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


195 


native  Irish  and  the  secret  artifices  of  the 
local  government,  the  Earl  of  Essex  and  the 
other  adventurers,  after  a  great  waste  of  blood 
and  treasures,  at  length  began  to  despair  of 
success.  Essex  petitioned  to  be  recalled  in 
1574 ;  but,  by  the  influence  of  his  rival  the 
Earl  of  Leicester,  Elizabeth  was  persuaded 
to  refuse  the  request,  and  the  disturbed  state 
of  Ireland  afforded  a  sufficient  pretext  for 
detaining  him  in  that  country.  Essex  de- 
stroyed what  little  influence  he  might  have 
had  with  the  people,  by  his  perfidious  conduct 
in  inviting  Brian  O'Nial  of  Claneboy,  with  a 
great  number  of  his  relations,  to  an  entertain- 
ment which  ended  in  the  treacherous  destruc- 
tion of  the  whole  party,  including  women  and 
children.  This  circumstance  naturally  in- 
creased the  hatred  which  the  northern  Irish 
felt  towards  the  intruders  upon  their  ancient 
possessions. 

War  was  not  the  only  scourge  with  which 
Ireland  was  afflicted  at  this  time.  The 
plague  carried  away  numbers  in  the  English 
province,  while  the  Irish,  who  were  ani- 
mated by  the  promises  they  received  from 
Rome  and  Spain,  were  everywhere  up  in 
arms.  Fitz- William,  the  deputy,  was  re- 
called in  1575,  after  much  importunity  on 
his  own  behalf. 

In  1576,  Sir  Henry  Sydney  was  again 
sent  to  Ireland,  at  a  time  when  plague  and 
pestilence  were  added  to  the  calamities  under 
which  that  wretched  country  laboured.  The 
deputy,  by  a  vigorous  display  of  power,  over- 
awed the  discontented  in  the  west  and  north. 
On  the  removal  of  Perrot,  he  sent  Sir  Wil- 
liam Drury  as  president  into  Munster,  trust- 
ing that  his  firmness  and  valour  would  estab- 
lish the  supremacy  of  the  law  in  that  province. 
Drury,  who  had  displayed  considerable  abili- 
ties as  Governor  of  Berwick,  seems  to  have 
been  in  many  respects  well  suited  for  this 
important  office.  Unfortunately,  he  laboured 
under  the  disadvantage  of  being  wholly  ig- 
norant of  the  usages  of  the  people  over  whom 
he  had  to  preside,  and,  like  most  of  Eliza- 
beth's courtiers,  was  inclined  to  despise  the 
ancient  nobility  of  the  country.  The  presi- 
dentiary  courts,  (from  which  the  present 
Irish  courts  of  quarter-session  are  derived,) 


were  regulated  more  by  the  discretion  of  the 
president  than  by  established  principles  of 
law  ;  consequently,  their  efficiency  and  utility 
depended  mainly  on  the  personal  character 
of  the  judge. 

Sydney,  having  learned  at  Drogheda  that 
Surly  Boy  Mac-Donnel  was  laying  siege  to 
Carrickfergus,  proceeded  at  the  head  of  six 
hundred  men,  and  forced  Surly  Boy  to  aban- 
don his  enterprise.  He  then  pacified  the 
O'Neills,  O'Donnells,  M'Mahons,  Maguires, 
and  other  nobles  of  the  North.  After  this 
expedition  to  Ulster,  Sydney  marched  into 
Leinster,  where  he  found  the  county  of  Kil- 
dare,  particularly  the  barony  of  Carbry,  laid 
waste  by  the  O'Morras  and  O'Connors.  The 
King's  and  Queen's  counties  had  shared  the 
same  fate ;  but  Rory  O'Morra  made  peace 
with  the  deputy  at  Kilkenny,  through  the 
interference  of  Ormond.  After  leaving  Kil- 
kenny, Sydney  marched  through  the  counties 
of  Waterford,  Cork,  and  Limerick.  He  then 
passed  through  Thomond  and  Galway,  hold- 
ing courts  in  all  these  places ;  received  the 
submission  of  the  Burkes  of  Clanricard,  who 
had  rebelled  ;  and  left  garrisons  in  the  towns 
on  his  route  to  Dublin. 

Having  thus  far  tranquillized  the  country, 
Sydney  determined  to  relieve  the  English 
gbvernment  from  some  part  of  the  great  ex- 
penses which  the  state  of  Ireland  had  im- 
posed upon  it.  The  tax  of  purveyance,  or  a 
certain  supply  of  provisions  for  the  royal  gar- 
risons and  the  support  of  the  governor's  table, 
had  been  levied  irregularly  for  several  years 
in  the  English  Pale.  Most  of  the  nobles, 
however,  claimed  the  privilege  of  exemption, 
and  threw  the  entire  burden  on  the  labouring 
classes.  Sydney  now  resolved  to  convert 
this  occasional  subsidy  into  a  permanent  reve- 
nue, and  to  levy  it  equitably  on  all,  some- 
what in  the  manner  of  a  county  rate. 

The  exaggerated  professions  of  loyalty 
made  by  the  lords  of  the  Pale,  when  they 
wished  that  their  unprincipled  aggressions  on 
the  Irish  should  be  sanctioned  by  royal  au- 
thority, were  forgotten  when  the  power  was 
to  be  exercised  against  themselves.  The 
passive  obedience  which  they  had  inculcated 
was  found  to  mean  nothing  more  than  the 


198 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1679. 


partial  support  of  the  royal  power  whenever 
it  did  not  interfere  with  their  own  interested 
views.  The  deputy,  however,  encouraged 
by  the  queen,  determined  to  persevere  ;  and 
the  proprietors  of  the  Pale  were  equally  reso- 
lute not  to  yield.  They  sent  over  a  deputa- 
tion to  remonstrate  with  the  queen  ;  and  the 
imperious  Elizabeth  at  once  threw  the  agents 
into  prison.  Even  this  spirited  proceeding 
failed  to  humble  the  factious  oligarchy ;  they 
persisted  in  their  opposition,  and  finally  tri- 
umphed. The  queen  compromised  the  affair 
by  accepting  an  apology  for  the  undutiful 
manner  of  the  remonstrance,  and  the  pro- 
posed assessment  was  abandoned. 

Taylor  here  remarks — 

"  Thus  terminated  a  transaction  which 
most  Irish  historians  have  studiously  misrep- 
resented. The  advocates  of  the  oligarchy 
describe  it  as  an  unwarrantable  usurpation 
on  the  part  of  the  government,  which  ought 
to  have  been  vigorously  resisted.  The  few 
who  support  the  cause  of  the  native  Irish 
profess  to  see  in  it  a  continuation  of  the  sys- 
tematic tyranny  which  they  attribute  to  all 
Enghsh  rulers.  Impartial  posterity  rejects 
both,  even  though  both  coincide  for  once  in 
sentiment.  The  adoption  of  the  measure 
would  have  given  strength  to  the  government 
and  security  of  the  nation.  It  would  also 
have  circumscribed  the  power  of  a  factious 
ascendency,  whose  extravagant  privileges 
were  ever  opposed  to  the  justice  and  benev- 
olence of  the  prince — to  the  peace  and  the 
happiness  of  the  people." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Earl  of  Essex  un- 
dertook a  second  expedition  into  Ulster,  which 
proved  fatal  to  him.  He  had  many  enemies 
at  court,  the  principal  and  most  formidable 
of  whom  was  the  Earl  of  Leicester.  The 
latter  inherited  the  talents  and  artifices  of  his 
father  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  who 
was  beheaded  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign 
of  Queen  Mary.  Leicester  was  well  versed 
in  the  intrigues  of  the  court ;  the  favourite 
of  Elizabeth,  and  a  sworn  enemy  to  Essex, 
who  was  sent  back  to  Ireland  with  the  empty 
title  of  lord-marshal,  which  by  its  attractions 
would  necessarily  render  his  fall  more  sure. 
He  was  forced  soon  after,  by  the  treachery 


of  his  private  enemies,  to  resign  his  com- 
mand. The  insult  being  too  great  to  be  en- 
dured, he  died  in  Dublin,  after  recommend- 
ing his  son,  who  was  about  ten  years  of  age, 
to  the  protection  of  the  deputy.  The  Earl 
of  Leicester  was  suspected  of  having  caused 
Essex  to  be  poisoned,  which  is  not  improba- 
ble, as  Leicester  married  the  Countess  of 
Essex  during  the  lifetime  of  her  husband, 
which  ceremony  was  again  solemnized  after 
the  death  of  Essex. 

Fitz-Maurice,  one  of  the  Geraldines,  having 
been  long  detained  a  prisoner,  was  at  length 
dismissed  without  a  trial.  Inflamed  with 
resentment,  he  visited  successively  the  courts 
of  Paris,  Rome,  and  Madrid,  representing  to 
the  several  sovereigns  the  hostility  of  the 
Irish  to  their  present  rulers,  and  the  ease 
with  which  the  conquest  of  that  island  might 
be  effected.  In  France  the  adventurer  met 
no  encouragement ;  at  Rome  he  received 
promises  and  good  wishes,  in  addition  to  the 
favour  and  approbation  of  Gregory  the  Thir- 
teenth. In  that  city,  he  met  with  Cornelius 
O'Moel  Ryan,  titular  Bishop  of  Killaloe,  and 
Thomas  Stukely.  Nothing  certain  is  known 
either  of  the  family  or  country  of  the  latter : 
however,  his  conduct  proves  him  to  have 
beea  a  knight-errant,  seeking  to  improve  a 
very  moderate  fortune. 

The  sovereign  pontiff  evinced  great  zeal 
for  the  Irish  Catholics,  to  whom  he  sent  sev- 
eral letters,  and  caused  two  thousand  men  to 
be  collected  in  the  Italian  States  for  the 
expedition  to  Ireland.  Hercule  de  Pise,  an 
experienced  general,  was  appointed  to  com- 
mand them.  All  things  being  prepared,  and 
the  troops  embarked  on  board  a  small  fleet, 
the  command  of  it  was  given  to  Thomas 
Stukely,  whose  orders  were  to  sail  for  Lis- 
bon, and  to  wait  there  for  James  Fitz-Mau 
rice,  who  had  occasion  to  go  thither  by  land. 

On  reaching  Lisbon,  Stukely  found  that 
Sebastian,  King  of  Portugal,  was  preparing  a 
considerable  expedition  for  a  war  in  Africa. 
This  prince  readily  prevailed  on  the  ambi- 
tious Stukely  to  join  his  fleet,  promising  that 
he  would  bestow  on  him  rich  rewards,  and 
that  he  would  assist  him  in  the  proposed  war 
in   Ireland.     Stukely  accompanied  Sebas- 


A.  D.  1679.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


197 


tian  to  Africa,  determined,  at  all  hazards,  to 
advance  his  own  interest.  On  their  arrival, 
a  sanguinary  battle  was  fought,  in  which 
three  kings  lost  their  lives,  namely,  Sebastian, 
King  of  Portugal,  Abedelmelic,  King  of  Mau- 
ritania, and  Mahumet,  who  was  the  promoter 
of  this  unlucky  expedition.  Stukely,  and 
the  greater  part  of  his  Italians,  shared  the 
same  fate. 

When  Fitz-Maurice  reached  Portugal  by 
land,  and  found  that  Stukely  had  betrayed 
his  trust,  he  was  highly  indignant  and  almost 
discouraged.  Having  no  remedy,  he  col- 
lected the  remnant  of  his  Italian  force  which 
had  returned  through  Spain,  and  been  joined 
by  some  Cantabrians  contributed  by  the  king 
of  that  country.  By  the  time  of  embarka- 
tion, Fitz-Maurice  mustered  eight  hundred 
picked  soldiers.*  He  then  sailed  for  Ireland 
with  six  vessels,  provided  with  all  kinds  of 
ammunition,  and  arms  for  four  thousand  men. 
He  was  accompanied  by  Cornelius,  Bishop 
of  Killaloe,  and  Doctor  Sanders,  an  English 
priest,  as  legate  from  the  pope.  This  little 
fleet  arrived  about  the  end  of  July,  1579,  at 
Ardnacant,  (which  the  English  call  Smer- 
wick,)  in  the  western  part  of  the  county 
Kerry,  near  Dingle.  In  this  harbour  there  is 
an  islet  fortified  by  nature  ;  on  one  side  it  is 
washed  by  the  sea,  and  on  the  other  defended 
by  a  steep  rock,  leaving  a  passage,  where  it 
is  joined  to  the  continent  by  means  of  a  draw- 
bridge. Fitz-Maurice  knowing  well  the  im- 
portance of  this  place  as  an  arsenal  for  the 
succours  that  he  expected  from  Spain,  added 
other  works  to  render  its  natural  situation 
impregnable.  All  kinds  of  provisions  were 
put  into  it,  and  a  garrison  of  six  hundred  men, 
the  command  of  which  was  given  to  Sebas- 
tian de  Saint  Joseph  and  other  officers  of 
experience. 

The  career  of  Sir  James  Fitz-Maurice  was 
now  very  short.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  he 
marched  towards  Connaught  with  a  few  fol- 
lowers, to  prevail  on  his  friends,  whose  in- 
tentions he  was  aware  of,  to  join  in  the  com- 
mon cause  ;  but  on  his  way  he  was  attacked 

*  Taylor  has  only  specified  "  a  troop  of  eighty  Span- 
ards ;"  but  hia  subsequent  narratiTO  shows  this  to  be  an 
jTorsight. 


by  Theobald  Burke,  eldest  son  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Burke,  of  Castle  Connel,  who,  from  a 
desire  to  please  Elizabeth,  sacrificed  the  in- 
terests of  religion  and  of  his  country.  Find- 
ing it  impossible  to  avoid  an  engagement, 
Fitz-Maurice  resolved  to  conquer  or  die. 
Being  wounded  in  the  breast  by  a  musket 
ball,  and  roused  to  a  last  effort,  he  cleared  a 
passage  through  the  enemy,  and  cut  off  the 
head  of  Theobald  Burke  with  a  single  blow. 
The  brothers  of  that  captain  fell  also,  and 
their  entire  force  was  routed.  The  victory, 
however,  proved  a  dear  one  to  Fitz-Maurice. 
His  wound  being  mortal,  he  died  in  six  hours 
after  the  action.  Sir  John  Desmond  now 
took  command  of  the  insurgent  army,  and 
justified,  by  his  vigorous  conduct,  the  choice 
which  James  Fitz-Maurice,  when  dying,  had 
made  of  him. 

Drury  now  marched  towards  Munster  at 
the  head  of  four  hundred  infantry  and  two 
hundred  cavalry,  attended  by  Bagnal,  Malby, 
Wingfield,  Waterhouse,  Fitton,  Masterson, 
and  other  officers.  He  was  also  joined  by 
the  lords  Kildare,  Mountgarret,  Upper  Osso- 
ry,  and  Dunboyne,  with  two  hundred  horse- 
men, and  a  few  foot-soldiers.  On  arriving 
at  Kilmallock,  the  deputy  sent  word  to  the 
Earl  of  Desmond,  and  a  few  other  lords  of 
the  province  whose  loyalty  he  suspected,  to 
appear  before  him,  in  his  camp,  at  Kilmal- 
lock. After  some  hesitation,  the  earl  repaired 
to  the  deputy,  who  committed  him  to  the 
lord-marshal ;  but  policy  soon  induced  the 
deputy  to  set  him  at  hberty,  as  he  knew  that 
Sir  John  Desmond,  the  earl's  brother,  was 
encamped,  with  the  insurgent  army,  at  Sleve- 
logher.  After  several  severe  battles  between 
the  government  troops  and  the  insurgents, 
Pelham,  appointed  lord-justice  on  the  11th 
of  October,  advanced  into  Munster,  attended 
by  three  large  bodies  of  troops,  lately  come 
from  Berwick,  called  "  red  coats,"  from  the 
colour  of  their  uniform.  On  his  arrival  at 
Kilkenny,  he  held  assizes,  at  which  he  pre- 
sided in  person,  and  condemned  Edmund 
MacNeill,  arui  a  few  others,  to  death  for  high 
treason.  He  reconciled  the  Earl  of  Ormond 
to  the  Baron  of  Upper  Ossory,  obliging  them 
to  give  bail  for  mutually  repairing  the  dam- 


198 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1579 


ages  which  had  been  caused  by  their  dissen- 
sions. He  went  to  Cashel  in  October,  where 
he  was  joined  by  the  Earl  of  Ormond  at  the 
head  of  two  hundred  and  thirty  men.  From 
that  city  he  wrote  a  flattering  letter  to  the  Earl 
of  Desmond,  to  induce  him  to  repair  thither 
under  pretext  of  wishing  to  reconcile  him  to 
Malby,  but  the  earl  could  not  be  prevailed 
upon  to  trust  himself  in  such  hands  again. 

Pelham  afterwards  went  to  Limerick, 
where  he  was  received  with  distinction  by 
Malby  at  the  head  of  the  army,  and  by  the 
mayor  and  a  thousand  citizens  under  arms. 
From  Limerick  he  proceeded  to  the  village 
of  Fannings,  which  was  the  rendezvous  of  the 
army.  Here  he  was  visited  by  the  Countess 
of  Desmond,  who  brought  him  letters  from 
her  husband,  with  an  apology  for  not  obey- 
ing his  orders.  The  lord-justice  was  not 
satisfied  with  this,  and  sent  Ormond  (Des- 
mond's old  enemy)  to  the  Earl  of  Desmond 
to  know  his  final  intentions  ;  and,  on  his  re- 
turning an  evasive  answer,  it  was  decreed 
that  he  should  be  publicly  proclaimed  in  the 
camp  as  a  traitor,  unless  he  submitted  within 
twenty  days ;  and  the  troops  were  ordered 
to  lay  waste  his  lands  at  the  expiration  of  that 
time.  Viscount  Gormanstown  and  the  Baron 
of  Delvin  signalized  their  zeal  in  the  cause 
of  Desmond  on  this  occasion.  These  noble- 
men were  Catholics,  and  although  members 
of  the  council,  and  companions  of  the  lord- 
justice  in  his  expedition,  they  generously 
refused  to  sign  the  sentence  which  was  pro- 
nounced against  Desmond,  whereupon  they 
were  reprimanded  by  the  council  in  England. 

The  Earl  of  Desmond  was  now  in  a  most 
embarrassing  situation.  He  had  taken  no 
share  in  the  insurrection ;  he  had  loudly 
denounced  the  atrocities  which  his  brother 
sanctioned  ;  but  he  knew  that  he  was  viewed 
with  suspicion  and  hatred  by  the  local  gov- 
ernment, and  that  he  could  expect  no  aid  from 
England,  where  his  rival  Ormond  possessed 
the  unlimited  confidence  of  the  queen.  No 
prudence  could  probably  have  saved  this  un- 
fortunate nobleman,  whose  destruction  was 
long  predetermined.  His  professions  of  loy- 
alty, his  complaints  of  unmerited  injuries, 
were  equally  disregarded. 


Of  the  remaining  ten  members  of  the  privy 
council,  whose  signatures  appear  to  sanction 
this  cruel  proclamation,  five  belonged  to  the 
Ormond  family,  whose  inveterate  malice  the 
persecution  and  utter  ruin  of  Desmond  were 
well  calculated  to  gratify ;  namely,  Ormond, 
Edward  Butler,  Edmund  Butler,  Theobald 
Butler,  and  Piers  Butler.  Among  the  other 
five  were  the  Baron  Dunboyn,  and  the  Bishop 
of  Waterford,  who,  for  aught  we  know,  may 
also  have  been  connections  or  dependants  of 
the  Ormond  family. 

The  reader  will  doubtless  excuse  the  prom- 
inence of  the  statements  in  relation  to  this 
unfortunate  nobleman,  on  considering  that  this 
case  is  an  embodiment  of  the  history  of  Ireland 
from  1570  to  1580, — ^the  scope  of  the  present 
chapter.  The  case  of  Gerald  Fitz-Gerald, 
sixteenth  Earl  of  Desmond,  is  the  "  Case  of 
Ireland"  exactly.  Upon  this  stage  of  the 
proceedings,  Taylor  has  well  remarked — 

"  That  Desmond  was  justified  in  refusing 
is  evident.  The  political  history  of  Ireland, 
and  especially  the  state  trials  in  that  country, 
fully  exemplify  the  maxim  of  honest  old  Ful- 
ler,— '  It  is  quarrel  and  cause  enough  to  bring 
a  sheep  that  is  fat  to  the  shambles.'  In  fact, 
the  partisans  of  government  deigned  not  to 
disguise  that  the  possessions  of  Desmond 
were  deemed  too  extensive  for  a  subject,  and 
that  their  forfeiture  was  irrevocably  deter- 
mined. Besides,  the  earl  remembered  his 
former  severe  imprisonment,  and  was  natu- 
rally disinclined  to  trust  a  second  time  those 
who  had  previously  treated  him  with  tyranny 
and  treachery." 

Desmond,  finding  himself  condemned, 
marched  towards  Cork,  hoping  to  create 
thereby  a  diversion  which  might  check  the 
ravages  that  the  enemy  were  committing  ii> 
the  territory  of  Connillo.  Following  the  ad- 
vice of  his  relative,  Fitz-Gerald,  Seneschal 
of  Imokilly,  he  attacked  Youghal,  which  he 
took  and  gave  up  to  plunder.  Dermond 
O'Sullivan,  of  the  noble  family  of  Beare,  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  taking  of  this  town,  by 
his  intrepidity  in  scaling  the  walls  at  the  head 
of  a  body  of  infantry  which  he  commanded, 
notwithstanding  the  obstinate  defence  of  the 
besieged.     He  destroyed  a  body  of  troops 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


199 


under  Captain  White,  which  had  been  sent 
by  sea  from  Waterford,  by  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  to  reheve  Youghal.  By  way  of  retal- 
iation for  the  taking  of  this  place,  Ormond 
made  an  inroad  into  Connillo,  where  he  was 
bravely  opposed  by  the  seneschal,  and  though 
he  remained  master  of  the  field,  he  sustained 
a  heavy  loss  in  killed.  After  pillaging  and 
burning  the  whole  country,  and  treating  the 
inhabitants  with  cruelty,  he  marched  towards 
Cork,  plundering  every  place  as  he  passed. 
He  was,  however,  greatly  harassed  by  John 
Fitz-Maurice,  the  seneschal,  who  gained  an 
important  advantage  over  the  government 
troops  in  a  battle  near  Lismore.  Notwith- 
standing these  successes,  Desmond  had  al- 
ways despaired  of  final  success.  He  made 
the  most  humble  tenders  of  submission  and 
allegiance,  which  were  uniformly  rejected. 
He  even  offered  to  surrender  to  Admiral 
Winter,  on  condition  of  being  conveyed  to 
England  to  plead  his  cause  before  the  queen, 
but  was  sternly  refused. 

By  the  time  Ormond  arrived  in  Cork,  find- 
ing the  season  far  advanced,  he  ordered  his 
troops  into  winter  quarters.  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  Cashel,  through  Youghal,  where, 
to  appease  the  queen's  anger  for  the  taking 
of  this  town,  he  had  the  mayor  hanged,  un- 
der pretence  of  his  not  having  defended  it 
against  Desmond. 

The  winter  of  1579-80  was  occupied  with 
the  most  disastrous  effects  of  civil  war. 
About  the  end  of  January,  Pelham  left  Dub- 
lin for  Wexford,  where  he  presided  at  the  as- 
sizes. On  proceeding  to  Waterford,  he  was 
joined  by  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  and  having 
intelligence  that  a  detachment  of  the  enemy 
was  marching  towards  Dungarvan  and  You- 
ghal, they  despatched  Captain  Zouch  to 
defend  those  towns. 

After  remaining  three  weeks  at  Waterford, 
Pelham  went  to  Clonmel,  where  he  was 
again  joined  by  Ormond.  He  then  proceeded 
to  Limerick.  The  chancellor  of  the  church 
in  that  city  was  arrested  on  suspicion  of  hold- 
ing a  correspondence  with  the  Earl  of  Des- 
mond ;  and  the  bishop  was  confined  to  his 
palace  for  the  same  cause. 

The  lord-justice  and  Ormond  having  re- 


moved to  Rathkeale  in  March  to  consult 
together  on  the  operations  of  the  campaign, 
they  resolved  in  council  to  divide  the  army 
and  act  separately.  Ormond  marched  his 
division  towards  Slevelogher,  burning  and 
destroying  the  country  as  he  passed.  Pel- 
ham took  the  route  towards  Slevemish,  near 
Tralee.  Finding  it  impossible  to  proceed 
further,  he  fell  back  to  besiege  the  fortress 
of  Carrikifoyl,  which  belonged  to  Desmond. 
The  commander  of  a  detachment  of  Pelham's 
army,  when  passing  through  the  territory  of 
Clanmorris,  obliged  Fitz-Maurice,  Baron  of 
Lixnaw,  to  give  him  hostages  as  a  pledge  of 
his  loyalty.  The  inhuman  officer  had  these 
hostages  hanged,  violating  thereby  the  rights 
of  war.  His  crime,  however,  met  with  a  due 
chastisement :  he  was  afterwards  attacked  at 
Ardfert  by  the  troops  of  Fitz-Maurice,  and 
his  men  cut  to  pieces. 

Pelham  having  reached  Carrikifoyl,  laid 
siege  to  the  castle  ;  the  garrison  of  which 
consisted  of  nineteen  Spaniards  and  fifty  Irish, 
commanded  by  an  Italian  engineer  called  Ju- 
lio. Having  effected  a  breach,  Captain  Mac- 
Worth  entered  at  the  head  of  a  strong  force, 
put  part  of  the  little  garrison  to  the  sword, 
and  caused  the  remainder,  together  with 
their  chief,  to  be  hanged.  Askeaton  and 
Ballyloghan,  the  last  fortresses  belonging  to 
Desmond,  shared  the  same  fate. 

The  lord-justice  left  four  companies  in  gar- 
rison at  Askeaton,  and  returned  to  Limerick 
in  the  beginning  of  April,  1580.  After  giv- 
ing his  troops  some  repose,  he  recommenced 
hostilities,  devastating  the  lands  of  the  Mac- 
Auliffs  as  far  as  Slevelogher :  he  then  pene- 
trated into  the  county  of  Kerry,  towards 
Castlemaine,  whence  he  carried  off"  large 
herds  of  cattle,  but  the  army,  being  badly 
paid,  began  to  mutiny,  which  checked  his 
further  operations  for  a  short  time. 

In  one  of  the  engagements,  so  frequent  at 
this  period  among  the  Irish  lords,  James 
Desmond  was  taken  prisoner  in  Munster, 
and  given  up  to  Warham  St.  Leger,  the 
high-sheriff"  of  the  province.  By  order  of 
Captain  Walter  Raleigh,  this  unfortunate 
man  was  executed  at  Cork  for  high-treason. 

While  Ormond  was  leading  a  body  of 


800 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1580. 


troops  towards  Buttevant,  the  whole  army 
suflfered  from  an  extraordinary  malady  com- 
monly termed  the  "mild  correction."  It 
was  represented  as  consisting  of  a  violent 
headache,  which  lasted  for  two  or  three  days, 
and  deprived  those  who  were  attacked  by  it 
of  consciousness,  although  not  fatal  to  many 
persons. 

In  August,  1580,  the  government  of  Ire- 
land was  transferred  to  one  whose  name  en- 
joys a  bad  pre-eminence  in  the  list  of  those 
who  rivalled  in  Europe  the  barbarities  of  the 
Spaniards  in  South  America.  Arthur  Lord 
Grey  superseded  Pelham,  and  hastened,  by 
what  he  called  vigorous  efforts,  to  put  an  end 
to  the  Irish  war. 

Grey's  first  enterprise  was  an  attack  on 
the  sept  of  the  O'Byrnes,  who  were  said  to 
have  joined  Lord  Ballinglass  in  alliance  with 
the  Geraldines,  and  to  have  formed  a  camp 
within  twenty-five  miles  of  Dublin.  The 
station  chosen  by  the  insurgents  was  in  the 
midst  of  those  wild  and  romantic  valleys  in 
the  county  of  Wicklow  which  are  now  so 
often  visited  by  the  admirers  of  sublime 
scenery.  At  Glendaloch,  secured  by  rock 
and  mountain,  and  lake  and  morass,  a  numer- 
ous force  was  collected,  unable,  indeed,  to 
meet  even  a  detachment  of  regular  troops  in 
the  field,  but  strong  enough  to  defy  myriads 
in  their  fastnesses.  The  royalist  ofllicers, 
experienced  in  former  Irish  wars,  vainly 
remonstrated  with  the  deputy  when  com- 
manded to  attack  this  impregnable  position  ; 
but  they  were  answered  with  reproach  and 
insult,  and  an  immediate  assault  was  ordered. 
The  soldiers  advanced  through  ground  which 
became  more  difficult  with  every  step,  and 
at  length  were  entangled  in  a  bog  between 
two  wooded  hills,  where  it  became  impos- 
sible to  preserve  any  longer  the  semblance 
of  order.  While  thus  confused  and  broken, 
they  were  suddenly  exposed  to  a  murderous 
fire,  that  opened  at  once  on  front,  flank,  and 
rear,  from  the  woods  and  rocks  that  skirted 
the  ravine.  No  exertion  of  the  ofiicers  could 
save  this  devoted  army.  They  were  cut  off 
almost  to  a  man. 

James  Eustace,  Viscount  of  Baltinglass, 
and  Fiach  Mac-Hugh,  Chief  of  the  O'Byrnes 


of  Wicklow,  were  declared  the  conquerors 
by  the  confederacy  whose  troops  they  led. 
The  English  lost  eight  hundred  soldiers,  be- 
sides Sir  Peter  Carew,  Colonel  Moor6,  and 
captains  Audely  and  Cosby.  This  last  com- 
mander was  particularly  cruel,  as  has  been 
already  observed.  His  greatest  pleasure  con- 
sisted in  putting  the  inoffensive  peasants,  and 
even  their  infants,  to  death,  by  hanging  them 
on  a  tree  which  grew  before  his  house. 

Pelham  having  regulated  the  affairs  of 
Munster,  passed  through  Connaught,  and 
confirmed  Malby  in  the  government  of  that 
province.  He  proceeded  to  Dublin  in  Sep- 
tember, and  gave  up  the  sword  of  justice  to 
the  new  deputy  in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Pat- 
rick. 

The  severe  repulse  at  Glendaloch  bitterly 
enraged  the  new  lord-deputy,  and  probably 
rendered  his  hatred  of  the  Irish  insurgents 
more  inveterate.  To  retrieve  his  fame,  he 
resolved  to  bring  the  Desmond  war  to  a 
speedy  conclusion,  and  made  instant  prepar- 
ations for  a  march  to  Munster. 

According  to  some  authorities,  James  Fitz- 
Maurice  had  brought  to  Ireland  eight  hun- 
dred Italians  and  Spaniards,  and  had  fortified 
Smerwick  as  a  garrison  and  arsenal  for  the 
rest  of  the  Spaniards  who  were  expected. 
It  is  also  stated,  that  he  left  six  hundred  men 
in  it,  under  the  command  of  Sebastian  de 
Saint  Joseph  ;  but  Camden  and  Ware  con- 
sider the  arrival  of  these  troops  as  not  taking 
place  in  Ireland  until  1580.  However  this 
may  be,  the  new  deputy  determined  to  be- 
siege Smerwick,  and  drive  away  these  for- 
eigners. 

Every  thing  being  prepared,  the  deputy, 
accompanied  by  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  cap- 
tains Zouch,  Raleigh,  Denny,  Mac-Worth, 
and  others,  marched  towards  Smerwick  at 
the  head  of  eight  hundred,  or  according  to 
others,  of  fifteen  hundred  men,  to  besiege 
that  fortress,  while  Sir  William  Winter  block- 
aded it  with  his  squadron  by  sea.  The 
siege  lasted  for  forty  days,  the  place  being 
well  provided,  and  obstinately  defended  ;  so 
that  the  deputy  finding  the  winter  draw  near, 
and  knowing  the  inconvenience  of  being  en- 
camped in  bad  weathef,  was  resolved  to  ac- 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


201 


complish  by  treachery  what  he  could  not 
effect  by  force.  For  this  end  he  displayed  a 
flag  of  truce,  and  demanded  a  parley.  An 
Irish  nobleman  named  Plunket,  belonging  to 
the  garrison,  was  very  zealous  in  the  cause 
of  the  Catholics,  and  strongly  averse  to  any 
truce  with  the  besiegers,  alleging  that  they 
possessed  neither  probity  nor  honour,  and 
could  not  be  relied  on.  Sebastian,  the  gov- 
ernor, was  opposed  to  Plunket's  advice.  He 
was  desirous  of  capitulating. 

A  treaty  was  subsequently  entered  into ; 
an  Englishman,  who  was  acquainted  with  the 
Spanish  language,  being  the  interpreter.  Se- 
bastian returned  joyfully  to  the  fortress,  say- 
ing that  he  was  surrendering  the  place  to  the 
English  upon  honourable  terms,  and  that  see- 
ing matters  so  desperate,  he  thought  it  pru- 
dent to  save  the  garrison.  The  captain  of 
the  Cantabrians,  and  Hercule  de  Pise,  in- 
veighed loudly  against  the  treaty,  saying, 
that  so  far  from  fearing  for  the  place,  they 
would  be  able,  if  necessary,  to  oppose  the 
enemy  in  the  field ;  but  the  soldiers,  who 
appear  to  have  preferred  life  to  glory,  de- 
clared for  the  governor,  and  lost  both. 

Though  the  garrison  surrendered  on  con- 
ditions which  were  sworn  to  by  the  deputy, 
the  men  were  immediately  ordered  to  lay 
down  their  arms,  and  were  then  slaughtered 
by  the  English  troops.  The  governor  alone 
escaped,  but  was  banished  from  the  kingdom. 
Plunket  was.  reserved  for  a  worse  fate — his 
arms  and  thighs  being  dislocated  with  ham- 
mers. It  is  from  these  events  that  "fides 
Greia,"  or  "  the  faith  of  Grey,"  became  a 
proverb  in  the  country,  whenever  mention 
was  made  of  any  signal  act  of  treachery  be- 
ing committed. 

There  are  two  names  mixed  up  with  this 
detestable  transaction  among  the  proudest  in 
the  annals  of  English  literature,  and  the 
highest  in  the  records  of  fame, — Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  and  Edmund  Spenser.  It  is  with 
feelings  of  pain  for  the  degradation  of  human 
nature  that  we  see  Raleigli  presiding  at  the 
ruthless  massacre,  and  Spenser,  who  was 
G/ey's  secretary,  sharing  in  the  counsels  by 
which  it  was  sanctioned,  and  subsequently 
veriling  in  its  vindication. 

26 


The  fortress  of  Smerwick  being  evacuated, 
a  strong  garrison  and  governor  were  placed 
in  it  by  the  deputy.  The  government  of 
Munster  was  then  consigned  to  the  Earl  of 
Ormond.  Four  hundred  and  fifty  men  were 
left  under  Captain  Zouch,  whom  the  deputy 
appointed  commander  of  Kerry  and  Des- 
mond. He  placed  troops  in  the  other  cities, 
towns,  and  villages  of  the  province,  and  gave 
orders  to  the  principal  officers  to  destroy 
with  fire  and  sword  every  place  that  con- 
tinued faithful  to  the  earl,  and  to  bring  the 
war  to  a  speedy  termination.  He  then  re- 
turned to  Dublin. 

The  arrival  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  horse- 
men, and  six  companies  of  infantry  from 
England,  gave  Grey  fresh  confidence.  With 
this  reinforcement,  and  his  other  troops,  he 
scoured  the  territories  of  O'Faly,  Fearcall, 
Kinalyagh,  and  Ely.  He  condemned  O'Mol- 
loy,  Lord  of  Fearcall,  to  death  as  a  rebel ; 
the  O'Connors  Faly,Mac-Geoghegans  of  Kin- 
alyagh, and  O'Carrols  of  Ely,  he  appeased, 
and  thus  crushed  the  conspiracy  in  its  infancy. 
The  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  his  son-in-law,  the 
Baron  of  Delvin,  who  were  suspected  of  hold- 
ing correspondence  with  Baltinglass  and  the 
other  Catholics,  were  arrested  and  given  in 
custody  to  Wingfield,  master  of  the  ordnance. 
At  the  same  time,  the  earl's  friends  persuaded 
his  son,  Henry  Fitz-Gerald,  to  withdraw  for 
a  while  to  the  country  of  Offaly,  from  which 
he  derived  the  title  of  baron.  He  there  fell 
into  the  power  of  the  O'Connors,  who,  for 
his  own  safety,  detained  him  against  his  will 
till  the  fate  of  his  father  should  be  known. 
The  deputy  sent  the  Earl  of  Ormond  to  de- 
mand him.  The  O'Connors  at  first  refused 
to  give  him  up ;  but  fearing  that  by  detain- 
ing the  young  nobleman  tliey  might  injure 
the  father,  they  sent  him  to  Ormond,  who 
brought  him  to  Dublin,  He  was  then,  to- 
gether with  his  father  the  earl,  and  the  Baron 
of  Delvin,  sent  to  England,  where  all  three 
were  committed  to  the  Tower. 

In  this  manner  the  whole  country  was  over- 
run and  devastated  by  Raleigh,  Ormond,  and 
Grey,  immediately  after  the  taking  of  Smer- 
wick. These  outrageous  proceedings  are 
thus  described  by  Taylor : — 


203 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1580. 


"  The  war  with  Desmond — if,  indeed,  the 
name  of  war  could  be  given  to  a  systematic 
career  of  devastation  and  cruelty  that  met  no 
resistance — was  continued  ;  and  efforts  were 
made  to  enlarge  the  expected  forfeitures,  by 
involving  all  the  Catholic  proprietors  in  the 
guilt  of  pretended  rebellion.     Raleigh  distin- 
guished  liimself  in  the  south  by  insulting 
those  who  dared  not  resist,  and  seizing  on 
the   persons  of  men  whose  wealth  formed 
their  only  crime.     Among  other  heroic  ex- 
ploits, we  find  him  taking  the  Lord  Roche  by 
stirprise,  and  dragging  him  to  Cork,  whence, 
after  a  painful  imprisonment,  he  was  dis- 
missed, after  having  satisfactorily  established 
his  innocence.     Grey's  proceedings  in  Lein- 
ster  were  still  more  enormous.     He  seized 
Nugent,  a  baron  of  the  exchequer,  the  Earl 
of  Kildare,  Lord  Delvin,  and  others,  on  a 
charge  of  conspiracy,  and  hastened  to  bring 
them  to  trial.     Nugent  was  the  only  victim. 
To  be  accused  and  convicted  were  long  sjmon- 
ymous  terms  in  Irish  courts  of  law ;    and 
Nugent  was  found  guilty  on  evidence  which 
no  historian  has  yet  ventured  to  pronounce 
worthy  of  credit.     Hig  execution  followed 
with  indecent  precipitation  ;  and  the  retainers 
of  government  themselves  were  ashamed  of 
the  outrageous  conduct  of  the  deputy.     Kil- 
dare, his  son  Lord  Ofally,  and  his  son-in-law 
Lord  Delvin,  were  sent  for  trial  to  England. 
The  charges  brought  against  them  were  dis- 
proved to  the  satisfaction  of  even  the  jealous 
Elizabeth.     She  pronounced  them  acquitted 
not  only  of  the  guilt,  but  of  the  very  suspi- 
cion of  disloyalty." 

Such  is  a  decade  in  Irish  history.  Ireland 
now  presented  very  little  more  than  ashes 
and  carcasses  in  acknowledgment  of  Eliza- 
beth's absolute  power  and  its  murderous  ad- 
ministration by  her  minions. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXII. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  The  lords  of  the  Pale  and  the  other  barons 
of  Norman  descent  witnessed  the  destruction 
of  O'Neill  with   indifference.      They  little 


thought  that  the  governors  looked  with  equal 
cupidity  on  the  estates  of  the  native  Irish, 
and  the  extensive  domains  acquired  by  the 
descendants  of  the  early  settlers.     But  they 
were  soon  taught  that  rapacious  avarice  is 
indiscriminate  in  its  objects ;   and  that  one 
successful   act   of  treacherous   policy   soon 
leads  to  the  commission  of  another.     The 
vast  estates  of  the  Earl  of  Desmond  were  not 
likely  to  escape  the  notice  of  those  whom  a 
contemporary  justly  calls  '  the  hungry  vul- 
tures that  haunted  the  castle  of  Dublin.'  *  *  * 
"  Ormond,  his  great  rival,  inferior  to  the 
Geraldine  in  wealth,  power,  and  valour,  more 
than  atoned  for  this  deficiency  by  his  politi- 
cal skill  and  superior  talents  as  a  courtier. 
He  visited  England,  and  soon  insinuated  him- 
self into  the  confidence  of  the  queen.     He 
returned  to  Dublin,  justly  believing  that  the 
royal  favour  would  more  than  counterbalance 
the  valour  of  his  rival,  or  the  justice  of  his 
claims.     The  dispute  about  the  boundaries 
of  their  several  estates  was  referred  to  Syd- 
ney, the  lord-deputy.     After  a  careful  inves- 
tigation he  decided  in  favour  of  Desmond. 
Ormond  appealed  to  the  queen,  and  accused 
Sydney  of  partiality.     Without  the  slightest 
inquiry  Elizabeth  severely  reprimanded  the 
chief  governor,  and  commanded  him  to  *  ex- 
amine' the  case  again.     Sydney,  on  the  sec- 
ond trial,  reversed  his  former  decision,  and 
not  only  commanded  Desmond  to  restore  the 
disputed  lands,  but  also  to  reimburse  Ormond 
for  the  losses  he  had  sustained.     Irritated  at 
such  flagrant  injustice,  Desmond  flatly  re- 
fused obedience  ;  whereupon  he  was  seized 
by  the  deputy,  and  sent  a  prisoner  to  Dublin. 
The  earl  requested  permission  to  lay  his  griev- 
ances before  the  queen,  which  was  granted. 
He  proceeded  to  London  with  several  Irish 
lords,  who  were  graciously  received ;    but 
Desmond  and  his  brother  were,  without  the 
slightest  investigation,  sent  to  the   Tower, 
where  they  were  detained  as  prisoners  for 
years.     It  is  not  surprising  that  such  mon- 
strous tyranny  should  inspire  both  with  an 
aversion  to  the  English  government  that  ended 
only  with  their  lives." — Taylor. 

"  The  great  basis  of  the  Reformation  rest- 
ed on  the  right  of  every  man  to  interpret  the 


A.  D.  1580.) 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


SOS 


scriptures  for  himself,  unfettered  by  the  de  * 
crees  of  popes,  or  councils,  or  synods.  On 
the  Protestant  standard  was  imprinted  in 
conspicuous  characters — *  Search  the  Scrip- 
tures. There  the  rule  of  faith  is  distinctly 
developed.'  The  reformers,  therefore,  hav- 
ing duly  searched  the  scriptures — abandoned, 
from  conscientious  motives,  the  religion  of 
their  ancestors  and  of  their  youth — and  chosen 
a  religion  for  themselves — it  would  appear 
that  nothing  but  insanity  could  have  led  them 
to  suppose  that  they  had  any  right  to  control 
their  neighbours'  religious  opinions,  or  that 
their  neighbours  did  not  possess  an  equal  right 
with  themselves  cither  to  choose  a  new  re- 
ligion or  to  adhere  to  the  old,  as  their  con- 
science might  prescribe.  Yet,  in  opposition 
to  these  plain  dictates  of  reason  and  common 
sense,  the  voice  of  history  proclaims,  that  in 
England,  and  indeed  in  almost  every  part  of 
Europe,  the  reformers,  when  possessed  of 
power,  persecuted  not  merely  the  followers 
of  the  old  religion,  but  even  those  who,  like 
themselves,  had  abandoned  that  religion, 
choosing  a  different  system  from  their  own. 

"  I  trust,  therefore,  it  will  appear  as  clear 
as  the  noonday  sun,  that  the  persecuting  re- 
former was  far  more  culpable  than  the  perse- 
cuting Roman  Catholic,  odious  as  the  latter 
undoubtedly  was.  To  the  native  and  inhe- 
rent turpitude  of  one  of  the  most  hideous 
crimes — a  crime  offering  outrage  to  the  mild 
dictates  of  the  religion  both  descriptions  of 
Christians  professed — the  former  added  the 
grossest  inconsistency — the  most  direct  vio- 
lation of  the  vital  and  fundamental  principle 
on  which  his  religion  was  established." — 
M.  Carey. 

"  One  moment  of  calm  unbigoted  reflec- 
tion must  convince  every  man,  not  only  of 
the  folly,  but  of  the  impiety,  of  such  contro- 
versies. The  point  is  plain,  the  dogma  sim- 
ple, that  no  human  authority  should  control 
man  as  to  his  choice  of  what  words  he  may 
utter,  what  language  he  may  adopt,  what 
posture  he  may  choose,  or  what  ceremonies 
he  may  practise,  in  the  abstract  act  of  piously 
supplicating  the  mercy  of  his  Creator." — 
J.  Barrington. 

"An  attempt  to  make  men  change  their 


manner  of  thinking,  under  pain  of  death  or 
confiscation  of  property,  gives  a  true  idea  of 
tyranny ;  for  no  power  upon  earth  can  accom- 
plish such  a  change.  The  will  (say  the  phi- 
losophers) cannot  be  coerced  in  its  acts  :  of 
this  the  greatest  conquerors  have  been  so 
convinced,  that  they  were  content  with  the 
submission  of  those  whom  they  conquered, 
without  seeking  to  interfere  with  their  rights 
of  conscience." — Mac-(»eoohecan. 

"When  secular  men  prescribe  to  the 
Church,  when  those  who  are  strangers  to  anti- 
quity give  laws  for  discipline,  'tis  no  wonder 
if  they  mistake  in  their  devotion." — Collier. 

"A  tax  was  laid  on  every  housekeeper, 
who  omitted  coming  to  church  on  Sundays, 
and  it  was  collected  exactly,  so  that  many 
came  to  church,  rather  than  they  would  pay 
that  tax :  at  first  they  went  to  mass  in  the 
morning,  and  to  church  in  the  afternoon  ;  but 
to  prevent  that,  a  roul  of  the  housekeepers' 
names  was  called  over  by  the  church-ward- 
ens in  every  parish." — Ware. 

"  The  lord-deputy  bound  several  citizens 
by  recognisance  of  forty  pounds  to  come  to 
church  to  hear  divine  service  every  Sunday, 
pursuant  to  the  queen's  injunctions." — Cox. 

"  Uppon  the  face  of  the  earthe,  where 
Christ  is  professed,  there  is  not  a  churche  in 
so  miserable  a  case ;  the  miserye  of  whiche 
consistethe  in  thiese  three  particulars,  the 
ruyne  of  the  verie  temples  theimselves ;  the 
want  of  good  mynisters  to  serve  in  theim, 
when  they  shall  be  reedified ;  competent 
lyvinge  for  the  mynisters  beinge  wel  chosen." 
Sydney. 

"  Nor  were  the  parochial  churches  in  a 
better  condition  than  the  cathedral.  They 
had  most  of  them  in  the  coimtry  been  de- 
stroyed in  the  troubles,  or  fallen  down  for 
want  of  covering ;  the  livings  were  very  small, 
and  either  kept  in  the  bishops'  hands  by  way 
of  commendams  and  sequestrations,  or  else 
filled  with  ministers  as  scandalous  as  their 
income ;  so  that  scarce  any  care  was  taken 
to  catechise  the  children,  or  instruct  others 
in  the  grounds  of  religion;  and  for  years 
together,  divine  service  had  not  been  used  in 
any  parish  church  throughout  Ulster,  except 
in  some  city  or  principal  towns." — Carte. 


904 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1680. 


"  I  was  advertized  of  the  perticuler  estate 
of  ech  churche  in  the  bishopricke  of  Meilhe, 
(being  the  best  inhabited  countrie  of  all  this 
realme,)  by  the  honest,  zealous,  and  learned 
bishop  of  the  same,  Mr.  Hugh  Bradye,  a 
godlye  minister  for  the  gospell,  and  a  good 
sarvaunt  to  your  highnes,  who  went  from 
churche  to  cimrche  hym  selfe,  and  found, 
that  tliere  are  within  his  dioces  224  parrishe 
churches,  of  which  number  one  hundred  and 
five  are  impropriated  to  sondrie  possessions, 
nowe  of  your  highnes,  and  all  leased  out  for 
yeares,  or  in  fee  farme,  to  severall  farmers, 
and  great  gayne  reaped  out  of  thcim  above 
the  rent,  which  your  majestic  receivethe  ;  no 
parson,  or  vicar,  resident  upon  any  of  theim, 
and  a  very  simple  or  sorrye  curat,  for  the 
most  parte,  appointed  to  serve  theim  :  amonge 
which  nomber  of  curatts,  onely  eightene  were 
founde  able  to  speake  English." — Sydney. 

"  The  clergy,  who  refused  to  conform, 
abandoned  their  cures.  No  reformed  minis- 
ters could  be  found  to  supply  their  places. 
The  churches  fell  to  ruins.  The  people  were 
left  without  any  religious  worship  or  instruc- 
tian." — Leland. 

"And  though  the  outrages  in  the  civil 
government  were  great,  yet  nothing  to  be 
compared  to  the  ecclesiastical  state,  for  that 
was  too  far  out  of  order,  the  temples  all 
ruined,  the  parish  churches  for  the  most  part 
without  curates  and  pastors,  no  service  said, 
no  God  honoured,  nor  Christ  preached,  nor 
sacraments  ministered." — Hooker. 

"It  is  great  wonder  to  see  the  oddes  which 
is  between  the  zeale  of  popish  priests,  and 
the  ministers  of  the  gospell ;  for  they  spare 
not  to  come  out  of  Spaine,  from  Rome,  and 
from  Remes,  by  long  toyle  and  daungerous 
travayling  hither,  where  they  know  perill  of 
death  awayteth  them,  and  no  reward  or  rich- 
esse  is  to  be  found,  onely  to  draw  the  people 
tmto  the  church  of  Rome  ;  whereas  some  of 
our  idle  ministers,  having  a  way  for  credite 
and  estimation  thereby  opened  unto  them, 
and  having  the  livings  of  the  countrey  offered 
unto  them,  without  paines,  and  without  per- 
ill, will  neither  for  the  same,  nor  any  love 
of  God,  nor  zeale  of  rehgion,  or  for  all  the 
good  they  may  doe,  by  winning  soules  to 


TJod,  bee  drawne  foorth  from  their  warms 
neasles,  to  looke  out  into  God's  harvest, 
which  is  even  ready  for  the  sickle,  and  all 
the  fields  yellow  long  agoe." — Spenser. 

"As  scandalous  livings  naturally  make 
scandalous  ministers,  the  clergy  of  the  estab- 
lished church  were  generally  ignorant  and 
unlearned,  loose  and  irregular  in  their  lives 
and  conversations,  negligent  of  their  cures, 
and  very  careless  of  observing  uniformity  and 
decency  in  divine  worship." — Carte. 

"  There  were  few  churches  to  resort  to ; 
few  teachers  to  exhort  and  instruct ;  fewer 
still  who  could  be  understood ;  and  almost 
all,  at  least  for  the  greater  part  of  this  reign, 
[Elizabeth's,]  of  scandalous  insufficiency." — 
Leland. 

"As  to  Ireland,  where  the  estates  of  the 
convents,  and  where  the  church  property  had 
been  confiscated  in  the  same  way  as  in  Eng- 
land, and  where  the  greater  distance  of  the 
people  from  the  focus  of  power  and  apostacy 
and  fanaticism  had  rendered  it  more  difficult 
to  effect  their  *  conversion'  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  or  by  the  halter  or  the  rack  ;  as  to 
this  portion  of  her  [Elizabeth's]  dominions, 
her  reign  was  almost  one  unbroken  series  of 
robberies  and  butcheries.  One  greedy  and 
merciless  minion  after  another  were  sent  to 
goad  that  devoted  people  into  acts  of  despera- 
tion ;  and  that,  too,  not  only  for  the  obvious 
purpose,  but  for  the  avowed  purpose,  of  ob- 
taining a  pretence  for  new  confiscations. 
The  '  Reformation'  had,  from  its  very  outset, 
had  PLUNDER  written  on  its  front ;  but,  as  to 
Ireland,  it  was  all  plunder  from  the  crown  of 
its  head  to  the  sole  of  its  foot." — Cobbett. 

"  The  Reformation,  (now  fully  established 
in  England,)  furnished  Elizabeth  with  a 
weapon  for  the  general  subjugation  of  Ire- 
land, more  fatal  and  effective  than  the  keenest 
sword  which  had  been  whetted  by  any  of  her 
predecessors  for  the  same  purpose." — J.  Bar- 

RINOTON. 

"  In  the  northern  province,  which  had  but 
just  now  professed  to  accept  the  English 
polity,  the  execution  of  the  laws  was  ren- 
dered detestable  and  intolerable  by  the  queen's 
officers.  Sheriffs  purchased  their  places ; 
acted,  as  in  Connaught,  with  insolence  and 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


805 


oppression ;  spoiled  the  old  inhabitants,  and 
obliged  them  to  recur  to  their  native  chief- 
tains for  protection." — Leland. 

"  For  to  what  end  was  the  parliament 
holden  by  the  Lord  Leonard  Gray  in  28  H. 
VIII.  but  to  attaint  the  Giraldines,  and  to 
abolish  the  usurped  authority  of  the  pope  ? 

"  To  what  purpose  did  Thomas,  Earl  of 
Sussex,  hold  his  first  parliament  in  the  3d  and 
4th  King  Philip  and  Queen  Mary,  but  to  set- 
tle Leix  and  Offaly  in  the  crown  ? 

"What  was  the  principal  cause  that  Sir 
Henry  Sydney  held  a  parliament  in  the  11th 
year  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  to  extinguish 
the  name  of  O'Neal,  and  entitle  the  crown  to 
the  greatest  part  of  Ulster  ? 

"  And  lastly,  what  was  the  chief  motive 
of  the  last  parliament  holden  by  Sir  John 
Perrot,  but  the  attainder  of  two  great  peers 
of  this  realm,  the  Viscount  Baltinglas,  and  the 
Earl  of  Desmond,  and  for  vesting  of  their 
lands  and  the  lands  of  their  adherents,  in  the 
actual  possession  of  the  crown  ?" — Davies. 

"  The  Irish  manuscript  annals  of  this  reign, 
[Elizabeth's,]  mention  a  very  dishonourable 
transaction  of  Essex  on  his  return  to  Ulster. 
It  is  here  given  in  a  literal  translation  from 
the  Irish,  with  which  the  author  was  favoured 
by  Mr.  O'Connor.  *  Anno  1574.  A  solemn 
peace  and  concord  was  made  between  the 
Earl  of  Essex  and  Felim  O'Nial.  However, 
at  a  feast  wherein  the  earl  entertained  that 
chieftain,  and  at  the  end  of  their  good  cheer, 
O'Nial  with  his  wife  were  seized,  their  friends 
who  attended  were  put  to  the  sword  before 
their  faces.  Felim,  together  with  his  wife 
and  brother,  were  conveyed  to  Dublin,  where 
they  were  cut  up  in  quarters.'  This  execu- 
tion gave  universal  discontent  and  horror. 

"  In  like  manner,  these  annals  assure  us, 
that  *  a  few  years  after,  the  Irish  chieftains 
of  the  King's  and  Queen's  county  were  in- 
vited by  the  English  to  a  treaty  of  accommo- 
dation. But  when  they  arrived  at  the  place 
of  conference,  they  were  instantly  surrounded 
by  troops,  and  all  butchered  on  the  spot.' — 
Such  relations  would  be  more  suspicious,  if 
these  annals  in  general  expressed  great  viru- 
lence against  the  English  and  their  govern- 
ment.    But  they  do  not  appear  to  differ  es- 


sentially from  the  printed  histories,  except  in 
the  minuteness  with  which  they  record  the 
local  transactions  and  adventures  of  the  Irish  : 
and  sometimes  they  expressly  condemn  their 
countrymen,  for  their  rebellions  against  their 
prince." — Leland. 

"  Verily  there  were  at  this  time  some  sub- 
tile ways  taken  to  try  how  men  stood  affected. 
Counterfeit  letters  were  privily  sent  in  the 
name  of  the  queen  of  Scots  and  the  fugitives, 
and  left  in  Papists'  houses.  Spies  were  sent 
abroad  up  and  down  the  country,  to  lake 
notice  of  people's  discourse,  and  lay  hold  of 
their  words.  Reporters  of  vain  and  idle 
stories  were  admitted  and  credited." — Cam- 
den. 

"  The  agents  of  Elizabeth  pursued,  by  her 
direction,  a  crafty  course.  They  did  not 
disclose  their  objects  of  general  confiscation 
and  extermination.  They  engaged  in  the 
warfare  of  the  chiefs  and  clans  against  each 
other.  In  some  places  they  warred  openly, 
and  vanquished  and  cut  down  whole  districts, 
parcelling  out  the  lands  of  the  slain  among 
the  swarms  of  English  adventurers  who  now 
came  into  the  country.  On  the  breaking  up 
of  the  monasteries  in  England,  and  the  con- 
sequent withdrawal  of  employment  and  relief 
which  had  been  previously  afforded  to  the 
people  by  the  industrious  and  considerate 
monks,  the  towns  of  England  became  thronged 
with  idle,  starving  people,  who  gladly  enlisted 
in  any  enterprise  which  promised  them  a 
change  from  their  present  condition." — 
Mooney. 

"  Thus  it  was,  that  Ireland  was  pillaged 
without  the  smallest  chance  of  even  the  res- 
toration [the  poor  laws]  which  the  English 
obtained ;  and  thus  have  they,  down  unto 
this  day,  been  a  sort  of  outcasts  in  their  own 
country,  being  stripped  of  all  the  worldly 
goods  that  God  and  nature  allotted  them, 
and  having  received  not  the  smallest  pittance 
in  return." — Cobbett. 

"  Francis  Cosby  being  appointed  Governor 
of  Leix,  ruled  that  district  as  a  true  tyrant. 
His  son  Alexander  equalled  him  in  cruelty, 
and  wreaked  his  vengeance  on  inoffensive 
Catholics  for  the  opposition  he  had  received 
from  O'Morra.     Having  convened  a  meeting 


306 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  t).  1580. 


of  the  principal  inhabitants  in  the  castle  of 
MoUach,  under  pretence  of  the  public  wel- 
fare, he  had  them  all  murdered  by  assassins 
posted  there  for  the  purpose,  violating  there- 
by all  honour  and  public  faith.  One  hun- 
dred and  eighty  men  of  the  family  of  O'Morra, 
[O'Moore,]  with  many  others,  were  put  to 
death  upon  that  occasion.  This  cruel  and 
bloody  tyrant  took  such  delight  in  putting 
Catholics  to  the  torture,  that  he  hanged  men, 
women,  and  children,  by  dozens,  from  an 
elm-tree  that  grew  before  his  door  at  Strad- 
bally,  where  he  resided." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  No  spectacle  was  more  frequent  in  the 
ditches  of  the  towns,  and  especially  in  wasted 
districts,  than  to  see  multitudes  of  these  poor 
people,  the  Irish,  dead,  with  their  mouths  all 
coloured  green  by  eating  nettles,  docks,  and 
all  things  they  could  rend  above  ground." — 
Morrison. 

"  Nothing  could  be  more  common  than 
scenes  of  premeditated  slaughter — massacres 
perpetrated  under  the  guise  of  friendly  inter- 
course, into  which  the  natives  permitted 
themselves  to  be  betrayed.  No  faith  was 
kept  with  the  Irish  ;  no  treaty  nor  agreement 
was  observed  any  longer  than  it  was  the  in- 
terest of  the  English  settlers  to  observe  it, — 
or  whilst  they  were  not  strong  enough  to 
violate  it  with  safety. 

"  It  would  be  equally  shocking  and  tedious 
to  recite  all  the  well-attested  acts  of  cruelty 
and  perfidy  which  were  perpetrated  on  the 
Irish  people  by  the  order  or  connivance  of 
the  Enghsh  Government." — O'Connell. 

"  After  the  19th  year  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
videlicit  anno  1577,  the  Lords  of  Connaught 
and  O'Rooke,  made  a  composition  for  their 
lands  with  Sir  Nicholas  Malby,  governor  of 
that  province  ;  wherein  they  were  content  to 
yield  the  queen  so  large  a  rent  and  such 
services,  both  of  labourers  to  work  upon 
occasion  of  fortifying,  and  of  horse  and  foot 
to  serve  upon  occasion  of  war,  that  their 
minds  seemed  not  yet  to  be  alienated  from 
their  wonted  awe  and  reverence  to  the  Crown 
of  England.  Yet,  in  the  same  year  a  horri- 
ble massacre  was  committed  by  the  English 
at  Mulloghmaston  on  some  hundreds  of  the 
most  peaceable  of  the  Irish  gentry,  invited 


thither  on  the  public  faith  and  under  the  pro- 
tection of  government." — Morrison. 

"  The  English  published  a  proclamation, 
inviting  all  the  well-affected  Irish  to  an  in- 
terview on  the  Rathmore,  at  Mulloghmaston, 
engaging  at  the  same  time  for  their  security, 
and  that  no  evil  was  intended.  In  conse- 
quence of  this  engagement,  the  well-affected 
came  to  Rathmore  aforesaid ;  and  soon  after 
they  were  assembled,  they  found  themselves 
surrounded  by  three  or  four  lines  of  English 
horse  and  foot  completely  accoutred,  by 
whom  they  were  ungenerously  attacked  and 
cut  to  pieces  ;  and  not  a  single  man  escaped." 
Leland. 

"  They  have  drawn  unto  them  by  protec- 
tion, three  or  four  hundred  of  these  country 
people,  under  colour  to  do  your  Majesty's 
service,  and  brought  them  to  a  place  of  meet- 
ing, where  your  garrison  soldiers  were  ap- 
pointed to  be,  who  have  there  most  dishon- 
ourably put  them  all  to  the  sword  ;  and  this 
hath  been  by  the  consent  and  practice  of  the 
lord-deputy  for  the  time  being." — Memorial 
of  Captain  Lee. 

"  The  next  daie  following  being  the  twelfe 
of  March,  the  Lord  Justice  and  the  Earle 
divided  their  armie  into  two  severall  compa- 
nies by  two  ensigns  and  three  together,  the 
Lord  Justice  taking  the  one  side,  and  the 
other  taking  the  side  of  Sleughlogher,  and  so 
they  searched  the  woods,  burned  the  towne, 
and  killed  that  daie  about  foure  hundred  men, 
and  returned  the  same  night  with  all  the  cat- 
tel  which  they  found  that  day.  And  the  said 
lords  being  not  satisfied  with  his  daie's  ser- 
vice, they  did  likewise  the  next  daie  divide 
themselves,  spoiled  and  consumed  the  whole 
countrie  until  it  was  night." — Hollinshed. 

"  Edward  the  Third  had  granted  the  royal- 
ties of  this  county  [Kerry]  to  the  Earl  of 
Desmond  :  but  Drury,  without  regard  to  an- 
cient patents,  determined  to  extend  his  juris- 
diction into  Kerry.  Desmond  pleaded  the 
ancient  privilege  and  exemption  of  his  lands  ; 
but  finding  the  lord-president  obstinate  in  his 
purpose,  reserved  himself  for  an  appeal  to  the 
chief  governor,  assuring  Drury,  in  the  mean 
time,  that  he  should  be  received  in  Kerry 
with  all  honour  and  submission,  and  inviting 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


207 


him  to  reside  at  his  house  in  Tralee." — Le- 


LAND. 


"  We  now  draw  towards  the  awful  catas- 
trophe of  this  unfortunate  nobleman,  [Des- 
mond.] Whatever  causes  of  complaint  he 
had  received  from  or  afforded  to  the  govern- 
ment, the  utmost  peace  and  harmony  were 
restored  in  1578,  when  all  grievances  and 
heart-burnings  were  entirely  swept  away, 
and  a  cordial  good  understanding  established 
between  him  and  Sir  Henry  Sydney.  This 
acute  and  vigilant  officer,  (who  was  not  easily 
deceived,  and  who  was  extremely  jealous  of 
the  Irish  nobility,)  on  the  first  of  July  of  that 
year,  wrote  a  long  letter  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 
containing  the  strongest  assurances  of  the 
loyalty  and  fidelity  of  the  Irish  chieftain,  of 
which  he  had  received  such  satisfactory  de- 
monstration as  to  remove  all  doubt  from  his 
mind." — M.  Carey. 

"  Since  the  writinge  of  my  last,  the  gen- 
tleman I  sent  to  my  Lord  of  Desmond  is 
retorned,  who  hath  brought  so  sound  tokens 
and  testimonies  of  the  earles  fidellitie,  (where- 
of although  for  myne  owne  parte  I  had  never 
cawse  to  doubt,)  as  her  majestic  may  make 
as  assured  an  accomple  of  his  loyaltie,  and 
of  all  the  friendes  and  forces  he  is  able  to 
make  to  serve  her  majestic,  as  of  any  one 
subjecte  she  hath  in  this  land ;  soche  hath 
beene  his  publique  speaches  and  demonstra- 
cions,  and  so  plainelye  hath  he  nowe  discov- 
ered hymselfe  to  the  world,  as  a  greater 
proffe  cannot  be  made  of  any  man  than  he 
hath  in  this  tyme  made  of  hyme  selfe. 

"  And  amongest  other  thinges,  I  havinge 
conceived  some  suspicion  of  his  brother.  Sir 
James,  being  in  this  queisye  tyme  accompa- 
nied with  a  greater  trayne  than  I  thought  it 
convenient,  consideringe  the  waveringe  opin- 
ions of  somme  men,  howe  easilye  they  will 
conceive  the  woorst  of  the  least  pointe  that 
may  be  doubtfullye  taken,  (and  yet  the  sup- 
posall  was  more  than  the  matter  was  in  dede, 
when  the  troth  was  knowen,)  I  requ)rred  of 
the  earle  by  my  messenger,  the  better  to  sat- 
isfie  the  world,  and  put  me  out  of  doubt  of 
his  brother,  sir  James,  that  he  would  either 
vndertake  for  hym  hymselfe,  so  that  thereby 
1  might  be  assured  of  hym,  that  he  should 


lyve  duetifuUy,  and  do  no  harme,  or  ells  that 
he  would  send  him  unto  me.  He  assured 
my  messenger  that  he  would  doe  in  the  one 
and  the  other  as  I  would  direct  hym.  And 
thereupon,  (hopinge  by  this  meanes  the  bet- 
ter to  assure  me,)  delyvered  his  brother  by 
the  hand  to  my  messenger,  who,  together  in 
companie  with  the  bishopp  of  Lymericke  and 
Morrice  Shean,  the  earles  secretarie,  came 
hither  to  me  to  Dublin,  and  offered  to  justifie 
hymselfe  in  any  thinge  he  should  be  justlye 
charged  with,  and  withall  proffered,  if  it 
pleased  me,  in  any  thinge  to  commaund  or 
imploy  hym,  he  would  make  that  good 
prouffe  of  his  assured  loyaltie  and  fidellitie  to 
hir  majestic,  as  I  should  have  cawse  to  geve 
hym  further  creditt.  I  was  glad  to  heare  it, 
and  hope  that  when  I  shall  have  occasion  of 
triall  for  hir  majesties  service,  that  I  shall 
fynd  it." — Sydney. 

"  The  uniform  custom  in  providing  for  the 
support  of  the  army,  by  what  was  termed 
cess,  previous  to  this  [Sydney's]  administra- 
tion, was  to  fix  the  rate  by  act  of  parliament ; 
and  when  any  material  alteration  of  the  prices 
of 'the  necessaries  of  life,  rendered  a  change 
in  the  contribution  necessary,  it  was  always 
made  by  the  same  authority.  Sydney  wished 
an  increase  of  the  cess,  but  would  not  con- 
descend to  accomplish  his  purpose  by  the 
fair  and  regular  means.  He  ordained  the 
increase  on  his  own  mere  motion,  without 
any  consultation  with  parliament.  The  lords 
of  the  Pale,  aggrieved  by  the  oppression  of 
the  new  rates,  and  indignant  at  the  violation 
of  their  privileges,  remonstrated  on  the  pro- 
cedure with  the  deputy.  It  was  in  vain. 
He  was  inexorable.  They  then  despatched 
agents  to  the  court  of  London,  to  seek  redress. 
But  the  paramount  influence  of  the  deputy 
defeated  their  application.  Redress  was  not 
only  arrogantly  denied,  but  the  agents  were 
confined  in  the  Fleet  prison  for  months,  for 
no  other  crime  but  laying  their  own  griev- 
ances and  those  of  their  constituents  at  the 
foot  of  the  throne." — M.  Carey. 

"  When  hir  hignesse  had  read  and  tho- 
roughlie  considered  their  opinions  and  resolu- 
tions, and  finding  Jier  selfe  undutifullie  to  be 
handled  by  her  subiects,  commanded  by  the 


908 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1580. 


advise  of  her  councill  the  said  agents  which 
followed  their  sute  to  be  committed  to  the 
Fleet."  — Hooker,  in  Hollinshed. 

"  Whereupon  I  assessed  heavy  fjmes  up- 
pon  the  baron  of  Dunboyn,  and  Piers  But- 
ler, his  brother,  for  the  contempte.  And 
committed  them  both  to  warde,  and  their 
wifes,  with  a  bastarde  sonne  of  Dunboynes. 
All  which  I  presentlie  doe  detayne  in  the 
castell  of  Dublyn,  and  will  doe  untill  they 
shall  procure  the  bringinge  of  suche  their 
lewde  followers,  destroyers  of  that  countrie, 
unlesse  your  majestic  commande  me  to  the 
contrarie  ;  which  if  you  doe  at  anny  mannes 
sewte,  actum  est  de  hac  repuhlica" — Syd- 
ney. 

"  Sir  Henry  Sydney,  disgusted  witli  the 
office  of  governor,  and  finding  that  liis  ser- 
vices were  treated  with  contempt,  eagerly 
solicited  his  recall,  which  was  at  length  ob- 
tained ;  and  having  regulated  all  public  mat- 
ters, he  resigned  the  sword  of  justice  to  Sir 
William  Drury,  president  of  Munstcr.  Syd- 
ney was  considered  an  upright  man  :  he  had 
filled  high  offices  in  England  with  integrity ; 
and  as  a  proof  of  his  disinterestedness,  it  is 
affirmed  that  he  never,  though  four  times 
lord-justice,  and  three  times  deputy  of  Ire- 
land, appropriated  to  his  own  use  an  inch  of 
land  in  the  country,  which  was  a  rare  exam- 
ple among  his  countrymen." — Mac-Geoghe- 

GAN. 

"  Robert  Dudley,  being  distinguished  by 
the  queen  for  the  beauty  of  his  person,  and 
raised  by  her  to  the  earldom  of  Leicester, 
and  other  high  dignities,  he  launched  forth  in 
every  excess  witli  all  the  insolence  and  im- 
punity of  a  royal  minion.  He  caused  the 
death  of  his  wife  by  throwing  her  down 
stairs,  in  order  to  pave  the  way  for  his  ex- 
pected union  with  the  queen.  Being  disap- 
pointed in  this  hope,  he  debauched  Lady 
Sheffield,  under  promise  of  marriage ;  but 
getting  into  an  intrigue  with  the  wife  of 
Walter,  Earl  of  Essex,  he  attempted  to  poi- 
son her,  and  actually  poisoned  the  said  no- 
bleman as  he  was  returning  home  from  Ire- 
land to  avenge  the  insult  thus  offered  to  him ; 
after  which  Leicester  married  that  infamous 
countess.     This  scandalous  behaviour  lost 


him  the  affections  of  Elizabeth,  but  not  her 
protection." — J.  Milner. 

"  Leicester  engrossed  the  disposing  of  all 
offices  of  state  and  preferments  of  the  church, 
proving  himself  so  unappeasable  in  his  mal- 
ice, so  insatiable  in  his  lust,  so  sacrilegious 
in  his  rapines,  so  false  in  his  promises,  so 
treacherous  in  point  of  trust,  and  so  destruc- 
tive to  particular  persons,  that  his  finger  lay 
heavier  on  English  subjects  than  the  loins  of 
the  favourites  of  the  two  last  reigns." — Hey- 

LIN. 

"  Sir  William  Cecil  was  an  apt  political 
instrument  for  the  ever-varying  and  unprinci- 
pled times  in  which  he  lived ;  and  became 
the  confidant  and  assistant  of  Dudley  in  all 
his  criminal  measures." — J.  Milner. 

"  Leicester  cloaked  all  his  monstrous  vices 
under  a  pretended  zeal  for  religion,  being 
the  head  of  the  Puritan  faction." — Heylin. 

'*  When  men  of  such  principles  had  the 
wealth  and  power  of  a  great  kingdom  in  their 
hands,  we  may  easily  conceive  to  what  lengths 
of  calumny,  oppression,  and  cruelty  they 
were  capable  of  proceeding  against  any  man 
or  body  of  men  who  had  the  misfortune  to 
incur  their  hatred  or  their  jealousy,  as  was 
the  case  with  the  hapless  professors  of  the 
ancient  religion." — J.  Milner. 

"  Here  we  have  one  of  the  many  futile 

proclamations  which  were  issued  to  denounce 

;  the  Irish  possessed  of  property,  previous  to 

the  confiscation  of  their  estates." — M.  Carey. 

"  Wherefore  they  did  pronounce,  proclame, 
and  publish  him  [Desmond]  to  be  a  most  no- 
torious, detestable,  and  execrable  traitor,  and 
all  his  adherents,  against  hir  majesties  crowne 
and  dignitie,  vnlesse  within  twentie  daies 
after  this  proclamation,  he  did  come  in,  and 
submit  himselfe." — Hollinshed. 

"  The  earl  was,  and  with  reason,  afraid  to 
visit  the  lord-justice.  He  had  gone  to  the 
camp  at  Kilmallock,  in  consequence  of  a 
summons  from  Drury,  some  months  previ- 
ously ;  had  been  immediately  imprisoned ; 
and  had  considerable  difficulty  in  procuring 
his  release.  It  is  not  therefore  wonderful, 
that  he  shrunk  from  again  confiding  his  per- 
son in  the  same  quarter. 

"  The  execution  of  the  bishop  and  friar 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


S09 


was  actual  murder.  They  were  sent  as 
guarantees  for  the  fidelity  of  the  earl,  and  not 
being  accepted  for  that  purpose,  ought  to 
have  been  returned,  the  lord-justice  having 
then  no  more  right  to  put  them  to  death  than 
any  other  individuals  in  the  country." — M. 
Carky. 

"  Desmond  returned  his  answer  by  a  letter, 
dated  at  Crogh,  the  30th  of  October,  1579, 
vsing  therein  nothing  but  triflings  and  delaies, 
requiring  restitution  for  old  wrongs  and  inju- 
ries, and  iustifieing  himselfe  to  be  a  good 
subiect,  though  he  doo  not  yeeld  to  the  fore- 
said articles." — Hooker. 

"  One  feature  of  the  transaction  stamps  all 
the  parties  concerned  with  lasting  infamy, 
and  clearly  proves  that  Desmond's  destruc- 
tion had  been  resolved  upon.  The  procla- 
mation allowed  him  twenty  days  to  surrender 
himself.  During  these  twenty  days,  every 
principle  of  honour,  honesty,  and  justice,  im- 
periously demanded  a  suspension  of  all  hos- 
tile proceedings.  On  any  other  ground,  the 
indulgence  offered  was  a  solemn  mockery. 
This  is  the  language  of  common  sense.  But 
the  enemies  of  the  unfortunate  nobleman,  in 
order  to  render  his  case  utterly  desperate — 
to  destroy  all  chance  of  submission  on  his 
part — or  of  his  escape  from  the  toils  spread 
for  his  destruction — immediately  broke  up 
the  camp,  and  a  war  of  extermination  com- 
menced. 

"  The  countess  came  to  the  camp  with 
some  propositions  from  her  husband,  within 
one  hour  after  the  publication  of  the  procla- 
^mation — but  even  then  found  it  too  late. 
The  horrible  orders  had  already  gone  forth 
to  convert  the  fairest  portion  of  the  beautiful 
province  of  Munster  into  a  human  slaughter- 
house. 

"  This  atrocious  circumstance  would  be 
incredible,  were  it  not  explicitly  narrated  by 
Hooker." — M.  Carey. 

"  Immediatlie,  and  within  an  houre  after 
this  proclamation,  the  Countesse  of  Desmond 
came  to  the  campe  ;  but  the  campe  was  be- 
fore dislodged  from  the  towne,  and  all  his 
countrie  foorlhwith  consumed  with  fire,  and 
nothing  was  spared  which  fire  and  sword 
could  consume." — Hooker,  in  Hollinshed. 

27 


"  Fitz-Maurice's  ill-omened  expedition  ar- 
rived safely  in  the  bay  of  Smerwick,  in  the 
county  of  Kerry ;  but  scarcely  had  the  in- 
vaders landed  when  their  vessels  were  taken 
by  an  English  ship  of  war.  The  Earl  of 
Desmond  positively  refused  to  countenance 
this  insane  undertaking;  but  his  brothers 
were  not  equally  prudent.  Sir  James  and 
Sir  John,  with  a  small  troop  of  their  retain- 
ers, joined  the  adventurers.  Fitz-Maurice, 
enraged  at  the  coolness  of  the  earl,  pretended 
to  doubt  the  sincerity  of  Sir  John  of  Pes- 
mond,  and  thus  induced  that  turbulent  knight 
to  prove  his  zeal  in  the  cause  by  an  atrocious 
murder.  Henry  Davels,  an  English  gentle- 
man, from  his  well-known  attachment  to  the 
Geraldines,  was  supposed  to  possess  consid- 
erable influence  over  the  family  of  Desmond, 
and  was  therefore  sent  by  the  deputy,  on  the 
first  news  of  the  invasion,  to  persuade  them 
to  continue  their  allegiance.  He  succeeded 
with  the  earl,  and  did  not  altogether  despair 
of  rescuing  Sir  John  from  his  dangerous  en- 
terprise. But  while  Davels  was  quietly  wait- 
ing the  effect  of  his  remonstrances  in  Tralee, 
Sir  John  suddenly  attacked  the  house  and 
put  all  within  it  to  the  sword." — Taylor. 

"  The  deputy  now  collected  the  remnant 
of  his  forces,  and,  with  the  supplies  from 
England,  proceeded  to  the  south,  where  the 
Spaniards,  under  Desmond  [Sir  John]  were 
still  unconquered.  He  laid  siege,  by  sea  and 
land,  to  the  garrison  of  Smerwick,  which 
bravely  held  out  several  weeks.  At  length, 
a  flag  of  truce  was  sent  to  the  garrison. 
Deputies  were  appointed  to  treat.  Some 
confusion  occurred  between  the  interpreters 
and  the  Spanish  commander.  Large  terms 
were  offered  to  the  garrison,  who,  being 
many  days  without  provisions,  clamoured  for 
a  capitulation  :  it  was  at  length  accepted,  and 
as  soon  as  these  poor  fellows,  numbering  six 
hundred,  laid  down  their  arms,  they  were 
instantly  butchered." — Mooney. 

"  The  garrison  of  Smerwick,  in  the  county 
of  Kerry,  consisting  of  seven  or  eight  hun- 
dred men,  chiefly  Italians,  was  besieged  by 
the  lord-deputy  Arthur  Grey,  anno  1579,  and 
after  a  short  resistance,  offiered  to  capitulate. 
Terms  being  inexorably  refused,  they  were 


310 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1580. 


constrained  to  surrender  on  mercy.  Except 
the  officers  and  the  Irish,  the  latter  of  whom 
were  reserved  for  an  ignominious  death  on 
the  gallows,  they  were  all  infamously  butch- 
ered in  cold  blood.  To  Walter  Raleigh,  on 
whose  chivalrous  spirit  so  much  applause  has 
been  absurdly  lavished,  was  committed  the 
perpetration  of  this  murderous  deed." — M. 
Carey. 

"That  mercy  for  which  they  sued  was 
rigidly  denied  to  them.  Wingfield  was  com- 
missioned to  disarm  them,  and  when  this  ser- 
vice was  performed,  an  English  company 
was  sent  into  the  fort.  The  Irish  rebels 
found  there  were  reserved  for  execution  by 
martial  law.  The  Italian  general  and  some 
officers  were  made  prisoners  of  war ;  but  the 
garrison  was  butchered  in  cold  blood  ;  nor  is 
it  without  pain  that  we  find  a  service  so  hor- 
rid and  detestable  committed  to  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh." — Leland. 

"  The  war  against  Desmond  was  con 
ducted  with  ferocious  cruelty,  unsurpassed 
in  the  history  of  mankind.  Fire,  famine,  and 
slaughter  together  desolated  the  most  fertile 
parts  of  Munster.  From  the  savage  rage  of 
a  relentless  soldiery  innocence  furnished  no 
protection.  Helpless  infancy  and  tottering 
age  found  no  mercy.  Admiral  Winter,  with 
the  humanity  natural  to  a  British  sailor,  was 
shocked  by  the  horrid  massacre,  and  granted 
protection  to  a  few  that  escaped  to  his  fleet. 
Will  it  be  believed  that  even  this  partial 
mercy  was  denounced  by  the  zealous  parti- 
sans of  government,  who  would  be  satisfied 
with  nothing  short  of  extermination?  Yes, 
it  must  be  believed ;  for,  within  the  memory 
of  man,  [1798,]  the  merciful  policy  of  Lord 
Comwallis  was  similarly  honoured  by  the 
opposition  of  those  who  were  maddened  by 
a  rabid  appetite  for  blood." — Taylor. 

"  But  it  w^as  not  in  Munster  only,  that  the 
horrors  of  this  system  were  practised.  I 
may  observe  that  it  was  in  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth that  the  general  practice  commenced  of 
calling  the  Irish  *  rebels'  instead  of  *  enemies,' 
the  reason  of  which  is  sufficiently  obvious." — 

O'CONNELL. 

"  They  wasted  and  forraged  the  country, 
so  as  in  a  small  time  it  was  not  able  to  give 


the  rebells  any  reliefe ;  having  spoiled  and 
brought  into  their  garrisons  the  most  part  of 
their  corne,  being  newly  reaped." — Pacata 
Hihernia. 

"  A  report  was  spread  at  this  time  of  a 
conspiracy  to  surprise  and  seize  the  deputy 
in  the  castle  of  Dublin.  Though  this  was 
never  clearly  proved,  the  persons  suspected 
were  capitally  punished ;  John  Nugent,  one 
of  the  barons  of  the  exchequer,  and  several 
others,   being    put    to    death." — Mac-Geo- 

GHEGAN. 

"  On  a  fair  and  candid  examination,  they 
[Kildare  and  Delvin]  were  all  acquitted  of 
every  charge  and  suspicion  of  disloyalty. 
The  precipitation  with  which  Nugent  and 
the  other  culprits  had  been  executed,  now 
became  doubly  odious.  Grey  was  repre- 
sented as  a  man  of  blood,  who  had  not  only 
dishonoured  his  nation  and  sovereign  among 
foreigners,  but  alienated  the  hearts  of  all  the 
Irish  subjects  by  repeated  barbarities.  De- 
tested in  his  government,  and  severely  cen- 
sured in  England,  he  grew  weary  of  his  pres- 
ent charge,  and  petitioned  to  be  recalled." — 
Leland. 

"  The  outcry  against  Grey's  mifitary  cru- 
elties and  judicial  murders  became  now  too 
loud  to  be  disregarded.  The  acquittal  of 
Kildare,  the  principal,  as  was  asserted,  in  the 
pretended  conspiracy,  proved  the  innocence 
of  Nugent  cuid  the  others  who  had  been  exe- 
cuted as  accessaries.  The  people  of  Eng- 
land (always  just  when  their  passions  and 
prejudices  are  not  artificially  roused)  joined 
in  the  clamour ;  and  the  continental  nations 
repeated  the  accounts  of  the  barbarities  and 
butcheries  perpetrated  in  Ireland.  The  queen 
at  length  yielded  to  these  representations. 
She  was  assured,  with  truth,  that,  in  conse- 
quence of  Grey's  tyranny,  little  remained  for 
her  to  rule  over  in  Munster  but  ashes  and 
carcasses." — Taylor. 

"  Hooker,  a  cotemporary  writer,  resident 
and  employed  in  Ireland,  and  by  no  means 
partial  to  the  old  English  race,  doth  not  take 
notice  of  this  formidable  conspiracy,  except 
by  slightly  mentioning  a  design  formed  against 
the  person  of  the  deputy." — Leland. 

"  Complaint  was  made  against  him,  [Grey,] 


A.  D.  1581.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


211 


that  he  was  a  bloodie  man,  and  regarded  not 
the  hfe  of  her  subiects  no  more  than  dogges, 
but  had  wasted  and  consumed  all,  so  as  now 
she  had  nothing  almost  left,  but  to  raigne  in 
their  ashes." — Spenser. 

"  Repeated  complaints  were  made  of  the 
inhuman  rigour  practised  by  Grey  and  his 
officers.  The  queen  was  assured  that  he 
tyrannized  with  such  barbarity,  that  little  was 
left  in  Ireland  for  her  Majesty  to  reign  over 
but  ashes  and  carcasses." — Leland. 

"The  theory  of  reduction  which  Henry 
the  Seventh  attempted  to  realize  in  Ireland, 
was  amply  fulfilled  in  the  ruthless  reigns  of 
his  successors,  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  Eliza- 
beth. By  enormous  cruelties,  successful 
military  depredations,  depopulation,  destruc- 
tion of  the  food  of  the  people,  and  by  other 
means,  of  which  the  barbarities  practised  by 
the  Spaniards  in  the  Americas  were  but  faint 
resemblances,  the  power  of  England  was  de- 
clared to  be  supreme  over  ashes  and  car- 
casses."— T.  Mac-Nevin. 

"  The  historian,  after  all,  is  the  true  aven- 
ger. Shall  I,  armed  as  I  am  with  the  sword 
of  justice,  prove  a  venal,  corrupt  officer? 
What  would  honest  men  say  of  me,  were  I 
base  enough  to  pander  to  power  or  to  false- 
hood? Let  those  who  recoil  with  horror 
from  association  with  the  perpetrators  of  such 
butcheries  and  such  robberies,  join  with  us 
in  redeeming  Ireland  from  the  state  of  slavery 
to  which  Elizabeth  and  her  successors  have 
reduced  that  great  and  noble  country." — 

MOONEY. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

Reign  of  Elizabeth — 1581  to  1590 — Lord  Grey  re- 
called— Movements  of  Zouch — Death  of  Dr.  San- 
ders— Ormond's  reinforcement — Death  of  the  Earl 
of  Desmond — Expatriation  of  the  Catholic  clergy 
and  gentry — Perrot's  administration — Campaig^ns 
in  Connaught,  Munster,  and  Ulster — Irish  parlia- 
ments of  1585  and  1586 — Shameful  scramble  for 
the  estates  of  Desmond — O'Donnel  perfidiously 
kidnapped — Perrot's  adulterated  coinage — Digres- 
sion on  the  fate  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  for  the 

»  sake  of  a  comparison  witli  that  of  Ireland — Resig- 
nation of  Perrot — ^Appointment  of  Fitz- William — 
Wreck  of  the  Spanish  armada — Calumnies  against 
O'Neill  of  Tyrone — Suspicions  of  Elizabeth — Ty- 
ranny of  Fitz-William — Commencement  of  the 
fifteen  years'  war — Authorities  for  the  historical 
student  to  trace  and  examine. 


The  appointments  of  the  Earl  of  Kildare 
and  Loftus,  Archbishop  of  DubUn,  to  take 
charge  of  the  Irish  government,  were  made 
by  Elizabeth  in  order  to  counteract  the  odium 
produced  by  the  career  of  Grey,  who  was 
shortly  recalled.  This  change,  although  looked 
upon  at  the  time  as  an  act  of  kindness,  is  now 
known  to  have  been  a  deceptive  and  malicious 
cruelty,  invented  by  that  vile  woman,  whose 
mind  teemed  with  wickedness  and  selfish 
barbarity.  The  real  power  was  contrived  to 
be  actually  in  the  hands  of  the  Earl  of  Or- 
mond,  with  Captain  Zouch  as  a  sort  of  as- 
sistant executioner. 

Kildare  and  Loftus  having  held  a  meeting 
or  council  at  Tara,  in  July,  1581,  Ormond 
was  sent  at  the  head  of  two  hundred  horse 
and  seven  hundred  foot,  to  propose  such 
terms  to  Viscount  Baltinglass  as  would  in- 
duce him  to  desert  his  old  friend,  Desmond  ; 
but,  meeting  with  no  success  in  his  efibrts, 
he  withdrew. 

Zouch,  having  learned  that  the  Earl  of 
Desmond  and  David  Barry  were  collecting 
their  forces  near  Achadoe,  in  Kerry,  marched 
with  his  army  towards  Castlemain,  and  obliged 
the  earl  to  withdraw  to  a  place  called  Harlow 
Wood.  Fitz-Gerald,  Seneschal  of  Imokilly, 
then  made  some  incursions  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Lismore,  and  on  being  attacked  by  a 
detachment  from  that  garrison,  he  compelled 
them  to  retreat.  Zouch  was  now  in  great 
danger  ;  but,  fortunately  for  him,  David 
Barry  and  the  Seneschal  of  Imokilly  had  a 
dispute  which  broke  out  into  an  open  rupture 
at  this  time,  and  destroyed  that  harmony  and 
union  which  should  subsist  between  the  sup- 
porters of  the  same  cause. 

Barry  and  Fitz-Gerald  were  encamped  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Blackwater.  Desmond 
and  his  brother  John,  who  were  posted  on  the 
opposite  bank,  were  particularly  interested 
far  the  reconciliation  of  these  noblemen,  who 
were  to  share  in  the  perils  of  the  war ;  and 
John  Desmond  having  undertaken  to  bring  it 
about,  repaired  to  the  camp  for  that  purpose. 
Zouch  and  Dowdal  having  learned,  from  a^ 
spy,  that  John  Desmond  was  to  cross  the 
river  the  day  following,  on  his  way  to  Barry's 
camp,  set  out,  during  the  night,  from  Cork, 


213 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1583. 


with  a  strong  force.  They  arrived  at  break 
of  day  at  Castlelyons,  and  posted  themselves 
near  a  wood  through  which  Desmond  would 
have  to  pass.  This  nobleman,  not  suspecting 
an  enemy  so  near,  had  the  misfortune  to  fall 
into  their  hands,  with  James,  son  of  John 
Fitz-Gerald,  Lord  of  Stonacally,  who  accom- 
panied him.  Having  refused  to  surrender, 
they  were  surrounded  by  Dowdal's  men,  and 
brought  to  Cork ;  but  Sir  John,  being  mor- 
tally wounded,  died  on  the  way.  His  head 
was  cut  off  and  sent  to  Dublin  ;  and  his  body 
tied  to  a  gibbet  on  the  gates  of  Cork,  where 
it  remained  till  it  was  blown  away  by  the 
wind.  James  Fitz-Gerald  was  afterwards 
executed. 

The  loss  of  the  rash  and  impetuous  Sir 
John  Desmond  was  soon  perceived  by  the 
parties  interested  in  the  support  of  the  earl, 
for  although  the  movements  of  both  the 
younger  brothers  were  not  approved  of  by 
him,  the  opposition  between  the  Desmond 
connections  and  the  queen's  officers  had  be- 
come too  confirmed  to  be  counteracted  by 
any  exercise  of  moderation  or  wisdom  on  the 
part  of  the  earl  himself.  This  posture  of 
affairs  highly  favoured  the  general  object  of 
confiscation,  and  particularly  the  seizure  of 
the  Desmond  estates. 

Elated  with  success,  Zouch  surprised  the 
camp  of  David  Barry,  and  entirely  routed  all 
his  troops ;  after  which,  supposing  Munster 
to  be  completely  subdued,  the  troops  in  that 
province  were  reduced  to  four  hundred  foot 
and  fifty  horse.  In  this  matter,  Zouch  was 
very  soon  undeceived.  Fitz-Maurice,  Baron 
of  Lixnaw,  with  his  sons,  took  up  arms  again 
to  revenge  some  injuries  he  had  received  from 
the  government,  and  made  himself  master  of 
Ardfert,  putting  the  garrison,  under  Captain 
Achin,  to  the  sword.  He  also  took  the  cas- 
tle of  Lisconnel,  and  forced  the  troops  who 
defended  it  to  leap  over  the  walls.  He  after- 
wards devastated  the  districts  of  Ormond, 
Tipperary,  and  Waterford,  without  meeting 
any  opposition. 

Zouch,  after  waiting  for  a  reinforcement 
of  two  hundred  men,  under  Sir  Henry  Wal- 
lopps  and  Captain  Norris,  marched  towards 
Kerry,  to  check  the  progress  of  the  Baron 


of  Lixnaw,  in  1582.  He  retook  Ardfert, 
Lisconnel,  and  other  places  which  had  been 
abandoned  by  the  baron ;  and  having  defeated 
a  body  of  the  enemy  near  Lisconnel,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Limerick,  utterly  destro3ring  the 
country  and  the  crops,  so  that  the  natives 
could  find  no  sustenance  from  the  land.  Dr. 
Sanders  was  one  of  the  victims  of  this  famine. 
His  body  was  afterwards  found  in  a  roadside 
hovel,  mangled  since  death  by  the  attacks  of 
wild  beasts,  whose  ordinary  ferocity  was  ren- 
dered desperate  by  the  general  destruction  of 
the  usual  productions  of  nature. 

In  January,  1583,  the  Earl  of  Ormond  de- 
termined to  follow  up  the  successes  of  Zouch, 
for  which  purpose  he  received  a  reinforce- 
ment of  four  hundred  Englishmen,  who  were 
placed  under  the  command  of  Bourchier, 
Stanley,  Barclay,  and  Roberts.  Ormond 
was  also  intrusted  with  the  entire  govern- 
ment of  Munster,  by  a  special  commission 
from  the  queen.  He  obtained  an  increase  to 
the  soldiers'  pay,  of  two  pence  a  day,  by 
which  he  gained  the  love  and  confidence  of 
the  army.  His  very  first  expedition  was 
against  the  Earl  of  Desmond.  Having  re- 
ceived intelligence  that  the  earl,  and  his  fol- 
lowers, were  in  Harlow  Wood,  he  surprised 
and  cut  off  several  of  them,  dispersing  the 
rest,  and  forcing  them  to  abandon  their  chief. 

Desmond,  finding  himself  unassisted  by 
the  Spaniards,  and  cut  off  from  communica- 
tion with  his  adherents,  became  a  hunted 
fugitive  in  his  native  land.  On  arriving  in 
Kerry,  with  a  few  followers,  he  took  refuge 
in  a  small  house  in  the  middle  of  a  wood, 
called  Gleam-a-Ginkie,  near  Tralee,  where 
he  was  subsisted  by  whatever  Goron  or  Gof- 
fred  Mac-Sweeny,  who  was  faithfully  attached 
to  him,  could  procure  by  hunting.  The  fee- 
ble health  and  previous  habits  of  the  aged 
nobleman  rendered  such  a  mode  of  life  almost 
insupportable. 

At  length  the  earl  was  reduced  to  such 
straits  that  there  was  good  reason  to  dread  he 
and  his  small  train  might  perish  by  famine. 
Two  horsemen  and  a  few  kernes  seized  on 
some  cattle  to  supply  the  necessities  of  their 
old  master.  They  were  watched  by  the 
owner  of   the   property,   and   subsequently 


A.  D.  1584.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


213 


chased  by  a  party  of  English  soldiers.  It 
was  evening  when  the  pursuers  came  to  the 
opening  of  a  wooded  valley,  where  they  re- 
solved to  halt.  Suddenly,  they  saw  a  light 
in  a  small  hut  at  a  distance,  and,  supposing 
that  they  had  discovered  a  party  of  insurgents, 
they  cautiously  advanced  under  the  guidance 
of  Kelly  of  Morierta,  a  man  of  Irish  race. 
On  entering  the  hovel,  they  found  in  it  an  old 
man  of  a  venerable  aspect,  but  exhausted  by 
famine  and  fatigue,  stretched  languidly  be- 
fore the  expiring  embers.  Kelly  struck  and 
wounded  him.  "  Spare  me,"  exclaimed  a 
feeble  voice,  "  I  am  the  Earl  of  Desmond  !" 
Kelly,  however,  repeated  his  blow,  and  the 
victim  of  merciless  persecution  was  slain. 
His  head  was  chopped  off  and  sent  to  Or- 
mond,  by  whom  it  was  forwarded  to  the 
queen  for  her  most  gracious  disposal.  Eliza- 
beth immediately  ordered  it  to  be  impaled, 
and  then  exposed  on  London  Bridge. 

The  death  of  Desmond  spread  a  gloom 
over  the  whole  of  Ireland,  and  even  excited 
the  sympathy  and  suspicious  forebodings  of 
the  lords  of  the  Pale.  The  Catholics  of 
Leinster  were  quite  discouraged  on  witness- 
ing the  unhappy  fate  of  Munster ;  and  James 
Fitz-Maurice,  Viscount  Baltinglass,  retired 
to  Spain,  where  he  died  of  patriotic  grief  in 
a  few  years  afterwards.  The  principles  and 
objects  of  the  English  governors  were  fol- 
lowed with  more  rigour  than  before.  Their 
movements,  being  led  by  the  most  selfish 
passions  of  human  nature,  were  unceasing 
and  relentless.  Sir  Nicholas  Bagnal,  Sir 
Lucas  Dillon,  and  James  Dowdal,  were  ac- 
cordingly sent  into  Ulster,  with  a  commis- 
sion to  settle  the  affairs  of  that  province  with 
the  Baron  of  Dungannon,  and  the  deputies 
of  Turlogh  Lynogh  and  O'Donnel. 

The  power  of  the  queen's  troops,  by  the 
instrumentality  of  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  being 
now  generally  obeyed  in  every  province  of 
Ireland,  the  native  gentry  were  compelled  to 
look  abroad  for  the  education  of  their  children 
and  the  secure  enjoyment  of  their  early  reli- 
gious principles  and  privileges.  The  estab- 
lishment of  seminaries  for  these  purposes 
appears  to  have  had  the  approval  of  the  Cath- 
ohc  clergy  as  well  as  the  continental  princes 


who  were  consulted  on  the  subject.  The 
generosity  of  France,  the  hospitality  of  Spain, 
and  the  fervour  of  Italy,  mainly  contributed 
to  these  pious  undertakings,  as  is  shown  in 
the  magnanimous  conduct  of  the  numerous 
individuals  on  the  European  continent  who 
assisted  in  fulfilling  the  wishes  of  the  unfor- 
tunate Irish  refugees.  Mac-Geoghegan  has 
given  some  pleasing  and  characteristic  details 
of  these  proceedings,  and  thus  ably  describes 
the  effect  produced  upon  the  politics  and 
legislation  of  England  and  Ireland  : — 

"  These  seminaries  were  filled  with  learn- 
ed ecclesiastics,  who,  .after  they  had  com- 
pleted their  studies,  returned  to  their  own 
country  to  console  the  faithful,  and  adminis- 
ter to  them  spiritual  assistance ;  in  which 
efforts  they  were  seconded  by  the  truly  apos- 
tolical zeal  of  the  Jesuits.  These  establish- 
ments did  not  fail  to  attract  the  attention  of 
the  English  court ;  they  were  considered  as 
very  dangerous  to  the  government,  and  op- 
posed to  the  reformation  of  the  church.  In 
order  to  remedy  this,  an  edict  was  published, 
commanding  all  who  had  children,  wards,  or 
relations  in  foreign  countries,  to  send,  within 
ten  days,  their  names  to  the  judge  of  the  dis- 
trict, to  recall  them  within  four  months,  and 
present  them  immediately  on  their  return,  to 
the  said  judge.  By  the  same  edict,  it  was 
prohibited  to  send  them  money ;  and  the  peo- 
ple were  strictly  forbidden  to  receive  these 
seminarians  or  Jesuits  into  their  houses,  or  to 
support,  nourish,  or  relieve  them  in  any  man- 
ner, under  the  penalty  of  being  treated  as 
rebels,  and  punished  according  to  the  laws. 
In  consequence  of  this  proclamation,  several 
priests,  Jesuits,  and  monks,  suffered  martyr- 
dom with  Christian  fortitude,  among  whom 
were  the  two  celebrated  Jesuits,  Parsons  and 
Campion." 

In  June,  1584,  Sir  John  Perrot,  who  had 
been  so  successful  as  President  of  Munster, 
was  sent  over  as  chief-governor  to  Ireland. 
His  commission,  which  he  was  to  retain  ac- 
cording to  the  queen's  pleasure,  authorized 
him  to  make  peace  or  war;  to  punish  or 
pardon  any  crime,  except  that  of  high  treason 
against  her  majesty  and  that  of  forgery ;  to 
issue  proclamations,  impose  fines,  dispose  of 


su 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1585. 


the  estates  of  the  rebels,  exercise  martial  law, 
and  convene  parliaments  with  the  queen's  con- 
sent. He  had  the  appointment  of  all  officers, 
except  the  chancellor,  treasurer,  the  three  prin- 
cipal judges,  and  the  master  of  the  rolls.  He 
had  also  the  right  of  conferring  livings,  except 
archbishoprics  and  bishoprics;  and,  in  fine, 
he  possessed  power  over  every  thing  relative 
to  government,  and  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice. Whatever  Perrot  might  have  intended 
in  his  own  mind,  for  good  or  for  evil,  he  cer- 
tainly could  not  complain  of  want  of  power. 

The  very  first  act  of  his  administration  was 
to  publish  a  general  amnesty,  and  to  issue  a 
strict  prohibition  against  the  outrages  and 
spoliations  of  the  soldiers,  too  often  encour- 
aged by  their  commanders.  The  youthful 
son  of  the  unfortunate  Desmond,  who  had 
been  left  in  the  hands  of  Drury  as  a  hostage, 
was  now  released  from  Dublin  Castle,  and 
sent  over  to  England,  in  order  that  he  might 
receive  an  education  suitable  to  his  rank. 

In  July,  Perrot  set  out  from  Dublin  to  visit 
the  provinces  of  Connaught  and  Munster. 
On  reaching  Limerick,  he  learned  that  Surly 
Boy  Mac-Donnel  had  made  a  descent  on 
Ulster,  accompanied  by  a  thousand  men  from 
the  Scottish  isles.  Perrot's  real  intention 
appears  to  have  been  to  make  a  circuit  of  the 
whole  country,  and,  until  then,  he  despatched 
a  fleet  to  Lough  Foyle  where  the  Scottish 
troops  were  ;  but  they,  being  informed  of  his 
intentions,  set  sail,  and  gained  their  own 
coasts  in  spite  of  the  English  admiral.  The 
deputy,  accompanied  by  Ormond  and  other 
nobles,  then  proceeded  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  river  Bann,  where  he  laid  waste  the  lands 
of  Brian  Carrows,  and  forced  him  and  Surly 
Boy  to  retreat.  After  several  severe  skir- 
mishes with  different  chieftains,  and  compel- 
ling all  who  were  only  suspected  of  disloyalty 
to  give  hostages,  Perrot  marched  northwards 
to  besiege  Dunluce,  and  sent  his  artillery  by 
sea  for  that  purpose,  to  Portrush,  an  island 
near  the  coast;  whence  it  was  brought  to 
the  camp  before  Dunluce.  Of  course,  a 
place  not  provided  with  cannon  could  make 
but  a  feeble  resistance.  Donfert  soon  after- 
wards shared  the  same  fate,  and  thus  obliged 
Surly  Boy  to  surrender  and  give  hostages. 


Perrot  returned  to  Newry  about  the  end 
of  September,  after  leaving  a  strong  garrison 
at  Coleraine.  Turlough  Lynogh  gave  him 
up  the  son  of  Shane  O'Neill,  as  a  prisoner. 
Conn,  son  of  Neil  Oge,  or  the  Young,  Lord 
of  Clanboy,  was  forced,  by  orders  of  the 
deputy,  to  surrender  half  of  his  estates.  The 
government  of  Ulster  was  divided  between 
Turlough  Lynogh,  Baron  of  Dungannon,  and 
Sir  Henry  Bagnal ;  so  that  the  deputy  re- 
turned to  Dublin  in  October. 

The  Desmond  estates  amounted  to  six 
hundred  thousand  acres ;  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  summon  a  parliament,  in  order  that 
this  vast  property  should  be  vested  in  the 
crown.  A  host  of  hungry  expectants  eagerly 
waited  the  event,  hoping  that  rich  estates 
would  reward  the  crimes  which  had  brought 
about  the  confiscation. 

In  April,  1585,  the  parUament  was  con- 
vened in  Dublin.  The  deputy  was  desirous 
of  introducing  the  English  dress  among  the 
Irish  nobles.  To  this  they  were  opposed,  as 
they  deemed  a  conformity  in  apparel  as  a 
mark  of  their  subjection.  To  induce  them 
to  comply,  the  deputy  presented  English 
costumes  to  Turlough  Lynogh,  and  other 
Irish  noblemen  who  had  not  been  too  proud 
or  too  patriotic  to  wear  English  titles.  In 
this  assembly  we  find,  for  the  first  time,  sev- 
eral of  the  original  Irish  families  joined  in 
deliberation  with  the  settlers  of  the  Pale. 
Cavan  was  represented  by  two  of  the  ancient 
house  of  O'Reilly ;  O'Brien  was  returned  for 
Clare ;  the  county  of  Down  sent  Sir  Hugh 
Mac-Gennis  ;  John  Mac-Brien  was  member 
for  Antrim ;  and  the  representatives  of  Long- 
ford were  the  O'Ferghals  or  O'Ferrals.  In 
the  Upper  House  sat  two  bishops,  professed 
Roman  Catholics,  from  the  sees  of  Clogher 
and  Raphoe,  over  which  Elizabeth  had  as 
yet  exercised  no  control ;  and  Turlough,  the 
nominal  chief  of  the  O'Nials,  took  a  seat  as 
Earl  of  Tyrone. 

The  best  Irish  vmters  concur  in  stating 
that  no  representative  government  ever  met 
for  the  despatch  of  business  with  a  more 
hostile  legislature.  The  suspension  of  Poyn- 
ings's  Law,  at  that  time  quite  an  ordinary 
mark  of  confidence  in  a  new  chief  governor, 


A.  D.  1585.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


SIS 


was  refused ;  thirteen  bills,  transmitted  from 
England,  were  rejected  ;  the  ordinary  subsi- 
dies were  withheld ;  and  two  acts,  of  inferior 
importance,  concluded  the  labours  of  the  ses- 
sion. Perrot's  indomitable  perseverance  and 
self-reliance  were  just  now  the  best  friends  he 
had  in  Ireland. 

The  barbarous  system  of  crushing  the  re- 
sources, lest,  if  cultivated,  they  might  enable 
Ireland  to  rival  England,  or  perhaps  attain 
independence,  had  been  zealously  advocated 
in  the  English  parliament.  The  members 
of  the  Irish  legislature  have  frequently  been 
deaf  to  the  claims  of  justice  and  patriotism, 
but  seldom  blind  to  their  own  private  interest. 
They  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  measures 
taken  for  their  destruction,  and  therefore  met 
the  government  with  the  most  obstinate  re- 
sistance. 

The  cause  of  this  spirit,  so  unusual  in  the 
annals  of  Irish  legislation,  was  the  general  hor- 
ror which  the  iniquitous  proceedings  against 
the  Earl  of  Desmond  had  occasioned.  The 
great  lords  of  English  descent,  who  had  pass- 
ively witnessed  the  robbery  and  treacherous 
murder  of  the  Irish  chieftain,  O'Neill,  were 
alarmed  by  the  destruction  of  the  greatest  of 
their  own  party,  and  felt  sympathy  for  the 
fate  of  one  connected  with  many  of  them  by 
marriage  or  by  blood.  Seeing  the  state  of 
opinion  in  this  assemblage,  Perrot  prorogued 
the  parliament  until  April  of  the  following 
year. 

The  administration  of  Perrot  has  given  rise 
to  many  differences  of  opinion,  but  it  is  gen- 
erally admitted  that  severity  was  its  principal 
characteristic.  The  same  may  be  observed 
of  all  the  provincial  presidents  about  the 
same  period. 

The  cruelties  practised  in  Connaught  by 
Sir  Richard  Bingham,  the  governor,  gave 
great  displeasure  to  the  nobles  of  that  prov- 
ince. Many  of  the  Catholic  clergy  and  laity 
were  put  to  death  :  O'Connor  Roe,  aged 
eighty  years,  was  hanged,  notwithstanding  his 
birth,  rank,  and  age  :  several  of  the  O'Con- 
nors, Burkes,  O'Kellys,  and  other  noblemen, 
shared  the  same  fate.  Similar  persecutions 
were  going  on  without  any  check  in  the  other 
provinces.    Norris,  President  of  Munster,  did 


not  vary  from  the  Governor  of  Connaught  in 
cruelty.  The  Catholics  were  hunted  in  all 
directions.  It  may  be  observed,  that  what- 
ever might  have  been  Elizabeth's  feeling  to- 
wards them,  she  was  ably  seconded  by  her 
subordinate  ministers  in  Ireland,  who  laid 
their  snares  to  make  the  most  innocent  ap- 
pear guilty.  The  two  Mac-Sweeneys,  Ge- 
lasius  and  Bernard  Fitz-Gerald,  of  the  house 
of  Desmond,  and  Donald  Macrah,  all  noble- 
men of  Munster,  were  inhumanly  put  to 
death.  Daniel  Mac-Carty,  son  of  the  Prince 
Muskerry,  Dermod  O'SulUvan,  of  the  house 
of  Beare,  and  many  other  nobles,  were  obliged 
to  be  continually  under  arms,  to  defend  them- 
selves against  those  sanguinary  men,  or  to 
wander  in  the  mountains  and  woods  to  escape 
their  pursuit. 

Notwithstanding  these  movements  in  the 
provinces,  Perrot  took  great  pains  to  assure 
all  parties  of  protection  in  person  and  prop- 
erty; to  administer  justice  without  regard 
to  sect  or  party  ;  and  to  reform  the  gross 
abuses  that  had  been  encouraged  by  his  pre- 
decessors. The  native  Irish,  conciliated  by 
the  mere  appearance  of  equal  government, 
vied  with  each  other  in  expressions  of  loyalty 
and  allegiance.  The  lords  of  the  Pale  laid 
aside  their  suUenness,  and  crowded  to  the 
court  of  the  deputy ;  the  feuds  between  the 
barons  were  suspended  ;  and  an  opportunity 
was  apparently  offered  of  removing  the  in- 
tolerable load  of  evils  which  had  been  accu- 
mulating for  centuries. 

The  unalterable  malignity  of  Elizabeth  is 
too  well  proved  by  the  despotic  humour  with 
which  Perrot's  exertions  were  treated,  and 
her  refusal  to  furnish  him  with  men  or  money. 
She  even  yielded  to  the  secret  whispers  of 
his  opponents,  and  received  the  news  of  his 
popularity  with  suspicion.  The  creatures  of 
the  late  government  still  held  their  offices  in 
the  Castle.  Nurtured  in  corrupt  practices, 
they  naturally  detested  an  equitable  adminis- 
tration, and  laboured,  not  wholly  without  suc- 
cess, to  counteract  the  measures  of  the  lord- 
deputy. 

One  of  Perrot's  worst  enemies  was  a  wor- 
thy of  the  mischief-making  school,  who  had 
grown  rich  on  forgery  and  crime ;  and  it  is 


316 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1586. 


not  only  amusing  but  instructive  to  observe 
the  flood  of  light  which  their  quarrel  throws 
upon  the  political  movements  of  those  days. 
Conceiving  that  one  cathedral  was  sufficient 
for  Dublin,  Perrot  had  proposed  that  the  other 
should  be  converted  into  a  university,  and  its 
revenues  employed  for  the  diflusion  of  edu- 
cation. Loftus,  the  archbishop,  immediately 
became,  not  only  Perrot's  political  opponent, 
but  his  bitter  and  violent  enemy.  The  most 
wicked  perversions  of  his  words  and  actions 
were  transmitted  to  England.  Even  the 
most  audacious  forgeries  were  framed— one, 
a  pretended  complaint  from  Turlough  O'Neill, 
which  the  old  chieftain  denounced  by  a  sol- 
emn embassy  to  Elizabeth.  The  second 
and  more  mischievous,  was  a  pretended  pro- 
tection granted  to  a  Catholic  priest,  in  which 
the  deputy  was  construed  to  assume  the  style 
of  a  sovereign.  It  was  easy  to  expose  these 
abominable  frauds  ;  but  it  was  impossible  to 
remove  the  jealous  suspicions  with  which 
they  filled  the  mind  of  Elizabeth,  and  the 
cruelty  which  she  pretended  to  consider  re- 
quisite for  the  government  of  Ireland,  even 
after  they  were  all  explained. 

In  April,  1586,  in  the  second  session  of 
Perrot's  parliament,  his  general  popularity 
became  decidedly  manifest.  The  bills  for 
the  regulation  of  public  affairs,  and  the  rais- 
ing of  necessary  supplies  were  passed  almost 
unanimously ;  but  the  forfeiture  of  the  Des- 
mond property  was  still  resisted.  At  length, 
after  a  fierce  struggle,  acts  were  passed  for 
the  attainder  of  the  deceased  lord,  and  one 
hundred  and  forty  of  his  associates,  all  of 
whose  immense  estates  were  thus  vested  in 
the  crown. 

The  grand  object  which  had  excited  the 
ambition  of  all  Elizabeth's  ministers,  and 
caused  the  commission  of  every  description 
of  crime  for  so  long  a  time,  was  now  con- 
summated. The  glorious  opportunity  (as  it 
was  considered)  now  offered  itself  for  the 
planting  (as  it  is  called)  an  English  colony  in 
Ireland.  The  younger  sons  of  people  of 
title, — the  needy  followers  of  the  court,  who 
live  on  slavery  and  the  crumbs  of  liberty, — 
the  adventurers  of  more  questionable  descrip- 
tion, but  of  unquestionable  desperation, — 


were  all  invited  to  become  undertakers  and 
over-reachers  in  this  business.  The  lands 
were  granted  at  a  nominal  rent,  on  the  con- 
dition that  the  undertakers  should  let  them 
to  none  but  English  tenants  ;  should  support 
garrisons  on  the  frontiers  of  the  province ; 
and  should  not  permit  any  of  the  native  Irish 
to  settle  on  their  estates.  A  portion  of  the 
property  was  also  granted  to  some  of  the  Ger- 
aldines ;  and  a  very  considerable  share  of  it 
was  seized  by  the  retainers  of  the  local  gov- 
ernment, who  well  knew  the  safe  method  of 
resisting  the  royal  rights  without  incurring  the 
penalties  of  rebellion.  Of  this  notable  scheme 
it  is  now  our  duty  to  announce  that  it  was  a 
failure.  The  undertakers  selfishly  violated 
their  contracts.  They,  as  others  of  the  same 
class  before  and  since  have  done,  preferred 
the  Irish  peasant  to  the  imputatively  inde- 
pendent freeholder ;  and  the  opportunity  of 
introducing  an  orderly  middle-class  into  Ire- 
land, which  Elizabeth  had  acquired  at  the 
expense  of  so  much  blood,  was  lost  by  the 
reckless  greediness  of  her  unprincipled  ser- 
vants. 

The  tyranny  of  Bingham,  Governor  of 
Connaught,  forced  the  Burkes  to  act  again 
on  the  defensive.  For  this  purpose  the  Clan- 
Donnells,  the  Joyces,  and  other  tribes  of  the 
province,  were  gained  over  to  their  party, 
and  the  castle  of  Lake  Mask,  generally  call- 
ed the  castle  of  Necally,  or  of  Thomas  Roe, 
was  fortified.  Bingham  was  at  the  time  lay- 
ing siege  to  the  castle  of  Clan-Owen,  in 
Thomond,  of  which  Mahon  O'Brien  was 
commander.  The  castle  of  Clan-Owen  was 
not  sufficiently  strong  to  maintain  a  siege 
against  so  powerful  an  enemy,  but  O'Brien 
would  not  surrender,  and  died  in  defending 
it.  Bingham's  disregard  of  his  word  was  so 
well  known,  that  no  reliance  could  justifiably 
be  given  to  any  promise  which  he  might 
make.  We  have  a  striking  instance  of  this 
just  after  the  defeat  of  Mahon  O'Brien. 
Richard  Burke,  one  of  the  insurgent  chiefs, 
being  desirous  of  making  peace  with  the 
government,  submitted  to  Bingham,  giving 
the  usual  promise  to  be  loyal  to  her  majesty. 
Bingham  received  his  submission ;  but,  under 
a  pretence  that  Burke  might  betray  him,  he 


A.  D.  1587.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


217 


had  the  unfortunate  chief  arrested  and  con- 
demned to  death. 

Such  outrageous  cruelty  caused  Perrot  to 
send  orders  into  Connaught  granting  protec- 
tion to  the  Burkes  and  other  rebels  of  the 
province.  Bingham,  incensed  at  this  order, 
repaired  to  Dublin  to  have  an  interview  v\rith 
the  council,  at  which  mutual  recriminations 
took  place  between  the  deputy  and  himself ; 
but,  on  hearing  that  the  rebels  in  Connaught 
had  recommenced  hostilities,  he  returned. 
He  found  the  province  in  a  state  of  confusion ; 
the  Clan-Donnells  and  Clan-Gibbons  having 
joined  the  Burkes,  whose  hopes  were  raised 
by  the  arrival  of  two  thousand  Scots. 

When  Perrot  heard  of  the  landing  of  the 
Scottish  allies  in  the  north,  he  sent  orders  to 
the  Baron  of  Dungannon  to  engage  with  and 
oppose  them  until  he  could  repair  thither  in 
person.  In  June  he  set  out  from  Dublin  for 
Ulster.  O'Donnel  and  some  of  the  other 
Ulster  noblemen  having  refused  to  give  any 
hostages,  Perrot  adopted  an  expedient,  which, 
besides  being  the  last  act  of  his  pubhc  admin- 
istration, has  attracted  much  odium  upon 
his  general  character.  It  appears  that  he 
sent  to  Dublin  for  a  merchant,  called  John 
Bingham,  whom  he  ordered  to  freight  a  vessel 
with  wine  and  other  merchandise,  on  board 
of  which  were  fifty  armed  men.  He  then 
sent  word  to  Captain  Skipper  to  sail  towards 
the  coasts  of  Tyrconnel,  and  to  stop  in  some 
of  its  ports,  as  if  to  sell  his  cargo,  but  in 
reality  to  decoy  young  O'Donnel  on  board, 
and  bring  him  to  Dublin.  This  plan  suc- 
ceeded according  to  the  deputy's  wishes. 
The  vessel  cast  anchor  in  Lough  Swilley,  on 
the  borders  of  Tyrconnel.  The  report  was 
soon  spread,  and  wa)rfarers,  either  to  pur- 
chase goods  or  through  curiosity,  repaired  on 
board.  Among  the  number  was  Hugh,  son 
of  Magnus  O'Donnel,  Prince  of  Tyrconnel, 
aged  fourteen  years,  accompanied  by  Eugene 
Mac-Sweeny,  Lord  of  Tueth,  Mac-Sweeny 
of  Fanid,  and  Sir  Eugene  O'Gallachuir.  The 
captain  of  the  vessel,  delighted  with  their 
visit,  received  them  with  polite  attention ; 
but  the  visitors  soon  found  themselves  con- 
ducted by  armed  men  into  the  hold  of  the 
vessel,  while  the  crew  commenced  weighing 

28 


anchor.  The  nobles  who  belonged  to  O'Don- 
nel's  suite  obtained  their  liberty  by  giving 
hostages ;  and  the  captain,  content  with  his 
spoil,  sailed  for  Dublin,  where  he  gave  up 
the  young  Prince  of  Tyrconnel,  and  the  hos- 
tages, to  the  deputy,  who  had  them  confined 
in  the  Castle. 

This  circumstance,  bad  as  it  was,  had 
been  much  exceeded  in  deliberate  wicked- 
ness by  Perrot's  proposition  to  the  queen  for 
the  issue  of  an  adulterated  coinage  in  pieces 
of  eightpence,  fourpence,  twopence,  and  a 
penny,  to  the  amount  of  four  hundred  thou- 
sand pounds,  which  were  to  contain  only  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds  of  real  value,  and 
to  be  backed  by  a  proclamation  prohibiting 
its  refusal  when  offered  for  circulation  in 
Ireland.  We  need  scarcely  support  the 
assertion  that  this  proposition  met  with  the 
most  gracious  approval  of  Elizabeth. 

Elizabeth's  want  of  money  for  her  schemes 
of  what  is  commonly  called  "  good  govern- 
ment," caused  her  to  act  in  many  respects 
exactly  like  her  august  father,  of  reforming 
and  adulterating  memory.  Few  transactions, 
however,  were  more  completely  copied  from 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth  than  the  trial 
and  condemnation  of  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
(who  was  the  cousin  of  Queen  Elizabeth,) 
with  the  trial  and  subsequent  death  of  Queen 
Catharine,  Henry's  consort.  The  circum- 
stances are  as  similar  as  their  nature  would 
permit.  They  will  be  found  narrated  in  the 
histories  of  England  and  of  Scotland. 

During  the  nineteen  years  of  imprisonment 
which  Mary  Stuart  endured  previous  to  her 
execution  in  1587,  Elizabeth  kept  intriguing 
with  Mary's  rebellious  subjects  in  Scotland, 
spreading  corruption  among  the  traitors,  ha- 
tred among  the  sectarians,  and  distrust  among 
the  well-disposed  and  best  portion  of  the  pop- 
ulation. Mary,  on  her  own  part,  continually 
solicited  her  liberty  from  Elizabeth,  and  was 
supported  in  her  solicitations  by  the  French 
and  Spanish  ambassadors,  but  without  suc- 
cess. Truth,  however,  prevailed  over  cal- 
umny, in  favour  of  Mary's  innocence,  through 
the  declarations  made  by  Morton,  Bothwell, 
and  many  others,  in  their  last  moments,  when 
every  man  is  supposed  to  speak  truly.    There 


318 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1587. 


was  no  longer  any  ground  of  accusation 
against  this  unfortunate  victim  in  Scotland, 
but  conspiracies  were  plotted  in  England 
against  Elizabeth,  of  which,  though  in  prison, 
Mary  was  accused.  Walsingham  succeeded 
by  his  emissaries  in  entrapping  a  few  Catho- 
lics in  a  plot  to  rescue  the  Queen  of  Scots  by 
open  force,  of  which  Babington  and  others 
became  the  victims.  Commissioners  having 
been  appointed  to  examine  into  the  affair, 
they  repaired  in  October,  1586,  to  Fotherin- 
gay  Castle,  in  Northamptonshire,  where 
Mary  was  confined.  That  princess  appealed 
against  their  authority,  as  being  a  sovereign, 
and  independent  of  any  such  tribunal  :  but, 
on  the  threat  that  she  would  be  condemned  for 
contumacy,  she  submitted,  declaring,  at  the 
same  time,  that  "  despairing  of  her  freedom, 
she  had  endeavoured  to  escape,  in  doing 
which  she  considered  herself  justified  by  the 
laws  of  nature  and  self-preservation ;  but, 
that  as  to  any  attempts  against  the  person  of 
the  queen,  or  her  authority,  she  was  wholly 
innocent."  Nevertheless,  the  commissioners 
assembled  ;  when,  having  put  the  questions, 
and  read  to  Queen  Mary  the  charges  which 
had  been  brought  against  her,  she  still  main- 
tained that  she  was  a  sovereign,  and  not  sub- 
ject to  a  law  made  in  England  for  her  de- 
struction ;  and  demanded  to  be  tried  by  her 
peers  in  open  parliament,  in  presence  of 
Elizabeth.  The  commissioners  had  not  suf- 
ficient authority  to  concede  this  request,  and 
repaired  immediately  to  Westminster,  where, 
of  course,  verdict  was  pronounced  in  the  Star 
Chamber  against  the  unfortunate  Mary. 

The  first  exclamation  made  by  persons 
who  begin  to  comprehend  the  enormity  of 
these  proceedings  generally  is — "  How  could 
such  things  be  done  in  England,  glorious 
England,  enlightened  England,  law-loving 
England  ?"  A  full  answer  to  this  question 
might  lead  us  too  far  away  from  our  main  sub- 
ject, although  the  task  would  be  a  pleasure, 
for  the  circumstances  are  of  such  a  nature  as 
to  enlighten  our  knowledge  and  consideration 
of  the  most  intricate  suggestions  of  human 
action,  Cobbett,  who  was  a  Church-of-Eng- 
land  man,  and  had  an  e.xtra  allowance  of  that 
dislike  towards  foreigners  which  is  commonly 


supposed  to  animate  "  a  full-blooded  English- 
man," has  offered  the  following  explanation, 
which  we  adopt  for  its  general  correctness, 
and  hope  that  it  will  be  as  generally  accepta- 
ble :— 

"  That  very  thing  now  took  place  which 
old  Harry  had  been  so  much  afraid  of,  and 
which,  indeed,  had  been  the  dread  of  his 
councillors  and  his  people.  Edward  was 
dead.  Queen  Mary  was  dead,  and,  as  EHzabcth 
was  a  bastard,  both  in  law  and  in  fact,  Mary 
Stuart  was  the  heiress  to  the  throne  of  Eng- 
land, and  she  was  now  the  wife  of  the  imme- 
diate heir  to  the  King  of  France.  Nothing 
could  be  so  fortunate  for  Queen  Elizabeth. 
The  nation  had  no  choice  but  one :  to  take 
her  and  uphold  her ;  or,  to  become  a  great 
province  of  France.  If  Elizabeth  had  died 
at  this  time,  or  had  died  before  her  sister 
Mary,  England  must  have  become  degraded 
thus  ;  or,  it  must  have  created  a  new  dynas- 
ty, or  become  a  republic.  Therefore  it  was, 
that  all  men,  whether  Catholics  or  Protest- 
ants, were  for  the  placing  and  supporting  of 
Elizabeth  on  the  throne ;  and  for  setting 
aside  Mary  Stuart,  although  unquestionably 
she  was  the  lawful  heiress  to  the  crown  of 
England. 

"  As  if  purposely  to  add  to  the  weight  of 
this  motive,  of  itself  weighty  enough,  Henry 
the  Second,  King  of  France,  died  in  eight 
months  after  Elizabeth's  accession ;  so  that 
Mary  Stuart  was  now,  1559,  Queen-Consort 
of  France,  Queen  of  Scotland,  and  called 
herself  Queen  of  England  ;  she  and  her  hus- 
band bore  the  arms  of  England  along  with 
those  of  France  and  Scotland  ;  and  the  pope 
had  refused  to  acknowledge  the  right  of 
Elizabeth  to  the  English  throne.  Thus,  as 
old  Harry  had  foreseen,  when  he  made  his 
will  setting  aside  the  Scottish  branch  of  his 
family,  was  England  actually  transferred  to 
the  dominion  of  France,  unless  the  nation  set 
at  nought  the  decision  of  the  pope,  and  sup- 
ported Elizabeth. 

"  This  was  the  real  cause  of  Elizabeth's 
success  in  her  work  of  extirpating  the  Cath- 
olic religion.  According  to  the  decision  of 
the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church,  Eliza- 
beth was  a  usurper  ;    if  she  were  a  usurper, 


A.  D.  1587.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


219 


she  ought  to  be  set  aside ;  if  she  were  set 
aside,  Mary  Stuart  and  the  King  of  France 
became  Queen  and  King  of  England ;  if  they 
became  Queen  and  King  of  England,  Eng- 
land became  a  mere  province,  ruled  by  Scots 
and  Frenchmen,  the  bare  idea  of  which  was 
quite  sufficient  to  put  every  drop. of  English 
blood  in  motion.  All  men,  therefore,  of  all 
ranks  in  life,  whether  Protestants  or  Catho- 
lics, were  for  Elizabeth.  To  preserve  her 
hfe  became  an  object  dear  to  all  her  people  ; 
and,  although  her  cruelties  did,  in  one  or  two 
instances,  arm  Catholics  against  her  life,  as 
a  body  they  were  as  loyal  to  her  as  her  Prot- 
estant subjects ;  and,  even  when  her  knife 
was  approaching  their  bowels,  they,  without 
a  single  exception,  declared  her  to  be  their 
'  lawful  queen,'  Therefore,  although  the 
decision  of  the  pope  was  perfectly  honest  and 
just  in  itself,  that  decision  was,  in  its  obvious 
and  inevitable  consequences,  rendered,  by  a 
combination  of  circumstances,  so  hostile  to 
the  greatness,  the  laws,  the  liberties,  and  the 
laudable  pride  of  Englishmen,  that  they  were 
reduced  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  setting 
his  decision  at  nought,  or,  of  surrendering 
their  very  name  as  a  nation.  But,  observe, 
by-the-bye,  this  dilemma  and  all  the  dangers 
and  sufferings  that  it  produced,  arose  entire- 
ly out  of  the  '  Reformation.'  Had  the 
savage  old  Harry  listened  to  Sir  Thomas 
More  and  Bishop  Fisher,  there  would  have 
been  no  obstacle  to  the  marrying  of  his  son 
with  Mary  Stuart;  and,  besides,  he  would 
have  had  no  children  whose  legitimacy  could 
have  been  disputed,  and,  in  all  human  prob- 
ability, several  children  to  be,  in  lawful 
succession,  heirs  to  the  throne  of  England. 

"  Here  we  have  the  great,  and,  indeed,  the 
only  cause,  of  Elizabeth's  success  in  rooting 
out  the  Catholic  religion.  Her  people  were, 
ninety-nine  hundredths  of  them.  Catholics. 
They  had  shown  this  clearly  at  the  accession 
of  her  sister  Mary.  Elizabeth  was  as  great 
a  tyrant  as  ever  lived ;  she  was  the  most 
cruel  of  women  ;  her  disgusting  amours  were 
notorious ;  yet,  she  was  the  most  popular 
sovereign  that  had  reigned  since  the  days  of 
Alfred ;  and  we  have  thousands  of  proofs, 
that  her  people,  of  all  ranks  and  degrees,  felt 


a  most  anxious  interest  in  every  thing  affect- 
ing her  life  or  her  health.  Effects  like  this  do 
not  come  from  ordinary  causes.  Her  treat- 
ment of  great  masses  of  her  people,  her  al- 
most unparalleled  cruelties,  her  flagrant  false- 
hoods, her  haughtiness,  her  insolence,  and 
her  lewd  life,  were  naturally  calculated  to 
make  her  detested,  and  to  make  her  people 
pray  for  any  thing  that  might  rid  them  of  her. 
But,  they  saw  nothing  but  her  between  them 
and  subjection  to  foreigners,  a  thing  which 
they  had  always  most  laudably  held  in  the 
greatest  abhorrence.  Hence  it  was,  that  the 
parliament,  when  they  could  not  prevail  upon 
her  to  marry,  passed  an  act  to  make  any  bas- 
tard ('  natural  issue')  of  hers  lawful  heir  to 
the  throne.  Whitaker  (a  clergyman  of  the 
church  of  England)  calls  this  *  a  most  infa- 
mous act.'  It  was,  in  itself,  an  infamous  act ; 
but,  that  abjectness  in  the  nation,  which  it 
now,  at  first  sight,  appears  to  denote,  disap- 
pears when  we  consider  well  what  I  have 
stated  above.  To  be  preserved  from  Mary 
Stuart,  from  the  mastership  of  the  Scots  and 
the  French,  was,  at  that  time,  the  great  ob- 
ject of  anxiety  with  the  English  nation. 
Hume,  whose  head  always  runs  upon  some- 
thing hostile  to  the  Catholic  religion,  ascribes 
Elizabeth's  popularity  to  the  dislike  that  her 
people  had  to  what  he  calls  the  '  Romish 
superstition.'  Whitaker  ascribes  the  '  extir- 
pation' of  the  Catholic  religion  to  the  '  choice 
of  her  people,'  and  not  to  her.  The  Catholic 
writers  ascribe  it  to  her  cruelties  ;  and  they 
are  right  so  far ;  but,  they  do  not,  as  I  have 
endeavoured  to  do,  show  how  it  came  to  pass, 
that  those  numerous  and  unparalleled  cruel- 
ties came  to  be  perpetrated  with  impunity 
to  her  and  her  ministers.  The  question  with 
the  nation  was,  in  short,  the  Protestant  reli- 
gion, Elizabeth,  and  independence ;  or,  the 
Catholic  religion,  Mary  Stuart,  and  subjec- 
tion to  foreigners.  They  decided  for  the 
former;  and  hence  all  the  calamities,  and 
the  final  tragical  end  of  the  latter  lady."* 

This  digression  will  justify  itself.    History 

cannot  be  studied  with  reference  to  the  last 

three  centuries  without  observing  the  mutual 

obligations  of  royalty  and  Protestantism.    Our 

»  Hist,  of  Prot  Ref.     Letter  X. 


320 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1687. 


own  Brownson  has  traced  this  subject  to  its 
source,  and  favoured  us  with  the  following 
candid  and  able  acknowledgment  of  his  dis- 
coveries : — 

"  Protestantism  was  not,  in  its  origin,  as 
some  in  these  days  pretend,  a  protest  against 
tyranny,  and  an  uprising  of  the  soul  for  reli- 
gious freedom.  No  such  thing.  It  origi- 
nated with  the  temporal  powers  who  sought 
to  crush  religious  liberty.  It  was  a  move- 
ment, not  in  behalf  of  religious  liberty,  but 
against  it.  It  is  all  very  fine  to  talk  of  Lu- 
ther and  Melancthon,  Calvin  and  Zwingle, 
Carlostadt,  and  John  of  Leyden ;  but  these 
men  were  merely  instruments  in  the  hands 
of  the  political  sovereigns.  The  fathers  of 
your  'glorious  Reformation,' — yes,  republi- 
cans, democrats,  hear  the  truth  ! — the  fathers 
of  your  *  glorious  Reformation'  were  the  tem- 
poral princes  who  were  hostile  to  religious 
liberty,  who  were  opposed  to  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Church,  who  wished  to  bring  it 
into  subjection  to  the  state,  and  to  make  it 
their  ally,  their  tool  in  oppressing  the  masses 
and  fleecing  the  multitude.  They  would 
have  no  power  that  dared  rebuke  the  wearer 
of  a  crown,  no  priest  whom  they  could  not 
*  make  or  unmake,'  as  he  conformed  or  not  to 
their  will.  They  wished  to  make  the  Church 
a  branch  of  the  civil  police,  and  the  sovereign- 
pontiff  a  sort  of  high-constable,  or  chief  of  the 
constabulary,  and  responsible  to  the  crown. 
They  wished  to  make  the  Universal  Church 
the  mean,  contemptible,  crouching  slave  of 
the  state  which  the  Anglican  church  has  been 
for  three  hundred  years,  and  still  is, — power- 
less for  good,  but  a  most  effective  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  the  sovereign  for  oppressing 
the  people,  and  keeping  them  quiet  under  the 
most  grievous  burdens.  This  could  not  be 
done,  so  long  as  the  people  acknowledged  the 
spiritual  authority  of  the  pope,  or  a  common 
centre  of  ecclesiastical  unity.  Here  is  the 
noble,  the  royal  origin  of  Protestantism, 
which  has  the  impudence  in  open  day  to  call 
herself  republican,  and  the  friend  of  rehgious 
liberty  !"* 

Before  we  take  leave  of  the  subject  of 
Mary's  claims  to  our  manly  and  charitable 

»  Boston  Quar.  Rev. ;  July,  1845. 


consideration,  we  wish  to  notice  one  of  the 
calumnies  which  we  have  often  heard  urged 
against  her  by  persons  who  had  evidently 
been  beaten  from  every  other  point  of  objec- 
tion while  forming  an  estimate  of  the  real 
character  of  that  unfortunate  princess.  It  is 
still  confidently  asserted  by  many  that  Mary 
was  guilty  of  consenting  to  the  murder  of 
Darnley,  her  husband,  on  the  9th  of  Februa- 
ry, 1567,  and  that,  therefore,  her  life  was 
forfeited  to  the  law  twenty  years  before  her 
death.  If  this  charge  were  true,  the  ques- 
tion then  arises  of  how  far  it  is  allowable  to 
slander  criminals.  During  Elizabeth's  reign, 
every  imaginable  means  were  employed  to 
sully  the  fame  and  blacken  the  memory  of 
the  unhappy  Mary.  The  most  laborious 
historians  are  not  always  the  most  observant, 
and  in  all  cases  of  misrepresented  character, 
there  is  much  more  to  be  examined  than  the 
mere  documents  of  the  time.  Even  P.  F. 
Tytler,  highly  gifted  and  ably  seconded  as 
he  is,  thus  coolly  and  sagaciously  leaves  the 
question  open  for  further  consideration  : — 

"  It  is  difiicult  to  draw  any  certain  conclu- 
sion as  to  the  probability  of  Mary's  guilt  or 
innocence  in  the  murder  of  her  husband. 
*  *  *  *  Upon  the  whole,  it  appears  to 
me  that,  in  the  present  state  of  the  contro- 
versy, we  are  really  not  in  possession  of 
sufficient  evidence  to  enable  any  impartial 
inquirer  to  come  to  an  absolute  decision."* 

The  London  Quarterly  Review,  however, 
understands  the  genius  of  the  British  govern- 
ment in  all  those  matters  connected  with  the 
Reformation,  and  its  political  changes,  much 
better  than  Mr.  Tytler  might  wish  to  express 
in  Edinburgh.  Accordingly,  in  reviewing  P. 
F.  Tytler's  "  History  of  Scotland,"  the  hard- 
cheeked  reviewer  seems  to  draw  a  long 
breath  of  happy  freedom  from  ancient  tram- 
mels, and  boldly  announces — 

"  It  appears  to  us,  on  the  contrary,  that 
Mr.  Tytler's  own  labours  have  done  much 
to  resolve  such  doubts,  and  will  appear  far 
more  conclusive  to  others  than  they  have 
done  to  himself.  We  do  not  see  any  reason 
for  leaving  the  mind  under  what  Mr.  Tytler 
proceeds  to  call  '  this  painful  and  unsatisfy- 

*  Hist  of  Scotland ;  vol.  tu. 


A.  D.  1588.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


221 


ing  impression.'  The  documents  on  this 
controversy  are,  perhaps,  more  ample  than 
on  any  other  disputed  point  in  history ;  and 
the  time  has  come  when  there  is  no  longer 
any  poUtical  object  in  perverting  them.  No 
longer  is  it  attempted  to  serve  an  exiled  family 
by  proving  that  no  Stuart  could  possibly  do 
wrong.  No  longer  is  it  deemed  the  best 
proof  of  loyalty  to  the  reigning  house  of  Han- 
over to  heap  insults  and  invectives  on  one  of 
its  own  lineal  ancestors.  In  short,  if  we 
forbear  to  judge,  the  fault,  as  we  conceive, 
lies  no  /longer  in  the  deficiency  of  informa- 
tion, nor  yet  in  the  prevalence  of  party."* 

How  charming  are  the  rays  of  truth  after 
a  long  night  of  successful  calumny  and  chill- 
ing distrust !  The  fate  of  Ireland  may  be 
compared  to  the  character  of  Mary,  for  the 
same  reasons  and  by  the  same  hopes.  The 
most  unpoetical  of  readers  may  rest  assured 
that  there  is  more  truth  than  poetry  in  our 
assertion.  The  most  unpoetical  of  writers 
may  as  well  brush  up  and  review  their  facts, 
for  the  time  is  coming  when  some  will  not  be 
missed  in  case  of  displacement,  and  empty 
heads  would  be  as  useless  as  empty  shelves 
in  a  dark  dungeon.  Our  bold  friend  in  the 
"London  Quarterly"  gives  a  similar  warning, 
while  concluding  the  article  we  have  just 
quoted.  It  is  thus  ably  and  beautifully  ex- 
pressed : — 

"  Mr.  Laing  has  saidt  that  *  the  suffering 
innocence  of  Mary  is  a  theme  appropriated  to 
tragedy  and  romance  ;'  a  remark  not  strict- 
ly accurate,  since  the  great  dramatic  poem 
founded  on  her  fortunes,  proceeds  upon  the 
theory,  not  of  her  innocence,  but  of  her  guilt.t 
But  undoubtedly  he  is  right  in  thinking  that 
the  influence  of  poetry  (or  of  feelings  akin  to 
poetry)  has  been  favourable  to  this  unfortu- 
nate princess.  Even  the  most  thorough 
conviction  of  her  guilt  could  scarcely  steel 
the  breast  against  some  compassion  for  her 
fate.  Who  might  not  sigh  as  such  a  tale  is 
told — how  near  arid  close  allied  are  human 
sins  and  human  sorrows — how  fatal,  through 
our  own  errors,  may  become  the  bright  gifts 

*  London  Quar.  Rev. ;  March,  1841. 

t  Dissertation ;  vol.  ii.  p.  66. 

t  See  Schiller's  Maria  Stuart ;  act  v.  scene  7. 


of  beauty,  warm  affections,  and  a  throne ! 
Who,  that  stands  as  we  have  stood,  on  the 
green  knoll  of  Fotheringay,  with  the  neigh- 
bouring scenes  yet  unchanged  ;  the  same 
small  village  clustered  around  us  ;  the  same 
glassy  river  rolling  by ;  but  no  remains  of 
the  strong  and  grated  castle  except  the  swell- 
ing mounds  and  the  darker  verdure  on  the 
grass ;  who  that  sees  the  quiet  flock  now 
feed  on  the  very  spot  once  all  astir  with  the 
din  of  preparation,  the  mock-trial,  and  the 
bloody  death,  could  forget  that  fatal  8th  of 
February,  when,  amidst  wailing  attendants 
and  relenting  foes,  the  victim  alone  appeared 
steadfast  and  serene,  and  meekly  kneeled 
down  to  pray  forgiveness  *  on  all  those  who 
have  thirsted,  without  cause,  for  my  blood,' 
and  for  a  long  life  and  peaceable  reign  to 
Elizabeth! 

"  Some  feelings  of  compassion  at  such  an 
ending  are  not,  we  trust  and  believe,  incom- 
patible with  zeal  for  historic  truth.  But  if 
we  are  warned  against  poetry  and  pity  on 
one  side,  shall  nothing  be  said  of  prejudice 
upon  the  other  ?  Have  we  not,  in  the  case 
of  Mary,  reversed,  as  it  were,  the  divine  de- 
cree, and  visited  the  sins,  not  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  but  of  the  children  upon 
the  parent  ?" 

The  truth  will  appear,  all  in  good  time, 
for  Mary  and  Ireland — Ireland  and  Mary. 

In  1588,  the  "fifteen  years'  war,"  as  it 
is  generally  styled,  commenced  in  Ireland. 
Perrot,  who  had  frequently  applied  for  a  re- 
call, was  at  last  released  by  the  appointment 
of  Sir  William  Fitz-William  to  succeed  him. 
On  his  return  to  England,  Elizabeth  contrived 
to  have  him  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  where 
she  also  contrived  to  take  his  Ufe  "  suddenly," 
as  Mac-Geoghegan  politely  expresses  it  in 
very  polite  French. 

The  conduct  of  Perrot's  successor  pro- 
duced a  new  train  of  calamities  and  crimes, 
the  consequences  of  which  are  scarcely  yet 
effaced.  Sir  William  Fitz-William  had  but 
one  object  in  view, — ^his  own  private  emolu- 
ment ;  and  in  pursuit  of  this  he  disregarded 
even  the  mere  appearances  of  justice  and  de- 
cency. After  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  ar- 
mada, several  of  the  ships  were  wrecked  on 


222 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1589. 


\ 


the  northern  and  north-western  coasts  of 
Ireland.  Reports  were  circulated  that  these 
vessels  contained  enormous  wealth,  and  that 
the  Irish  chieftains  were  secreting  the  treas- 
ures which  ought  to  enrich  the  state.  Blinded 
by  avarice,  Fitz- William,  without  inquiry  as 
to  the  accuracy  of  this  intelligence,  seized  Sir 
Owen  Mac-Toole  and  Sir  John  O'Dogherty, 
on  suspicion  of  having  concealed  these  sup- 
posed stores,  and  consigned  them  to  a  painful 
imprisonment,  which  lasted  for  several  years. 
Such  unjust  severity  towards  two  gentlemen 
conspicuous  for  their  zealous  loyalty,  revived 
the  jealous  hatred  of  the  English  government, 
which  Perrot  had  so  happily  suppressed. 

James  the  Sixth,  of  Scotland,  either  to  re- 
venge the  death  of  his  mother,  Mary  Stuart, 
or  to  secure  to  himself  the  right  of  succeeding 
to  the  thrones  of  England  and  Ireland,  se- 
cretly afforded  help  to  the  Irish,  who  were 
opposed  to  the  English  court.  As  the  want 
of  union  is  generally  fatal  to  the  best  cause, 
so  the  ambition  of  some  of  the  Irish  chiefs 
induced  thenj  to  prefer  their  own  interest  to 
the  general  good.  Some  were  seduced  by 
titles  of  honour ;  others  were  attached  to  the 
English  influence  by  political  views,  while 
others,  fearful  of  success,  continued  neutral.* 
The  house  of  Desmond  was  considered  ex- 
tinct. Ormond  and  Thomond,  two  of  the 
most  powerful  in  Munster,  had  embraced  the 
reformed  religion.  They  received  many  fa- 
vours for  their  attachment  to  the  court,  and 
knew  how  to  turn  the  misfortunes  of  their 
neighbours  to  their  own  advantage. 

O'Neill,  Earl  of  Tyrone,  who  had  long 
been  aware  of  the  antipathy  of  the  Dublin 
governments,  resolved  to  anticipate  the  dan- 
ger ;  and,  without  waiting  for  the  deputy's 
license,  presented  himself  at  the  court  of 
Elizabeth.  Here  he  was  accused  by  one  of 
his  relatives,  a  natural  son  of  John  O'Neill, 
of  having  entered  into  a  secret  alliance  with 
the  Spaniards,  and  endeavoured  to  form  a 
general  confederacy  against  the  English. 
These  calumnies  were  easily  refuted :  and 
Elizabeth,  persuaded  of  O'Neill's  integrity, 
dismissed  him  with  marks  of  confidence  and 
favour.     About  the  same  time,  several  hos- 

•  Hist.  Cath.  Ibcm 


tages  of  the  northern  lords,  who  were  detained 
as  prisoners  in  Dublin,  made  their  escape,  as 
was  suspected,  by  the  secret  connivance  of 
the  deputy.  They  were  hotly  pursued. 
Hugh  O'Donnel,  whose  seizure  by  Perrot 
has  been  already  mentioned,  and  one  of  the 
O'Neills,  sought  refuge  among  the  septs  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  capital.  The  season  was 
uncommonly  rigorous,  the  power  of  the  gov- 
ernment justly  dreaded,  and  the  friends  on 
whom  the  young  noblemen  relied,  too  weak 
or  too  cautious  to  afford  them  protection. 
After  some  days,  their  pursuers  found  them 
in  a  miserable  hovel,  where  young  O'Neill 
was  expiring  of  famine,  and  O'Donnel  de- 
prived of  the  use  of  his  limbs  by  cold  and 
fatigue.  The  latter  was  brought  to  Dublin, 
where  his  health  was  gradually  restored  ;  but 
his  opposition  to  the  government  which  had 
subjected  him  to  so  much  misery,  became  a 
fixed  principle  of  action  with  him  for  the 
future. 

A  still  more  atrocious  outrage  increased 
the  hostility  of  the  Irish.  Fitz- William,  un- 
der pretence  of  settling  some  disputed  claims 
to  property,  marched  into  Monaghan,  the  ter- 
ritory of  a  chief  named  Mac-Mahon,  and 
arrested  that  lord  on  a  charge  of  treason. 
The  accusation  was,  that  he  had,  two  years 
before,  employed  a  military  force  to  collect 
his  rents — an  offence  pronounced  treasonable 
within  the  limits  of  the  English  jurisdiction, 
but  which  was  by  no  means  an  unusual  prac- 
tice in  Monaghan  and  other  districts  beyond 
the  Pale.  For  this  pretended  crime  Mac- 
Mahon  was  tried  by  a  jury  of  common  sol- 
diers, found  guilty,  and,  to  his  utter  astonish- 
ment, ordered  to  be  immediately  executed. 
This  judicial  murder  was  followed  by  the  im- 
mediate forfeiture  of  the  chieftain's  lands, 
which  were  shared  between  the  unprincipled 
Fitz-William  and  Sir  Henry  Bagnal.  Peter 
Lombard  asserts  positively  that  the  first  twelve 
men  selected  for  the  jury  were  ordered  be- 
forehand to  find  Mac-Mahon  guilty ;  upon 
which  they  expressed  their  unwillingness  to 
proceed  at  all  in  such  an  unsoldierlike  duty ; 
whereupon,  after  a  little  delay,  Fitz-William 
procured  twelve  other  soldiers  who  better 
suited  his  purpose. 


A.  D.  1590.] 


SECOND   DIVISION, 


223 


O'Neill  viewed  with  just  alarm  this  infa- 
mous transaction,  and  began  secretly  to  pre- 
pare for  a  struggle  which  he  knew  could  not 
much  longer  be  averted.  His  marriage  with 
Bagnal's  sister  had  procured  him  the  bitter 
enmity  of  that  powerful  officer ;  and  this  un- 
natural hatred  was  manifested  by  a  pertina- 
cious system  of  misrepresentation  at  the  Eng- 
lish court,  which  soon  revived  the  natural 
jealousy  of  Ehzabeth.  The  politic  mind 
of  O'Neill  enabled  him  to  baffle  the  artifices 
of  his  insidious  enemies  ;  and  he  soon  gave 
a  proof  of  his  loyalty  too  unequivocal  to  be 
misrepresented  or  denied  by  the  most  inter- 
ested enemies. 

It  appears  that  Mac-Guire,  the  Chieftain 
of  Fermanagh,  had  been  guilty  of  some  out- 
rages which  the  deputy  determined  to  chas- 
tise ;  and  Bagnal  was  ordered  to  lead  an  army 
against  him.  O'Neill  immediately  brought 
his  forces  to  aid  his  mortal  enemy  against  his 
kinsman.  He  rescued  Bagnal  from  the  dan- 
gers into  which  he  had  been  brought  by  his 
presumption,  and  was  severely  wounded  in  a 
successful  battle  which  he  fought  against  his 
countrymen.  His  enemies  were  for  a  time 
disconcerted  by  this  bold  proof  of  loyalty,  and 
their  crafty  insinuations  were  for  a  season 
silenced  or  disregarded. 

The  only  thing  needed  in  the  state  of  poht- 
ical  affairs  at  this  time  to  produce  a  war  was 
the  administration  of  just  such  a  man  as  Fitz- 
William ;  and,  as  the  "  fifteen  years'  war" 
was  continued  to  the  last  year  of  Elizabeth's 
reign,  the  remaining  details  belong  to  our 
next  chapter. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXIII. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  The  conduct  of  the  extraordinary  woman 
who  then  governed  England  is  an  admirable 
study  for  politicians  who  hve  in  unquiet 
times.  It  shows  how  thoroughly  she  under- 
stood the  people  whom  she  ruled,  and  the 
crisis  in  which  she  was  called  to  act." — 
Macaulay. 

"The  wisdom  of  Elizabeth  was  not  the 


wisdom  of  philosophy.  It  was  a  penetrating 
sagacity,  prompt,  vigilant,  and  inflexible.  . 
The  energy  of  her  resolution,  and  her  pro- 
found dissimulation,  surmounted  what  her 
physical  powers  would  have  been  unable  to 
accomplish  ;  at  home,  she  was  despotic, 
abroad,  she  was  victorious  ;  by  sea,  by  land, 
by  negotiation,  she  was  every  way  success- 
ful. The  external  glory  of  England  arose 
under  her  administration.  Providence  seemed 
to  pardon  her  disregard  of  moral  principles, 
and  to  smile  even  upon  the  vices  of  this  cele- 
brated woman.  The  people  admired  her, 
because  she  was  a  successful  queen ;  and 
she  liked  the  people,  because  they  were  sub- 
missive vassals.  By  the  acuteness  of  her  dis- 
crimination she  chose  able  ministers.  They 
served  her  with  fidelity,  because  they  feared 
her  anger;  and  they  flattered  her  vanities, 
because  it  prolonged  her  favour.  But  they 
served  her  at  their  peril;  and  she  selected 
and  sacrificed  them  with  equal  policy  and 
indifference. 

"  She  affected  learning,  and  she  professed 
religion.  In  the  one  she  was  a  pedant  without 
depth ;  and  in  the  other,  she  was  a  bigot 
without  devotion.  She  plundered  her  people, 
to  be  independent  of  her  parliaments  ;  and  slie 
bullied  the  parliaments  to  be  independent  of 
the  people.  She  was  frugal  of  their  money 
where  she  had  no  passion  for  expending  it ; 
and  she  was  generous  to  her  favourites  for 
her  own  gratification.     ♦••*•* 

"The  word  'mercy'  was  banished  from 
her  vocabulary.  Her  administration  as  to 
Ireland,  where  she  experienced  no  restraint, 
gave  the  strongest  proofs  that  she  felt  no  com- 
punctions. In  her  nature  there  was  no  femi- 
nine softness  to  moderate  her  cruelties ;  no 
moral  scruples  to  arrest  her  conscience  ;  no 
elevated  generosity  to  counteract  her  dissi-, 
mulation.  Though  she  was  mistress  of  tlie 
great  qualities,  she  was  a  slave  to  the  little 
ones;  and  though  the  strength  of  her  judg- 
ment somewhat  restrained  the  progress  of  hey 
vices,  she  was  intrepid  but  harsh,  treacherous^  *^ 
and  decisive  :  even  *he  spirit  of  the  murdered 
Mary  could  not  appal  her  fortitude.  The 
eyes  of  the  people  were  closed  by  the  bril- 
liancy of  her  successes,  and  the  crimes  of  the 


S34 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1590. 


woman  were  merged  in  the  popularity  of  the 
monarch." — J.  Barrington. 

"  Her  amiability  and  morality  must  be  at 
once  given  up.  She  had  no  feminine  graces. 
Like  her  person,  her  mind,  passions,  and 
even  accomplishments,  were  masculine.  The 
execution  of  the  unfortunate  Scottish  queen, 
though  deemed  necessary  by  her  ministers,  is 
an  ineffaceable  blot  on  her  memory.  Among 
the  legislative  and  judicial  machinery  she 
used,  her  absoluteness  was  ever  the  guiding 
principle. 

"  First  was  the  star-chamber,  whose  mem- 
bers held  their  places  during  the  pleasure  of 
the  crown,  and  might  fine,  imprison,  and 
punish  corporeally,  by  whipping,  branding, 
slitting  the  nostrils  and  ears.  The  queen,  if 
present,  was  sole  judge  ;  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  court  extended  to  all  sorts  of  offences, 
contempts,  and  disorders,  that  lay  out  of  the 
reach  of  the  common  law. 

"  The  *  Court  of  High  Commission'  was  a 
still  more  arbitrary  jurisdiction.  Its  ven- 
geance was  directed  against  heresy,  which 
was  defined  to  be  *  a  difference  of  opinion  on 
religion  and  morals  with  the  queen.'" — Wade. 

"  From  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  to  the 
<;ivil  wars,  England  enjoyed  a  period  of  un- 
broken internal  peace ;  but  this  peace  had 
nothing  of  the  languor  of  exhaustion  or  the 
dreary  repose  of  a  tyrannic  rule.  The  spent 
wave  of  the  Reformation  had  left  a  strong 
and  tumultuous  swell.  The  land  had  burst 
her  bonds,  and  rejoiced  in  the  fresh  and  con- 
scious strength  of  her  emancipation.  There 
was  a  splendid  court  under  a  female  sove- 
reign, which  could  not  but  retain  something 
of  a  chivalrous  and  romantic  tone.  There 
was  a  nobility,  enriched  with  the  spoils  of  the 
monasteries,  with  its  adventurous  spirit  kept 
sufficiently  alive  by  the  still  menaced  feuds 
of  foreign  war  and  of  Spanish  invasion ;  yet 
with  much  idle  time,  some  of  which,  among 
those  of  high  attainments,  could  not  but  be- 
take itself  to  the  cultivation  and  patronage  of 
letters.  There  was  a  church,  which  still  re- 
tained some  magnificence,  and  though  trium- 
phant, was  yet  in  too  unsafe  and  unsettled  a 
state  to  sink  into  the  torpor  of  an  ancient 
establishment ;  it  was  rather  in  constant  agi- 


tation, on  one  side,  from  the  restless  spirit  of 
the  Roman  Catholics,  with  all  their  busy 
array  of  missionary  priests  and  Jesuits ;  on 
the  other,  against  the  brooding  spirit  of  eccle- 
siastical democracy,  among  the  Mar-prelates, 
the  first  religious  ancestors  of  the  Puritans." 
London  Quar.  Rev. ;  March,  1840. 

"  Some  of  her  counsellors  appear  to  have 
conceived  an  odious  jealousy  which  reconciled 
them  to  the  distractions  and  miseries  of  Ireland. 

"  *  Should  we  exert  ourselves,'  said  they, 
*  in  reducing  this  country  to  order  and  civility, 
it  must  soon  acquire  power,  consequence,  and 
riches.  The  inhabitants  will  thus  be  alienated 
from  England  ;  they  will  cast  themselves  into 
the  arms  of  some  foreign  power,  or  perhaps 
erect  themselves  into  an  independent  and 
separate  state.  Let  us  rather  connive  at  their 
disorders  ;  for  a  weak  and  disordered  people 
never  can  attempt  to  detach  themselves  from 
the  Crown  of  England.'  We  find  Sir  Henry 
Sydney  and  Sir  John  Perrot,  who  perfectly 
understood  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  and  the  dis- 
positions of  its  inhabitants,  both  expressing 
the  utmost  indignation  at  this  horrid  policy, 
which  yet  had  found  its  way  into  the  English 
Parliament." — Leland. 

"  Next  to  Cecil,  for  subtlety  in  contriving 
plans  of  treachery,  corruption,  assassination, 
and  forgery,  but  superior  to  him  for  boldness 
and  dexterity  in  executing  them,  was  his  fellow 
secretary  of  state.  Sir  Francis  Walsingham. 
To  his  savage  nature  the  actual  perpetration 
of  cruelty,  independently  of  the  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  it,  was  peculiarly  grateful. 
He  was  accustomed  to  beat  and  kick  the 
Catholic  prisoners  who  were  brought  before 
him  for  examination,  and  his  mistress  knew 
his  disposition  so  well,  that  when  she  had 
signed  the  death-warrant  for  the  execution  of 
Mary,  she  ordered  it  to  be  immediately  car- 
ried to  Walsingham,  as  the  most  efficacious 
cordial  for  raising  his  spirits,  then  depressed 
by  a  severe  illness.  He  was  the  master-arti- 
ficer in  those  horrid  forgeries,  for  which  a 
writer  [Whitaker]  of  high  character,  still 
living,  and  a  clergyman  of  the  establisrhed 
church,  says  the  heads  of  the  Reformation 
at  that  time  were  infamous,  both  in  England 
and  in  Scotland." — J.  Milner. 


A.  D.  1680.] 


SECOND   DIVISION, 


225 


"  Forgery,  I  blush  for  the  honour  of  Prot- 
estantism while  I  write  it,  seems  to  have 
been  peculiar  to  the  reformed.  *  *  *  * 
I  look  in  vain  for  one  of  those  accursed  out- 
rages of  imposition  among  the  disciples  of 
popery.  *  •  *  »  Forgery  appears  to 
have  been  the  peculiar  disease  of  Protestant- 
ism."— ^Whitaker. 

"  Persecution,  which  had  somewhat  abated 
during  the  war,  began  anew  with  increased 
severity  after  the  death  of  the  Earl  of  Des- 
mond, and  the  other  defenders  of  the  Catholic 
cause.  It  was  crime  enough,  being  an  Irish- 
man, to  be  persecuted,  or  if  a  Catholic,  to  be 
crucified.  Their  neighbours,  the  English 
Catholics,  were  not  exempt  from  the  persecu- 
tion."— Mac-Geoghegan. 

"In  1583  the  Earl  of  Desmond  was  at- 
tainted, and  574,628  Irish  acres  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  crown.  The  two  great  northern 
chieftains,  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnell,  were  ac- 
cused of  having  engaged  in  a  conspiracy,  and 
aware  of  the  result  of  awaiting  the  process  of 
English  law,  they  fled  the  country  and  were 
attainted." — T.  Mac-Nevin.  [See  chap.  24.] 

"The  confiscation  in  Munster  proved  as 
ruinous  to  the  power  and  interest  of  the  crown 
as  it  was  iniquitous  in  itself.  The  new  pro- 
prietors, suddenly  raised  to  wealth  and  sta- 
tion from  comparative  insignificance,  disre- 
garded the  royal  authority  ;  and,  being  sup- 
ported by  the  local  government,  were  enabled 
to  indulge  in  excesses  and  outrages  with  im- 
punity."— Taylor. 

"It  is  melancholy  to  relate,  and  stamps 
the  character  of  Spenser,  the  poet,  with  in- 
delible disgrace,  that  after  having  been  an 
eye-witness  of  the  Desmond  war,  in  which 
the  sword,  famine,  and  pestilence  devoured 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  population  of  the 
south  of  Ireland,  and  produced  scenes  of 
misery  suflicient  .to  mollify  the  heart  of  a 
Herod  or  a  Nero,  he  was  ferocious  enough 
to  advise  a  recurrence  to  the  destruction  of 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  for  the  purpose  of 
producing  another  famine,  in  order  to  force 
them,  'quietly  to  consume  themselves,  and 
devoure  one  another  !'  It  is  difiicult  to  be- 
lieve that  such  a  diabolical  plan  could  have 
entered  the  heart  of  the  poet,  whose  soothing 

29 


and  tender  strains  have  been  the  admiration 
of  readers  of  taste,  for  above  two  centuries. 
It  affords  full  proof,  that  a  man  may  write  like 
an  angel,  and  yet  possess  the  heart  of  a  de- 
mon. He  proposed  that  twenty  days  should 
be  allowed  for  them  to  come  in." — M.  Carey. 

"  Afterwards  I  would  have  none  received, 
but  left  to  their  fortune  and  miserable  end  : 
my  reason  is,  for  that  those  which  will  after- 
wards remaine  without,  are  stout  and  obsti- 
nate rebells,  such  as  will  never  be  made 
dutiful  and  obedient,  nor  brought  to  labour 
or  civill  conversation,  having  once  tasted  that 
licentious  life,  and  being  acquainted  with 
spoyle  and  outrages,  will  ever  after  be  ready 
for  the  like  occasions,  so  as  there  is  no  hope 
of  their  amendment  or  recovery,  and  there- 
fore needfull  to  be  cut  off. 

"  The  end  will  (I  assure  me)  bee  very 
short,  and  much  sooner  than  it  can  be  in 
so  great  a  trouble,  as  it  seemeth,  hoped  for, 
although  there  should  none  of  them  fall  by 
the  sword,  nor  bee  slain  by  the  souldiour :  yet 
thus  being  kept  from  manurance,  and  their 
cattle  from  running  abroad,  by  this  hard  re- 
straint, they  would  quietly  consume  them- 
selves, and  devoure  one  another ;  the  proofe 
whereof  I  saw  sufficiently  in  these  late 
warres  of  Munster ;  for  notwithstanding  that 
the  same  was  a  most  rich  and  plentiful  coun- 
trey,  full  of  com  and  cattle,  that  you  would 
have  thought  they  should  have  been  able  to 
stand  long,  yet  in  one  yeare  and  a  halfe  they 
were  brought  to  such  wretchednesse,  as  that 
any  stony  heart  would  have  rued  the  same. 
Out  of  every  comer  of  the  woods  and  glynnes 
they  came  creeping  forth  upon  their  handes, 
for  their  legges  could  not  beare  them  ;  they 
looked  like  anatomies  of  death ;  they  spake 
like  ghosts  crying  out  of  their  graves ;  tliey 
did  eate  the  dead  carrions,  happy  where 
they  could  find  them,  yea,  and  one  another 
soone  after,  insomuch  as  the  very  carcass- 
es they  spared  not  to  scrape  out  of  their 
graves ;  and  if  they  found  a  plot  of  water- 
cresses  or  shamrocks,  there  they  flocked 
as  to  a  feast  for  the  time ;  yet  not  able 
long  to  continue  therewithal];  that  in  short 
space  there  were  none  almost  left,  and  a 
most  populous  and  plentiful  country  sud- 


226 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1680. 


dainly  left  voyde  of  man  and  beast." — 
Spenser. 

"  It  is  singular  what  parts  three  of  the 
great  literary  reputations  of  England  have 
played  in  Ireland,  or  in  her  regard — the  cor- 
rupt Bacon,  the  sanguinary  Raleigh,  and  the 
gentle  Spenser.  The  latter  of  these  bad 
men  gratifies  the  poetic  tendencies  of  his  na- 
ture in  a  vivid  description  of  the  effects  of  the 
diabolical  policy  which  he  has  the  hardihood 
to  defend.  •  *  •  •  The  result  of  the 
false  and  vicious  morality  which  pervades 
English  literature  cannot  be  better  illustrated 
than  by  the  fact,  that  we  are  taught  to  think 
admiringly  of  a  wretch  capable  of  devising 
so  horrible  a  villany  as  that  which  his  own 
callous  pen  thus  coldly  records  !" — T.  Mac- 
Nevin. 

"  It  is  painful,  for  the  honour  of  human 
nature,  to  reflect  on  the  baseness  and  perfidy 
which  characterized  a  great  proportion  of  the 
English  oflficers  in  Ireland.  In  their  inter- 
course with  the  natives,  the  ties  of  honour, 
honesty,  and  justice,  were  wholly  disregard- 
ed. Among  the  guilty  are  many  who  stand 
high  in  the  British  annals,  and  are  regarded  as 
shedding  lustre  on  their  nation." — M.  Carey. 

"  I  am  perswaded,  if  a  penny  in  the  pound 
which  hath  been  spent  in  pcena,  a  chastise- 
ment of  rebels,  without  other  fruit  or  emolu- 
ment of  this  state,  had  been  spent  in  praemio, 
that  is,  rewarding,  things  had  never  grown  to 
this  extremity." — F.  Bacon. 

"  The  lord-deputy.  Sir  John  Perrot,  sunk 
into  the  base  character  of  a  kidnapper.  Be- 
ing desirous  of  obtaining  possession  of 
O'Donnel,  one  of  the  most  potent  proprietors 
in  Ulster,  or  his  son,  he  despatched  a  crafty 
captain  with  a  vessel  laden  with  wine,  to  Don- 
egal, to  entrap  the  unsuspecting  youth.  The 
vessel  was  reported  as  having  arrived  from 
Spain — and  the  young  man  being  invited  on 
board,  accepted  the  invitation,  with  two  of  his 
companions.  They  were  plied  well  with 
drink,  and  as  soon  as  a  favourable  opportu- 
nity offered,  were  loaded  with  chains,  when 
the  captain  set  sail  for  Dublin,  where  he  de- 
livered his  victims  to  the  deputy,  by  whom 
they  were  perfidiously  immured  in  prison, 
where  they  languished  for  many  years ;  till 


at  length,  probably  by  bribing  their  keepers, 
they  found  means  to  escape." — M.  Carey. 

"The  deputy  sent  one  Skipper,  a  mer- 
chant of  Dublin,  with  a  shippe  loaden  with 
sacks,  as  if  he  had  come  out  of  Spain, 
directing  him  to  runne  up  by  Donagall,  as 
farre  as  hee  could  unto  O'Donnell's  country, 
where  he  should  not  only  offer  to  sell  at  a 
cheape  price,  but  be  liberall  in  giving  wine 
to  such  as  should  come  aboard  him.  And 
that  if  O'Donnell  or  his  sonne  come  aboard 
him  by  that  meanes,  (as  he  knew  they 
would,)  hee  should  give  them  so  much  as 
might  make  them  forget  themselves,  as  being 
drunke  should  clap  them  under  hatch,  and 
bring  them  away  to  Dublin.  This  device 
was  as  carefully  performed  as  projected, 
young  O'Donnell  being  by  this  means  sur- 
prised and  brought  away." — Perrot. 

"As  if  the  secret  fire  of  disaffection  were 
not  sufliciently  kindled  in  the  northern  prov- 
ince, Fitz- William  by  his  intemperate  conduct 
seemed  to  court  every  occasion  of  inflaming 
it.  Mac-Mahon,  chieftain  of  the  district 
called  Monaghan,  had  surrendered  his  coun- 
try held  by  tanistry,  to  the  queen,  and  receiv- 
ed a  regrant  thereof,  under  the  broad  seal  of 
England,  to  him  and  his  heirs  male,  and  in 
default  of  such  heirs,  to  his  brother  Hugh. 
As  he  died  without  issue,  this  brother  peti- 
tioned to  be  admitted  to  his  inheritance.  He 
is  said  to  have  promised  a  considerable  bribe 
in  order  to  facilitate  his  suit :  and  to  his 
failure  of  payment  it  was  imputed,  that  he 
was  for  some  days  imprisoned,  on  his  arrival 
at  Dublin.  Fitz-William,  however,  was  pre- 
vailed upon  to  promise  that  he  would  settle 
him  in  peaceable  possession  of  his  inherit- 
ance, and  for  this  purpose  that  he  meant  to 
go  in  person  into  Monaghan.  But  scarcely 
had  he  arrived  thither,  when  he  eagerly  re- 
ceived a  new  accusation  against  Hugh,  that 
two  years  before,  he  had  entered  hostilely 
into  a  neighbouring  district,  to  recover  some 
rent  due  to  him,  by  force  of  arms.  In  the 
unreformed  parts  of  Ireland,  such  actions 
were  common  and  unnoticed ;  but  the  Eng- 
lish law  declared  them  treasonable.  The 
unhappy  Mac-Mahon,  for  an  offence  commit- 
ted before  the  law  which  declared  it  capital 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


227 


had  been  established  in  his  country,  was 
tried,  condemned  by  a  jury  said  to  be  formed 
of  private  soldiers,  and  executed  in  two  days ; 
to  the  utter  consternation  of  his  countrymen. 
His  estate  was  distributed  to  Sir  Henry  Bag- 
nal  and  other  adventurers,  together  with  four 
of  the  old  Irish  sept.        «        •        •        » 

"  The  condemnation  of  this  chieftain  con- 
firmed the  Irish  in  their  aversion  to  English 
pohty,  which  they  considered  as  a  system  of 
hateful  tyranny  and  cruelty.  They  combined 
in  a  resolution  of  opposing  the  admission  of 
sheriffs,  and  other  officers  of  justice,  into 
their  respective  counties.  When Fitz- William 
intimated  to  the  chieftain  of  Fermanagh  that 
he  intended  to  send  a  sheriff  into  his  district, 
Mac-Guire  answered  with  a  well-affected 
simplicity — '  Your  sheriff  shall  be  welcome  ; 
but  let  me  know  his  erick,  [legal  value,]  that 
if  my  people  should  cut  off  his  head,  I  may 
levy  it  upon  the  district.'  " — Leland. 

"A  great  part  of  that  unquietness  of 
O'Donnel's  country,  came  by  Sir  William 
Fitz- Williams  his  placing  of  one  Willis  there 
to  be  sheriff,  who  had  with  him  three  hun- 
dred of  the  very  rascals  and  scum  of  that 
kingdom,  which  did  rob  and  spoil  that  people, 
ravish  their  wives  and  daughters,  and  made 
havoc  of  all,  which  bred  such  a  discontent- 
ment, as  that  the  whole  country  was  up  in 
arms  against  them,  so  as  if  the  Earl  of  Ty- 
rone had  not  rescued  and  delivered  him  and 
them  out  of  the  country,  they  had  been  all 
put  to  the  sword. 

"  They  have  seen  pardons  serve  (in  their 
conceit)  rather  for  traps  to  catch  others  in, 
than  for  true  and  just  remission  and  accept- 
ance into  the  free  bjenefit  of  subjects,  which 
maketh  him  [Tyrone]  fear  the  like  practice 
towards  himself." — Memorial  of  Captain  Lee. 

"  Sir  John  Perrot,  among  his  Machiavelian 
advices  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  Ireland,  was  base  enough  to  recom- 
mend a  swindling  project  of  adulterating  the 
coin  of  Ireland,  which  she  was  profligate 
enough  to  adopt !  He  advised  to  coin  four 
hundred  thousand  pounds,  so  far  adultera- 
ted, that  it  should  cost  the  queen  only  one 
hundred  thousand  pounds.  And,  strange  as 
it  may  seem,  he  pretended  seriously  to  be- 


lieve that  it  would  confer  a  lasting  benefit  on 
Ireland,  and  tend  to  the  reformation  and  im- 
provement of  the  country !  His  reasoning 
on  the  advantages  to  flow  to  Ireland  from 
this  piratical  project  is  truly  curious  and 
highly  worthy  of  the  projector." — M.  Carey. 

"  As  imbasing  of  coyne  and  such  like  dan- 
gerous innovations,  may  breed  harme  in  well- 
gouemed  states  :  so  in  Ireland,  being  all  out 
of  order,  it  can  doe  no  harme  at  all ;  but 
rather  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that  this  small  in- 
conuenience,  may  be  a  meane  to  redresse 
not  onely  a  number  of  other  greater  inconue- 
niences,  but  also  itselfe  too  withal  in  the 
end." — Perrot. 

"  Her  highnesse,  being  a  prince  that  in  her 
gracious  disposition,  doth  ever  affect  to  make 
all  her  actions  cleare  and  allowable,  in  their 
owne  nature,  rather  than  in  the  power  of  su- 
preame  authoritie,  intending  in  this  cause  to 
giue  to  all  persons  such  satisfaction  as  is  rea- 
sonable."— Pacata  Hibemia. 

"  There  should  be  coyned  yeerely,  during 
the  first  four  yeares,  one  hundred  thousand 
poundes,  in  pieces  of  eightpence,  fourpence, 
twopence,  and  onepence,  the  same  to  con- 
taine  but  a  fourth  part  of  fine  siluer,  letting 
all  coines  that  are  currant  there,  of  good  gold 
and  siluer,  to  run  as  now  they  doe  :  so  your 
maiesties  charge,  besides  all  charges  of  coyn- 
age,  will  amount  to  no  more  but  twenty-five 
thousand  poundes  yeerely,  which,  by  that 
time  your  maiesty  with  God's  fauour  should 
see,  would  bring  you  a  fair  reckoning  of  that 
countrey  and  gouernment." — Perrot. 

"  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  Queen  Eliz- 
abeth, in  the  proclamation  prohibiting  the 
refusal  of  this  base  money,  under  severe 
penalties,  had  the  hardihood,  in  utter  disre- 
gard to  truth  and  common  sense,  to  make  a 
hypocritical  parade  of  her  honour  and  regard 
for  justice,  while  she  was  promulgating  a 
swindling  scheme  for  depredating  on  and 
plundering  her  poor  subjects.  The  folly  of 
attempting  to  deceive  the  world  by  such  a 
hollow  pretence,  is  almost  as  contemptible  as 
the  fraud  itself  is  detestable." — M.  Carey. 

"  Her  majesty  doth  expressely  charge  and 
command,  that  they,  nor  any  of  them,  shall 
not  after  the  day  of  the  pubUshing  heereo^ 


328 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1580. 


refuse,  reject,  or  denie  to  receiue  in  payment 
of  wages,  fees,  stipend,  or  in  payment  of 
debts,  or  in  bargaine,  or  for  any  other  matter 
of  trade,  commerce,  or  dealing  betweene 
man  and  man,  any  of  the  said  moneys  of 
either  kind,  either  mixed  of  siluer,  or  pure 
copper,  but  that  they  shall  receiue  and  accept 
the  same  at  such  values  and  rates  as  they  are 
coyned  for,  viz.  shillings  for  shillings,  pieces 
of  six-pence  for  six-pence,  and  so  of  all  other 
the  severall  kinds  of  that  coyne  respectiuely ; 
denouncing  hereby  to  all  such  as  shall  be 
found  wilfully  and  obstinately  to  refuse  the 
said  moneys  of  this  new  standered  being  ten- 
dered unto  them  in  payments,  or  in  any  deal- 
ings betweene  partie  and  partie,  that  they 
shall  for  that  their  contempt,  receiue  such 
punishment,  as  by  her  majesties  prerogatiue 
royall  may  be  inflicted  upon  persons  con- 
temning publique  orders  established  for  the 
universall  good  of  that  her  realme." — Pacata 
Hibernia. 

"  This  was  then  the  present  state  of  all 
Ireland,  altogether  devoured  with  robberies, 
murders,  riots,  treasons,  ciuill  and  intestine 
warres,  and  few  or  none  assured  and  faithfull 
to  hir  highnesse  out  of  the  English  pale,  and 
out  of  cities  and  townes  :  and  yet  the  one  be- 
ing gentlemen  and  living  by  their  lands,  by 
continuall  spoiles  and  robberies  were  decaied ; 
the  other  by  the  losse  of  their  traflUce,  being 
merchants,  impoverished,  and  brought  to  such 
extremities,  as  not  able  to  relieue  and  main- 
teine  themselves." — Hollinshed. 

"  Suche  horrible  and  lamentable  specta- 
cles there  are  to  beholde,  as  the  burninge  of 
villages,  the  rxxyu  of  churches,  the  wastinge 
of  suche  as  have  ben  good  townes  and  cas- 
tells  ;  yea,  the  view  of  the  bones  and  seniles 
of  the  ded  subjectes,  who  partelie  by  murder, 
partelie  by  famyn,  have  died  in  the  feelds,  as, 
in  troth,  hardelie  any  Christian  with  drie  eies 
could  beholde." — Sydney. 

"  The  miseries  which  the  wretched  Irish 
endured,  from  the  vicinity  of  the  royal  forces, 
which  prevented  them  from  seeking  any 
means  of  subsistence,  were  afflicting  to  the 
humanity  even  of  their  enemies.  Thousands 
perished  by  famine ;  and  every  road  and  district 
was  encumbered  by  their  unburied  carcasses. 


The  hideous  resources  sought  for  allaying 
the  rage  of  hunger,  were  more  terrible  even 
than  such  desolation." — Leland. 

"  And,  as  for  the  great  companies  of  soldiers, 
gallowglasses,  kerne,  and  the  common  peo- 
ple, who  followed  this  rebellion,  the  numbers 
of  them  are  infinite,  whose  bloods  the  earth 
drank  up,  and  whose  carcasses  the  fowls  of 
the  air  and  the  ravening  beasts  of  the  field 
did  consume  and  devour.  After  this  followed 
an  extreme  famine :  and  such  whom  the 
sword  did  not  destroy,  the  same  did  consume 
and  eat  out ;  very  few  or  none  remaining 
alive,  excepting  such  as  were  fled  over  into 
England  :  and  yet  the  store  in  the  towns  was 
far  spent,  and  they  in  distress,  albeit  nothing 
like  in  comparison  to  them  who  lived  at  large  ; 
for  they  were  not  only  driven  to  eat  horses, 
dogs,  and  dead  carrions  ;  but  also  did  devour 
the  carcasses  of  dead  men,  whereof  there  be 
sundry  examples  ;  namely,  one  in  the  county 
of  Cork,  where,  when  a  malefactor  was  exe- 
cuted to  death,  and  his  body  left  upon  the 
gallows,  certain  poor  people  secretly  came, 
took  him  down,  and  did  eat  him ;  likewise  in 
the  bay  of  Smeereweeke,  or  St.  Marieweeke,  x 
(the  place  which  was  first  seasoned  with  this 
rebellion,)  there  happened  to  be  a  ship  to  be 
there  lost,  through  foul  weather,  and  all  the 
men  being  drowned,  were  there  cast  on  land. 

"  The  common  people,  who  had  a  long 
time  lived  on  limpets,  ore-wads,  and  such 
shellfish  as  they  could  find,  and  which  were 
now  spent ;  as  soon  as  they  saw  these  bodies, 
they  took  them  up,  and  most  greedily  did  eat 
and  devour  them  :  and  not  long  after,  death 
and  famine  did  eat  and  consume  them.  The 
land  itselfe,  which  befo/e  those  wars  was 
populous,  well  inhabited,  and  rich  in  all  the 
good  blessings  of  God,  being  plenteous  of 
corne,  full  of  cattell,  well  stored  with  fish  and 
sundrie  other  good  commodities,  is  now  be- 
come waste  and  barren,  yielding  no  fruits, 
the  pastures  no  cattell,  the  fields  no  corne, 
the  aire  no  birds,  the  seas,  (though  full  of 
fish,)  yet  to  them  yielding  nothing.  Finallie, 
every  waie  the  curse  of  God  was  so  great, 
and  the  land  so  barren  both  of  man  and  beast, 
that  whosoever  did  travell  from  the  one  end 
to  the  other  of  all  Munster,  even  from  Water- 


A.  D.  1580.] 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


229 


ford  to  the  head  of  Smeerweeke,  which  is 
about  six  score  miles,  he  would  not  meet  anie 
man,  woman  or  child,  saving  in  townes  and 
cities  ;  nor  yet  see  anie  beast,  but  the  very 
wolves,  the  foxes,  and  other  like  ravening 
beasts ;  many  of  them  laie  dead,  being  fam- 
ished, and  the  residue  gone  elsewhere." — 

HoLLINSHED. 

"  The  Irish  clans,  under  the  name  of  their 
respective  princes,  never  died.  It  was  in 
vain  that  the  chieftain  of  the  day,  when  cap- 
tured by  the  English,  was  beheaded,  and  his 
head  placed  upon  a  pike.  There  was  anon 
*  another  Richmond  in  the  field.'  These 
clans  were  regulated  by  a  singularly  repub- 
lican law.  The  property  of  the  clan  or  tribe 
was  owned  almost  in  common.  On  the 
death  of  any  member,  all  the  property  be- 
longing to  him  was  cast  into  the  common 
lot,  and  redistributed  among  his  family." — 

MOONEY. 

"  In  1588,  the  last  war  which  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  had  to  maintain  against  Elizabeth 
and  the  whole  array  of  English  sectarians, 
commenced.  This  was  called  the  war  of 
T3nrone,  because  the  earl  of  that  name  was 
the  chief  leader ;  it  was  long  and  bloody. 
Philip  O'SulHvan,  in  his  Catholic  history, 
calls  it  'Bellum  quindecem  annorunC — the 
fifteen  years'  war.  It  began  in  the  thirty- 
first,  and  ended  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  Eliz- 
abeth's reign,  which  was  also  that  of  her 
death." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  By  the  patent  of  Henry  VIII.  the  suc- 
cession to  the  earldom  of  Tyrone,  and  chief- 
tainry  of  Hy-Niall,  had  been  granted  to  Mat- 
thew, Lord  Dungannon,  and  his  heirs.  Hugh, 
the  eldest  son  of  the  baron,  had  been  educated 
in  England,  and  had  served  with  great  eclat 
in  the  royal  army.  His  valour,  activity,  and 
skill  had  been  commemorated  by  several 
generals,  and  his  fidelity  proved  in  the  long 
war  against  Desmond.  He  petitioned  for 
permission  to  take  his  seat  in  the  Lords  as 
Earl  of  Tyrone,  and  also  the  restoration  of 
his  estates.  The  first  request  was  readily 
granted  by  Perrot ;  for  the  second,  he  was 
referred  to  the  queen  in  person.  Hugh 
O'Neill  appeared  at  the  court  of  England,  not 
like  his  uncle  John,  as  an  Irish  chief,  but  as 


an  accomplished  courtier,  versed  in  all  the 
politeness  of  the  age.  His  easy  manners,  his 
superior  information,  and  his  winning  address, 
delighted  a  queen  never  bUnd  to  such  accom- 
plishments. She  treated  him  with  the  great- 
est partiahty,  and  finally  granted  him  the 
ancient  possessions  of  his  family. 

"  Nothing  could  exceed  the  rage  and  dis- 
appointment of  the  faction  that  directed  the 
Irish  government  when  they  received  the  in- 
telligence of  this  event.  Little  did  they 
dream,  when  opposing  the  plantation  of  Ul- 
ster, that,  instead  of  securing  estates  for  them- 
selves, they  were  only  preserving  for  O'Neill 
the  inheritance  of  his  ancestors.  They  felt 
like  ravenous  beasts  whose  prey  is  rent  from 
their  jaws,  and  were  unable  to  control  some 
indiscreet  displays  of  their  vexation.  Their 
malice  soon  found  vent  in  calunmy ;  and 
Elizabeth,  ever  prone  to  jealousy,  lent  too 
ready  an  ear  to  their  insinuations.  She  had 
ordered  O'Neill  to  raise  six  companies  for  the 
defence  of  Ulster.  It  was  reported,  that  by 
continually  changing  his  soldiers,  he  was 
training  the  entire  province  to  arms.  She 
had  directed  him  to  build  a  house  in  the 
English  fashion,  suited  to  his  rank ;  it  was 
asserted  that  the  lead  which  he  purchased 
for  the  battlements  was  designed  to  form  bul- 
lets. She  requested  him  to  use  his  influence 
over  the  neighbouring  chieftains  for  the  main- 
tenance of  tranquillity.  His  exertions  for  the 
purpose  were  stigmatized  as  a  direct  assump- 
tion of  royal  authority.  O'Neill  disregarded 
these  plots  while  Perrot  continued  to  hold  the 
reins  of  power ;  but  his  administration  was 
fast  drawing  to  a  close." — Taylor. 

"  Perrot  had  applied,  long  before  this,  for 
his  recall.  Finding  a  powerful  faction  raised 
against  him,  who  laboured  to  blacken  him  in 
the  eyes  of  the  court,  he  wrote  an  urgent 
letter  to  the  queen,  begging  that  she  would 
exonerate  him  from  the  commission  of  the 
lord-lieutenancy.  Elizabeth  could  now  pay 
attention  to  his  request,  and  appointed  Sir 
William  Fitz-William  to  succeed  him.  Per- 
rot, on  his  return  to  England,  was  imprisoned 
for  some  offence,  in  the  Tower,  where  he  died 
suddenly." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  Betsy  was  a  great  *  doctor  of  divinity.' 


930 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1590. 


She  was  extremely  jealous  of  her  prerogatives 
and  powers,  but  particularly  in  what  regarded 
her  headship  of  the  Church.  She  would 
make  all  her  subjects  be  of  her  religion, 
though  she  had  solemnly  sworn,  at  her  coro- 
nation, that  she  was  a  Catholic,  and  though, 
in  turning  Protestant,  she  had  made  a  change 
in  Cranmer's  prayer-book  and  in  his  articles 
of  faith.  In  order  to  bend  the  people's  con- 
sciences to  her  tyrannical  will,  which  was 
the  more  unjust,  because  she  herself  had 
changed  her  religion,  and  had  even  changed 
the  Protestant  articles,  she  established  an 
'  inquisition'  the  most  horrible  that  ever  was 
heard  of  in  the  world.         •         •         * 

"  When  one  looks  at  the  deeds  of  this  foul 
tyrant,  when  one  sees  what  abject  slavery 
she  had  reduced  the  nation  to,  and  especially 
when  one  views  this  *  commission,'  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  not  to  reflect  with  shame  on 
what  we  have  so  long  been  saying  against 
the  *  Spanish  Inquisition,'  which,  from  its  es- 
tablishment to  the  present  hour,  has  not  com- 
mitted so  much  cruelty  as  this  ferocious  Prot- 
estant apostate  committed  in  any  one  single 
year  of  the  forty-three  [forty-five]  years  of 
her  reign." — Cobbett. 

"  In  Spain,  during  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  there  were  none  of  those 
bloody  revolutions,  conspiracies,  and  cruel 
punishments  which  were  seen  in  the  other 
courts  of  Europe.  Neither  did  the  Duke  of 
Lermo  nor  Count  Olivarez  shed  the  blood 
of  their  enemies  on  the  scaffold.  Her  kings 
were  not  assassinated,  as  were  those  of 
France,  neither  were  they  brought  to  the 
block,  as  were  those  of  England.  In  a 
word,  were  we  to  except  the  horrors  of  the 
Inquisition,  Spain  would  have  been  irre- 
proachable."— Voltaire. 

"  Tell  us  not  that  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
has  been  guilty  of  various  abuses  at  various 
times.  That  is  not  the  question  we  are  now 
considering.  The  real  object  of  importance 
in  our  inquiry  is,  to  learn  whether,  for  the 
last  three  centuries,  the  Inquisition  has  en- 
sured more  peace  and  happiness  in  Spain 
than  were  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe  add- 
ed together.  To  sacrifice  the  positive  to  the 
problematic  happiness  of  future  generations 


may  be  the  visionary  calculation  of  '  a  philos- 
opher,' but  real  legislators  would  adopt  a 
different  course." — J.  Le  Maistre. 

"  I  do  publicly  avow,  in  order  to  pay  hom- 
age to  truth,  that  the  Spanish  Inquisition 
might  be  cited  in  our  days  as  a  model  of 
equity." — Bourgoing's  "  Nouveau  Voyage 
en  Espagne,''^  1804. 

"  The  first  cause  of  Tyrone's  difliculties 
with  Elizabeth,  was  drawn  upon  him  by  the 
hospitality  with  which  he  had  received  some 
Spaniards  who  were  cast  by  a  storm  upon  the 
coasts  of  Ulster.  A  misunderstanding  existed 
between  Philip  the  Second,  King  of  Spain, 
and  the  Queen  of  England.  Treaties  of  peace 
were  often  entered  into  between  them,  and 
as  frequently  broken  off.  The  sovereignty 
of  the  Low-Countries  had  already  been 
wrested  from  Philip  by  the  States  of  Hol- 
land, under  the  advice  of  William,  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  transferred  to  the  Duke  d'Anjou. 
Queen  Elizabeth  assisted  Philip's  rebellious 
subjects,  of  whom  Alexander  Famese,  Prince 
of  Parma,  was  named  governor,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  Philip  sent  aid  to  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  against  Elizabeth.       •         *         • 

"  When  the  above  information  was  given 
against  O'Neill,  an  order  was  sent  to  him,  in 
the  njime  of  the  queen  and  council,  to  appear 
in  England  in  order  to  clear  himself.  O'Neill, 
desirous  of  retaining  the  confidence  of  the 
queen  for  some  time  longer,  repaired  to  Lon- 
don in  May,  1590,  attended  by  a  retinue 
suited  to  his  rank,  and  pleaded  his  cause  so 
ably  that  he  was  judged  to  be  innocent,  in 
spite  of  the  treasurer,  William  Cecil,  who 
possessed  great  influence,  and  was  equally 
hostile  to  the  Catholics  and  the  Irish  nation. 
The  Prince  of  Tyrone  being  reconciled  to 
the  queen  and  council,  returned  to  Ireland." 
Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  The  penal  laws  were  in  general  no  less 
severely  exercised  against  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  though  they  constituted  the  body  of 
the  people,  than  they  were  against  those  of 
England.  Spondanus  and  Pagi  relate  the 
horrid  cruelties  exercised  by  Sir  William 
Drury  on  F.  O'Hurle,  O.  S.  F.,  the  Catholic 
Archbishop  of  Cashel,  who,  falhng  into  the 
hands  of  this  sanguinary  governor  in  the  year 


A.  D.  1591.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


231 


1579,  was  tortured  by  his  legs  being  immers- 
ed in  jack-boots  filled  with  quick-lime,  water, 
&c.,  until  they  were  burnt  to  the  bone,  in 
order  to  force  him  to  take  the  oath  of  Su- 
premacy, and  then,  with  other  circumstances 
of  barbarity,  executed  on  the  gallows ;  hav- 
ing previously  cited  Drury  to  meet  him  at  the 
tribunal  of  Christ  within  ten  days,  who  ac- 
cordingly died  within  that  period,  amidst  the 
most  excruciating  pains.  See  in  Bourke's 
*  Hibernia  Dominicana,^  a  much  longer  list 
and  a  more  detailed  account  of  Irish  sufferers, 
especially  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  on  the  score 
of  religion.  It  was  a  usual  thing  to  beat 
with  stones  the  shorn  heads  of  their  clergy, 
till  their  brains  gushed  out.  Others  had 
needles  thrust  under  their  nails,  or  the  nails 
themselves  were  torn  off.  Many  were 
stretched  upon  the  rack,  or  pressed  under 
weights.  Others  had  their  bowels  torn  open, 
which  they  were  obliged  to  support  with 
their  hands,  or  their  flesh  torn  with  curry- 
combs."  J.  MiLNER. 

"  Bearing  these  strong  truths  in  mind,  let 
us  cast  a  glance  at  the  persecution  of  the 
Irish  Roman  Catholics,  and  we  shall  find 
that  it  bears  imprinted  on  its  forehead  the 
unerring  mark  of  antichrist ;  for  after  the 
hundreds  of  volumes  employed  in  investiga- 
ting who,  and  what,  and  where  is  antichrist, 
I  am  fully  persuaded,  that  the  true  and  gen- 
uine antichrist  is  religious  persecution ;  that 
every  persecutor,  of  whatever  denomination, 
was  a  lineal  descendant  of  antichrist ;  and 
that  religious  persecution,  in  all  its  shapes 
and  forms,  whether  exercised  by  Dioclesian 
at  Rome,  Mahomet  at  Mecca,  Dominic  at 
Madrid,  Charles  IX.  at  Paris,  Calvin  at  Ge- 
neva, Knox  in  Edinburgh,  Mary  in  England, 
or  Elizabeth  in  Ireland,  was  utterly  anti- 
christian." — M.  Carey. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Reign  of  Elizabeth — 1591  to  1603^Foun(iing  of 
Trinity  College,  Dublin — Edict  against  the  Cath- 
olic clergy — ^Fitz-William  succeeded  by  Sir  John 
Russell — ^Large  force  sent  to  Ireland  under  Sir 
John  Norris— Siege  of  the  fort  on  the  Blackwater 


— Defeat  of  the  English  army — General  rising  of 
the  septs — Alarm  of  the  queen — Earl  of  Essex 
appointed  lord-lieutenant,  and  provided  with  an 
army  of  twenty  thousand  men — Disappointment 
of  the  queen — Departure  of  Essex — Operations 
of  Montjoy  and  Carew — Critical  situation  of 
O'Neiirs  affairs — Arrival  of  succours  from  Spain 
— Hasty  battle — Success  of  the  English — At- 
tempts of  O'Neill  to  rally  the  septs  after  the  loss 
of  Kinsale — Campaign  in  Ulster-— Gallant  defence 
of  Dunboy — Every  living  thing  destroyed  over  the 
surface  of  Munster — Retreat  of  the  southern  in- 
surgents towards  Ulster,  where  O'Neill  perse- 
veres until  the  death  of  Elizabeth — Indicative 
evidence  of  historical  authorities. 

The  most  solemn  and  fanatical  of  the 
would-be-learned  enemies  of  Ireland  have 
been  obliged  lately  to  put  on  a  look  of  cun- 
ning candour,  and  bravely  confess,  that  the 
schools  and  colleges  of  Ireland  constituted  a 
large  portion  of  the  real  glory  which  celebra- 
ted her  name  for  ages  before  misrepresenta- 
tion and  calumny  were  enlisted  to  perform 
what  the  sword  could  not  accomplish.  In 
truth,  such  was  the  superiority  of  these  insti- 
tutions, that  they  were  frequented  by  the  am- 
bitious scholars  of  every  country  in  Europe. 
For  centuries  they  had  in  return  supplied  the 
various  universities  of  the  continent  with 
some  of  their  ablest  professors  in  every  de- 
partment of  learning ;  but,  according  to  Mac- 
Geoghegan,  "  much  of  this  celebrity  was  lost 
by  the  invasion  of  the  English  in  the  twelfth 
century."  This  statement  of  his,  although 
apparently  improbable,  is  confirmed  by  the 
policy  observed  in  the  modes  of  government 
adopted  for  Ireland  by  the  English  diuing  the 
four  following  centuries.  Unfortunately, 
there  is  too  much  evidence  that  the  Irish 
mind  was  necessarily  occupied  with  war,  or 
its  consequences,  almost  without  any  cessa- 
tion. 

Queen  Elizabeth,  in  one  of  those  fits  of 
selfish  and  equivocal  kindness  for  which  she 
is  so  famous,  took  the  pleasure  and  pains  to 
establish  Trinity  College,  in  Dublin.  The 
first  stone  was  laid  on  the  13th  of  March, 
1591 ;  the  corporation  having,  during  the 
previous  year,  granted  the  grounds  of  the 
monastery  of  All-hallows  for  the  purpose  of 
establishing  a  college  on  the  same  site. 
Elizabeth's  real  sentiments  in  this  matter 
may  be  seen  by  the  edict  she  issued  on  the 
18th  of  October  following,  against  the  minis- 


932 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1595. 


ters  of  the  Catholic  religion.  In  this  docu- 
ment the  miserable  woman  unconsciously 
dashes  her  head  against  the  walls  of  her 
own  ignorance,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  violent 
language  she  employs  towards  the  King  of 
Spain,  the  pope,  the  priests,  and  all  the  semi- 
narians and  Jesuits.  Those  individuals  who 
might  be  guilty  of  harbouring  any  rank  of 
Catholic  ecclesiastics  were  condemned  to  pay 
heavy  fines  under  her  construction  of  high- 
treason,  which  was  defined  as  consisting  in 
the  refusal  to  embrace  and  believe  whatever 
went  by  the  name  of  "  the  reformed  religion." 

Fitz-William's  decided  unpopularity  indu- 
ced Elizabeth  to  recall  him  and  appoint  Sir 
John  Russell,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford, 
to  succeed  him.  O'Neill  presented  himself 
to  the  new  deputy,  but  was  unable  to  efface 
the  unfavourable  impressions  which  the  slan- 
ders of  Bagnal  and  his  other  enemies  had 
produced.  The  expediency  of  arresting  the 
chief  while  in  Dublin  was  debated  at  the 
council  board,  and  only  negatived  by  a  very 
small  majority.  O'Neill  soon  learned  his 
danger,  and  fled  to  his  own  province  with  the 
utmost  precipitation. 

Hugh  O'Donnel,  Daniel  Mac-Sweeny,  and 
Fluan  O'Gallachur,  having  been  arrested  by 
stratagem,  as  already  described,  were  impris- 
oned in  Dublin  for  nearly  seven  years,  when, 
in  1591,  they  found  means  to  escape  with 
Henry  and  Art,  two  sons  of  Shane  O'Neill, 
and  Philip  O'Reilly.  Fiach  O'Birne  and 
young  Edward  Eustace  contributed  greatly 
to  their  escape.  These  noblemen  having 
pacified  the  jailers,  sent  the  princely  captives 
a  piece  of  linen,  as  if  for  clothing.  O'Donnel 
cut  it  into  strips,  which  he  then  tied  together 
like  a  rope,  by  which  means  they  all  descend- 
ed safely  into  the  trench,  except  Art  O'Neill, 
who  was  dangerously  wounded  by  a  stone 
that  fell  from  the  wall,  and  caused  his  death 
shortly  afterwards.  Thus  delivered  from 
prison  at  midnight,  they  left  the  city  before 
daybreak.  It  was  then  the  depth  of  winter, 
and  they  were  obliged  to  take  by-paths,  in 
order  to  escape  the  pursuit  of  their  enemies, 
so  that  they  suffered  great  fatigue  and  hard- 
ships before  they  arrived  in  Ulster. 

This  Hugh  O'Donnel,  Prince  of  Tyrcon- 


nel,  called  rightly  Bal  Deargue  O'Donnaill, 
from  a  red  spot  on  his  body,  was  considered 
next  to  O'Neill  in  point  of  power.  Though 
not  twenty  years  of  age,  he  was  remarkable 
for  his  prudence  and  other  virtues.  He  mar- 
ried the  daughter  of  O'Neill,  and  succeeded 
the  elder  O'Donnel  (with  full  consent)  as 
tanist  at  Tyrconnel.  Irritated  by  the  recol- 
lection of  his  unmerited  sufferings,  and  by  the 
state  of  affairs  in  Ireland,  the  young  chief  did 
not  long  hesitate  before  taking  up  arms 
against  the  English  power,  and  soon  prevail- 
ed on  several  other  septs,  particularly  the  De 
Burghs,  to  follow  his  example.  The  situa- 
tion of  O'Neill  was  now  in  the  highest  degree 
embarrassing ;  his  countrymen  unanimously 
invited  him  to  become  their  leader  in  war ; 
the  royal  oflicers  were  resolved  to  discredit 
his  sincere  anxiety  for  peace  ;  the  perfidy 
and  treachery  of  the  Irish  government  was  so 
notorious  that  it  would  have  been  madness 
to  place  any  confidence  in  it ;  and  his  letters 
to  England  were  intercepted  by  the  malig- 
nant vigilance  of  Marshal  Bagnal. 

O'Neill  had  long  felt  the  same  embarrass- 
ment in  many  other  respects.  The  title  of 
Earl  of  Tyrone  was  a  clog  upon  all  his  move- 
ments while  in  Ireland.  While  he  appeared 
to  act  for  the  queen's  interest,  the  English 
always  pretended  to  mistrust  him,  and  the 
Irish  at  every  opportunity  charged  him  with 
inactivity  and  lack  of  patriotism.  Until  1595 
he  had  been  thwarted  by  Tirlough  Linogh, 
cousin  to  Conn  O'Neill,  first  earl  of  the  name, 
and  son  of  the  brother  of  Con  More  O'Neill, 
who  was  father  of  the  earl.  Tirlough  assum- 
ed the  name  of  O'Neill ;  disputed  the  prin- 
cipality of  Tyrone  with  Hugh,  and  was  sup- 
ported by  the  greater  part  of  the  tribe,  who 
despised  English  titles,  and  considered  the 
family  name  alone  to  be  much  more  honour- 
able. On  the  death  of  his  rival,  he  was 
acknowledged  as  the  O'Neill.  Hugh  then 
renounced  the  title  of  earl,  and  declared  him- 
self against  the  power  of  the  queen.  He 
was  afterwards  nominated  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  league,  which  consisted  of  sev- 
eral branches  of  the  O'Neills,  Maguires, 
Mac-Mahons,  Magennises,  Mac-Donnels,  O'- 
Cahans,    O'Flannagans,    and    many    other 


A.  D.  1598.] 


SECOND   DIVISION 


233 


powerful  nobles  of  Ulster,  with  their  military 
vassals. 

On  the  first  news  of  these  hostilities,  a 
force  of  two  thousand  veterans  was  sent  into 
Ireland ;  and  soon  after  Sir  John  Norris,  a 
general  of  approved  skill  and  valour,  was  ap- 
pointed to  take  the  command  of  the  army. 
O'Neill,  dreading  the  chances  of  civil  war, 
wrote  to  the  general,  detailing  his  grievances, 
and  the  arts  by  which  he  was  driven  to  revolt. 
Bagnal,  as  before,  intercepted  some  of  the 
letters ;  but  others  reached  their  destination, 
and  led  to  a  general  conference.  The  Irish 
chiefs  detailed  their  grievances  in  simple  but 
forcible  terms.  Norris,  who  was  an  honest 
as  well  as  an  able  man,  was  convinced  of  the 
injustice  which  had  driven  them  to  arms,  and 
zealously  laboured  to  effect  a  negotiation. 
The  arrangement  of  a  treaty  was  protracted 
to  a  very  unusual  length,  and  was  not  unfre- 
quently  interrupted  by  renewed  hostilities. 
In  fact,  with  the  single  exception  of  Norris, 
none  of  the  parties  sincerely  laboured  for 
peace.  The  Irish  lords  began  to  be  con- 
scious of  their  strength.  The  successes  they 
had  already  obtained  were  sufficiently  deci- 
sive to  inspire  confidence,  and  they  had  re- 
ceived many  promises  of  assistance  from 
Spain. 

After  several  severe  battles,  in  which  the 
Irish  troops  were  generally  victorious,  and 
O'Neill  and  O'Donnel  had  performed  actions 
which  considerably  increased  their  influence, 
Elizabeth  sent  commissioners  to  O'Neill  with 
terms  of  peace  from  her  council.  From 
Norris's  high  reputation  when  serving  in  the 
Netherlands,  much  disappointment  was  ex- 
pressed at  his  reverses  in  Ireland.  The  Earl 
of  Essex,  Elizabeth's  prime  favourite,  was 
also  personally  opposed  to  Norris.  By  his 
influence,  in  May,  1598,  both  the  general 
and  the  deputy  were  deprived  of  their  power, 
and  his  partisan,  Lord  Burgh,  invested  both 
with  the  civil  and  military  authority.  Norris 
was  ordered  back  to  his  presidency,  Munster, 
where  he  died  of  grief,  in  consequence  of  the 
stain  cast  upon  his  reputation. 

Lord  Burgh  had  served  in  various  coun- 
tries, generally  with  success,  and  had  lately 
returned  from  a  successful  campaign  in  Hol- 

30 


land.  His  first  act  in  Ireland  was  to  make  a 
truce  for  one  month,  with  O'Donnel,  O'Neill, 
and  other  Catholic  chiefs,  and  terms  of  peace 
were  offered  to  them,  but  in  vain.  The 
month  being  expired,  the  English  general 
marched  to  Ulster  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 
army.  Besides  the  troops  which  served  un- 
der Russel  and  Norris,  a  large  reinforcement 
was  sent  to  him  from  England. 

The  Anglo-Irish  of  Meath  were  zealous  to 
signalize  themselves  in  the  cause  of  Eliza- 
beth :  they  assembled  at  MulUngar  to  the 
number  of  a  thousand  men,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Bamewall,  Baron  of  Trimlestown, 
and  marched  after  the  deputy.  In  their  route, 
however,  they  were  entirely  defeated. 

Richard  Tyrrell,  who  was  of  English  de- 
scent, and  lord  of  FertuUagh,  in  West  Meath, 
served  at  that  time  in  the  army  of  O'Neill. 
He  was  a  nobleman  by  birth,  and  attached  to 
the  Catholic  religion.  His  talents  peculiarly 
fitted  him  to  command  skirmishing  parties. 
From  the  rapidity  of  his  expeditions,  and  ca- 
pability of  sustaining  fatigue,  he  had  already 
become  formidable  to  the  English. 

The  Prince  of  Tyrone  saw  with  calm  re- 
flection the  preparations  that  were  in  progress 
against  him.  The  march  of  the  deputy  was 
known  to  him ;  he  therefore  prepared  to  cause 
a  diversion.  Captain  Tyrrell  was  despatched 
at  the  head  of  four  hundred  infantry,  with 
orders  to  act  in  either  Meath  or  Leinster, 
according  to  emergencies.  Tyrrell  marched 
through  the  whole  of  Meath  without  meeting 
an  enemy,  and  having  reached  Fertullagh,  he 
encamped,  in  order  to  give  his  army  some 
repose.  The  troops  which  had  been  assem- 
bled at  MuUingar,  as  has  been  already  ob- 
served, being  apprized  of  Tjnrell's  march, 
determined  to  take  him  by  surprise.  The 
baron  who  commanded  them  looked  upon 
this  expedition  as  unworthy  of  himself,  on 
account  of  the  small  number  of  the  enemy  he 
had  to  fight,  and  therefore  commissioned  his 
son  to  undertake  it,  thinking  it  a  good  oppor- 
tunity for  him  to  signalize  himself,  and  there- 
by to  make  his  court  to  the  deputy.  At  the 
dawn  of  day  Tyrrell  received  information  that 
the  enemy  were  in  full  march  to  surprise 
him.     Without  losing  a  moment,  he  put  him- 


234 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  169& 


Belf  in  a  state  of  dcfenco,  but  made  a  feint 
f  flying  before  them  as  they  approached ; 
by  which  movement  he  gained  a  defile  cov- 
ered with  trees,  which  has  been  since  called 
Tyrrell's  Pass.  He  then  detached  half  of 
his  little  army,  and  posted  them  in  a  hollow 
adjoining  the  road,  giving  the  command  to 
his  lieutenant,  O'Connor,  a  brave  and  intrepid 
man  like  himself.  He  then,  in  order  to  in- 
fluence his  enemy  to  pursue  him,  marched 
on  with  his  division.  While  the  English 
were  passing  the  place  where  O'Connor  lay 
in  ambuscade,  this  officer  sallied  forth  with 
Ms  troops,  and  caused  the  drums  and  fifes  to 
play  Captain  Tyrrell's  March.  This  was  the 
signal  agreed  upon  for  an  attack  ;  the  Eng- 
lish army  were  cut  to  pieces  ;  and  so  general 
was  the  slaughter,  that  one  soldier  only  es- 
caped, through  a  neighbouring  bog,  to  carry 
the  news  torMullingar,  from  whence  the  army 
had  set  out  three  days  previously.  Tyrrell  had 
sufiicient  generosity  to  spare  the  life  of  the 
young  nobleman  who  commanded  his  en- 
«!my,  but  brought  him  a  prisoner  to  O'Neill. 
Burgh,  the  deputy,  having  reached  Ulster 
with  all  his  forces,  his  first  step  was  to  take 
possession  of  Armagh  and  Portmor,  which 
O'Neill  had  abandoned  after  destroying  the 
fortifications.  The  English  general  being 
afraid  to  proceed  further,  repaired  Portmor, 
where  he  left  a  garrison  of  five  hundred  men, 
and  drew  ofi"  the  remainder  of  his  army. 
While  on  bis  way  to  Dublin,  he  learned  that 
Tyrrell  was  besieging  Portmor ;  he  therefore 
returned,  collected  his  forces,  and  crossed 
the  Blackwater,  but  was  prevented  from 
advancing  by  O'Neill,  who  had  divided  his 
army  and  formed  two  camps,  sufficiently  near 
to  assist  each  other.  The  command  of  the 
first  division  was  given  to  his  brothers  Cor- 
mac  and  Art  O'Neill,  and  Mac-Mahon,  at 
Droum-Fluich,  on  the  road  to  Beaun-Bhoruib, 
(at  present  Binburb.)  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
river.  The  prince  himself  commanded  the 
second  camp  at  Tobuir-Masain,  and  was  as- 
sisted by  James  Mac-Donnel,  Prince  of  the 
Glynns.  The  deputy  endeavoured,  in  spite 
of  Tyrone's  position,  to  force  a  passage ;  but 
O'Neill's  two  divisions  having  united,  they 
made   a   desperate  attack.     In  the  onset, 


Burgh  was  mortally  wounded,  and  was  car- 
ried to  Newry,  where  he  died  in  a  few  days. 
This  battle  was  renewed  several  times.  The 
Earl  of  Kildare,  on  whom  the  command  of 
the  English  army  devolved  after  Burgh's 
retreat,  suffered  the  same  fate.  Having  been 
wounded,  and  twice  thrown  from  his  horse, 
his  two  foster-brothers  were  killed  in  endea- 
vouring to  put  him  again  on  horseback. 
The  carnage  was  dreadful ;  numbers  of  the 
English  lay  dead  upon  the  field  ;  many  were 
drowned  in  the  river,  and  very  many  wounded. 
Several  persons  of  note  fell  upon  this  occa- 
sion. Kildare  died  of  grief  for  the  loss  of 
his  two  foster-brothers. 

The  civil  administration  was  now  commit- 
ted to  Archbishop  Loftus,  and  Gardiner  the 
lord- chancellor,  while  Ormond  was  intrusted 
with  the  command  of  the  army.  To  this  lord 
O'Neill  made  overtures  for  an  accommoda- 
tion, and  a  new  treaty  was  commenced. 
The  object  of  Tyrone  in  this  negotiation,  was 
manifestly  only  to  gain  time,  for  the  double 
purpose  of  recruiting  his  own  strength,  and 
wearing  out  the  patience  of  his  opponents. 
When'  his  preparations  were  complete,  he 
summoned  to  his  aid  the  sept  of  the  O'Don-" 
nel&j  and  that  clan  of  the  De  Burghs  which 
bore  the  name  of  Mac-William,  boldly  de- 
clared his  independence,  and  laid  close  siege 
to  the  fort  of  Blackwater.  Bagnal  was  or- 
dered to  relieve  the  place ;  and  the  armies  of 
two  generals,  nearly  connected  by  marriage, 
and  yet  animated  with  more  than  mortal  en- 
mity, met  near  Armagh.  The  forces  on  both 
sides  were  nearly  equal.  The  English  pos- 
sessed superior  advantages  in  arms  and  dis- 
cipline ;  the  Irish  were  animated  by  a  fiercer 
spirit,  and  had  a  more  skilful  commander. 
During  the  engagement,  an  explosion  of  pow- 
der killed  nearly  all  the  men  who  were  guard- 
ing the  baggage,  and  threw  the  royalists  into 
confusion  and  dismay.  Bagnal,  while  rais- 
ing his  beaver,  was  shot  through  the  brain. 
The  victory  of  the  Irish  was  decisive ;  fifteen 
hundred  more  of  the  royal  soldiers,  and  many 
of  their  best  officers,  fell.  Thirty-four  stand- 
ards, all  the  artillery,  arms,  and  ammunition, 
were  left  in'the  possession  of  the  conquerors. 
The  bravery  of  O'Reilly,  an  Irish  chieftain 


A.  D.  1698.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


2.15 


attached  to  the  royal  cause,  alone  saved  the 
royal  army  from  annihilation.  He  covered 
the  retreat  with  a  body  of  his  own  clan,  and 
was  ably  assisted  by  Montague,  the  com- 
mander of  the  English  cavalry.  The  fort 
of  Blackwater  was  immediately  surrendered, 
and  ihe  town  of  Armagh  abandoned  by  the 
queen's  garrison. 

The  example  of  the  men  of  Ulster  roused 
the  Catholics  in  other  provinces,  particularly 
in  Munster,  where  the  bravery  of  the  cele- 
brated Earl  of  Desmond  was  still  fresh  among 
his  allies.     This  feeling  it  was  necessary  to 
encourage,  and  to  effect  that  object,  Sir  Peter 
de  Lacy,  a  powerful  nobleman  in  Limerick, 
wrote  to   Owen,  or   Owny  Mac-Rory-Oge 
O'Morra,  who  had  an  army  on  foot ;   and 
invited  him,  in  the  name  of  the  Catholics  in 
Munster,  to  come  to  their  relief.     O'Morra, 
having  consulted  with  O'Neill,  undertook  the 
expedition.     He  committed  the  government 
of  Leix  to  his  brother  Edmund,  and,  at  the 
head  of  eight  hundred   infantry  and  some 
horsemen,  set  out  for  Munster.     Raymond 
Burke,  Baron  of  Leitrim,  and  his  brother 
William,  as  also  Dermod  O'Connor,  and  his 
brothers  Cairbre  and   Conn,  with  Richard 
Tyrrel,  of  Fertullagh,  accompanied  O'Morra 
in  this  expedition.     The  Earl  of  Ormond, 
who  had  still  the  title  of  general  in  the  Eng- 
lish   army,   made    a    show    of  intercepting 
O'Morra,  but  he  and  his  army  arrived  with- 
out interruption  in  the  county  of  Limerick. 
Thomas  Norris,  who  was  then  Governor  of 
Munster,  was  greatly  alarmed  by  this  inva- 
sion.    His  duty  impelled   him  to  attempt 
driving  the  enemy  out  of  the  province,  and 
for  that  object  he  collected  his  forces  and 
marched  to  Kilmallock,  with  a  design  of  fight- 
ing O'Morra;  but  dreading  the  result  of  an 
engagement  with   liim,  he  placed  a  strong 
garrison  there,  after  which  he  marched  for 
Cork.     He,  however,  had  the  mortification 
to  witness  his  rearguard  pursued  by  the  light 
troops  of  O'Morra,  through  the  whole  of  his 
march. 

The  success  of  O'Morra  produced  an  al- 
most universal  rising  of  the  noblemen  in 
Munster  against  the  queen.  Mac-Carty  More 
was  prevented  only  by  death  from  joining  the 


confederates.  He  left  a  legitimate  daughter, 
named  Helena,  that  was  married  to  Mac- 
Carty  Riagh  ;  and  a  natural  son  called  Dan- 
iel, who  aspired  to  inherit  the  title  and  es- 
tates of  his  father.  The  earls  of  Thomond 
and  Ormond,  and  the  Baron  of  Inchiquin, 
inclined  always  to  the  side  that  gave  hopes 
to  their  ambition  ;  and  the  desire  of  titles  of 
honour  and  court  favours  prevented  them 
from  joining  in  any  league  against  Elizabeth. 
The  extensive  influence  of  these  noblemen 
marred  the  good  intentions  of  the  Mac-Ma- 
bons,  Mac-Namaras,  O'Connors,  O'Loghlins 
of  Thomond,  O'Dwyers,  O'Fogartys,  O'Mea- 
ghers,  O'Moel-Ryans,  O'Kennedys,  and  other 
noblemen  of  Tipperary,  and  restrained  them 
from  uniting  against  the  Queen  of  England. 

The  other  prominent  m^n  of  the  province 
generally  looked  with  contempt  upon  influ- 
ences which  interfered  with  their  reli<»ion 
and  freedom,  and  therefore  took  up  arms  in 
defence  of  both.  Among  these  were  Fitz. 
Maurice,  Baron  of  Lixnaw ;  William  Fitz- 
Gerald,  Knight  of  Kerry  and  Lord  of  Kafin- 
nin;  Edmund  Fitz-Gerald,  Knight  of  the 
Glinn  ;  Sir  Edmund  Fitz-Gerald,  (called  the 
White  Knight,)  with  many  other  branches 
of  that  illustrious  house :  Dermod  and  Do- 
nough  Mac-Carty,  rival  candidates  for  the 
principality  of  Alia;  Daniel,  son  of  Mac- 
Carty  More  ;  Patrick  Condon  ;  0-Donohoe 
More  of  Onachte  ;  O'Donohoe  of  the  Glinn  ; 
Roche,  Viscount  Fermoy  ;  Richard  Butler, 
Viscount  of  Montgarret,  who  had  married  the 
daughter  of  O'Neill ;  and  Thomas  Butler, 
Baron  of  Cahir.  The  same  disposition  ani- 
mated the  several  tribes  of  the  O'Sullivans, 
the  O'Driscolls,  the  O'Donnevans,  and  the 
O'Mahonys  of  Carbry. 

These  confederates  appointed  for  their 
leader,  James,  son  of  Thomas  Fitz-Gerald, 
surnamed  the  Red,  and  acknowledged  him 
as  Earl  of  Desmond.  Thomas  the  Red  was 
brother  to  Garret,  last  count-palatine  of  that 
illustrious  family.  He  left  a  son  named 
James,  who  had  been  given  by  the  countess 
his  mother  as  a  hostage  to  the  English,  and 
who  had  been  kept  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of 
London  for  seventeen  years.  James  was  the 
lawful  heir  of  the  earl,  and  to  his  title  of  Des- 


236 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  ir,w. 


mond ;  but  so  long  an  absence  rendered  him 
almost  forgotten,  and  caused  the  title  to  be 
conferred  upon  James,  son  of  his  cousin 
Thomas  ;  who  was  therefore  chosen  as  the 
leader  in  that  portion  of  the  province  where 
the  name  and  fame  of  the  ancient  earls  were 
sacredly  respected.  Something  like  unity 
being  now  restored,  O'Neill  boldly  gave  out 
intimations  that  he  was  to  be  assisted  by 
Spain. 

Elizabeth  could  not  now  hide  the  alarm 
which  she  had  long  experienced  regarding 
what  she  considered  her  interests  in  Ireland. 
The  base  sycophants  whose  avarice  and 
cruelty  had  driven  the  Irish  into  insurrection 
stood  aghast  at  the  consequences.  Reports 
arrived  that  Philip  of  Spain  was  preparing 
two  immense  armaments,  one  to  invade  En2- 
land,  and  the  other  to  aid  O'Neill  in  Ireland. 
It  became  manifest  that  without  great  and 
speedy  exertion  the  queen  would  irretrieva- 
bly lose  the  fairest  possession  of  the  crown. 
She  acted  on  this  trying  occasion  with  her 
usual  promptitude.  She  sent  into  Ireland 
an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men,  command- 
ed by  the  Earl  of  Essex,  then  esteemed  the 
most  gallant  soldier  of  the  age. 

Her  flustered  majesty  invested  him  with 
the  prerogative  of  pardoning  any  crime,  even 
that  of  high  treason  ;  besides  the  power  of 
appointing  to  ofiBces  of  trust ;  of  removing 
those  who  enjoyed  them  without  a  patent ; 
of  suspending  others  from  exercising  them ; 
also  of  making  military  laws,  and  carrying 
them  into  execution ;  of  conferring  in  fief, 
according  to  his  pleasure,  the  confiscated 
estates  of  the  Catholics,  (reserving  a  moder- 
ate and  yearly  revenue  from  them  for  the 
crown  ;  and  in  absence  of  the  High-Admiral 
of  England,  he  had  the  command  of  the  fleet, 
in  addition  to  the  despotic  privilege  of  apply^ 
ing  the  money  in  the  exchequer  without  be- 
ing accountable  for  the  disposal  of  it. 

It  is  not  easy  to  discover  the  real  motives 
that  impelled  the  unfortunate  earl  to  seek 
this  fatal  command.  Probably  he  expected 
a  cheap  victory,  and  hoped  that  military  glory 
would  increase  his  ascendency  over  the  mind 
of  his  fond  mistress.  His  friends  and  ene- 
mies alike  were  eager  to  hurry  his  departure; 


the  former,  in  delusive  anticipation  of  tri- 
umph ;  the  latter,  more  cunningly  calculating 
on  the  diminution  of  his  influence  by  his  ab- 
sence from  court,  and  on  the  probable  efiects 
of  his  presumptuous  folly  in  rousing  the  jeal- 
ous anger  of  Elizabeth. 

Accompanied  by  three  young  noblemen 
who  wished  to  be  partakers  of  his  glory  in 
the  expedition,  Essex  set  out  from  London, 
about  the  end  of  March,  1599,  with  the  ac- 
clamations of  the  people.  The  fleet  having 
sailed,  it  was  overtaken  and  dispersed  by  a 
violent  storm,  during  which  many  lives  were 
lost.  Notwithstanding  this  misfortune,  he 
landed  on  the  15th  of  April  in  Dublin,  where 
he  took  the  usual  oath,  and  received  the 
sword  of  justice  as  lord-lieutenant. 

The  news  of  the  arrival  of  such  an  im- 
mense armament  did  not  diminish  the  confi- 
dence of  O'Neill  and  his  supporters.  They 
waited  with  stern  indifference  the  proceedings 
of  the  lord-lieutenant,  and  determined  to  wear 
him  down  by  a  tedious  defensive  war.  There 
is  reason  to  believe  that  a  part  of  the  Irish 
privy-council  had  engaged  in  the  service  of 
the  enemies  of  Essex  in  the  English  cabinet; 
at  all  events,  their  persuasions  precipitated 
his  ruin.  Instead  of  marching  into  Ulster 
and  bringing  O'Neill  at  once  to  a  decisive 
engagement,  he  sent  detachments  southward 
into  an  exhausted  country,  where  his  troops 
were  sure  to  be  wasted  by  fatigue  and  fam- 
ine. 

These  detachments  considerably  reduced 
the  forces  of  the  viceroy.  Accompanied  by 
three  hundred  gentlemen,  who  had  volun- 
teered in  London  to  accompany  him,  he  set 
out  from  Dublin,  on  the  20th  of  May,  with 
the  remainder  of  his  army,  and  marched  to- 
wards Munster.  In  passing  through  Lein- 
ster,  the  rearguard  of  the  English  was  se- 
verely handled  in  a  defile,  by  Owen  O'Morra, 
at  the  head  of  five  hundred  men,  who  killed 
several  officers  and  privates.  The  place 
where  they  fought  was  called  after  this 
"  Bearna  na  Gleti,"  which  signifies  the  Pass 
of  Plumes,  on  account  of  the  great  number 
of  them  which  the  English  lost  in  it.  The 
O'Byrnes  of  Leinster,  with  inferior  forces, 
severely  and  shamefully  defeated   another 


A.  P.  1599.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


237 


division  of  the  new  army  ;  and  Essex  could 
only  show  his  vexation  by  decimating  the 
unfortunate  soldiers,  and  cashiering  the  of- 
ficers.* 

This  check  did  not  prevent  Essex  from 
continuing  his  march  into  Munster.  He 
laid  siege  to  the  castle  of  Cahir,  situate  on 
the  Suire,  in  Tipperary;  the  place  which 
gave  the  title  of  lord-baron  to  Thomas  Butler. 
The  confederate  Catholics  had  in  it  only  seven 
or  eight  soldiers,  without  artillery,  so  that 
they  were  of  course  unable  to  maintain  a 
siege  against  the  army  of  Essex.  The  Eai-1 
of  Desmond,  however,  assisted  by  Raymond 
Burke,  Baron  of  Leitrim,  and  his  brother 
William,  having  attracted  the  attention  of 
tlie  English,  fought  several  skirmishes  with 
them,  aad  by  this  means  afforded  to  William 
Burke  an  opportunity  of  driving  off  a  detach- 
ment that  was  guarding  the  bridge,  and  of 
tlirowing  into  the  castle  about  fifty  men,  un- 
der the  command  of  James  Butler,  brother 
to  the  Baron  of  Cahir.  This  small  force  con- 
tributed only  to  prolong  the  siege.  Essex 
played  upon  the  castle  with  his  artillery ; 
several  English  nobles,  in  endeavouring  to 
mount  the  breach,  were  killed  by  the  mus- 
ketry of  the  besieged ;  but  finally,  James 
Butler,  being  unable  to  defend  the  castle, 
surrendered  it  to  the  English  general. 

Essex  had  the  castle  of  Cahir  repaired, 
and  leaving  a  strong  garrison  in  it,  with  can- 
non and  ammunition,  he  marched  to  the  re- 
lief of  Askeaton.  His  army  received  a  con- 
siderable reinforcement  by  the  junction  of 
some  Irish  royalist  troops,  under  the  earls  of 
Thomond  and  Clanricard,  Mac-Pieris,  and 
Henry  Norris.  On  his  way  back  from  As- 
keaton, Essex  was  pursued  by  Daniel  Mac- 
Carty  More  and  the  Earl  of  Desmond,  at  the 
head  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  men. 
These  chiefs  having  attacked  his  rearguard, 
at  a  place  called  Baile  en  Finitere,  the 
action  was  very  bloody  ;  it  lasted  from  nine 
in  the  morning  till  five  in  the  afternoon  :  a 
great  number  of  the  English  fell,  and  Henry 
Norris,  one  of  their  leaders,  was  found  among 
the  killed.  The  loss  of  the  confederates 
was  comparatively  slight.  After  a  short 
•  Taylor,  Mac-Qeoghegan,  etc 


respite  in  camp,  Essex  marched  to  Water- 
ford,  but  was  harassed  on  the  rear  during 
the  six  days  he  was  going  there. 

General  Harrington,  in  the  mean  time, 
received  a  decided  check  in  the  principality 
of  Leix.  He  had  been  appointed  to  restore 
peace  to  that  district,  and  having  surrounded 
the  troops  of  O'Morra,  flattered  himself  that 
he  would  be  able  to  reduce  them  with  little 
loss ;  but  the  bravery  of  the  Catholics  snatched 
the  victory  from  him.  He  lost  in  this  en- 
gagement twelve  hundred  men,  with  all  their 
officers,  and,  among  the  rest,  Adam  Loftus, 
son  of  the  Protestant  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 
who  was  found  among  the  slain.  The  re- 
mainder of  Ills  army  was  put  to  flight.  Ware, 
Cox,  and  others,  mistake  the  circumstances 
of  this  victory,  or  confound  them  with  a 
similar  one  gained  over  Harrington  by  the 
O'Byrnes,  in  the  glinns  of  Wicklow. 

Elizabeth,  who  had  expected  rapid  success 
from  the  well-known  valour  of  her  favourite, 
was  irritated  by  the  news  of  these  reverses. 
She  answered  his  letters  with  severe  repri- 
mands, and  could  with  difficulty  be  per- 
suaded to  grant  him  a  reinforcement.  He 
earnestly  pressed  on  the  cabinet  the  necessity 
of  conciliation  and  concession,  and  solicited 
their  attention  to  the  interests  of  the  people. 
The  answer  to  all  his  state-papers  was  a 
peremptory  order  to  march  into  the  north. 

While  the  earl  was  advancing  through  Ul- 
ster, Sir  Con)'ers  Clifford,  who  was  leading 
an  army  to  his  assistance,  fell  into  an  ambus- 
cade, contrived  by  O'Ruarc,  and  was  slain. 
His  army  suffered  only  a  trifling  loss ;  but 
the  soldiers  were  so  dispirited  that  they  re- 
treated to  their  garrison.  Essex  advanced 
to  the  Blackwater  River;  but  O'Neill  had, 
by  this  time,  studied  the  character  of  his  op- 
ponent, and  thought  proper  to  open  a  negotia- 
tion. The  earl  graciously  listened  to  the 
flattering  messages  of  the  gallant  chief,  and 
granted  him  the  favour  of  a  personal  inter- 
view." The  two  generals  led  their  armies  to 
opposite  banks  of  the  river,  and  then  sep- 
arately rode  to  a  neighbouring  ford.  Scarcely 
had  the  feet  of  the  lord-lieutenant's  charger 
touched  the  water,  when  O'Neill  spurred  his 
horse  through  the  stream,  while  the  water 


338 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1599. 


rose  above  his  saddle,  and  crossed  over  to 
pay  his  respects. 

This  union  of  a  delicate  compliment  and 
generous  confidence  completely  won  the  no- 
ble soul  of  Essex.  He  at  once  entered  into 
an  animated  conversation  with  the  Irish  chief- 
tain, and  rode  with  him  along  the  banks  of  the 
river  in  view  of  the  wondering  armies.  Their 
private  conference  lasted  a  long  time,  and 
speculation  has  been  busy  in  guessing  at  the 
subjects  they  discussed.  It  is  considered  cer- 
tain that  O'Neill,  well  acquainted  with  the 
intrigues  of  the  English  court,  called  the 
attention  of  Essex  to  the  machinations  of  his 
own  enemies,  and  promised  to  assist  him  in 
their  overthrow.  Finally,  the  officers  of  both 
armies  were  summoned,  and,  in  their  pres- 
ence, O'Neill,  having  stated  the  grievances 
by  wJiich  he  was  driven  to  revolt,  proposed 
terms  of  accommodation.  A  truce  for  six 
weeks  was  established,  in  order  to  afford  time 
for  the  due  consideration  of  the  several  arti- 
cles of  agreement ;  and  the  royal  troops  once 
more  returned  to  their  quarters  in  Leinster. 
The  subsequent  adventures  of  the  gallant 
Essex  belong  properly  to  English  history, 
where  it  will  be  seen  that  the  advice  of 
O'Neill  was  well  founded,  and  that  (leaving 
Irish  affairs  out  of  sight)  Essex  found  a  sin- 
cere friend  where  he  might  have  reasonably 
expected  a  bitter  enemy. 

Elizabeth's  indignation  at  this  unexpected 
termination  of  a  campaign  from  which  she 
had  expected  so  much,  was  violent.  She 
wrote  a  severe  letter  (September  14, 1599)  to 
the  Jord-lieutenant,  reprobating  his  conduct  in 
no  measured  terms,  and  pettishly  banishing 
him  from  her  sight.  Essex  at  first  meditated 
the  rash  project  of  leading  the  flower  of  his 
army  into  England,  and  forcing  his  way  to  the 
royal  presence  ;  but,  being  dissuaded  by  his 
friends,  he  adopted  a  course  scarcely  less 
pernicious  ;  and,  resigning  his  power  to  two 
lords-justices,  departed  to  England  alone  on 
the  28th  of  September.  Ormond  was  now 
reinstated  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army. 

Shortly  after  Essex  left  Dublin,  a  Spanish 
captain  arrived  on  the  Ulster  coast  command- 
ing two  ships  laden  with  warlike  stores,  which 
Philip  the  Third,  the  new  King  of  Spain,  had 


sent  to  the  Prince  of  Tjrrone.  He  received 
the  officer,  and  asked  why  the  king  had  omit- 
ted so  long  to  send  the  succours  which  he 
had  promised,  and  why  he  did  not  send  all  at 
the  same  time.  The  officer  answered,  that 
his  majesty  intended  it,  but  that  the  report  of 
peace  having  been  made  between  the  Prince 
of  Tyrone  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  was  the 
cause  ;  and  added,  that  the  King  of  Spain 
sent  him  for  the  express  purpose  (with  these 
two  ships)  of  bringing  him  an  account  of  how 
affairs  stood  in  Ireland.  This  reply  did  not 
quite  satisfy  O'Neill ;  however,  he  concealed 
the  disappointment  with  his  accustomed  pru- 
dence. 

The  Spanish  king,  being  desirous  of  fol- 
lowing out  the  plans  of  his  late  brother  in 
regard  to  Ireland,  sent  over  two  legates, 
Matthew  d'  Oviedo,  whom  the  pope  had  ap- 
pointed to  the  archbishopric  of  Dublin,  and 
Don  Martin  de  la  Cerda,  a  Spanish  knight. 
The  legates  were  empowered  to  grant  indul- 
gences to  those  of  the  Irish  who  fought  against 
the  English  in  defence  of  the  ancient  religion. 
The  legates  also  brought  with  them,  from  the 
King  of  Spain,  twenty-two  thousand  pieces 
of  gold,  to  assist  in  the  pa3rment  of  troops 
for  the  Catholic  lords. 

Encouraged  by  this  very  moderate  assist- 
ance, and  hoping  for  greater  from  the  Span- 
iards, Tyrone  resumed  hostilities,  after  a  no- 
tice of  fourteen  days,  in  pursuance  of  the 
stipulations  made  with  Essex.  Having  pro- 
vided for  the  security  of  the  principality  of 
Tyrone,  he  marched  through  the  whole  of 
Leinster,  at  the  head  of  seven  thousand  men. 
He  then  advanced  towards  Cork,  where  he 
encamped,  and  consulted  with  the  Earl  of 
Desmond,  Florence  Mac-Carty  Reagh,  and 
other  chiefs  of  the  province,  ab6iit  the  means 
of  supporting  the  war.  He  sent  deputies  to 
those  whose  sincerity  he  doubted,  to  solicit 
their  decided  co-operation  with  him  in  estab- 
lishing a  national  confederacy. 

Several  chiefs  were  brought  over  by  the 
reasoning  of  Tjnrone ;  particularly  Finian 
Mac-Carty,  who  was  always  remarkable  for 
his  attachment  to  the  religion  of  his  ances- 
tors. Others,  influenced  by  a  different  policy, 
though  strongly  attached  to  the  Catholic  faith, 


A.  D.  1600.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


replied,  that  a  subject  of  such  moment  ought 
to  be  suspended  for  a  short  lime,  as  the  opin- 
ion of  the  see  of  Rome  was  not  well  known. 
These  circumstances,  doubtless,  were  instru- 
mental in  producing  the  famous  bull  of  Pope 
Clement  on  the  16th  of  April,  in  1600,  the 
following  year. 

O'Neill,  deeming  such  procrastinating  de- 
lay hurtful  to  the  Catholic  cause,  expressed 
his  displeasure  at  the  rephes  of  these  noble- 
men. Some  of  them  he  treated  with  severity, 
and  devastated  their  lands,  in  order  to  deprive 
the  enemy  of  subsistence ;  others  he  com- 
pelled to  give  hostages  for  their  future  con- 
duct.* While  he  stayed  in  Munster,  even  the 
queen's  troops  kept  in  their  forts,  not  daring 
to  take  the  field,  so  that  the  time  passed  over 
without  hostihties,  except  an  affair  between 
Hugh  Maguire,  Prince  of  Fermanagh,  who 
commanded  O'Neill's  cavalry,  and  St.  Leger, 
President  of  Munster,  in  which  both  combat- 
ants fell.  Maguire,  attended  only  by  Edmund 
Mac-Caffry,  his  standard-bearer,  Niall  O'Dur- 
nin,  and  a  priest,  left  his  camp  one  day,  either 
to  take  an  airing  or  to  reconnoitre  the  coun- 
try. Having  advanced  too  far,  he  met  with 
St.  Leger,  who  was  at  the  head  of  sixty 
cavalry.  Notwithstanding  this  difference  in 
numbers,  Maguire's  spirit  would  not  permit 
him  to  avoid  fighting:  putting  spurs  to  his 
horse,  he  forced  his  way  through  the  cavalry 
to  their  commander,  who  immediately  shot 
him  through  the  body.  Though  Maguire's 
wound  was  mortal,  he  determined  to  be  re- 
venged ;  he  struck  St.  Leger  such  a  blow 
with  his  lance  that  he  cleft  his  head  through 
the  helmet,  and  afterwards  made  his  escape, 
sword  in  hand,  from  the  surrounding  horse- 
men. Both  generals  died  shortly  afterwards, 
much  regretted  by  their  followers.  Before 
leaving  Munster,  O'Neill  placed  some  veteran 
troops  among  the  posts  of  that  province,  and 
returning  through  Leinster,  he  left  a  reinforce- 
ment with  O'Morra  of  Leix.  Previously  to 
this,  he  had  passed  in  full  view  of  Ormond, 
who  commanded  the  English  army.  He  then 
arrived  safely  in  Ulster,  having  fulfilled  the 
designs  he  had  in  view  when  he  set  out. 

Essex  having  given  up  the  government  of 
•  Peter  Lombard. 


Ireland,  it  was  of  importance  to  appoint  a 
successor  to  him,  and  a  Governor  of  Munster 
to  succeed  St.  Leger,  who  was  killed  by 
Maguire.  Charles  Blunt,  Baron  of  Mont- 
joy,  was  therefore  appointed  viceroy,  and  Sir 
George  Carew  was  named  President  of 
Munster.  These  two  noblemen  repaired  to 
DubUn  about  the  end  of  February,  1600. 
Carew  waited  for  his  conamission  to  under- 
take the  duties  of  his  appointment.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  viceroy  and  supreme  council 
of  Ireland  had  regulations  drawn  up  for  the 
guidance  of  the  president  and  council  of  that 
province. 

The  new  President  of  Munster  left  Dublin 
on  the  7th  of  April,  and  took  the  road  that  led 
to  his  province.  The  Earl  of  Thomond, 
who  always  sought  opportunities  of  display- 
ing his  zeal  for  the  royal  cause,  with  Lord 
Audley,  captains  Harvey,  Browne,  Dillon, 
and  a  force  of  seven  hundred  foot  and  a 
hundred  horse,  accompanied  the  president 
on  his  route.  On  the  first  day  they  arrived 
at  Naas,  on  the  next  at  Carlow,  and  on  the 
third  at  Kilkenny,  where  they  visited  the 
Earl  of  Ormond.  Ormond  had  promised  to 
meet  Owen,  son  of  Rory  O'Morra,  on  the 
borders  of  Idough,  (at  present  the  barony  of 
Fessadining,  in  the  county  of  Kilkenny,)  at 
a  place  called  Corronneduffe,  and  the  presi- 
dent proposed  to  accompany  the  earl,  with 
his  attendants. 

The  troops  of  both  parties  were  at  a  distance 
when  the  conference  began  between  Ormond 
and  O'Morra,  and  it  lasted  for  an  hour  with- 
out any  thing  being  concluded.  O'Morra 
had  a  Jesuit  with  him  named  Archer,  with 
whom  Ormond  began  a  controversy  on  reli- 
gion, in  the  course  of  which  he  called  the 
Jesuit  a  traitor;  saying,  that  imder  a  sem- 
blance of  religion  he  was  seducing  her  ma- 
jesty's subjects  from  their  allegiance  ;  after 
which  he  proceeded  to  abuse  the  pope  and 
the  church  of  Rome.  O'Morra,  no  longer 
able  to  endure  such  language  from  a  pretend- 
ed advocate  of  religious  liberty,  whose  con- 
versation was  quite  foreign  to  the  subject 
before  them,  seized  the  earl,  dragged  him 
from  his  horse,  and  made  him  prisoner.  The 
new  president  and  Thomond,  with  his  other 


240 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1600. 


friends  who  were  at  hand,  being  alarmed,  ran 
to  his  assistance  and  commenced  fighting. 
Some  of  the  Enghsh  were  killed,  several 
wounded,  and  more  made  prisoners  ;  while 
the  president  and  Thomond  took  to  flight, 
and  owed  their  safety  only  to  the  swiftness 
of  their  horses.  Their  subsequent  endeav- 
ours to  rally  the  English  soldiers  were  un- 
successful, and  they  returned  to  Kilkenny, 
where  the  Countess  of  Ormond  was  re- 
siding, inconsolable  for  her  husband's  cap- 
ture. 

The  deputy  was  in  Dublin  when  he  heard 
of  this  unfavourable  occurrence,  as  well  as 
that  the  sons  of  Montgarret  and  several 
other  noblemen  of  the  Butlers  were  up  in 
arms.  He  at  once  despatched  Sir  George 
Bourchier  and  Christopher  St.  Laurence  to 
Kilkenny,  with  orders  to  collect  the  troops, 
and  keep  the  peace  of  the  city  and  its  neigh- 
bourhood. The  President  of  Munster,  on  the 
arrival  of  these  officers,  set  out  with  Tho- 
mond for  Waterford,  where  they  arrived  on 
the  16th  of  April. 

In  the  spring  the  war  had  generally  re- 
commenced with  great  activity,  but  no  deci- 
sive action  was  fought.  O'Neill,  with  con- 
summate ability,  avoided  every  attempt  to 
force  him  to  a  general  engagement,  and  broke 
through  the  hostile  lines  when  attempts  were 
made  to  blockade  his  troops  or  cut  off  his 
supplies. 

Perhaps  the  most  detestable  feature  of  the 
unmilitary  warfare  carried  on  by  the  English 
government  was  the  hiring  of  bravoes  and 
assassins  to  betray  or  murder  such  of  the 
Irish  chieftains  as  were  too  formidable  to  be 
conquered  in  the  field.  War,  in  its  best 
regulated  movements,  is  allowed  by  the 
greatest  captains  to  be  an  evil  of  the  very 
last  choice.  In  Ireland  its  inseparable  hor- 
rors were  wilfully  increased  by  the  unmiti- 
gated sway  of  the  vilest  passions  that  degrade 
human  nature.  To  express  these  sickening 
details  suitably  for  the  general  reader,  the 
best  way  will  be  to  give  a  case  or  two  in 
point.  Nothing  short  of  what  Thomas  Car- 
lyle  would  call  "a  cast-iron  preacher"  could 
relate  with  coolness  the  horrible  cruelties 
and  cowardly  intrigues  which  disgrace  the 


latter  part  of  EHzabeth's  reign.  Having 
carefully  examined  all  the  authorities,  we  are 
constrained  to  endorse  the  following  subdued 
statements  which  have  been  furnished  by  the 
industry  and  patience  of  Matthew  Carey: — 

"It  would  be  endless  to  detail  all  the  base 
and  profligate  tricks  to  which  the  government 
had  recourse.  Here  follows  one  practised 
by  Carew,  President  of  Munster,  to  circimi'- 
vent  John  Fitz-Thomas,  brother  to  the  Earl 
of  Desmond.  Carew  had  corrupted  Der- 
mond  O'Connor,  an  Irish  nobleman.  To 
this  traitor  he  gave  a  letter  written  in  his 
name,  and  addressed  to  Fitz-Thomas,  which 
O'Connor  was  to  use  on  a  proper  occasion, 
under  the  pretence  that  it  had  been  intercept- 
ed. The  letter  was  written  with  great  ad- 
dress, and  fraught  with  commendations  of 
Fitz-Thomas,  for  expiating  his  offences  by 
treachery  towards  his  countrymen.  It  an- 
swered the  end  proposed,  and  enabled  Carew 
to  triumph  over  the  confederate  Irish,  among 
whom  it  spread  distrust  and  dismay." 

Sir  George  Carew  had  improvements 
upon  this  plan,  especially  adapted  for  partic- 
ular cases.  Start  not,  sympathizing  reader ; 
consider,  it  is  the  history  of  Ireland  we  are 
tracing : — 

"  The  Baron  of  Lixnaw  having  died,  his 
son  Thomas  applied  to  the  president,  George 
Carew,  for  his  favour  and  the  protection  of 
the  queen,  in  order  to  gain  possession  of  his 
inheritance.  Both  were  promised  him,  on 
condition  that  he  *  did  some  service,  which 
might  entitle  him  to  them.'  The  kind  of  ser- 
vice expected,  may  be  satisfactorily  ascer- 
tained by  a  passage  in  the  *  Pacata  Hibernian 
wherein  this  application  is  stated  : — '  It  was 
thought  no  ill  policy  to  make  the  Irish  draw 
blood  upon  one  another,  whereby  their  pri- 
vate quarrels  might  advance  the  pubHc  ser- 
vice.' But  the  high-minded  nobleman  scorned 
to  acquire,  by  the  murder  of  his  countrymen, 
possession  of  an  estate  which  of  right  be- 
longed to  him — and  therefore  he  absolutely 
refused  the  proposition,  because  *  it  stood  not 
with  his  conscience  nor  his  honour,'  as  he 
expressed  himself  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote 
to  the  Earl  of  Thomond. 

"  These  scruples,  which  would  have  ele- 


A.  D.  1601.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


841 


vated  him  in  the  eyes  of  a  man  of  justice  or 
honour,  could  not  be  duly  appreciated  by  the 
sordid  soul  of  the  president ;  and  thus  were 
destroyed  all  his  hopes  of  the  inheritance; 
for  *  upon  this  answer  the  president  rejected 
both  the  man  and  his  suit !' 

"  It  is  impossible  for  any  man  of  rectitude 
to  read  this  account  without  abhorrence  and 
contempt  of  the  profligate  president,  and  ad- 
miration of  the  magnanimous  sufferer.  The 
former,  lost  to  every  sense  of  honour  and  jus- 
tice, imposes  as  a  task  on  the  kilter,  for  the 
attainment  of  his  inheritance,  the  perpetration 
of  murder-»-and  because  he  will  not  comply 
with  the  infamous  terms,  plunders  hito  of  his 
patrimony.  The  latter,  with  the  soul  of  a  Ro- 
man, scorns  the  temptation  and  the  tempter, 
and  dooms  himself  to  honourable  poverty 
rather  than  pollute  himself  with  the  commis- 
sion of  such  a  crime." 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Carey's 
statements  and  quotations  are  transcribed 
from  the  "  Pacata  Hibernia,"  a  work  issued 
by  Sir  George  Carew  himself ! 

Devastation  greatly  reduced  O'Neill's 
strength.  His  adversaries  derived  their  sup*- 
plies  from  England ;  his  resources  were  de- 
stroyed when  his  own  fields  were  wasted. 
Still  he  had  bravely  continued  the  war  during 
two  campaigns,  relying  on  the  promised  aid 
of  the  Spaniards,  and  stimulated  by  his  senti- 
ments respecting  religion,  which  exhorted  him 
to  perseverance.  He  was  besides  well  aware 
that  the  late  submissions  to  the  government 
were  generally  hollow  and  insincere,  espe- 
cially as  no  provision  had  yet  been  made  for 
the  removal  of  the  grievances  >yhich  caused 
the  insurrection.  Grievous  exactions  were 
made  from  the  proprietors  of  land.  Juries 
were  packed  in  the  most  open  and  shameful 
manner.  Innocent  persons  were  executed 
sometimes  without  the  formality  of  a  trial, 
or,  when  that  was  granted,  by  the  verdict  of 
a  tribunal  whose  forms  were  a  cruel  mockery. 
The  penal  laws  against  recusants  were  en- 
forced, and  English  settlers  drove  the  natives 
from  their  cultivated  land  without  the  pre- 
tence of  a  claim.  The  knowledge  of  these 
circumstances  induced  O'Neill  to  persevere, 
although  he  knew  that  his  changes  of  final 

31 


success  were  diminishing  every  hour  wiA 
fearful  rapidity. 

At  length,  on  the  23d  of  September,  1601, 
portions  of  the  succours  from  Spain  were 
landed  at  Kinsale,  under  Don  Juan  d'Aquila. 
The  English  had  had  plenty  of  time  to  prepare 
for  this  expedition.  It  had  been  delayed  too 
long.  Its  preparation  was  made  so  openly 
that  one  would  suppose  observation  had  been 
courted.  It  was  miserable  in  amount ;  and 
its  leader  was  apparently  incompetent.  Don 
Juan  d'Aquila,  to  whom  Philip  had  intrusted 
a  small  fleet  and  tWo  thousand  men,  had  the 
almost  inconceivable  folly  to  land  in  the  south 
of  Ireland,  while  Tyrone,  to  whose  assistance 
he  had  come,  was  shut  up  in  the  extrem6 
north.  Scarcely  had  he  landed,  when  he 
personally  insulted  O'SulliVan  Beare,  the  first 
toparch  who  offered  him  assistance ;  and  thus 
at  once  disgusted  the  southern  septs.  To 
add  to  his  confusion,  Carew  and  Montjoy, 
liaving  collected  a  powerful  army,  invested 
Kirtsale,  and  pushed  the  siege  with  vigour 
from  the  17th  of  October  to  the  9th  of  Janu- 
ary. O'Neill  was  not  a  little  perplexed  by 
the  awkward  situation  of  the  Spaniards.  A 
march  through  an  exhausted  country,  in  the 
depth  of  a  severe  winter,  and  with  forces 
already  disheartened  by  calamity,  was  an  en* 
tefprise  full  of  danger.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  Was  clear  that  Don  Juan,  unless  speedily 
relieved,  would  be  forced  to  surrender.  The 
Spaniard  was  already  disheartened ;  and, 
while  he  answered  the  sununbns  of  Montjoy 
with  ridiculous  gasconade,  he  sent  the  most 
urgent  and  angry  letters  to  O'Neill  and  O'Don- 
nel,  soliciting  their  aid. 

The  march  of  the  Irish  army  sufliciently 
proves  the  ability  of  the  leaders,  and  the  zejd 
of  their  followers.  Notwithstanding  the  diffi^ 
culties  of  the  country,  they  advanced  with 
their  baggage  and  artillery  at  the  rate  of  forty 
miles  a  day ;  and,  by  their  extraordinary  ce- 
lerity, baffled  the  lord-president,  who  naarched 
to  intercept  them. 

On  the  3d  of  December,  shortly  kfler 
O'Neill  arrived  at  Kinsale,  a  second  Spanish 
afmameht  reached  the  bay  of  Baltimore,  aiid 
were  enthusiastically  received  by  the  heigh* 
bouring  septs.    Several  that  had  hithefl6  pfc- 


942 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1601. 


served  their  allegiance  now  took  up  arms, 
and  O'Neill  was  thus  enabled  to  blockade  the 
lord-lieutenant  in  his  camp.  Montjoy's  army 
was  now  placed  in  a  most  perilous  situation  ; 
they  were  at  once  besiegers  and  besieged ; 
their  supplies  from  the  country  were  cut  off ; 
and  the  sea,  which  the  British  fleet  under 
Levison  kept  open  to  them,  was  still  a  pre- 
carious ground  of  confidence.  In  fact,  nothing 
was  necessary  for  the  complete  ruin  of  an 
army  on  which  the  fate  of  a  kingdom  de- 
pended, but  that  Tyrone  should  remain  qui- 
etly in  the  position  he  had  selected.  O'Neill 
knew  his  advantages  well,  and  could  not  be 
tempted,  by  all  the  arts  of  the  British  leader, 
to  quit  his  intrenchments  ;  but  the  presump- 
tuous Spaniard  was  eager  to  exhibit  his  valour 
in  a  pitched  battle.  Montjoy,  having  discov- 
ered by  his  spies  the  feelings  of  Don  Juan, 
made  use  of  the  most  ingenious  artifices  to 
increase  his  supposed  security.  He  sent 
pretended  deserters  into  the  town,  who  de- 
scribed the  English  army  as  reduced  to  a 
shocking  state  of  disorganization ;  and  as- 
serted that  the  soldiers  were  so  worn  down 
with  fatigue  and  famine  as  to  be  incapable 
of  an  effective  resistance.  Don  Juan  wrote 
the  most  pressing  letters  to  O'Neill,  urging 
the  feasibility  of  crushing  the  English  at  once, 
and  promising  to  aid  him  by  a  sally  from  the 
town.  O'Neill  continued  to  refuse  ;  but  the 
chiefs  by  whom  he  was  supported  joined  in 
the  solicitations  of  the  Spaniard,  and  an  un- 
willing assent  was  at  length  wrung  from  the 
gallant  feelings  of  the  cautious  chief. 

The  new  plan  proposed  was  that  the  Eng- 
lish camp  should  be  attacked  by  a  night  sur- 
prise. Montjoy's  numerous  spies  revealed 
the  whole  affair  to  him,  and  he  made  his 
preparations  accordingly.  The  moment  that 
O'Neill  saw  the  English  lines,  he  knew  that 
he  was  betrayed.  He  instantly  determined 
to  change  his  plan  of  action  ;  but  the  requi- 
site orders  were  misunderstood  by  a  portion 
of  the  troops,  and  his  lines  were  thus  broken. 
The  Earl  of  Clanricarde,  and  Wingfield, 
marshal  of  the  horse,  precipitated  their  caval- 
ry through  this  fatal  gap,  and  the  fate  of  the 
battle  was  decided.  O'Neill  made  several 
desperate  efforts  to  retrieve  the  fortune  of  the 


day ;  but  he  was  badly  seconded  by  the  other 
leaders,  and  forced  at  length  to  fly.  O'Don- 
nel,  who  commanded  the  rear,  appears  to  have 
fled  without  striking  a  blow.  The  carnage 
was  dreadful.  No  quarter  was  given,  except 
to  a  few  of  the  Spaniards  ;  and  the  Irish  lords 
who  were  made  prisoners  were  hanged  the 
morning  after  the  action.  O'Neill  wished  to 
persuade  his  followers  to  resume  their  former 
station,  or  to  try  the  chances  of  a  second  bat- 
tle ;  but  their  eagerness  was  now  efiectually 
broken,  and  they  almost  unanimously  resolved 
to  return  home  without  consulting  the  reputa- 
tion of  their  gallant  leader,  or  their  own  safety 
for  the  future. 

Don  Juan  now  offered  to  capitulate,  and 
terms  of  surrender  were  proposed.  He  raised 
numberless  scruples  on  trifling  points  of  eti- 
quette, but  neglected  matters  of  greater  im- 
portance. Montjoy,  whose  interest  it  was  to 
terminate  the  war  as  speedily  as  possible, 
made  some  sacrifices  to  Castilian  pride,  and 
obtained  quiet  possession  of  nearly  all  the 
castles  garrisoned  by  the  Spaniards.  \ 

The  possession  of  Kinsale  was  of  the  first 
importance  to  the  Catholic  cause  in  Ireland. 
The  garrison  under  Don  Juan  amounted  to 
two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  well  provi- 
ded with  ammunition  and  provisions,  and 
supported  by  the  garrisons  of  Baltimore, 
Castle  Haven,  and  Bear  Haven  ;  so  that  from 
the  state  of  the  English,  he  might  have  held 
out  till  the  arrival  of  succours  from  Spain, 
which  would  also  have  given  time  to  O'Neill 
and  the  other  Irish  princes  to  assemble  in  the 
spring.  The  surrender,  therefore,  of  Kinsale 
and  its  dependencies,  by  shutting  out  all  for- 
eign aid,  would  necessarily  injure  the  cause 
they  wished  to  defend.  O'Sullivan  Beare, 
apprehensive  of  these  consequences,  took 
possession  of  the  castle  of  Dunboy,  which 
belonged  to  him,  but  which  he  had  given  up 
as  a  garrison  for  thie  Spanieurds  on  their  arrival 
in  the  country.  Being  determined,  therefore, 
that  this  fortress  should  not  be  surrendered  to 
the  enemy,  he  contrived  to  introduce  Thomas 
Fitz-Maurice,  Lord  of  Lixnaw,  Domnal  Mac- 
Carty,  Captain  Richard  Tjrrrell,  and  William 
Burke,  with  some  troops,  into  the  castle  by 
night,  and  took  possession  of  the  gates,  with- 


A.  D.  1603.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


343 


out  committing  any  positive  act  of  hostility 
towards  the  Spaniards.  He  immediately  des- 
patched Dermod  O'Driscol  to  the  King  of 
Spain,  entreating  of  his  majesty  to  be  con- 
vinced that  his  motives  were  honourable  in 
the  taking  of  Dunboy ;  and  complained  vehe- 
mently in  his  letter  of  the  capitulation  which 
Don  Juan  had  entered  into  with  the  English, 
representing  it  as  wretched,  execrable,  and 
inhuman. 

Oil  the  16th  of  March,  1602,  Don  Juan 
d'Aquila  sailed  for  Spain,  in  accordance  with 
the  stipulations  granted  by  the  English  deputy. 
On  arriving  at  Corunna,  he  found  himself 
charged  with  injudicious  conduct  while  in 
Ireland,  and  was  ordered  by  the  king  not  to 
leave  his  own  house.  His  feelings  as  a  sol- 
dier were  hurt,  and  he  shortly  afterwards  died 
of  grief  and  vexation. 

In  June,  the  deputy  made  another  attempt 
in  Ulster.  He  built  a  bridge  over  the  Black- 
water,  and  a  new  fort  which  he  called  Charle- 
mont.  Sir  Richard  Morrison's  regiment  was 
ordered  to  take  Dungannon,  but  the  inhabit- 
ants concluded  to  burn  the  place,  and  thus 
sacrificed  the  beautiful  castle  of  Tyrone. 

O'Neill  now  withdrew  to  Castle  Roe,  on 
the  river  Bann.  The  English  laid  the  whole 
country  waste  as  far  as  Inniskillen;  they 
made  themselves  masters  of  Magherlowny 
isle,  where  O'Neill  had  a  magazine.  Dock- 
wra,  who  commanded  a  garrison  at  Ony,  re- 
ceived orders  to  harass  O'Neill  in  Dungeven, 
in  Araghty  Cahan ;  while  Chichester,  who 
led  the  troops  from  the  garrison  of  Carrick- 
fergus,  brought  the  regiment  of  Morrison  to 
occupy  Toome,  and  the  deputy  himself  guard- 
ed the  road  to  Killetro.  But  in  spite  of  these 
plans,  and  the  great  superiority  of  the  enemy, 
O'Neill,  with  six  hundred  foot  and  sixty  horse, 
marched  from  Castle  Roe,  and  reached  Lough 
Eame  unmolested.  Being  incapable  of  re- 
sisting the  enemy  openly,  he  remained  on  the 
defensive ;  for  which  purpose  he  constructed 
an  impregnable  position,  called  Gleannchon- 
kein,  near  Lough  Earne,  where  he  intrenched 
himself  in  such  a  manner  as  left  him  nothing 
to  fear.  The  deputy  hearing  of  this,  con- 
tented himself  with  ravaging  the  surrounding 
country,  and  with  breaking,  at  Talloghoge, 


the  stone  which  was  used  as  the  inauguration 
seat  of  O'Neill. 

The  lord-deputy,  satisfied  with  his  exploits 
in  the  north,  repaired  to  Newry  on  the  11th 
September,  whence  he  set  out  for  Dublin, 
leaving  Ulster  to  the  care  of  Dockwra,  Dan- 
vers,  and  Chichester.  In  November  he  un- 
dertook an  expedition  to  Connaught,  to  quell 
the  disturbances  that  agitated  that  province. 
Sir  Oliver  Lambert  had  already  expelled  the 
Burkes,  with  Mac-William,  their  chief,  from 
the  county  of  Mayo.  The  deputy  next  granted 
protection  to  O'Connor  Sligoe,  Rory  O'Don- 
nel,  the  O'Flahertys,  Mac-Dermots,  O'Connor 
Roe,  and  others.  The  only  chieftains  who 
now  remained  steadfastly  attached  to  the 
cause  of  Tyrone,  were  O'Rourke,  Maguire, 
and  Captain  Tyrrell.  The  deputy  also  had 
the  fort  of  Galway  completed,  and  gave  orders 
to  send  three  different  bodies  of  troops  in 
pursuit  of  O'Rourke.  He  then  returned  to 
Dublin,  whence  he  despatched  succour  to 
Chichester,  to  enable  him  to  oppose  Brian 
Mac-Art,  who  had  entered  Killulta  at  the 
head  of  five  hundred  men.  Chichester  exe- 
cuted his  commission  with  such  cruelty  that 
a  famine  was  the  consequence. 

Daniel  O'SuUivan,  Prince  of  Beare,  still 
retained  possession  of  Dunboy.  The  chiefs 
pledged  to  support  him  were  Daniel  Mac- 
Carty,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Clancar ;  Daniel, 
son  of  O'Sullivan  More ;  Cornelius  and  Der- 
mod O'Driscol ;  Dermod  O'Sullivan ;  Der- 
mod, Donagh,  and  Florence  Mac-Carty,  of 
the  Mac-Carty  Riagh ;  Mac-Sweeny  ;  Don- 
agh O'Driscol,  and  his  brothers.  Also  O'Con- 
nor Kerry,  Mac-Maurice,  Baron  of  Lixnaw, 
the  Knight  of  Kerry,  the  Knight  of  Gljmn, 
John  Fitz-Gerald,  brother  of  the  earl,  James 
Butler,  brother  to  the  Baron  of  Cahir,  Wil- 
liam Burke,  captains  Richard  Mac-Geoghe- 
gan  and  Richard  T3rrell.  The  former  cap- 
tain was  appointed  to  command  the  fortress 
of  Dunboy,  the  latter  to  lead  tlie  army  of  ob- 
servation. 

The  name  of  this  Richard  Mac-Geoghegan 
has  a  prominent  place  among  the  gallant  as- 
sociates of  the  Irish  chieftains  in  their  last 
struggles  for  independence.  A  man  of  noble 
sentiments  and  approved  valour — a  descend- 


944 


HISTORY    QF    IRELAND. 


[A  D.  1608. 


ant  of  the  ancient  and  illustrious  house  of 
Moycashel — he  was  well  chosen  by  O'Sulli* 
van  for  taking  the  command  at  D^xnboy.  His 
little  garrison  was  composed  of  a  hundred  and 
foity  well-chosen  volunteers. 

Dunboy  having  resisted  the  attacks  of 
Thomond,  (the  traitorous  O'Brien,)  Captain 
Flower,  and  others,  President  Carew  now 
determined  to  attack  the  place  himself,  with 
five  thousand  veteran  soldiers,  and  a  battery 
of  five  large  pieces  of  artillery.  The  first 
three  attacks  under  Carew  were  failures,  and 
were  made  with  a  shocking  loss  of  life  on  the 
part  of  the  English  soldiery,  during  the  sum- 
mer of  16.02.  Carew's  perseverance  planned 
a  fourth  attack,  and  Mac-Geoghegan's  fidelity 
was  as  enduring  as  his  bravery,  for  lis  was 
determined  not  to  outlive  his  possession  of  the 
castle.  We  find  no  incidents  in  ancient  or 
modem  history  that  exceed  these  last  efforts 
of  the  Irish  chieftains,  as  may  be  seen  ex- 
pressed in  the  bravery  and  devotion  of  the 
unfortunate  Mac-Geoghegaji  upou  this  occa- 


sion. 


On  Carew's  fourth  attack,  the  English  ar- 
tillery continued  to  play  upon  the  castle  from 
five  in  the  morning  until  nine,  when  a  turret 
of  thjB  castle,  in  which  there  was  a  falconet 
that  greatly  annoyed  the  English  battery,  was 
seen  to  fall.  However,  the  firing  was  yet 
maintained  against  one  of  \h&  fronts  of  the 
castle  till  the  afternoon,  when  the  breach  being 
effected,  and  the  plan  of  assault  fixed  upon, 
the  detachment  which  was  to  begin  the  attack 
advanced.  The  Catholics  disputed  the  en- 
trance by  the  breach  for  a  long  time,  but  were 
at  length  forced  to  yield  to  the  overwhelming 
numbers  of  the  English,  who  planted  their 
standards  on  one  of  the  turrets.  Roused  by 
this  sight,  the  besieged  renewed  their  exer- 
tions, and  fought  with  desperation  until  night, 
sometimes  in  the  vaults  of  the  castle,  some- 
times in  the  great  hall,  the  cellars,  and  on  the 
stairs,  so  that  blood  flowed  in  every  quarter. 
Several  of  the  besieged  fell  during  the  attack, 
among  whom  was  Mac-Geoghegan,  their 
commander,  having  received  a  mortal  wound. 

Possession  of  the  castle  being  still  refused, 
the  English  returned  to  the  assault  on  the 
following  day,  and  expressing  a  desire  to 


spare  the  further  effusion  of  blood,  terms 
were  proposed  to  the  besieged.  The  few 
belonging  to  the  garrison  who  escaped  the 
preceding  day  having  lost  tlieir  chief,  and 
being  unequal  to  defend  the  castle,  accepted 
the  proposed  conditions  of  having  their  lives 
spared.  Richard  Mac-Geoghegan,  however, 
would  not  hsten  to  any  terms.  Seeing  the 
English  enter  in  crowds,  he  rose  up,  while 
struggling  with  death,  and  procuring  a  lighted 
match,  made  an  effort  to  fire  a  barrel  of  pow- 
der which  was  standing  near  him  ;  his  inten- 
tion being  to  blow  up  both  himself  and  the 
enemy,  rather  than  surrender.  He  was  pre- 
vented, however,  by  a  Captain  Power,  in 
whose  arms  he  was  stabbed  by  the  exaspera- 
ted besiegers. 

The  fall  of  Dunboy  did  not  prevent  the 
Prince  of  Beare  from  continuing  to  act  a 
brave  and  noble  part  for  his  country.  Der- 
mod  O'Driscol  having  returned  from  Spain, 
Comehus,  son  of  O'Driscol  More,  was  sent 
in  his  stead  to  solicit  speedy  assistance.  In 
the  mean  time  the  prince  and  Captain  Tyrrell 
marched  with  a  thousand  men  into  Muskerry, 
and  made  themselves  masters  of  Carraig-na- 
Chori,  Duin  Dearaire,  and  Macrumpe,  where 
they  placed  a  garrison  ;  after  which  he  pre- 
vailed upon  O'Donoghoe  of  the  GHnne  to  join 
in  the  confederacy,  O'SuUivan  then  made 
incursions  into  the  district  of  Cork,  and  re- 
turned laden  with  booty. 

The  new  Spanish  army,  intended  for  the 
expedition  to  Ireland,  amounted  to  fourteen 
thousand  men.  They  had  assembled  at 
Corunna,  and  were  ready  to  sail,  when  in- 
telligence was  received  of  the  fall  of  Dunboy ; 
on  which  the  Spanish  court  sent  orders  to 
the  Count  de  Caracena,  Governor  of  Co- 
runna, to  countermand  for  the  present  the 
sailing  of  the  troops.  The  Queen  of  Eng- 
land had  her  emissaries  in  Spain,  who  in- 
formed her  of  whatever  occurred  :  she  there- 
fore ordered  her  fleets  that  were  cruising  on 
the  coasts  of  Spain  to  be  revictualled,  and  to 
continue  to  watch  the  niotions  of  the  Span- 
iards till  the  end  of  September ;  she  also 
sent  two  thousand  more  troops  to  Ireland,  to 
reinforce  l^e  president's  army  in  Munster. 

But  the  war-  in  Munster  was  now  virtually- 


A.  p.  1603.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


S45 


Qver.  The  principal  Irish  lords  that  escaped 
t]ie  sword  fled  to  Spain,  where  their  descend- 
ants may  yet  be  found.  Q'SuUivan  Beare, 
however,  refused  to  leave ;  and,  ct^lecting 
the  remnant  of  the  southern  insurgents, 
maintained  a  predatory  warfare  under  cover 
of  the  western  bogs  and  moimtains.  This 
almost  hopeless  contest  was  attended  by  a 
horrible  waste  of  hfe,  for  both  parties  inva- 
riably murdered  their  prisoners.  O'Sullivaa 
was  finally  reduced  to  such  straits  by  the 
vigour  of  Carew  that  he  resolved  to  force 
his  way  into  Ulster,  and  unite  his  shattered 
troops  with  those  of  Tyrone.  Carew  sent  a 
strong  body  of  dragoons  to  harass  the  fugi- 
tives ;  but,  maddened  by  despair,  they  turned 
on  their  pursuers,  and  boldly  gave  them  bat- 
tle. The  Irish  suffered  severely  in  the  con- 
test ;  but  not  a  single  Englishman  escaped. 

In  the  north,  however,  the  war  of  desolation 
was  still  maintained  ;  and  O'Neill  saw,  every 
day,  his  bravest  followers  perishing  by  the 
slow  and  painful  death  of  famine.  His 
hopes  from  Spain  were  almost  gone  ;  his  al- 
lies were  either  exiles,  or  had  pvurchased 
precarious  safety  by  submission ;  and  his 
proud  heart  was  humbled  by  witnessing  ca- 
lamities which  he  could  not  avert,  and  mis- 
ery he  was  unable  to  relieve.  Nevertheless, 
he  kept  up  his  troops,  and  continued  to  act 
on  the  defensive. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  news 
arrived  that  the  dissolution  of  Elizabeth'is 
life  was  approaching.  The  deputy  was  se- 
riously alarmed,  for  he  was  well  acquainted 
with  the  critical  nature  of  English  politics 
at  that  time.  The  enormities  which  Eliza- 
beth had  sanctioned  in  Ireland  weired 
heavily  on  her  conscience.  She  therefore, 
endeavoured  to  make  some  reparation.  Or- 
ders were  issued  to  restore  Sir  Finin  O'Dri*. 
col  to  his  estate  in  Csurbery,  and  tcf  make 
peace-  with  O'Neill  on  easy  terms.  As 
O'Driscol  did  not  happen  to  be  particularly 
formidable,  the  Irish  privy-council  first  eva- 
ded, and  then  openly  disobeyed  the  royal 
command;  but  the  name  of  O'Neill  was 
still  dreaded,  and  terms  of  peace  were,  anty 
ranged  with  him. 

Montjoy  also  proposed  an  act  for  the  paci- 


fication of  O'Donnel,  which  was  granted  on 
the  26th  of  February,  1603.  In  this  patent* 
the  queen  offers  to  O'Donnel,  and  a  great 
many  noWemen,  pj-oprietors  of  estates  which 
were  held  under  that  jMrince,  a  general  am- 
nesty and  forgiveness.  After  the  different 
branches  of  the  Donnels,  the  chief  noblemen 
named  in  the  act  are, — the  O'Boyles,  tlie 
O'Cahans,  the  O'Kellys,  the  O'Galtowes,  the 
O'Crijaanes,  the  O'Carwels,  the  Mac-Nenys, 
the  O'Kennedys,  the  O'Mulrenins,  the  CRo- 
wartys,  the  O'Tiemans,  the  O'Creanes,  the 
O'Dwyers,  the  O'Kierans,  the  O'Moyleganes, 
the  O'Ruddys,  the  Mac-Awardes,  the  O^Ehin- 
neganes,  the  O'Meallanys,  the  O'Murrys,  the 
O'Doghartys,  the  O'Miaghans,  the  O'Clerys, 
the  Mac-Glaghlins,  the  O'Sheridans,  the 
O'CassidyTSv  the  O'Cashedians,  and  several 
others. 

On  the  24th  of  March,  1603,  the  life  and 
reign  of  Elizabeth  were  ended.  The  gov- 
ernment of  Ireland  by  this  "  sturdy  virgin** 
has  been  but  little  discussed  in  the  works  of 
historical  writers,  who  appear  to  have  be- 
stowed their  principal  attention  upon  the 
English  and  continental  issues  of  her  policy. 
Having  for  a  long  time  been  well  convinced 
of  this  literary  fact,  we  were  not  surprised  at 
the  frequent  temptations  to  depart  from  the 
narrative  of  Irish  affairs.  According  to  all 
the  usual  associations  of  early  reading,  the 
historical  student  becomes  imperceptibly  cap>- 
tivated  by  the  showy  Leicester,  the  philo- 
sophic and  thought-moving  Bacon,  the  grave 
Burleigh,  the  impulsive  and  generous  Essey, 
the  Ariosto-eclipsing  Spenser,  the  vulgar  and 
crafty  Walsingham,  the  accomplished  Syd- 
neys,  and  the  ubiquitous  and  death-defying 
Raleigh.  But  our  task  has  been  the  reverse 
of  this  description  of  intellectual  excitement 
not,  indeed,  from  any  lack  of  poetical  and 
romantic  incident,  or  even  of  political  import- 
ance^ in  our  subject ;  but  from  the  caution 
required  and  acquired  after  observing  its 
overv^^elming  superabundance  of  those  social 
perversions  and  legal  horrors  which  enlist  the 
feelings  or  arouse  the  judgment  of  a  reflective 

*  This  document  is  written  in  Latin,  with.  Gothic  char> 
acters,  and  Mac-Geogfaegan  has  transcribed  from  it  S«« 
his  Hist ;  chap.  50. 


346 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1603. 


reader.  Occasional  paragraphs,  which  may 
seem  to  have  been  constructed  with  the  com- 
mon-place freedom  of  unimpassioned  lan- 
guage, are  occupied  with  relating  some  hor- 
rible butchery  or  wilful  perversion  of  justice ; 
and  this  style  is  not  adopted  without  good 
reasons,  for  we  have  also  observed  that  the 
recital  of  these  and  similar  circumstances,  by 
some  Irish  writers,  has  been  frequently  at- 
tended with  an  expostulatoiy  and  explosive 
warmth  (very  natural,  and  not  merely  excu- 
sable but  highly  praiseworthy)  which  only 
aided  in  unfortunately  confirming  the  pre- 
existing influences  of  a  power-corrupted  liter- 
ature to  hide  or  darken  the  claims  of  Ireland 
whenever  there  is  a  chance  for  them  to  appear 
in  the  light  of  truth. 

The  fervid  eloquence  and  never-dying 
words  of  Saint  Paul  himself  would  be  pearls 
thrown  away  before  the  benighted  being  who 
could,  without  powerful  emotion,  trace  the 
misfortunes  of  the  Irish  people  during  this 
reign,  as  they  are  shown  in  the  ruin  of  Gar- 
ret Fitz-Gerald,  Earl  of  Desmond ;  the  sub- 
sequent devastation  of  Munster ;  the  scram- 
bles of  the  land-thieves  ;  the  brutal  and  cow- 
ardly barbarities  in  the  treatment  and  disposal 
of  defenceless  women  and  helpless  children  ; 
the  similar  proceedings  in  the  other  provinces 
of  Ireland ;  the  noble  resistance  of  the  gallant 
and  talented  O'Neill ;  the  eventually  futile 
assistance  from  Spain  ;  the  wicked  perversion 
or  destruction  of  every  created  blessing  in 
Ireland ;  and  the  whole  military  and  mental 
tyranny  of  Elizabeth's  power,  only  relaxing 
in  its  grasp  when  she  exj)ired  in  the  melan- 
choly misery  of  a  murderess. 

That  such  wretched  misgovemment  would 
be  passively  endured  in  any  civilized  country 
is  scarcely  probable.  The  subsequent  his- 
tory of  Ireland  shows  that  her  brave  chiefs 
and  noble  people  have  never  ceased  their 
efforts  to  shake  off  this  tyrannical  abuse  of 
governmental  power,  which,  however,  is  to  this 
day  exercised  for  their  injury,  because  the 
real  merits  of  the  case  have  been  so  long  hid- 
den from  the  majority  of  the  English  people 
by  mterested  and  wilful  misrepresentation. 
We  cannot  review  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
without  feeling  certain  that  so  much  wicked- 


ness must  have  a  political  termination  to  its 
moral  trials  ;  and  that  when  the  true  princi- 
ples of  civil  and  religious  liberty  are  more 
properly  appreciated,  Ireland  will,  as  a  long- 
lost  sister,  be  affectionately  restored  to  her 
proper  station :  we  therefore  faithfully  con- 
fide in  the  hope  that,  with  Religion  on  her 
right  and  Liberty  on  her  left,  these  sisterly 
influences  may  speedily  receive  the  willing 
homage  and  cordial  admiration  of  the  wise 
and  good  throughout  all  lands. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXIV. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  The  subversion  of  the  ancient  religion, 
and  establishment  of  the  Reformation  in  her 
states,  formed  the  most  remarkable  feature  in 
the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  The  character  of 
this  princess  will  be  more  or  less  affected  by 
the  impression  which  that  event  produces  in 
different  minds.  The  unbelieving,  no  doubt, 
look  upon  the  supposed  reformation  in  reli- 
gion as  a  matter  of  indifference,  because  they 
do  not  particularly  reverence  any  creed  ;  the 
reformers  give  to  the  event  a  pre-eminent 
place  among  the  virtues  of  Elizabeth  ;  while 
others,  after  weighing  well  the  nature  and 
circumstances  of  the  enterprise,  tell  us,  that 
the  memory  of  this  queen  will  be  forever 
(from  that  occurrence  alone)  covered  with 
infamy. 

"  It  is  not  the  part  of  our  history  to  decide 
this  controversy,  nor  to  give  an  opinion 
whether  religion  required  to  be  reformed,  or 
whether  the  Reformation  were  a  meritorious 
act.  The  character  of  Elizabeth  is  the  mat- 
ter now  before  us  ;  according  to  that,  there- 
fore, our  opinion  must  be  shaped.  The 
means  which  she  made  use  of  to  effect  the 
Reformation  should  be  weighed  with  those 
of  honour,  conscience,  and  other  qualities 
which  render  us  pleasing  before  God  and 
man." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"Philosophy  resembles  those  corrosive 
powders  which,  after  the  proud  flesh,  next 
attack  the  whole,  piercing  the  bones  to  the 
very  marrow.     •     *     •     Philosophers  begin 


A.  D.  1603.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


t47 


with  attacking  error,  which  they  refute  :  they 
next  attack  truth ;  they  forget  where  they  set 
out  from  ;  they  know  not  where  to  stop." — 
Bayle. 

"If  we  do  not  endeavour  to  elevate  our 
thoughts  above  that  which  is  merely  human, 
we  shall  find  (even  in  the  largest  assemblies 
of  the  Church)  nothing  but  material  objects, 
which  will  most  probably  shock  and  offend 
us,  besides  increasing  our  natural  incredulity ; 
we  shall  never  discern  much  beyond  human 
weaknesses,  passions,  prejudices,  political 
views,  factions,  and  cabals.  But  we  ought 
therefore  so  much  the  more  to  admire  the 
wisdom  and  almighty  power  of  God  when 
we  discover  that  he  sometimes  accomplishes 
his  designs  by  means  which  would  seem  nat- 
urally to  operate  for  their  destruction.  It  is 
on  those  occasions  that  the  Holy  Spirit  shows 
itself  Master  of  the  heart  of  man.  He  makes 
even  such  things  as  appear  faulty  in  individ- 
ual pastors  conducive  to  the  accomplishment 
of  his  promises  to  mankind  ;  and,  by  a  provi- 
dence continually  attentive,  watches  the  mo- 
ments of  decision,  and  makes  the  general 
result  conformable  to  his  will.  It  is  thus 
God  acts  in  all  and  by  all.  Both  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  powers  can  only  be  held 
under  subjection  to  his  eternal  laws.  Every 
thing  accomplishes  his  designs,  either  freely 
or  by  necessity.  It  is  not  the  personal  talents 
nor  the  holiness  of  our  governors  which  make 
our  obedience  a  divine  virtue,  but  it  is  the 
inward  submission  of  the  human  mind  to  the 
order  of  Almighty  God.     ***** 

"  This  life  is  but  a  dark  night,  during  which 
we  are  unable  to  reason  fully  upon  the  mys- 
tical properties  and  nature  and  essence  of  the 
divine  Being,  or  even  upon  the  impenetrable 
designs  of  his  providence.  In  a  very  short 
time,  the  material  veil  will  be  taken ,  away. 
God  has  no  need  to  justify  his  conduct :  it 
will  be  justified.  We  shall  see  that  his  wis- 
dom, justice,  and  goodness,  are  always  con- 
cordant and  inseparable.  At  present,  per- 
haps, it  is  our  pride  or  our  impatience  which 
make^  us  unwilling  to  wait  for  this  unravel- 
ling. Instead  of  using  such  a  degree  of 
light  as  may  have  been  granted  to  us  as  a 
guide  for  leading  us  out  of  our  darkness,  we 


lose  sight  of  it  in  a  labyrinth  of  disputes,  er- 
rors, chimerical  systems,  and  particular  sects, 
which  not  only  disturb  the  present  peace  of 
human  society,  but  indispose  us  for  sharing 
our  future  existence  with  those  angehc  intel- 
ligences who  have  no  understanding  or  will  of 
their  own,  but  are  enlightened  by  one  univer- 
sal Reason,  and  are  all  moved  and  animated 
by  the  same  sovereign  love." — Fenelon. 

"  The  later  of  the  English  settlers  in  Ire- 
land had  embraced  the  novel  doctrines  of 
Luther.  The  natives  and  the  old  English 
colonists  adhered  to  the  original  faith.  This 
portion  of  the  people,  therefore,  persecuted 
and  stigmatized,  sunk  into  ignorance ;  and, 
hunted  down  as  outlaws,  (finding  no  protec- 
tion but  with  their  chiefs,  and  no  instruction 
but  from  their  clergy,)  naturally  attached 
themselves  to  both  with  a  savage  fidelity. 
Elizabeth  took  advantage  of  every  circimi- 
stance  to  attain  her  objects.  The  Reforma- 
tion was  not  only  proclaimed  but  enforced  in 
Ireland  with  unexampled  rigour.  A  few 
adopted,  most  rejected,  but  none  compre- 
hended it.  Elizabeth  having  lighted  the  fire- 
brand at  both  ends,  tossed  it  among  the  peo- 
ple. The  sects  fought  around  it,  and  Eliza- 
beth's oflicers  gave  out  '  Reform'  as  the 
watchword  of  the  combatants,  and  the  pretext 
for  extermination." — J.  Baerington. 

"Robert  Naughton,  an  English  writer, 
gives  in  his  'Regalia  Fragmenta,^  a  true  pic- 
ture of  Elizabeth,  and  ascribes  her  last  afflic- 
tions to  the  ill-success  of  her  arms  in  Ireland. 
This  Englishman  was  created  Sir  Robert 
Naughton,  secretary  of  state,  and  master  of 
the  court  of  wardens,  under  James  the  First. 
He  lived  contemporarily  with  her  reign,  and 
was  deeply  conversant  in  political  secrets." 
Mac-Geoghegan. 

"The  war  in  Ireland,  which  may  be  styled 
the  distemper  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  hav- 
ing continued  to  the  end  of  her  life,  proved 
such  an  expenditure,  as  affected  and  disor- 
ganized the  health  and  constitution  of  the 
princess,  for,  in  her  last  days,  she  became 
sorrowful,  melancholy,  and  depressed.  Her 
arms,  which  had  been  accustomed  to  con- 
quer, meeting  with  opposition  firom  the  Irish, 
and  the  success  of  the  war  for  so  long  a  time 


tMB 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  160S. 


becoming  not  only  doubtful  but  unfortunate, 
afflicted  hex  to  distraction.  On  her  accession 
to  the  crown  of  England,  she  encouraged, 
for  the  purpose  of  causing  a  diversion  in  her 
own  favour,  the  rebellion  of  the  states  of 
Holland  against  the  king  of  Spain,  who,  by 
way  of  reprisal,  favoured  and  encouraged  the 
Irish  to  oppose  Elizabeth. 

"It  may  be  imagined  that  England  was  at 
the  time  equal  to  undertake  and  maintain  by 
her  resources  the  war  against  the  Irish.  If 
we  take  a  close  view  of  the  state  of  things  at 
the  period,  and  the  number  of  troops  in  Ire- 
land, as  also  the  defeat  at  Black  Water,  and 
the  expenditure  attending  the  attempts  of  the 
earl  of  Essex,  the  reduction  of  Kinsale  un- 
der General  Mountjoy,  and  of  a  short  time 
subsequently,  we  will  discover,  that  in  horse 
and  foot  the  troops  amounted  to  twenty  thou- 
sand men ;  independently  of  the  naval  arma- 
ments connected  with  them.  The  queen 
was  obhged  to  keep  up  a  constant  and  pow- 
erful fleet,  to  watch  the  coasts  of  Spain  and 
blockade  its  harbours,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
succours  which  were  intended  for  Ireland 
from  being  forwarded.  The  expenses  there- 
fore attending  the  wars  of  Elizabeth  against 
the  Irish,  amounted  at  least  to  three  hundred 
thousand  pounds  sterling  a  year,  which  was 
not  half  her  expenditure  in  other  quarters ; 
an  expense  which  could  not  be  longer  sup- 
ported without  the  aid  of  the  public.  The 
frequent  letters  of  the  queen,  and  the  constant 
requests  to  General  Mountjoy  to  disband  the 
forces  as  speedily  as  possible,  furnish  an  irre- 
fragable proof  to  what  an  extremity  this  prin- 
cess saw  herself  reduced." — R.  Naughton. 

"Irishmen  of  the  present  day!  read  the 
admission  of  this  English  secretary  of  state, 
and  learn  from  it  that  England  put  forth  her 
whole  power  against  Ireland  during  this  fif- 
teen years'  war,  and  failed  in  subduing  the 
vaUant  men  of  that  generation.  Ireland  has 
broken  the  heart  of  many  a  British  king,  and 
queen,  and  minister,  and  deputy.  The  last 
deputy,  De  Grey,  has  just  returned  (July, 
1844)  from  his  futile  though  outrageous  ad- 
ministration of  government  in  Ireland  ;  and 
Sir  Robert  Peel  feels  and  admits  Ireland  to 
be  his  sole  difficulty.    Quepn  Victoria  has  no 


other  trouble  on  earth  but  Ireland  ;  and  thus 
we  are,  at  the  end  of  two  hundred  and  forty 
years  from  Elizabeth's  attempts,  as  uncon- 
quered  as  she  found  us  after  four  hundred 
years  of  previous  wars  with  her  ancestors." 

MOONEY. 

"  It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  during  the 
period  of  four  hundred  years  and  upwards, 
the  usual  mode  of  governing  both  English 
and  Irish  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  An- 
glican Government,  was  by  Martial  Law ; 
which  was  treated  as  if  it  really  formed  part 
of  the  Common  Law  of  Ireland." — O'Con- 

NELL. 

"  In  all  the  Parliament-rolls  which  are  ex- 
tant from  the  fortieth  year  of  Edward  the 
Third,  when  the  statutes  of  Kilkenny  were 
enacted,  till  the  reign  of  king  Henry  the 
Eighth,  we  find  the  degenerate  and  disobedi- 
ent English  called  rebels,  but  the  Irish  which 
were  not  in  the  king's  peace,  are  called  ene- 
mies."        •         •         •         • 

"  All  these  statutes  speak  of  English  rebels, 
and  Irish  enemies,  as  if  the  Irish  had  never 
been  in  the  condition  of  subjects,  but  always 
out  of  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  were  in- 
deed in  worse  case  than  aliens  of  any  foreign 
realm  that  was  in  amity  with  the  crown  of 
England.  For  by  divers  heavy  penal  laws, 
the  English  were  forbidden  to  marry,  to  foster, 
to  make  gossips  with  the  Irish,  or  to  have 
any  trade  or  commerce  in  their  markets  or 
fairs  :  nay,  there  was  a  law  made,  no  longer 
since  than  the  twenty-eighth  year  of  Henry 
the  Eighth,  that  the  English  should  not  marry 
with  any  person  of  Irish  blood,  though  he  had 
gotten  a  charter  of  denization,  unless  he  had 
done  both  homage  and  fealty  to  the  king  in 
the  Chancery,  and  were  also  bound  by  re- 
cognizance with  sureties,  to  continue  a  loyal 
subject.  Whereby  it  is  manifest  that  such  as 
had  the  government  of  Ireland,  under  the 
crown  of  England,  did  intend  to  make  a  per* 
petual  separation  and  enmity  between  the 
English  and  the  Irish,  pretending,  no  doubt) 
that  the  Enghsh  should  in  the  end  root  out 
the  Irish ;  which  the  English  not  being  able 
to  do,  caused  a  perpetual  war  between  the 
nations,  which  continued  four  hundred  and 
odd  years."       ••♦•♦• 


A.  D.  1603.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


249 


"  In  a  word,  if  the  English  would  neither 
in  peace  govern  them  by  the  law,  nor  could 
in  war  root  them  out  by  the  sword,  must  they 
not  needs  be  pricks  in  their  eyes,  and  thorns 
in  their  sides,  till  the  world's  end,  and  so  the 
conquest  never  be  brought  to  perfection." — 
Davies. 

"The  history  of  Ireland's  unhappy  con- 
nection with  England  exhibits,  from  first  to 
last,  a  detail  of  the  most  persevering,  galling, 
grinding,  insulting,  and  systematic  oppression 
to  be  found  anywhere,  except  among  the 
Helots  of  Sparta." — J.  K.  Paulding. 

"  There  is  but  little  respite  from  exaspera- 
ting oppression  and  unmerited  cruelty.  The 
eye  wanders  over  a  dreary  scene  of  desola- 
tion without  a  single  point  on  which  it  can 
rest.  The  heart  of  the  philanthropist  sinks 
under  a  hopeless  despondency  ;  and  passively 
yields  to  tlie  unchristian  and  impious  reflection, 
that  the  poor  people  of  Ireland  are  a  devoted 
race,  whom  Providence  has  abandoned  to  the 
malignant  ingenuity  of  an  insatiable  enemy." 
J.  Lawless. 

"  I  now  close  the  bloodstained  and  heart- 
rending sketches  of  the  history  of  the  oppress- 
ed Irish  for  the  first  four  hundred  years  of 
English  domination  in  their  country;  and 
trust  there  is  not  a  man  of  common  candour 
who  will  not  allow  that  it  is  a  continued  tis- 
sue of  scenes  of  rapine,  fraud,  imposture,  sub- 
ornation, perjury,  forgery,  desolation,  murder, 
and  massacre,  hardly  relieved  by  a  single 
oasis  occasionally  of  a  few  years  of  quasi 
peace." — M.  Carey. 

"  The  reigns  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Ed- 
ward the  Sixth  passed  away.  Queen  Mary 
ascended  the  throne.  Catholicity  was  re- 
stored to  power  in  Ireland  without  difficulty 
— without  any  kind  of  struggle.  How  did 
the  Catholics — the  Irish  Catholics — conduct 
themselves  towards  the  Protestants,  who  had 
been  persecuting  them  up  to  the  last  moment  ? 
How  did  they — the  Catholics — conduct  them- 
selves ?  I  will  take  the  answer  from  a  book, 
published  several  years  ago  by  Mr.  William 
Pamell — a  Protestant  gentleman  of  high  sta- 
tion— the  brother  of  [Sir  Henry]  a  Cabinet 
minister." — O'Connell. 

"  How  ought  those  perverse  and  superficial 
32 


men  to  blush  who  have  said  that  the  Irish 
Roman  Catholics  must  be  bigots  and  rebels 
from  the  very  nature  of  their  religion,  and 
who  have  advanced  this  falsehood  in  the  very 
teeth  of  fact,  contrary  to  the  most  distinct 
evidence  of  history ! 

"  The  Irish  Roman  Catholics  bigots  ?  The 
Irish  Roman  Catholics  are  the  only  sect  that 
ever  resumed  power  without  exercising  ven- 
geance !" — W.  Parnell's  "Historical  Apol- 

"  But  it  was  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  that 
the  persecution  of  the  Catlrolics  raged  with 
the  greatest  fury ;  as  the  policy  of  her  officers 
in  creating  their  familiar  instruments  of  fam- 
ine and  pestilence  extended  her  dominion, 
religious  persecution  extended  with  it." — 
O'Connell. 

"  Elizabeth  proceeded  systematically  in 
her  projects.  She  first  ordered  the  perform- 
ance of  the  Catholic  worship  to  be  forcibly 
prohibited  in  Ireland.  She  ordered  the  rack 
to  be  employed,  and  directed  her  officers  to 
*  torture  the  suspected  Irish.'  She  ordered 
free  quarters  on  the  peasantry  to  gratify  her 
soldiers,  and  rouse  the  natives  to  premature 
insurrections.  Her  executioners  were  ordered 
to  butcher  tliem  without  mercy.  Religion 
was  abolished  by  martial  law,  and  divine 
worship  prohibited  under  pain  of  death." — J. 
Barrington. 

"  Religious  persecution  is  one  of  the  great- 
est stains  attached  to  human  nature.  It  is  in 
hostility  with  the  most  clear  and  explicit  doc- 
trines of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  its  absurdity  is 
about  equal  to  its  wickedness ;  as  it  supposes, 
what  never  was,  and  never  can  be,  that  men 
can  change  their  belief  at  will,  as  they  can 
change  their  dress." — M.  Carey. 

"  In  this  reign,  among  many  other  Roman 
Catholic  priests  and  bishops,  there  were  put 
to  death  for  the  exercise  of  their  function  in 
Ireland,  Gladby  O'Boyle,  abbot  of  Boyle  of 
the  diocese  of  Elphin,  and  Owen  O'Mulke- 
ren,  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  the  Holy 
Trinity  in  that  diocese,  hanged  and  quartered 
by  Lord  Grey  in  1580 ;  John  Stephens, 
priest,  for  that  he  said  mass  to  Teague 
M'Hugh,  was  hanged  and  quartered  by  the 
Lord  Burroughs  in  1597 ;  Thady  O'Boyle, 


350 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1603. 


guardian  of  the  monastery  of  Donegal,  was 
slain  by  the  English  in  his  own  monastery ; 
six  friars  were  slain  in  the  monastery  of  Moy- 
nihigan ;  John  O'Calyhor  and  Bryan  O'Tre- 
vor,  of  the  order  of  St.  Bernard,  were  slain 
in  their  own  monastery,  de  Santa  Maria,  in 
Ulster ;  as  also  Fehmy  O'Hara,  a  lay  brother; 
so  was  Eneas  Penny,  parish  priest  of  Killagh, 
slain  at  the  altar  in  his  parish  church  there  ; 
Cahall  M'Goran,  Rory  O'Donnellan,  Peter 
O'Quillan,  Patrick  O'Kenna,  George  Power, 
vicar-general  of  the  diocese  of  Ossory,  An- 
drew Stretch  of  Limerick,  Bryan  O'Muiri- 
hirtagh,  vicar-general  of  the  diocese  of  Clon- 
fert,  Dorohow  O'Molony  of  Thomond,  John 
Kelly  of  Louth,  Stephen  Patrick  of  Annaly, 
John  Pillis,  friar,  Rory  M'Henlea,  Tirrilagh 
M'Inisky,  a  lay  brother.  All  those  that  come 
after  Eneas  Penny,  together  with  Walter  Far- 
nan,  priest,  died  in  the  Castle  of  Dublin,  either 
through  hard  usage  and  restraint,  or  the  vio- 
lence of  torture." — Curry. 

"  Queen  Elizabeth  caused,  by  the  authority 
of  parliament,  some  volumes  of  penal  laws  to 
be  published  against  those  who  refused  to 
submit  to  the  Reformation.  Under  these 
laws  no  one  was  secure  in  his  life  or  free- 
dom ;  it  was  in  the  power  of  any  profligate 
to  accuse  his  neighbour  before  a  judge,  when 
the  informer  was  certain  of  being  attended  to, 
and  the  innocent  party  oppressed.  To  these 
were  added  other  laws  equally  barbarous  and 
inhuman :  to  refuse  to  acknowledge  Eliza- 
beth's ecclesiastical  supremacy,  to  take  holy 
orders  in  a  foreign  country,  to  afford  an  asy- 
lum to  the  clergy,  to  be  reconciled  to  the  old 
religion,  or  to  be  present  at  such  reconcilia- 
tion of  another,  were  all  deemed  high  treason  ; 
while,  at  the  same  time,  every  method  was 
resorted  to  to  bring  the  unhappy  Catholics 
within  the  range  of  this  sentence.  The  pris- 
ons were  continually  crowded  with  supposed 
culprits,  many  of  whom  finally  suffered  upon 
the  scaffold." — Mac-Geoghegan, 

"  Her  father,  Henry,  the  Nero  of  British 
history,  had  assumed,  as  a  pastime,  the  trade 
of  a  theologist ;  and,  changing  his  religion  as 
often  as  he  decapitated  his  consorts,  at  length 
settled  his  veering  faith  by  declaring  himself 
a  reformist,  with  the  most  unqualified  intol- 


erance. Theological  disputes,  after  this  im- 
portant auxiliary  to  the  Reformation,  alto- 
gether divested  the  minds  of  men  of  the 
attributes  of  common  reason ;  and  the  blackest 
enormities  were  considered  as  the  most  holy 
virtues,  if  they  correspcftided  with  the  fanati- 
cism  of   deluded   imaginations." — J.   Bar- 

RINGTON. 

"Long  before  Dissent  assumed  its  name, 
a  name  which  Christians  of  old,  even  the 
most  free  and  most  presumptuous,  would 
have  pronounced  as  self-condemnation,  its 
spirit  was  working  in  the  Church.  It  made 
men  slight  antiquity,  fight  against  the  au- 
thority of  the  civil  power,  trifle  with  positive 
institutions,  trust  to  themselves,  to  their  own 
arm  and  their  own  understanding.  It  pro- 
fessed to  explain  every  thing.  It  allowed  of 
no  mysteries.  It  thought  more  of  rousing 
men's  feelings  and  governing  their  minds, 
than  of  simply  enunciating  truth  committed 
to  their  keeping  by  God.  •  *  *  •  They 
also  were  for  realities.    They  hated  *  shows,' 

*  cant,'  '  formulas,'   *  speciosities,'    *  quacks,' 

*  incarnate  falsehoods.'  They  made  no  dis- 
tinction between  things  which  God  had  de- 
signed for  good  (and  man  only  had  rendered 
useless)  and  things  which  God  himself  would 
reprobate  and  destroy.  Animation  was  sus- 
pended ;  they  mistook  it  for  death,  and  killed 
the  patient  because  he  had  fainted.  •  •  *  • 
A  church,  with  its  rites  and  ceremonies,  is 
the  outward  form  of  an  inward  religious  faith. 
So  fLxed  prayers  are  forms  of  devotion — cere- 
monies of  society  are  forms  of  natural  benev- 
olence— conventional  habits  of  language  are 
forms  of  internal  thought.  For  man  is  made 
of  soul  and  body,  of  the  spiritual  and  the 
material,  of  the  invisible  and  the  visible  ;  and 
the  two  cannot  be  separated  without  ultimate 
destruction  to  both." — London  Quar.  Rev. ; 
September,  1840. 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  attempt  to  de- 
scribe the  sufferings  that  the  Catholics  had 
to  endure  during  this  murderous  reign.  No 
tongue,  no  pen  is  adequate  to  the  task.  To 
hear  mass,  to  harbour  a  priest,  to  admit  the 
supremacy  of  the  pope,  to  deny  this  horrid 
virago's  spiritual  supremacy,  and  many  other 
j  things,  which  an  honourable  Catholic  could 


A.  D.  1608.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


251 


scarcely  avoid,  consigned  him  to  the  scaffold 
and  to  the  bowel-ripping  knife.  But,  the 
most  cruel  of  her  acts,  even  more  cruel  than 
her  butcheries,  because  of  far  more  extensive 
effect,  and  far  more  productive  of  suffering  in 
the  end,  were  the  penal  laws  inflicting  fines 
for  recusancy,  that  is  to  say,  for  not  going  to 
her  new-fangled  Protestant  church.  And, 
was  there  ever  t3rranny  equal  to  this  ?  Not 
only  were  men  to  be  punished  for  not  con- 
fessing that  the  new  religion  was  the  true 
one ;  not  only  for  continuing  to  practise  the 
religion  in  which  they  and  their  fathers  and 
children  had  been  bom  and  bred ;  but  also 
punished  for  not  actually  going  to  the  new 
assemblages,  and  there  performing  what  they 
must,  if  they  were  sincere,  necessarily  deem 
an  act  of  open  apostacy  and  blasphemy ! 
Never,  in  the  whole  world,  was  there  heard 
of  before  tyranny  equal  to  this." — Cobbett. 

"  The  most  important  part,  however,  of  the 
present  inquiry  is  that  which  regards  the 
slate  of  religion  and  morality  during  the  mid- 
dle ages.  You,  sir,  with  most  modern  wri- 
ters, represent  these  as  sunk  into  superstition 
and  vice,  and  you  argue  as  if  they  were  ex- 
tinct, and  no  longer  to  be  found  upon  the 
earth,  until  they  were  revived  by  the  agency 
of  such  reformers  as  were  Luther,  Calvin, 
Henry  the  Eighth,  Cranmer,  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  !  The  very 
idea  is  revolting  to  persons  conversant  with 
the  history  of  the  ages  in  question.     ♦  •  •  • 

"  I  grant,  however,  there  was  an  increasing 
spirit  of  irreligion  and  immorality  among  dif- 
ferent nations,  and  in  none  more  so  than  our 
own  during  a  considerable  time  previous  to 
the  Reformation.  But  the  question,  sir,  is, 
whether  this  spirit  contributed  to  produce 
that  event,  as  a  cause  which  produces  its 
effect,  or  merely  as  an  occasion,  namely,  by 
exciting  men  of  piety  and  morality  to  coun- 
teract it  ?  In  order  to  decide  this  question, 
we  cannot  make  use  of  a  better  criterion  than 
that  which  is  laid  down  in  the  gospel,  namely, 
to  judge  the  tree  by  its  fruits.  If,  then,  the 
authors  and  abettors  of  the  Reformation  were 
found  to  be  the  persons  most  distinguished 
in  each  country  for  their  piety  and  purity  of 
life,  or  if  even  a  visible  amendment  in  their 


religious  and  moral  conduct  wks  the  conse- 
quence of  their  embracing  it ;  in  a  word,  if 
the  bulk  of  the  people  who  went  over  to  this 
cause  were  proved  to  be  thereby  more  ad- 
dicted to  prayer  and  alms-deeds,  more  chaste, 
more  temperate,  more  meek  and  patient,  more 
submissive  to  their  lawful  superiors,  and  more 
amenable  to  the  laws  of  the  respective  states 
under  which  they  lived,  than  they  had  been 
while  they  were  Catholics,  this  will  form  a 
strong  presumption  of  their  being  influenced 
by  motives  of  religion  and  genuine  refonna- 
tion  in  the  choice  they  made,  and  that  this 
work  was  truly  the  work  of  God.  But,  if  it 
appear  that  the  Reformation  was,  in  every 
place  where  it  prevailed,  attended  with  pre- 
cisely the  opposite  consequences,  I  shall 
leave  you,  sir,  to  draw  the  conclusion." — J. 

MiLNEB,  to  J.  StURGES. 

"After  Desmond's  death,  and  the  entire 
suppression  of  his  rebellion,  unheard  of  cru- 
elties were  committed  on  the  provincials  of 
Munster  (his  supposed  former  adherents)  by 
the  English  commanders.  Great  companies 
of  these  provincials,  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, were  often  forced  into  castles  and  other 
houses,  which  were  then  set  on  fire.  And  if 
any  of  them  attempted  to  escape  from  the 
flames,  they  were  shot  or  stabbed  by  the  sol- 
diers who  guarded  them.  It  was  a  diversion 
to  these  monsters  of  men  to  take  up  infants 
on  the  point  of  their  spears,  and  whirl  them 
about  in  their  agony ;  apologizing  for  their 
cruelty  by  saying,  that  *  if  they  suffered  them 
to  live  to  grow  up,  they  would  become  popish 
rebels.'  Many  of  their  women  were  found 
hanging  on  trees,  with  their  children  at  their 
breasts,  strangled  with  the  mother's  hair." — 
P.  Lombard. 

"  The  successes  of  the  English  in  Munster 
were  very  rapid,  in  consequence  of  the  divi- 
sions that  prevailed  in  that  province.  A 
divided  kingdom  must  fall.  Some  of  their 
chiefs  had  already  embraced  the  reformed 
religion  through  interest  and  an  ambition  to 
please  Elizabeth  ;  the  rest  wished  to  remain 
attached  to  the  Catholic  church.  Among  the 
latter,  however,  were  some  political  tempori- 
zers who  would  run  no  risk,  and  whose  prin- 
ciple was  to  accommodate  themselves  to  the 


952 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1603. 


times.  The  English  government  omitted 
nothing  to  excite  disunion :  they  strove  to 
reduce  the  Irish  to  the  most  abject  wretched- 
ness, by  destroying  their  flocks,  and  the  crops 
necessary  for  their  support  ;  and  also  by 
drawing  out  of  Ireland  all  its  gold  and  silver, 
and  sending  from  England  in  lieu  of  it  a  new 
<;opper  coin  which  would  not  pass  in  any 
other  country,  and  which  soon  lost  its  value 
there." — Mac-Geoghegan.    , 

"  The  officers  of  the  Irish  government  were 
eager  to  enrich  themselves  by  new  confisca- 
tions, and  threw  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
an  equitable  adjustment.  The  Earl  of  Ty- 
rone's judicious  question,  in  fact,  showed 
that  a  reconcilement  was  scarcely  possible. 
*  Though,'  said  O'Neill,  *  I  might  safely  make 
peace  with  men  of  honour,  like  Norris  and 
Russell,  what  security  have  I  for  the  charac- 
ter and  conduct  of  tlieir  successors  V 

"  The  little  progress  made  by  Norris  in  sub- 
duing the  Irish,  created  equal  disappointment 
and  displeasure  in  England.  The  statesmen 
of  Elizabeth's  court  made  no  allowances  for 
the  difficulties  of  a  country  where  a  defensible 
military  position  may  be  found  at  every  mile  ; 
where  morasses  and  forests,  and  rocks  and 
mountains,  baffled  the  valour  and  discipline 
of  the  invaders." — Taylor. 

"  The  Leinster  rebels,  by  driving  the  roy- 
alists into  their  fortified  towns,  and  living  long 
without  molestation,  had  cultivated  their  lands, 
and  established  an  unusual  regularity  and 
plenty  in  their  districts.  But  now  they  were 
exposed  to  the  most  rueful  havoc  from  the 
Queen's  forces.  The  soldiers,  encouraged 
by  the  example  of  their  officers,  everywhere 
cut  down  the  standing  corn  with  their  swords, 
and  devised  every  means  to  deprive  the 
wretched  inhabitants  of  all  the  necessaries  of 
life  !  Famine  was  judged  the  speediest  and 
most  effectual  means  of  reducing  them  ;  and 
therefore  the  Deputy  was  secretly  not  dis- 
pleased with  the  devastations  made  even  in 
the  well-affected  quarters  by  the  improvident 
fury  of  the  rebels. 

"  The  like  melancholy  expedient  was  prac- 
tised in  the  northern  provinces.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Carrickfergus,  Sir  Arthur  Chiches- 
ter, issued  from  his  quarters,  and  for  twenty 


miles  round,  reduced  the  country  to  a  desert. 
Sir  Samuel  Bagnal,  the  Governor  of  Newry, 
proceeded  with  the  same  severity,  and  laid 
waste  all  the  adjacent  lands.  All  the  Eng- 
lish garrisons  were  daily  employed  in  pillag- 
ing and  wasting ;  while  Tyrone,  with  his 
dispirited  party,  shrunk  gradually  within  nar- 
rower bounds.  They  were  effectually  pre- 
vented from  sowing  and  cultivating  their 
lands." — Leland. 

"  The  famished,  harassed  people,  in  the 
midst  of  blood  and  flame,  naturally  became 
alive  to  every  feeling  and  susceptible  to  every 
argument  which  could  show  the  way  to  even 
a  prospect  of  alleviation.  Their  chiefs  and 
their  clergy  were  their  only  instructors,  who, 
in  the  wild,  strong,  persuasive  language  of 
their  country,  impressed  in  glowing  figures 
on  the  shivering  multitude,  the  excesses  of 
their  misery,  fired  their  irritable  minds  by  a 
distant  prospect  of  deliverance,  and  harrowed 
up  all  the  feelings  of  hatred  towards  their 
oppressors  which  torture  and  famine  had  im- 
planted in  their  bosoms." — J.  Barrington. 

"  The  ferocity  of  soldiers  hardened  by  a 
life  of  slaughter,  and  infuriated  against  their 
enemies  on  the  field  of  battle,  will  admit  of 
some  degree  of  palliation.  But  what  pallia- 
tion can  be  offered  for  those  who  sit  down 
calmly  and  frame  projects  of  extermination 
by  famine,  and  its  concomitant  the  plague  ? 
Their  guilt  is  of  infinitely  deeper  dye." — M. 
Carey. 

"  The  system  of  war  pursued  by  Montjoy 
and  Carew  was  that  which  had  been  found 
so  efficacious  in  destroying  the  Earl  of  Des- 
mond. Bribes  were  offered  to  the  inferior 
chiefs  for  desertion.  Rivals  were  encouraged 
to  assail  the  claims  of  those  tanists  who  still 
adhered  to  O'Neill.  The  houses  were  de- 
stroyed, the  cornfields  consumed,  fire  and 
famine  were  once  more  brought  to  the  aid  of 
slaughter.  Carew  was  more  merciless  in 
establishing  this  cruel  system  than  Montjoy. 
He  was  naturally  cruel  and  rapacious,  a 
deliberate  encourager  of  treachery,  and  not 
ashamed  to  avow  and  defend  perfidy  and  as- 
sassination. When  any  of  the  insurgent  lead< 
ers,  broken  by  calamity,  sued  for  permission 
to  return  to  his  allegiance,  Carew  granted 


A.  D.  160S.] 


SECOND   DIVISION, 


2S$ 


pardon  only  on  the  condition  that  the  offender 
should  prove  his  new  zeal  for  the  royal  ser- 
vice by  murdering  a  friend  or  relative  ;  and 
this  detestable  practice  he  vindicates  in  his 
writings  as  wise  and  sound  policy." — Tay- 
lor. 

"  A  remarkable  feature  attending  some  of 
these  transactions,  which  is  of  very  rare  oc- 
currence in  history,  is,  that  many  of  the  gov- 
ernors, deputies,  and  other  officers  vested 
with  authority  in  Ireland,  were  so  lost  to 
every  sense  of  shame,  that  in  various  instan- 
ces, they  or  their  confidential  friends  or  sec- 
retaries were  the  heralds  of  their  own  infamy, 
which  they  bequeathed  to  posterity  with  as 
little  concern  as  if  they  were  recording  some 
glorious  acts  of  heroism." — M.  Carey. 

"  It  was  thought  no  ill  policy  to  make  the 
Irish  draw  blood  upon  one  another,  whereby 
their  private  quarrels  might  advance  the  pub- 
lic service." — Pacata  Hibernia. 

"  Sir — Your  last  letters  I  haue  received, 
and  am  exceeding  glad  to  see  your  constant 
resolution  of  returne  to  subjection,  and  to 
leaue  the  rebellious  courses,  wherein  you 
haue  long  persevered  :  you  may  rest  assured 
that  promises  shall  bee  kept ;  and  you  shall 
no  sooner  bring  Dermond  O'Connor  to  me 
aliue  or  dead,  and  banish  his  bownoghs  out 
of  the  countrie,  but  that  you  shall  haue  your 
demand  satisfied,  which  I  thanke  God,  I  am 
both  able  and  willing  to  performe ;  beleeue 
me,  you  haue  no  better  way  to  recover  your 
desperate  estate,  than  by  this  good  service 
which  you  haue  proffered ;  and  therefore  I 
cannot  but  commend  your  judgement,  in 
choosing  the  same  to  redeeme  your  former 
faults.  And  I  doe  the  rather  beleeue  the 
performance  of  it,  by  your  late  action  touch- 
ing Loghguire,  wherein  your  brother  and 
yourselfe  haue  well  merited  ;  and  as  I  prom- 
ised, you  shall  finde  mee  so  just  as  no  crea- 
ture living  shall  ever  know,  that  either  of  you 
did  assent  to  the  surrender  of  it ;  all  your  let- 
ters I  haue  received,  as  also  the  joynt  letter, 
from  your  brother  and  your  selfe ;  I  pray 
loose  no  time,  for  delayes  in  great  actions  are 
subject  to  many  dangers.  Now  that  the 
queenes  armie  is  in  the  field,  you  may  worke 
your  determination  with  most  securitie,  being 


ready  to  releeue  you  upon  a  dayes  warning ; 
so  praying  God  to  assist  you  in  this  meritori- 
ous enterprize,  I  doe  leaue  you  to  his  protec> 
tion,  this  twentie  nineth  of  May  1600." — 
Carew's  Pretended  Letter  to  James  Fitz- 
Thomas. 

"  This  letter  was  sent  to  Dermond  O'Con- 
nor, which  when  time  should  seme,  hee  might 
shew  as  intercepted  by  him ;  and  therefore 
what  he  did,  was  imposed  upon  him  by  ne- 
cessitie,  except  he  would  suffer  himselfe, 
vrittingly  and  willingly  to  be  betraied.   •   •  • 

"  Then  Dermond  O'Connor  layed  hold 
upon  James  Fitz-Thomas  and  said,  My  lord, 
you  are  in  hand  ;  In  hand,  (answered  he,)  for 
whom  or  for  what  cause  ?  I  haue  taken  you 
for  O'Neale,  saith  he  ;  and  I  purpose  to  de- 
taine  you,  untill  I  bee  certified  of  his  pleasure ; 
for  yourselfe  haue  combined  with  the  English, 
and  promised  to  the  president  to  deliver  me, 
either  aliue  or  dead  into  his  hands  ;  and  for 
proofe  thereof  behold,  (saith  he,)  letters  which 
were  intercepted,  and  brought  to  mee,  (under 
the  president's  hand,)  to  confirme  the  same  ; 
and  there withall  produced  them." — Pacata 
Hibernia. 

"  Carew  descended  to  still  more  dishon- 
ourable practices.  One  Nugent,  a  servant 
of  Sir  Thomas  Norris,  had  deserted  to  the 
rebels,  and  by  the  alacrity  of  his  services  he 
acquired  their  confidence.  In  a  repenting 
mood  he  submitted  to  the  President,  [Carew,] 
and  to  purchase  his  pardon,  promised  to  de- 
stroy either  the  titular  earl  [of  Desmond]  or 
his  brother  John  [Fitz-Thomas.]  As  a  plot 
was  already  laid  against  the  former,  and  as 
his  death  could  only  serve  to  raise  up  new 
competitors  for  his  title,  the  bravo  was  di- 
rected to  proceed  against  John.  He  seized 
his  opportunity,  and  attempted  to  despatch 
him ;  but  as  his  pistol  was  just  levelled,  he 
was  seized,  condemned  to  die,  and  at  his  exe- 
cution confessed  his  design :  declaring  that 
many  others  had  sworn  to  the  Lord  President 
to  effect  what  he  intended." — Lelakd. 

"Nugent  in  his  examination  ireely  con- 
fessed his  whole  intent,  which  was,  (as  hee 
then  said,)  to  haue  despatched  John  Fitz- 
Thomas,  and  immediately  to  haue  poasted 
unto  the  Sugan  Earle,  to  carry  the  first  news 


S54 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1608. 


thereof,  intending  to  call  him  aside,  in  secret 
manner  to  relate  him  the  particulars  of  his 
brother's  murther,  and  then  to  execute  as 
much  upon  him  also :  adding,  moreover,  that 
although  they  take  away  his  life,  (which  he 
would  not  intreat  them  to  spare,)  yet  was 
their  own  safetie  never  the  more  assured  :  for 
there  were  many  others,  which  himself  per- 
fectly knew  to  haue  solemnly  swome  unto 
the  president  to  effect  as  much  as  he  intended. 
This  confession  being  sealed  with  his  death, 
did  strike  such  a  fearfuU  terrour  into  the  two 
brethren,  that  James  Fitz-Thomas  himselfe 
afterwards  unto  the  president  acknowledged, 
they  never  durst  lodge  together  in  one  place, 
or  even  serve  at  the  heads  of  their  troopes, 
for  feare  to  be  shot  by  some  of  their  own 
men." — Pacata  Hibernia. 

"  A  circumstantial  account  of  these  most 
sanguinary  insurrections  was  afterwards  pub- 
lished under  the  immediate  authority  of  the 
queen.  Though  the  Pacata  Hibernia,  as  a 
history,  cannot  be  an  impartial  one,  yet  there 
is  a  species  of  horrid  candour  runs  through 
the  pages  of  that  work  which  gives  it  alto- 
gether strong  clains  to  a  partial  authenticity." 
J.  Barrington. 

"  Detestably  base  as  was  the  conduct  of 
*  good  Queen  Bess'  in  the  act  of  murdering 
her  unfortunate  cousin,  her  subsequent  hy- 
pocrisy was  still  more  detestable.  She  af- 
fected the  deepest  sorrow  for  the  act  that 
had  been  committed,  pretended  that  it  had 
been  done  against  her  wish,  and  had  the  su- 
perlative injustice  and  baseness  to  imprison 
her  secretary,  Davison,  for  having  despatched 
the  warrant  for  the  execution,  though  she, 
observe,  had  signed  that  warrant,  and  though, 
as  Whitaker  has  fully  proved,  she  had  reviled 
Davison  for  not  having  despatched  it,  after 
she  had,  in  vain,  used  all  the  means  in  her 
power  to  induce  him  to  employ  assassins  to 
do  the  deed.  She  had,  by  a  series  of  per- 
fidies and  cruelties  wholly  without  a  parallel, 
brought  her  hapless  victim  to  the  block,  in 
that  very  country  to  which  she  had  invited 
her  to  seek  safety ;  she  had,  in  the  last  sad 
and  awful  moments  of  that  victim,  had  the 
barbarity  to  refuse  her  the  consolations  of  a 
divine  of  her  own  communion  ;  she  had  pur- 


sued her  with  hatred  and  malice  that  remained 
unglutted  even  when  she  saw  her  prostrate 
under  the  common  hangman,  and  when  she 
saw  the  blood  gushing  from  her  severed  neck ; 
unsated  with  the  destruction  of  her  body,  she, 
Satan-like,  had  sought  the  everlasting  de- 
struction of  her  soul :  and  yet,  the  deed  being 
done,  she  had  the  more  than  Satan-like  hy- 
pocrisy to  affect  to  weep  for  the  untimely  end 
of  her  *  dear  cousin ;'  and,  which  was  still 
more  diabolical,  to  make  use  of  her  despotic 
power  to  crush  her  humane  secretary,  under 
pretence  that  he  had  been  the  cause  of  the 
sad  catastrophe  !  All  expressions  of  detesta- 
tion and  horror  fall  short  of  our  feelings,  and 
our  consolation  is,  that  we  are  to  see  her  own 
end  ten  thousand  times  more  to  be  dreaded 
than  that  of  her  victim." — Cobbett. 

"  If  from  Mary's  dying  scene  we  turn  to 
that  of  EHzabeth,  where  all  was  sullen  and 
melancholy,  deep  remorse  and  fixed  despon- 
dency, we  shall  have  no  difficulty  in  determin- 
ing, without  further  proof,  which  of  these  ri- 
val queens  laboured  under  the  real  guilt  of 
murder.  *  •  •  •  Collier,  speaking  of 
Elizabeth's  death,  says,  *  Without  pronoun- 
cing on  the  cause,  it  is  certain  her  last  scene 
was  dark  and  disconsolate.'  One  of  her  cour- 
tiers, Robert  Gary,  Earl  of  Monmouth,  in  the 
memoirs  of  his  own  life,  cited  by  Whitaker, 
gives  some  particulars  of  this  scene.  He 
says  that  he  found  the  queen,  in  her  last  sick- 
ness, *  seated  upon  cushions,'  where  she  per- 
sisted in  remaining  on  the  ground  *  four  days 
and  nights  at  least ;'  that  he  '  used  the  best 
words  he  could  to  persuade  her  from  this 
melancholy,  but  that  it  was  too  deeply  rooted 
in  her  heart  to  be  removed  ;'  that  in  her  dis- 
course with  him  *  she  fetched  not  so  few  as 
forty  or  fifty  great  sighs,'  whereas  he  had 
*  never  known  her  fetch  a  sigh  before,  except 
when  the  Queen  of  Scots  was  beheaded  ;* 
that  *  she  refused  all  sustenance,  or  to  go  to 
bed,  and  that  she  grew  worse  and  worse  be- 
cause she  would  be  so,  *  *  *  *  *  *  and 
refused  all  remedies.'  Camden  adds  that  she 
called  herself  a  'miserable  forlorn  woman,' 
and  exclaimed,  *  they  have  put  a  yoke  about 
my  neck  ;  I  have  none  to  trust  in ;  my  con- 
dition is  strangely  changed.'     The  account 


A.  D.  1603.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


855 


of  Parsons  (in  his  'Discussion  of  Barlow's 
Answer')  which  he  received  from  some  of 
EUzabeth's  prime  courtiers,  agrees  in  the 
main  with  those  of  the  authors  above  quoted 
in  the  principal  circumstances  which  they  re- 
late. Nevertheless,  he  adds  the  following  sin- 
gular particulars,  namely,  that  the  queen  told 
two  ladies  of  the  court  that  as  she  lay  in  her 
bed,  at  the  beginning  of  her  illness,  she 
thought  *  she  saw  her  own  body  lean,  fearful, 
and  in  a  li^t  fee ;'  which  circumstance  will 
account  for  her  obstinate  refusal  to  be  put  any 
more  to  bed ;  (indeed  she  said  on  one  occa- 
sion, that  if  her  attendants  knew  what  she 
had  seen  the  last  time  she  was  in  bed  they 
would  not  ask  her  to  go  thither  any  more  ;) 
that  *  she  cholerickly  rated  the  prelates  who 
came  to  her,  bidding  them  be  packing ;'  that 
'she  seemed  to  place  more  confidence  in 
charms  and  spells  than  in  prayer  to  God  ;' 
that  *  she  wore  a  piece  of  gold  in  her  ruff,  by 
means  of  which  an  old  woman  in  Wales  was 
said  to  have  lived  to  the  age  of  one  hundred 
years ;'  that  the  card  called  '  the  queen  of 
hearts  was  found  nailed  to  the  bottom  of  her 
chair,'  etc." — J.  Milner. 

"  We  leave  it  for  the  impartial  reader  to 
determine  whether  an  advantageous  opinion 
of  her  general  merits  can  be  entertained,  or 
whether  the  means  which  she  made  use  of 
for  the  attainment  of  her  designs  were  con- 
formable to  honourable  and  upright  principles. 
She  ended  her  career  in  despair ;  and  God, 
as  if  in  accordance  with  human  justice,  al- 
lowed her  who  had  caused  so  much  sorrow 
to  others,  to  die  without  any  real  friend  to 
console  her  last  moments." — Mac-Geoghe- 


GAN. 


"  The  wars  in  Ireland  cost  Queen  Eliza- 
beth £3,400,000  in  ten  years,  independently 
of  the  enormous  sacrifice  of  the  lives  of  her 
English  and  Irish  subjects.  Whereas,  had 
Ireland  received  the  benefit  of  the  English 
laws,  and  been  allowed  to  avail  herself  of  her 
natural  advantages,  she  might  at  that  time 
have  yielded  a  revenue  of  probably  from  fifty 
to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds 
annually  to  the  crown  of  England." — M. 
Carey. 

"England,  in  the  reign  of  Ehzabeth,  or 


when,  in  addition  to  her  other  successes 
nearer  home,  she  triumphed  so  signally  over 
the  power  of  Spain  by  sea  and  by  land,  and, 
more  especially,  over  the  so-called  *  invincible' 
armada,  had,  according  to  Hume,  a  revenue 
*  much  short  of  £500,000  a-year.' " — J.  C. 
O'Callaghan. 

"  The  imperfect  subjugation  of  Ireland  cost 
Elizabeth  more  than  three  millions  sterling, 
and  an  incalculable  number  of  her  bravest 
soldiers.  The  unfortunate  country  was  re- 
duced to  a  desert ;  and  at  least  one-halp  of 
THE  population  PERISHED  by  famine  or  the 
sword.  The  submission  purchased  at  this 
tremendous  cost  could  not  be  sincere  or  per- 
manent ;  and  the  system  to  which  Elizabeth 
trusted  for  security  manifestly  increased  the 
perils  of  her  government.  To  extirpate  the 
ancient  nobility,  and  to  divide  their  estates 
among  the  minions  of  the  English  and  Irish 
courts,  was  avowedly  the  object  of  several 
successive  administrations ;  and  in  pursuit 
of  that  object,  the  common  principles  of  jus- 
tice and  humanity  were  flagrantly  outraged. 
The  undertakers  were,  in  general,  unprinci- 
pled adventurers,  who  showed  no  gratitude 
to  the  crown,  and  no  mercy  to  the  country ; 
they  were  faithless  subjects  and  cruel  mas- 
ters. The  great  body  of  the  peasantry  hated 
them  as  intruders,  and  despised  them  as  up- 
starts ;  nor  was  their  conduct  such  as  to  di- 
minish either  feeling.  Situated  as  Ireland 
was,  the  ancient  aristocracy  might  easily  have 
been  made  the  bond  of  union  between  the 
people  and  the  sovereign.  Time  would  have 
broken  up  overgrown  estates,  and  the  ordi- 
nary progress  of  events  ameliorated  the  feu- 
dad  system ;  but  when  the  nobles  were  sacri- 
ficed to  a  faction,  all  the  links  of  society  vi'ere 
broken,  and  government  deprived  of  the  nat- 
ural means  of  introducing  improvements.  An 
additional  danger  resulted  firom  the  numbers 
of  the  Irish  nobility  who,  when  driven  into 
exile,  fled  to  the  Continent,  and  obtained  em- 
ployment in  the  armies  of  France  and  Spain. 
They  never  resigned  the  hope  of  returning 
to  their  country,  and  recovering  in  a  new 
struggle  the  estates  of  which  they  had  been 
plundered." — Taylor. 

"Through  all  this  long  persecution  the 


356 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  160S. 


conduct  of  England  wore  a  visor  of  hypocrisy. 
It  was  not  the  conversion  of  the  Irish  it  de- 
sired, but  their  spoliation,  division,  and  sub- 
jection. If  united  in  religion,  they  might 
unite  for  their  worldly  interest,  and  a  means 
of  weakening  them  by  dissension  would  be 
lost.  The  English  mission  never  had  the 
merit  of  even  being  honestly  fanatical ;  it  was 
cold-blooded  and  crafty.  Its  conduct  was  not 
feebly  palliated  by  the  mistaken  sincerity  of 
blind  zeal,  which  time  might  soften  and  phi- 
losophy assuage.  It  had  the  more  terrestrial 
motives  of  insatiable  rapacity,  the  appetite  for 
plunder,  and  the  desire  of  battening  on  the 
green  pastures  of  Ireland.  This  is  the  eat- 
ing canker  which  neither  time  nor  reason 
ever  cures,  and  which  is  now  as  devouring  as 
from  the  beginning." — W.  J.  Mac-Neven. 

"  Though  the  Irish  people  had  been  dimin- 
ished BY  NEARLY  A  MOIETY,  and  though  the 
entire  of  Ulster,  and  a  great  proportion  of  the 
other  provinces,  were  confiscated  to  her  ma- 
jesty, Elizabeth  had  not  sated  the  voracity 
of  her  rancour.  The  chiefs  had  been  reduced 
to  beggary,  the  clergy  had  been  executed,  the 
people  slaughtered,  their  towns  destroyed, 
their  castles  razed  ;  yet  still  she  felt  that  Ire- 
land was  not  extinguished.  Though  under 
the  weight  of  such  an  enormous  pressure,  the 
chiefs  still  breathed,  but  it  was  the  breath  of 
vengeance.  The  clergy  were  recruited  from 
inveterate  sources ;  and  even  the  very  names 
of  *  England'  and  '  Reformation'  were  ren- 
dered detestable  by  the  savage  cruelties  of 
Elizabeth's  reformers. 

"  Similar  efforts  of  that  determined  and 
indefatigable  princess  to  crush  the  Irish  peo- 
ple were  renewed,  resisted,  and  persevered 
in  during  her  long  reign.  Ireland  appeared 
to  Elizabeth  as  a  country  of  Hydras  ;  every 
liead  she  severed  produced  a  number  of  new 
enemies.  She  slaughtered  and  she  burned, 
but  she  could  not  exterminate  ;  and,  at  length, 
she  expired,  leaving  Ireland  to  her  successor, 
more  depopulated,  impoverished,  desolated, 
ignorant,  and  feeble,  but  in  principle  more 
inveterate,  and  not  any  more  subdued  than 
on  the  day  in  which  she  received  its  sceptre." 
J.  Barrinoton. 

"  The  praises  which  panegjrists  have  be- 


stowed upon  Elizabeth,  with  respect  to  her 
pretended  wisdom  in  government,  and  which 
have  heretofore  been  implicitly  believed  by 
foreigners,  are  well  known  to  us.  It  is  true 
that  the  length  of  her  reign  was  favourable  to 
great  undertakings.  She  participated  large- 
ly in  the  formation  of  the  republic  of  Holland, 
and  was  persevering  in  her  efforts  to  succour 
the  Huguenots  in  France  ;  but  the  civil  war 
which  she  fomented  in  Scotland,  and  the 
murder  of  the  queen  of  that  country,  tarnish- 
ed the  glory  of  her  reign.  She  gained  many 
advantages  over  the  Spaniards  in  the  war 
which  she  carried  on  against  them ;  this, 
however,  was  a  war  of  plunder,  by  which  a 
few  individuals  were  enriched,  but  from 
which  England  reaped  no  soUd  advantages. 
The  war  in  Ireland  cost  her,  for  some  years, 
half  of  her  revenues,  without  her  witnessing 
the  Irish  people  reduced  to  obedience." — 
Mac-Geoghegan. 

"The  distinction  in  great  measure  ceased 
between  the  English  and  Irish  races,  or  the 
English  by  birth  and  those  by  blood,  and 
RELIGION  was  substituted  for  the  rallying 
word  of  plunder  and  massacre.  Thus  when 
the  Lords  of  the  Pale  were  to  be  stripped  of 
their  estates,  they  were  driven  by  the  lords- 
justices  into  a  confederation  with  the  native 
chiefs,  but  which  jealousies  and  dissensions 
among  themselves  rendered  abortive,  and 
they  too  had  to  drink  the  bitter  cup  even  to 
the  dregs." — W.  Sampson. 

"It  is  the  historical  fate  of  patriotism 
when  exerted  in  advance  of  general  intelli- 
gence to  attract  the  vengeance  of  alarmed 
power,  while  it  receives  only  the  timid  assent 
of  hesitating  friends.  Persecuted  on  one 
side,  unsustained  on  the  other,  the  monumen- 
tal fame  of  genius  alone  survives,  and  like 
the  splendid  ruins  in  the  Palmyrene  desert, 
gains  a  solemn  sublimity  from  the  surround- 
ing desolation. 

"Must  prudence,  then,  hold  patriotism 
back  until  all  are  duly  prepared  for  the 
exercise  of  their  rights  ?  until  they  learn 
without  a  preceptor  to  remedy  their  wrongs, 
and  to  use  their  strength  with  advantage,  im- 
aided  by  the  counsel  or  guidance  of  a  friend  ? 
Tyranny  would  never  blench  at  redress  so 


k.  D.  1603.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


957 


long  deferred,  which  no  man  -could  hope  to 
see  in  his  own  day.  For  all  good  works 
there  must  be  found  fortitude  to  begin,  and 
the  messenger  of  truth  has  to  preach  the  way 
of  salvation  though  martyrdom  were  in  its 
train.  It  was  not  to  remain  forever  unem- 
ployed that  the  defensive  feelingwhich  surges 
against  oppression  was  planted  by  Provi- 
dence in  the  human  heart.  We  are  instru- 
ments in  its  hands  for  purposes  we  do  not 
see ;  but  this  much  we  know,  that  when  it 
permitted  the  tyrant  it  ordained  the  patriot, 
and  that  the  antagonist  powers  which  pre- 
serve the  health  and  symmetry  of  our  physi- 
cal frame  are  repeated  in  our  intellectual  na- 
ture, and  given  to  repress  the  growth  of 
moral  evil.  Whether  we  fall  on  serene  or 
stormy  days  imports  every  thing  to  our 
individual  happiness  ;  but  even  in  our  suf- 
ferings we  may  be  establishing  the  rights 
of  our  country." — ^W.  J.  Mac-Neven. 

"It  seems  as  an  ordinance  of  Almighty 
Providence  that  man's  regeneration,  hke  his 
first  birth  and  entrance  into  life,  should  be 
through  pangs,  and  throes,  and  toil,  and  suf- 
fering :  for  history  tells  us  of  no  nation  that 
ever  yet  redeemed  itself  from  long  and  heavy 
bondage,  but  through  the  sufferings  of  devo- 
ted victims.  Some  boldly  perish  in  the  first 
assault ;  others  who  follow  pass  over  them 
to  success,  and  enter  in  the  breach,  and 
share  in  the  rejoicings  of  the  hard-won  vic- 
tory. But  the  brave  who  led  and  fell  will  be 
cherished  in  memory  by  every  honest  patriot 
whose  heart  is  capable  of  expanding  beyond 
the  envious  and  narrow  sphere  of  self.  And 
when  some  future  day  of  trial  comes — when 
all  is  to  be  won  or  to  be  lost — voices  which 
the  rude  executioner  had  silenced  may,  when 
under  better  auspices  invoked,  arise  from 
out  the  tomb,  and  marshalling  together  the 
living  and  the  dead,  rally  all  friends  of  free- 
dom to  her  glorious  standard.  If  that  day 
should  come  when  civil  and  religious  strifes 
shall  cease,  and  all  that  is  good  shall  follow  as 
it  must,  happy  the  time-worn  patriot  who  shall 
see  that  consummation  to  which  his  very  being 
was  devoted  :  then  may  he  raise  his  grateful 
eyes  and  voice  to  heaven,  and  lay  him  down 
in  peace  to  take  his  rest." — W.  Sampson. 

33 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

Accession  of  James  the  First — Administration  of 
Chichester — Guy  Fawkes  and  grunpowder ;  imi- 
teted  in  Ireland — Flight  of  O'Neill  and  O'Donnel 
— Campaign  of'Sir  Cahir  O'Dogherty — Seizure  of 
six  counties  in  Ulster — Lessons  in  the  art  of  con- 
ferring civilization  with  an  immediate  profit — 
Creation  of  boroughs  and  baronetage — Shameful 
treatment  of  conscientious  jurors — Appointment 
of  the  "  Commission  for  the  Discovery  of  Defect- 
ive Titles" — Designs  upon  Connauglit — Character 
of  James — Authorities  illustrating  the  acts  and 
spirit  of  his  reign. 

The  extended  details  in  the  four  preceding 
chapters,  with  their  accompanying  authorities, 
were  considered  requisite  to  render  the  stu- 
dent familiar  with  Irish  events  during  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth.  These,  well  established 
in  the  memory,  will  easily  explain  much  of 
the  subsequent  narrative,  and  supersede  the 
necessity  of  so  much  chronological  detail, 
leaving  us  more  at  liberty  to  improve  the 
general  view.  An  appendix  is  yet  required- 
to  each  chapter  throughout  the  remainder  of 
the  second  division ;  after  which,  the  reader 
will  fiind  the  subject  much  simplified,  and  the 
narrative  more  comprehensive  and  flowing. 

James  the  First  of  England  was  the  sixth 
James  of  Scotland,  and  inherited  the  throne 
of  England  as  descendant  of  Margaret,  eldest 
daughter  of  Henry  the  Seventh.  James  was 
son  of  Mary  Stuart,  beheaded  under  Eliza- 
beth :  Mary's  father,  James  the  Fifth,  was 
son  of  James  the  Fourth,  King  of  Scotland, 
and  Margaret  of  England  above  mentioned. 
The  father  of  James  the  Sixth  was  Lord 
Damley,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Lenox,  who  was 
descended  from  Robert  Stuart,  a  successor 
of  David  Bruce,  King  of  Scotland,  about  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

The  hereditary  rights  of  all  the  British 
kings,  descended  either  from  the  Saxons, 
Danes,  or  Normans,  were  united  in  the  per- 
son of  James.  The  ancient  Irish  revered  the 
Milesian  blood  which  ran  in  his  veins,  and 
looked  upon  him  as  a  prince  descended  from 
themselves ;  they  knew,  likewise,  that  Ed- 
ward Bruce,  brother  to  Robert  Bruce,  King 
of  Scotland,  from  whom  James  was  descended, 
had  been  chosen  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
by  their  ancestors,  to  be  their  sovereign ;  it 
was  well  known,  too,  that  Edward  had  been 
actually  crowned  King  of  Ireland.     These 


358 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1604. 


circumstances  had  much  more  eflfect  upon 
their  minds  than  any  right  James  derived 
from  his  English  predecessors,  who  had  never 
been  completely  acknowledged  by  the  ancient 
Irish,  as  is  proved  by  the  unanimous  evidence 
of  all  the  varieties  of  authorities. 

The  modern  Irish  of  course  submitted  to 
the  full  weight  of  the  English  claims  in 
James's  title  to  rule  over  them.  Montjoy 
made  some  amends  for  the  cruelty  exercised 
under  Elizabeth  by  publishing  a  proclama- 
tion of  general  oblivion  and  indemnity  for  all 
offences  committed  prior  to  James's  acces- 
sion :  and,  subsequently,  British  "  protection" 
was  offered  to  the  whole  of  the  Irish  peasantry. 
Montjoy,  having  appointed  Sir  George  Carew 
his  deputy,  returned  to  England,  accompanied 
by  Hugh  O'Neill  and  Roderic  O'Donnel. 
The  king  received  both  the  chieftains  very 
graciously.  He  confirmed  O'Neill  in  his  title 
of  Tyrone  and  all  his  honours  and  estates. 
He  revived,  in  favour  of  O'Donnel,  the  dor- 
mant title  of  Tyrconnel.  The  two  Irish  lords 
were,  however,  well  aware  of  the  slight  im- 
portance attached  to  the  royal  favour  in  the 
practical  administration  of  the  Irish  govern- 
ment. 

'  The  new  lord-lieutenant.  Sir  Arthur  Chi- 
chester, laboured  strenuously  to  accomplish 
the  great  work  of  introducing  the  system  of 
English  law  which  his  predecessor  had  be- 
gun. The  customs  of  tanistry  and  gavelkind 
were  declared  illegal ;  the  tenures  of  land 
modelled  after  the  English  form  ;  the  division 
of  the  island  into  counties  completed ;  and 
the  circuits  of  the  judges  designated.  Un- 
fortunately, the  good  effects  of  these  beneficial 
measures  were  more  than  counterbalanced  by 
the  revival  of  the  penal  code,  which  Sir  Arthur 
Chichester  administered  with  a  vigour  beyond 
the  law.  The  act  of  Elizabeth  inflicted  a 
pecuniary  fine  on  recusants,  but  Chichester 
actually  added  deprivation  of  office  and  im- 
prisonment. The  Catholics  of  the  Pale  hum- 
bly remonstrated  against  these  illegal  hard- 
ships. Chichester,  unable  to  confute  their 
arguments,  sent  the  remonstrants  to  prison  as 
if  they  had  broken  some  law. 

In  England,  James  found  himself  much 
embarrassed  by  the  indiscreet  pledges  he  had 


given  to  both  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant 
interests  during  a  correspondence  which  he 
had  kept  up  with  Secretary  Cecil  before  his 
accession.  In  1604,  at  a  conference  held  in 
the  palace  at  Hampton  Court,  for  the  ostensi- 
ble purpose  of  "settling"  rehgious  differences, 
James  performed  the  part  of  principal  moun- 
tebank in  the  ring  of  theological  disputation. 
On  the  Puritans  applying  to  have  the  act  re- 
pealed which  Elizabeth  had  passed  to  prohibit 
their  meetings,  (commonly  called  "  prophesy- 
ings,")  James  replied,  "  If  what  you  aim  at 
is  Scottish  presbytery,  as  I  think  it  is,  I  tell 
you  that  it  agrees  as  well  with  monarchy  as 
the  devil  with  God.  There  Jack,  and  Tom, 
and  Will,  and  Dick,  shall  meet  and  censure 
me  and  my  council.  Therefore  I  reiterate 
my  former  speech  ;  the  king  s'avisera.  Stay, 
I  pray  you,  for  seven  years  before  you  de- 
mand again,  and  then,  if  I  be  grown  pursy 
and  fat,  I  may,  perchance,  hearken  to  you, 
for  that  sort  of  government  would  keep  me  in 
breath  and  give  me  work  enough  !"  This 
language  left  the  Puritans  without  much  hope 
from  James.  The  Catholics  were  also  warm- 
ly excited  by  what  they  considered  a  treacher- 
ous departure  from  his  promises  before  he 
left  Scotland. 

The  existence  of  such  feelings  among  the 
people  rendered  the  occurrence  or  manufac- 
ture of  plots  easily  available  to  a  man  like 
Cecil,  who  had  just  been  promoted  to  the 
title  of  Earl  of  Salisbury  expressly  as  a  re- 
ward for  his  meanness  and  mischief-making 
management.  Accordingly,  the  early  part  of 
James's  reign  is  signalized  in  English  history 
by  several  "  plots,"  the  two  most  prominent 
of  which  are  commonly  known  as  the  "  Ara- 
bella Stuart  conspiracy,"  and  "  Gunpowder 
Treason."  The  Irish  privy-council  felt,  or 
pretended,  great  alarm  when  they  received 
the  news  of  the  danger  to  which  the  king  had 
been  exposed  in  London.  With  much  jnore 
reason  the  Catholic  lords  were  filled  with 
consternation ;  for  the  crime  was  unhesita- 
tingly ascribed  to  all  the  professors  of  their 
religion. 

In  order  that  the  English  fashions  might 
be  followed  in  Ireland,  a  letter  was  "  picked 
up"  in  the  council  chamber  at  Dublin,  darkly 


A.  D.  1608.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


359 


hinting  that  there  was  a  plot  formed  by  the 
Irish  CathoUc  lords  against  the  state.  No 
names  were  mentioned,  no  particulars  given ; 
and  yet  the  local  government  at  once  fixed 
upon  the  earls  of  Tyrone  and  T)n:connel  as 
the  agents  of  this  pretended  conspiracy.  Both 
these  lords  were  certainly  among  the  discon- 
tented. They  knew  that  they  were  viewed 
with  jealousy  and  hostility  by  the  officers  of 
state  ;  and  they  were  conscious  that  they  had 
frequently,  in  convivial  conversation,  uttered 
sentiments  which  might  easily  be  distorted 
into  proofs  of  disaffection .  They  had  learned, 
by  bitter  experience,  in  a  former  reign,  that 
the  Irish  government  was  not  very  scrupulous 
in  the  use  of  means  for  increasing  confisca- 
tions ;  and  as  they  were  wholly  unprepared 
for  resistance,  they  fled  to  the  continent,  pre- 
ferring religious  freedom  to  worldly  posses- 
sions. 

This  movement  of  the  unfortunate  noble- 
men was  exactly  what  their  adversaries  de- 
sired, and  gave  a  colour  to  the  arbitrary  pro- 
ceedings instituted  against  them.  James  had 
always  maintained  that  the  Irish  resistance  to 
the  English  power  was  a  justifiable  political 
position,  and,  before  his  accession,  had  many 
times  assisted  them.  Now,  his  sentiments 
were  quite  changed.  He  could  see  nothing 
but  treason  in  every  public  act  of  the  Irish 
people.  The  flight  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrcon- 
nel  was  construed  as  rebellion,  and  they  were 
immediately  proclaimed  rebels  ;  and  not  only 
their  individual  estates,  but  six  whole  coun- 
ties in  the  province  of  Ulster,  were  confis- 
cated for  the  benefit  of  the  crown,  without 
examination  or  trial.  These  counties  were 
divided  between  several  English  and  Scottish 
Protestants,  under  such  regulations  as  were 
obviously  intended  to  produce  ruin  both  to 
the  Irish  people  and  their  religion.  James  af- 
fected great  liberality  while  bestowing  among 
his  favourites  the  lands  which  had  belong- 
ed, during  many  centuries,  to  the  O'Neills, 
O'Donnels,  Maguires,  Mac-Mahons,  O'Reil- 
lys, O'Doghartys,  O'Cahans,  O'Hanlons, 
Mac-Canns,  Mac-Sweenys,  O'Boyles,  Mac- 
Bradys,  Mac-Cafirys,  O'Flannegans,  O'Hag- 
hertys,  and  several  other  ancient  nobles  of 


were  inflicted,  and  the  other  penalties  that 
were  enacted  against  Catholics,  it  was  spe- 
cifically inserted  in  the  patents,  that  no  por- 
tion of  these  lands  should  be  sold,  transferred, 
or  farmed,  except  to  and  by  Protestants  ex- 
clusively. Such  laws  and  such  conduct 
would  certainly  operate  like  a  curse  upon 
any  religion. 

When  the  news  arrived  that  Tyrone  and 
Tyrconnel  were  in  France,  the  English  am- 
bassador at  that  court  was  instructed  to  de- 
mand of  Henry  the  Fourth  that  these  fugi- 
tives should  be  sent  back  to  the  king  his 
master.  The  French  king,  however,  mag- 
nanimously replied,  that  it  was  beneath  the 
dignity  of  a  monarch  to  arrest  strangers  who 
seek  to  save  themselves  under  such  circum- 
stances. Upon  this  the  earls  took  their 
departure  for  Flanders,  where  they  were 
received  with  distinction  by  Albert  and  Eliz- 
abeth, who  governed  the  Low-Countries. 
Thence  they  proceeded  to  Rome,  where  the 
King  of  Spain  provided  for  their  support  by 
pensions  proportioned  to  their  rank. 

As  James  was  as  tenacious  of  his  title  of 
head  of  the  church  as  either  of  his  two  illus- 
trious predecessors,  the  treatment  or  rather 
neglect  of  the  Catholics  was  carried  to  an  ex- 
asperating degree.  Sir  Cahir  O'Dogherty, 
another  northern  chieftain,  being  a  mere  youth 
of  twenty  years  of  age,  rashly  took  up  arms 
against  the  Dublin  government,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fate  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnel.  Being 
the  Chief  of  Inishowen,  he  probably  conjec- 
tured that  his  treatment  •would  be  similar, 
even  if  he  remained  passive.  He  raised 
what  forces  he  was  able  in  1608,  and  attacked 
by  night  the  city  of  Deny,  which  he  took, 
and  put  the  garrison,  together  with  the  com- 
mander, George  Palet,  to  the  sword,  after 
setting  the  Catholics  at  hberty.  He  then 
marched  against  Culmor,  which  was  a  strong 
castle  built  on  the  borders  of  Lough  Foyle. 
Of  this  he  also  became  master,  and  foimd  in 
it  twelve  pieces  of  cannon.  He  put  a  garri- 
son into  it,  and  gave  the  command  to  Phehm 
Mac-Davet ;  after  which  he  ravaged  the  lands 
of  the  English,  over  whom  he  gained  several 
battles,  and  spread  terror  through  the  whole 


Ulster.      Besides   the   pecuniary   fines    that  i,  province. 


260 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1609. 


O'Dogherty  kept  up  the  war  for  about  five  million  of  acres.  The  king,  without  paying 
months ;  his  object  was  to  create  a  diversion,  i  any  regard  to  the  rights  of  the  actual  occu- 
and  occupy  the  English  till  the  arrival  of  sue-  ,  pants,  determined  to  settle  in  these  districts 
cours  which  were  expected  from  some  of  the  ,  colonies  from  England  and  Scotland,  and  to 
continental  princes.     In  the  mean  time,  Win-  ,  drive  the  inoffensive  residents  into  the  woods 


kel,  an  English  field-marshal,  appeared  with 
four  thousand  men  before  Culmor,  to  retake 


and  mountains.     To  achieve  this  iniquitous 
scheme,  a  most  unwarrantable  construction 


it ;  Mac-Davet,  seeing  his  own  inferiority  in  !  was  given  to  the  Enghsh  law  of  forfeiture, 


numbers,  and  being  without  any  hope  of  aid 
from  O'Dogherty,  set  fire  to  the  castle. 

Mac-Davet  then  sailed  with  his  troops  on 
board  two  transport  vessels,  which  he  loaded 


which  had  never  contemplated  the  punish- 
ment or  removal  of  tenants  for  the  miscon- 
duct of  the  lord  of  the  manor.  Nevertheless, 
these  proceedings  have  been  eulogized  by 


with  corn  and  other  provisions,  for  Deny,  j:  some  historians  as  not  only  showing  great 


He  also  carried  off  some  of  the  cannon,  and 
threw  the  remainder  of  the  stores  into  the 
sea.  When  Winkel  found  the  castle  of  Cul- 
mor demolished,  he  marched  against  the 
castle  of  Beart,  with  the  intention  of  besieg- 
ing that  also.  Mary  Preston,  the  wife  of 
O'Dogherty,  and  daughter  of  Viscount  Gor- 
manston,  was  in  the  place.  A  monk  who 
had  the  temporary  command  of  it  surrender- 
ed the  castle  on  condition  of  the  garrison  be- 
ing spared,  and  suffered  to  retire :  but  the 
English,  regardless  of  these  capitulations, 
put  every  man  to  the  sword,  except  those 
who  had  the  means  of  purchasing  their  lib- 
erty. The  wife  of  O'Dogherty  was  sent  to 
her  brother  tlie  viscount,  who  belonged  to 
the  Dubhn  faction.  The  taking  of  this  place 
was  of  importance  to  Winkel ;  it  served  him 
for  a  retreat,  from  which  he  made  incursions 
upon  the  districts  of  Inishowen,  spreading 
desolation  everywhere  as  he  passed.  As 
soon  as  practicable,  O'Dogherty  gathered  all 
his  forces  together,  and,  at  the  head  of  fifteen 
hundred  young  men,  he  harassed  the  English 
general  for  some  time,  and  was  mostly  suc- 
cessful in  skirmishes.  But  the  unfortunate 
chief  soon  paid  the  penalty  of  his  rashness, 
and  his  followers  then  dispersed  themselves. 
His  immense  estates  were  added  to  the  for- 
feitures of  the  two  chieftains  who  were  ab- 
sent, and  subsequently  bestowed  upon  Sir 
Arthur  Chichester,  the  contriver  of  the  mis- 
chief. 

The  confiscations  now  made  included  the 
six  counties  of  Tyrconnel,  and  are  called 
Donegal,  Tyrone,  Derry,  Fermanagh,  Cavan, 
and  Armagh,  containing  more  than  half  a 


political  wisdom,  but  that  they  were  based 
on  the  principles  of  justice. 

The  only  foundation  we  can  find  for  the 
flourishing  eulogies  ascribed  by  some  writers 
to  the  "  civilizing"  projects  of  James,  appears 
to  consist  in  a  mere  idea  or  supposition  that 
the  Irish  people  were  barbarians.  This  sup- 
position could  only  exist  where  there  is  almost 
total  ignorance  of  the  history  of  Ireland. 
Therefore,  if  ignorance  is  barbarism,  then  all 
those  persons  who  do  really  imagine  that  the 
Irish,  as  a  nation,  were  in  a  barbarous  state  at 
any  time  during  the  thousand  years  previous 
to  James's  accession,  most  indubitably  prove 
themselves  to  be  barbarians.  This  language 
may  appear  strong  because  the  words  are 
not  usually  employed  in  that  direction,  but 
the  facts  are  the  same.  There  is  some  ex- 
cuse for  the  mass  of  indifferent  readers 
whose  minds  may  have  been  led  away  and 
deceived  by  the  false  statements  and  infer- 
ences of  Hume,  but  they  should  reflect  that 
he  has  done  more  mischief  under  a  great 
name  than  any  other  historian  in  the  Enghsh 
language.  Mac-Geoghegan  has  ably  and 
completely  refuted  every  application  that  can 
be  made  of  Hume's  hypothesis  of  the  bar- 
barism of  the  Irish  people.  It  only  remains 
for  us,  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, to  add,  that  the  days  of  Hume's  glory 
are  numbered,  and  that,  in  reference  to  Irish 
history,  his  falsehoods  are  too  transparent  to 
require  more  than  a  passing  notice. 

That  James  should  endeavour  to  make  out 
a  good  case  for  himself  need  not  cause  any 
surprise.  Thief-craft  and  king-craft  are  an- 
cient   companions,   and    James's    continual 


A.  D.  1610.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


361 


want  of  money  kept  him  as  "  hard  up"  as  a 
highwayman's  horse.  The  intelhgent  in- 
quirer will  easily  perceive  the  real  merits  and 
origin  of  this  "plantation"  business,  after 
reading  the  following  cogent  reasoning  of  the 
learned  and  amiable  Curry  : — 

"  The  king  himself  was  so  apprehensive 
that  this  aflfair  of  the  earls  *  might  blemish' 
(as  he  expresses  it,  in  a  proclamation  on  that 
occasion)  '  the  reputation  of  that  friendship 
which  ought  to  be  mutually  observed  between 
him  and  other  princes,  that  he  thought  it  not 
amiss  to  publish  some  such  matter,  by  way 
of  proclamation,  as  might  better  clear  men's 
judgments  concerning  the  same.'  At  the 
same  time  solemnly  promising  *  that  it  should 
appear  to  the  world  as  clear  as  the  sun,  by 
evident  proof,  that  the  only  ground  of  these 
earls'  departure,  was  the  private  knowledge 
and  inward  terror  of  their  own  guiltiness.' 
But,  neither  in  that  proclamation,  nor  in  any 
other  authentic  instrument,  nor  in  any  manner 
whatever,  did  his  majesty  deign,  ever  after, 
to  enlighten  the  world,  even  with  the  least 
glimpse  of  evident  proof,  that  such  was  the 
only  motive  of  these  earls'  departure.  And  I 
shall  leave  it  to  the  decision  of  every  candid 
reader,  whether  the  non-performance  of  his 
majesty's  solemn  promise  be  not  a  better  neg- 
ative proof  of  the  nullity  and  fiction  of  this 
conspiracy  of  the  earls,  than  the  bare  non- 
appearance of  a  memorial  in  their  vindication 
can  be  deemed  of  its  reality."* 

The  indefatigable  industry  of  Matthew 
Carey  enabled  him  to  examine  all  the  best 
authorities  on  these  "peaceable"  transactions, 
and,  although  we  consider  Dr.  Curry's  argu- 
ment as  quite  conclusive,  the  annexed  quota- 
tion from  the  "  VindicicB  Hibernicee"  will 
help  to  explain  the  subsequent  proceedings : — 

"  However  the  question  of  the  guilt  or  in- 
nocence of  the  earls  may  be  determined,  it 
does  not  affect  the  character  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  King  James,  after  *  their  fugacy,'  as 
it  is  quaintly  termed  by  Sir  Thomas  Phillips. 
Those  proceedings  displayed  such  a  flagitious 
spirit  of  depredation,  such  a  total  disregard 
of  private  right  and  the  calls  of  humanity, 
such  a  wanton  waste  of  human  happiness, 
*  Hiator.  and  Crit  Rev.  of  the  Civil  Wars. 


and  such  base  hypocrisy,  in  cloaking  it  with 
a  regard  for  the  civilization  and  the  eternal 
happiness  of  the  natives,  as  can  scarcely  be 
exceeded  in  the  history  of  human  injustice, 
and  warrants  the  most  unqualified  reproba-' 
tion. 

"  For,  admitting  the  guilt  of  the  earls  to 
have  been  fully  and  completely  established, 
even  judicially,  they  and  their  accomplices 
alone  ought  to  have  suffered  for  it.  It  was 
a  violation  of  every  principle  of  honour  and 
justice,  to  involve  the  innocent  with  the 
guilty, — to  proscribe  indiscriminately  the  en- 
tire population  of  six  out  of  the  thirty-two 
counties  contained  in  the  kingdom.  This 
was  the  course  pursued  in  the  plantation  of 
Ulster,  of  which  such  erroneous  statements 
have  been  made  in  all  the  histories  that  em- 
brace the  reign  of  James  the  First,  with  hardly 
an  exception. 

"  By  the  '  fugacy'  of  the  earls,  every  man 
in  the  six  counties  was  regarded  as  having  at 
once,  ipso  facto,  forfeited  his  lands,  which 
became  vested  in  the  crown  !  to  be  granted, 
at  the  pleasure  of  the  monarch,  to  whomso- 
ever, and  on  whatsoever  terms,  he  judged 
proper ! 

"  There  were  three  divisions  made  of  the 
unholy  spoils : — 

"  First  to  '  English  and  Scots,  who  are  to 
plant  their  proportions  with  English  and  Scot- 
tish tenants ;' 

"  Secondly,  to  '  servitors  in  Ireland,  who 
may  take  English  or  Irish  tenants  at  their 
choice ;' 

"  Thirdly,  to  *  natives  of  those  counties, 
who  are  to  be  freeholders.' 

"The  largest  and  fairest  portion  of  the 
lands  was  bestowed  on  the  favoured  few  of 
the  first  class ;  to  the  next  were  bestowed 
those  of  the  second  quality ;  and  the  de- 
spoiled Irish  were  planted  on  those  of  in- 
ferior quality. 

"  But  a  malignant  feature  of  this  transac- 
tion remains  behind, — a  feature  unique  in  its 
character.  The  wretched  Irish,  victims  of  a 
vile  scheme  of  depredation,  deprived  of  their 
paternal  homes,  and  exiled  to  the  most  sterile 
spots,  were  barbarously  cut  off  from  all  chance 
of  ever  regaining  their  possessions  ;  as  the 


S 


362 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


f  A.  D.  1610. 


undertakers  and  servitors  were  bound,  under 
penalty,  never  to  sell  to  the  *  mere  Irish,'  nor 
to  Roman  Catholics  of  any  nation  :  for  the  dis- 
posal to  persons  who  did  not  take  the  oath  of 
supremacy,  and  '  conform  themselves  in  re- 
ligion according  to  his  majesty's  laws,'  was 
rigorously  prohibited  and  punished." 

The  next  quotation,  also  from  Carey,  shows 
that  still  worse  wickedness  "  remains  behind." 
Leland,  who  is  one  of  the  greatest  eulogists 
of  James,  affirms  that  the  Dublin  faction 
destroyed  every  degree  of  good  that  might 
possibly  have  sprung  from  the  original  plan 
of  the  "plantation."  There  is  no  evidence 
that  James  ever  fretted  much  about  it,  nor 
that  he  even  inquired  after  the  welfare  of  the 
people  whom  he  so  unceremoniously  "  civil- 
ized." How  much  credit  is  due  him  or  his 
agents  for  the  intentions  of  kindness  may 
therefore  be  easily  seen  in  this  extract,  which 
embodies  the  testimony  of  both  Catholic  and 
Protestant  champions : — 

"  The  reader  is  shocked  with  this  detail. 
He  wishes  it  drawn  to  a  close.  He  sup- 
poses he  has  learned  all  its  odious  features, 
and  that  it  is  impossible  to  add  a  shade  to  its 
deformity.  But  he  is  quite  mistaken  :  one  of 
the  vilest  remains  to  be  stated.  The  wretch- 
ed natives,  thus  plundered,  thus  defrauded  of 
their  patrimonial  inheritance,  were  still  further 
plundered,  and  defrauded  of  a  large  portion 
of  the  shabby  '  equivalent,'  as  it  was  called. 
In  some  cases,  they  did  not  receive  above  a 
half  or  a  third,  and  in  some  no  part  whatever, 
of  what  was  intended  for  them  by  the  wretch- 
ed monarch  by  wliom  the  spoliation  had  been 
perpetrated. 

"  It  is  deeply  to  be  regi-etted,  and  reflects 
everlasting  disgrace  on  the  parties  concerned, 
that  the  views  of  James,  limited  as  they  were 
in  point  of  justice  to  the  oppressed  Irish,  were 
in  a  great  measure  rendered  nugatory,  and 
defeated ;  and  though,  as  Leland  observes, 

*  some,  indeed,  were  allowed  to  enjoy  a  small 
pittance'  only  of  the  lands  reserved  for  them 
by  this  monarch,  he  continues  to  relate  that, 

*  others  were  totally  ejected.'      And  again, 

*  The  resentments  of  the  sufferers  were  in 
some  cases  exasperated,  by  finding  their  lands 
transferred  to  hungry  adventurers,  who  had 


no  services  to  plead,  and  sometimes  to  those 
who  had  been  rebels  and  traitors  !' 

"  After  a  careful  perusal  of  the  foregoing 
view  of  the  lawless  and  predatory  means  by 
which  James  possessed  himself  of  so  fair  a 
portion  of  Ireland,  and  the  atrocious  injustice 
whereby  the  settlement  was  regulated,  what 
must  be  the  astonishment,  how  great  the  in- 
dignation, of  the  candid  and  upright,  to  read 
the  deceptions  and  encomiastic  manner  in 
which  the  affair  is  blazoned  forth  by  all  the 
historians  who  have  treated  on  it !  Had 
James  civilized  a  nation  of  fierce  barbarians, 
without  offering  the  least  violence  to  their 
persons,  the  least  injustice  to  their  property — 
had  he  framed  for  them  a  code  of  laws  wor- 
thy of  the  united  wisdom  of  Moses,  Lycur- 
gus,  Solon,  Minos,  Numa  Pompilius,  and 
Alfred — had  he  settled  them  on  lands  of  his 
own,  and  bestowed  abundant  means  of  culti- 
vation, he  would  not  be  entitled  to  higher 
encomiums  than  are  lavished  on  acts  which, 
so  far  as  the  rights  of  property  are  concerned, 
have  far  more  of  the  character  of  Blackbeard 
the  Pirate  than  of  Alfred  or  WiUiam  Penn, 
and  which  deserve  the  severest  strains  of  in- 
dignant reprobation !" 

The  next  thing  for  James  to  attend  to,  in 
order  that  he  might  assert  his  superiority  over 
common,  thieves,  was  to  have  this  extensive 
transfer  of  property  secured  by  legislative 
enactment ;  and  for  that  purpose  it  was  "  re- 
solved" to  summon  a  parliament,  for  the  first 
time  after  an  interval  of  twenty-seven  years. 
There  was  every  reason  to  dread  that  the 
government  would  encounter  a  vigorous  op- 
position if  the  members  of  the  lower  house 
were  fairly  elected ;  for  the  illegal  violence 
of  Chichester,  his  rigorous  exclusion  of  re- 
cusants from  office,  and  his  determination  to 
continue  the  penalties  for  refusing  to  attend 
the  legalized  form  of  worship,  had  excited 
universal  alarm  among  the  lords  of  the  Pale 
as  well  as  the  native  Irish.  To  provide 
against  this  danger  James  "  created"  forty 
boroughs  at  once,  expressly  for  the  Irish 
market.  In  the  majority  of  cases,  it  would 
have  been  difficult  to  discover  the  town  or 
village  which  was  thus  suddenly  incorporated. 
Even  those  places  which  had  something  more 


A.  D.  1613.] 


SECOND  DIVISION 


than  nominal  existence  received  charters  full 
of  blunders  and  inconsistencies,  which  left 
the  result  of  the  elections  to  the  discretion, 
honesty,  and  mercy  of  the  returning  officers, 
who  were  of  course  appointed  by  the  govern- 
ment. 

The  order  of  baronetage  was  also  instituted 
by  James ;  and  this  title  became  singularly 
connected  with  the  plantation  of  Ulster.  The 
number  of  baronets  was  limited  to  two  hun- 
dred ;  and  each  who  received  the  dignity  was 
forced  to  pay  to  the  crown  a  sum  sufficient 
to  support  thirty  men  for  the  space  of  three 
years,  in  order  to  defend  the  new  settlement. 
Of  course  the  money  was  never  applied  to 
this  purpose,  but  was  wasted  in  the  riotous 
extravagance  of  the  royal  household. 

While  the  government  was  engaged  in 
making  these  preparations  and  precautions, 
the  recusants  or  Irish  country  party  had  been 
equally  active,  and  before  the  assembling  of 
the  new  parliament  in  1613,  made  a  public 
entry  into  Dublin,  with  numerous  trains  of 
attendants  and  retainers.  The  upper  house 
consisted  of  sixteen  barons,  five  viscounts, 
four  earls,  and  twenty-five  spiritual  peers. 
As  the  new  prelates  were  unanimous  in  sup- 
porting the  government,  and  were  sustained 
by  a  majority  of  the  temporal  peers,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  crown  in  the  upper  house  was 
irresistible.  Parties  were  more  inconveni- 
ently balanced  in  the  house  of  commons,  and 
both  eagerly  embraced  the  first  opportunity 
of  trying  their  strength  in  the  election  of  a 
speaker.  The  friends  of  the  court  proposed 
the  attorney-general.  Sir  John  Davies ;  and 
the  country  party  nominated  Sir  John  Ever- 
ard,  a  lawyer  of  a  respectable  family,  and 
equally  eminent  for  his  ability  and  integrity. 
After  a  long  time  had  been  wasted  in  violent 
altercation,  the  government  party  pressed  for 
an  immediate  division.  It  was  agreed  that 
the  ayes,  or  supporters  of  Davies,  should  go 
out,  and  the  noes  remain.  The  votes  were, 
for  Sir  John  Davies  127,  for  Sir  John  Ever- 
ard97. 

The  election  was  not  considered  decided 
by  this  vote,  for  a  scene  had  been  enacted 
just  previously  which  shows  the  nature  of 
the  opposing  influences,  and  the  conscious- 


ness of  the  government  party  that  they  were 
in  an  actual  minority.  Our  American  readers 
will  smile  and  be  edified. 

No  sooner  had  the  ayes  withdrawn,  than 
the  recusants  saw  the  extent  of  the  govern- 
ment influence,  and  rashly  voted  themselves 
the  house  of  commons  by  acclamation,  unan- 
imously calling  on  Sir  John  Everard  to  take 
the  chair.  When  the  government  party  re- 
turned they  were  quite  surprised  and  indig- 
nant at  being  foiled  with  one  of  their  own 
weapons.  They  attempted  to  pull  Everard 
from  the  chair,  but  failing  in  this  effort,  they 
placed  Davies  in  his  lap.  This  only  added 
to  the  confusion.  A  disgraceful  tumult  fol- 
lowed, which  at  last  terminated  in  the  retire- 
ment of  the  recusants,  who  protested  against 
the  entire  constitution  and  proceedings  of  the 
parliament,  as  being  informal  and  illegal  from 
tlie  beginning. 

It  was  in  the  parliament  of  1613  that  the 
famous  and  often-praised  "  act  for  the  king's 
majestie's  most  gracious,  general,  and  free 
pardon"  was  passed.  It  happens,  however, 
to  be  encumbered  with  fifty-one  exceptions, 
as  follows : — 

Preamble. — "  The  king's  majestic,  most 
graciously  considering  the  good  will  and 
faithful  hearts  of  his  most  loving  subjects, 
which  as  at  all  times,  so  at  this  present  espe- 
cially, they  having  with  most  dutiful  affection 
showed  themselves  towards  his  highness ; 
and  understanding  that  the  same  his  loving 
subjects  have  many  and  sundry  wayes,  by 
the  laws  and  statute  of  this  realm,  fallen  into 
the  danger  of  diverse  great  penalties  and  for- 
feytures,  is,  of  his  princely  and  merciful  dis- 
position, most  graciously  inclined,  by  his 
liberal  and  free  pardon,  to  discharge  some 
part  of  those  great  paynes,  forfeytures  and 
penalties  wherewith  his  said  subjects  stand 
now  burdened  and  charged ;  trusting  they  will 
be  thereby  the  rather  moved  and  induced, 
from  henceforth,  more  carefully  to  observe 
his  highness's  laws  and  statutes,  and  to  con- 
tinue in  their  loyal  and  due  obedience  to  his 
majestic ;  and  therefore  his  majestic  is  well 
pleased  and  contented,  that  it  be  enacted  by 
the  authority  of  this  present  parliament,  in 
manner  and  form  following,  (that  is  to  sav,) 


S64 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1613. 


that  all  and  every  the  said  subjects,  as  well 
spiritual  as  temporal  of  this  his  highness's 
realm  of  Ireland,  the  heyres,  successors,  ex- 
ecutors, and  administrators  of  them,  and  every 
of  them,  and  all  and  singular  bodies  corporate, 
cities,  shires,  boroughs,  hundreds,  baronies, 
townes,  villages,  hamlets,  and  tylhings,  and 
every  of  them,  and  the  successor  and  succes- 
sors of  every  of  them,  shall  be,  by  the  au- 
thority of  this  present  parliament,  acquitted, 
pardoned,  and  released,  and  discharged  against 
the  king's  majestic,  his  heyres  and  successors, 
and  every  of  them,  of  all  manner  of  treasons, 
felonies,  offences,  contempts,  trespasses,  en- 
tries, wrongs,  deceipts,  misdemeanours,  for- 
feytures,  penalties,  and  summs  of  mony, 
paynes  of  death,  paynes  corporal  and  pecu- 
niarie,  and  generally  of  all  other  things, 
causes,  quarrels,  suites,  judgements  and  exe- 
cutions, in  this  present  act  hereafter  not  ex- 
cepted nor  foreprized. 

1 .  "  Excepted  and  alwayes  foreprized  out 
of  this  general  and  free  pardon,  all  and  all 
manner  of  high  treasons,  and  other  offences 
committed  or  done  by  any  person  or  persons 
against  the  king's  majestic,  and  all  conspira- 
cies and  confederacies,  trayterously  had,  com- 
mitted, or  done,  by  any  person  or  persons, 
against  the  king's  majestie's  royal  person ; 
and  all  manner  of  levying  warre  and  all  re- 
bellions and  insurrections  whatsoever  had, 
made,  or  committed,  or  done  at  any  time 
sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majesty's  raigne. 

2-  "  And  also  excepted  all  and  every  man- 
ner of  treasons  committed  or  done,  by  any 
person  or  persons  in  the  parts  beyond  the 
seas,  or  in  any  other  place  out  of  the  king's 
dominions,  sithence  the  beginning  of  his  ma-  j 
jestie's  raigne  ;  and  also  all  suites,  punish-  ' 
ments,  executions,  paynes  of  death,  forfeit-  ' 
ures,  and    penalties,   for,   or  by    reason   or 
occasion  of  any  of  the  treasons  and  offences 
before  rehearsed.  ! 

3.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon,  j 
all  offences  of  forging  and  false  counterfeyting  I 
the  king's  majestic  his  great  or  privy  scale,  i 
or  sign  manual,  or  privy  signet,  or  any  of  the 
monies  current  within  this  realm ;  and  also 
all  offences  of  unlawful  diminishing  of  any  the 
said  monies,  by  any  wayes  or  means  whatso- 


ever, contrary  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this 
realm  at  any  time  sithence  the  beginning  of 
his  majestie's  raigne  :  and  also  all  misprisions 
and  concealments  of  any  the  high  treasons 
aforesaid  :  and  also  all  abetting,  aiding,  com- 
forting, or  procuring  of  the  same  offences,  or 
any  of  the  said  treasons  committed  or  done 
sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majestie's  raigne. 

4.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon, 
all  manner  of  voluntary  murders,  petit  trea- 
sons, and  wilful!  poisonings,  done  or  com- 
mitted by  any  person  or  persons  sithence  the 
beginning  of  his  majestie's  raigne,  and  all  and 
every  the  accessaries  to  the  said  offences,  or 
any  of  them,  before  the  said  offences  com- 
mitted. 

5.  "  And  also  excepted  and  foreprized  out 
of  this  general  pardon  all  and  every  offence 
of  piracy,  and  robbery  done  upon  the  seas, 
sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majestie's  raigne. 

6.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  burglaries  committed  or  done  in  any  dwell- 
ing house  or  houses,  and  all  accessaries  to 
any  the  said  burglaries,  before  the  said  bur- 
glaries committed,  within  one  year  before  the 
beginning  of  this  present  session  of  parha- 
ment. 

7.  "  And  also  excepted  all  robberies  done 
upon,  or  to  any  man's  or  woman's  person  in 
the  highway,  or  elsewhere,  and  all  and  singu- 
lar accessaries  of,  or  to  any  such  robberies 
before  the  said  robbery,  committed  within 
one  year  before  the  first  day  of  this  present 
session  of  parliament. 

8.  "  And  also  excepted  the  felonious  steal- 
ing of  any  horse,  gelding,  garron,  or  mare, 
and  all  accessaries  thereunto,  before  the  same 
felony  committed,  and  all  judgments  and  exe- 
cutions of  and  for  tlie  same,  within  one  year 
next  before  the  beginning  of  this  present  ses- 
sion of  parliament. 

9.  "  And  also,  all  wilfull  burnings  of  any 
dwelling  house  or  houses,  o^  any  bam  or 
barns,  wherein  any  corn  was,  committed  or 
done  at  any  time  sithence  the  beginning  of  his 
majestie's  raigne. 

10.  "  And  also  excepted  all  rapes  and  car- 
nal ravishments  of  women,  and  also  ravish- 
ments and  wilfull  taking  away  or  marrying 
any  maidc,  widowc,  or  damosc],  against  her 


A.  D.  1613.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


285 


will,  or  without  the  assent  or  agreement  of 
her  parents,  or  such  as  then  had  her  in  cus- 
todie,  committed  or  done  within  one  year 
before  the  beginning  of  this  present  session 
of  parliament.  And  also  all  offences  of  ayding, 
comforting,  procuring  or  abetting  of  any  such 
ravishment,  wilfull  taking  away  or  marrying, 
had,  committed,  or  done. 

11.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  persons  now  attainted  or  outlawed,  of  or 
for  any  treason,  petit  treason,  murder,  wilfull 
poysonings,  burglary,  or  robbery,  and  all  exe- 
cutions of  and  for  the  same. 

12.  "  And  also  excepted  all  offences  of 
invocations,  conjurations,  witchcraft,  sorecer- 
ies,  inchantments  and  charms,  and  all  offences 
of  procuring,  abetting,  or  comforting  of  the 
same,  and  all  persons  now  attainted  and  con- 
victed of  any  of  the  said  offences,  at  any 
time  sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majesty's 
raigne. 

13.  "  And  also  excepted  all  and  every 
manner  or  taking  from  the  king's  majestic,  of 
any  the  goods  or  chattels,  or  the  issues,  rents, 
revenues  or  profits  of  any  mannors,  lands, 
tenements,  and  hereditaments,  which  were 
of  any  traytor,  murderer,  felon,  clerke  or 
clerkes  attainted,  or  fugitives,  or  of  any  of 
them. 

14.  "And  also  excepted  all  goods  and 
chattels,  in  any  wise  forfeited  to  the  king's 
majestic  by  reason  of  any  treason,  petit  trea- 
son, murder,  or  felony  heretofore  committed 
or  done. 

15.  "  And  also  excepted  all  offences  of 
or  in  making,  writing,  printing,  or  pubhshing, 
or  in  consenting  to  the  making,  veriting,  print- 
ing or  publishing,  of  any  false,  seditious,  or 
slaunderous  book  or  books,  libell  or  libells, 
in  any  wise  against  the  king's  majestic,  or  the 
present  government  of  this  realme,  in  cases 
either  ecclesiasticall  or  temporall,  or  against 
any  person  or  persons  whatsoever. 

16.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  intmsions,  had  or  made,  or  done  by  any 
person  or  persons,  in  or  upon  any  of  the 
mannors,  lands,  tenements,  or  other  heredita- 
ments of  our  said  soveraigne  lord  the  king ; 
and  all  wastes  done,  committed  or  suffered 
upon  any  such  lands,  tenements,  or  heredita- 

34 


ments,  and  the  wrongful!  taking  of  any  the 
rents,  issues,  and  profits  of  the  said  mannors, 
lands,  tenements,  or  hereditaments,  of  our 
said  sovereigne  lord  the  king,  at  any  time 
sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majestie's  raigne. 
And  also  all  suites,  accounts  and  impetitions, 
of  and  for  the  same. 

17.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  alienations  of  any  lands,  tenements  or 
hereditaments,  without  license,  and  all  fines, 
issues  and  profits,  that  may  or  ought  to  grow 
or  come  to  the  king's  majestic,  by  reason  of 
any  such  alienations,  without  license,  at  any 
time  sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majestie's 
raigne. 

18.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon, 
all  wastes  committed  or  done,  in  any  of  the 
king's  wards'  lands,  or  in  tlie  wards'  lands  of 
any  of  the  king's  counties ;  and  also  all  and 
every  fine  or  fines,  for  the  single  and  double 
value  of  the  marriage  or  marriages  of  all  and 
every  ward  or  wards,  at  any  time  heretofore 
grown  to  the  king's  majestic,  sithence  the 
beginning  of  his  majestie's  raigne. 

19.  "  And  also  excepted  concealed  wards, 
and  the  lands  of  such  wards  concealed,  and 
all  liveries  and  primer  seisins  and  ousterle- 
mains,  that  ought  to  be  had,  done  or  sued  for 
the  same,  sithence  the  beginning  of  his  ma- 
jestie's raigne. 

20.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  general 
pardon  all  ravishments  and  wrongful!  taking 
or  withholding  any  the  king's  ward  or  wards, 
lands  or  rents,  and  profits  of  the  same,  at  any 
time  coming  or  growing  to  the  king's  hands, 
sithence  the  beginning  of  his  majestie's  raigne ; 
and  every  thing  that  by  reason  of  any  such 
ward  or  wards'  lands,  and  for  default  of  suing 
or  prosecuting,  of  any  livery  for  any  such 
Wcirds'  lands  ought  to  come  or  to  be  to  the 
king's  majestic,  and  which  as  yet  is  not  dis- 
charged. 

21.  "And  also  excepted  all  fines  that 
should  or  o\ight  to  grow  to  the  king's  ma- 
jestic, of  any  his  widdows  that  have  married 
without  license,  sithence  the  beginning  of  his 
majestie's  raigne. 

22.  "And  also  excepted  and  foreprized 
out  of  this  pardon,  all  such  persons  as,  the 
last  day  of  this  present  session  of  Parliament, 


366 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1613. 


be  in  prison,  within  the  castle  of  Dublin,  or 
in  the  prison  of  Marshal sie,  or  otherwise  re- 
strained of  liberty  by  express  commandment 
of  the  lord  deputy,  or  by  the  commandment 
or  directions  of  any  his  majestie's  privy 
council. 

23.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  and  every  such  person  and  persons  which 
at  any  time  sithence  the  beginning  of  the 
king's  majestie's  raigne,  have  fled  out  of  this 
realm  of  Ireland,  or  any  other  the  king's  do- 
minions, for  any  offence  of  high  treason,  petit 
treason,  or  misprision  of  treason. 

24.  "  And  also  excepted  all  such  persons 
as  be  gone  or  fled  out  of  this  realm,  for  any 
cause  contrarie  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of 
this  realm,  without  the  king's  majestie's  li- 
cense. 

25.  "  And  also  excepted  all  such  persons 
as  have  obtained  and  had  license  to  depart 
this  realm,  for  a  certain  time,  and  now  do 
abide  out  of  this  realm,  without  any  lawful 
excuse,  after  the  time  of  their  licenses  ex- 
pired. 

26.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  and  every  concealments  or  vn:ongfull  de- 
tainments of  any  custom  or  subsidie  due  to 
the  king's  majestic,  sithence  the  beginning  of 
his  majestie's  raigne,  and  all  corruptions  and 
misdemeanours  of  any  officer  or  minister  of 
or  concerning  any  custom  or  subsidie,  and  all 
accompts,  impetitions,  and  suites  to  be  had, 
made,  or  done  for  the  same. 

27.  "  And  also  excepted  all  and  singular 
accompts  of  all  and  every  collector  and  col- 
lectors of  any  subsidie,  custom,  imposition, 
composition  or  other  thing ;  and  all  accompts 
of  every  other  person  whatsoever  that  ought 
to  be  accomptant  to  the  king's  highness,  and 
the  heirs,  executors,  and  administrators  of 
every  such  person  that  ought  to  accompt  for 
all  thmgs  touching  only  the  same  accompts  ; 
and  all  and  singular  arrearages  of  accompts, 
and  all  untrue  accompts,  and  all  petitions, 
charges,  and  seisures,  suits,  demaunds,  and 
executions  which  may  or  can  be  had,  of  or 
for  any  accompts  or  any  arrearages  of  the 
same. 

28.  "And  also  excepted  all  titles  and 
actions  of  quare  impedit,  and  all  homages. 


reliefe  and  reliefes,  heriots,  rents,  services, 
rent  charges,  rent  seeks,  and  the  arrearages 
of  the  same,  not  done  or  paid  to  the  king's 
highness. 

29.  "  And  also  excepted  all  conditions  and 
covenants,  and  all  penalties,  titles  and  forfey- 
tures  of  condition  or  conditions,  covenant  or 
covenants,  accrued  or  grown  to  the  king's 
majestic,  by  reason  of  the  breach  and  not 
performing  of  any  covenants  or  conditions. 

30.  "And  also  excepted  all  summs  of 
money  granted  by  the  king's  majestic,  or  any 
his  noble  progenitors  ;  and  all  concealments, 
fraudes  and  offences  by  which  his  majesty 
hath  been  deceived  or  not  truly  answered  of 
or  for  the  same. 

31 .  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  debts  which  were  or  be  due  to  our  sover- 
aign  lord  the  king,  or  to  the  most  noble  queen 
Elizabeth,  of  famous  memorie,  or  to  any  per- 
son or  persons  for  or  to  any  of  their  uses,  by 
any  condemnation,  recognizance,  obligation 
or  otherwise,  other  than  such  debts  as  are 
due  upon  any  obligation  or  recognizance  for- 
feyted  before  the  first  day  of  this  present 
session  of  Parliament,  for  not  appearance  in 
any  court  or  other  place  whatsoever ;  or  for 
not  keeping  of  the  peace,  or  not  being  of 
good  behaviour,  which  debts  growen  and 
accrued  upon  these  cases,  by  this  free  par- 
don be  and  shall  be  freely  pardoned  and  dis- 
charged. 

32.  "  And  also  excepted  and  foreprized  out 
of  this  pardon  all  and  singular  penalties,  for- 
feytures  and  summs  of  money,  being  due  and 
accrued  to  our  soveraign  lord  the  king,  by 
reason  of  any  act,  statute,  or  statutes  :  which 
forfeytures,  penalties  and  summs  of  money 
be  converted  into  the  nature  of  debts,  by  any 
judgment,  order  or  decree,  or  by  the  agree- 
ment of  the  offendour  or  offendours,  sithence 
the  beginning  of  the  raigne  of  the  late  queen 
EUzabeth. 

33.  "  And  also  excepted  all  forfeytures  of 
leases  and  estates  or  interests  of  any  leuids, 
tenements  or  hereditaments,  holden  of  our 
soveraign  lord  the  king's  majestic  by  knight 
service,  or  in  socage,  in  capite,  or  otherwise 
by  knight  service  made  in  one  or  several  as- 
surances or  leases  for  any  term  or  terms  of 


A.  D.  1613.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


267 


years,  whereupon  the  old  and  accustomed 
rent  or  more  is  not  reserved. 

34.  "  And  also  excepted,  all  first  fruits  at 
this  present  being  due  to  be  paid  to  his  majes- 
tic, by  force  of  any  act  or  statute  or  otherwise. 

35.  "  And  also  excepted  all  penalties  and 
forfeytures  whereof  there  is  any  verdict  in  any 
suit  given  or  past  for  the  king's  majestic. 

36.  "And  also  excepted  all  forfeytures 
and  other  penalties  and  profits  now  due,  ac- 
crued and  growen,  or  which  shall  or  may  be 
due,  accrued  or  growing  to  the  king's  ma- 
jestic, by  reason  of  any  offence,  misdemean- 
our, contempt,  or  act  or  deed,  suflfered,  had, 
committed,  or  done,  contrary  to  any  act, 
statute  or  statutes,  or  contrary  to  the  com- 
mon laws  of  this  realm,  and  whereof  or  for 
the  which  any  action,  bill,  plaint  or  informa- 
tion, at  any  time  within  eight  years  next 
before  the  last  day  of  this  present  session  of 
Parliament,  hath  been  or  shall  be  exhibited, 
commenced  or  sued  in  the  courts  of  Castle 
Chamber,  or  in  any  of  the  king's  majestie's 
courts  at  Dublin,  and  now  is,  or  the  said  last 
day  of  this  session  of  Parliament,  shall  be 
there  depending,  and  remaining  to  be  prose- 
cuted, or  whereof  the  king's  majestic,  by  his 
bill  assigned,  hath  heretofore  made  any  gift 
or  assignment  to  any  person  or  persons. 

37.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  general 
and  free  pardon  all  offences,  contempts,  dis- 
orders, covins,  frauds,  deceipts  and  misde- 
meanours whatsoever,  heretofore  committed 
or  done  by  any  person  or  persons,  and  where- 
of or  for  the  which  any  suit  by  bill,  plaint,  or 
information,  at  any  time  within  four  years 
next  before  the  last  day  of  this  present  session 
of  Parliament,  is  or  shall  be  commenced  or 
exhibited  in  the  Court  of  Castle  Chamber, 
and  shall  be  there  the  same  last  day  of  this 
session  of  Parliament  depending,  or  where- 
upon any  sentence  or  decree  is  given  or  en- 
tered. 

38.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  offences  of  perjuries  and  subornation  of 
witnesses,  and  offences  of  forging  jind  coun- 
terfeiting of  any  false  deeds,  escriptes  or 
writings ;  and  all  procuring  and  counselling 
of  any  such  counterfeiting  or  forging  to  be 
had  or  made 


39.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  offences  of  incest,  adultery,  fornication 
and  simony,  and  all  such  usury  for  which 
any  interest  hath  been  received  or  taken  since 
the  first  day  of  this  present  session  of  Parha- 
ment :  and  all  misdemeanours  and  disturban- 
ces committed  or  made  in  any  church  or 
chappel,  in  the  time  of  common  prayer, 
preaching  or  divine  service  there  used,  to  the 
disturbance  thereof;  and  all  outlawries  and 
prosecutions  upon  the  same. 

40.  "  And  also  excepted  all  offences  where- 
by any  person  may  be  charged  with  the  pen- 
alty and  danger  of  premunire,  and  of  the 
which  offence  or  offences  any  person  standeth 
already  indicted,  or  otherwise  lawfully  con- 
demned or  convicted. 

41.  "And  also  excepted  all  dilapidations 
for  which  any  suit  is,  or,  before  the  end  of 
this  session  of  Parliament,  shall  be,  depend- 
ing. 

42.  "  And  also  excepted  all  offences  in 
taking  away,  imbeyselling,  or  purloyning  any 
the  king's  majestie's  goods,  money,  chattels, 
jewels,  armour,  munition,  ordinance,  or  other 
habiliments  of  warre. 

43.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  manner  of  extortions  whatsoever. 

44.  "  And  also  excepted  all  covins,  frauds, 
deceipts,  and  other  disorders  and  misdemean- 
ours whatsoever,  heretofore  committed  or 
done  by  any  steward  of  his  majestie's  man- 
nours  or  courts,  under  sheriffs,  or  by  any 
officer  or  minister  in  any  of  his  highness's 
courts,  in  or  by  reason  or  colour  of  any  of 
their  offices  or  places,  or  any  their  deputys  or 
clerkes :  and  all  offences  of  ayding,  com- 
forting, assisting  or  procuring  of  any  under 
sheriffe  or  any  such  officer,  minister,  or  clerke, 
in  continuing,  doing  or  executing  any  such 
extortion,  exaction,  covin,  fraud,  deceipt,  dis- 
order or  misdemeanour. 

45.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  issues,  fines  and  amerciaments  being  totted, 
levied  or  received  by  any  sheriffe,  under 
sheriffe,  bayliffe,  minister  or  other  officer,  to 
or  for  the  king's  majestie's  use  or  behoofe, 
before  the  last  day  of  this  present  session  of 
Parliament ;  and  all  issues,  fines  and  amer- 
ciaments afferred,  taxed,  estreated  or  entered 


268 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1613. 


severally  or  particularly,  touching  or  concern- 
ing any  one  person  or  more  persons  joyntly 
or  severally,  above  the  sum  of  six  pounds. 

46.  "  And  also  excepted  all  issues,  fines 
and  amerciaments  afferred,  taxed,  set  or  en- 
tered severally  or  particularly  in  any  court  of 
record  at  Dublin,  at  any  time  silhence  the 
feast  of  Saint  Bartholomew  last  past ;  and 
yet  nevertheless,  all  other  fines,  as  well  finis 
pro  licentia  concordandi,  as  other  set  taxed, 
estreated  or  entered  afore  the  said  feast  of 
Saint  Bartholomew ;  and  also  all  issues  and 
amerciaments  as  well  real  as  others,  within 
any  liberties  or  without,  being  set,  taxed, 
estreated  or  entered  afore  the  said  feast  of 
Saint  Bartholomew,  and  which  severally  or 
particularly  extend  to  or  under  the  summ  of 
six  pounds,  and  not  above,  whether  they  be 
estreated  or  not  estreated,  or  whether  they  be 
turned  into  debt  or  not  turned  into  debt,  and  not 
being  totted,  levied  or  recovered  by  any  sherifFe, 
under  sherifFe,  minister  or  other  officer,  to  or 
for  the  king's  majestie's  use  or  behoof,  before 
the  last  day  of  this  present  session  of  Parlia- 
ment, shall  be  freely,  clearly  and  plainly  par- 
doned and  discharged  against  the  king's  majes- 
tic, his  heyres  and  successours  for  ever,  by 
force  of  this  present  act  of  free  pardon ;  and  yet 
nevertheless,  all  estreats  of  such  fines,  issues 
and  amerciaments  as  be  now  pardoned  by 
this  act,  and  be  already  estreated  forth  of  the 
court  of  exchequer,  and  be  remaining  in  the 
hand  of  the  sherifFe,  under  sherifFe  and  bay- 
lifFe  for  collecting  of  the  same  fines,  issues 
and  amerciaments,  shall,  upon  the  return  of 
the  same  estreats,  be  orderly  charged  and 
delivered  by  scrowls  into  the  office  of  the 
pipe  in  the  court  of  exchequer,  as  heretofore 
has  been  accustomed,  to  the  intent  that  there- 
upon order  may  be  taken  that  his  majestie 
may  be  truly  answered  in  all  such  fines, 
issues  and  amercieiments  not  by  this  act  par- 
doned, and  which  any  sherifFe,  under  sherifFe, 
baylifFe,  or  other  officer  or  minister  hath  re- 
ceived or  ought  to  answer  for  by  force  or 
colour  of  any  such  estreat,  processe  or  precept 
to  him  or  them  made  for  the  levying  thereof : 
and  yet  notwithstanding  all  and  every  sherifFe 
and  sherifFes  and  other  accomptants,  upon  his 
or  their  petition  or  petitions,  to  be  made  for 


the  allowance  of  any  such  fines,  issues  and 
amerciaments  as,  by  this  act  pardoned,  shall 
have  all  and  every  such  his  and  their  petition 
allowed  in  his  or  their  accompt  and  accompts, 
without  paying  any  fee  or  reward  to  any  offi- 
cer, clerk  or  other  minister,  for  the  making, 
entering  or  allowing  of  any  such  petition  or 
petitions,  any  usage  or  custome  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding. 

47.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  goods,  chattels,  debts,  actions  and  suits 
already  forfeited,  or  whereof  any  right  or  title 
is  accrued  and  growen  to  the  king's  majestie 
by  reason  of  any  outlawry,  and  whereof  the 
king's  majestie,  by  his  highness's  letters  pa- 
tent, hath,  before  the  last  day  of  this  present 
session  of  Parliament,  made  any  grant,  cove- 
nant or  proviso  to  any  person  or  persons. 

48.  "  And  also  excepted  out  of  this  pardon 
all  such  persons  as  be  and  remain  still  at- 
tainted or  condemned,  and  not  already  par- 
doned, of  or  for  any  rebellion  or  levying  of 
warre,  of  or  for  any  conspiracy  of  any  rebel- 
lion or  levying  of  warre,  within  this  realm,  or 
in  any  other  the  king's  dominions. 

49.  "  And  also  excepted  all  false  forging 
and  counterfeiting  of  any  untrue  certificates. 

50.  "  And  also  excepted  all  false  forging 
and  counterfeiting  of  any  commission  or  com- 
missions to  inquire  of  any  lands,  tenements 
or  hereditaments  :  or  return  of  any  commis- 
sion or  commissions  obtained  or  gotten  of  any 
court  or  courts  to  inquire  of  any  lands,  tene- 
ments or  other  things  whatsoever;  and  all 
and  all  manner  of  falsifying  of  any  particular, 
or  of  any  bill  or  bills  signed  by  his  majestie 
after  the  ingrossing  thereof,  and  before  the 
passing  of  the  same  unto  the  great  seal. 

51.  "Provided  also,  and  be  it  enacted  by 
the  authority  of  this  present  Parliament,  that 
this  act  of  general  pardon  shall  not  in  any 
wise  extend  to  any  person  outlawed  upon  any 
writ  of  capias  ad  satisfaciendum,  until  such 
time  as  the  person  so  outlawed  shall  satisfie, 
or  otherwise  agree  with  the  party  at  whose 
suit  the  same  person  was  so  outlawed  or  con- 
demned."* 

After  reading  this  singular  document,  we 
may  safely  pronounce  that  the  passage  of 

»  Irish  Stat 


A.  D.  1613.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


269 


such  an  act  by  King  James  was  a  fatherly 
and  princely  action,  with  "  fifty-one  excep- 
tions," of  course.  We  give  it  as  a  curious 
specimen  of  the  legislation  of  those  days,  and 
for  its  frequent  use  of  the  word  "  all"  in  the 
exceptions.  To  properly  understand  the 
comprehensiveness  of  these  exceptions,  the 
state  of  the  country  at  the  commencement  of 
the  session  should  be  explained.  This  will 
be  easily  perceived  on  perusing  the  following 
speech  by  Sir  John  Davies.  It  appears  that 
the  people  of  Ulster  made  one  more  legal 
effort  to  obtain  justice  by  sending  a  present- 
ment to  the  crown,  to  the  effect  that  "  they 
had  an  estate  of  inheritance  in  their  posses- 
sions, which  their  chiefs  could  not  forfeit." 
Sir  John  had  to  plead  against  them,  by  virtue 
of  his  oflSce,  and  this  is  his  own  report : — 

"  The  inhabitants  of  this  country  do  border 
upon  the  English  Pale,  where  they  have 
many  acquaintances  and  alliances  ;  by  means 
whereof  they  have  learned  to  talk  of  a  free- 
hold and  of  estates  of  inheritance,  which  the 
poor  natives  of  Fermanagh  and  Tyrconnel 
could  not  speak  of;  although  these  men  had 
no  other  nor  better  estate  than  they ;  that  is, 
only  a  scambling  and  transitory  possession, 
at  the  pleasure  of  the  chief  of  every  sept. 

"When  the  proclamation  was  published 
touching  their  removal,  (which  was  done  in 
the  public  Sessions-House,  the  lord  deputy 
and  commissioners  being  present,)  a  lawyer 
of  the  Pale,  retained  by  them,  did  endeavour 
to  maintain  that  they  had  estates  of  inherit- 
ance in  their  possessions,  which  their  chief 
lords  could  not  forfeit ;  and  therefore,  in  their 
name,  desired  two  things ;  first,  that  they 
might  be  admitted  to  traverse  the  offices 
which  had  been  found  of  those  lands ;  sec- 
ondly, that  they  might  have  the  benefit  of  a 
proclamation  made  about  five  years  since, 
whereby  the  persons,  lands,  and  goods,  of  all 
his  majesty's  subjects,  were  taken  into  his 
royal  protection. 

"  To  this  the  king's  attorney,  being  com- 
manded by  the  lord  deputy,  made  answer : 
That  he  was  glad  that  this  occasion  was  of- 
fered, of  declaring  and  setting  forth  his  ma- 
jesty's just  title ;  as  well  for  his  majesty's 
honour,  (who,  being  the  most  just  prince 


living,  would  not  dispossess  the  meanest  of 
his  subjects  wrongfully,  to  gain  many  such 
kingdoms,)  as  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  na- 
tives themselves,  and  of  all  the  world ;  for 
his  majesty's  right,  it  shall  appear,  said  he, 
that  his  majesty  may  and  ought  to  dispose  of 
these  lands,  in  such  manner  as  he  hath  done, 
and  is  about  to  do,  in  law,  in  conscience,  and 
in  honour. 

"  In  law ;  whether  the  case  be  to  be  ruled 
by  our  law  of  England,  which  is  in  force,  or 
by  their  own  Brehon  law,  which  is  abolished, 
and  adjudged  no  law,  but  a  lewd  custom. 

"  It  is  our  rule  in  our  law,  that  the  king  is 
lord  paramount  of  all  the  land  in  the  king- 
dom, and  that  all  his  subjects  hold  their  pos- 
sessions of  him,  mediate  or  immediate. 

"  It  is  another  rule  of  our  law,  that  where 
the  tenant's  estate  doth  fail  and  determine, 
the  lord,  of  whom  the  land  is  holden,  may 
enter  and  dispose  thereof  at  his  pleasure. 

"  Then  those  lands  in  the  county  of  Cavan, 
which  was  O'Rilie's  country,  are  all  holden 
of  the  king  ;  and  because  the  captainship  or 
chiefrey  of  O'Rilie  is  abolished  by  act  of 
Parliament,  by  stat.  2,  of  Elizabeth ;  and 
also  because  two  of  the  chief  lords  elected  by 
the  country  have  ,been  lately  slain  in  rebel- 
lion, (which  is  an  attainder  in  law,)  these 
lands  are  holden  immediately  of  his  majesty. 

"  If  then  the  king's  majesty  be  immediate 
chief  lord  of  these  lands,  let  us  see  what 
estates  the  tenants  or  possessors  have,  by  the 
rules  of  the  common  law  of  England. 

"  Either  they  have  an  estate  of  inheritance 
or  a  lesser  estate :  a  lesser  estate  they  do 
not  claim  ;  or  if  they  did,  they  ought  to  show 
the  creation  thereof,  which  they  carmot  do. 

"If  they  have  an  estate  of  inheritance, 
their  lands  ought  to  descend  to  a  certain 
heir;  but  neither  their  chiefiries  nor  their 
tenancies  did  ever  descend  to  a  certain  heir ; 
therefore  they  have  no  estate  of  inheritance. 

"Their  chiefries  were  ever  carried  in  a 
course  of  tannistry  to  the  eldest  and  strong- 
est of  the  sept,  who  held  the  same  during 
life,  if  he  were  not  ejected  by  a  stronger. 

"  This  estate  of  the  chieftain  or  tannist  hath 
been  lately  adjudged  no  estate  in  law  ;  but 
only  a  transitory  and  scambling  possession. 


370 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1613. 


"Their  inferior  tenancies  did  run  in 
another  course,  like  the  old  gavelkind  in 
Wales,  where  the  bastards  had  their  portions, 
as  well  as  the  legitimate ;  which  portion 
they  held  not  in  perpetuity  ;  but  the  chief  of 
the  sept  did  once  in  two  or  three  years  shuf- 
fle and  change  their  possessions,  by  new  par- 
titions and  divisions ;  which  made  their  es- 
tates so  uncertain,  as  that  by  opinion  of  all  the 
judges  in  this  kingdom,  this  pretended  cus- 
tom of  gavelkind  is  adjudged  and  declared 
void  in  law. 

"And  as  these  men  had  no  certain  estates 
of  inheritance,  so  did  they  never  till  now 
claim  any  such  estate,  nor  conceive  that  their 
lawful  heirs  should  inlierit  the  land  which 
they  possessed ;  which  is  manifest  by  two 
arguments. 

"1.  They  never  esteemed  lawful  matri- 
mony, to  the  end  they  might  have  lawful 
heirs. 

"2.  They  never  did  build  any  houses,  nor 
plant  orchards  or  gardens,  nor  take  any  care 
of  their  posterities. 

"If  these  men  had  no  estates  in  law, 
either  in  their  mean  chiefries  or  in  their  infe- 
rior tenancies,  it  foUoweth  that  if  his  majesty, 
who  is  the  undoubted  lord  paramount,  do 
seize  and  dispose  these  lands,  they  can  make 
no  title  against  his  majesty  or  his  patentees, 
and  consequently  cannot  be  admitted  to  tra- 
verse any  office  of  those  lands  ;  for  without 
showing  a  title,  no  man  can  be  admitted  to 
traverse  an  office. 

"Thus  then  it  appears,  that  as  well  by 
the  Irish  custom  as  the  law  of  England,  his 
majesty  may,  at  his  pleasure,  seize  these 
lands,  and  dispose  thereof.  The  only  scru- 
ple which  remains,  consists  in  this  point ; 
whether  the  king  may,  in  conscience  or  hon- 
our, remove  the  ancient  tenants,  and  bring  in 
strangers  among  them. 

"  Truly  his  majesty  may  not  only  take  this 
course  lavdully,  but  is  boimd  in  conscience 
so  to  do. 

"For,  being  the  undoubted  rightful  king 
of  this  realm,  so  as  the  people  and  land  are 
committed  by  the  Divine  Majesty  to  his 
charge  and  government,  his  majesty  is  bound 
in  conscience  to  use  all  lawful  and  just  cour- 


ses to  reduce  his  people  from  barbarism  to 
civility ;  the  neglect  whereof  heretofore  hath 
been  laid  as  an  imputation  upon  the  crown 
of  England.  Now  civility  cannot  possibly 
be  planted  among  them  but  by  this  mixed 
plantation  of  civil  men,  which  likewise  could 
not  be  without  removal  and  transplantation 
of  some  of  the  natives,  and  settling  of  their 
possessions  in  a  course  of  common  law  ;  for 
if  themselves  were  suffered  to  possess  the 
whole  country,  as  their  septs  have  done  for 
many  hundreds  of  years  past,  they  would 
never,  to  the  end  of  the  world,  build  houses, 
make  townships  or  villages,  or  manure  or 
improve  the  land  as  it  ought  to  be  ;  therefore 
it  stands  neither  with  Christian  policy  nor 
conscience,  to  suffer  so  good  and  fruitful  a 
country  to  lie  waste  like  a  wilderness,  when 
his  majesty  may  lawfully  dispose  it  to  such 
persons  as  will  make  a  civil  plantation  there- 
upon. 

"Again :  his  majesty  may  take  this  course 
in  conscience ;  because  it  tendeth  to  the 
good  of  the  inhabitants  many  ways  ;  for  half 
their  land  doth  now  lie  waste  :  by  reason 
whereof  that  which  is  inhabited  is  not  im- 
proved to  half  the  value  ;  but  when  the  \m- 
dertakers  are  planted  among  them,  (there 
being  place  and  scope  enough  both  for  them 
and  for  the  natives,)  and  that  all  the  land 
shall  be  fully  stocked  and  manured,  five 
hundred  acres  will  be  of  better  value  than 
five  thousand  are  now.  Besides,  where  be- 
fore their  estates  were  altogether  uncertain 
and  transitory,  so  as  their  heirs  did  never 
inherit,  they  shall  now  have  certain  estates 
of  inheritance,  the  portion  allotted  unto  them, 
which  they  and  their  children  after  them 
shall  enjoy  with  security. 

"  Lastly,  this  transplantation  of  the  natives 
is  made  by  his  majesty,  rather  like  a  father 
than  like  a  lord  or  monarch.  The  Romans 
transplanted  whole  nations  out  of  Germany 
into  France ;  the  Spaniards  lately  removed 
all  the  Moors  cut  of  Grenada  into  Barbary, 
without  providing  them  any  new  seats  there  : 
when  the  English  Pale  was  first  planted,  all 
the  natives  were  clearly  expelled,  so  as  not 
one  Irish  family  had  so  much  as  an  acre  of 
freehold  in  all  the  five  counties  of  the  Pale ; 


A.  D.  1616.] 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


S71 


and  now,  within  these  four  years  past,  the 
Graemes  were  removed  from  the  borders  of 
Scotland  to  this  kingdom,  and  had  not  one 
foot  of  land  allotted  to  them  here  ;  but  these 
natives  of  Cavan  have  competent  portions 
of  land  assigned  to  them,  many  of  them  in 
the  same  barony  where  they  dwelt  before  : 
and  such  as  are  removed,  are  planted  in  the 
same  county ;  so  as  his  majesty  doth  in  this 
imitate  the  skilful  husbandman,  who  doth 
remove  his  fruit  trees,  not  with  a  purpose  to 
extirpate  and  destroy  them,  but  that  they 
may  bring  better  and  sweeter  fruit  after  the 
transplantation ." 

As  Daniel  O'Connell  is  something  of  a 
lawyer  as  well  as  an  historian,  we  have  taken 
the  benefit  of  his  opinion  on  this  case,  and 
find  it  thus  recorded  : — 

"  It  is  curious  that  the  only  title  that  James 
could  have  had  to  the  six  counties  in  Ulster, 
was  the  forfeiture  arising  from  the  attainder, 
for  flight,  of  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnell.  And 
yet  his  proclamation  states  that  they  had  no 
title  whatever  to  the  possessions  thus  for- 
feited !  If  they  had  no  title,  their  attainder 
could  never  have  transferred  a  title  to  the 
king.  This  was  a  blunder  just  suited  to  the 
capacity  of  such  a  Solomon  as  James  the 
First.  But  he  was  not  guilty  of  the  practical 
blunder  of  taking  his  own  proclamation  to  be 
true,  and  admitting  in  practice  that  the  at- 
tainted O'Neill  and  O'Donnell  had  had  no  title 
to  their  lands.         »         ♦         ♦         • 

"  There  is  a  melancholy  amusement  in 
seeing  the  manner  in  which  Davies  gravely 
acquits  the  king's'  conscience  from  the  robbe- 
ry, by  proving  that  the  Irish  were  all  the  bet- 
ter for  being  robbed  !  a  mode  of  reasoning 
which  he  certainly  would  prefer  to  have  prac- 
tically applied  to  any  other  person  than  to 
himself." 

As  James  had  created  fourteen  peers  for 
the  purpose  of  canying  on  his  plans  in  defi- 
ance of  all  probable  opposition,  the  recusant 
lords  in  the  upper  house  resolved  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  house  of  conunons.  A 
convention  of  all  who  had  withdrawn  was 
formed,  and  a  deputation  chosen  to  present  a 
remonstrance  to  the  king.  The  lord-Heu ten- 
ant, on  the  other  hand,  sent  over  the  Earl  of 


Thomond,  the  chief-justice  of  the  King's 
Bench,  and  the  lord-treasurer,  to  defend  the 
Dublin  government.  Both  parties  were  heard 
before  the  king  in  council ;  and  James  very 
profoundly  decided  in  favour  of  his  own  ser- 
vants. He  also  edified  the  remonstrants  with 
a  lecture  on  the  paternal  kindness  of  his  gov- 
ernment, in  his  own  peculiar  style  of  elo« 
quence ;  and  ended  with  threats  of  punish- 
ment for  their  tate  hardihood,  and  cheap  prom- 
ises of  favour  if  they  should  make  atonement 
by  future  submission  and  silence. 

The  gloom  of  James's  mind,  which  had 
been  produced  by  the  death  of  his  son.  Prince 
Henry,  in  the  previous  year,  was  now  giving 
way  to  more  kingly  and  agreeable  contempla- 
tions. In  addition  to  the  "  happy  results"  of 
his  policy  in  Ireland,  James  occupied  himself 
with  many  pleasing  calculations  on  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughter,  the  Princess  Ehzabeth, 
to  Frederic,  the  elector-palatine,  which  also 
took  place  in  1613.  This  year  appeared  to 
be  the  turning  point  in  the  reign  of  James, 
for  the  expenses  and  extravagance  which  pre- 
vailed in  his  court  soon  rendered  him  reckless 
and  desperate  in  the  measures  he  adopted  for 
recruiting  his  funds.  The  cost  of  entertain- 
ing his  son-in-law  far  exceeded  any  sum  he 
ever  laid  out  for  any  warlike  enterprise  to 
increase  the  glory  or  renown  of  England. 

Besides  his  children,  James  had  two  pet 
favourites,  Robert  Carre,  (Earl  of  Roches- 
ter,) and  George  Villiers,  (Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham.) These  people  hung  around  his  move- 
ments vnth.  a  tribe  of  guzzling  relations  ;  and 
their  vulgar  debauchery  and  murderous  crimes 
were  continually  aided  by  the  presence  of 
ladies  who  advocated  the  largest  liberty  in 
morals  as  well  as  rehgion.  In  1616,  James 
was  so  much  in  need  of  money  that  he  undid 
what  Elizabeth  had  made  great  exertions  to 
secure.  It  appears  that  when  Elizabeth  aided 
the  infant  states  of  Holland  against  the  power 
of  Spain,  she  had  the  important  towns  of 
Flushing,  the  Brille,  and  Rammekins  placed 
in  her  hands  as  pledges  for  the  repayment  of 
the  money  to  England.  Various  payments  had 
been  made,  reducing  the  debt  to  £600,000, 
which  sum  the  Dutch  were  under  agreement 
to  pay  to  James  at  the  rate  of  £40,000  per 


272 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1618. 


annum.  This  annual  sum  would  doubtless 
have  been  of  vast  service  to  the  king — but 
£26,000  per  annum  were  expended  in  main- 
taining his  garrisons  in  the  cautionary  or 
mortgaged  towns.  Only  £14,000  remained 
clear  to  England,  and  even  that  would  cease 
in  the  event  of  new  warfare  between  Holland 
and  Spain.  Considering  these  things,  and 
being  pressed  on  all  sides  for  money  to  satisfy 
just  demands  and  the  incessant  cravings  of 
his  favourites  and  the  court,  the  king  gladly 
agreed  to  surrender  the  cautionary  towns  on 
the  immediate  payment  by  the  Dutch  of 
jC250,000.  The  shrewd  government  of  the 
.new  republic  of  Holland  produced  the  cash, 
and  closed  the  business  very  quickly. 

During  the  popular  excitement  at  the  time 
of  the  marriage  of  James's  daughter,  in  1613, 
the  Dublin  government  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing the  majorities  they  desired  in  the  Irish 
parliament,  and,  towards  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion, the  rival  factions  appear  to  have  rivalled 
each  other  in  their  endeavours  to  please  the 
king.  Three  years  afterwards,  as  we  have 
shown,  James  was  compelled  to  make  a  most 
inglorious  movement  for  the  sake  of  some 
cash.  In  the  same  year,  1616,  (all  the  in- 
genuity of  the  Dublin  government  in  the 
manufacture  of  plots  having  been  exhausted,) 
authority  was  given  for  the  establishment  of 
a  "  Commission  for  the  Discovery  of  Defec- 
tive Titles,"  at  the  head  of  which  was  placed 
Sir  William  Parsons,  a  man  who  might  be 
relied  upon  to  execute  any  meanness  which 
craft  and  crime  could  instigate.  This  engine 
of  oppression  was  let  loose  among  the  Irish 
people,  and  its  operations  in  Ireland  form  the 
staple  of  Irish  history  during  the  remainder 
of  this  reign,  and  a  prominent  portion  of  that 
of  Charles  the  First.  These  operations  can 
be  explained  by  one  illustrative  case.  We 
find  one,  admirably  condensed  and  judiciously 
related  by  Taylor,  as  follows  : — 

"  Bryan  and  Turlogh  Byrne  were  the  right- 
ful owners  of  a  tract  in  Leinster,  called  the 
Ranelaghs.  Its  vicinity  to  the  capital  made 
it  a  desirable  plunder ;  and  accordingly  Par- 
sons, Lord  Esmond,  and  some  others  deter- 
mined that  it  should  be  forfeited.  The 
Byrnes,  however,  had  powerful  interest  in 


England,  and  obtained  a  patent  grant  of  their 
lands  from  the  king.  Parsons  and  Esmond 
were  not  to  be  disappointed  so  easily.  They 
flatly  refused  to  pass  thp  royal  grant;  and 
deeming  the  destruction  of  the  Byrnes  neces- 
sary to  their  safety,  they  had  them  arrested 
on  a  charge  of  treason.  The  witnesses  pro- 
vided to  support  the  charge  were  Duffe,  whom 
Turlogh  Byrne,  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  had 
sent  to  prison  for  cow-stealing,  Mac-Art  and 
Mac-Griffin,  two  notorious  thieves,  and  a 
farmer  named  Archer.  This  last  long  re- 
sisted the  attempts  to  force  him  to  become  a 
perjured  witness ;  and  his  obstinacy  was 
punished  by  the  most  horrible  tortures.  He 
was  burned  in  the  fleshy  parts  of  the  body 
with  hot  irons ;  placed  on  a  gridiron  over  a 
charcoal  fire ;  and,  finally,  flogged  until  na- 
ture could  support  him  no  longer,  and  he 
promised  to  swear  any  thing  that  the  com- 
missioners pleased.  Bills  of  indictment  were 
presented  to  two  successive  grand-juries  in 
the  county  of  Carlow,  and  at  once  ignored, 
as  the  suborned  witnesses  were  unworthy  of 
credit,  and  contradicted  themselves  and  each 
other.  For  this  opposition  to  the  will  of  gov- 
ernment, the  jurors  were  summoned  to  the 
star-chamber  in  Dublin,  and  heavily  fined. 
The  witnesses  Mac-Art  and  Mac-Griffin,  be- 
ing no  longer  useful,  were  given  up  to  the 
vengeance  of  the  law.  They  were  hanged 
for  robbery  at  Kilkenny ;  and  with  their  dy- 
ing breath  declared  the  innocence  of  the 
Byrnes. 

"  The  ingenuity  of  Parsons  and  his  accom- 
plices was  not  yet  exhausted.  The  Byrnes 
presented  themselves  before  the  court  of 
King's  Bench  in  Dublin,  to  answer  any 
charge  that  might  be  brought  against  them. 
No  prosecutor  appeared,  and  yet  the  chief- 
justice  refused  to  grant  their  discharge. 
During  two  years,  repeated  orders  were 
transmitted  from  England,  directing  that  the 
Byrnes  should  be  freed  from  further  process, 
and  restored  to  their  estates  ;  but  the  faction 
in  the  Castle  evaded  and  disobeyed  every 
mandate.  At  length,  on  learning  that  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  (the  generous  patron  of 
the  persecuted  Irishmen)  was  dead,  it  was 
determined  by  Parsons  to  complete  the  de- 


-•^•.««  ^ 


w 


^ 


'i>- 


•^^ 


!.«.  .^   _  ''LiLSii-sjii^i^li 


,„^-^ 


mif^mfmm..\\         nii|piPWPP'<*'Q^:9P>      '    " 


I 


^. 


Jik 


■-»^5S»Sw*~~ 


A.D.  1680.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


27» 


struction  of  the  victims.  He  had  before  been 
baffled  by  the  integrity  of  a  grand-jury ;  on 
this  occasion  he  took  proper  precautions  to 
prevent  a  similar  disappointment.  The  bills 
were  sent  before  the  grand-jurors  of  Wick- 
low,  the  majority  of  whom  had  obtained  grants 
of  the  Byrne  property,  and  all  were  intimately 
connected  with  the  prosecutors.  The  evi- 
dence placed  before  this  impartial  body  was 
the  depositions  of  four  criminals,  who  were 
pardoned  on  condition  of  giving  evidence ; 
but  even  these  wretches  were  not  brought  in 
person  before  the  jury.  Their  depositions 
were  taken  in  Irish  by  one  of  the  prosecutors, 
and  translated  by  one  of  his  creatures.  These 
suspicious  documents,  however,  proved  suf- 
ficient, and  the  bills  were  found. 

"  To  procure  additional  evidence,  it  was 
necessary  to  use  expedients  still  more  atro- 
cious. A  number  of  persons  were  seized, 
and  subjected  to  the  mockery  of  trial  by  mar- 
tial law,  though  the  regular  courts  were  sitting. 
The  most  horrid  tortures  were  inflicted  on 
those  who  refused  to  accuse  the  Byrnes  ;  and 
some  of  the  most  obstinate  were  punished 
with  death.  But  the  firmness  of  the  victims 
presented  obstacles  which  were  not  overcome 
before  some  virtuous  Englishmen  represented 
the  affair  so  strongly  to  the  king  that  he  was 
shamed  into  interference.  He  sent  over  com- 
missioners from  England  to  investigate  the 
entire  affair.  The  Byrnes  were  brought  be- 
fore them,  and  honourably  acquitted.  Their 
lives  were  thus  saved  ;  but  Parsons  had  pre- 
viously contrived  to  obtain  a  great  portion  of 
their  estates  by  patent,  and  was  permitted  to 
keep  them  undisturbed. 

"This  narrative,  which  has  been  rather 
softened  in  its  horrible  details,  may  appeeir  to 
many  too  shocking  to  be  believed ;  but  all  the 
documents  connected  with  it  are  still  preserved 
in  the  library  of  the  Dublin  University,  and  it 
is  circumstantially  related  by  Carte,  an  his- 
torian remarkable  for  his  hostility  to  the 
Irish."        ~ 

The  horrible  proceedings  of  the  previous 
reign  had  broken  up  all  the  usual  means  of 
social  happiness  and  security.  Deeds  and 
documents  relating  to  property  were  eitlier 
lost  or  destroyed ;  contracts  left  unperformed ; 

35 


and  every  opportunity  offered  for  evil  passions 
to  take  advantage  of  unintentional  negligence. 
This  state  of  affairs  made  the  introduction  of 
a  new  class  of  informers,  called  "  discover- 
ers," an  easy  and  profitable  speculation. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  "  fatherly  spirit" 
which  the  admirers  of  James  have  so  often 
paraded,  without  any  further  proof  than  his 
regard  for  his  own  family,  we  find  the  estab- 
lishment of  another  new  tribunal  of  business- 
justice,  called  the  "  Court  of  Wards."  The 
extensive  operations  of  the  "  discoverers"  we 
have  mentioned  appear  to  have  rendered 
some  such  convenient  court  requisite  to  dis- 
pose of  the  rising  generation  "  to  the  highest 
bidder."  Carey  has  given  the  following  truth- 
ful description : — 

"  A  very  large  portion  of  the  exercise  of 
the  energies,  the  talents,  and  the  industry  of 
mankind,  results  from  that  holy  regard  to  off"- 
spring  which  pervades  all  animated  nature, 
not  excepting  the  most  ferocious  tenants  of 
the  woods.  It  is  among  the  most  powerful 
of  the  impelling  motives  of  man  and  beast ; 
and  is  wisely  implanted  by  our  Creator  for 
the  best  purposes.  Men  of  genuine  parental 
feelings  labour,  with  at  least  as  much  zeal,  to 
secure  independence  and  happiness  for  their 
offspring,  as  for  their  ovm  proper  advantage. 
But,  as  if  nothing  holy  or  sacred  could  es- 
cape the  violence  and  virulence  of  the  Irish 
administration,  in  its  dire  hostility  to  the  Ro- 
man Catholics,  an  attempt  was  made  to  cut 
up  by  the  roots  this  inherent  and  instinctive 
principle,  by  the  establishment  of  the  court, 
of  wards,  whereby  the  heirs  of  the  Irish  no- 
bility and  gentry  were,  on  the  decease  of 
their  parents,  placed  under  the  care  of  some 
court-parasite,  or  person  who  bribed  the  ad- 
ministration, and  thus  purchased  the  guardian- 
ship. Lord  Orrery  remarks,  that  the  objec- 
tions to  the  court  of  wards  were,  that  '  no 
man  would  labour  for  a  child,  who,  for  aught 
he  knows,  may  be  sold  like  cattle  in  the  mar- 
ket, even  to  those  who  will  give  most :  for,' 
adds  he,  *  such  abuses  have  been  too  often 
committed  by  those  who  have  enjoyed  the 
bounties  of  the  king.'*  This  statement  from 
Lord  Orrery,  of  the  situation  of  the  children 
*  Orrery's  State  Letters. 


874 


HISTOKY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1620. 


of  the  Roman  Catholics,  who  were  *  sold  in 
the  market'  to  the  highest  bidder,  deserves 
the  most  marked  attention  ;  and  coming  from 
the  pen  of  a  most  rancorous  enemy,  establishes 
this  point  beyond  controversy,  and  exhibits  a 
species  of  oppression  of  which  probably  the 
world  has  beheld  few  examples. 

"  Independent  of  the  education  of  the  heirs, 
the  court  of  wards  had  a  control  over  their 
marriage,  of  which  they  made  a  most  iniqui- 
tous use;  and  frequently  degraded  and  dishon- 
oured them,  by  selling  them  to  persons  wholly 
unsuitable  in  point  of  character  and  family. 

"In  the  Trim  Remonstrance,  [1642,]  the 
Roman  Catholics  make  the  most  severe  com- 
plaints against  the  exactions,  injustice,  and 
oppression  of  this  court,  whereby  '  the  heirs 
of  Cathohc  noblemen  and  other  Catholics 
were  most  cruelly  and  tyrannically  dealt 
withal,  destroyed  in  their  estates,  and  bred  in 
dissoluteness  and  ignorance.' 

"  The  ostensible  object  of  this  iniquitous  and 
oppressive  court  was,  to  educate  the  heirs  of 
the  great  Catholic  families  in  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  thus  *  prevent  the  growth  of 
popery ;'  and  their  efforts  to  accomplish  this 
grand  object,  reconciled  the  zealots  of  that 
period  to  the  infraction  and  ruin  of  the  un- 
happy objects  of  their  care. 

"In  addition  to  the  intrinsic  injustice  and 
oppression  of  this  court,  it  was  entirely  ille- 
gal and  unconstitutional — no  law  having  ever 
been  passed  to  sanction  it — and  it  having 
been  wholly  unknown  in  Ireland,  till  the 
fourteenth  year  of  the  reign  of  James  the 
First,  when  it  was  arbitrarily  established  by 
a  mere  act  of  state,  that  is,  of  the  privy- 
council  of  Ireland.  In  England,  it  had  been 
established  by  law,  and  under  some  restric- 
tions which  mitigated  its  oppression.  In 
Ireland  it  was  under  no  control  or  restraint, 
and  its  operation  was  inexpressively  vexa- 
tious and  rapacious." 

Such  outrageous  iniquity,  and  such  mon- 
strous violations  of  the  ordinary  feelings  of 
human  nature,  seem  to  require  that  this 
statement  should  be  well  fortified  with  proof. 
Unfortunately  it  is  too  true  ;  the  evidence  is 
too  plentiful.  Bishop  Burnet  says,  in  the 
"History  of  His  Own  Times,"  that— 


"Another  main  part  of  the  regal  authority 
was  the  wards,  which  anciently  the  crown 
took  into  their  own  management.  Our  kings 
were,  according  to  the  first  institution,  the 
guardians  of  the  wards.  They  bred  them 
up  in  their  courts,  and  disposed  of  them  in 
marriage  as  they  thought  fit.  Afterwards 
they  compounded  or  forgave  them ;  or  gave 
them  some  branches  of  the  family,  or  to  pro- 
vide the  younger  children.  But  they  pro- 
ceeded in  this  very  gently :  and  the  chief 
care  after  the  Reformation  was  to  breed  the 
wards  Protestants.  Still  all  were  under  a 
great  dependence  by  this  means.  Much 
money  was  not  raised  this  way  :  but  families 
were  often  at  mercy  and  were  used  according 
to  their  behaviour.  King  James  granted 
these  generally  to  his  servants  and  favourites  ; 
and  they  made  the  most  of  them ;  so  that 
what  was  before  a  dependence  on  the  crown, 
and  was  moderately  compounded  for,  became 
then  a  most  exacting  oppression,  by  which 
several  families  were  ruined." 

Another  Protestant  writer.  Carte,  testifies 
that — 

"The  wardship  and  marriage  of  the  heir 
were  likewise  reserved  to  the  crown.  These 
lands  and  wardships  were  usually  granted  to 
favourites,  and  men  of  power  and  interest, 
who,  though  they  gave  security  to  the  court 
of  wards  to  take  due  care,  as  well  of  the  ed- 
ucation and  maintenance  of  the  heir,  as  of 
the  good  condition  of  the  estate,  too  often 
neglected  both ;  destroyed  the  woods,  and 
committed  horrible  waste  upon  the  lands ; 
brought  up  the  heir  in  ignorance,  and  in  a 
mean  manner  unworthy  of  his  quality  :  and, 
selling  his  person  to  the  best  bidder,  matched 
him  unequally  in  point  of  birth  and  fortune, 
as  well  as  disagreeably  with  regard  to  the 
character,  qualities,  and  figure  of  the  person 
that  was  picked  out  to  be  the  companion  of 
his  life."* 

To  save  time  and  room  we  may  mention 
that  Carey's  statements  and  quotations  had 
been  previously  made  use  of  by  Plowden,  an 
authority  which,  by  his  high  legal  attainments 
and  conscientious  impartiality,  is  beyond  all 
serious  doubt.  When  we  come  to  the  cele- 
*  Life  of  James,  Duke  of  Ormond. 


A.  D.  1623.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


275 


brated  remonstrance  at  Trim,  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day,  1642,  we  shall  have  more  to  say  on  this 
subject.  In  the  mean  time,  the  reader  will 
please  to  watch  the  operation  of  this  despotic 
act  of  the  privy-council. 

In  order  to  harmonize  the  action  of  the 
government,  the  ecclesiastical  courts  were  so 
far  "  reformed"  as  to  make  them  unite  with 
the  secular  power  in  plundering  the  already 
oppressed  people.  Burnet  tells  us,  in  his 
"  Life  of  Bishop  Bedell,"  while  describing 
the  ecclesiastical  courts,  that — 

"They  were  often  managed  by  a  chan- 
cellor that  bought  his  place,  and  so  thought 
he  had  a  right  to  all  the  profits  he  could  make 
out  of  it,  and  their  whole  business  seemed  to 
be  nothing  but  oppression  and  extortion  ;  the 
solemnest,  the  sacredest  of  all  church  cen- 
sures, (which  was  excommunication,)  went 
about  in  so  sordid  and  base  a  manner,  that  all 
regard  to  it,  as  it  was  a  spiritual  censure,  was 
lost,  and  the  effect  it  had  in  law  made  it  be 
cried  out  upon  as  a  most  intolerable  piece  of 
tyranny.  The  officers  of  the  court  thought 
they  had  a  sort  of  right  to  oppress  the  natives  ; 
and  that  all  was  well  got  that  was  wrung  from 
them." 

We  are  compelled  to  record  that  Ireland 
was  thus  governed  by  the  abuse  of  liberty. 
All  the  instruments  of  political  and  religious 
freedom  were  brought  to  bear  upon  the  un- 
fortunate inhabitants  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
extort  all  the  profits  of  oppression.  The 
reader  would  not  thank  us  for  hundreds  of 
pages  of  particulars,  when  the  arbitrary  and 
selfish  spirit  of  the  whole  reign  of  James  the 
First  is  so  indelibly  proved  by  the  subsequent 
events.  In  the  latter  end  of  this  reign  the 
"discoverers"  began  to  turn  their  attention 
towards  Connaught,  (whither  the  inhabitants 
of  Ulster  had  been  driven  shortly  after  James's 
accession,)  and  proposed  that  these  unfor- 
tunate people  should  be  "reformed"  over 
again.     Leland  says — 

"  Another  device  of  these  reformers  affected 
the  inhabitants  of  an  entire  province.  The 
lords  and  gentlemen  of  Connaught,  including 
the  county  of  Clcure,  on  their  composition 
made  with  Sir  John  Perrot  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  had  indeed  surrendered  their  es- 


tates to  the  crown,  but  had  generally  neglected 
to  enrol  their  surrenders  and  to  take  out  their 
letters  patent.  This  defect  was  supplied  by 
King  James,  who  in  his  thirteenth  year  issued 
a  commission  to  receive  surrenders  of  their 
estates ;  which  he  reconveyed,  by  new  pa- 
tents, to  them  and  their  heirs,  to  be  holden 
of  the  crown  by  knight's  service,  as  of  the 
castle  of  Athlone.  Their  surrenders  were 
made,  their  patents  received  the  great  seal, 
but,  by  neglect  of  the  officers,  neither  was 
enrolled  in  chancery,  although  three  thousand 
pounds  had  been  disbursed  for  the  enrolments. 
Advantage  was  now  taken  of  this  involuntary 
omission.  Their  titles  were  pronounced  de- 
fective, and  their  lands  adjudged  to  be  still 
vested  in  the  crown.  The  project  recom- 
mended to  the  king,  was  nothing  less  than 
that  of  establishing  an  extensive  plantation  in 
the  province  of  Connaught,  similar  to  that  of 
Ulster ;  £uid  in  his  rage  of  reformation  it  was 
most  favourably  received," 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Dr.  Leland  never  re- 
ceived any  important  promotion  after  the 
publication  of  his  "  History  of  Ireland."  The 
learned  gentleman  continues,  fourth  book, 
eighth  chapter — 

"  In  other  districts,  the  planters  had  not 
only  neglected  to  perform  their  covenants, 
but  the  commissioners  appointed  to  distribute 
the  lands,  scandalously  abused  their  trusts, 
cuid  by  fraud  or  violence  deprived  the  natives 
of  those  possessions  which  the  king  had  re- 
served for  them.  Some  indeed  were  suffered 
to  enjoy  a  small  pittance  of  such  reservation  ; 
others  were  totally  ejected.  In  the  manu- 
scripts of  Bishop  Steame  we  find,  that  in  the 
small  county  of  Longford,  twenty-five  of  one 
sept  were  all  deprived  of  their  estates  without 
the  least  compensation,  or  any  means  of  sub- 
sistence assigned  to  them. 

"  The  resentment  of  such  sufferers  was  in 
some  cases  exasperated  by  finding  their  lands 
transferred  to  hungry  adventurers,  who  had 
no  services  to  plead,  and  sometimes  to  those 
who  had  been  rebels  and  traitors.  Neither 
the  actors  nor  the  objects  of  such  grievances 
were  confined  to  one  rehgion.  The  most 
zealous  in  the  service  of  government,  and  the 
most  peaceful  conformists,  were  involved  in 


27G 


HISTORY    OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1635. 


the  ravages  of  avarice  and  rapine,  without 
any  distinction  of  principles  or  professions. 
The  interested  assiduity  of  the  king's  crea- 
tures in  scrutinizing  the  titles  to  those  lands 
which  had  not  yet  been  found  or  acknowl- 
edged to  belong  to  the  crown,  was,  if  possi- 
ble, still  more  detestable." 

Before  we  close  our  account  of  this  reign 
of  rapacity,  perhaps  these  statements  had 
better  be  proved  by  two  witnesses.  For  this 
purpose  we  enlist  the  evidence  of  Taylor, 
also  an  Irishman,  and  also  a  fellow  of  "  Trin. 
Coll.  Dub."  He  says,  in  his  elegant  com- 
pendium of  the  *'  History  of  the  Civil  Wars 
in  Ireland,"  that — 

**  The  rapacity  of  the  discoverers,  and  the 
avarice  of  the  monarch  were  still  unsatisfied  ; 
and  a  new  scheme  of  confiscation  was  de- 
vised, which,  if  put  into  execution,  would 
have  forfeited  the  entire  province  of  Con- 
naught.  During  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  the 
lords  and  gentry  of  this  province  had  surren- 
dered their  lands  to  Sir  John  Perrot,  and  re- 
ceived them  back  as  grants  from  the  queen. 
Having  neglected  the  enrolment  of  their  pa- 
tents, they  again  surrendered  them  to  James, 
and  paid  a  sum  of  three  thousand  pounds  to 
have  them  enrolled.  The  officers  of  the 
court  of  chancery,  from  negligence  or  some 
other  more  culpable  motive,  omitted  this 
form  ;  and  the  king,  at  the  close  of  his  reign, 
prepared  to  take  advantage  of  this  clerical 
error,  and  seize  on  Connaught  as  he  had  on 
Ulster.  The  proprietors  were  filled  with  con- 
sternation at  this  alarming  project,  and  im- 
mediately prepared  to  avert  the  blow.  They 
knew  that  it  would  be  useless  to  appeal  to 
the  king's  justice,  his  honour,  or  his  humanity; 
but  they  were  aware  that  he  was  greedy  and 
necessitous,  and  therefore  tendered  him  a 
bribe  of  ten  thousand  pounds.  While  James 
hesitated  between  the  temptation  of  this  sum 
in  hand  and  a  larger  in  prospect,  he  was 
seized  with  mortal  illness,  and  died,  bequeath- 
ing to  his  son  three  kingdoms  filled  with  in- 
ternal discord,  and  involved  in  external  wars, 
from  which  neither  honour  nor  profit  could 
be  derived." 

The  reader  of  English  history  is  already 
familiar  with  the  evidence  of  James's  talents 


for  government.  In  relation  to  Irish  affairs, 
Leland  has  contributed  the  following  con- 
densed summary,  showing  that,  in  his  reign, 
they  consisted  of — 

"  Extortions  and  oppressions  of  the  sol- 
diers in  various  excursions  from  their  quar- 
ters, for  levying  the  king's  rents,  or  support- 
ing the  civil  power ;  a  rigorous  and  tyrannical 
execution  of  martial  law  in  time  of  peace ;  a 
dangerous  and  unconstitutional  power  as- 
sumed by  the  privy-council  in  deciding  causes 
determinable  by  common  law ;  their  severe 
treatment  of  witnesses  and  jurors  in  the  cas- 
tle chamber,  whose  evidence  or  verdict  had 
been  displeasing  to  the  state ;  the  grievous 
exactions  of  the  established  clergy  for  the 
occasional  duties  of  their  function  ;  and  the 
severity  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts." 

We  may  therefore  consider  ourselves  war- 
ranted in  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  James 
the  Pirst  of  England  was  a  very  good  king 
to  Ireland,  with  "  fifty-one  exceptions."  The 
spirit  of  his  reign  was  grasping,  tyrannical, 
and  selfish,  although  carried  on  under  the 
appearances  of  peace,  tranquillity,  and  reli- 
gion. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXV. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  Elizabeth  died,  and  her  kingdom  passed 
to  one  who  was,  in  his  own  opinion,  the  great- 
est master  of  kingcraft  that  ever  lived ;  who 
was,  in  truth,  one  of  those  kings  whom  God 
seems  to  send  for  the  express  purpose  of  has-. 
tening  revolutions.  Of  all  the  enemies  of  lib- 
erty whom  England  has  produced,  he  was  at 
once  the  most  harmless  and  the  most  pro- 
voking. His  office  resembled  that  of  the 
man  who,  in  a  Spanish  bull-fight,  goads  the 
torpid  savage  to  fury  by  shaking  a  red  rag  in 
the  air,  and  now  and  then  throwing  a  dart 
sharp  enough  to  sting,  but  too  small  to  injure. 
The  policy  of  wise  tyrants  has  always  been 
to  cover  their  violent  acts  with  popular  forms. 
James  was  always  obtruding  his  despotic 
theories  on  his  subjects  without  the  slightest 
necessity.    His  foolish  talk  exasperated  them 


A.  D.  1625.] 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


277 


infinitely  more  than  forced  loans  or  benevo- 
lences would  have  done.  Yet,  in  practice,  no 
king  held  his  prerogatives  less  tenaciously. 
He  neither  gave  v^ray  gracefully  to  the  advan- 
cing spirit  of  liberty,  nor  took  vigorous  meas- 
ures to  stop  it ;  but  retreated  before  it  with 
ludicrous  haste,  blustering  and  insulting  as 
he  retreated.  The  English  people  had  been 
governed  for  nearly  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
by  princes  who  (whatever  might  have  been 
their  frailties  or  vices)  had  all  possessed 
great  force  of  character,  and  who,  whether 
loved  or  hated,  had  always  been  feared. 
Now,  at  length,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
day  when  the  sceptre  of  Henry  the  Fourth 
dropped  from  the  hand  of  his  lethargic  grand- 
son, England  had  a  king  whom  she  despised, 

"  The  follies  and  vices  of  the  man  increas- 
ed the  contempt  which  was  produced  by  the 
feeble  policy  of  the  sovereign.  The  indeco- 
rous gallantries  of  the  court,  the  habits  of 
gross  intoxication  in  which  even  the  ladies 
indulged,  were  alone  sufficient  to  disgust  a 
people  whose  manners  were  beginning  to  be 
strongly  tinctured  with  austerity.  But  these 
were  trifles.  Crimes  of  the  most  frightful 
kind  had  been  discovered  ;  others  were  sus- 
pected. The  strange  story  of  the  Gowries 
was  not  forgotten.  The  ignominious  fond- 
ness of  the  king  for  his  minions,  the  perjuries, 
the  sorceries,  the  poisonings,  which  his  chief 
favourites  had  planned  within  the  walls  of  his 
palace  ;  the  pardon  which,  in  direct  violation 
of  his  duty  and  of  his  word,  he  had  granted 
to  the  mysterious  threats  of  a  murderer,  made 
him  an  object  of  loathing  to  many  of  his 
subjects.        *        *        *        ♦        • 

"  This  was  not  all.  The  most  ridiculous 
weaknesses  seemed  to  meet  in  the  wretched 
Solomon  of  Whitehall — pedantry,  buffoonery, 
garrulity,  low  curiosity,  the  most  contempti- 
ble cowardice.  Nature  and  education  had 
done  their  best  to  produce  a  finished  speci- 
men of  all  that  a  king  ought  not  to  be." — 
MacauEay. 

"  Darnley  [aged  nineteen  when  married  to 
his  cousin  Mary]  was  one  of  the  tallest  and 
handsomest  young  men  of  the  age ;  he  had 
a  comely  face  and  a  pleasant  countenance  ;  a 
most  dextrous   horseman,   and  exceedingly 


well  skilled  in  all  gentle  exercises ;  prompt 
and  ready  for  all  games  and  sports ;  much 
given  to  the  diversions  of  hawking  and  hunt- 
ing; to  horse-racing  and  music,  especially 
playing  on  the  lute  ;  he  could  speak  and  write 
well,  and  was  bountiful  and  hberal  enough. 
To  balance  these  good  natural  qualifications, 
he  was  much  addicted  to  intemperance,  to 
base  and  unmanly  pleasures ;  he  was  haughty 
and  proud,  and  so  very  weak  in  mind  as  to 
be  a  prey  to  all  that  came  near  him ;  he  was 
inconstant,  credulous  and  facile,  unable  to 
abide  by  any  resolution;  capable  of  being 
imposed  upon  by  designing  men  ;  and  could 
conceal  no  secret,  let  it  tend  ever  so  much  to 
his  own  welfare  or  detriment." — Keith. 

"  When  two  parties  marry  very  young,  the 
eldest  of  their  children  generally  inherit  a  less 
favourable  development  of  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual organs  than  those  produced  in  more 
mature  age.  The  animal  organs  in  the  hu- 
man race  are,  in  general,  most  vigorous  in 
early  life,  and  this  energy  appears  to  cause 
theiii  to  be  most  readily  transmitted  to  oflf- 
spring." — A.  Combe. 

"  He  who  can  convince  the  world  of  the 
importance  of  the  maxims  of  hereditary  de- 
scent, and  induce  mankind  to  conduct  them- 
selves accordingly,  will  do  more  good  to 
them,  and  contribute  more  to  their  improve- 
ment, than  all  other  institutions  and  systems 
of  education." — Spurzheim. 

"  James  the  First,  previous  to  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne  of  England,  had  held  out  in 
his  correspondence  with  the  Catholic  princes, 
in  order  to  propitiate  them,  that  he  would 
relax  somewhat  of  the  rigour  of  the  penal 
code  against  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics,  who, 
shortly  after  his  coronation,  sent  a  deputation 
to  London,  to  lay  their  grievances  before  him, 
and  solicit  some  indulgence.  Sir  James 
Gough,  one  of  the  number,  on  his  return  to 
Dublin,  announced  that  the  mission  had  been 
successful ;  *  that  the  agents  had  been  gra- 
ciously received  by  the  king ;  and  that  at  his 
departure  his  majesty  had  commanded  him 
to  publish  in  all  places  of  the  realm,  that  he 
would  not  force  their  consciences,  nor  hinder 
them  from  keeping  priests  in  their  houses,  so 
as  they  entertained  none  of  those  who  main- 


278 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1625. 


lain  that  the  pope  had  power  to  depose  or 
excommunicate  his  majesty.'  *  This,'  says 
Carte,  *  being  contrary  to  the  king's  solemn 
declaration  in  England,  that  he  would  never 
grant  any  toleration  to  the  Roman  Catholics, 
and  entailing  a  curse  on  his  posterity  if  they 
granted  any,  and  contrary  likewise  to  the  in- 
structions and  directions  the  state  had  received 
from  the  king,  for  ministering  the  oath  of  su- 
premacy to  the  lawyers  and  justices  of  the 
peace,  and  for  putting  the  laws  against  recu- 
sants in  execution,  the  deputy  reproved  him 
for  publishing  so  apparent  an  untruth,  and 
told  him  he  did  not  believe  him.  But  Gough 
continuing  with  arrogance  to  justify  the  mes- 
sage, the  lord-deputy  thought  it  necessary  to 
exercise  a  wholesome  and  seasonable  severity 
upon  him.'  Carte  does  not  inform  us  what 
this  *  wholesome  and  seasonable  severity'  was 
— but  we  learn  from  Leland,  that  the  *  deputy 
committed  Sir  James  Gough  close  prisoner 
to  the  castle  of  Dabhn.' " — M.  Carey. 

"  King  James  was  at  the  utmost  pains  to 
gain  the  friendship  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
princes,  as  a  necessary  precaution  to  facili- 
tate his  accession  to  the  English  throne. 
Lord  Home,  who  was  himself  a  papist,  was 
intrusted  with  a  secret  commission  to  the 
pope.  The  archbishop  of  Glasgow  was  an 
active  instrument  with  those  of  his  own  reli- 
gion. The  pope  expressed  such  favourable 
sentiments  both  of  the  king  and  of  his  right 
to  the  crown  of  England,  that  James  thought 
liimself  bound  some  years  after  to  acknowl- 
edge the  obligation  in  a  public  manner.  Sir 
James  Lindsey  made  great  progress  in  gain- 
ing the  Enghsh  papists  to  acknowledge  his 
majesty's  title." — Robertson. 

"  It  is  certain  that  the  promise  king  James 
made  to  the  Roman  Catholics  was  registered, 
and  amounted  so  high  at  least  as  a  toleration 
of  their  religion." — Osborne,  in  Curry. 

"  Towards  the  end  of  Arthur  Chichester's 
government,  (there  being  great  need  of  money 
for  support  of  the  standing  army  in  Ireland, 
and  maintaining  of  500  horse  and  5000  foot ; 
much  by  extraordinary  means  having  been 
otherwise  disposed,)  the  Catholics  of  Ireland 
(glad  of  the  occasion)  seemed  very  forward 
to  supply  the  state,  in  hopes  of  a  connivance 


(if  not  a  toleration)  of  their  religion." — Bor- 


LASE. 


"  The  toleration  they  desired  was  no  more 
than  some  respite  from  the  oppressions  and 
extortions  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  ;  and  to 
have  all  proceedings  against  them  in  those 
courts,  for  religion,  suspended ;  to  be  released 
from  those  exorbitant  sums  which  they  were 
obliged  to  pay  for  their  christenings  and  mar- 
riages ;  and  particularly  to  have  the  extrava- 
gant surplice  fees  of  the  clergy,  and  the  ex- 
traordinary warrants  for  levying  them,  abol- 
ished."— Curry. 

"  It  has  been  proved,  beyond  all  contradic- 
tion, that  the  *  Reformation,'  as  it  is  called, 
was  *  engendered  in  beastly  lust,  brought 
forth  in  hypocrisy  and  perfidy,  and  cherished 
and  fed  by  rivers  of  innocent  English  and 
Irish  blood.'  There  are  persons  who  publish 
what  they  call  *  answers'  to  me ;  but,  these 
answers  all  blink  the  main  subject :  they 
dwell  upon  what  their  authors  assert  to  be 
errors  in  the  Catholic  religion ;  this  they  do, 
indeed,  without  attempting  to  show  how  that 
Protestant  religion  which  has  about  forty 
different  sects,  each  at  open  war  with  all  the 
rest,  can  be  free  from  error;  but,  do  they 
deny,  that  this  new  religion  began  in  beastly 
lust,  hypocrisy,  and  perfidy ;  and  do  they 
deny,  that  it  was  established  by  plunder,  by 
tyranny,  by  axes,  by  gallowses,  by  gibbets, 
and  by  racks  ?  Do  they  face  with  a  direct 
negative  either  of  these  important  proposi- 
tions ?  No  :  there  are  the  facts  before  them  ; 
there  is  the  history ;  and  (which  they  cannot 
face  with  a  negative)  there  are  the  acts  of 
parliament,  written  in  letters  of  blood,  and 
some  of  these  remaining  in  force,  to  trouble 
and  torment  the  people  and  to  endanger  the 
state,  even  to  the  present  day,  [1824.]  What 
do  these  *  answerers'  do  then  ?  Do  they 
boldly  assert  that  beastly  lust,  hypocrisy, 
perfidy,  that  the  practice  of  plunder,  that  the 
use  of  axes,  gallowses,  gibbets  and  racks,  are 
good  things,  and  outward  signs  of  inward 
evangelical  purity  and  grace  ?  No  :  they 
give  no  '  answer'  at  all  upon  these  matters ; 
but  continue  to  rail  against  the  personal  char- 
acter of  priests  and  cardinals  and  popes,  and 
against  rites  and  ceremonies  and  articles  of 


A.  D.  1625.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


279 


faith  and  rules  of  discipline,  matters  with 
which  I  have  never  meddled,  and  which  have 
very  little  to  do  with  my  subject." — Cobbett. 
"We  will  not  undertake  to  assert  that 
there  is  no  professorship  of  History  in  the 
United  States  ;  but  we  are  quite  sure  that  in 
no  seminary  in  Massachusetts  has  provision 
been  made  until  very  lately  for  instruction  in 
this  department.  Something  may  have  been 
done  for  history  in  general ;  but  we  are  not 
aware  that  any  steps  have  yet  been  taken  to 
correct  the  ill  effects  which  have  resulted 
from  the  want  of  proper  direction  to  students 
in  English  history.  We  infer  this  from  the 
fact,  which  is  sometimes  mentioned  as  an 
evidence  of  improvement,  'that  where  one 
student  read  Hume's  History  of  England 
twenty  years  ago,  ten  read  it  now ;'  that  is  to 
say,  that  ten  times  as  much  prejudice,  false- 
hood, and  sophistry  is  imbibed,  to  be  eradi- 
cated in  after  life,  as  was  imbibed  twenty 
years  ago.  That  a  young  man  might  not  be 
worse  employed  than  in  reading  Hume,  we 
will  not  undertake  to  assert ;  but  that  any 
instructor  in  our  day  should  place  his  work 
in  the  hands  of  a  youth,  leaving  him  to  sup- 
pose that  it  contained  the  truth,  is  to  us  matter 
of  no  little  surprise.  It  is  certain  that  in 
England,  his  authority  as  to  any  event  sub- 
sequent to  the  accession  of  the  Tudor  dy- 
nasty, would  be  received  with  ridicule.  His 
mis-statements  are  the  more  dangerous  be- 
cause they  are  not  the  effect  of  passion  or 
honest  zeat;  but  cool,  deliberate,  and  art- 
ful. The  weapons  he  wields  are  sophistry 
and  sarcasm.  He  does  not  assail  openly, 
but  with  a  plausible  affectation  of  impartiality, 
he  blasts  a  character  by  some  sneering  insin- 
uation at  the  close  of  a  pretended  encomium. 
This  is  the  most  dangerous  of  all  modes  of 
attack,  because  most  captivating  to  the  young 
and  inexperienced  reader.  An  instance  may 
be  cited  in  the  character  of  Hampden  ;  whom 
he  has  not  the  effrontery  openly  to  abuse,  but 
insinuates  that  his  high  qualities  were  ob- 
scured by  a  morbid  fanaticism,  which  would 
have  evaporated  in  psalm-singing  among  the 
wilds  of  America,  whither  he  was  on  the  point 
of  going ;  and  where,  says  Mr.  Hume,  '  he 
could  only  propose  the  advantage  of  puritani- 


cal prayers  and  sermons.'  So  says  Mr. 
Hume  ;  but  history  tells  us,  that  Mr.  Hamp- 
den's ground  of  complaint  was,  not  only  that 
he  was  not  allowed  to  pray  after  his  own  way, 
but  that  if  he  did  not  conform,  in  this  respect, 
to  the  prescriptions  of  my  Lords-Bishops,  he 
was  liable  to  punishment  as  a  felon.  To  Mr. 
Hume  it  no  doubt  seemed  a  small  matter ; 
being  indifferent  to  both  creeds,  he  thought  it 
a  mighty  foolish  thing  to  quarrel  with  genteel 
people  about  such  a  trifle.  If  the  student 
wishes,  however,  to  see  both  sid^s  of  the  ques- 
tion, as  between  the  church  [of  England]  and 
the  Puritans,  let  him  look  into  Neal." — N. 
American  Rev. ;  July,  1829. 

"  Hume,  an  author  less  esteemed  at  Ox- 
ford than  in  Paris,  says  in  his  History  of  Eng- 
land, that  'James  the  First  considered  his 
government  of  Ireland  a  masterpiece  of  poli- 
cy.' If  we  examine  the  subject  closely,  it 
will  appear,  on  that  head,  that  his  vanity  was 
unfounded." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  What  then  shall  repress  our  sympathies 
for  the  people  of  Ireland  ?  Shall  consan- 
guinity to  England  ?  We  have  found  that 
the  ties  of  kindred  could  not  secure  ourselves 
against  oppression.  Shall  they  prevent  us 
from  being  just  to  those  who  suffer  oppres- 
sion? 

"  Shall  we  fear  to  give  offence  to  England  ? 
That  country  would  need  only  such  a  mani- 
festation of  American  pusillanimity  to  encour- 
age the  spirit  of  aggression  that  has  survived 
her  power  to  hold  us  in  subjection.  England 
is  herself  the  foe  of  tyranny.  It  is  from- her 
that  we  derived  our  passion  for  liberty  and 
the  impulsive  spirit  of  social  advancement. 
It  is  from  her  Hampdens  that  we  learned  the 
value  of  legislatures  responsible  to  the  peo- 
ple. She  hates  all  oppression  except  that 
which  she  inflicts.  She  will  respect  and 
honour  us  the  more,  the  more  we  show  that 
the  instinct  of  liberty  has  survived  our  separa- 
tion from  the  parent  state." — W.  H.  Seward. 

"  I  have  long  felt  the  inconvenience  result- 
ing from  the  ignorance  of  the  English  people 
generally  of  the  history  of  Ireland.  Why 
should  they  not  be  ignorant  of  that  history  ? 
The  story  itself  is  full  of  no  other  interest 
than  a  painful  one,  disgusting  from  its  details 


280 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1625. 


of  barbarous  infliction  on  the  one  hand,  and 
partial  and  therefore  driflless  resistance  on 
the  other.  To  the  Enghsh  it  seems  enough 
to  know,  that  one  way  or  the  other  Ireland 
had  become  subject  to  England.  It  was 
easily  taken  for  granted  that  the  mode  of  sub- 
jugation was  open  war  and  honourable  con- 
quest ;  and  finally  that  the  Union  was  nothing 
more  than  the  raising  up  of  a  vassal-people 
to  a  participation  in  the  popular  rights  and 
political  condition  of  the  conquerors,  brought 
about  by  identifying  both  nations. 

"We  are  come  to  a  period  in  which  it  is 
most  important  to  have  these  matters  inquired 
into  and  understood." — O'Connell. 

"  There  is  something  cordial,  open,  and 
joyous  in  the  native  Irish  character,  which 
never  fails  to  attract  and  seldom  to  attach, 
strangers  who  reside  among  that  people. 
Even  their  errors  become  contagious  by  pro- 
tracted intercourse  ;  and  the  habits  and  pro- 
pensities of  the  host  and  of  the  domiciliated 
foreigner  become  quickly  and  almost  imper- 
ceptibly assimilated. 

"This  malady  became  almost  epidemic 
among  the  colonists  whom  the  policy  of  Eng- 
land had  vainly  sent  over  to  improve  the 
people.  On  all  important  occasions,  the  new 
race  evinced  a  more  than  ordinary  attachment 
to  the  place  of  their  settlement,  and  vied  with 
the  Irish  in  an  inveterate  hostility  to  the  dom- 
ination of  their  own  compatriots  ;  and  in  the 
direct  descendants  of  those  British  colonists 
England  has  since  found  many  of  the  most 
ablejk  distinguished,  and  persevering  of  her 
political  opponents." — J.  Barrington. 

"Protestantism  had  now,  with  some,  be- 
come hereditary  faith ;  it  had  ceased  to  be 
an  affair  of  personal  or  of  pressing  conviction. 
In  many  places,  this  revived  Romanism  had 
all  the  charm  of  novelty  ;  the  weariness  and 
distaste,  felt  by  many  for  things  established, 
now  embarrassed  and  chilled  Protestantism  in 
its  turn.  In  France,  the  vices  and  the  virtues 
of  men  contributed  simultaneously  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  Romish  cause.  The  reli- 
gious indifference,  or  worse,  the  undisguised 
atheism  of  some  of  the  courtiers,  which  could 
not  but  be  encouraged  by  the  light-hearted 
gayety  with  which  Henry  (notwithstanding 


the  solemn  and  laboured  gravity  with  which 
the  scene  of  his  conversion  was  enacted) 
trEUisferred  his  allegiance  from  one  faith  to 
the  other ;  the  careless  profligacy  of  others, 
who  were  ready  to  come  to  terms  with  that 
religion  which  would  lay  on  them  the  lightest 
yoke,  and  which  they  saw  would  stoop  to  al- 
most any  compromise  for  the  sake  of  making 
converts ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  exquisite 
Christian  virtue  of  men  like  St.  Francis  de 
Sales  ;  the  learning  of  the  Benedictines  ;  the 
gentle  and  active  beneficence  of  the  several 
female  monastic  communities  which  began 
to  act  as  Sisters  of  Charity,  to  attend  the 
hospitals,  to  visit  the  sick,  to  relieve  the  dis- 
tressed, such  were  the  influences  at  work 
through  the  whole  kingdom.  At  the  same 
time,  if  we  are  to  judge  from  the  interesting 
memoirs  of  Duplessis  Momay,  nothing  could 
be  more  uncongenial  to  the  national  character, 
or  less  persuasive  to  the  affections,  than  the 
austerity  of  the  Calvinistic  Protestantism,  and 
its  busy  and  officious  interference  with  the 
minutest  details  of  conduct,  Madame  de 
Mornay  herself,  a  woman  of  a  saintly  dispo- 
sition, was  excluded  from  the  communion  be- 
cause her  hair-dresses  sinned  against  some 
sanctimonious  style  of  top-knots  patronized 
by  her  preacher." — London  Quar.  Rev.; 
March,  1837. 

"  All  great  religious  movements  have  suc- 
ceeded through  the  intense  personal  qualities 
of  their  authors,  or  the  overbearing  influence 
of  new  ideas." — Ranke. 

"  In  the  history  of  the  Reformation,  Luther 
is  incomparably  the  greatest  name.  We  see 
him,  in  the  skilful  composition  of  Robertson, 
the  chief  figure  of  a  group  of  gownsmen, 
standing  in  contrast  on  the  canvass  with  the 
crowned  rivals  of  France  and  Austria,  and 
their  attendant  warriors,  but  blended  in  the 
unity  of  that  historic  picture.  This  amazing 
influence  on  the  revolutions  of  his  own  age, 
and  on  the  opinions  of  mankind,  seems  to 
have  produced,  as  is  not  unnatural,  an  exag- 
gerated notion  of  his  intellectual  greatness. 
It  is  admitted  on  all  sides  that,  he  wrote  his 
own  language  with  force  and  purity ;  and  he 
is  reckoned  one  of  its  best  models.     *     *     • 

"  But  the  clear  and  comprehensive  line  of 


A.  D.  1625.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


281 


argument  which  enhghtens  the  reader's  un- 
derstanding, and  resolves  his  difficulties,  is 
always  wanting.  An  unbounded  dogmatism, 
resting  on  an  absolute  confidence  in  the  in- 
fallibility, prekctically  speaking,  of  his  own 
judgment,  pervades  his  writings ;  no  indul- 
gence is  shown,  no  pause  allowed,  to  the 
hesitating ;  whatever  stands  in  the  way  of  his 
decisions,  the  fathers  of  the  Church,  the 
schoolmen  and  philosophers,  the  canons  and 
councils,  are  swept  away  in  a  current  of  im- 
petuous declamation  ;  and  as  every  thing  con- 
tained in  scripture,  (according  to  Luther,)  is 
easy  to  be  understood,  and  can  only  be  un- 
derstood in  his  sense,  every  deviation  from 
his  doctrine  incurs  the  anathema  of  perdition. 
Jerome,  he  says,  far  from  being  rightly  can- 
onized, must,  but  for  some  special  grace, 
have  been  damned  for  his  interpretation  of 
St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  That  the 
Zuinglians,  as  well  as  the  whole  church  of 
Rome,  and  the  Anabaptists,  were  shut  out  by 
their  tenets  from  salvation,  is  more  than  in- 
sinuated in  numerous  passages  of  Luther's 
writings.  Yet  he  had  passed  himself  through 
several  chapgcs  of  opinion.  In  1518,  he  re- 
jected auricular  confession;  in  1520,  it  was 
both  useful  and  necessary ;  not  long  after- 
wards, it  was  again  laid  aside.  I  have  found 
it  impossible  to  reconcile,  or  to  understand, 
his  tenets  concerning  faith  and  works ;  and 
can  only  perceive,  that  if  there  be  any  reser- 
vation in  favour  of  the  latter,  not  merely 
sophistical,  of  which  I  am  hardly  well  con- 
vinced, it  consists  in  distinctions  too  subtle 
for  the  people  to  apprehend.  These  are  not 
the  oscillations  of  the  balance  in  a  calm  un- 
derstanding, (conscious  of  the  difficulty  which 
so  often  attends  the  estimate  of  opposite  pre- 
sumptions,) but  alternate  gusts  of  dogmatism, 
during  which,  for  the  time,  he  was  as  tena- 
cious of  his  judgment  as  if  it  had  been  uni- 
form ." H  ALLAM . 

"  It  is  in  his  moral  courage,  his  inexhausti- 
ble activity,  his  indefatigable  perseverance, 
not  in  his  mental  accomplishments,  not  in 
the  profound  and  comprehensive  philosophy 
which  calmly  investigates  the  depth  of  a 
subject,  that  we  must  recognise  the  great 
distinction  of  Luther.     He  wrote  from  his 

36 


passions — passions,  in  general,  lofty  and  gen- 
erous— but  still  passions.  Had  he  been  a 
calm  and  severe  thinker,  a  dispassionate  and 
philosophical  writer,  he  never  would  have 
occupied  what  we  may  presume  to  consider 
his  designated  place  in  the  religious  history 
of  mankind.  The  man  was  greater  than  the 
author.  In  most  cases  we  study  with  inter- 
est the  biography  of  a  distinguished  writer 
for  the  light  which  it  throws  on  the  charac- 
ter and  composition  of  his  works  ; — here  the 
writings  are  chiefly  read  to  illustrate  the 
character  of  the  author.  Luther  may  be 
considered  as  an  active  and  uncommonly 
powerful  religious  pamphleteer — opposing 
dogmatic  innovation  to  the  dogmatism  of  the 
established  creed ;  for  it  is  dogmatism  alone 
which  moves  or  satisfies  the  mass  of  mankind. 
The  indistinct  and  indefinite  is  always  inef- 
fective. Where  Luther  hesitated  and  fluc- 
tuated, or  took  a  middle  ground,  as  in  the 
sacramental  question,  there  he  was  speedily 
supplanted  by  bolder  and  more  decided  as- 
senters." — London  Quar.  Rev. ;  No.  cxv. 

"  The  moment  that  the  pressing  danger 
from  the  common  enemy  was  even  suspended, 
the  division  of  these  two  parties  seemed  in- 
evitable. As  long  as  Luther  lived,  notwith- 
standing the  wild  opinions  broached  in  his 
day,  notwithstanding  the  religious  phrensiesof 
the  Anabaptists,  still  the  respect,  the  awe,  of 
his  great  name,  the  authority  which  he  justly 
assumed  as  the  original  leader  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, preserved  some  appearance  at  least 
of  unity  in  the  Protestant  body.  When  he 
was  removed,  the  first  place  fell  of  right  to 
Melancthon  ;  but  his  mild  influence  was  little 
adapted  to  compel  the  conflicting  elements  of 
Protestantism  into  order.  The  character, 
perhaps  the  opinions,  of  Melancthon  might 
originally  have  led  him  to  occupy  the  neutral 
ground  by  the  side  of  Erasmus  ;  but  he  had 
more  moral  courage,  and  was  less  accessible,  * 
(perhaps  less  exposed  to  the  flatteries  of  the 
great,)  and  his  honest  indignation  at  the 
abuses  and  errors  of  the  papal  system  had. 
committed  him  too  far  in  the  strife.  But  the 
rigorous  Protestant  party  suspected  Melanc- 
thon— not  indeed,  from  one  remarkable  oc- 
currence, without  just  grounds — of  an  incli- 


S83 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1635. 


nation  to  compromise  with  the  papacy  ;  they 
took  deep  offence  at  the  classical  studies 
which  he  introduced  into  the  University  of 
Wittenberg ;  his  unhallowed  taste  for  profane 
literature,  they  asserted,  made  him  dwell 
with  the  same  veneration  on  Homer  as  St. 
Paul :  one  of  his  pupils,  Strigel,  was  charged 
with  an  admiration  of  Pindar  bordering  on 
heathen  idolatry.  But  we  must  not  trespass 
on  this  extensive  province,  which  is  foreign 
to  our  present  discussion.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that,  at  this  fatal  time,  when  Romanism  was 
concentrating  all  its  energies  for  a  decisive 
struggle ;  when  Europe  was  no  longer  gov- 
erned by  the  balanced  powers  of  France  and 
Spain ;  but  when  the  contest  lay  between  the 
papal  and  the  Protestant  interests — the  Prot- 
estant republic  was  in  all  parts  rent  by  fierce 
and  hostile  factions.  The  questions  of  justi- 
fication and  good  works,  and  of  the  sacra- 
ment, were  contested  with  an  absorbing  in- 
terest which  at  least  withdrew  some  of  the 
most  powerful  minds  from  the  greater  con- 
troversy with  the  papacy,  and  infused  jeal- 
ousy and  alienation  into  the  temporal  as  well 
as  the  theological  leaders  in  the  revolt  from 
the  domination  of  Rome.  University  was  at 
war  with  university  ;  the  preachers  expelled 
from  the  dominions  of  one  of  the  Protestant 
Saxon  houses  not  only  found  refuge — they 
were  received  with  ardent  welcome  by  the 
other.  The  doctrines  of  the  wilder  Anabap- 
tist sects,  the  scenes  at  Munster,  could  not 
but  connect,  in  timid  minds,  the  progress  of 
Protestantism  with  that  of  social  disorganiza- 
tion."— London  Quar.  Rev. ;  No.  cxvi. 

"It  is  right  to  draw  men  into  the  temple, 
but  not  to  drag  them  by  force." — Innocent  X. 

*'  The  reign  of  James  the  First  was  distin- 
guished by  crimes  committed  on  the  Irish 
people  under  the  pretext  of  Protestantism. 
The  entire  of  the  province  of  Ulster  was  un- 
justly confiscated,  the  natives  were  executed 
on  the  scaffold  or  slaughtered  with  the  sword, 
a  miserable  remnant  were  driven  to  the  fast- 
nesses of  remote  mountains,  or  the  wilds  of 
almost  inaccessible  bogs.  Their  places  were 
filled  with  Scottish  adventurers,  'aliens  in 
blood  and  in  religion.'  Devastation  equal  to 
that  committed  by  King  James  in  Ulster  was 


never  before  seen  in  Christendom  save  in 
Ireland.  In  the  Christian  world  there  never 
was  a  people  so  cruelly  treated  as  the  Irish. 

"  The  jurisdiction  of  Parliament  being  now 
extended  all  over  Ireland,  King  James  created 
in  one  day  forty  close  boroughs,  giving  the 
right  to  elect  two  members  of  Parliament  in 
each  of  these  boroughs  to  thirteen  Protest- 
ants, and  this,  in  order  to  deprive  his  Catho- 
lic subjects  of  their  natural  and  just  share  of 
representation." — O'Connell. 

"  James,  before  his  accession  to  the  throne 
of  England,  encouraged  the  Irish,  and  fur- 
nished them  secretly  with  aid  against  Queen 
Elizabeth,  either  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
to  himself  (by  reducing  her  power)  the  suc- 
cession to  the  crown  of  England,  or  to  be  re- 
venged for  the  cruelties  that  had  been  inflicted 
upon  his  mother,  Mary  Stuart.  When  seated 
upon  the  British  throne,  he  viewed  things 
from  an  altered  position.  The  revolt  of  the 
Irish,  which  appeared  to  him  in  Scotland  an 
act  of  heroic  bravery,  seemed  to  him  now, 
when  King  of  England,  an  act  of  aggression. 
The  most  solemn  submission  of  the  Irish, 
particularly  of  their  leaders  in  Ulster,  was  not 
able  to  avert  the  power  which  was  wielded 
to  crush  them.  This  prince,  without  any  other 
trial  or  investigation  than  the  testimony  of  a 
vile  and  obscure  character  named  Lenane, 
confiscated  to  the  use  of  the  crown  six  coun- 
ties in  Ulster,  as  has  been  observed,  under  a 
pretext  of  a  conspiracy,  evidently  fabricated 
by  his  own  ministers." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  Strange  it  is  that  grave  historians  should 
quote  their  [O'Neill's  and  O'Donnell's]  flight 
(an  undeniable  proof  of  their  innocence)  as 
an  evidence  of  their  guilt.  Had  any  such 
conspiracy  existed,  O'Neill,  who  had  before 
maintained  a  brave  war  against  Elizabeth, 
would  have  been  prepared  with  forces  sufli- 
cient  for  his  defence,  and  perhaps  powerful 
enough  to  peril  the  security  of  the  state.  But 
he  was  totally  destitute  of  soldiers,  money, 
arms,  or  ammunition,  for  he  had  entertained 
no  thoughts  of  war.  In  his  case,  innocence 
was  weakness,  and  consequently  ruin.  It 
has  been  asked,  *  Why  then  did  he  not  stand 
his  trial  ?'  He  might  have  answered,  as  an- 
other unfortunate  Irish  exile  did  in  a  similar 


A.  D.  1625.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


case,  *  What  chance  would  a  fat  goose  have 
before  a  jury  of  foxes  V  Those  who  have 
looked  into  those  records  of  guilt  and  oppres- 
sion, the  State  Trials,  and  especially  those 
of  Ireland,  will  entertain  no  doubt  of  what 
the  event  would  have  been  if  he  had  appeared 
before  the  royal  court.  The  charge  for  hiring 
witnesses  was  long  in  Ireland  one  of  the  ordi- 
nary expenses  of  the  civil  government." — 
Taylor. 

"  The  six  counties  sought  to  be  forfeited, 
were  nearly  equal  in  extent  to  Yorkshire  and 
Lancashire ;  and  were  the  richest  and  best 
cultivated  part  of  Ireland.  The  guilt  of  trea- 
son, as  we  have  seen,  was  to  be  proved  upon 
the  authority  of  an  anonymous  letter — found 
with  no  greater  difficulty  as  to  place  and 
manner  of  discovery,  than  by  picking  it  up 
from  the  floor  of  the  council  chamber  in  the 
Viceroy's  residence  !  And  then,  in  order  to 
efiectuate  this  gigantic  robbery,  whereby  the 
inhabitants  of  six  counties  were  to  be  despoiled 
of  their  all,  and  turned  adrift  houseless  and 
penniless, — James,  at  one  stroke  of  the  pen, 
created  fourteen  peers,  who  were  to  partici- 
pate with  other  dignitaries  in  the  plunder; 
and  instituted  no  less  than  forty  new  boroughs, 
among  the  poorest  villages  and  hamlets  in 
Ireland.  '  Close'  boroughs  they  were,  of 
course  ;  the  constituency  in  each  not  exceed- 
ing in  general  twelve  burgesses  and  a  return- 
ing officer." O'CONNELL. 

"  Twenty-seven  years  of  rapine,  massacre, 
and  disorder  had  passed,  since  a  parliament 
had  been  assembled  in  Ireland,  when  in  1612 
Sir  Arthur  Chichester,  the  deputy  of  James, 
intimated  his  intention  of  summoning  a  par- 
liament on  a  wider  basis,  and  influenced  by  a 
more  extensive  theory  of  representation  than 
had  been  up  to  that  period  known  in  Ireland. 
No  one  of  Irish  blood  had  ever  sat  in  parlia- 
ment until  the  end  of  Henry  the  Eighth's 
reign  ;  nor  did  the  Irish  Parliament  even  as- 
sume to  represent  the  entire  island  until  the 
reign -of  James  the  First.  There  was  some- 
thing constitutional  and  respectable  in  the 
name  of  Parliament,  and  their  sanction  to  the 
designs  of  conquest  or  oppression  was  seldom 
withheld.  The  Recusant  party,  (as  the  Cath- 
olics were  called,)  however,  having  still  a  con- 


siderable power  in  the  state,  and  being  able 
to  send  a  great  proportion  of  their  represen- 
tatives to  parliament,  the  deputy,  to  counter- 
act their  influence,  created  forty  new  bo- 
roughs, of  inconsiderable  towns,  so  poor  as 
not  to  be  able  to  pay  the  wages  of  their  rep- 
resentatives ;  they  would  in  the  strangeness 
of  modem  phraseology  be  termed  '  potwol- 
lopping-boroughs.' " — T.  Mac-Nevin. 

"November  19,  1613,  it  was  resolved  by 
the  House  of  Commons,  *  That  whereas  some 
persons  have  been  unduly  elected,  some  be- 
ing judges,  some  for  not  being  estated  in  their 
boroughs,  some  being  outlawed,  excommuni- 
cated, and  lastly,  for  being  returned  for  places 
whose  charters  were  not  valid ;  it  was  resolved 
not  to  question  them  for  the  present,  in  order 
to  prevent  stopping  public  business ;  but  this 
resolution  was  not  to  be  drawn  into  pre- 
cedent.' »  #  •  • 

"  On  the  24th  November,  1614,  the  order 
of  the  last  session  was  renewed,  verbatim, 
relative  to  postponing  inquiries  into  the  re- 
turns of  members,  &c.,  who  were  disqualified, 
as  judges,  as  being  outlawed,  &c.,  or  returned 
for  places  which  had  no  charters." — Mount- 
MORREs,  quoting  from  the  Commons^  Journal. 

"  The  recusant  lords  and  commons  of  the 
pale  despatched  letters  to  the  king  and  the 
English  council,  urging  the  grievance  of  the 
new  boroughs,  incorporated  with  such  shame- 
ful partiality,  and  represented  by  attorneys' 
clerks,  and  servants  of  the  lord  deputy,  and 
the  violence  done  to  Everard,  chosen  speaker 
by  a  majority  of  undoubted  representatives  ; 
imploring  to  be  heard  by  their  agents,  and 
renouncing  the  royal  favour,  should  they  fail 
in  any  point  of  proof." — Leland. 

"  That  it  may  be  cause  of  great  discontent- 
ment to  your  majesty's  subjects  in  Ireland, 
that  so  great  a  number  of  those,  who  have  no 
estates  to  oblige  them  to  the  defence  of  that 
kingdom,  should  give  voices  in  parliament 
there  to  make  laws." — Extract  from  the  Pe- 
tition of  the  Irish  Lords ;  Pari.  Hist.,  vol. 
viii.,  p.  251. 

"  It  was  asserted  by  them,  in  support  of 
their  opposition,  that  the  sheriffs  had  sent  no 
writs  to"  several  of  the  boroughs ;  that  from 
others,  the  returns  would  not  be  received; 


284 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1625. 


that  most  of  the  patents  and  charters  of  the  new 
boroughs  were  dated  after  the  commissions  for 
the  writs  were  issued." — Crawford. 

"  It  seemed  no  auspicious  incident  to  the 
Irish  agents,  that  Talbot  and  Luttrel,  for 
some  late  or  present  insolence  of  conduct, 
were  committed  prisoners,  one  to  the  Tower, 
the  other  to  the  Fleet." — Leland. 

"  You  complain  of  fourteen  false  returns. 
Are  there  not  many  more  complained  of  in 
this  parliament,  yet  they  do  not  forsake  the 
house  for  it  ?  *  *  *  *  But  you  complain 
of  the  new  boroughs.  *  *  *  What  is  it  to 
you,  whether  I  make  many  or  few  boroughs  ? 
My  council  may  consider  the  fitness,  if  I  re- 
quire it ;  but  what  if  I  had  made  forty  noble- 
men and  four  hundred  boroughs  ?  The  more 
the  merrier,  the  fewer  the  better  cheer." — 
Answer  of  King  James  to  the  Irish  Remon- 
strants. See  the  whole  speech  in  Plowden's 
Appendix,  vol.  i.,  p.  58. 

"  In  flagrant  violation  of  the  rights  of  the 
Irish  parliament,  James  referred  the  final  de- 
termination of  it  to  the  English  privy-council. 
Their  decision  was,  that  several  of  the  returns 
were  illegal." — Crawford. 

"  It  was  an  age  of  project  and  adventure  : 
men's  minds  were  particularly  possessed  with 
a  passion  for  new  discoveries,  and  planting  i 
of  countries.  They  who  were  too  poor,  or 
too  spiritless,  to  engage  in  more  distant  adven- 
tures, courted  fortune  in  Ireland.     *     *     * 

"  They  obtained  commissions  of  Inquiry 
into  defective  titles,  and  grants  of  concealed 
lands  and  rents  belonging  to  the  Crown  ;  tiie 
great  benefit  of  which  was  generally  to  accrue 
to  the  projector,  while  the  king  was  contented 
with  an  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the  con- 
cealment, or  a  small  advance  of  rent.  Dis- 
coverers were  everywhere  busily  employed 
in  finding  out  flaws  in  men's  titles  to  their 
estates.  The  old  pipe-rolls  were  searched  to 
find  the  original  rents  with  which  they  had 
been  charged  ;  the  patent  rolls  in  the  Tower 
of  London  were  ransacked  for  the  ancient 
grants ;  no  means  of  industry  or  devices  of 
craft  were  left  untried,  to  force  the  possessors 
to  accept  of  new  grants  at  an  advanced  rent. 
In  general,  men  were  either  conscious  of  de- 
fects in  their  titles,  or  alarmed  at  the  trouble 


and  expense  of  a  contest  with  the  crown ;  or 
fearful  of  the  issue  of  such  a  contest,  at  a 
time,  and  in  a  country  where  the  prerogative 
was  highly  strained,  and  strenuously  supported 
by  the  Judges.         *         *         *         » 

"  There  are  not  wanting  proofs  of  the  most 
iniquitous  practices,  or  hardened  cruelty,  or 
vile  perjury  and  scandalous  subornation,  em 
ployed  to  despoil  the  fair  and  unoffending  pro- 
prietor of  his  inheritance." — Leland. 

"  It  is  extraordinary  that  the  Boeotian  dul- 
ness  of  the  Irish  rendered  them  incapable  of 
comprehending  the  cogency  of  Sir  John  Da- 
vies's  reasoning  :  it  was  too  elegant  and  re- 
fined for  their  uncultivated  minds.  The  poor 
idiots  could  not  conceive  why  they  should  be 
stripped  of  their  estates,  and  expelled  from 
house  and  home,  because  an  anonymous  and 
absurd  letter  had  been  dropped  in  the  Privy 
Council  Chamber." — M.  Carey. 

*'  The  natives  seemed  not  unsatisfied  in 
reason,  though  they  remained  in  their  pas- 
sions discontented,  being  much  grieved  to 
leave  their  possessions  to  strangers,  which 
they  had  so  long  after  their  manner  enjoyed  ; 
howbeit,  my  lord-deputy  did  so  mix  threats 
with  entreaty,  precibusque  minas  regaliter 
addit,  as  they  promised  to  give  way  to  the 
undertakers,  if  the  sheriff,  by  warrant  of  the 
commissioners,  did  put  them  in  possession." 
Davies. 

"  He  judiciously  '  mixed  threats  with  en- 
treaties, precibusque  minas  regaliter  addit ;' 
that  is,  (in  the  true  polite  Tyburn  style,)  per- 
suasion on  the  tongue,  and  the  pistol  in  hand. 
Whatever  difficulty  there  might  be  in  yield- 
ing to  the  one,  was  removed  by  the  applica- 
tion of  the  other.  No  mode  of  conviction  is 
so  powerful.  Make  a  low  bow,  with  entrea- 
ties, and  add,  threats,  properly  supported,  in 
case  of  refusal.  He  must  have  been  a  most 
stubborn  disputant,  who  could  resist  the  con- 
viction arising  from  the  overwhelming  argu- 
ments of  the  deputy,  with  an  army  at  his 
command,  the  power  of  proclaiming  martial 
law  at  pleasure,  and  the  executioner  ready  to 
support  his  reasoning  with  a  rope  or  an  axe." 
M.  Carey. 

"  In  the  trial  of  criminal  causes  and  men's 
lives,  (which  the  law  doth  much  favour,)  the 


A.  D.  1625.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


285 


jurors  were  ordinarily  threatened  by  his  Ma- 
jesty's counsel  at  law,  to  be  brought  into  the 
star-chamber,  insomuch  that  it  was  great 
danger  for  any  innocent  man,  if  he  was  ac- 
cused upon  malice  or  light  ground  of  sus- 
picion ;  becaTise  the  jurors,  being  terrified 
through  fear  of  imprisonment,  loss  of  ears, 
and  of  their  goods,  might  condemn  him.  *  *  * 

"  Most  of  the  jurors  did  rather  choose  to 
endure  the  penalty  or  loss  of  issues,  than  to 
appear  on  juries,  the  course  held  with  them 
was  so  strict  and  severe.         *         *         * 

"  The  star-chamber  is  the  proper  court  to 
punish  jurors  that  will  not  find  for  the  king 
upon  good  evidence.         «         *         * 

"The  justices  of  assize  [1613]  for  the 
space  of  two  or  three  years  past,  had  bound 
over  divers  juries  to  the  star-chamber,  for 
their  refusing  to  present  recusants  upon  the 
testimony  of  the  witnesses,  that  they  come 
not  to  church  according  to  the  law.  All 
which  jurors  have  been  punished  in  the  star- 
chamber  by  fine  and  imprisonment.    *     *    * 

"  It  is  true  that  these  jurors  censured  in 
the  star-chamber  had  no  counsel  allowed 
them." — A.  Chichester  ;  Desid.  Curios. 
Hibern. 

"  He  would  have  been  a  hardy  libeller  in- 
deed, who  at  that  period  should  have  dared  to 
assert  that  the  Crown  ever  went  to  trial  in 
any  case  without  'good  evidence.'  But 
mark  !  there  was  no  penalty  or  punishment 
for  finding  against  the  best  and  most  conclu- 
sive evidence  when  tendered  on  behalf  of  the 
defendant. 

"  It  is  a  melancholy  reflection,  that  the 
Crown  prosecutor  in  Ireland  can,  whenever 
he  pleases,  pack  his  jury  at  the  present  day 
[Feb.  1,  1843]  with  as  great  a  certainty  of 
procuring  a  verdict  on  the  *  good  evidence'  of 
the  Crown,  as  his  predecessor  in  the  reign 
of  the  First  James  could  have  done.  There 
is  indeed  one  amelioration  in  our  days :  the 
ears  of  the  jurors  can  no  longer  be  cut  off." 

O'CONNELL. 

"  It  cannot  be  controverted  that  many  acts 
of  civil  injustice  were  committed  by  Chiches- 
ter and  other  officers  of  James  in  Ireland, 
under  colour  of  the  Commission  of  Escheats 
and  of  Defective  Titles,  which  can  only  be 


palliated  by  a  comparison  with  the  reign  he 
succeeded  to,  and  the  times  he  lived  in." — 
J.  Barrington. 

"  In  time  of  peace  the  Irish  are  more  fear- 
ful to  offend  the  law  than  the  English  or  any 
other  nation  whatsoever.         *         *         ♦ 

*'  Civility  cannot  possibly  be  planted  among 
them  but  by  this  mixed  plantation  of  civil 
men.  *  *  •  • 

"  There  is  no  people  imder  the  sun  that 
doth  love  equal  and  indiflferent  justice  better 
than  the  Irish — or  will  rest  better  satisfied 
with  the  execution  thereof,  although  it  be 
against  themselves,  provided  they  may  have 
the  protection  and  benefit  of  the  law,  when 
upon  just  cause  they  do  desire  it." — Davies. 

"  On  a  calm  comparison  of  these  state- 
ments, it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  pity  for  Sir 
John,  if  he  was  a  man  of  honourable  princi- 
ples, to  be  obliged  by  his  office  of  attorney- 
general,  to  palliate  or  justify  the  wicked  pro- 
ceedings of  his  rapacious  monarch.  It  must 
have  cost  him  a  severe  struggle.  Nothing 
can  more  fully  prove  the  extreme  injustice 
of  the  procedure,  than  the  miserable  defence 
offered  by  a  man  of  such  splendid  talents." — 
M.  Carey. 

"  The  success  of  James  in  the  spoliation 
of  the  property  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  six 
counties  of  Ulster,  only  whetted  his  appetite 
and  that  of  his  courtiers  for  more  plunder. 
They  turned  their  eyes  upon  the  province  of 
Connaught,  and  determined  upon  a  similar 
scheme  of  robbery.  They  affi^cted  a  great 
zeal  for  reforming  abuses  in  particular  local- 
ities. They  soon  extended  their  views  to 
entire  provinces." — O'Connell. 

"  During  the  long  civil  wars  that  had  de- 
vastated the  island  in  the  preceding  reigns, 
and  especially  the  last,  property  had  been  in 
a  state  of  constant  fluctuation.  Deeds  were 
lost — documents  destroyed — feudal  services 
left  unperformed — and  rents  to  the  crown 
unpaid.  By  taking  advantage  of  these  cir- 
cumstances the  king  obtained  the  forfeiture 
of  another  half  million  of  acres.  A  class  of 
informers,  called  discoverers,  was  regularly 
employed  by  the  officers  of  the  crown  to 
search  out  defective  titles.  They  were  re- 
warded by  grants  of  concealed  lands  belong- 


SS6 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1625. 


ing  to  the  crown  ;  and  the  king  was  interested 
in  their  support,  by  the  hope  of  an  advanced 
rent,  or  a  heavy  composition.  The  united 
avarice  and  prodigality  of  the  king  thus  in- 
duced him  to  make  his  administration  nothing 
better  than  a  system  of  robbery ;  but  his 
oflScers  in  Ireland  went  far  beyond  their  mas- 
ter in  iniquity,  and  plundered  with  strict  im- 
partiality the  loyal  and  the  suspected,  the 
opponents  of  the  government,  and  those  who 
had  been  taken  under  the  protection  of  the 
crown." — Taylor. 

"  The  power  of  England  had  scarcely  left 
the  limits  of  the  Pale,  and  bloodily  extended 
under  the  banners  of  Elizabeth  over  the  whole 
island,  when  the  restrictive  policy  which  after- 
wards wrought  such  numerous  evils,  was 
adopted  towards  the  productive  industry  of 
the  people.  From  the  earliest  acquaintance 
of  England  with  this  country,  there  had  ex- 
isted a  certain  degree  of  manufacturing  skill 
among  the  natives.  Even  our  first  imported 
libeller,  while  he  asserted  that  they  possessed 
no  manner  of  merchandise,  nor  practised  me- 
chanical arts,  informs  us  of  articles  among 
them,  whose  use  implies  a  considerable  de- 
gree of  skill  and  ingenuity,  namely,  cloth 
dresses,  fringes,  linen  shirts,  steeled  military 
weapons,  musical  instruments,  and  other 
works  of  art,  which  could  not  have  been  pro- 
duced by  men  described  in  the  terms  of  wan- 
ton insult  which  the  venomous  ecclesiastic 
has  chosen  to  adopt.  It  must  indeed  be  con- 
fessed, that  the  details  connected  with  the 
industrial  employments  of  the  ancient  Irish 
are  difficult,  if  not  impossible  to  be  obtained. 
The  peaceful  noises  of  industry  are  drowned 
in  the  wild  clamours  of  war ;  and  the  mind 
of  tlie  student  of  our  afflicting  history  is  di- 
verted from  the  pursuit  of  such  information 
by  the  singular  events  recorded  in  its  pages — 
the  details  of  savage  warfare  against  the  Irish 
enemy,  of  furious  vengeance  on  the  foreign 
tyrant,  of  rigorous  exclusion  and  of  mean 
concession." — T.  Mac-Nevin. 

"  The  extermination  of  nearly  a  million  of 
the  Irish,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  by  sword 
and  by  famine,  left  the  country  an  easy  prey 
to  James.  The  form  of  inquiry  into  titles  of 
estates  was  gone  into ;  but  juries  which  re- 


fused to  find  a  title  in  the  crown  were  impris- 
oned and  fined." — Mooney. 

"  Davies  undertook  to  prove,  that  the  plan- 
tation was  absolutely  for  the  good  of  the  na- 
tives ;  for  that  by  this  Agrarian  hocus  pocus, 
five  hundred  acres  thenceforward  would  pro- 
duce more  than  five  thousand  had  previously 
done.  It  followed  of  course,  that  the  man 
who  was  plundered  of  four  thousand  five 
hundred  acres  out  of  five  thousand,  was  ac- 
tually, according  to  this  logic,  if  not  a  gainer, 
at  least  not  a  loser  by  the  robbery  »  *     •     • 

"  The  adjustment  of  the  rent,  payable  by 
the  different  descriptions  of  persons  to  whom 
these  lands  were  allotted,  affords  a  striking 
instance  of  gross  partiality  and  injustice,  and 
of  a  most  wanton  and  reckless  disregard  of 
even  the  common  forms  of  honesty.  The 
undertakers,  who  had  the  choicest  portions  of 
the  soil,  were  to  pay  to  the  crown  a  rent  of 
six  shillings  and  eight-pence,  for  every  sixty 
acres ;  the  servitors,  ten  shillings ;  but  the 
natives,  plundered  of  their  paternal  estates, 
and  reduced  from  the  enviable  condition  of 
independent  freeholders  to  that  of  tenants, 
were  to  pay  thirteen  shillings  and  four-pence  ! 
That  is  to  say,  the  despoiled  owners  of  the 
soil  were  to  pay  exactly  double  the  rent  for 
inferior  lands,  which  the  despoilers  paid  for 
the  superior !  and,  to  add  to  the  iniquity,  the 
undertakers  and  servitors  were  to  pay  no 
rent  till  the  third  year,  being  rent-free  for 
two  years ;  whereas  the  natives  were  to 
pay  the  second  year,  being  rent-free  only 
one  year  i         *         *         *         *         * 

"  When  the  monarch  of  three  powerful 
kingdoms,  who  ought  to  be  a  pattern  of  hon- 
our, honesty,  and  justice,  and,  as  Sir  John 
Davies  declared,  to  have  scorned  to  *  dispos- 
sess the  meanest  of  his  subjects  wrongfully,' 
becomes  a  common  depredator  on  their  es- 
tates, and  acts  the  part  of  a  ravening  wolf, 
instead  of  that  of  a  vigilant  shepherd,  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  such  portion  of  those  subjects 
as  form  a  privileged  cast,  should  prey  upon 
and  devour  the  others.  This  has  ever  been, 
and  ever  will  be,  the  result,  in  all  analogous 
cases." — M.  Carey. 

"  The  local  government  of  Ireland,  during 
the  remainder  of  this  disgraceful  reign,  was 


A.  D.  1625.] 


SECOND   DIVISION 


287 


in  every  respect  consonant  to  the  specimens 
already  given.  Martial  law  was  proclaimed 
in  times  of  peace  ;  refractory  witnesses  were 
tortured ;  obstinate  jurors  fined  and  impris- 
oned ;  the  ecclesiastical  courts  became  instru- 
ments of  intolerable  oppression ;  the  judges 
of  the  land  were  cruel,  venal,  and  profligate. 
Peculation  pervaded  every  office  of  the  state  ; 
the  army  mouldered  away,  for  the  command- 
ers were  members  of  the  privy-council,  and 
voted  themselves  the  pay  for  full  companies, 
while  the  number  of  soldiers  actually  em- 
ployed scarcely  exceeded  one  third  of  those 
entered  on  the  returns;  and  such  was  the 
extent  of  public  plunder,  that  the  annual 
charge  of  the  government  exceeded  by  six- 
teen thousand  pounds  the  annual  revenue  of 
the  kingdom." — Taylor. 

"  James  himself  was  neither  a  Protestant 
nor  a  Catholic.  He  disliked  the  Puritans ; 
and,  like  all  the  Stuarts,  was  ever  ready  to 
sacrifice  his  friend  to  the  fear  of  his  enemy. 
At  this  time,  the  Puritan  party  had  acquired 
an  ascendency  in  the  political  affairs  of  Ire- 
land, and  very  many  of  the  reformed  clergy 
were  inclined  to  their  doctrines ;  the  most 
eminent  of  those  was  the  celebrated  historian. 
Usher,  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  who,  by  his 
management,  contrived  to  have  the  whole 
doctrine  of  Calvin  received  as  the  public  be- 
lief of  the  church  of  Ireland,  and  ratified  by 
Chichester,  the  king's  heutenant." — Mooney. 

"James  was  weak,  mean,  and  pusillani- 
mous ;  the  strong  feature  of  his  character 
was  insincerity." — Wade. 

"The  reign  of  James  was  considered  peace- 
ful, from  his  having  been  engaged  in  no  war 
with  his  neighbours.  His  prodigality  left 
him  in  a  state  of  continual  indigence.  The 
court  was  always  the  scene  of  the  intrigues 
of  favourites,  and  of  luxury,  masquerading, 
balls,  and  other  similar  amusements,  so  that 
his  love  of  pleasure,  his  efieminacy,  and  per- 
haps a  want  of  courage,  impressed  him  with 
that  aversion  for  war,  which  he  was  desirous 
might  be  thought  the  result  of  his  talents, 
prudence,  and  refined  policy.  Opinions  vary 
as  to  this  prince's  character ;  some  load  him 
with  praise,  others  with  abuse ;  according  to 
some,  he  was  an  accomplished,  wise,  and  just 


king,  the  friend  of  his  people,  and  compara- 
ble only  to  Solomon ;  while  others  maintain 
that  he  was  a  monster  of  impiety  and  tyran- 
ny. The  ideas  of  James  respecting  religion 
and  government  were  extraordinary ;  he 
thought  his  own  power  should  be  without 
bounds,  and  had  adopted  a  systematic  indif- 
ference in  doctrine.  He  was  neither  a  good 
Protestant  nor  a  good  Catholic,  but  looked 
upon  any  religion  to  be  good  which  incul- 
cated implicit  obedience  to  the  sovereign. 
His  principal  object  was  the  establishment 
of  his  arbitrary  authority :  he  had  scarcely 
ascended  the  throne  of  England  when  his  acts 
proved  the  despotism  that  he  intended  to  es- 
tablish, whereby  he  lost  the  confidence  and 
good  will  of  his  new  subjects ;  and  so  tyran- 
nous was  his  reign,  that  his  people  detested 
while  foreigners  despised  him." — Mac-Geo- 

GHEGAN. 

"James  the  First,  of  England,  was  the 
wisest  fool  in  Europe." — Le  Due  de  Suiur. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

Accession  of  Charles  the  First — State  of  public  af- 
fairs in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland — Falk- 
land's administration — Large  meetings  in  Ireland 
— Bargaining  for  "  royal  graces" — Strafford's  ad- 
ministration— Money  paid  by  the  Irish  people  for 
justice  ;  and  judges  bribed  by  the  government  for 
injustice — Tyrannical  treatment  of  the  Irish  no- 
bility— More  civilization,  plantation,  and  suborna- 
tion of  juries — Revolt  of  the  Covenanters  in  Scot- 
land— Strafford's  presence  required  in  England 
by  Charles — Ireland  left  in  the  hands  of  Parsons, 
Borlase,  and  a  reformed  reformation.         * 

In  the  judicious  treatment  of  the  history 
of  Ireland,  much  discretion  is  required  for 
the  purpose  of  condensing  or  expanding  the 
narrative  proportionately  with  the  moral  im- 
portance of  the  incidents  related.  We  have 
thought  proper  to  enlarge  freely  upon  the 
invasion  by  Henry  the  Second,  the  reception 
of  the  Reformation,  the  inevitable  slaughters 
by  Elizabeth's  policy,  and  the  deliberate  rob- 
beries perpetrated  by  order  of  James.  The 
reader  is  now  acquainted  with  the  elements 
of  our  story  and  of  our  style  ;  and  we  trust 
that  fewer  words  will  maintain  famiUarity 
while  establishing  mutual  sympathy. 

At  the  period  where  we  have  now  arrived, 


388 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A,  D.  1626. 


(the  accession  of  Charles  the  First,)  rehgious 
fanaticism  was  elected  as  one  of  the  ruling 
powers  of  Europe.  Having  been  crowned 
with  infamy  on  the  continent,  and  apishly 
learned  to  crack  its  whip  in  vulgar  imitation 
of  kingly  sway,  this  upstart  idol  of  the  hu- 
man mind  stalked  over  to  Britain  and  Ireland, 
wielding  the  sceptre  of  religious  and  political 
tyranny  throughout  all  its  progress.  The 
prince  and  the  peasant,  the  monarch  and  the 
manufacturer,  cither  quietly  bowed  in  sub- 
mission to,  or  else  clamorously  followed,  its 
train  of  successful  robbery  and  murder.  The 
opinionated  divisions  of  men  in  search  of  bet- 
ter things,  (while  trying  to  avoid  tyranny,) 
enabled  the  newly-invented  and  impalpable 
tyrant  to  revel  in  its  favourite  crimes.  In 
England  and  in  Scotland,  the  Episcopalians 
and  the  Puritans  were  violently  opposed  ;  in 
Ireland,  the  Protestant  and  Catholic  interests 
were  guided  by  the  fiercest  animosity.  The 
Catholics  received  a  bull  from  Pope  Urban 
the  Eighth,  asserting  and  explaining  that  the 
oath  of  supremacy,  having  been  lately  made 
to  exclude  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church 
from  the  exercise  of  his  spiritual  authority, 
"  wrested  the  sceptre  of  the  Catholic  Church 
from  the  hands  of  the  Almighty."  Notwith- 
standing the  clearness  of  the  explanation,  and 
the  recent  requirements  of  the  oath  of  supre- 
macy during  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
(which  had  been  heretofore  construed  to  have 
reference  merely  to  the  temporal  power  of  the 
king,*)  such  were  the  facilities  for  disorder, 
and  tne  profits  of  corruption,  that  the  bull 
and  its  explanations  were  perversely  scouted 
for  being  tyrannically  intolerant.  This  state 
of  affairs  increased  the  excitement  and  oppo- 
sition of  the  Catholics  ;  but,  paradoxical  as  it 
may  appear,  their  extreme  loyalty  to  the  king 
curbed  their  own  turbulence  while  it  enabled 
those  who  charged  them  with  disloyalty  to 
rob  them  with  impunity. 

In  November,  1626,  the  persons  calling 
themselves  the  Protestant  church,  and  assum- 
ing to  publish  Protestant  sentiments,  issued 
the  following  protest,  bearing  the  name  of 
James   Usher,  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh, 

*  See  p.  123  of  this  work.  Also  Moore,  an.  1541  to 
1545. 


first  on  the  list  of  signatures  to  the  original 
document,  transcribed  for  "  Rushworth's  Col- 
lection," from  which  we  copy  : — 

"  The  religion  of  the  papists  is  supersti- 
tious and  idolatrous  ;  their  faith  and  doctrine 
erroneous  and  heretical ;  their  church,  in  re- 
spect to  both,  apostalical.  To  give  them, 
therefore,  a  toleration,  or  to  consent  that  they 
may  freely  exercise  their  religion,  and  profess 
their  faith  and  doctrine,  is  a  grievous  sin,  and 
that  in  two  respects  ;  for — 

"  First,  it  is  to  make  ourselves  accessary 
not  only  to  their  superstitious  idolatries  and 
heresies,  and  in  a  word  to  all  the  abomina- 
tions of  popery,  but  also,  (which  is  a  conse- 
quent of  the  former,)  to  the  perdition  of  the 
seduced  people  which  perish  in  the  deluge 
of  the  Catholic  apostacy. 

"  Secondly,  to  grant  them  a  toleration  in 
respect  to  any  money  to  be  given  or  contribu- 
tion to  be  made  by  them,  is  to  set  religion  to 
sale,  and  with  it  the  souls  of  the  people, 
whom  Christ  hath  redeemed  with  his  blood. 
And  as  it  is  a  great  sin,  so  it  is  also  a  matter 
of  most  dangerous  consequence,  the  consid- 
eration whereof  we  commit  to  the  wise  and 
judicious,  beseeching  the  God  of  Truth  to 
make  them  who  are  in  authority,  zealous  of 
God's  glory,  and  of  the  advancement  of  true 
religion ;  zealous,  resolute,  and  courageous 
against  all  popery,  superstition,  and  idolatry." 

In  political  affairs,  the  condition  of  Ireland 
was  still  more  perplexing.  The  Dublin  fac- 
tion had  squandered  the  revenue,  neglected 
the  defences,  and  exhausted  the  resources  of 
llie  nation.  In  Ulster,  the  original  inhabit- 
ants, deprived  of  their  lands,  supported  a 
miserable  existence  in  mountains  and  remote 
districts,  waiting  patiently  for  a  favourable 
time  when  the  possessions  of  which  they  had 
been  despoiled  might  be  recovered.  The 
unprincipled  attempt  of  the  late  king  to  seize 
on  all  the  lands  in  Connaught  spread  great 
alarm  among  all  the  old  proprietors  of  Irish 
estates.  There  was  no  tenure  sufficiently 
secure  to  resist  the  arts  of  the  discoverers, 
especially  when  the  officers  of  state  and  the 
judges  of  the  realm  had  joined  in  their  al- 
liance. 

In  1627,  Charles  found  his  affairs  in  a  very 


A.  D.  1628.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


280 


unpromising  state.  He  was  not  only  at  war 
with  France  and  Spain,  but  deeply  in  debt, 
and  thwarted  in  his  movements  by  a  parlia- 
ment which  prided  itself  upon  the  knowledge 
of  money-power.  While  in  doubt  how  to 
proceed,  he  was  much  pleased  with  some 
news  he  received  from  Ireland. 

It  appears  that  the  Catholic  recusants  and 
the  Protestants  of  rank,  shocked  by  the  hor- 
rible state  of  Ireland,  held  frequent  meetings 
in  Dublin  to  propose  measures  for  the  relief 
of  the  unfortunate  people.  They  drew  up  a 
number  of  articles,  something  like  a  bill  of 
rights,  to  which  they  humbly  solicited  the 
royal  assent,  and  promised  that,  these  being 
granted,  they  would  raise  a  voluntary  assess- 
ment of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
pounds  for  the  use  of  the  crown.  The  prin- 
cipal articles  in  these  Graces,  as  they  are 
called,  were  provisions  for  the  security  of 
property,  the  due  administration  of  justice, 
the  prevention  of  military  exactions,  the  free- 
dom of  trade,  the  better  regulation  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  restraining  of  the  enormous 
power  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  They 
also  suggested  that  the  Scots  who  had  been 
planted  in  Ulster,  might  be  secured  in  their 
new  possessions,  and  a  general  pardon  granted 
to  the  native  Irish  for  all  previous  offences. 
That  the  tyranny  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts 
was  beginning  to  be  felt  by  the  church  of 
England  laity,  as  well  as  the  Catholics,  may 
be  inferred  from  the  language  of  the  clause 
relating  to  its  operations  : — 

"  That  no  extraordinary  warrants  of  assist- 
ance, touching  clandestine  marriages,  chris- 
tenings, or  burials,  or  any  contumacies  pre- 
tended against  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  are 
to  be  issued  or  executed  by  any  chief  gov- 
ernor :  nor  are  the  clergy  to  be  permitted  to 
keep  any  private  prisons  of  their  own  for 
their  own  causes ;  but  delinquents  in  that 
kind  are  henceforth  to  be  committed  to  the 
king's  public  jails,  and  by  the  king's  officers." 

The  Graces,  so  called,  are,  properly  speak- 
ing, mere  exemptions  from  the  prevailing  in- 
justice ;  but  which,  however,  the  Irish  people, 
for  the  sake  of  peace  and  security,  were 
willing  to  pay  for  and  receive  as  favours. 
Lingard  thus  describes  them : — 

37 


"  By  these  graces,  in  addition  to  the  re 
moval  of  many  minor  grievances,  it  was  pro- 
vided that  the  recusants  should  be  allowed  to 
practise  in  the  courts  of  law,  and  to  sue  the 
livery  of  their  lands  out  of  the  court  of  wards, 
on  taking  an  oath  of  civil  allegiance  in  lieu 
of  the  oath  of  supremacy ;  that  the  under- 
takers in  the  several  plantations  should  have 
time  allowed  them  to  fulfil  the  conditions  of 
their  leases ;  that  the  claims  of  the  crown 
should  be  confined  to  the  last  sixty  years ; 
that  the  inhabitants  of  Connaught  should  be 
permitted  to  make  a  new  enrolment  of  their 
estates ;  and  that  a  parliament  should  be 
holden  to  confirm  these  graces,  and  to  estab- 
lish every  man  in  the  undisturbed  possession 
of  his  lands." 

In  Straflford's  "  State  Letters"  we  find  his 
report  of  his  own  speech  at  the  opening  of 
parliament  in  1628,  which  he  wound  up  as 
follows : — 

"  Surely  so  great  a  meanness  cannot  enter 
your  hearts,  as  once  to  suspect  his  majest)r's 
gracious  regards  of  you  and  performance  with 
you ;  where  you  affie  yourselves  upon  his 
grace." 

This  was  before  the  money  had  been  paid. 
These  supplies  were  moved  for  and  unani- 
mously voted  in  a  day  or  two,  and  astonished 
Strafford  himself.  In  addition  to  the  pay- 
ments which  were  regularly  and  fully  paid  in 
four  instalments  of  £30,000  each,  the  Irish 
parhament  remitted  the  payment  of  £150,000, 
already  due  from  the  king  to  the  Dubhn 
treasury.  These  two  circumstances  have 
been  strangely  confounded  by  nearly  all  our 
predecessors,  (except  Carey,)  but  the  evi- 
dence is  quite  clear  that  the  sum  actually 
paid  by  the  Irish  parliament  for  the  Graces 
was  £270,000.  As  this  statement  may 
excite  surprise,  even  to  those  who  are 
familiar  with  this  portion  of  Irish  history,  we 
beg  leave  to  refer  for  our  authority  to  docu- 
ments in  Rushworth's  "  Private  Passages  of 
State." 

Charles  seemed  impressed  by  the  reason- 
ableness of  the  proposals  made  by  his  Irish 
subjects ;  his  heart  was  not  radically  bad,  but 
he  was  weak  and  wavering.  A  clamour  was 
raised  by  llie  faction  of  the  ascendency  m 


300 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


fA.  D.  1630. 


Ireland,  and  echoed  by  the  Puritans  in  Eng- 
land, that  these  Graces  were  exclusively 
designed  for  the  benefit  of  the  Catholics ; 
Charles  became  alarmed,  and  in  his  pecu- 
niary fear,  he  yielded  to  the  treacherous 
advice  of  Strafford.  With  detestable  dupli- 
city he  accepted  the  proffered  money,  secretly 
resolving  that  the  promised  Graces  should 
never  be  granted.  A  technical  informality  in 
the  writs  for  summoning  parliament  served 
as  an  excuse  for  delaying  the  Graces  through- 
out the  administration  of  Lord  Falkland. 
When  he  departed,  the  sword  was  committed 
to  two  lords-justices,  Loftus  the  chancellor, 
and  Boyle,  Earl  of  Cork.  They  were  said 
to  be  disinclined  to  concession,  and  their  un- 
willingness was  made  a  pretence  for  further 
delay.  At  length,  Strafford  officiously  volun- 
teered to  endure  the  odium  of  refusing  them 
altogether,  and  thus  secured,  as  he  thought, 
the  friendship  of  the  king  to  compensate  him 
for  the  scorn  of  all  honest  men.  That  Charles 
deliberately  approved  of  the  refusal  may  be 
seen  in  the  following  letter  to  Strafford,  who 
had  not  yet  obtained  his  peerage  title  : — 

"  Wentworth, — Before  I  answer  any  of 
your  particular  letters  to  me,  I  must  tell  you 
that  your  last  public  despatch  has  given  me 
a  great  deal  of  contentment ;  and  especially 
for  keeping  off  the  envy  [odium]  of  a  neces- 
sary negative  from  me  of  those  unreasonable 
graces  that  people  expected  from  me." 

To  retain  the  favour  of  the  king,  Strafford 
prepared  to  execute  the  project  of  a  new 
plantation  in  Connaught,  which  James  had 
planned.  His  proceedings  in  tins  underta- 
king were  characterized  by  more  than  ordi- 
nary vigour,  and  by  more  open  violations  of 
justice  than  had  been  expected.  His  own 
letters  inform  us  of  the  preliminary  arrange- 
ments which  he  deemed  necessary  before  en- 
tering on  a  judicial  investigation  of  the  king's 
title  to  the  estates  in  the  west  of  Ireland. 

In  Leitrim,  Roscommon,  Mayo,  and  Sligo, 
the  jurors  generally  found  a  verdict  for  the 
crown.  In  Galway,  however,  the  jurors, 
trusting  that  they  would  be  supported  by  the 
influence  of  the  Earl  of  Clanricarde,  ven- 
tured to  give  a  contrary  verdict.  The  irri- 
tated lord-lieutenant  immediately  fined  the 


sheriff  a  thousand  pounds  for  returning  an 
improper  jury,  and  bound  over  the  jurors  to 
appear  before  the  star-chamber. 

The  compositions  extorted  from  those  who 
had  neglected  the  conditions  of  their  grants, 
were  exorbitant  in  the  extreme.  Strafford 
compelled  the  O'Byrnes  to  pay  seventeen 
thousand  pounds  to  remedy  a  pretended  de- 
fect of  title,  and  levied  no  less  than  seventy 
thousand  upon  the  London  companies  hold- 
ing lands  in  Ulster.  His  haughty  treatment 
of  the  Irish  nobility  made  him  many  enemies. 
One  of  the  instances  is  thus  described  by 
Taylor : — 

"  Sir  Francis  Annesley  (afterwards  crea- 
ted Lord  Mountnorris)  was  one  of  the  few 
adventurers,  in  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
James,  tliat  amassed  a  fortune  by  honourable 
means.  He  was  a  pattern  of  integrity,  and 
was  particularly  remarkable  for  the  rare  vir- 
tue of  doing  justice  to  the  native  Irish.  He 
was  the  principal  means  of  rescuing  the 
O'Byrnes  from  the  machinations  of  Parsons 
and  Esmond,  and  had,  on  several  occasions, 
come  forward  as  the  advocate  of  the  innocent 
and  the  oppressed.  His  stern  independence 
was  displeasing  to  Strafford,  who  took  every 
opportunity  of  mortifying  him  in  the  official 
situation  which  he  held,  that  of  vice-treasurer. 
Mountnorris  suppressed  his  resentment ;  but 
as  he  had  cause  to  be  offended,  it  was,  of 
course,  concluded  that  he  cherished  some 
secret  hostility  ;  and  he  was  closely  watched 
by  the  spies  of  the  government. 

"  At  a  dinner  given  by  the  lord-chancellor, 
it  was  casually  observed  by  one  of  the  guests, 
that  Strafford  had  been  much  provoked  by  a 
domestic,  who  had  hurt  his  gouty  foot  while 
removing  a  stool.  This  domestic  had  for- 
merly been  insulted  by  the  chief  governor ; 
in  reference  to  which,  Mountnorris  observed 
that  he  had  probably  acted  by  design  ;  '  but,' 
added  he,  '  the  gentleman  has  a  brother  who 
would  not  have  taken  such  a  revenge.'  For 
this  very  innocent  remark  Mountnorris  was 
arrested,  and  brought  to  trial  before  a  court- 
martial,  over  which  Strafford  presided  in  per- 
son. The  pretence  for  this  species  of  trial 
was,  that  Mountnorris  commanded  a  com- 
pany in  the  royal  army,  and  that  the  words 


A.  D.  1634.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


S91 


which  he  uttered  were  mutiny.  The  pro- 
ceedings of  the  court  were  brief  and  decided. 
Mountnorris  was  found  guilty  of '  impeaching 
the  obeying  his  general,'  and  sentenced  to 
miUtary  execution.  The  infamy  of  this  trans- 
action is  not  lessened  by  the  sentence  not 
having  been  put  in  force.  The  fact  that  a 
nobleman  was  subjected  to  a  long  and  tedious 
imprisonment,  to  every  indignity  which  the 
insolence  of  office  could  dictate,  and  to  the 
mortification  of  an  ignominious  sentence,  for 
an  innocent  remark  made  in  the  midst  of  con- 
viviality, cannot  be  extenuated  because  a 
tardy  pardon  was  wrung  from  the  reluctant 
shame  of  his  bitter  persecutors." 

As  Strafford  never  paused  for  any  obstacle 
in  raising  money  for  his  royal  master,  the 
revenue  of  Ireland  improved  with  amazing 
rapidity;  and  the  exchequer,  exhausted  at 
his  arrival,  was  full  when  he  departed.  The 
army,  which  had  fallen  into  a  shameful  state 
of  disorganization,  was,  by  his  exertions, 
made  available  for  the  support  of  the  govern- 
ment and  the  defence  of  the  country. 

The  English  house  of  commons,  now  con- 
taining many  members  of  the  Puritan  party, 
took  every  opportunity  of  opposing  Charles 
in  his  endeavours  to  establish  episcopacy. 
They  kept  up  a  constant  communication  with 
the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland.  The  move- 
ments of  Charles  were  checked  by  the  in- 
stitution of  the  "Covenant,"  which  was 
maintciined  by  a  compulsory  subscription  in 
Scotland.  Archbishop  Spottiswood,  and 
several  bishops,  were  therefore  compelled  to 
go  to  England  for  the  preservation  of  their 
lives.  The  affairs  of  Scotland  were  managed 
by  four  "  tables,"  at  which  their  devotions 
and  their  politics  appear  to  have  been  alter- 
nately considered.  Charles  sent  the  Mar- 
quis of  Hamilton  to  dissolve  their  convention 
in  a  very  authoritative  manner ;  but  they  con- 
tinued their  deliberations  with  increased  una- 
nimity, and  appointed  a  lady-president,  Mrs. 
Mitchelson,  who  maintained  that  when  she 
spoke,  the  will  of  God  was  expressed  by  her 


voice. 


The  rebellious  state  of  Scotland  compelled 
Charles  to  recall  StmfFord  from  Ireland.  Be- 
fore he  departed,  he  obtained  the  vote  of  a 


large  subsidy  from  the  Irish  parliament  of 
1634,  which  was  declared  to  be  an  act  of 
gratitude  for  the  benefits  that  the  country  had 
received  from  the  wise  administration  of  the 
lord-lieutenant.  In  a  few  months  after  his 
departure,  the  vote  for  the  subsidy  was  vir- 
tually rescinded,  and  Strafford  was  impeached 
by  the  very  parliament  that  had  lately  loaded 
him  with  fulsome  adulation.  Wandesford, 
whom  Strafford  had  left  in  Ireland  as  his 
deputy,  died  of  a  broken  heart,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  vexations  to  which  he  was 
subjected  by  the  conflicting  state  of  parties 
and  the  exclusive  claims  of  the  sects. 

Of  the  nine  years  during  which  Strafford 
ruled  Ireland,  there  are  many  and  various 
opinions  expressed  by  our  authorities.  The 
Puritans  positively  hated  him  for  his  success- 
ful endeavours  to  improve  the  character  of 
the  Episcopal  church,  by  raising  the  qualifi- 
cations of  the  clergy.  He  exacted  from  the 
rectors  and  curates  a  stricter  attention  to  their 
parochial  duties  than  they  had  previously 
bestowed,  and  rewarded  them  by  restoring  to 
the  church  a  large  portion  of  ecclesiastical 
revenue,  which  had  been  slyly  kept  by  the 
aristocracy.  In  enforcing  the  penal  laws, 
Strafford  showed  so  much  moderation  that 
he  was  accused  by  the  Puritans  of  encour- 
aging the  Catholics ;  but  this  was  in  some 
degree  counterbalanced  (in  their  estimation) 
by  his  attack  on  the  proprietors  of  Connaught. 
The  scheme  of  a  western  plantation,  which 
he  had  matured  at  the  expense  of  so  much 
guilt,  was  finally  abandoned,  on  observing 
the  general  objections  throughout  Europe 
against  such  a  monstrous  scheme  of  iniquity. 

The  Catholics  founded  their  objections  to 
Strafford  upon  his  manifest  treachery  in  re- 
fusing the  Graces,  for  which  they  had  faith- 
fully stipulated  and  religiously  paid.  From 
the  example  given  by  the  king  and  by  Straf- 
ford, the  whole  tribe  of  persecutors  who  dis- 
liked the  Catholics  were  encouraged  to  inter- 
fere with  them.  This  is  seen  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  year  1629,  almost  immediately 
after  the  vote  of  supplies  in  the  parliament  of 
1628.  We  quote  from  Hammond  L'Es- 
trange : — 

1629.  "In  this  year,  the  Roman  clergy 


993 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


A.  D.  1640. 


began  to  rant  it,  and  to  exercise  their  fancies 
called  religion  so  publicly  as  if  they  had 
gained  a  toleration :  for  while  the  lords  jus- 
tices were  at  Christ's  Church  in  Dublin,  on 
St.  Stephen's  Day,  they  were  celebrating 
mass  in  Cook  street ;  which  their  lordships 
taking  notice  of,  they  sent  the  Archbishop  of 
Dubhn,  the  mayor,  sheriff,  and  recorder  of 
the  city,  with  a  file  of  musketeers  to  appre- 
hend them  ;  which  they  did,  taking  away  the 
crucifixes  and  paraments  of  the  altar;  the 
soldiers  hewing  down  the  image  of  St.  Fran- 
cis. The  priests  and  friars  were  delivered 
into  the  hands  of  the  pursuivants,  at  whom 
the  people  threw  stones  and  rescued  them. 
The  lords  justices  being  informed  of  this,  sent 
a  guard  and  delivered  them,  and  clapped  eight 
popish  aldermen  by  the  heels,  for  not  assist- 
ing their  mayor.  On  this  account,  fifteen 
houses,  [chapels,]  by  direction  of  the  lords 
of  the  council  in  England,  were  seized  to  the 
king's  use  ;  and  the  priests  and  friars  were  so 
persecuted,  that  two  of  them  hanged  them- 
selves in  their  own  defence." 

Upon  this  same  quotation  Carey  remarks — 
"  L'Estrange  is  disposed  to  be  witty  on 
this  subject.  He  states  that  *  the  priests  and 
friars  were  so  persecuted,  that  two  of  them 
hanged  themselves,  in  their  own  defence.' 
This  is  truly  a  novel  mode  of  *  self-defence.' 
It  is,  however,  far  more  probable,  and  almost 
certain,  that  some  bloodtliirsty  and  fanatical 
ruflians,  inspired  by  '  a  holy  abhorrence'  of 
the  *  superstitious  idolatries  and  abominations 
of  popery,'  and  availing  themselves  of  the 
infuriated  spirit  of  the  government,  seized 
these  unfortunate  men  privately,  and  hanged 
them  up,  without  judge  or  jury." 

But  the  despotic  conduct  of  Strafford  at 
the  summoning  of  the  parliament  of  1634 
caused  the  most  offence  to  the  Catholics,  be- 
cause they  remembered  so  well  the  effects 
of  the  similar  proceedings  under  Chichester 
and  Davies  in  1613.  The  punishment  of  ju- 
rors who  did  not  find  for  the  crown,  and  the 
ill-treatment  of  members  of  the  privy-council 
who  might  not  agree  in  opinion  with  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  were  matters  of  comparative  in- 
significance in  those  days ;  but  the  packing 
of  parliament  deprived  the  plundered  people 


of  all  the  ordinaury  means  of  constitutional 
redress. 

In  Strafford's  anxiety  to  keep  out  the  Cath- 
olics from  their  share  of  representation,  many 
members  crept  in  who  were  either  engaged 
with  or  favourable  to  the  Puritans.  These 
members  subsequently  harassed  the  Dublin 
government  under  Strafford's  successors,  who 
found  themselves  openly  laughed  at  by  men 
who  secretly  despised  the  royal  power. 

The  intense  hatred  of  the  Puritans  in  the 
English  parliament,  and  the  zealous  revenge 
of  the  London  companies  whom  Strafford  had 
so  wantonly  offended  while  in  power,  now 
brought  him  to  the  scaffold.  The  king  was 
beginning  to  encounter  those  troubles  which 
ultimately  brought  him  also  to  the  block. 
Although  he  saw  that  the  Puritans  were  his 
real  enemies,  yet,  at  this  critical  moment,  he 
intrusted  the  government  of  Ireland  to  Par- 
sons and  Borlase,  two  men  completely  at  the 
disposal  of  the  English  parliament.  We 
have  already  given  the  character  of  Parsons 
in  his  office  of  commissioner  of  forfeitures. 
It  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  he  professed 
the  most  rigid  principles  of  Puritanism,  and 
veiled  his  rapacity  under  the  cloak  of  sanctity. 
His  colleague.  Sir  John  Borlase,  was  an  un- 
educated soldier  ;  his  understanding  was  un- 
alterably mean  and  contemptible  ;  and  he  had 
imbibed  all  the  prejudices  and  all  the  ferocity 
which  distinguished  the  violent  factions  of 
that  unhappy  period.  Borlase  was  led  by  his 
wily  colleague  ;  and  both  immediately  joined 
in  employing  all  their  acquired  power  to  op- 
pose the  interests  and  thwart  the  wishes  of 
their  sovereign.  The  appointment  of  two 
such  men  was  the  worst  act  Charles  could 
have  done,  both  as  regards  himself  and  his 
Irish  subjects.  The  vulgarity  and  insolence 
of  the  Puritans  openly  proclaimed  that  at  the 
end  of  a  year  there  should  not  remain  one 
single  living  Catholic  in  all  Ireland. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXVI. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  When  Charles  the  First  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  the  doctrines  of  Luther  were  yielding 


A.  D.  1640.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


893 


fast  to  new  sects  in  England.  The  united 
standard  of  bigotry  and  of  treason  was  now 
elevated  by  the  Puritans  far  above  the  sphere 
of  all  former  sectaries  ;  and  the  British  Con- 
stitution (such  as  it  was  in  those  times)  was, 
at  once,  demolished  even  to  its  foundation." 
J.  Barrington. 

"  The  administration  of  the  Earl  of  Straf- 
ford forms  an  important  era  in  the  history  of 
Ireland.  He  came  over  at  the  moment  of  a 
crisis  which  was  to  determine  whether  the 
country  was  to  enjoy  peace  and  prosperity, 
or  be  subjected  to  a  new  course  of  discord 
and  calamity.  Through  ignorance  rather 
than  design,  he  adopted  a  system  which  in- 
evitably led  to  the  latter,  and  involved  himself 
and  his  master  in  the  general  ruin.     *     *     * 

"  His  history  should  be  a  warning  to  those 
statesmen  who  scruple  not  to  use  bad  means 
for  the  accomplishment  of  a  good  purpose  : 
they  may,  like  him,  be  hurried  away  before 
their  labour  is  accomplished ;  and  the  evil 
means,  falling  into  less  pure  and  less  able 
hands,  may  be  directed  to  work  incalculable 
mischief." — Taylor. 

"  May  I  be  allowed  to  add  a  few  words 
here  on  the  character  and  conduct  of  Charles 
the  First,  who  performed  so  capital  a  part  in 
the  affairs  of  Ireland  during  this  period  ? 
That  he  did  many  things  during  the  civil  war, 
which  his  warmest  friends  cannot  justify,  has 
never  been  denied.  But  in  extenuation  of 
most  of  them,  it  may  be  justly  observed,  that 
in  the  extraordinary  circumstances  of  that 
period,  he  was  scarcely  master  of  his  con- 
duct, and  was  often  imperiously  forced  to 
command  and  to  sanction  acts  which  he  might 
not  approve.  But  with  respect  to  Ireland, 
during  the  whole  of  the  administration  of 
Strafford,  he  stood  on  totally  different  ground. 
No  circumstances  then  pressed  him.  He 
was  completely  master  of  his  conduct.  His 
sic  volo,  sic  jubeo,  was  supreme  law.  And 
his  uniform  support  of  Strafford  in  all  his  de- 
predations— in  his  flagitious  and  atrocious 
oppression  of  Mountnorris  and  Ely — and  in 
the  whole  series  of  his  misdeeds,  imprints  a 
stain  on  his  memory  which  will  descend  to 
the  latest  posterity." — M.  Carey. 

"The  revival  of  obsolete  claims  of  the 


crown,  harassing  of  proprietors  by  fictions  of 
law,  dispossessing  them  by  fraud  and  circum- 
vention, and  all  the  various  artifices  of  inter- 
ested agents  and  ministers,  were  naturally 
irritating;  and  the  public  discontents  must 
have  been  farther  inflamed  by  the  insincerity 
of  Charles,  in  evading  the  confirmation  of  his 
Graces  ;  the  insolence  of  Strafford  in  openly 
refusing  it;  together  with  the  nature  and 
manner  of  his  proceedings  against  the  pro- 
prietors of  Connaught." — Leland. 

"  These  'graces'  merely  meant  the  removal 
of  various  grievances,  some  of  them  highly 
oppressive,  under  which  the  nation  had  long 
groaned.  Not  one  of  them,  in  strict  parlance, 
could,  with  propriety,  be  styled  '  a  grace'  or 
favour.  They  were  all  mere  acts  of  justice. 
However,  the  Irish,  as  a  premium  for  them, 
had  pledged  themselves  to  remit  150,000 
pounds  which  they  had  loaned  to  the  king, 
and  to  furnish  three  subsidies,  each  of  40,000 
pounds,  in  the  three  succeeding  years.  This 
was  as  fair  a  contract  as  was  ever  made, 
and  was  religiously  carried  into  effect." — 
M.  Carey. 

"  They  were  still  exposed  to  vexatious  in- 
quisitions into  the  titles  of  their  estates,  and 
were  impatient  to  be  freed  from  the  appre- 
hensions of  litigious  suits.  The  popish  party 
were  not  more  solicitous  for  the  interest  of 
their  religion,  than  to  extricate  themselves 
from  the  disadvantages  and  mortifications  to 
which  they  were  exposed  by  the  penal  stat- 
utes."— Leland. 

"  Ireland  had  long  been  a  prey  to  projectors 
and  greedy  courtiers,  who  procured  grants 
of  concealed  lands ;  and,  by  setting  up  the 
king's  title,  forced  the  right  owners  of  them 
— to  avoid  the  plague  and  expense  of  a  litiga- 
tion— to  compound  with  them  on  what  terms 
they  pleased.  It  was  high  time  to  put  a  stop 
to  so  scandalous  a  traffic,  which  reflected  dis- 
honour upon  the  crown,  ahenated  the  minds 
of  the  people  from  the  government,  and  raised 
continual  clamours  and  uneasiness  in  every 
part  of  the  kingdom." — Carte. 

"  A  convocation  of  the  Protestant  clergy 
of  Ireland,  was  held  in  Dublin  during  Straf- 
ford's administration,  on  the  subject  of  fram- 
ing a  liturgy  for  the  church  of  that  kingdom. 


M4 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1640. 


They  met  in  two  distinct  bodies,  the  bishops 
in  the  upper  house,  and  the  remainder  of  the 
clergy  in  the  lower.  The  members  of  the 
latter  were  inclined  to  puritanism,  as  were 
many  of  the  upper,  among  the  rest,  the  pri- 
mate. Usher.  A  committee  was  appointed 
in  the  lower  house,  to  consider  and  report  on 
the  English  canons.  This  committee  had 
made  considerable  progress  in  the  duty  they 
had  undertaken,  and  were  about  to  suggest 
various  alterations  in  the  canons  submitted  to 
them,  when  the  deputy  was  informed  of  the 
course  which  the  affair  had  taken.  He  was 
very  wroth,  and  sent  for  Dr.  Andrews,  the 
chaii'man  of  the  committee,  ordering  him  to 
bring  the  book  of  canons,  with  its  marginal 
notes,  and  the  report  which  he  was  to  pre- 
sent that  evening.  When  he  saw  it,  he  was 
in  an  extreme  passion  ;  reproached  the  dean 
with  great  severity ;  told  him  that  it  was  an 
Ananias  that  had  presided  over  their  proceed- 
ings— directed  him  to  leave  the  draught  of 
the  report  with  him,  and  commanded  him,  on 
his  allegiance,  not  to  proceed  further  in  the 
business  till  he  heard  from  him.  Having 
examined  the  draught,  he  sent  for  the  bish- 
ops ;  reproved  them  severely  ;  and  peremp- 
torily forbad  them  to  admit  of  any  discussion, 
and  ordered  that  no  question  should  be  taken 
but  on  allowing  the  articles  of  the  Church  of 
England  in  toto,  yea  or  nay.  He  desired  the 
primate  to  frame  a  canon  to  this  effect,  and 
send  it  to  him  for  examination.  Disapprov- 
ing it,  he  drew  up  one  after  his  own  fancy, 
in  which  '  excommunication  is  denounced 
against  all  those  who  should  affirm  that  the 
articles  of  the  Church  of  England  were  such 
as  they  could  not  subscribe  unto.'  To  this 
the  primate  objected,  telling  him  that  he  was 
apprehensive  it  would  not  be  ratified.  This 
opinion  was  predicated  on  the  well-known 
fact,  that  several  of  the  members  of  both 
houses,  particularly  the  lower,  had  concurred 
in  the  necessity  of  making  alterations  in  the 
English  canons.  The  deputy  was  inflexi- 
ble. His  '  high  behests'  were  supreme  law  ! 
They  did  not  dare,  except  one  individual, 
to  gainsay  his  orders.  The  question  was 
put  as  he  directed,  and  was  carried  unani- 
mously in  both  houses,  very  much  to  the 


mortification  of  many  of  the  members !" — 
M.  Carey. 

"  Strafford  had  heard  that  Ireland  was  tur- 
bulent and  disaffected.  He  regarded  it  as  a 
conquered  country,  whose  inhabitants  pos- 
sessed no  civil  rights  but  by  the  mercy  of  the 
crown.  He  therefore  resolved  to  make  the 
sternest  despotism  the  principle  of  his  gov- 
ernment, and  to  admit  of  no  opposition  to  his 
imperious  will.  He  avowed  and  defended 
these  sentiments  on  his  trial,  when  he  was 
accused  of  endeavouring  to  make  the  king 
absolute  in  Ireland,  preparatory  to  a  similar 
attempt  in  England  ;  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  he  conceived  himself  fully  justified 
in  his  opinions." — Taylor. 

"  The  family  of  Lord  Strafford  have  done 
his  lordship's  memory  a  most  irreparable  in- 
jury, by  the  publication  of  his  letters,  which 
afford  such  a  mass  of  evidence  of  his  rapacity, 
rancour,  utter  disregard  of  the  ties  of  honour 
and  justice,  inhumanity,  hypocrisy,  and  Ma- 
chiavelism,  as  has  rarely  been  bequeathed  to 
posterity." — M.  Carey. 

"  His  project  was  nothing  less  than  to  sub- 
vert the  title  to  every  estate  in  every  part  of 
Connaught;  and  to  establish  a  new  planta- 
tion through  this  whole  province  ;  a  project, 
which,  when  first  proposed  in  the  late  reign, 
was  received  with  horror  and  amazement,  but 
which  suited  the  undismayed  and  enterpri- 
sing genius  of  Lord  Wentworth.  For  this 
he  had  opposed  the  confirmation  of  the  royal 
graces,  transmitted  to  Lord  Faulkland,  and 
taken  to  himself  the  odium  of  so  flagrant  a 
violation  of  the  royal  promise.  The  parlia- 
ment was  at  an  end ;  and  the  deputy  at  lei- 
sure to  execute  a  scheme,  which,  as  it  was 
offensive  and  alarming,  required  a  cautious 
and  deliberate  procedure.  Old  records  of 
state,  and  the  memorials  of  ancient  monaste- 
ries, were  ransacked,  to  ascertain  the  king's 
original  title  to  Connaught.  It  was  soon  dis- 
covered, that  in  the  grant  of  Henry  the  Third 
to  Richard  De  Burgo,  five  cantreds  were  re- 
served to  the  crown,  adjacent  to  the  castle  of 
Athlone ;  that  this  grant  included  the  whole 
remainder  of  the  province  !  which  was  now 
alleged  to  have  been  forfeited  by  Aedn 
O'Connor,  the  Irish  provincial  chieftain  ;  that 


m 


A.  D.  1640.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


S95 


the  lands  and  lordship  of  De  Burgo  descended 
lineally  to  Edward  the  Fourth  !  and  were  con- 
firmed to  the  crown  by  a  statute  of  Henry 
the  Seventh.  The  ingenuity  of  court  law- 
yers was  employed  to  invalidate  all  patents 
granted  to  the  possessors  of  these  lands, 
from  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth." — Le- 

LAND. 

"  He  took  with  him  to  each  town  where 
an  inquisition  was  held  five  hundred  horse- 
men, as  '  good  lookers-on.'  He  *  treated' 
with  such  persons  as  might  give  furtherance 
in  finding  for  the  king.  He  inquired  out  '  fit' 
men  to  serve  upon  juries.  He  obtained  a 
grant  of  four  shillings  in  the  pound  out  of  the 
first  year's  rent  of  every  estate  vested  in  the 
crown  by  these  inquisitions,  to  the  lord  chief- 
justice  and  the  chief-baron." — Taylor's  Ex- 
tracts from  Strafford's  Despatches. 

"  Wentworth,  at  the  head  of  the  commis- 
sioners of  plantation,  proceeded  to  the  west- 
ern province.  The  inhabitants  of  the  county 
of  Leitrim  had  already  acknowledged  the 
king's  title  to  their  lands,  and  submitted  to  a 
plantation.  It  was  now  deemed  expedient 
to  begin  with  those  of  Roscommon.  The 
commission  was  opened  in  this  county ;  the 
evidence  of  the  king's  title  produced,  exam- 
ined, and  submitted  to  a  jury,  formed  of  the 
principal  inhabitants,  purposely,  (as  the  lord- 
deputy  expressed  it,)  that  '  they  might  answer 
the  king  a  round  fine  in  the  castle-chamber, 
in  case  they  should  prevaricate.'  They  were 
told  by  Wentworth,  that  his  majesty's  inten- 
tion, in  estabhshing  his  undoubted  title,  was 
to  make  them  a  rich  and  civil  people  !  that 
he  purposed  not  to  deprive  them  of  their  just 
possessions,  but  to  invest  them  with  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  own ;  that  he  needed  not 
their  interposition,  to  vindicate  his  right, 
which  might  be  established  by  the  usual 
course  of  law,  upon  an  information  of  intru- 
sion ;  but  that  he  wished  his  people  to  share 
with  him  in  the  honour  and  profit  of  the 
glorious  and  excellent  work  he  was  now  to 
execute ! — to  his  majesty  it  was  indifferent, 
whether  their  verdict  should  acknowledge  or 
deny  his  title." — Leland. 

"  To  manifest  his  majesty's  justice  and 
honour,  I  thought  fit  to  let  them  know  that  it 


was  his  majesty's  gracious  pleasure,  that  any 
man's  counsel  should  be  fully  and  willingly 
heard,  in  defence  of  their  respective  rights ; 
being  a  favour  never  before  afforded  to  any 
upon  taking  these  kind  of  inquisitions." — 
Strafford. 

"  The  nobility  and  gentry  of  Galway  hav- 
ing sent  agents  to  London  to  plead  their 
cause,  Wentworth  urged  Charles  to  send 
them  to  Ireland  as  prisoners,  that  he  might 
proceed  against  them  in  the  castle-chamber 
and  have  them  fined  for  daring  to  appeal  to 
their  king  for  justice  and  protection  against 
the  rapacity  of  his  deputy.  He  moreover 
wreaked  his  vengeance  on  the  lawyers  who 
had  discharged  their  duty  in  defending  the 
causes  of  their  clients.  He  tendered  them 
the  oath  of  supremacy,  which  was  a  recanta- 
tion of  their  religion,  and  silenced  such  of 
them  as  refused  to  take  it." — M.  Carey. 

"  For  those  counsellors  at  law,  who  so  la- 
boured against  the  king's  title,  we  conceive 
it  is  fit,  that  such  of  them  as  we  shall  find 
reason  so  to  proceed  withal,  be  put  to  take 
the  oath  of  supremacy,  which  if  they  refuse, 
that  then  they  be  silenced,  and  not  admitted 
to  practise  as  now  they  do ;  it  being  unfit 
that  they  should  take  benefit  by  his  majesty's 
graces,  that  take  the  boldness  after  such  a 
manner  to  oppose  his  service." — Strafford's 
Despatch,  Aug.  25,  1635. 

"  It  is  manifest  therefore,  that  the  permis- 
sion to  use  counsel,  must  have  been  given  in 
the  expectation  that  such  counsel  would  neg- 
lect their  duty  to  their  clients,  and  betray 
their  own  consciences,  to  please  the  lord- 
deputy.  The  counsel  disappointed  this  un- 
holy expectation.  •  They  were  accordingly 
driven  from  the  practice  of  their  profession  ; 
for  they  would  not  and  could  not  take  the 
oath  of  supremacy." — O'Connell. 

"  The  recusant  lawyers,  a  powerful  body 
of  men,  were  angry  that  they  could  not  take 
degrees  in  law,  be  made  judges,  or  reguftirly 
admitted  by  any  court  to  plead  at  the  bar, 
without  taking  the  oath  of  supremacy ;  though 
they  probably  gained  as  much  by  their  pri- 
vate advice  and  chamber  practice,  with  less 
trouble  to  themselves,  and  less  hazard  to 
their  reputation,  as  they  could  have  done  by 


296 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1640. 


the  displaying  of  their  eloquence  in  public." 
Carte. 

"  It  will  excite  the  horror  of  the  reader  to 
learn  that  Wentworth  actually  levied  above 
jC40,000  sterling  on  the  sheriffs  and  jurors — 
equal  to  nearly  a  million  of  dollars  at  the 
present  valuation  of  money  !" — M.  Carey. 

"  I  told  the  jury,  the  first  movers  of  his 
majesty  to  look  into  this  his  undoubted  title 
were  the  princely  desires  he  hath  to  eflfect 
them  a  civil  and  rich  people  ;  which  cannot 
by  any  so  sure  and  ready  means  be  attained 
as  by  a  plantation,  which  therefore  in  his  great 
wisdom  he  had  r'^solved ;  yet  that  it  should 
be  so  done  as  not  to  take  any  thing  from 
them  which  was  justly  theirs,  but  in  truth  to 
bestow  among  them  a  good  part  of  that  which 
was  his  own ;  that  I  was  commanded  to  as- 
certain them,  that  it  was  his  majesty's  gra- 
cious resolution  to  question  no  man's  patent 
that  had  been  granted  formerly  upon  good  con- 
siderations, and  was  of  itself  valid  in  the  law  ; 
his  great  seal  was  his  public  faith,  and  should 
be  kept  sacred  in  all  things ;  that  the  king 
came  not  to  sue  them  to  find  for  him,  as 
needing  any  power  of  theirs  to  vindicate  his 
own  right ;  for  without  them  where  his  right 
is  so  plain,  he  could  not  in  justice  have  been 
denied  possession  upon  an  information  of  in- 
trusion ;  the  court  in  an  ordinary  way  of  ex- 
chequer proceeding  would,  must  have  granted 
it  upon  the  first  motion  of  his  attorney- 
general.         •         *         •         *         * 

"  With  this  I  left  them  marvellous  much 
satisfied  ;  for  a  few  good  words  please  them 
more  than  you  can  imagine." — Strafford. 

"  They  were  fined  four  thousand  pounds 
each,  their  estates  were  seized,  and  them- 
selves imprisoned  till  the  fines  were  paid." — 
Carte. 

"  The  jurors  of  Galway  were  to  remain  in 
prison  till  each  of  them  paid  his  fine  of 
£4,000,  and  acknowledged  his  offence  in 
coi*t  upon  his  knees." — Leland. 

"  The  nefarious  system  of  bribing  the 
judges  stands  recorded  by  Wentworth  him- 
self ! ! !  To  interest  the  court,  and  insure  its 
assistance  in  the  depredation  on  the  unfor- 
tunate Irish,  he  advised  the  monarch  to  be- 
stow on  the  lord  chief-justice  and  the  chief- 


baron  four  shillings  in  the  pound  out  of  the 
first  year's  rent  raised  out  of  the  depredated 
estates  ! ! !  Charles,  worthy  of  such  a  profli- 
gate representative,  bestowed,  and  the  judges, 
worthy  of  such  a  monarch  and  such  a  deputy, 
received  these  wages  of  their  prostitution !" 
M.  Carey. 

"Your  majesty  was  graciously  pleased 
upon  my  humble  advice  to  bestow  four  shil- 
lings in  the  pound  upon  your  lord  chief-justice 
and  lord  chief-baron  in  this  kingdom,  forth 
of  the  first  yearly  rent  raised  upon  the  com- 
mission of  defective  titles,  which,  upon  ob- 
servation, I  find  to  be  the  best  given  that  ever 
was  :  For  now  they  do  intend  it  with  a  care 
and  diligence  such  as  it  were  their  own.  pri- 
vate. And  most  certain,  the  gaining  to  them- 
selves every  four  shillings  once  paid  shall 
better  your  revenue  for  ever  after  at  least  five 
pounds !" — Strafford. 

"  What  a  gross  and  barefaced  demand,  that 
the  chief-justice  who  presided  at  the  trial  and 
the  foreman  of  the  jury  should  be  richly  re- 
warded !  that  is,  that  their  bribes  should  be 
abundantly  paid.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
frank  avowal  of  bribery  upon  record.  What 
the  amount  of  the  bribe  given  to  the  chief- 
justice  might  have  been  is  not  publicly 
known.  Judges  are  a  discreet  class,  and 
can  transact  business  privately.  But  it  has 
been  said  that  Dillon,  the  foreman  of  the  jury, 
got  for  his  share,  lands  to  the  value  of  ten 
thousand  pounds  a-year.  He  certainly  got  a 
large  and  valuable  estate." — O'Connell. 

"  The  success  attending  the  bribery  of  the 
judges  in  the  case  of  the  inquest  into  defec- 
tive titles,  induced  Wentworth  to  urge  his 
royal  master  to  bribe  in  the  same  mode  the 
chief-baron  and  the  barons  of  the  exchequer, 
in  cases  of  compositions  with  the  recusants 
in  the  south." — M.  Carey. 

"  All  the  answer  I  can  give  is,  that  if  ta- 
king of  an  half  move  that  country  to  enter  into 
open  rebellion,  the  taking  of  a  third  or  a 
fourth  melhinks  should  hardly  secure  the 
crown  of  their  allegiance  !  Then  be  it  grant- 
ed that  they  are  thus  unsound  and  rotten  at 
the  heart,  wisdom  adviseth  so  to  weaken 
them,  and  line  them  thoroughly  with  English 
and  Protestants  as  that  they  shall  not  (by  the 


A.  D.  1640.] 


SECOND    DIVISION, 


897 


help  of  God)  be  able  to  disquiet  any  thing, 
if  they  would." — Strafford. 

"  Every  measure  was  pleasing  and  popu- 
lar, just  in  proportion,  as  it  intended  to  harass 
and  ruin  a  set  of  people,  who  were  looked 
upon  as  enemies  to  God  and  man ;  and  in- 
deed as  a  race  of  bigoted  savages,  who  were 
a  disgrace  to  human  nature  itself." — Burke. 

"  In  the  parliament  held  under  Wentworth 
in  1634,  the  same  vile  practices  were  em- 
ployed which  had  secured  a  majority  for  the 
administration  in  1613.  Most  of  the  boroughs, 
in  defiance  of  the  law  of  the  land,  were  rep- 
resented by  non-residents,  chiefly  officers  of 
the  government.  The  Roman  Catholics  made 
an  ardent  struggle  against  this  outrageous 
grievance.  But  the  overwhelming  power  and 
the  despotism  of  the  deputy  rendered  their 
efforts  fruitless.  They  were  forced  to  sub- 
mit."— M.  Carey. 

"  To  render  men  patient  under  a  depriva- 
tion of  all  the  rights  of  human  nature,  every 
thing  which  could  give  them  a  knowledge  or 
feeling  of  those  rights  was  rationally  forbid- 
den. To  render  humanity  fit  to  be  insulted, 
it  was  fit  that  it  should  be  degraded." — 
Burke. 

"  Charles  was  determined  to  support  the 
deputy  in  all  his  measures,  however  arbitrary 
or  unjust.  The  sentence  against  lord  Mount- 
norris  was  so  transcendently  wicked,  that  it 
excited  a  great  sensation  in  England,  where 
it  was  almost  universally  reprobated — but  the 
king's  opinion  in  favour  of  it  being  announced, 
the  clamour  subsided. 

"  The  capital  part  of  the  sentence  was  not, 
nor  probably  intended  to  be  carried  into  exe- 
cution— but  Mountnorris  was  committed  to 
prison  on  the  12th  of  December,  1635,  and 
not  finally  released  till  March,  1637 — being, 
however,  in  the  meanwhile,  twice  let  out  on 
bail  in  consequence  of  the  deposition  of  his 
physician,  that  he  was  in  danger  of  his  life. 
Wentworth  was  determined  not  to  release 
him  without  an  acknowledgment  of  the  jus- 
tice of  the  sentence,  which  Mountnorris  re- 
fused to  make." — M.  Carey. 

"  *  My  Lord, — I  beseech  your  lordship,  for 
the  tender  mercy  of  God,  take  off  your  heavy 
hand  from  my  dear  lord ;  and  for  her  sake 

38 


who  is  with  God,  be  pleased  not  to  make  me 
and  my  poor  infants  miserable,  as  we  must 
of  necessity  be,  by  the  hurt  you  do  to  him. 
God  knows,  my  lord,  that  I  am  a  poor  dis- 
tressed woman,  and  know  not  what  to  say, 
more  than  to  beg  upon  my  knees,  with  my 
homely  prayers  and  tears,  that  it  will  please 
the  Almighty  to  incline  your  lordship's  heart 
to  mildness  towards  him  ;  for  if  your  lordship 
continue  my  lord  in  restraint,  and  lay  dis- 
graces upon  him,  I  have  too  much  cause  to 
fear  that  your  lordship  will  bring  a  speedy 
end  to  his  life  and  troubles,  and  make  me  and 
all  mine  forever  miserable.  Good  my  lord, 
pardon  these  woful  lines  of  a  disconsolate 
creature,  and  be  pleased,  for  Christ  Jesus' 
sake,  to  take  this  my  humble  suit  into  your 
favourable  consideration,  and  to  have  mercy 
upon  me  and  mine ;  and  God  will,  I  hope, 
reward  it  into  the  bosom  of  you,  and  your 
sweet  children  by  my  kinswoman ;  and  for 
the  memory  of  her,  I  beseech  your  lordship 
to  compassionate  the  distressed  condition  of 
me,  Your  lordship's  most  humble  and  dis- 
consolate servant,  Jane  Mountnorris.  This 
13th  of  February,  1635-6.' 

"  Endorsed,  *  A  copy  of  the  lady  Mount- 
norris's  letter  to  the  earl  of  Strafford,  when 
her  husband  was  in  prison,  under  the  sentence 
of  death  by  martial  law ;  and  he  was  so  hard- 
hearted as  he  gave  her  no  relief.' " — Claren- 
don's State  Papers. 

"  Strafford's  malice  and  vengeance  were 
not  satisfied  with  the  sufferings  thus  inflicted 
on  the  victim  of  his  hatred.  He  had  him 
afterwards  cited  into  the  star-chamber  court 
in  England,  for  what  offence  I  know  not,  nor 
am  I  able  to  state  the  result.  But  the  well- 
known  despotism  of  that  court,  and  the  all- 
powerful  influence  of  Strafford,  renders  it 
highly  probable  that  he  was  enormously 
fined. 

"  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  add  a  shade  to  the 
atrocity  of  this  affair.  But  it  is  aggravated 
by  the  circumstances,  that  Mountnorris  was 
probably  between  60  and  70  years  of  age — 
that  he  had  faithfully  served  the  king  and  his 
father  for  forty  years — that  he  had  twelve 
children — and  was  completely  ruined  by  the 
persecution. 


998 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1640. 


"  Lord  Strafford  avowed,  after  the  trial  was 
over,  and  lord  Mountnorris  was  released,  that 
his  object  had  been  to  remove  him  from  the 
country  !  !" — M.  Carey. 

"  When  the  Scots,  in  1639,  took  up  arms 
to  resist  the  wicked  attempt  of  Charles  the 
First  to  impose  on  them  episcopacy,  with  the 
rites,  ceremonies,  and  service  of  the  church 
of  England,  the  king  was  apprehensive  that 
they  might  derive  aid  from  their  numerous 
countrymen  in  Ireland.  To  prevent  this  un- 
toward event,  he  wrote  to  Strafford  to  secure 
their  fidelity  by  oath.  The  deputy,  in  com- 
pliance with  this  order,  framed  an  oath  not 
merely  of  allegiance,  which  they  would  have 
cheerfully  taken,  but  a  renunciation  of  the 
covenant. 

"  The  Scots  were  generally  rigid  Puritans. 
They  almost  universally  reprobated  the 
church  of  England  nearly  as  much  as  that 
of  Rome.  A  great  majority  of  them  had 
subscribed  the  covenant,  whereby  they  re- 
nounced as  equally  sinful,  *  popery,  prelacy, 
superstition,'  &c.  Most  of  them  therefore 
could  not  take  Strafford's  oath  without  per- 
jury. The  attempt  to  enforce  it  was  attended 
with  the  most  revolting  cruelly  and  oppression. 
Twenty  and  thirty  persons  were  frequently 
arrested  under  one  warrant,  and  beaten  and 
abused  by  the  soldiers  employed  to  transport 
them  to  the  magistrates.  Enormous  fines  and 
rigorous  imprisonment  were  most  unmerci- 
fully inflicted  on  the  recusants.  Every  cruelty 
that  could  be  perpetrated  short  of  capital  puu- 
ishment«^was  tried  to  accomplish  the  object 
so  much  at  heart  with  tlie  king  and  his  deputy. 
The  success  did  not  correspond  with  the  vio- 
lence employed.  Few  took  the  oath.  Thou- 
sands fled  from  their  homes  into  Scotland,  or 
lurked  in  the  wild  parts  of  Ireland." — M. 
Carey. 

"  I  dare  appeal  to  those  that  know  the 
country,  whether  in  former  times  many  men 
have  not  been  committed  and  executed  by 
the  deputies'  warrant,  that  were  not  thieves 
and  rebels,  but  such  as  went  up  and  down 
the  country.  If  they  could  not  give  a  good 
account  of  themselves,  the  provost-marshal, 
by  direction  of  the  deputies,  using  in  such 
pases  to  hang  them  up.     I  dare  say  there  are 


hundreds  of  examples  in  this  kind." — Straf- 
ford's Speech  on  his  Defence. 

"  An  important  consideration  must  not  be 
passed  over  here.  The  Scots  laboured  under 
scarcely  any  other  grievance  [in  Scotland] 
than  the  contemplated  innovation  in  their 
religion  ;  their  persons  and  property  were 
sacred.  They  resisted  the  despotic  and 
wicked  interference  between  them  and  their 
Maker.  They  were  perfectly  justified  in  the 
eyes  of  heaven  and  their  fellow-men.  It  is 
not  given  by  the  living  God  to  any  of  the 
sons  of  men  to  force  the  religious  worship  of 
their  fellow-men  ;  and  the  attempt  to  change 
religious  opinions  by  legal  coercion,  is  as 
transcendenlly  absurd,  as  would  be  the  effort 
to  'change  the  hue  of  the  dusky  Ethiop.' 
Brutal  force,  as  has  been  long  since  observed, 
may  coerce  men  into  apparent  conformity ; 
but  it  never  made  a  convert  yet, — and  never 
will :  it  is  fated  to  produce  only  martyrs  or 
hypocrites. "-^M.  Carey. 

"  The  affairs  of  religion,  which  are  no 
longer  heard  of  in  the  tumult  of  our  present 
contentions,  made  a  principal  ingredient*  in 
the  wars  and  politics  of  that  time ;  the  en- 
thusiasm of  religion  threw  a  gloom  over  the 
politics  ;  and  political  interests  poisoned  and 
perverted  the  spirit  of  religion  upon  all  sides. 
Tiie  Protestant  religion,  in  that  violent  strug- 
gle, infected,  as  the  Popish  had  been  before, 
by  worldly  interests  and  worldly  passions, 
became  a  persecutor  in  its  turn,  sometimes 
of  the  new  sects,  which  carried  their  own 
principles  further  than  it  was  convenient  to 
the  original  reformers  ;  and  always  of  the 
body  from  whom  they  parted  :  and  this  per- 
secuting spirit  arose,  not  only  from  the  bit- 
terness of  retaliation,  but  from  the  merciless 
policy  of  fear." — Burke. 

"  The  reason  why  I  have  dwelt  in  the  notes 
upon  the  enormities  committed  in  the  admin- 
istration of  what  was  called  'justice'  in  Ire- 
land, is,  that  by  the  most  singular  perversion 
of  the  facts  of  history,  not  only  Temple,  but 
Clarendon,  and,  after  him,  Hume,  and  a 
multitude  of  other  calumniators  of  Ireland, 
have  gravely  stated  the  astounding  falsehood 
that  Ireland  was  *  well  governed'  in  the  reigns 
of  James  the  First  and  of  Charles  the  First ! 


A.  D.  1641.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


299 


"  Well  governed  !  when  the  ecclesiastical 
courts  hunted  the  Catholics  like  wild  beasts, 
and  crowded  them,  when  caught,  into  loath- 
some prisons !  when  the  Court  of  Wards 
spoliated  the  properties  of  all  Catholic  minors, 
and  perverted  their  religion  !  when  the  High 
Commission  Courts  punished  with  more  than 
Star-chamber  severity,  every  supposed  slight 
or  insult  to  any  person  in  power ;  punished 
every  resistance  (however  necessary  and  jus- 
tifiable) to  the  will  or  caprice  of  men  in  au- 
thority !  when  the  sheriffs  were  intimidated, 
and  punished  if  the  verdicts  of  the  juries  did 
not  satisfy  the  ruling  tyrants  !  when  the  chief- 
justice  and  other  judges  were  bribed  by  the 
highest  authority  in  the  land  ;  bribed  with  a 
stipulated  proportion  of  the  property  in  dis- 
pute, for  procuring  judgment  against  the  un- 
happy possessors  of  that  property  !  when  the 
jurors  who  obeyed  the  impulses  of  conscience 
were  thrown  to  rot  in  prison ;  were  ruined  by 
fines  so  enormous  as  to  amount  to  a  confis- 
cation of  their  property  ;  were  pilloried — 
had  their  ears  cut  off — their  tongues  bored 

through ;  were But  I  will  not  pursue 

this  subject.     What  need  I  ?" — O'Connell. 

"  Some  time  before  the  rebellion  broke  out, 
it  was   confidently  reported   that   Sir  John 
Clotworthy,  who  well  knew  the  designs  of 
the  faction  that  governed  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  England,  had   declared  there  in  a 
speech  that  the  conversion  of  the  papists  in 
Ireland  was  only  to  be  effected  by  the  Bible 
in  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other  ;  and 
Mr.  Pym  gave  out  that  they  would  not  leave 
a  priest  in  Ireland.     To  the  like  effect  Sir 
William  Parsons,  out  of  a  strange  weakness, 
or  detestable  policy,  positively  asserted  before 
so  many  witnesses,  at  a  public  entertainment, 
that  within  a  twelvemonth  no  Catholic  should 
be  seen  in  Ireland.     He  had  sense  enough  to 
know  the  consequences  that  would  naturally 
arise  from  such  a  declaration  ;  which  (how- 
ever it  might  contribute  to  his  own  selfish 
views)  he  would  hardly  have  ventured  to 
make  so  openly  and  without  disguise,  if  it 
had  not  been  agreeable  to  the  politics  and 
measures  of  the  English  faction,  whose  party 
he  espoused,  and  whose  directions  were  the 
general  rule  of  his  conduct." — Carte. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

Sjnnpathy  with  Scotland — Rebellious  rising  in  the 
north — Parsons  and  Borlase  exactly  suited — Real 
state  of  Ireland,  as  seen  by  the  remonstrance  at 
Trim  to  the  king's  commissioners — Proceedings 
of  the  confederates — Positions  of  the  king ;  atti- 
tudes of  the  Dublin  government ;  policy  of  the 
parliamentarian  party  ;  and  spasmodic  struggles  at 
sincerity  by  the  tiio — Disastrous  disunion  of  the 
friends  of  Ireland — Success  of  the  spoilers — 
Charles  outdone  in  lying  and  intrigue — Civil 
semi-barbarism  of  the  times. 

Although  a  civil  war  was  raging  in  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and  the  British 
name  was  powerless  in  Europe,  the  ruin  of 
Ireland  seemed  to  be  a  settled  object,  which 
her  enemies,  however  divided,  always  kept 
in  view.    . 

James's  plantation  in  Ulster,  and  Strafford's 
proceedings  in  Connaught,  deprived  the  na- 
tive Irish  of  all  hope  for  either  justice  or 
mercy.     They  believed  that  a  determination 
had  been  taken  to  strip  them  of  all  their  prop- 
erty,  by  violence   or    chicanery ;   and  the 
conduct  of  the  king  and  his  ministers  proved 
that  they  were  not  mistaken.     In  fact,  the 
royalists  and  the  parliamentarians  in  England 
distinctly  avowed  their  fixed  resolution  to 
colonize  Ireland  with  "  good"  subjects  ;  and 
opposed  as  they  were  in  every  thing  else, 
Charles  and  his  commons  showed  wondrous 
unanimity  in  devising  plans  for  fresh  confis- 
cations.    The   virulent   declarations   of  the 
English  parliament  against "  popery"  alarmed 
the  Irish  Catholics ;  and  the  execution,  or 
rather  murder,  of  several  priests  in  London, 
for  merely  saying  mass,   showed  that  the 
persecution  threatened  by  the  Puritans  would 
not  long  be  confined  to  pecuniary  penalties 
and  disqualifications.     The  sin  of  tolerating 
"popery"  was  a  favourite  theme  with  the 
clergy  of  the,' established  and  the  Scottish 
church.     Tl?(e  character  of  Parsons  was  an- 
other cause  iof  that  hostility  to  the  government 
which  was  generally  prevalent  among  the 
Irish.     The  appointment  of  such  a  man  to 
the  office  of  lord-justice  was  felt  to  be  a  di- 
rect sanction  of  the  principles  on  which  he 
acted.     There  was  every  reason  to  expect 
that  spoliation,  and  not  protection,  would  be 
the  chief  object  of  an  administration  at  the 
head  of  which  was  a  wicked  and  unprincipled 


800 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1641. 


adventurer,  who  had  already  shown  his  real 
character  in  the  niin  of  the  O'Byrnes. 

The  ancient  sympathy  with  the  people  of 
Scotland  determined  the  Irish  lords  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  moral  effect  of  their  suc- 
cessful resistance.  The  attempt  of  the  king 
to  dictate  a  religion  and  an  arbitrary  govern- 
ment on  his  countrymen  had  been  signally 
defeated.  The  rebellion  (if  so  it  must  be 
termed)  of  the  Scots,  had  been  rewarded  by 
the  estabhshment  of  the  religion  of  their 
choice,  the  security  of  constitutional  freedom, 
and  the  general  approbation  of  the  English 
people. 

The  feelings  excited  among  the  Irish  peo- 
ple, by  the  ill-treatment  with  which  they  were 
now  surrounded  upon  all  sides,  did  not  take 
the  form  of  disloyalty,  although  they  openly 
expressed  their  dissatisfaction  by  responding 
to  the  call  of  their  leaders.  Sir  Phelim 
O'Neill  unscrupulously  drew  many  to  his 
standard  by  pretending  to  possess  a  commis- 
sion from  the  king.  These  movements  ex- 
actly suited  the  tastes  and  employments  of 
Parsons  and  Borlase.  They  took  great 
pleasure  in  issuing  a  proclamation,  declaring 
that  the  "  Irish  papists"  had  formed  a  bloody 
conspiracy  against  the  stale.  The  lords  of 
the  Pale  became  alarmed  at  the  sweeping 
generality  of  the  phrase  "  Irish  papists  :" 
they  remonstrated,  and  the  justices  thought 
proper  to  publish  a  second  proclamation, 
exonerating  the  Catholic  lords  of  English 
descent.  At  the  same  time,  they  transmitted 
to  the  king,  who  was  then  in  Scotland,  and  to 
the  English  Parliament,  an  account  of  the 
insurrection  which  had  taken  place.  It  is 
remarkable,  that  neither  in  their  proclama- 
tions, nor  in  the  despatches  sent  over  to  the 
king  and  parliament,  do  the  lords-justices  say 
one  word  about  the  horrible  massacres  which 
many  authors  have  detailed;  a  clear  proof 
that  no  such  proceedings  had  taken  place. 
The  Earl  of  Leicester,  however,  in  his  address 
to  the  British  house  of  commons,  unhesita- 
tingly asserted  that  the  object  of  the  Irish 
was  the  general  massacre  of  the  Protestants  ! 
Warner  (Protestant)  deems  this  assertion  of 
the  earl  quite  unaccountable.  But  it  was 
manifestly  intended  to  increase  the  hatred  of 


the  Catholics,  which  the  parliament  had  al- 
ready found  to  be  a  cheap  and  formidable 
instrument  for  extending  their  influence  in 
opposition  to  the  power  of  the  king. 

The  leaders  of  the  popular  party  in  the 
Long  Parliament  are  generally  considered  as 
great  promoters  of  liberty  in  western  Europe. 
Their  names  will  be  honoured  by  posterity 
for  their  noble  resistance  to  arbitrary  forms  of 
government.  Lord  Chatham  has  remarked — 
"  There  was  mixed  with  the  public  cause,  in 
that  struggle,  ambition,  sedition,  and  violence. 
But  no  man  will  persuade  me,  that  it  was  not 
the  cause  of  liberty  on  the  one  side,  and  of 
tyranny  on  the  other."  This  is  an  authority 
to  which  both  our  inclination  and  our  duty 
require  that  a  high  degree  of  pohtical  rever- 
ence should  be  paid.  It  is  therefore  with 
deep  regret  that  we  find  ourselves  compelled 
to  record  the  double  duplicity  with  which  the 
Long  Parliament  treated  the  Irish  people. 
While  they  affected  the  most  sincere  sympa- 
thy for  the  Protestants  in  Ireland,  and  sent 
them  the  most  magnificent  promises  of  as- 
sistance, they  kept  the  supplies  which  they 
had  collected,  and  the  army  which  they  had 
assembled,  to  overawe  their  sovereign  in 
England.  It  was  the  fashion  to  look  upon 
the  Irish  with  contempt.  It  was  supposed 
that  an  Irish  insurrection  could  be  suppressed 
at  any  time  by  a  vigorous  effort.  While, 
therefore,  the  English  parliament  promised 
speedy  exertion,  the  leaders  were  determined 
to  secure  their  designs  in  England  first,  and 
leave  Ireland  for  a  more  convenient  season. 
Their  military  operations  were  confined  to 
sending  over  Sir  Charles  Coote,  who,  after 
a  consultation  with  Parsons  in  Dublin,  acted 
like  a  monster  of  cruelty,  robbing  and  mur- 
dering indiscriminately  the  loyal  and  the 
disaffected, — a  system  which  engendered  a 
spirit  of  resistance  peculiarly  favourable  for 
the  designs  of  Parsons. 

The  real  merits  of  Parsons  as  a  public 
officer  were  signally  displayed  about  this 
time.  It  appears  that  both  the  king  and  the 
English  parliament  had  ordered  a  proclama- 
tion to  be  issued  in  Ireland,  offering  pardon 
to  all  who  would  return  to  their  allegiance. 
After  a  long  delay,  the  lords-justices  did  in- 


A.  D.  1641.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


301 


deed  issue  such  a  proclamation  ;  but  clogged 
with  so  many  "  exceptions"  that  it  was  wholly 
nugatory.  It  was  limited  to  four  counties, 
in  two  of  which  there  had  not  been  even  the 
slightest  symptom  of  revolt ;  and  in  the  others 
all  persons  were  "  excepted"  who  had  shed 
blood  in  any  action,  who  were  imprisoned  for 
spoil  or  robbery,  or  "  who  possessed  freehold 
property."  Finally,  the  time  for  receiving 
submissions  was  limited  to  ten  days  ;  and  it 
was  declared  that  the  amnesty  would  be  in- 
valid unless  a  complete  restitution  of  property 
was  effected  within  that  period, — a  condition 
w^ell  known  to  be  impossible. 

The  people  now  set  their  hopes  on  the 
Dublin  meeting  of  parliament,  which  had 
been  adjourned  to  November,  1641  ;  but 
Parsons,  dreading  that  this  assembly  would 
be  disposed  to  offer  terms  of  pacification, 
adjourned  the  meeting  to  the  24th  of  Febru- 
ary following. 

From  October  until  the  middle  of  Decem- 
ber the  insurrection  had  been  confined  to 
Ulster,  a  small  part  of  Leinster,  and  one 
county  in  Connaught.  The  Catholic  lords 
of  the  Pale,  preserving  their  ancient  jealousy 
of  the  native  Irish,  persevered  in  their  alle- 
giance, and  offered  their  assistance  to  govern- 
ment. The  lords-justices,  deeming  the  aid 
of  these  Catholic  lords  necessary  to  their 
own  security,  had,  in  the  first  instance,  sup- 
plied them  with  arms  to  defend  themselves 
against  the  northern  Irish ;  but  being  now 
encouraged  by  promises  of  large  armaments 
from  England,  they  recalled  the  arms  which 
they  had  granted,  and  issued  a  proclamation 
ordering  those  who  had  fled  to  Dublin  for 
protection  to  quit  the  city  within  twenty-four 
hours  under  pain  of  death. 

On  the  8th  of  December,  1641,  it  was  re- 
solved, after  solemn  debate  by  both  houses 
of  parliament  in  England,  "  that  they  would 
not  consent  to  the  toleration  of  popery  in  Ire- 
land, or  any  of  his  majesty's  dominions ;"  a 
resolution  which  was  virtually  a  declaration 
of  a  war  of  extermination  against  seven- 
eighths  of  the  landed  proprietors  in  Ireland, 
and  almost  the  entire  body  of  the  people. 

As  this  History  of  Ireland  has  been  pre- 
pared to  please  and  instruct  the  general  reader 


on  the  American  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  as 
there  is  a  growing  sympathy  for  the  honour 
of  the  Irish  name  in  this  country,  we  shall 
waive  our  own  wishes,  and  submit  a  few  re- 
marks upon  the  "Irish  Massacre  of  1641," 
as  a  partial  insurrection  of  the  goaded  people 
of  Ireland  in  that  year  is  commonly  termed. 
A  full  review  of  the  evidence  would  not  only 
be  useless  but  tiresome ;  we  shall  therefore 
proceed  to  sift  the  merits  of  it  in  as  few  wonls 
as  possible.  The  history  of  a  round  rolling 
lie  is  not  always  without  either  instruction  or 
amusement. 

In  1682,  Nalson,  an  eminent  Protestant 
author,  in  writing  the  "  Introduction"  to  his 
"  Collection  of  the  Great  Affairs  of  Slate," 
observes — 

"  I  am  very  sensible  that  in  pursuing  the 
historical  account  of  the  Irish  rebellion,  I 
shall  have  the  management  of  a  very  difficult 
province  ;  there  being  a  sort  of  people,  who 
think  there  can  be  no  hyperboles  in  aggrava- 
ting the  blackness  of  the  Irish  rebellion, 
though  at  the  same  time  they  think  every 
little  reflection  too  hard  and  sharp  that  touches 
upon  the  English  rebellion.  And  if  a  writer 
cannot  divest  himself  not  only  of  the  humanity 
of  a  just  and  generous  heathen  but  of  the 
charity  of  a  good  Christian,  he  shall  be  pur- 
sued with  the  odious  name  of  a  favourer  of 
popery." 

In  1814,  John  Lawless  issued  his  "  His- 
tory of  Ireland,"  and  he  appears  to  have  taken 
our  view  of  the  merits  of  the  "  Massacre," 
for  that  eloquent  and  perspicuous  writer 
scarcely  notices  the  statements  of  it  except 
to  simply  contradict  them. 

In  1819,  Matthew  Carey  published  his 
"  VindicicB  HibemiccB*^  mainly  for  the  pur- 
pose of  refuting  the  calumnies  connected 
with  "  The  Irish  Massacre  in  1641."  This 
honest  and  energetic  writer  completely  de- 
molished the  whole  framework  of  the  impu- 
tation on  the  Irish  people.  His  "  forty-eight 
pounders,"  as  he  calls  his  quotations,  were 
mostly  drawn  from  Protestant  authorities. 
Out  of  eleven  hundred  quotations  there  are 
not  twenty  from  writers  partial  to  the  Irish  ; 
and  as  we  have  diligently  traced  them  all, 
we  take  great  pleasure  in  certifying  to  the 


S09 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1642. 


faithfulness  of  the  industrious  and  sincere 
Carey.  Like  a  true  Irishman  by  birth,  he 
thus  observes  in  his  "  Preface  :" — 

"  My  heart  swells  with  a  glow  of  satisfac- 
tion and  pride,  that  I  can  come  before  the 
critical  world,  with  a  defence  of  Ireland, 
resting  on  the  names  of  Spenser,  Davies, 
Coke,  Temple,  Borlase,  Clarendon,  Nalson, 
Carte,  Warner,  Leland,  Baker,  Orrery,  Rush- 
worth,  etc.,  nearly  all  of  whom  were  open  or 
concealed  enemies  of  that  country  and  its  un- 
fortunate inhabitants." 

In  1830,  Taylor,  (a  very  judicious  and 
philosophical  writer,  and  beyond  all  question 
the  ablest  Protestant  historian  of  Ireland,) 
prepared  his  "  History  of  the  Civil  Wars  in 
Ireland"  for  publication  in  "  Constable's  Mis- 
cellany," then  being  issued  at  Edinburgh. 
This  excellent  work  of  Taylor's,  to  which  we 
are  frequently  indebted,  in  the  construction 
of  both  narrative  and  appendix,  contains  the 
following  summary  disposal  of  the  matter 
now  under  consideration  : — 

"The  'Irish  Massacre  in  1641'  has  been 
a  phrase  so  often  repeated,  even  in  books  of 
education,  that  one  can  scarcely  conceal  his 
surprise  when  he  learns  that  the  tale  is  as 
apocryphal  as  the  wildest  fiction  of  romance. 
No  mention  is  made  of  these  extensive  mur- 
ders in  any  of  the  proclamations  issued  by  the 
lords-justices,  even  so  late  as  the  23d  of  De- 
cember ;  and  truly  the  character  of  Parsons 
does  not  induce  us  to  believe  that  he  would 
have  suppressed  any  thing  likely  to  make  his 
adversaries  odious.  The  protestation  of  the 
Irish  parliament  is  equally  silent  on  the  sub- 
ject ;  nor  does  any  state  paper  of  the  local 
government  afford  the  slightest  ground  for 
the  charge.  Stories  of  massacre  and  horrid 
cruelty  were  indeed  studiously  circulated  in 
England,  because  it  was  the  interest  of  the 
patriot  party  in  parliament  to  propagate  such 
delusions.  They  increased  the  popular  ha- 
tred of  popery,  and  rendered  the  king's  sus- 
pected attachment  to  that  religion  more  gen- 
erally odious ;  and  they  afforded  a  pretence 
for  assembling  an  army  on  whose  officers 
and  soldiers  the  parliament  could  rely." 

In  1845,  we  find  Mooney,  a  Catholic  writer, 
taking  and  well  maintaining  the  same  ground. 


We  are  therefore  warranted  in  our  position 
that  the  subject  is  not  worth  more  notice  than 
to  describe  it  as  a  lie  which  has  served  its 
purpose,  although  there  are  yet  some  few 
people  who  would  like  to  hug  it  for  a  truth. 
Well  has  the  venerable  Bede  observed — 

"  The  hard  condition  of  the  historian  is, 
that  if  he  speaks  the  truth  he  may  provoke 
the  anger  of  men  ;  but  if  he  puts  falsehoods 
into  writing  he  will  be  unacceptable  to  God, 
who  will  distinguish  in  His  judgments  be- 
tween truth  and  adulation." 

To  return  to  our  narrative.  The  lords  of 
the  Pale  were  now  compelled  to  arm  in  self- 
defence,  but  still  acted  with  the  caution  of 
men  who  knew  the  difficulties  they  had  to 
encounter.  They  appointed  Lord  Gormans- 
town  to  head  them  in  a  conference  with  Roger 
Moore  and  other  native  chiefs  at  the  hill  of 
Crofty.  They  asked  the  chieftain  for  what 
purpose  he  had  taken  arms  ?  Moore  replied, 
"  To  maintain  the  royal  prerogative,  and 
make  the  subjects  of  Ireland  as  free  as  those 
of  England."  Lord  Gormanstown,  on  the 
part  of  his  associates,  asked  if  Moore  had 
any  further  design  ?  He  solemnly  answered 
in  the  negative.  The  lords  of  the  Pale  then 
promised  to  assist  him  with  all  their  might, 
and,  having  agreed  on  a  second  meeting  at 
the  hill  of  Tara,  sepeirated  to  raise  their  re- 
spective friends. 

The  proceedings  of  the  court  of  wards, 
and  the  instructions  given  to  Sir  Charles 
Cooke  by  Parsons  not  to  spare  "  children  of 
a  hand  high,"  alarmed  the  Irish  people  with 
the  prospect  of  a  war  of  extermination.  As 
the  king's  commissioners  were  at  Trim,  the 
meeting  of  the  Catholics  held  there  on  St. 
Patrick's  Day,  1642,  resulted  in  a  remon- 
strance being  handed  to  them,  of  which  the 
following  is  the  fourth  item  : — 

"  The,  illegal,  arbitrary,  and  unlawful  pro- 
ceedings of  the  said  Sir  William  Parsons, 
and  one  of  the  said  impeached  judges,  and 
their  adherents  and  instruments  in  the  court 
of  wards,  and  the  many  wilfully  erroneous 
decrees  and  judgments  of  that  court,  by  which 
the  heirs  of  Catholic  noblemen  and  other 
Catholics  were  most  cruelly  and  tyrannically 
dealt  withal ;  destroyed  in  their  estates,  and 


A.  D.  1643.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


303 


bred  in  dissoluteness  and  ignorance ;  their 
parents'  debts  unsatisfied  ;  their  younger 
brothers  and  sisters  left  wholly  unprovided 
for ;  the  ancient  appearing  tenure  of  mesne 
lords  unregarded  ;  estates  valid  in  law,  and 
made  for  valuable  considerations,  avoided 
against  law;  and  the  whole  land  filled  up 
with  the  frequent  swarms  of  escheators,  feo- 
daries,  pursuivants,  and  others,  by  authority 
of  that  court." 

Carte  thus  describes  the  remonstrance  : — 

"  They  urged  against  the  court  of  wards, 
that  it  was  a  new  court  never  known  in  Ire- 
land till  14  Jac. ;  that  it  had  no  warrant  from 
any  law  or  statute,  whereas  that  of  England 
was  erected  by  act  of  parliament ;  that  the 
subject  was  extremely  oppressed  thereby, 
through  the  multitude  of  informations  against 
all  freeholders  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest, 
without  any  limitation  of  time  ;  the  frequent 
courts  of  escheators  and  feodaries,  the  de- 
struction of  the  tenures  of  mesne  lords  by 
illegal  finding  of  them  to  be  in  capite ;  the 
sale  of  wards,  the  want  of  provision  for  the 
portions  of  younger  children  ;  whereby  they 
perished  or  took  ill  courses ;  and  the  non- 
payment of  debts  ;  that  the  wards  were  neg- 
lected ;  and  while  the  officers  of  the  court 
raised  vast  fortunes  to  themselves,  the  king 
did  not  receive  one  shiUing  advantage  for 
twenty  times  the  damage  done  his  people ; 
that  they  did,  not  desire  any  diminution  of  his 
majesty's  profit,  but  were  willing  that  the  per- 
sonal service  should  on  all  occasions  be  per- 
formed, and  a  course  taken,  as  well  for  se- 
curing that  service  and  the  king's  revenue,  as 
for  the  preservation  of  heirs  and  orphans,  and 
the  satisfaction  of  creditors." 

Still  hoping  for  peace,  the  confederates 
sent  a  very  loyal  and  submissive  address  to 
the  king.  A  manifesto,  worded  in  the  same 
spirit,  was  circulated  and  explained  among 
the  people.  They  also  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
queen,  (Henrietta  of  France,)  soliciting  her 
interference  with  his  majesty,  and  despatched 
it,  together  with  a  copy  of  their  address,  by 
Sir  John  Reid,  who  held  a  situation  in  the 
royal  household. 

The  Earl  of  Thomond  was  averse  to  the 
cause  of  the  confederates  ;  but  his  followers 


and  relatives  set  his  authority  at  defiance, 
and  added  the  county  of  Clare  to  the  patriotic 
association.  In  all  these  transactions,  the 
lives  and  properties  of  the  English  Protest- 
ants were  carefully  protected  by  the  Catholic 
nobility. 

The  arrival  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  who  had 
acquired  a  high  character  in  continental  war- 
fare, animated  the  hopes  of  the  Irish.  He 
was  a  leader  whose  noble  qualities  would 
have  done  honour  to  any  cause  ;  a  skilful 
and  circumspect  soldier,  and  a  prudent  states- 
man. On  assuming  the  command,  he  de- 
nounced in  the  strongest  terms,  the  excesses 
which  his  kinsman  Sir  Phelim  had  sanctioned, 
and  declared,  that  if  any  cruelties  were  again 
perpetrated,  he  would  quit  the  country. 

The  confederates  now  determined  to  organ- 
ize a  civil  government ;  and,  in  this  important 
work  the  clergy,  being  already  a  constituted 
body,  took  the  lead.  A  provincial  synod  was 
held  at  Armagh  ;  and,  in  May,  1642,  a  gen- 
eral assembly  from  all  the  provinces  at  Kil- 
kenny. It  was  mainly  composed  of  the 
Anglo-Irish  nobility,  and  conducted  with  all 
the  forms  and  order  of  regular  parliaments. 
Having  first  solemnly  professed  their  unsha- 
ken allegiance  to  the  king,  they  renounced 
the  authority  of  the  Irish  government  admin- 
istered in  Dublin,  "  by  a  malignant  party,  to 
his  highness's  great  disservice,  and  in  com- 
pliance with  their  confederates,  the  malignant 
party  in  England."  They  declared  that  they 
would  maintain  the  rights  and  immunities  of 
their  national  church  (the  Roman  Catholic) 
as  established  by  Magna  Charta.  They 
erected  provincial  councils,  but  allowed  an 
appeal  from  their  decisions  to  "  The  Supreme 
Council  of  the  Confederate  Catholics  of  Ire- 
land." This  body,  which  was  to  exercise  all 
the  functions  of  the  executive  government, 
was  to  consist  of  twenty-four  persons  chosen 
by  the  general  assembly.  Nine  members 
should  be  present  to  transact  any  business  ; 
and  a  majority  of  two  thirds  was  required  to 
give  validity  to  any  act. 

The  civil  war  in  England  being  favourable 
to  the  parliamentarians,  they  sent  over  to  en- 
gage the  troops  in  Ireland  for  their  interests. 
These  attempts  were  directly  encouraged  by 


304 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1644. 


Parsons,  who  admitted  the  parliamentary 
emissaries  into  the  privy-council  without 
waiting  for  the  royal  sanction.  Orraond,  on 
the  other  hand,  strenuously  laboured  to  keep 
the  soldiers  in  their  allegiance,  and  partially 
succeeded.  A  remonstrance,  complaining  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  war  had  been  con- 
ducted, was  transmitted  to  England,  notwith- 
standing all  the  resistance  of  Parsons.  A 
cessation  of  arms  was  at  length  signed  ;  but 
Ormond  opposed  all  proposals  for  a  final  ar- 
rangement. The  confederates,  grateful  for 
the  royal  notice  of  their  remonstrance,  voted 
thirty  thousand  pounds  to  the  king,  one  half 
in  ready  money,  and  the  other  half  in  provi- 
sions. 

If  there  had  been  any  sincerity  in  the  gov- 
erning powers,  the  war  against  the  people  and 
the  confederates  should  have  ceased  ;  for  it  is 
impossible  to  discover  any  reasonable  pretext 
that  the  most  zealous  royalist  could  adduce 
for  regarding  the  confederates  any  longer  as 
enemies.  They  only  asked  for  what  they 
had  paid  for  in  1628.  A  deputation  from 
the  Catholic  confederates  proceeded  to  lay 
their  demands  before  the  king ;  and  a  com- 
mittee from  the  Protestants  of  Dublin  was 
also  sent  over  to  stale  their  proposals  for  the 
pacification  of  the  country.  The  articles  pre- 
sented by  the  rival  parties  are  full  of  evidence 
relating  to  the  state  of  Ireland  in  those  days. 

Charles  neither  accepted  nor  rejected  the 
proposals  of  the  confederates.  He  addressed 
them  in  kind  and  soothing  terms ;  patheti- 
cally lamented  the  difficulties  of  his  situation; 
assured  them  that  he  felt  a  tender  interest  in 
their  welfare  ;  and  concluded  with  inconclu- 
sively throwing  the  burden  of  negotiation  on 
the  Marquis  of  Ormond. 

Ormond  opposed  all  the  terms  required  by 
the  confederates,  and  they,  knowing  that  they 
had  been  more  moderate  than  prudence  re- 
quired, refused  to  recede  from  a  single  claim. 
He  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  them  of  the  ex- 
pediency of  assisting  the  king  as  promptly  as 
possible.  They  replied  that  they  would  not 
weaken  themselves  until  the  signature  of  a 
regular  treaty  had  secured  their  future  safety. 
During  this  delay,  Rinunccini,  Archbishop  of 
Fermo,  arrived  in  Ireland  as  legate  from  the 


pope.  This  last  circumstance  operated  very 
unfavourably  for  the  Catholics  and  for  the 
people  generally.  Being  apparently  unac- 
quainted with  the  then  existing  influences  in 
Irish  affairs,  his  straightforward  and  strenuous 
opposition  to  the  English  party  confused  the 
well-adjusted  and  politic  expedients  of  the 
confederates. 

Charles,  seeing  Ormond  unwilling  to  close 
with  the  Irish  lords,  sent  over  Edward,  Lord 
Herbert,  son  of  the  Marquis  of  Worcester, 
whom,  for  his  warm  attachment  to  the  royal 
cause,  the  king  had  created  Earl  of  Glamor- 
gan. He  found  the  confederates  inclined  to 
insist  on  more  favourable  terms  than  they  had 
previously  demanded  ;  but  he  had  influence 
enough  to  prevail  upon  them  to  make  both  a 
public  and  a  private  treaty ;  the  latter  of 
which,  Glamorgan  declared,  contained  terms 
too  favourable  to  the  Catholics  to  be  pub- 
lished at  a  time  when  the  popular  rage  against 
them  was  so  rampant  in  England. 

Rinunccini  objected  to  the  treaty  with 
Glamorgan  being  kept  secret.  He  said,  that 
"  if  the  publication  of  these  articles  would 
offend  the  Protestant  royalists,  there  was 
reason  to  dread  that  the  Catholic  princes  on 
the  continent  would  be  displeased  by  their 
concealment ;"  and  added,  "  that  a  secret 
treaty  might  easily  be  disowned  by  the  king 
and  his  ministers  whenever  it  was  their  con- 
venience to  do  so."  The  latter  argument 
made  a  deep  impression,  especially  on  the 
minds  of  the  old  Irish,  who  had  so  often  suf- 
fered by  the  violation  of  royal  promises  ;  and 
an  accidental  circumstance  soon  proved  that 
the  legate's  caution  was  not  made  without  cor- 
rect and  judicious  observation  since  his  arrival. 

A  second  Sir  Charles  Coote  (for  the  for- 
mer had  been  killed  in  a  skirmish  during  the 
first  year  of  the  war)  had  been  sent  by  the 
parliament  to  aid  Monroe  in  Ulster,  and  soon 
distinguished  himself.  He  advanced  into 
Connaught,  took  possession  of  Sligo,  and  ex- 
tended his  depredations  into  the  neighbouring 
counties.  Sir  James  Dillon  was  sent  with  a 
body  of  eight  hundred  men  to  aid  the  titular 
Archbishop  of  Tuam  in  recovering  this  im- 
portant post.  The  assault  had  nearly  suc- 
ceeded when  Dillon's  soldiers  were  alarmed 


A.  D.  1646.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


305 


by  the  report  of  another  army  advancing  from 
the  north.  Coote  sallied  out,  attacked  the 
Irish  army  in  its  retreat,  and  put  it  to  the 
rout.  The  baggage  of  the  archbishop  was 
taken,  and  in  it  was  found  a  copy  of  the 
treaty  that  had  been  made  with  Glamorgan. 
The  victorious  general  immediately  trans- 
mitted the  document  to  the  English  parlia- 
ment, by  whom,  of  course,  it  was  extensively 
circulated  all  over  the  three  kingdoms. 

The  parties  to  the  private  treaty  were  now 
in  a  very  unenviable  position.  Something 
must  be  done.  The  king  set  the  example. 
He  led  off  the  dance  of  duplicity  by  sending 
a  letter  to  the  Irish  privy-council,  ordering 
that  Glamorgan  should  be  detained  a  prison- 
er ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  wrote  privately 
to  Ormond,  "  to  suspend  the  execution  of  any 
sentence  against  him  until  the  king  was  in- 
formed fully  of  all  the  proceedings."  It  has 
since  been  discovered  that  the  king  had  ac- 
tually sent  Ormond  long  before  instructions 
to  conclude  a  peace  with  the  confederates, 
on  terms  nearly,  if  not  fully,  as  favourable  to 
the  Catholics  as  those  granted  by  Glamorgan. 
This  is  proved  by  four  letters  preserved  in 
the  Harleian  MSS.  at  the  British  Museum, 
wherein,  besides  admitting  the  favourable 
terms  for  the  Catholics,  the  state-cipher  is 
used  in  reference  to  "  my  making  good  all 
instructions  and  promises  to  you  and  the 
nuncio."  These  letters  were  sent  to  Gla- 
morgan in  Ireland  ;  the  first,  official,  is  dated 
Feb.  3,  1645-6  ;  the  second,  by  private  hand, 
Feb,  28 ;  the  third  and  fourth,  by  private 
hand,  severally  dated  on  the  5th  and  6th  of 
April,  1646. 

During  these  proceedings,  Owen  O'Neill 
was  busily  training  his  forces,  and  making 
such  preparations  as  would  ensure  his  suc- 
cess. He  contrived  to  bring  Monroe  to  an 
engagement  at  Benburb  ;  and  though  the 
Scottish  general  had  forces  superior  to  the 
Irish  in  number  and  discipline,  O'Neill  gained 
the  most  brilliant  and  decisive  victory  that 
occurred  during  the  whole  war. 

Rinunccini  now  prevailed  on  Colonel  Pres- 
ton and  O'Neill  to  join  him,  and,  with  the  two 
armies,  laid  siege  to  Dublin.  Lord  Digby, 
who  was  in  Ireland  on  behalf  of  the  king,  and 

39 


was  willing  to  make  any  sacrifice  in  his  mas- 
ter's service,  endeavoured  to  moderate  the 
stubbornness  of  Ormond.  Clanricarde  made 
similar  exertions  with  the  nuncio ;  but  both 
were  too  obstinate  to  recede. 

Seeing  how  affairs  were  standing  in  Eng- 
land at  the  end  of  1646,  Ormond  openly 
engaged  in  a  negotiation  with  the  parliament- 
arians, declaring  that  he  had  received  orders 
from  the  kmg  to  submit  to  that  party  rather 
than  the  Irish.  This,  however,  is  a  charge 
which  the  real  character  of  Charles  does  not 
need  to  be  true.  The  fact  is,  that  Ormond 
saw  the  superior  business  talents  of  the  men 
in  the  parliamentarian  interest,  and  he  was 
afraid  of  them.  Money  was  the  interpreter 
on  this  occasion.  The  terms  for  which  he 
agreed  to  admit  the  parliamentary  forces  into 
Dublin  were  soon  concluded ;  but  the  Puri- 
tans, under  the  command  of  Colonel  Jones, 
had  no  sooner  obtained  possession  of  Dublin, 
than  they  treated  the  marquis  with  the  great- 
est contempt.  Alarmed  for  his  safety,  he 
hastily  embarked  for  England,  but  had  scarce- 
ly arrived  there  when  he  learned  that  the  par- 
hament  had  given  orders  for  his  arrest,  and 
he  escaped  precipitately  to  France. 

The  old  ex^emy  of  Ireland,  disunion  among 
her  friends,  now  showed  itself  in  many  cir- 
cumstances.    O'Neill  had  long  despised  the 
confederates ;    he    was    equally   weary    of 
the   nuncio,   whose   presumption  had   given 
disgust  to  the  moderate  men  in  his  own  party. 
The  court  of  Rome  had  signified  its  disap- 
i  probation  of  his  proceedings,  and  refused  to 
ratify  his  promises.     The  Catholic  armies, 
j  too,  had  been  generally  unsuccessful.     The 
;  nuncio  now  proposed  that  O'Neill  should  ad- 
vance to  Kilkenny,  disperse  the  council  of 
the  confederates,  and  assume  the  dictatorship 
of  Ireland ;  but  O'Neill  had  no  such  ambi- 
I  tion,  and,  besides,  was  always  unwilling  to 
j  shed  blood  except  on  the  field  of  batHe.     He 
I  advanced  for  the  purpose  of  overawing  the 
council ;  but  while  on  his  march,  an  armis- 
I  tice  was  concluded,  and  he  was  exposed  to 
the  attack  of  the  armies  both  of  Inchiquin  and 
Preston,  each  of  which  was  superior  to  his 
own.     By  an  exertion  of  the  most  consum- 
mate generalship  he  extricated  himself  from 


306 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1649. 


these  difficulties,  and  retreated  with  httle  loss 
to  Ulster,  while  he  was  actually  proclaimed 
a  traitor  by  the  confederates. 

Thus  the  real  opportunities  for  redress  to 
the  long-suffering  people  of  Ireland  were  fast 
disappearing  before  the  creation  of  a  new 
form  of  power  in  England, — a  power  com- 
posed of  enthusiasm,  vigour,  and  reckless- 
ness. The  troubles  of  the  king  were  such 
that  he  entreated  Ormond  to  return  to  Ireland 
in  September,  1648.  The  treatment  Ormond 
had  received  from  the  parliament  convinced 
him  that  nothing  was*  to  be  hoped  from  that 
party ;  and  he  resolved  to  devote  himself  en- 
tirely to  the  king.  But  it  was  now  too  late  : 
the  confederates  could  no  longer  trust  a  man 
who  had  so  grossly  betrayed  the  confidence 
which  they  had  formerly  bestowed.  Ormond, 
however,  pushed  on  the  negotiations  with  a 
vigour  quite  unlike  his  former  tardiness  ;  and 
was  stimulated  tb  greater  speed  by  the  press- 
ing letters  whicn  ne  received  from  the  king, 
then  (Oct.  1648)  a\state-prisoner  in  the  Isle 
of  Wight. 

At  the  time  that  a  little  straightforward 
candour  might  have  saved  the  unhappy  mon- 
arch from  ruin,  and  Ireland  from  pillage,  we 
find  him  guilty  of  the  most  deplorable  dupli- 
city. A  few  days  after  his  last  letter  to  Or- 
mond (Oct.  28)  he  declared  to  the  parliament- 
ary commissioners  who  remonstrated  against 
Ormond's  renewing  his  treaty  with  the  Irish, 
"  Since  the  first  votes  passed  for  the  treaty 
[between  the  king  and  English  parliament] 
in  August,  I  have  not  transacted  any  affairs 
concerning  Ireland,  but  with  you,  the  com- 
missioners, in  relation  to  the  treaty  itself." 
This  is  the  king  who;n  SmoUet  describes  as 
"  incapable  of  dissimulation." 

The  treaty  with  the  Irish  embodied  the 
greater  part  of  Glamorgan's  concessions,  and 
provided  for  the  summoning  of  a  new  parlia- 
ment ;  until  which  time  the  power  of  the 
lord-lieutenant  was  to  be  shared  by  a  council, 
to  be  called  '*  Commissioners  of  Trust,"  and 
elected  by  the  confederates.  On  the  16th  or 
17th  of  January,  1649,  this  treaty  was  per- 
fected. On  the  30th  of  the  same  month,  it 
was  rendered  valueless  by  the  "  death"  of  the 
king,  who  was  executed  by  order  of  the  Eng- 


lish parliament.  Thus  were  destroyed  all 
the  hopes  of  the  Irish  people  for  loyalty  to 
the  king  and  justice  to  themselves. 

Cox,  who  wrote  in  1688,  has  given  us  a 
very  indicative  paragraph  upon  the  death  of 
Charles  the  First,  which  shows  the  despica- 
ble limits  of  the  "  comitas  inter  gentes'^  pre- 
vailing in  the  minds  of  historians  in  those 
times : — 

"I  could  wish  to  throw  a  veil  over  the 
30th  day  of  January,  that  frightful  day  on 
which  the  father  of  his  country  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom. O,  that  I  could  say  they  were  Irish- 
men who  committed  the  abominable  deed, 
and  that  it  could  be  laid  at  the  door  of  the 
papists  !  but  though  they  might  have  partici- 
pated indirectly  in  the  crime,  it  is  at  least 
true  that  others  were  the  actors,  and  we  may 
say  with  the  poet, — 

— '  Pudet  hoc  opprobria  iiobis 
Et  dici  potuisse,  et  non  potuisse  refelli.' " 

Upon  this  Mac-Geoghegan  has  well  ob- 
served— 

"  This,  exclamation  by  Cox  fully  displays 
his  disposition  towards  a  people  whose  his- 
tory he  attempts  to  write." 

The  announcement  of  the  signing  of  Gla- 
morgan's treaty,  and  of  the  death  of  the  king, 
arrived  in  Ireland  within  a  few  days  of  each 
other.  Immediately  after  the  reception  of 
this  disastrous  news,  the  unfortunate  people 
were  called  upon  to  endure  the  most  bitter 
and  bloody  persecution  the  world  ever  wit- 
nessed. These  outrages  were  performed  by 
men  who  professed  to  be  the  exclusive  mes- 
sengers of  peace  and  liberty. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXVII. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  We  do  not  draw  the  moral  lessons  we 
might  from  history.  On  the  contrary,  with- 
out care,  it  may  be  used  to  vitiate  our  minds 
and  to  destroy  our  happiness.  In  history  a 
great  volume  is  unrolled  for  our  instruction, 
drawing  the  materials  of  future  wisdom  from 
the  past  errors  and  infirmities  of  mankind. 
It  may,  in  the  perversion,  serve  for  a  maga- 


A.  D.  1649.] 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


307 


zine,  furnishing  offensive  and  defensive 
weapons  for  parties  in  church  and  state,  and 
supplying  the  means  of  keeping  aUve,  or  re- 
viving, dissensions  and  animosities,  and  add- 
ing fuel  to  civil  fury." — ^Burke. 

"  There  is  too  much  reason  to  think,  that  as 
the  lords-justices  really  wished  the  rebellion 
to  spread,  and  more  gentlemen  of  estates  to 
be  involved  in  it,  that  the  forfeitures  might 
be  the  greater,  and  a  general  plantation  be 
carried  on  by  a  new  set  of  English  Protest- 
ants all  over  the  kingdom,  to  the  ruin  and 
expulsion  of  all  the  old  English  and  natives 
that  were  Roman  Catholics  ;  so,  to  promote 
what  they  wished,  they  gave  out  such  a  de- 
sign, and  that  in  a  short  time  there  would  not 
be  a  Roman  Catholic  left  in  the  kingdom. 
It  is  no  small  confirmation  of  this  notion,  that 
the  Earl  of  Ormond,  in  his  letters  of  January 
27th,  and  February  25th,  1641-2,  to  Sir  W. 
St.  Leger,  imputes  the  general  revolt  of  the 
nation,  then  far  advanced,  to  the  publishing 
of  such  a  design :  and  when  a  person  of  his 
great  modesty  and  temper,  the  most  averse  in 
his  nature  to  speak  his  sentiments  of  what  he 
could  not  but  condemn  in  others,  and  who, 
when  obliged  to  do  so,  does  it  always  in  the 
gentlest  expressions,  is  drawn  to  express  such 
an  opinion,  the  case  must  be  very  notorious. 
I  do  not  find  that  the  copies  of  those  letters 
are  preserved ;  but  the  original  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam St.  Leger's,  in  answer  to  them,  suf- 
ficiently shows  it  to  be  his  Lordship's  opinion  ; 
for  after  acknowledging  the  receipt  of  these 
two  letters,  he  useth  these  words  :  *  The  un- 
due promulgation  of  that  severe  determination 
to  extirpate  the  Irish  and  Papacy  out  of  this 
kingdom,  your  Lordship  rightly  apprehends 
to  be  too  unseasonably  published.' " — Carte. 

"  This  St.  Leger  was  himself  one  of  the 
chief  extirpators  :  and  I  pray  the  reader  to 
observe  that  he  does  not  at  all  condemn  the 
system  of  massacring  the  Irish  to  the  last 
man.  The  only  thing  that  he  finds  fault  with 
is  the  unseasonable  publication  of  the  purpose 

to  do  so." — O'CONNELL. 

"  So  far  were  the  Irish  leaders  from  aiming 
at  establishing  the  independence  of  their 
country,  that  Sir  Phelim  O'Neill  actually 
pretended  that  he  was  in  arms  for  the  king. 


and  produced  a  forged  commission  as  his 
authority.  The  character  of  the  unhappy 
Charles  is,  unfortunately,  too  notorious  for 
treachery  and  duplicity  to  render  it  wholly 
incredible  that  he  would  have  countenanced 
the  insurgents.  But  the  dying  declaration  of 
O'Neill  [Phelim]  exonerates  him  in  this  in- 
stance, since  that  chieftain  might  have  saved 
his  life  if  he  had  consented  to  confirm  this 
calumny  against  his  sovereign." — Taylor. 

"  It  was  certainly  a  miserable  spectacle 
to  see  every  day  numbers  of  people  executed 
by  martial  law,  at  the  discretion,  or  rather 
caprice  of  Sir  Charles  Coote,  a  hot-headed 
and  bloody  man,  and  as  such  accounted  even 
by  the  English  Protestants.  Yet,  this  was 
the  man  whom  the  lords-justices  picked  out 
to  intrust  with  a  commission  of  martial  law 
to  put  to  death  rebels  or  traitors — that  is,  all 
such  as  he  should  deem  to  be  so ;  which  he 
performed  with  delight  and  a  wanton  kind  of 
cruelty.  And  yet  all  this  while  the  justices 
sat  in  council,  and  the  judges  at  the  usual 
seasons  sat  in  their  respective  courts,  specta- 
tors of,  and  countenancing  so  extravagant  a 
tribunal  as  Sir  Charles  Coote's,  and  so  illegal 
an  execution  of  justice." — Castlehaven. 

"  The  mode  in  which  these  precious  gov- 
ernors [Parsons  and  Borlase]  chose  to  con- 
duct the  war,  may  be  best  learned  from  their 
instructions  to  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief of  the  royal  army.  He  was 
directed,  not  only  *  to  kill  and  destroy  rebels, 
and  their  adherents  and  relievers ;'  but  also 
*  to  bum,  waste,  consume,  and  demoUsh  all 
the  places,  towns,  and  houses  where  they 
had  been  relieved  and  harboured,  with  all  the 
com  and  hay  there ;  and  also  to  kill  and 
destroy  all  the  male  inhabitants  capable  of 
bearing  arms  !'  Nor  were  these  sanguinary 
edicts  disregarded.  Dr.  Borlase,  who  wrote 
a  history  of  these  transactions,  professedly  to 
vindicate  the  character  of  his  near  relative, 
the  lord-justice,  boasts  that  Sir  W.  Cole's 
regiment  lulled  two  thousand  five  hundred 
rebels  in  several  engagements;  and  adds, 
with  horrid  complacency,  *  there  were  starved 
and  faniished,  of  the  vulgar  sort,  whose  goods 
were  seized  on  by  this  regiment,  seven  thou- 
sand !'     The  massacres  in  Ulster,  we  have 


308 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1649: 


shown  by  the  report  of  the  parhamentary 
commissioners,  to  have  been  grossly  exagger- 
ated ;  but,  at  all  events,  they  were  the  acts 
of  a  mob,  and  w^ere  not  only  discouraged,  but 
punished  by  the  Irish  leaders.  But  what  are 
we  to  say  of  this  mandate,  deliberately  issued 
by  the  chief  governors  of  a  country,  and 
obeyed  by  those  who  bore  the  honourable 
name  of  British  officers  ?" — Taylor. 

"  The  Marquis  of  Ormond  had  sent  Cap- 
tain Anthony  Willoughby  with  150  men, 
which  had  formerly  served  in  the  fort  of 
Galway,  from  thence  to  Bristol.  The  ship 
which  carried  them  was  taken  by  Captain 
Swanley,  who  was  so  inhuman  as  to  throw 
seventy  of  the  soldiers  overboard,  under  the 
pretence  that  they  were  Irish  ;  though  they 
had  faithfully  served  his  Majesty  against  the 
rebels  during  all  the  time  of  the  war." — 
Carte. 

"  Some  may  possibly  be  so  absurd  as  to 
suppose  that  Captain  Swanley  was  punished 
for  these  brutalities.  He  had  barbarously 
assassinated  faithful  soldiers,  serving  their 
king  and  their  country.  He  had  basely  as- 
sassinated them,  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
they  were  Irish.  How  did  the  representa- 
tives of  the  English  people  treat  him  ?  Rec- 
ollect that  these  representatives  were  the 
chosen  spirits  of  the  age — the  master  minds 
of  England — the  advocates  of  Liberty — and 
the  zealous  promoters  of  (what  they  called) 
Religion." — O'Connell. 

"  Captain  Swanley  was  called  into  the 
[English]  House  of  Commons,  and  had 
thanks  given  him  for  his  good  service  ;  and 
a  chain  of  gold  of  two  hundred  pounds  value  ; 
and  Captain  Smith,  his  vice-admiral,  had 
another  chain  of  £100  value." — Commons' 
Journal,  June,  1644. 

"  The  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  the  officers 
under  him  at  sea,  had,  as  often  as  he  met 
with  any  Irish  frigates,  or  such  freebooters 
as  sailed  under  their  commission,  taken  all 
the  seamen  who  became  prisoners  to  them  of 
that  nation,  [Ireland,]  and  bound  them  back 
to  back,  and  thrown  them  overboard  into  the 
sea,  without  distinction  of  their  condition,  if 
they  were  Irish.  In  this  cruel  manner  very 
many  poor  men  perished  daily  ;  of  which  the 


King  said  nothing,  because  *  *  *  his  Ma- 
jesty could  not  complain  of  it  without  being 
concerned  in  the  behalf,  and  in  favour  of  the 
rebels  of  Ireland." — Clarendon. 

"  The  Lords  and  Commons  assembled  in 
the  parliament  of  England  do  declare,  that  no 
quarter  shall  be  given  to  any  Irishman,  or  to 
any  Papist  born  in  Ireland,  which  shall  be 
taken  in  hostility  against  the  parliament,  either 
upon  sea,  within  this  kingdom,  or  dominion 
of  Wales  :  and  therefore  do  order  and  ordain 
that  the  Lord-General,  Lord- Admiral,  and 
all  other  officers  and  commanders  both  by 
sea  and  land,  shall  except  all  Irishmen,  and 
all  Papists  born  in  Ireland,  out  of  all  capitu- 
lations, agreements,  and  compositions  here- 
after to  be  made  with  the  enemy  ;  and  shall, 
upon  the  taking  of  every  such  Irishman  and 
Papist  born  in  Ireland  as  aforesaid,  forthwith 
put  every  such  person  to  death." — Journals, 
Oct.  24,  1644. 

"  Sir  Richard  Grenville  was  very  much 
esteemed  by  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  and  more 
by  the  parliament,  for  the  signal  acts  of 
cruelty  he  did  every  day  commit  upon  the 
Irish  *  *  *  *  hanging  old  men  who  were 
bedrid,  because  they  would  not  discover 
where  their  money  was  that  he  believed  they 
had  ;  and  old  women,  some  of  quality,  after 
he  had  plundered  them,  and  found  less  than 
he  expected." — Clarendon. 

"  We  have  detailed  the  transactions  with 
Glamorgan  at  rather  disproportionate  length, 
not  only  on  account  of  its  intrinsic  importance, 
but  because  of  the  scandalous  manner  in 
which  it  has  been  misrepresented  by  several 
historians.  Clarendon  omits  the  proceedings 
altogether;  and  his  silence  is  a  conclusive 
proof  that  he  believed  the  king's  conduct  in- 
defensible. Hume,  by  a  long  and  laboured 
argument,  endeavours  to  prove  that  the  entire 
blame  rests  on  Glamorgan  ;  and  declares  that 
the  king  never  could  have  designed  to  show 
such  favour  to  the  Catholics,  Carte,  who 
saw  the  original  documents,  by  suppressing 
some  and  misrepresenting  others,  labours  to 
show  that  the  ascendency  of  the  Protestant 
church  in  Ireland  had  been  always  made  by 
Charles  a  primary  article  in  all  instructions 
concerning  the  peace.    And  Smollet  declares 


A.  D.  1649.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


309 


that  *  the  king  was  incapable  of  dissimula- 
tion.' " — Taylor. 

"  Now,  then,  this  Protestant  church  and 
Protestant  king  had  to  learn  that  *  reforma- 
tions,' like  comets,  have  tails.  There  was 
no  longer  the  iron  police  of  Old  Bess,  to 
watch  and  to  crush  all  gainsayers.  The  Pu- 
ritans artfully  connected  political  grievances, 
which  were  real  and  numerous,  with  religious 
principles  and  ceremonies  ;  and,  having  the 
main  body  of  the  people  with  them  as  to  the 
former,  while  these  were  (in  consequence 
of  the  endless  change  of  creeds)  become 
indifferent  to  the  latter,  they  soon  became 
(under  the  name  of  '  The  Pcirliament')  the 
sole  rulers  of  the  country  ;  they  abolished  the 
church  and  the  house  of  lords,  and  finally 
brought,  in  1649,  during  the  progress  of  their 
*  thorough  godly  reformation,'  the  unfortunate 
king  himself  to  trial." — Cobbett. 

"  The  English  commons  house  of  parUa- 
ment  renounced  its  allegiance,  cashiered  the 
lords,  extinguished  the  episcopacy,  and  de- 
throned their  king.  The  English  rebels 
subdued  him  ;  the  Scots  betrayed  him  :  con- 
jointly, they  beheaded  him  ;  but  Ireland  up- 
held him.  She  combated  his  murderers ; 
and,  as  the  reward  of  loyalty,  she  met  the 
fate  of  rebels." — J.  Barrington. 

"A  scene  of  cruelty  and  barbarism,  of 
which  no  other  history  furnishes  a  similar 
example,  was  now  going  forward  in  England. 
A  king  sold  by  his  self-willed  subjects  of 
Scotland  to  their  English  brethren  for  a  sum 
of  money,  dragged  from  prison  to  prison,  and 
at  length  publicly  executed  upon  a  scaffold. 
Such  was  the  scene,  and  such  the  tragical 
end  of  Charles  the  First." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  There  has  been  a  long  dispute  whether 
Glamorgan  did  not  exceed  his  instructions 
by  agreeing  to  certain  articles  in  the  private 
treaty  ;  and  some  warm  defenders  of  Charles 
assert  that  the  earl  certainly  exceeded  his 
instructions.  The  question  is  not  really  im- 
portant, because  the  principal  additional  con- 
cession could  have  been  no  disgrace  to  the 
king.  It  was  simply  that  the  Cathohcs  should 
pay  tithes  to  their  own  ecclesiastics,  and  the 
Protestants  to  the  teachers  of  their  own 
church,     Protestant  historians,  however,  de- 


scribe this  article,  and  a  statute  of  similar 
tendency  in  the  reign  of  James,  a  cruel  mock- 
ery, because  that  many  ministers  of  the  es- 
tablishment had  notoriously  no  congregations. 
To  which  the  Catholic  writers  reply  by  ask- 
ing. Why  then  should  they  be  paid  for  their 
instruction  ?  And  it  has  not  been  our  good 
fortune  to  meet  with  a  satisfactory  answer  to 
the  question." — Taylor. 

"  It  is  diflficult  for  the  most  wise  and  up- 
right government  to  correct  the  abuses  of 
remote  delegated  power,  productive  of  un- 
measured wealth,  and  protected  by  the  bold- 
ness and  strength  of  the  same  ill-got  riches. 
These  abuses,  full  of  their  own  wild,  native 
vigour,  will  grow  and  flourish  under  mere 
neglect.  But  where  the  supreme  authority 
(not  content  with  winking  at  the  rapacity  of 
its  inferior  instruments)  is  so  shameless  and 
corrupt  as  openly  to  give  bounties  and  pre- 
miums for  disobedience  to  its  laws  ;  when  it 
will  not  trust  to  the  activity  of  avarice  in  the 
pursuit  of  its  own  gains ;  when  it  secures 
public  robbery  by  all  the  careful  jealousy  and 
attention  with  which  it  ought  to  protect  prop- 
erty from  such  violence  ;  the  commonwealth 
then  is  become  totally  perverted  from  its 
purposes :  neither  God  nor  man  will  long 
endure  it ;  nor  will  it  long  endure  itself.  In 
that  case,  there  is  an  unnatural  infection,  a 
pestilential  taint  fermenting  in  the  constitu- 
tion of  society,  which  fever  and  convulsions 
of  some  kind  or  other  must  throw  off;  or  in 
which  the  vital  powers,  worsted  in  an  un- 
equal struggle,  are  pushed  back  upon  them- 
selves, and,  by  a  reversal  of  their  whole 
functions,  fester  to  gangrene,  to  death ;  and 
instead  of  what  was  but  just  now  the  delight 
and  boast  of  the  creation,  there  will  be  cast 
out,  in  the  face  of  the  sun,  a  bloated,  putrid, 
noisome  carcass,  full  of  stench  and  poison, 
an  offence,  a  horror,  a  lesson  to  the  world." 
Burke. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

Cromwell's  invasion  of  Ireland — Specimen  proceed- 
ings of  two  years  of  the  government  under  him — 
Administration  of  Ireton  and  Ludlow — Additioa 
of  a  pestilential  plague  to  the  other  troubles — 
State  of  Ireland  at  the  close  of  the  Puritan  war — 


310 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1649. 


Comparison  of  the  English  administration  of  Crom- 
well with  those  preceding  and  following — Digres- 
sion on  the  moral  lessons  and  political  benefits 
eventually  resulting  from  the  persecution  of  the 
Roman  Catholics — The  scene  temporarily  chang- 
ed to  America — Real  and  perpetual  nature  of 
American  political  superiority — A  character  for 
Cromwell — Interesting  authorities. 

The  curse  of  divided  councils  still  con- 
tinued in  Ireland  after  the  death  of  Charles, 
and  the  consequent  evils  became  aggravated. 
The  confederates  hated  and  feared  Owen 
Roe  O'Neill,  (the  only  leader  who  could 
have  suitably  met  the  able  generals  of  the 
parliament,)  and  they  therefore  opposed  all 
the  efforts  of  Ormond  to  effect  a  reconciliation. 
With  much  better  reason,  they  viewed  with 
suspicion  that  royalist  party,  of  which  Inchi- 
quin  was  the  head,  knowing  that  its  members 
were  fully  as  averse  to  catholicity  as  the  Pu- 
ritans, and  were  driven  into  their  ranks  merely 
by  indignation  at  the  judicial  murder  of  the 
king. 

The  Irish  had  been  taught,  by  the  mission 
of  Glamorgan,  that  Charles  was  willing  to 
grant  them  terms  far  more  favourable  than 
those  offered  by  Ormond  ;  they  consequently 
began  to  view  the  marquis  as  the  secret  ene- 
my of  their  cause,  and  suspected  that  he 
would  labour  to  prevent  them  from  enjoying 
the  royal  graces.  Prince  Rupert,  who  com- 
manded the  royal  fleet  on  the  coast,  encour- 
aged these  opinions  ;  and  from  some  motive, 
exerted  himself  strenuously  to  thwart  Or- 
mond. Charles,  having  wasted  his  time  until 
Ireland  was  lost  irrecoverably,  proceeded  to 
Scotland,  where  he  took  the  covenant. 

The  prospects  of  the  royalists  in  the  early 
part  of  1649  were  rather  encouraging.  The 
parliamentarians  retained  possession  only  of 
Derry  and  Dublin,  with  some  adjacent  posts. 
Sir  Charles  Coote,  the  Governor  of  Derry, 
was  ready  to  engage  with  whichever  party 
had  the  fairest  prospect  of  success ;  and  a 
great  number  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  in 
Dublin  were  well  disposed  to  join  Ormond, 
their  favourite  leader.  One  brief  but  vigor- 
ous effort  might  have  saved  Ireland  ;  but  the 
country  was  doomed. 

The  capture  of  Dublin  would  have  ensured 
the  royalists  the  quiet  possession  of  the  king- 
dom.    But  the  month  of  May  had  arrived 


before  any  active  preparations  were  made  to 
take  the  field.  The  subsidies  promised  by 
the  council  of  the  confederates  at  Kilkenny 
were  not  raised ;  and  the  commissioners  of 
trust  showed  no  anxiety  to  provide  for  the 
army.  Ormond  remonstrated  in  vain  against 
this  neglect ;  and  it  was  late  in  June  when, 
having  borrowed  some  small  sums  on  his 
personal  credit,  he  mustered  a  respectable 
body  of  troops. 

Similar  mortifications  met  Ormond  from 
another  quarter.  Prince  Rupert  persisted  in 
remaining  with  his  fleet  in  one  of  the  south- 
ern harbours.  After  a  vain  display  of  their 
troops  before  Dublin,  which  Ormond  hoped 
would  have  produced  an  insurrection  of  the 
royalists  in  the  city,  it  was  determined  to  re- 
duce the  garrisons  of  Drogheda  and  Dundalk, 
before  besieging  the  capital ;  and  the  conduct 
of  this  enterprise  was  intrusted  to  Lord  In- 
chiquin. 

The  garrison  of  Dublin  was  now  reinforced 
by  the  parliamentary  colonels  Coote  and 
Venables,  with  two  thousand  six  hundred 
soldiers,  and  a  large  supply  of  provisions  and 
ammunition.  News  also  arrived  that  Crom- 
well, having  assembled  a  powerful  army,  was 
preparing  to  sail  over  to  Munster,  where  he 
hoped  to  be  joined  by  several  of  the  Puritans. 
It  was  well  known  to  all  the  leaders,  that  the 
modern  Protestants  in  Youghal,  Kinsale,  and 
Cork,  were  secretly  inclined  to  favour  the 
cause  of  the  parliament ;  for,  with  them,  ha- 
tred of  catholicity  was  a  much  more  power- 
ful feeling  than  loyalty  to  their  sovereign. 

On  the  receipt  of  this  alarming  intelligence 
it  was  resolved  to  send  Lord  Inchiquin,  with 
eleven  hundred  horse,  to  secure  the  province 
of  Munster.  This  resolution  of  the  council 
was  not  wholly  without  reason.  Inchiquin 
was  regarded  by  the  confederates  with  equal 
fear  and  hatred.  His  hands  were  red  with 
the  blood  of  their  murdered  brethren.  His 
unrelenting  enmity  to  the  ancient  religion  was 
not  disguised,  even  while  he  fought  in  their 
ranks.  Ormond  thought  that  the  fanatics  of 
Youghal  might  be  kept  in  their  loyalty,  by 
being  placed  under  a  commander  like  them- 
selves :  and  if  Cromwell  were  excluded  from 
the  garrisoned  towns,  he  trusted  that  the 


A.  D.  1649.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


311 


difficulties  of  the  country  would  force  him  to 
return  home. 

The  confederates  still  urged  the  capture 
of  Dublin,  and  reduced  several  important 
posts  in  the  neighbourhood.  In  a  sally, 
made  by  the  garrison  upon  Ormond's  camp  at 
Rathmines,  a  scene  of  indescribable  confu- 
sion took  place ;  Inchiquin's  old  soldiers 
threw  down  their  arms,  refusing  to  fight 
against  their  puritanical  brethren  ;  the  great- 
er part  of  the  Irish  cavalry  galloped  from  the 
field  without  striking  a  blow ;  only  two  regi- 
ments could  be  formed,  and  they,  after  an 
inefficient  charge,  were  broken.  Then  the 
infantry,  surprised  and  badly  officered,  made 
no  attempt  to  resist ;  and  the  parliamenta- 
rians, to  their  own  great  astonishment,  ob- 
tained a  complete  victory.  About  three  thou- 
sand prisoners  were  taken,  several  of  whom 
were  murdered  in  cold  blood,  after  laying 
down  their  arms.  Many  who  had  belonged 
to  Inchiquin's  army  entered  into  the  service 
of  the  parliament. 

In  August,  the  marquis,  wearied  out  by 
the  delays  and  subterfuges  of  the  confeder- 
ates, applied  again  to  O'Neill,  who  was  as 
anxious  as  himself  to  put  an  end  to  the  de- 
structive dissensions  between  the  Irish  and 
the  lords  of  the  Pale.  But  news  now  arrived 
that  Cromwell  had  landed  in  Dublin  with  a 
vast  supply  of  all  the  munitions  of  war.  It 
was  at  first  intended  that  Ireton  should  have 
proceeded  with  a  part  of  this  force  to  Mun- 
ster ;  but  the  wind  being  unfavourable,  the 
whole  fleet  came  into  Dublin. 

Here  Taylor  has  candidly  perpetrated  the 
following  highly  instructive  remarks  : — 

"  Some  account  of  the  materials  which 
composed  the  invading  army  is  necessary  for 
understanding  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
island,  and  even  its  present  political  condition. 

"  Cromwell,  some  time  before  his  departure 
for  Ireland,  had  begun  to  form  those  ambi- 
tious projects  which  he  afterward  carried  into 
execution.  It  was  easy  to  discover  that  the 
wild  and  visionary  fanatics,  who  had  been 
hitherto  his  most  strenuous  supporters,  would 
be  found  his  fiercest  antagonists,  when  they 
discovered  that  their  favourite  schemes  of 
government  would  not  be  realized.     The 


levellers,  as  these  fanatics  were  called,  from 
their  opposition  to  every  rational  form  of  gov- 
ernment, were  intent  on  establishing  a  species 
of  theocracy,  which  they  denominated  *  the 
dominion  of  the  Lord  and  his  saints.'  They 
believed  themselves  the  chosen  of  heaven ; 
and  not  a  few  laid  claim  to  supernatural 
powers.  In  some  of  the  pamphlets  .and  ser- 
mons published  at  the  period  of  their  highest 
excitement,  we  find  them  seriously  proposing 
to  make  the  constitution  of  the  Jews,  previous 
to  the  election  of  Saul,  the  model  after  which 
the  new  government  of  England  should  be 
formed.  Such  schemes  would  now  be  re- 
ceived with  laughter  as  general  and  as  unex- 
tinguishable  as  that  of  Homer's  gods  ;  but  at 
the  time  of  which  we  write,  they  were  seri- 
ously adopted  by  men  who  in  every  other 
respect  displayed  consummate  wisdom  and 
ability.  The  expedition  to  Ireland  afforded 
Cromwell  an  opportunity  of  removing  these 
bands  of  gloomy  enthusiasts  ;  and  the  troops 
destined  for  the  invasion  consisted  of  the  most 
violent  and  fanatical  part  of  the  English  army. 
When  the  battalions  were  assembled  at  Bristol, 
the  object  of  the  selection  that  had  been  made 
could  no  longer  be  concealed ;  just  indigna- 
tion filled  the  breasts  of  the  toilworn  soldiers, 
and  they  unanimously  refused  to  embark. 
The  influence  of  Cromwell  was  necessary  to 
quell  this  dangerous  mutiny ;  he  came  sud- 
denly among  them,  and  all  their  complaints 
were  hushed  to  silence.  At  the  same  time 
their  preachers  laboured  strenuously  to  work 
upon  their  spiritual  pride.  They  were  com- 
pared to  the  Israelites  proceeding  to  extirpate 
the  idolatrous  inhabitants  of  Canaan ;  and 
described  as  the  chosen  instruments  by  which 
Heaven  was  to  overthrow  the  empire  of  Ba- 
bylon, and  establish  in  its  stead  the  kingdom 
of  the  New  Jerusalem.  Arguments  address- 
ed to  superstition  or  enthusiasm  have  rarely 
failed.  The  levellers  embarked  with  an  ar- 
dent zeal  that  contrasted  strangely  with  their 
former  reluctance ;  though  there  were,  at 
times,  some  misgivings  that  they  were  to  be 
offered  up  as  a  holocaust,  before  the  purifi- 
cation of  Ireland  from  the  abominations  of 
popery  could  be  completely  effected. 

"The  puritanical  garrison  of  Dublin  re- 


312 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1649. 


ceived  with  joy  men  whose  pious  zeal  far 
exceeded  their  own ;  and,  as  enthusiasm  is 
infectious,  soon  learned  to  imitate  their  ex- 
travagances. The  most  remarkable  feature 
in  the  characters  of  these  fanatics  was  a  fu- 
rious hatred  of  popery — a  religion  which  they 
only  knew  by  name,  but  which  they  firmly 
believed  to  be  an  abomination  in  the  sight  of 
heaven  ;  which,  if  permitted  to  exist,  would 
bring  down  vengeance  on  the  land.  Their 
pious  rage  was  principally  directed  against 
the  Cross,  which  they  unhesitatingly  stigma- 
tized as  the  '  mark  of  the  beast ;'  and  with 
strange  inconsistency,  laboured  to  destroy 
every  symbol  of  that  from  which  alone  they 
professed  to  expect  salvation.  Memorials  of 
this  extraordinary  state  of  things  may  still  be 
found  in  the  descendants  of  these  adventurers. 
The  misapplication  of  Jewish  history  to  the 
circumstances  of  Christian  communities,  and 
a  perverted  ingenuity  in  interpreting  the 
Apocalypse,  still  characterize  the  successors 
of  Cromwell's  Puritans." 

In  the  first  week  of  September,  Cromwell, 
having  stayed  a  little  while  in  Dublin,  deter- 
mined to  besiege  Drogheda,  then  called  Tre- 
dah,  and  advanced  against  the  place  at  the 
head  of  ten  thousand  men.  The  town  was 
garrisoned  by  Sir  A.  Aston,  with  two  thou- 
sand picked  soldiers  and  a  regiment  of  horse, 
besides  the  Irish  volunteers.  Cromwell  sent  a 
formal  summons  to  the  governor,  which  was 
promptly  rejected,  and  the  siege  commenced. 
A  practicable  breach  was  effected,  but  the 
attempt  at  storming  was  twice  repulsed  with 
great  slaughter.  Cromwell  rallied  his  men 
to  a  third  effort,  and  then  placed  himself  at 
their  head.  The  defence  was  vigorous  ;  but 
Colonel  Wall  being  killed  at  the  head  of  his 
Irish  regiment,  the  besieged  threw  down  their 
arms  on  hearing  the  promise  of  quarter,  and 
the  parliamentarians  then  forced  their  way 
into  the  town.  Though  quarter  had  been 
promised,  Cromwell  refused  to  ratify  the 
agreement,  and  ordered  the  garrison  to  be 
put  to  the  sword.  The  inhuman  massacre 
was  continued  during  the  five  following  days. 
Only  thirty  of  the  brave  defenders  of  Drog- 
heda survived  ;  and  these  were  sold  as  slaves 
in  the  West  Indian  plantations. 


This  perfidious  cruelty  can  only  be  ac- 
counted for  by  supposing  that  Cromwell  in- 
tended to  convince  the  English  portions  of 
the  other  garrisons  that  it  was  useless  to  resist 
him,  and  that  treachery  in  his  favour  would 
be  well  rewarded.  Whether  it  was  his  in- 
tention or  not,  such  was  the  result ;  and 
faithfulness  in  religion  or  loyalty  for  the  king 
were  certain  death  to  either  soldier  or  civil- 
ian, English  or  Irish.  Treachery  not  only 
procured  immediate  promotion,  but  Irish  land 
in  proportion  to  rank.  Perhaps  this  timely 
intimation  is  what  Cromwell  meant  by  a 
"  marvellous  great  mercy." 

Ormond  now  hastened  to  conclude  his 
treaty  with  O'Neill ;  and  that  leader  put  his 
army  in  motion  to  join  the  royalists.  He 
ordered  the  general  who  commanded  his  ad- 
vanced guard  to  avoid  engagements,  and  to 
trust  to  the  passes  and  the  season,  which 
would  defeat  Cromwell  without  trouble  or 
risk.  But,  while  the  Ulster  chief  was  advan- 
cing with  his  main  body  to  the  south,  he  was 
attacked  by  a  defluxion  of  the  knees,  occa- 
sioned by  a  pair  of  poisoned  boots  purposely 
prepared  for  him.  Notwithstanding  his  sick- 
ness, O'Neill  would  not  allow  the  march  of 
the  army  to  be  retarded,  and  was  conveyed 
in  a  litter  at  the  head  of  his  men.  The  un- 
favourable motion  aggravated  the  disease,  and 
he  died  at  Clough  Outer  Castle. 

With  O'Neill  perished  the  last  hope  of  the 
Irish  cause,  for  he  alone  would  have  been  a 
suitable  match  for  Cromwell.  His  death,  at 
such  a  crisis,  justifies  the  suspicion  of  poison. 
It  was  an  event  decisive  of  the  fate  of  the 
kingdom. 

Cromwell  had  taken  care  to  procure  accu- 
rate information  of  the  dissensions  which  dis- 
tracted the  counsels  of  the  confederates,  and 
hastened  to  reap  the  advantages  of  their  folly. 
Before  leaving  Dublin,  he  issued  two  procla- 
mations, which  were  of  greater  value  in  poli- 
cy than  double  the  number  of  victories.  One 
forbade  his  soldiers,  under  pain  of  death,  to 
offer  any  injury  to  the  peaceable  inhabitants  ; 
the  other  strictly  enjoined  that  payment  should 
be  made  for  all  provisions  supplied  by  the 
peasants.  No  previous  invader  had  thought 
fit  to  conciliate  the  peasantry  by  promising 


A.  1).  1649.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


313 


justice  and  protection.  From  this  time  for- 
ward, the  opinion  began  to  gain  ground  that 
Cromwell  was  more  favourably  disposed  to- 
wards the  native  Irish  than  the  royalists  under 
Ormond  and  Inchiquin,  or  the  descendants  of 
the  original  invaders  who  sat  in  the  council 
of  Kilkenny.  As  far  as  Cromwell  was  per- 
sonally concerned,  this  behef  seems  to  have 
been  partly  warranted  ;  but  even  he  was  not 
sufl5ciently  powerful  to  counteract  the  insa- 
tiable hatred  of  the  Catholics  which  absorbed 
the  popular  mind  in  England. 

The  Marquis  of  Ormond  was  now  doomed 
to  feel  the  evil  effects  of  that  want  of  confi- 
dence which  his  own  insincerity  had  occa- 
sioned. In  the  beginning  of  October,  Crom- 
well, with  nine  thousand  men,  sat  down  be- 
fore Wexford.  The  town  was  invested  on 
both  sides  before  the  inhabitants  could  be 
persuaded  to  receive  a  royalist  garrison. 
The  horrors  of  Drogheda  were  renewed. 
Cromwell  forbade  his  soldiers  to  give  quar- 
ter— an  inhumanity  the  more  remarkable,  as 
his  own  men  had  suffered  but  little  loss. 
The  governor  and  some  others  attempted  to 
escape  by  swimming  their  horses  over  the 
Slaney.  A  few  succeeded ;  the  rest,  among 
whom  was  Sir  E.  Butler,  were  drowned. 
Ormond  had  calculated  that  such  a  siege 
would  have  delayed  Cromwell's  army  for 
several  weeks,  and  that  in  the  mean  time,  he 
could  procure  reinforcements.  The  season 
of  the  year  when  the  siege  commenced,  and 
the  shortness  of  the  opposition,  show  that 
Cromwell  calculated  on  the  treacherous  co- 
operation of  those  partisans  who  had  prece- 
ded his  arrival  in  Ireland.  These  calcula- 
tions were  successful. 

So  alarmed  were  the  commissioners  of  trust 
by  the  loss  of  Wexford,  that  they  determined 
to  abandon  Kilkenny,  and  were  with  difficulty 
dissuaded  from  such  a  scandalous  flight  by 
Ormond.  Soon  after,  several  detachments 
from  O'Neill's  army  joined  the  confederate 
forces  ;  but  a  great  part  of  the  main  body  dis- 
persed after  the  death  of  their  geJlant  leader, 
and  never  after  re-assembled. 

Cromwell  undertook  the  siege  of  Ross  in 
person,  and  began  to  lay  a  bridge  of  boats 
over  the  Barrow,  in  order  to  effect  a  passage 

40 


into  the  county  of  Kilkenny ;  but  when  the 
work  was  nearly  completed,  he  suddenly 
changed  his  mind,  and  determined  to  besiege 
Waterford.  The  inhabitants  of  this  city  had 
been  the  most  devoted  partisans  of  the  nuncio, 
and  were  consequently  bitterly  opposed  to 
the  lord-lieutenant  and  the  council  of  Kil- 
kenny. Even  the  approach  of  Cromwell  was 
insufficient  to  cure  them  of  their  absurd  jeal- 
ousies ;  for  they  obstinately  refused  to  admit 
a  garrison,  and  treated  Lord  Castlehaven, 
who  had  been  appointed  governor  by  Or- 
mond, with  so  much  disrespect  that  he  was 
compelled  to  quit  the  town. 

The  lord-lieutenant  concentrated  his  forces 
at  Clonmel,  and  determined  to  raise  the  siege 
of  Waterford,  but  could  not  prevail  upon  the 
commissioners  of  trust  to  provide  provisions 
for  the  army.  He  marched  therefore  with 
only  a  part  of  the  army  to  Waterford  by 
night,  and  reached  a  hill  within  sight  of 
Cromwell's  camp  early  on  the  following 
morning.  From  thence  he  saw  the  parlia- 
mentary army  in  full  retreat,  and  in  such 
confusion,  that  an  attack  upon  their  rear  must 
have  been  successful.  But  to  effect  this  it 
was  necessary  that  his  troops  should  pass 
through  the  city ;  and  the  corporation  having 
with  much  obstinacy  refused  their  permission, 
the  opportunity  was  irretrievably  lost. 

On  raising  the  siege  of  Waterford,  Crom- 
well found  his  forces  in  a  very  dangerous 
situation :  they  were  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile 
and  difficult  country,  destitute  of  quarters 
during  an  inclement  season,  unable  to  ad- 
vance, and  exposed  to  be  attacked  at  great 
disadvantage  if  they  attempted  to  retreat. 
But  from  all  these  difficulties  he  was  at  once 
relieved  by  a  very  convenient  revolt  of  the 
Puritans  in  the  southeast  of  Munster.  Taking 
advantage  of  Inchiquin's  absence.  Lord  Brog- 
hill  proceeded  towards  the  southern  garrisons 
with  a  small  detachment,  and  met  no  opposi- 
tion. Youghal,  Kinsale,  Bandon,  and  even 
Cork,  opened  their  gates.  Dungarvan  was 
taken  after  a  slight  resistance  ;  and  thus,  at 
the  moment  of  utmost  need,  Cromwell  ob- 
tained excellent  winter-quarters,  and  com- 
munication with  England, 

This  revolt  increased  the  jealousy  which 


314 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1650. 


subsisted  between  the  different  parties  in  the 
Irish  army.  Kilkenny,  from  old  associations, 
submitted  to  obey  Ormond ;  and  Clonmel 
was  prevailed  upon  to  admit  Hugh  O'Neill 
with  a  body  of  Ulster  men ;  but  Waterford 
continued  to  refuse  obedience,  and  would  not 
even  permit  soldiers  to  pass  through  the 
city.  Ormond,  unable  to  overcome  their  ob- 
stinacy, distributed  his  soldiers  into  winter- 
quarters,  and  never  was  able  to  assemble 
them  again. 

The  winter  was  spent  by  the  parliament- 
arians in  active  preparations  for  the  ensuing 
campaign,  and  by  the  Irish  in  idle  disputa- 
tions. Lord  Antrim  failed  in  his  efforts  to 
displace  the  Marquis  of  Ormond  and  obtain 
from  the  king  the  chief  government  of  Ireland, 
though  his  pretensions  were  supported  by 
Prince  Rupert.  Charles,  with  more  honour 
than  he  usually  exhibited,  declared  that  he 
would  rather  lose  the  kingdom  than  offer  an 
insult  to  the  Marquis  of  Ormond.  However, 
these  intrigues  so  weakened  the  authority  of 
the  lord-lieutenant,  that  he  began  to  despair. 
He  wrote  to  the  king,  stating  the  circum- 
stances of  his  situation,  and  entreating  the 
royal  permission  to  retire.    . 

In  January,  1650,  Cromwell  opened  his 
second  campaign  by  advancing  against  Kil- 
kenny, which  Colonel  Tickle  had  promised 
to  betray  into  his  hands.  Before  his  arrival, 
however,  the  plot  was  discovered,  and  the 
traitor  deservedly  put  to  death.  Having  in- 
trusted the  government  of  Leinster  to  Lord 
Casllehaven,  Ormond  proceeded  into  Con- 
naught,  to  consult  with  the  Marquis  of  Clan- 
ricarde  and  the  Catholic  bishops.  Castle- 
haven  succeeded  in  taking  Athy,  which 
Cromwell  had  fortified  as  a  depot,  by  storm, 
and  sent  the  prisoners  to  the  parliamentary 
camp,  requesting  that  his  men  should  be 
treated  with  like  civility  on  a  similar  occa- 
sion. But  Cromwell  cared  little  about  civil- 
ity ;  for  having  taken  Callan  and  Gowran 
a  few  days  after,  he  ordered  the  officers  to 
be  shot.  The  greater  part  of  the  county  of 
Tipperary,  including  the  towns  of  Cashel  and 
Fethard,  with  the  castle  of  Cahir,  yielded  to 
Cromwell  without  opposition.  Encouraged 
by  these  successes,  Cromwell  laid  siege  to 


Kilkenny,  the  garrison  of  which  had  been 
greatly  weakened  by  the  plague. 

Possessing  Kilkenny,  Cromwell  marched 
against  Clonmel,  which  was  garrisoned  by 
Hugh  O'Neill,  and  fifteen  hundred  of  the 
Ulster  soldiery.  His  summons  having  been 
rejected  with  scorn,  he  opened  his  trenches 
early  in  April,  and  soon  made  a  practicable 
breach.  The  first  attempt  to  storm  was 
defeated  with  so  much  slaughter,  that  the 
infantry  refused  to  advance  a  second  time, 
and  Cromwell  was  forced  to  appeal  to  his 
cavalry.  A  second  storming  party  was 
formed  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Culin. 
The  second  assault  was  so  fierce,  that  the 
Irish  were  driven  from  the  breach ;  but 
O'Neill  had  by  this  time  erected  a  new  wall 
at  the  head  of  the  street  which  the  breach 
faced,  and  lined  the  adjacent  houses  with 
musketry.  In  these  two  assaults  Cromwell 
lost  more  than  two  thousand  of  his  best  sol- 
diers. He  would  not  venture  on  a  third ; 
but  changed  the  siege  into  a  blockade,  and 
determined  to  wait  the  slow  effects  of  famine. 
O'Neill  soon  began  to  feel  the  want  of  am- 
munition and  provision,  of  which  his  supply 
had  been  originally  but  scanty  ;  and  sent  the 
most  pressing  entreaties  to  Ormond  for  as- 
sistance. 

At  Ormond's  request,  Lord  Roche,  who 
commanded  in  the  western  part  of  the  county 
of  Cork,  being  aided  by  the  titular  Bishop  of 
Ross,  soon  raised  a  considerable  force,  so  far 
as  regards  numbers ;  but  badly  armed,  and 
without  discipline.  Against  these  Cromwell 
detached  Lord  Broghill,  with  a  select  body 
of  troops,  who  easily  routed  the  raw  levies. 
Roche  and  his  forces  escaped  through  the 
mountains  and  morasses  ;  but  the  bishop  was 
taken  prisoner.  There  was  a  fort  near  the 
field  of  battle,  which  Broghill  was  anxious  to 
secure  ;  and  he  offered  the  prelate  his  life  if 
he  would  prevail  upon  the  garrison  to  sur- 
render; but  threatened  instant  execution  if 
he  refused  compliance.  The  bishop  having 
pledged  his  word  to  return,  went  to  the  fort, 
and  assembling  the  soldiers,  earnestly  con- 
jured them  to  be  faithful  to  their  king,  their 
country,  and  their  God  ; — he  then  returned  to 
Broghill,  and  was  immediately  hanged. 


A.  D.  1650.] 


SECOND   DIVISION, 


315 


O'Neill  having  defended  Clonmel  until  his 
powder  was  exhausted,  withdrew  from  the 
town  during  the  night,  without  being  dis- 
covered ;  and  Cromwell,  not  aware  of  the 
escape  of  the  garrison,  granted  the  inhabit- 
ants very  favourable  conditions.  The  ar- 
ticles were  signed  on  the  18th  of  May ;  and 
Cromwell  immediately  afterwards  proceeded 
to  Youghal,  and  embarked  for  England,  in 
consequence  of  the  arrival  of  Charles  the 
Second  in  Scotland. 

The  royal  cause  in  Ireland  soon  became 
hopeless,  and  the  factions  were  fast  destroy- 
ing each  other.  Castlehaven,  when  on  the 
point  of  gaining  a  decisive  victory  in  Con- 
naught,  saw  his  hopes  frustrated  by  treachery. 
In  the  north,  the  Bishop  of  Clogher  had  the 
temerity  to  attack  Sir  Charles  Coote,  though 
superior  in  number,  and  very  advantageously 
posted.  He  was  easily  defeated,  his  forces 
routed  with  great  slaughter,  and  he  himself 
taken  prisoner.  It  need  scarcely  be  added 
that  he  was  hanged  by  the  conquerors ;  for 
the  Cromwellians  never  spared  an  ecclesiastic. 
In  Leinster,  the  principal  castles  had  been 
surrendered,  and  the  governors  of  the  few 
remaining  were  about  to  make  terms  with  the 
Puritans.  Ormond  now  prepared  to  quit  the 
kingdom,  but  was  persuaded  to  continue  for 
some  time  longer. 

The  city  of  Limerick  had  now  become  the 
centre  of  the  country  still  possessed  by  the 
Irish ;  for  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  kingdom, 
Waterford  alone  held  out  against  the  parlia- 
ment. Ormond  was  consequently  anxious  to 
make  Limerick  the  seat  of  government,  and 
to  ensure  its  safety  by  a  sufficient  garrison. 
But  the  civic  authorities  and  the  citizens  ab- 
solutely refused  obedience  to  his  commands, 
and  even  meditated  to  seize  his  person.  In 
the  midst  of  these  tumults,  Ireton  approached 
so  near  as  to  cause  some  alarm ;  and  the 
citizens  requested  that  Hugh  O'Neill  should 
be  appointed  their  governor.  The  marquis 
desired  to  send  him  into  Ulster,  but  the  dan- 
ger threatening  Limerick  appeared  so  immi- 
nent, that  he  complied  with  the  request  of 
the  citizens,  and  appointed  O'Neill  to  the 
command. 

In  the  beginning  of  August,  a  synod  was 


held  at  Jamestown,  where,  after  long  debates, 
the  Catholic  bishops  resolved  to  send  a  depu- 
tation to  Ormond,  requiring  "  that  he  would 
speedily  quit  the  kingdom,  and  leave  his  ma- 
jesty's authority  in  the  hands  of  some  person 
faithful  to  the  king,  and  trusty  to  the  nation, 
and  such  as  the  affections  and  confidence  of 
the  people  would  follow."  They  also  signed 
"  a  declaration  against  the  continuance  of  his 
majesty's  authority  in  the  lord-lieutenant," 
and  "  a  solemn  excommunication"  against  all 
who  should  adhere  to  him,  by  giving  him  any 
subsidy,  contribution,  or  intelligence,  or  by 
obeying  his  commands. 

The  summer  was  wasted  in  long  and  tedi- 
ous negotiations  with  the  prelates ;  and  it 
seems  probable  that  the  declaration  would 
have  been  withdrawn,  but  for  the  intelligence 
which  was  received  from  Scotland.  Before 
landing  in  that  country,  Charles  the  Second 
had  sworn  to  observe  "the  solemn  league 
and  covenant."  But  he  no  sooner  arrived 
there  than  he  found  himself  completely  in  the 
hands  of  the  Presbyterian  faction.  He  was 
compelled  to  publish  a  declaration,  denoun- 
cing the  peace  which  Ormond  had  concluded 
with  the  Irish,  acknowledging  the  sinfulness 
of  forming  any  compact  with  papists,  and 
revoking  all  commissions  granted  by  the  lord- 
lieutenant.  The  bishops  now  declared,  that 
as  the  king  had  placed  Ireland  out  of  his 
protection,  they  would  return  to  their  former 
act  of  association. 

Observing  the  royalists  thus  engaged.  Ire- 
ton  ranged  over  the  entire  kingdom  at  his 
pleasure.  Waterford  was  surrendered  by 
Preston,  the  governor ;  Duncannon  fell  al- 
most without  resistance ;  and  the  castle  of 
Carlow  was  captured  after  a  brief  struggle. 
Detachments  from  the  English  army  partially 
blockaded  Limerick,  and  seized  the  most  im- 
portant strongholds  in  the  country.  Clanri- 
carde  made  an  attempt  to  relieve  Birr,  but 
was  defeated  with  great  loss  ;  and  this  action 
terminated  the  campaign.  Three-fourths  of 
the  kingdom  were  now  in  possession  of  the 
parliamentarians,  to  their  own  great  astonish- 
ment. 

Ormond  made  one  more  rally  for  the  king, 
and  convoked  a  general  assembly  at  Lough- 


316 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1651. 


rea,  in  the  middle  of  November.  It  was 
attended  by  the  principal  nobihty,  gentry,  and 
clergy,  the  majority  of  whom  were  averse  to 
the  late  proceedings  at  Jamestown.  But  the 
influence  of  the  prelates  was  too  great  to 
allow  of  a  speedy  decision.  The  marquis 
having  waited  for  a  counter  declaration  until 
December,  at  length  embarked  in  a  frigate 
for  France.  Before  the  vessel  had  quite  left 
the  shore,  a  deputation  arrived  from  the  as- 
sembly at  Loughrea,  bearing  a  declaration 
which,  though  not  perfectly  satisfactory,  gave 
some  hopes  of  improvement ;  and  Ormond, 
in  consequence,  transferred  his  power  to  the 
Marquis  of  Clanricarde,  who  was  a  Catholic 
nobleman,  deservedly  popular ;  a  devoted 
royalist,  and  a  prudent  statesman.  But  the 
bishops,  having  removed  Ormond,  began  fur- 
ther to  develope  the  scheme  of  an  hierocracy, 
and  proposed  that  the  government  should  be 
administered  without  any  reference  to  the 
royal  authority. 

Having  described  the  proceedings  of  the 
first  two  years  of  Cromwell's  government  of 
Ireland  as  amply  as  our  limits  will  allow,  we 
shall  apply  the  sword  of  reduction  to  the 
remainder  of  his  career.  It  might  well  be 
described  in  three  words — self-sufiiciency, 
robbery,  murder.  But  our  object  is  to  attain 
a  truthful  medium  between  the  summary  in- 
considerateness  of  the  enemies  of  Ireland  and 
tlie  unavailing  eloquence  of  her  friends. 

Scotland  now  attracted  the  main  attention 
of  Cromwell ;  and  having  sent  a  vast  num- 
ber of  the  Irish  inhabitants,  especially  young 
people,  of  both  sexes,  to  the  West  Indies,  as 
slaves,  he  left  the  entire  government  of  Ire- 
land to  Ireton,  upon  whom  he  had  solemnly 
confided  the  duty  of  completely  subduing  the 
country,  if  the  sword  or  treachery  could  ac- 
complish it.  Ireton  followed  the  instructions 
of  Cromwell  to  the  letter.  With  a  well-sup- 
plied army  of  thirty  thousand  men,  he  ruled 
the  country  to  suit  himself.  Wherever  the 
rebels  appeared,  there  he  was  sure  to  attack 
them.  Phelim  O'Neill  was  at  length  taken 
prisoner  and  hung.  The  only  place  of  any 
importance  that  had  not  yet  yielded  to  the 
Puritans,  was  Limerick.  Against  this  town 
Ireton  led  his  men  with  his  usual  rehance 


upon  treachery.  A  fierce  resistance  was 
made,  and  when  he  at  length  took  it  by  as- 
sault, he  inflicted  a  brutal  revenge.  But 
here  it  was  ordained  that  both  his  success  and 
his  cruelty  should  terminate.  The  crowded 
state  of  the  place,  the  scarcity  of  provisions, 
and  the  masses  of  English  soldiery,  had  gen- 
erated one  of  those  fevers  which  are  as  infec- 
tious as  the  plague.  Ireton  had  scarcely 
stilled  the  tumult  inseparable  from  the  taking 
of  a  defended  town,  when  he  was  attacked 
by  this  fever  ;  and  being  already  much  weak- 
ened by  fatigue  and  exposure,  it  speedily 
proved  fatal. 

Ireton  was  succeeded  by  Ludlow.  He 
drove  the  native  Irish,  almost  without  excep- 
tion, into  Connaught.  Clanricarde,  who  had 
succeeded  O'Neill,  made  peace  with  parlia- 
ment, and  was  allowed  to  find  a  shelter  in 
England,  where  he  resided  until  his  death. 
Under  Ludlow  and  Henry  Cromwell,  Ireland 
gradually  gained  breathing  time.  In  addition 
to  the  thousands  of  men  and  women  sent  into 
colonial  slavery,  forty  thousand  of  the  best 
fighting  men  had  voluntarily  joined  the  difiier- 
ent  armies  of  Europe,  being  driven  from  their 
estates  and  employments.  Notwithstanding 
these  drawbacks,  there  were  twenty  thou- 
sand men  under  arms  at  the  close  of  the 
Cromwellian  administration.  The  twelve 
years  of  warfare  with  the  English  Puritans 
left  Ireland  just  as  unconquered  as  the  fifteen 
years'  war  under  Ehzabeth.  The  wants  of 
the  Irish  were — money,  ammunition,  and 
wickedness. 

This  is  the  way  we  are  obliged  to  con- 
dense and  purify  history  in  order  to  arrive  at 
its  moral  lessons.  Fuller  particulars  may  be 
obtained  from  the  mountains  of  books  fur- 
nished by  the  advocates  of  contending  par- 
ties. The  hopeful  reader  will  naturally  in- 
quire— Are  there  no  ultimately  beneficial  re- 
sults to  all  this  heroic  fidelity  and  poignant 
suffering  ?  We  are  happy  in  being  able  to 
reply — Yes.  We  have  shown  that  during 
the  reigns  of  Ehzabeth,  James,  and  Charles, 
some  of  the  best  blood  in  Ireland,  endowed 
with  the  highest  order  of  mind,  sought  refuge 
in  the  individual  service  of  less  persecuted 
lands.    It  appears  that  the  persecution  against 


A.  D.  1652.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


317 


the  Roman  Catholics  not  only  failed  in  its 
object  of  extermination,  but  also  that  new 
converts  grew  up  from  the  gory  field  of  mar- 
tyrdom. Among  these,  George  Calvert, 
Lord  Baltimore,  being  converted  to  the  Cath- 
olic faith  in  1624,  voluntarily  resigned  all  his 
official  trusts  to  King  James,  and  retired  into 
private  life.  But,  the  circumstances  about  to 
be  related,  being  of  the  greatest  importance 
in  the  history  of  America,  it  is  proper  that 
they  should  be  described  by  one  of  the  ablest 
pens  her  free  and  happy  institutions  have 
produced : — 

"  Lord  Baltimore  then  projected  a  colony 
at  Newfoundland ;  but  after  visiting  his  set- 
tlement twice,  bestowing  great  expense  and 
labour  upon  it,  and  once  in  person  rescuing 
it  from  a  French  invasion,  despairing  of  suc- 
cess, he  abandoned  his  proprietary  rights 
there,  and  procured  a  grant  for  Maryland. 
After  he  had  visited  and  explored  the  coun- 
try, he  died,  while  he  was  engaged  in  making 
the  necessary  preparatory  arrangements  for 
his  undertaking,  and  before  the  charter  had 
passed  the  forms  of  office ;  so  that  there  is 
scarcely  any  historical  record  of  his  share  in 
the  colonial  administration  of  Maryland.  But 
the  little  that  tradition  has  preserved  respect- 
ing him  speaks,  volumes  in  his  praise.  We 
know  that  he  displayed  the  most  perfect  good 
faith  in  all  his  transactions  with  the  natives, 
and  that  it  was  to  him  that  Maryland  was  in- 
debted for  such  a  liberal  code  of  religious 
equality  that  the  province  soon  became  the 
refuge,  not  only  of  the  Catholics  who  fled 
from  Great  Britain,  but  of  the  Puritans  who 
were  driven  from  Virginia,  and  of  the  Qua- 
kers exiled  from  New  England.     »    *     * 

"  It  was  at  a  time  when  nowhere  in  the 
world  could  be  found  a  country  or  state,  or 
even  a  single  city,  where  some  dominant 
form  of  worship  or  belief  did  not  crush  down 
and  trample  upon  all  who  opposed  or  doubted. 
Those  who  in  one  reign,  or  on  one  side  of  a 
river  or  channel,  were  heretics  and  martyrs, 
became  at  another  time,  or  at  a  different  place, 
in  their  turns,  persecutors  and  oppressors. 

"  It  was,  too,  at  a  period  when  even  the 
speculative  idea  of  equal  religious  rights  was 
nearly  unknown.     Now  and  then  the  faint 


and  feeble  voice  of  some  obscure  scholar  or 
philosopher  was  raised  for  toleration — that 
weak  and  imperfect  substitute  for  liberty  of 
conscience — but  it  was  raised,  sometimes 
from  the  walls  of  a  cloister,  oftener  from  the 
depths  of  a  dungeon,  and  rarely  reached  the 
ears  and  never  touched  the  hearts  of  the 
mighty  ones  of  the  earth.  Even  on  this 
western  shore,  what,  at  that  period,  was  to 
be  seen  in  the  English  colonies  on  each  side 
of  the  infant  colony  of  Maryland  ?  In  New 
England,  the  Puritans,  just  escaped  from  the 
prison  and  the  stocks  and  the  scourge  at 
home,  had  hardly  taken  breath  before  they 
set  themselves  to  persecute  and  punish  and 
banish  the  Quakers  and  the  Baptists.  These 
very  Puritans  of  New  England,  whenever 
enterprise  or  commerce  brought  them  to  Vir- 
ginia, found  themselves  again  heretics,  and 
there  felt  the  heavy  arm  of  the  established 
church.         #«***♦ 

"  The  founder  of  Maryland,  in  thus  rising 
above  the  errors  of  his  own  age,  and  probably 
sacrificing  the  early  prejudices  of  his  own 
education,  had  no  higher  view  than  that  of 
establishing  an  humble  colony  on  a  distant 
shore,  where  a  few  of  his  countrymen  might 
find  rest  and  peace,  and  worship  God  after 
the  manner  of  their  fathers,  or  the  conviction 
of  their  own  minds.  In  this  his  prayers  were 
heard  and  his  wishes  granted.  But,  mean- 
while, he  was  unconsciously  becoming  the 
instrument  of  a  still  nobler  purpose.  He 
was  unwittingly  laying  the  foundation  of  a 
state  destined  to  become  one  of  the  earliest 
members  of  a  great  republic.  He  was  pre- 
paring a  race  of  republican  Catholics  for  the 
toils  and  dangers  of  the  struggle  for  independ- 
ence, and  for  the  duties  and  privileges  of  self- 
government;  a  race  jealous  of  their  own 
rights  and  respectful  to  those  of  other  men ; 
a  race  which  was  to  give  the  church  such 
men  as  the  learned,  pious,  and  liberal  Arch- 
bishop Carroll — to  the  state  such  men  as  his 
illustrious  relative,  Charles  Carroll  of  Car- 
rollton.  He  was  laying  the  sacred  comer- 
stone  of  that  great  edifice  of  civil  and  reli- 
gious equality  which  was  destined  gradually 
to  take  in  the  whole  circuit  of  this  land, — a 
land  where  every  man's  religion  is  protected 


318 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1656. 


and  no  man's  religion  is  preferred ;  where, 
although  piety  does  not  rear  her  mitred  head 
in  courts  and  palaces,  she  finds  her  true  and 
living  throne  in  the  hearts  and  consciences 
of  men." 

This  is  the  language  of  Gulian  C.  Ver- 
planck,  a  writer  most  eminently  above  all 
suspicion  of  any  partialities,  except  for  the 
political  perfection  of  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom in  securing  the  happiness  of  mankind. 
Familiar  as  his  mind  is,  not  only  with  the 
history  of  Europe,  but  with  every  phase  of 
European  society, — and  accustomed  to  the 
philosophical  investigation  suggested  by  ob- 
serving the  whole  circle  of  Shakespearian 
literature, — this  candid  and  beautiful  testi- 
mony from  such  an  exalted  source  is  conclu- 
sive evidence  that  the  mournful  troubles  of 
Ireland  have  had  and  are  having  their  moral 
lessons  and  benefits.  The  religious  liber- 
ty OF  the  United  States  is  the  confirm- 
ation OF  this  truth. 

Writers  and  readers  who  have  a  faithful 
reliance  upon  divine  goodness  will  always 
patiently  examine  those  historical  subjects 
wherein  wrong  desires  and  wrong  doing  ap- 
pear to  flourish  unchecked,  for  they  know 
that  good  and  happy  results  must  infallibly 
follow  in  the  government  of  divine  wisdom, 
however  the  appearances  of  the  time  may  de- 
ceive us.  For  these  and  other  reasons,  the 
language  of  inconsiderate  or  unscrupulous 
writers  is  especially  unsuited  to  yield  profita- 
ble reading ;  and  Taylor  very  properly  ob- 
serves : — 

"  The  Cromwellian  administration  may 
fairly  challenge  a  comparison  with  the  best 
of  those  by  which  it  was  preceded,  and  with 
many  of  those  that  followed,  so  far  as  the 
supreme  government  was  concerned  ;  but  the 
local  magistracies  were  of  necessity  intrusted 
to  men  wholly  unfitted  for  responsible  situa- 
tions. There  are  no  materials  for  a  History 
of  Ireland  under  the  protectorate.  The  Pu- 
ritans were  not  a  literary  people,  and  were 
too  much  occupied  in  securing  their  new 
estates  to  write.  The  few  sketches  given 
have  been  chiefly  derived  from  contemporary 
pamphlets,  from  collections  of  old  letters  pre- 
served by  a  few  families,  and  from  tradition. 


It  would  have  been  easy  to  have  drawn  the 
picture  in  darker  colours,  and  to  have  added 
traits  of  ferocious  fanaticism,  sometimes  lu- 
dicrous and  sometimes  disgusting ;  but  the 
exposure  of  the  follies  of  religious  enthusi- 
asm may  be  easily  confounded  with  attacks 
on  religion  itself — may  offend  the  sincerely 
pious,  and  furnish  new  weapons  of  attack  to 
the  profane.  We  have  therefore  touched 
these  subjects  as  lightly  as  possible.  Per- 
haps, however,  enough  has  been  said  to  ena- 
ble the  reader  to  form  some  idea  of  the  Crom- 
wellian aristocracy,  which,  until  very  lately, 
under  the  title  of  the  English  party,  or  *  the 
Protestant  ascendency,'  monopolized  the  gov- 
ernment of  Ireland." 

Before  dismissing  this  chapter,  we  suppose 
that,  as  Cromwell's  character  is  composed 
of  such  very  peculiar  traits  as  to  have  pro- 
voked much  discussion,  we  also  are  expected 
to  notice  it,  although  he  and  his  glory  (such 
as  they  are)  properly  belong  to  English  his- 
tory. Ireland  disowns  him  ;  and  curses  his 
intrusive  companionship. 

Some  delay  in  the  printing  of  this  work, 
occasioned  by  a  disastrous  fire  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  led  us  to  console  ourselves  with 
reflecting  that  we  would  now  have  the  benefit 
of  consulting  Thomas  Carlyle's  "  Letters  and 
Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell."  The  book 
has  arrived,  and  we  must  confess  that,  with 
our  admiration  of  the  genius  of  that  generally 
pleasing  author,  it  was  the  greatest  literary 
disappointment  we  ever  experienced.  Sym- 
pathizing as  we  can  readily  do  with  any  per- 
son who  examines  the  "  Rushworthian  chaos" 
of  the  authorities  upon  this  period  ;  and  ac- 
knowledging that  many  of  the  writers  are 
very  insignificant  as  historians ;  Carlyle,  in 
our  opinion,  forfeits  all  claim  to  historic  or 
authentic  excellence  when  he  issues  his  own 
book  without  any  new  fact  or  really  deducive 
reasoning.  It  seems  to  us  like  a  kaleido- 
scopic gathering  of  the  prejudices  of  Annan- 
dale  ;  and,  for  all  the  real  purposes  of  private 
study  or  political  advancement,  it  is  useless. 
There  can  be  no  objection  whatever  to  those 
who  think  proper  making  an  idol  of  Crom- 
well, and  rendering  unto  him  continual  "hero- 
worship."     But,  when  it  is  insisted  upon  that 


A.  D.  1658.] 


SECOND   DIVISION 


319 


we  also  should  worship  the  same  idol  in  the 
same  manner,  we  distinctly  refuse  in  as  few 
words  as  possible. 

In  combating  misrepresentations,  the  best 
way  is  to  attack  the  latest  collection.  We 
therefore  decidedly  affirm  that  Carlyle's  book 
on  Cromwell  is  unworthy  of  its  author,  and 
of  the  age  in  which  he  hves.  In  view  of  the 
facts,  we  cannot  agree  with  its  positive  reck- 
lessness. Sincere  historians  should  always 
be  ready  to  part  with  preconceived  opinions 
as  soon  as  an  error  is  detected  ;  but  this  last 
work  of  Carlyle's  comes  to  us  couched  in  a 
style  so  dogmatic  and  ruthless  that  he  ap- 
pears to  demand  the  surrender  of  our  reason. 
In  his  ridiculous  admiration  for  his  hero,  Car- 
lyle  forgets  that  he  is  not  even  consistent 
with  himself;  for,  while  he  expatiates  with 
delight  upon  Cromwell's  throat-cutting  capa- 
bilities, he  has  not  a  word  of  favour  for  the 
"  black  ravening  coil  of  sanguinary  bluster- 
ing individuals,"  as  he  styles  the  Irish  people 
with  his  epithet-moTigering  facility  of  expres- 
sion. It  is  quite  easy  and  costs  nothing  to 
abuse  Ireland,  but  facts  are  the  only  safe 
materials  in  the  compilation  of  history ;  and 
we  are  quite  willing  to  be  called  a  "  Dryas- 
dust" as  long  as  our  facts  remain  without 
material  confutation. 

Some  of  the  best  writers  and  the  most  con- 
siderate historians  have  honestly  differed  in 
estimating  the  character  of  Cromwell,  and 
the  state  of  the  times  when  he  lived  is  a  gen- 
eral palliation  which  ought  always  to  be  kept 
in  view  ;  but  Carlyle  is  not  content  with  this 
state  of  the  subject :  he  must  have  his  hero 
perfect,  heel  inclusive.  He  actually  requires 
us  to  believe  that  Cromwell  was  a  lover  of 
truth  !  This  claim  is  altogether  too  prepos- 
terous for  the  preservation  of  serious  atten- 
tion in  an  historical  work.  Bravely  illus- 
trated by  woodcuts,  engraved  with  cavalry 
swords,  the  notion  might  read  very  well  in  a 
comic  almanac.  The  learned  advocate  has 
overdone  the  defence  of  his  absent  principal 
by  excessive  zeal,  and  we  are  reminded  of 
the  expressive  lines  of  a  favourite  poet : — 

"  Not  too  much.    What  solid  sense 
Three  such  little  words  dispense !" 

It  is  clear  that  the  language  has  run  away 


with  the  writer,  and  his  duty  as  an  author 
has  been  forgotten.  Here  is  a  specimen  of 
the  kettle-drum  style  of  a  book  which  mainly 
owes  its  importance  to  the  noisy  verbiage 
with  which  it  decorates  all  the  prejudices 
against  the  Irish  people  since  Cromwell's 
time  : — 

"  But  certainly,  at  lowest,  here  is  a  set  of 
Military  Despatches  of  the  most  unexampled 
nature  !  Most  rough,  unkempt ;  shaggy  as 
the  Numidian  lion.  A  style  rugged  as  crags  ; 
coarse,  drossy  :  yet  with  a  meaning  in  it,  an 
energy,  a  depth ;  pouring  on  like  a  fire-tor- 
rent ;  perennial  fire  of  it  visible  athwart  all 
drosses  and  defacements ;  not  uninteresting 
to  see  !  This  man  has  come  into  distracted 
Ireland  with  a  God's  Truth  in  the  heart  of 
him,  though  an  unexpected  one  ;  the  first  such 
man  they  have  seen  for  a  great  while  indeed. 
He  carries  Acts  of  Parliament,  Laws  of 
Earth  and  Heaven,  in  one  hand ;  drawn 
sword  in  the  other.  He  addresses  the  be- 
wildered Irish  populations,  the  black  ravening 
coil  of  sanguinary  blustering  individuals  at 
Tredah  and  elsewhere  :  '  Sanguinary  bluster- 
ing individuals,  whose  word  is  grown  worth- 
less as  the  barking  of  dogs  ;  whose  very 
thought  is  false,  representing  no  fact  but  the 
contrary  of  fact — behold,  I  am  come  to  speak 
and  to  do  the  truth  among  you.  Here  are 
acts  of  Parliament,  methods  of  regulation  and 
veracity,  emblems  the  nearest  we  poor  Pu- 
ritans could  make  them  of  God's  Law-Book, 
to  which  it  is  and  shall  be  our  perpetual 
effort  to  make  them  correspond  nearer  and 
nearer.  Obey  them,  help  us  to  perfect  them, 
be  peaceable  and  true  under  them,  it  shall  be 
well  with  you.  Refuse  to  obey  them,  I  will 
not  let  you  continue  living !  As  articulate 
speaking  veracious  orderly  men,  not  as  a 
blustering  murderous  kennel  of  dogs  run 
rabid,  shall  you  continue  in  this  Earth. 
Choose  !' — They  chose  to  disbelieve  him  ; 
could  not  understand  that  he,  more  than  the 
others,  meant  any  truth  or  justice  to  them. 
They  rejected  his  summons  and  terms  at 
Tredah  :  he  stormed  the  place  ;  and  accord- 
ing to  his  promise,  put  every  man  of  the 
Garrison  to  death.  His  own  soldiers  are 
forbidden  to  plunder,  by  paper  Proclamation ; 


330 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1659. 


and  in  ropes  of  authentic  hemp  they  are 
hamged  when  they  do  it.  To  Wexford  Gar- 
rison the  hke  terms  as  at  Tredah  ;  and,  fail- 
ing these,  the  Uke  storm.  Here  is  a  man 
whose  word  represents  a  thing  !  Not  bluster 
this,  and  false  jargon  scattering  itself  to  the 
winds ;  what  this  man  speaks  out  of  him 
comes  to  pass  as  a  fact ;  speech  with  this 
man  is  accurately  prophetic  of  deed.  This 
is  the  first  King's  face  poor  Ireland  ever  saw  ; 
the  first  Friend's  face,  little  as  it  recognises 
him — poor  Ireland  !" 

The  Irish  people  ought  to  be  very  much 
obliged  to  Mr.  Carlyle,  but  undoubtedly  they 
will  continue  to  exercise  the  privilege  of  all 
mankind  in  selecting  and  recognising  their 
own  friends.  The  most  assiduously  hospita- 
ble man  might  naturally  fall  back  upon  eti- 
quette if  required  to  receive  a  stranger  who 
introduces  himself,  just  at  "  pudding  time," 
with  a  Bible  in  one  hand  and  a  drawn  sword 
in  the  other.  This  kettle-drum  trash  on 
throat-cutting  topics  has  had  its  day  ;  and  we 
are  astonished  to  discover  the  length  of  time 
that  we  have  been  warm  admirers  of  Carlyle. 
We  also  begin  to  understand  why  it  is  that 
he  could  galvanize  John  Knox  into  a  hero, 
and  do  nothing  for  the  memory  of  Francis 
Xavier. 

But  our  duty  requires  more  stern  and 
pointed  language.  In  the  very  extract  just 
given  there  is  an  important  "  mistake,"  as 
historians  say ;  or  "  inaccuracy,"  as  the  re- 
viewers say ;  while  the  world  says  what  it 
will.  Carlyle  has  represented  the  slaughter 
at  Drogheda  as  the  deliberate  intention  of 
Cromwell,  "according  to  his  promise." 
From  the  general  tenor  of  that  thousand-of- 
brick.  paragraph  we  presume  that  the  mean- 
ing of  it  is — we  are  to  consider  Cromwell  as 
being  such  a  conscientious  hero  that  he  was 
obliged  to  kill  human  beings  for  nearly  a 
week  after  the  garrison  surrendered.  If  the 
clause  of  the  sentence  alluded  to  were  tnie, 
it  does  not  make  as  much  as  a  button  for  a 
hero  according  to  our  estimation ;  and,  of 
course,  this  is  only  a  matter  of  opinion.  But, 
it  is  a  matter  of  fact  that  the  statement  is  in- 
correct. If,  before  the  assault,  Cromwell 
had  registered  a  promise  that  he  would  put 


the  garrison  to  death  in  any  event,  why  was 
quarter  proclaimed  in  the  third  attack  of  the 
assault,  when  the  besiegers  were  led  by 
Cromwell  in  person?  Carlyle's  preposter- 
ous statement,  instead  of  making  his  hero 
appear  like  one  having  a  conscientious  re- 
gard for  his  word,  condemns  Cromwell  and 
his  wordy  showman  to  the  severe  reprobation 
of  all  reasonable  minds. 

Besides  this  grand  and  fatal  mistake,  we 
might  mention  others,  of  small  importance  as 
far  as  the  manufacturing  of  heroes  is  con- 
cerned, but  very  essential  when  seeking  a 
correct  understanding  of  the  historical  part  of 
the  subject.  Instead  of  the  "individuals" 
before  spoken  of,  the  garrison  of  Drogheda 
was  composed  principally  of  English  royalist 
troops,  who  knew  the  rules  of  war  quite  as 
well  as  their  grim  assailants.  It  is  a  well- 
attested  fact,  supported  by  a  hundred  collat- 
eral incidents,  that  treachery  and  political 
jealousy  caused  the  fall  of  the  other  towns. 
As  for  Cromwell,  he  indeed  "  is  a  man  whose 
word  represents  a  thing ;"  but  what  that  thing 
is  impartial  readers  will  doubtless  be  able  to 
judge  without  dictation. 

We  had  written  thus  far  when  we  learned 
with  great  pleasure  that  one  of  the  most  dis- 
criminating critics  of  America*  had  already 
pronounced  a  general  judgment  on  Carlyle's 
work  which  agreed  with  our  view  of  this 
particular  subject.  It  is  indeed  a  brilliant 
and  off-hand  disquisition,  expressed  in  gentle 
terms ;  and,  in  connection  with  the  book  it 
reviews,  looks  like  a  carcanet  of  pearls  hung 
around  an  old  stove.  Coming  from  the  hands 
of  a  lady,  we  bespeak  the  most  respectful 
attention  to  the  following  extracts  : — 

"  The  method  which  he  has  chosen  of 
letting  the  letters  and  speeches  of  Cromwell 
tell  the  story  when  possible,  only  himself 
doing  what  is  needful  to  throw  light  where  it 
is  most  wanted  and  fill  up  gaps,  is  an  excel- 
lent one.  Mr.  Carlyle,  indeed,  is  a  most  per- 
emptory showman,  and  with  each  slide  of  his 
magic  lantern  informs  us  not  only  of  what  is 
necessary  to  enable  us  to  understand  it,  but 
how  we  must  look  at  it,  under  peril  of  being 
ranked  as  Imbeciles,  Canting  Skeptics,  dis- 
»  S,  M.  Fuller. 


A.  D.  1660.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


321 


gusting  Rose-yater  Philanthropists,  and  the 
like.  And  aware  of  his  power  of  tacking  a 
nickname  or  ludicrous  picture  to  any  one 
who  refuses  to  obey,  we  might  perhaps  feel 
ourselves,  if  in  his  neighbourhood,  under  such 
constraint  and  fear  of  deadly  laughter,  as  to 
lose  the  benefit  of  having  our  eyes  to  form 
our  judgment  upon  the  same  materials  on 
which  he  formed  his. 

"  But  the  ocean  separates  us,  and  the 
showman  has  his  own  audience  of  despised 
victims  or  scarcely  less  despised  pupils,  and 
we  need  not  fear  to  be  handed  down  to  pos- 
terity as  *  a  little  gentleman  in  a  gray  coat,' 
'  shrieking'  unutterable  *  imbecilities,'  or  with 
the  like  damnatory  affixes,  when  we  profess 
that,  having  read  the  book,  and  read  the  let- 
ters and  speeches  thus  far,  we  cannot  submit 
to  the  showman's  explanation  of  the  lantern ; 
but  must,  more  than  ever,  stick  to  the  old 
'  Philistine'  *  Dilettant'  '  Imbecile'  and  what- 
not view  of  the  character  of  Cromwell.  *  *  * 

"  For  ourselves,  though  aware  of  the  mis- 
takes and  errors  in  particulars  that  must  oc- 
cur, we  believe  the  summing  up  of  a  man's 
character  in  the  verdict  of  his  time  is  hkely 
to  be  correct.  We  believe  that  Cromwell 
was  '  a  curse'  as  much  as  a  blessing  in  these 
acts  of  his.  We  believe  him  ruthless,  ambi- 
tious, half  a  hypocrite,  (few  men  have  courage 
or  want  of  soul  to  bear  being  wholly  so,)  and 
we  think  it  is  rather  too  bad  to  rave  at  us  in 
our  time  for  canting,  and  then  hold  up  the 
Prince  of  Canters  for  our  reverence  in  his 
*  dimly  seen  nobleness.'  Dimly,  indeed,  de- 
spite the  rhetoric  and  satire  of  Mr.  Carlyle  I 

"  In  previous  instances  where  Mr.  Carlyle 
has  acted  out  his  predeterminations  as  to  the 
study  of  a  character,  we  have  seen  circum- 
stances favour  him,  at  least  sometimes. 
There  were  fine  moments,  fine  lights  upon 
the  character  that  he  would  seize  upon.  But 
here  the  facts  look  just  as  they  always  have. 
He  indeed  ascertains  that  the  Cromwell 
family  were  not  mere  brewers  or  plebeians, 
but  *  substantial  gentry,'  and  that  there  is  not 
the  least  ground  for  the  common  notion  that 
Cromwell  lived  at  any  time  a  dissolute  life. 
But  with  the  exception  of  these  emendations, 
Btill  the  history  looks  as  of  old.     W^e  see  a 

41 


man  of  strong  and  wise  mind,  educated  by 
the  pressure  of  great  occasions  to  stations  of 
command  ;  we  see  him  wearing  the  religious 
garb  which  was  the  custom  of  the  times,  and 
even  preaching  to  himself  as  well  as  to  others 
— for  well  can  we  imagine  that  his  courage 
and  his  pride  would  have  fallen  without  keep- 
ing up  the  illusion  ;  but  we  never  see  Heaven 
answering  his  invocations  in  any  way  that 
can  interfere  with  the  rise  of  his  fortunes  or 
the  accomplishment  of  his  plans.  To  our- 
selves the  tone  of  these  religious  holdings- 
forth  is  sufficiently  expressive  ;  they  all  ring 
hollow.  Indeed,  we  cannot  recover  from  our 
surprise  at  Mr.  Carlyle's  liking  these  letters  ; 
his  predetermination  must  have  been  strong 
indeed.  Again,  we  see  Cromwell  ruling 
with  the  strong  arm,  and  carrying  the  spirit 
of  monarchy  to  an  excess  which  no  Stuart 
could  surpass.  Cromwell,  indeed,  is  wise, 
and  the  king  he  had  punished  with  death  is 
foolish  :  Charles  is  faithless,  and  Cromwell 
crafty ;  we  see  no  other  difference,  Crom- 
well does  not,  in  power,  abide  by  the  prin- 
ciples that  led  him  to  it ;  and  we  can't  help 
(so  rose-water  imbecile  are  we  !)  admiring 
those  who  do  :  one  Lafayette,  for  instance — 
poor  chevalier  so  despised  by  Mr.  Carlyle — 
for  abiding  by  his  principles,  though  imprac- 
ticable, more  than  Louis  Philippe,  who  laid 
them  aside  so  far  as  necessary  *  to  secure 
peace  to  the  kingdom ;'  and  to  us  it  looks 
black  for  one  who  kills  kings  to  domineer 
more  kingly  than  a  king.      •      •      •      • 

"  We  stick  to  the  received  notions  of  Old 
Noll,  with  his  great  red  nose,  hard  heart, 
long  head,  and  crafty  ambiguities.  Nobody 
ever  doubted  his  great  abilities  and  force  of 
will,  neither  doubt  we  that  he  was  made  an 
'  Instrument'  just  as  he  professeth.  But  as 
to  looking  on  him  through  Mr.  Carlyle's 
glasses — we  shall  not  be  sneered  or  stormed 
into  it,  unless  he  has  other  proof  to  offer  than 
is  shown  yet.  And  we  resent  the  violence 
he  offers  both  to  our  prejudices  and  our  per- 
ceptions. If  he  has  become  interested  in 
Oliver  or  any  other  pet  hyena,  by  studying 
his  habits,  is  that  any  reason  we  should  admit 
him  to  our  Pantheon  ?  No  !  our  *  imbecility* 
shall  keep  fast  the  door  against  any  thing 


333 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1660. 


short  of  proofs  that  in  the  Hyena  a  God  is 
incarnated,  Mr.  Carlyle  declares  that  he 
sees  it,  but  we  really  cannot.  The  Hyena 
is  surely  not  out  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but 
as  to  being  the  finest  emblem  of  what  is  di- 
vine— no !  no !         *         *         *         * 

"  We  have  passed  over  the  hackneyed 
ground  attended  by  a  torcli-bearer  who  has 
given  a  new  animation  to  the  procession  of 
events,  and  cast  a  ruddy  glow  on  many  a 
striking  physiognomy.  That  any  truth  of 
high  value  has  been  brought  to  light,  we  do 
not  perceive  ;  certainly  nothing  has  been  add- 
ed to  our  own  sense  of  the  greatness  of  the 
times,  nor  any  new  view  presented  that  we 
can  adopt  as  to  the  position  and  character  of 
the  agents." 

All  honour  to  the  fair  owner  of  the  pen  so 
judiciously  wielded  in  defence  of  truth  and 
humanity !  The  prejudices  of  the  border- 
village  are  thus  promptly  rebuked  by  the 
liberality  and  judgment  of  a  universally  ob- 
servant and  truly  American  mind.  A  man 
must  be  something  more  than  a  mere  king- 
killer  to  deserve  the  approbation  of  constitu- 
tional republicans. 

In  all  our  research  among  the  authorities 
for  this  period  of  history,  we  continually  ob- 
serve that  those  writers  who  have  the  least 
sympathy  with  Cromwell  furnish  the  most 
reasonable  estimates  of  his  character.  For 
ourselves,  we  must  say  that,  having  performed 
our  duty  faithfully  and  sincerely,  it  is  a  great 
relief  to  part  with  his  company. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  Few  leaders,  in  ancient  or  modem  times, 
merit  the  epithet  of  hero  better  than  Owen 
[Roe]  O'Neill.  He  left  rank,  station,  and 
command  abroad,  to  assist  his  countrymen  in 
their  struggle  for  their  rights  and  properties. 
He  was  successful  in  all  his  enterprises  ;  and 
he  never  sullied  his  laurels  by  treachery, 
cruelty,  or  inhumanity.  His  only  error  was 
that  he  did  not  treat  the  council  of  Kilkenny 
as  Cromwell  afterwards  did  the  British  parlia- 


ment, by  dispersing  at  the  point  of  the  bay- 
onet an  imbecile  assembly,  whose  folly  and 
stubbornness  was  manifestly  accelerating  the 
ruin  of  the  country.  But  O'Neill  was  too 
nobly  minded  to  effect  even  a  good  purpose 
by  criminal  means  ;  and  his  virtues  served  to 
injure  the  cause  which  he  supported,  since  a 
reverence  for  good  faith  kept  him  from  taking 
the  only  measures  which  would  ensure  its 

success ." T  A  Y  LOR . 

"  We  are  now  to  behold  '  Reformation'  the 
second,  which  its  authors  and  executors  called 
'  a  thorough,  godly  Reformation ;'  insisting 
that  '  Reformation'  the  first  was  but  a  half- 
finished  affair,  and  that  *  the  church  of  Eng- 
land as  by  law  established'  was  only  a  daugh- 
ter of  'the  old  *  *  *  *  *  of  Babylon.'  This 
•  Reformation'  proceeded  just  like  the  former : 
its  main  object  was  plunder.     *     *     *     ♦ 

"  The  heroes  of  '  Reformation'  the  second 
were  great  Bible-readers,  and  almost  every 
man  became,  at  times,  a  preacher.  The  sol- 
diers were  uncommonly  gifted  in  this  way, 
and  they  claimed  a  right  to  preach  as  one  of 
the  conditions  upon  which  they  bore  arms 
against  the  king.  Every  one  interpreted  the 
Bible  in  his  own  way  :  they  were  all  for  the 
Bible  without  note  or  comment." — Cobbett. 

*'  The  monarchy  and  house  of  lords  being 
overthrown  in  England,  the  government  of 
Ireland  became  an  object  of  dispute  to  all  the 
parties.  The  Presbyterians  were  for  con- 
ferring it  on  Waller,  and  the  Independents 
were  inclined  towards  Lambert ;  but  after 
some  debating,  they  all  finally  agreed  that 
OUver  Cromwell  was  fittest  for  that  important 
trust.  He  was  accordingly  nominated  lieu- 
tenant. His  departure  for  that  country  im- 
mediately followed,  and  accompanied  by  his 
son-in-law  Ireton,  he  set  out  with  a  powerful 
army." — Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  Cromwell  acted  on  his  arrival,  as  lord- 
lieutenant  of  Ireland,  in  the  name  of  the  par- 
hament  of  England.  No  parliament  was 
called  or  suffered  to  be  held  in  Ireland  for 
thirty  years  after  this ;  the  city  of  Dublin 
submitted,  but  the  provinces  prepared  for  re- 
sistance, in  the  name  of  '  Charles  the  Second,' 
son  of  the  decapitated  king.  *  *  *  *  To  I)ro- 
gheda  Cromwell  first  marched." — Mooney. 


A.  D.  1660.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


"  The  assault  was  given,  and  his  [Crom- 
well's] men  twice  repulsed  ;  but  in  the  third 
attack,  Colonel  Wall  being  unhappily  killed 
at  the  head  of  his  regiment,  his  men  were  so 
dismayed  thereby,  as  to  listen,  before  they 
had  any  need,  to  the  enemy  offering  them 
quarter;  admitting  them  upon  those  terms, 
and  thereby  betraying  themselves  and  their 
fellow-soldiers  to  the  slaughter.  All  the  of- 
ficers and  soldiers  of  Cromwell's  army  prom- 
ised quarter  to  such  as  would  lay  down  their 
arms,  and  performed  it  as  long  as  any  place 
held  out ;  which  encouraged  others  to  yield. 
But  when  they  had  once  all  in  their  power, 
and  feared  no  hurt  that  could  be  done  them, 
Cromwell,  being  told  by  Jones  that  he  had 
now  all  the  flower  of  the  Irish  anny  in  his 
hands,  gave  orders  that  no  qucirter  should  be 
given  ;  so  that  his  soldiers  were  forced,  many 
of  them  against  their  will,  to  kill  their  prison- 
ers. The  brave  governor  Sir  A.  Aston,  Sir 
Edm.  Vemey,  the  colonels  Warren,  Fleming, 
and  Byrne,  were  killed  in  cold  blood ;  and 
indeed  all  the  oflicers,  except  some  few  of 
least  consideration,  that  escaped  by  miracle. 
The  Marquis  of  Ormond,  in  his  letters  to  the 
king  and  Lord  Byron,  says,  '  that  on  this  oc- 
casion Cromwell  exceeded  himself  and  any 
thing  he  had  ever  heard  of,  in  breach  of  faith 
and  bloody  inhumanity  ;  and  that  the  cruelties 
exercised  there  for  five  days  after  the  town 
was  taken,  would  make  as  many  several  pic- 
tures of  inhumanity,  as  are  to  be  found  in  the 
Book  of  Martyrs,  or  in  the  Relation  of  Am- 
boyna.' " — Carte. 

"  Cromwell,  with  an  infernal  calmness  and 
deliberation,  resolved,  by  one  efiectual  exe- 
cution, to  terrify  the  whole  Irish  party ;  he 
issued  his  fatal  orders  that  the  garrison  should 
be  put  to  the  sword.  Some  of  his  soldiers 
with  reluctance  butchered  their  prisoners  ; 
the  governor  and  all  his  gallant  comrades, 
numbering  three  thousand  men,  were  butch- 
ered I'll  cold  blood.  A  number  of  ecclesias- 
tics were  found  within  the  walls,  and  these 
seemed  to  be  the  more  immediate  objects  of 
his  vengeance :  he  ordered  his  soldiers  to 
plunge  their  weapons  into  the  helpless  men's 
bodies.  For  five  days,  this  butchery  con- 
tinued ;  thirty  persons  only,  out  of  the  whole 


garrison  and  citizens,  remained  unslaughtered, 
and  these  were  transported  as  slaves  to  Bar- 
badoes." — Leland. 

"  Aware  that  the  royalists  could  assemble  no 
army  in  the  field,  Cromwell  marched  to  the 
siege  of  Drogheda.  The  defences  of  the 
place  were  contemptible  ;  but  the  garrison 
consisted  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  cho- 
sen men,  and  the  governor.  Sir  Arthur  Aston, 
had  earned  in  the  civil  war  the  reputation  of 
a  brave  and  experienced  oflicer.  In  two 
days  a  breach  was  made  ;  but  Aston  ordered 
trenches  to  be  dug  within  the  wall,  and  the 
assailants  on  their  first  attempt  were  quickly 
repulsed.  In  the  second,  more  than  a  thou- 
sand men  penetrated  through  the  breach  ;  but 
they  suffered  severely  for  their  temerity,  and 
were  driven  back  with  considerable  loss. 
Cromwell  now  placed  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  reserve,  and  led  them  to  the  assault,  ani- 
mating them  with  his  voice  and  example.  In 
the  heat  of  the  conflict,  it  chanced  that  the 
officer  who  defended  one  of  the  trenches  fell ; 
his  men  wavered :  quarter  was  offered  and 
accepted ;  and  the  enemy,  surmounting  the 
breastwork,  obtained  possession  of  the  bridge, 
entered  the  town,  and  successively  overcame 
all  opposition.  The  pledge  which  had  been 
given  was  now  violated  ;  and,  as  soon  as  re- 
sistance ceased,  a  general  massacre  was  or- 
dered or  tolerated  by  Cromwell.  During 
five  days  the  streets  of  Drogheda  ran  with 
blood  ;  revenge  and  fanaticism  stimulated  the 
passions  of  the  soldiers :  from  the  garrison 
they  turned  their  swords  against  the  inhabit- 
ants, and  one  thousand  unresisting  victims 
were  immolated  together  within  the  walls  of 
the  great  church,  whither  they  had  fled  for 
protection ." — Ling  a  rd  , 

"  Before  the  Marquis  of  Ormond  could 
draw  his  army  together,  Cromwell  had  be- 
sieged Tredah  ;  and  though  the  garrison  was 
so  strong  in  point  of  number,  and  that  num- 
ber of  so  choice  men  that  they  could  wish 
for  nothing  more  than  that  the  enemy  would 
attempt  to  take  them  by  storm,  the  very  next 
day  after  he  came  before  the  town,  he  gave 
a  general  assault  and  was  beaten  off  with 
considerable  loss.  But  after  a  day  more,  he 
assaulted  it  again  in  two  places,  with  so  much 


324 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


{A..  D.  1660. 


courage  that  he  entered  in  both  ;  and  though 
the  governor  and  some  of  the  chief  officers 
retired  in  disorder  into  a  fort  where  they 
hoped  to  have  made  conditions,  a  panic  fear 
so  possessed  the  soldiers  that  they  threw 
down  their  arms  upon  a  general  offer  of  quar- 
ter :  so  that  the  enemy  entered  the  works 
without  resistance,  and  put  every  man,  gov- 
ernor, officer,  and  soldier,  to  the  sword,  and 
the  whole  army  being  entered  the  town,  they 
executed  all  manner  of  cruelty,  and  put  every 
man  that  related  to  the  garrison,  and  all  the 
citizens  who  were  Irish,  man,  woman  and 
child,  to  the  sword ;  and  there  being  three  or 
four  officers  of  name,  and  of  good  families, 
who  had  found  some  way,  by  the  humanity 
of  some  soldiers  of  the  enemy,  to  conceal 
themselves  for  four  or  five  days,  being  after- 
wards discovered,  they  were  butchered  in 
cold  blood." — Clarendon. 

"  I  wish  that  all  honest  hearts  may  give 
the  glory  of  this  to  God  alone,  to  whom  in- 
deed the  praise  of  this  mercy  belongs." — 
O.  Cromwell;  Sept.  17,  1649. 

"  1649— October  2d.  This  day  the  House 
received  despatches  from  the  Lord  Lieuten- 
ant Cromwell,  dated  Dublin,  September  17th, 
giving  an  account  of  the  taking  of  Drogheda. 
For  this  important  success  of  the  parliament's 
forces  in  Ireland,  the  House  appointed  a 
thanksgiving-day  to  be  held  on  the  1st  of 
November  ensuing  throughout  the  nation. 
They  likewise  ordered  that  a  Declaration 
should  be  prepared  and  sent  into  the  several 
counties,  signifying  the  grounds  for  setting 
apart  that  day  of  public  thanksgiving.  A 
letter  of  thanks  was  also  voted  to  be  sent  to 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland ;  and  to  be 
communicated  to  the  officers  there  ;  in  which 
notice  was  to  be  taken,  that  the  House  did 
approve  of  the  execution  done  at  Drogheda, 
as  an  act  both  of  justice  to  them,  and  mercy 
to  others  who  may  be  warned  by  it." — Pari. 
Hist.;  vol.  iii.,  p.  1334. 

"  Some  time  afterwards,  Cromwell  gained 
possession  of  Wexford,  by  treachery  ;  where 
a  carnage  was  perpetrated,  as  atrocious  as 
that  which  had  taken  place  at  Drogheda. 
The  perfidy  and  cruelly  were  exactly  of  the 
same  character  as  the  proceedings  at  the  lat- 


ter place.  Commissioners  on  the  part  of  the 
citizens  had  made  a  treaty  with  Cromwell, 
whereby  persons  and  property  were  to  be 
secured,  as  well  of  the  garrison,  as  the  in- 
habitants. But  in  violation  of  the  treaty,  the 
whole,  to  the  number  of  2000,  men,  women, 
and  children,  were  slaughtered." — M.  Carey. 

"  I  now  come  to  the  master-demon ;  he 
who  steeped  his  hands  in  the  blood  of  his 
sovereign,  and  came  to  Ireland  reeking  from 
that  crime ;  in  order,  by  horrible  cruelties 
committed  on  the  Irish,  to  acquire  popularity 
in  England.  And  he  did  so  acquire  it,  until 
it  was  sufficient  to  confer  upon  him  regal 
power,  and  to  enable  him  to  place  his  hand 
upon  that  throne  which  he  had  not  moral 
courage  to  occupy." — O'Connell. 

"  As  soon  as  Cromwell  had  ordered  his 
batteries  to  play  on  a  distant  quarter  of  the 
town,  on  his  summons  being  rejected,  Staf- 
ford [the  commander  of  the  garrison]  admit- 
ted his  men  into  the  castle,  from  whence 
issuing  suddenly,  and  attacking  the  wall  and 
gate  adjoining,  they  were  admitted,  either 
through  the  treachery  of  the  townsmen  or 
the  cowardice  of  the  soldiers,  or  perhaps 
both  ;  and  the  slaughter  was  almost  as  great 
as  at  Drogheda." — Warner. 

"  No  distinction  was  made  between  the 
defenceless  inhabitant  and  the  armed  soldier ; 
nor  could  the  shrieks  and  prayers  of  300  fe- 
males, who  had  gathered  round  the  great 
cross,  preserve  them  from  the  swords  of  those 
ruthless  barbarians.  By  Cromwell  himself 
the  number  of  the  slain  is  reduced  to  two,  by 
some  writers  it  has  been  swelled  to  five, 
thousand." — Lingard. 

"  On  Cromwell's  hasty  return  to  England, 
he  left  the  army  in  Ireland  under  Ireton,  who 
was  his  duplicate,  in  cruelty  at  least. 

"  I  cannot  even  touch  one  tenth  of  the  hor- 
rible events  of  this  cruel  usurper's  career. 

"  One  chief  cause  of  the  submission  of  Ire- 
land to  Cromwell  was  the  death  of  O'Neill, 
[Owen  Roe,]  and  the  treachery  of  Lord  In- 
chiquin,  who  commanded,  for  the  Irish  con- 
federation, nearly  all  the  strong  posts  of  Mun- 
ster,  and  whose  surrender  of  these  posts,  and 
accession  to  the  enemy,  was  a  severe  blow 
to  the  cause  of  Ireland." — Moonev. 


A.  D.  1660.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


325 


"The  disaffection  in  the  southern  towns 
was  principally  owing  to  the  contrivances  of 
Lord  Broghill,  the  fifth  son  of  the  great  Earl 
of  Cork,  who  inherited  all  his  father's  abili- 
ties, but  a  very  small  share  of  his  integrity 
and  honourable  principle.  He  was  born  at 
his  father's  seat,  the  college  of  Youghal,  and 
educated  in  the  strict  principles  of  the  Puri- 
tans— a  colony  of  whom,  from  Bristol,  had 
been  planted  in  the  town  by  his  father." — 
Taylor. 

"Having  brought  together  an  army,  he 
[Ircton]  marched  into  the  county  of  Tippera- 
ry,  and  hearing  that  many  priests  and  gentry 
about  Cashel  had  retired  with  their  goods 
into  the  church,  he  stormed  it,  and  being  en- 
tered, put  three  thousand  of  them  to  the 
sword,  taking  the  priests  even  from  under  the 
altar." — Lu  dlo  w . 

"  Three  thousand  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, of  all  ranks  and  ages,  took  refuge  in 
the  cathedral  of  Cashel,  hoping  the  temple 
of  the  Living  God  would  afford  them  a  sanc- 
tuary from  the  butcheries  that  were  laying 
the  whole  country  desolate.  The  barbarian 
Ireton  forced  the  gates  of  the  church,  and  let 
loose  his  bloodhounds  among  them,  who 
soon  convinced  them  how  vain  was  their  re- 
liance on  the  temple  or  the  altar  of  God. 
They  were  slaughtered,  without  discrimina- 
tion. Neither  rank,  dignity,  nor  character, 
saved  the  nobleman,  the  bishop,  or  the  priest : 
nor  decrepitude,  nor  his  hoary  head,  the 
venerable  sage  bending  down  into  the  grave  ; 
nor  her  charms,  the  virgin  ;  nor  her  virtues, 
the  respectable  matron  ;  nor  its  helplessness, 
the  smiling  infant.  Butchery  was  the  order 
of  the  day, — and  all  shared  the  common  fate." 
M.  Carey. 

"  I  have  heard  a  relation  of  my  own,  who 
was  captain  in  that  service,  relate,  that  no 
manner  of  compassion  or  discrimination  was 
showed  either  to  age  or  sex;  but  that  the 
little  children  were  promiscuously  sufferers 
with  the  guilty;  and  that  if  any  who  had 
some  grains  of  compassion  reprehended  the 
soldiers  for  this  unchristian  inhumanity,  they 
would  scoffingly  reply,  *  Why  ?  Nits  will  be 
lice,'  and  so  would  dispatch  them." — Nalson. 

"  We  see,  from  Broudin  and  Lingard,  that 


Cromwell  sent  away  one  hundred  thousand 
Irish  to  foreign  countries  ;  they  were  princi- 
pally the  flower  of  the  Irish  armies.  Several 
thousand  young  girls  and  women  were  seized, 
and  sent  to  the  West  Indian  and  Americau 
colonies,  under  pretence  of  making  them 
English  and  Christians !  These  unhappy 
exiles  perished  in  hundreds  and  thousands ; 
many  thousands  were  crowded  beyond  the 
Shannon  into  Connaught,  to  live  as  best  they 
could,  or  to  die  from  excessive  numbers. 
The  rest  of  Ireland  was  then  coolly  divided 
among  the  soldiers  of  Oliver,  he  reserving  to 
himself  the  whole  county  Tipperary  for  a 
demesne." — Mooney. 

"  I  cannot  close  without  some  reflections 
on  the  conduct  and  character  of  Phelim 
O'Neill,  whose  history  is  involved  in  consid- 
erable uncertainty.  He  appears  to  be  given 
up  to  unqualified  censure,  as  having  been 
guilty  of  excessive  and  unparalleled  cruelties. 
The  characteristic  falsehood,  which,  as  I  have 
shown,  strongly  marks  the  Anglo-Hibernian 
histories  of  Ireland,  should  make  us,  unless 
disposed  to  be  deceived,  receive  with  extreme 
caution,  whatever  they  assert  that  is  not  sup- 
ported by  imimpeachable  documents.  And 
the  evidence  on  which  the  accusation  rests, 
is  by  no  means  conclusive.  On  the  contra- 
ry, there  is  every  reason  to  believe,  that  the 
severe  censures  of  which  he  has  been  the 
object,  are  unfounded.  That  he  put  to  death 
many  of  his  prisoners  in  cold  blood,  appears 
highly  probable.  But  it  is  not  only  equally 
probable,  but  almost  certain,  that  it  was  in 
retaliation  for  the  horrible  cruelties  perpe- 
trated on  the  Irish  by  the  government  forces, 
which,  as  I  have  fully  proved  by  the  testi- 
mony of  Nalson,  Carte,  Warner,  and  Leland, 
slaughtered  men,  women,  and  even  children, 
indiscriminately.  The  detestable  orders  of 
the  lords-justices,  to  '  kill  all  the  men  able 
to  bear  arms,  in  the  places  where  the  rebels 
were  harboured,'  did  but  give  oflScial  sanction 
to  a  system  then  in  full  operation.  This  sys- 
tem was  a  full  warrant  and  justification  of  the 
slaughter  of  prisoners,  in  retaliation,  and  to 
arrest  the  progress  of  that  horrible  warfare." 
M.  Carey. 

"  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  I  am  igno- 


326 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1660. 


rant  that  even  Cromwell  occasionally  observed 
the  faith  of  treaties ;  or  that  he  sometimes 
carried  into  effect  that  quarter  for  which  men 
in  arms  had  stipulated  before  surrender.  It 
was  his  best  policy  on  some  occasions  to  do 
so  ;  and  not  to  drive  to  utter  despair  all  the 
armed  Irish.  But  even  these  acts  of  justice 
were  extremely  rare.  And  some  of  them 
were  liable  to  be  impeached  for  base  unfaith- 
fulness. His  first  perfidious  slaughter  at 
Drogheda,  leaves  any  person  attempting  to 
become  his  advocate,  by  reason  of  his  occa- 
sional performance  of  stipulation,  in  a  situa- 
tion not  the  most  enviable.  The  truth  is,  that 
a  fiend  so  black  with  crime,  so  stained  with 
blood,  was  never  yet  exhibited  in  any  country 
lo  compare  with  Cromwell  and  his  gang  of 
sanguinary  biblical  enthusiasts  in  Ireland." 

O'CONNELL. 

"  The  wrecks  of  Cromwell's  desolation 
still  appear  scattered  over  every  part  of  Ire- 
land ;  blood  that  had  escaped  the  massacres 
of  Elizabeth  was  only  reserved  to  flow  under 
the  sword  of  usurpation ;  and  Cromwell  has 
the  credit  of  having  done  his  business  more 
effectually  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  He 
cooped  up  the  surviving  Irish  in  a  contracted 
district,  confined  the  clergy  to  nearly  one 
province,  confiscated  two  thirds  of  the  Irish 
territory,  and  stained  his  sanguinary  career 
by  indiscriminate  massacres  in  every  fortress 
that  resisted  him." — J.  Barrington. 

"In  the  year  1652  the  parliament  com- 
missioners at  Dublin  published  a  proclama- 
tion, signed  Charles  Fleetwood,  Edmund 
Ludlow,  and  John  Jones ;  wherein  the  act 
of  the  27th  of  Elizabeth  was  made  of  force 
in  Ireland,  and  ordered  to  be  most  strictly 
put  in  execution.  By  this  act,  *  every  Ro- 
mish priest,  so  found,  was  deemed  guilty  of 
rebellion,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  until 
he  was  half  dead ;  then  to  have  his  head 
taken  off",  and  his  body  cut  in  quarters ;  his 
bowels  to  be  drawn  out  and  burned ;  and 
his  head  fixed  upon  a  pole  in  some  pubhc 
place.'         ****** 

"  The  punishment  of  those  who  entertained 
a  priest,  was,  by  the  same  act,  confiscation 
of  their  goods  and  chattels,  and  the  ignomini- 
ous death  of  the  gallows.     This  edict  was 


renewed  the  same  year,  with  the  additional 
cruelty  of  making  even  the  private  exercise 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  a  capital 
crime.  And  again  repeated  in  1657,  with 
the  same  penalty  of  confiscation  and  death  to 
all  those  who,  knowing  where  a  priest  was 
hid,  did  not  make  discovery  to  the  govern- 
ment."— Curry. 

"  Curry's  *  Review'  is  earnestly  recom- 
mended to  the  attention  of  the  learned  world. 
It  is  a  perfect  model  of  the  manner  in  which 
history,  on  all  disputed  points,  ought  to  be 
written.  So  luminous  is  Curry's  style,  so 
cogent  his  reasoning,  and  so  indisputable  his 
authorities,  that  the  most  inveterate  preju- 
dices must  give  way,  on  a  candid  perusal  of 
the  work." — M.  Carey. 

"  Of  the  strict  execution  of  these  barba- 
rous edicts,  many  shocking  examples  were 
daily  seen  among  these  unhappy  people,  in- 
somuch that,  to  use  the  words  of  a  contem- 
porary writer  and  eye-witness,  *  Neither  the 
Israelites  were  more  cruelly  persecuted  by 
Pharaoh,  nor  the  innocent  infants  by  Herod, 
nor  the  Christians  by  Nero  or  any  other  of 
the  Pagan  t3nrants,  than  were  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  Ireland  at  that  fatal  juncture  of 
these  savage  commissioners.' " — Morrison's 
"Mourning  Song,"  etc.;  Inspruck,  1659. 

"  In  every  part  of  these  transactions,  there 
is  something  singular  and  striking.  The 
confederated  Catholics  were  in  possession  of 
power  from  the  year  1643  to  the  year  1649. 
They  were  in  possession  of,  and  had  the 
management  of,  nearly  all  Ireland,  with  the 
exception  of  Dublin  and  a  few  other  places. 
In  1644  they  were  at  the  acme  of  their  power. 
Their  General  Assembly  met  at  Kilkenny, 
enacted  laws,  and  carried  on  the  government. 
This  assembly  was  composed  almost  exclu- 
sively of  Catholics  ;  the  Executive  were  ex- 
clusively so.  Yet  they  never  were  once 
accused  of  having  made  a  single  intolerant 
law  ;  or  a  single  intolerant  or  bigoted  regula- 
tion or  ordinance  !  They  did  not  persecute  one 
single  Protestant ;  nor  are  they  accused  of 
any  such  persecution.  This  indeed  is  matter 
of  which  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  may  be 
justly  proud. 

"  I  have  already  shown  from  extracts  taken 


A.  D.  1660.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


327 


from  Protestant  writers,  the  admission  that 
the  confederated  Catholics  never  persecuted 
a  single  Protestant." — O'Connell. 

"  My  aim  was  to  work  a  division  among 
the  Romish  clergy  ;  and  I  believe  I  had 
compassed  it,  to  the  great  security  of  the 
government  and  Protestants,  and  against  the 
opposition  of  the  pope,  and  his  creatures  and 
nuncios,  if  I  had  not  been  removed  from  the 
government,  and  if  direct  contrary  counsels 
and  courses  had  not  been  taken  and  held  by 
my  successors." — Ormond.  See  Carte's 
Appendix. 

"  Whoever  reads  this  extorted  confession 
with  attention  cannot  fail  to  perceive  that 
whatever  may  have  been  Ormond's  pretences 
of  attachment  to  Charles,  his  Machiavelian 
course  was  admirably  calculated  to  promote 
the  views  and  secure  the  ultimate  success  of 
that  monarch's  enemies  in  England,  by  de- 
priving him  of  the  powerful  aid  he  might 
have  derived  from  the  Irish  had  they  not 
been  embittered  against  each  other  by  the 
duke's  flagitious  and  too  successful  policy." 
M.  Carey. 

"  Limerick  was  obtained  by  the  treachery 
of  one  or  two  within,  and  the  garrison  and 
citizens  put  to  the  sword.  Galway  and  sev- 
eral other  towns  ultimately  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  parliament.  Lastly,  Cromwell,  having 
obtained  several  victories  over  the  troops  of 
Prince  Charles  in  Scotland,  and  compelled 
him  to  fly,  was  enabled  to  send  fresh  forces 
to  Ireland,  which  were  poured  in  in  such 
masses  that  they  became  inconvenient  to 
each  other." — Mooney. 

"  When  fasting  and  abstinence  ceased  to 
be  regarded  as  virtues,  Englishmen  reverted 
to  brutal  extravagances  in  gluttony,  of  which 
history  has  recorded  no  parallel  since  the 
luxurious  reign  of  the  Caesars  in  ancient 
Rome.  If  there  were  no  other  proofs  of  this 
fact,  the  authenticated  accounts  of  the  feasts 
of  those  times,  and  of  the  bill  of  fare  of  Eliz- 
abeth's tables,  would  establish  the  fact  be- 
yond doubt.  The  intemperance  of  the  times, 
which  followed  the  Reformation,  led  to  the 
Sudor  Anglicus'  or  '  sweating  sickness,'  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth,  to  the  epilep- 
sy, called  '  falling  sickness,'  and  afterwards 


to  the  plague  of  London ;  for  the  reception 
of  which,  in  these  climes,  the  constitution 
was  prepared  by  an  effeminating  debauchery, 
such  as  illiberal  Christians  are  wont  to  as- 
cribe to  the  Turks." — Medicina  Simplex. 

"  The  civil  war,  or  rebellion,  had  raged  for 
twelve  years  with  a  degree  of  violence  never 
probably  exceeded  in  the  annals  of  human 
wickedness.  The  most  infiyiate  rage,  re- 
sulting from  religious  bigotry,  fanaticism,  the 
spirit  of  persecution,  and  national  hatred,  had 
laid  the  nation  waste.  A  senseless  spirit  of 
faction,  among  the  Roman  Catholics,  carried 
to  the  utmost  excess — engendered  principally 
by  the  intermeddling  and  turbulent  spirit  of 
the  nuncio,  Rinunccini,  a  serious  curse  to  the 
nation — but  fostered  and  fomented,  with  the 
most  Machiavelian  views,  by  the  duke  of  Or- 
mond— destroyed  the  energies  of  that  body — 
prevented  them  from  establishing  the  liberties 
of  their  country  on  a  secure  basis — and  laid 
them  and  their  posterity  prostrate  at  the  feet 
of  tlie  most  remorseless  and  unprincipled 
aristocracy  that  ever  cursed  a  nation." — M. 
Carey. 

"  They  were  for  the  most  part  men  of  low 
origin,  and  mean  education ;  but  enthusiasm 
gave  them  a  stern  dignity  of  character,  which 
must  command  a  certain  share  of  respect. 
That  the  act  which  gave  them  the  lands  of 
the  kingdom  was  an  unparalleled  public  rob- 
bery, and  the  most  atrocious  instemce  of  un- 
principled spoliation  recorded  in  any  history, 
nobody  can  question." — Taylor. 

"  The  toleration  of  Cromwell's  reign,  im- 
perfect as  it  was,  and  comprehending  neither 
the  Catholic,  the  Unitarian,  the  Quaker,  nor 
the  Jew,  was  but  one  of  the  arts  of  political 
management  by  which  he  raised  himself  to 
power,  and  can  scarcely  be  considered  as 
indicating  in  him,  or  in  his  party  at  large, 
any  settled  and  clearly-defined  principle." — 
G.  C.  Verplanck. 

"  The  Cromwellians  ruled  their  wretched 
serfs  with  a  rod  of  iron :  they  looked  upon 
them  as  an  inferior  species,  a  degraded  caste, 
with  whom  they  could  not  feel  sympathy. 
The  very  name  of  Irish  was  with  them  and 
their  descendants  an  expression  of  contempt, 
associated  with  ideas  of  intellectual  and  moral 


328 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1660 


degradation.  The  peasants  were  forbidden 
to  leave  their  parishes  without  permission ; 
and  strictly  prohibited  from  assembling  for 
religious  worship,  or  on  any  other  purpose. 
The  Catholic  clergy  were  ordered  to  quit  the 
country,  under  pain  of  death  ;  and  it  was  de- 
clared a  capital  offence  to  celebrate  mass,  or 
perform  any  of  the  ceremonies  of  Romish 
worship.  Still  there  were  a  faithful  few  who 
lingered  near  their  beloved  congregations, 
and  in  spite  of  the  fearful  hazard,  afforded 
their  flocks  the  consolation  of  religion.  They 
exercised  their  ministry  in  dens  and  caves  ; 
in  the  wild  fastnesses  of  the  mountains,  and 
in  the  deserted  bogs.  The  Cromwellians 
learned  that  the  abominations  of  popery  were 
still  continued  in  the  land,  and  employed 
bloodhounds  to  track  the  haunts  of  these 
devoted  men.  During  the  latter  part  of  the 
seventeenth,  and  the  early  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  priest-hunting  was  a  favourite 
field-sport  in  Ireland." — Taylor. 


"  It  is  one  of  the  most  curious  facts  in  our 
early  history,  a  fact  less  generally  known 
than  it  ought  to  be,  that  the  first  colony  of 
modern  times  which  was  founded  on  the 
broad  principles  of  religious  freedom,  expli- 
citly recognising  the  rights  of  conscience  and 
the  liberty  of  tliought,  was  that  of  Maryland, 
a  Roman  Catholic  colony,  founded  by  a  Ro- 
man Catholic  legislator.  Of  the  more  minute 
and  personal  history  and  character  of  Lord 
Baltimore,  the  founder  of  Maryland,  not  very 
much,  I  believe,  is  known  ;  but  we  do  know 
that  he  had  served  his  country  faithfully  and 
honourably,  in  peace  and  in  war,  and  that  in 
establishing  a  colony  for  the  relief  of  his  fel- 
low Catholics,  his  first  principle  of  legislation 
was  Religious  Liberty," — G,  C.  Verplanck. 

"The  year  1632  gave  rise  to  the  colony 
of  Maryland,  being  a  part  of  what  was  then 
reckoned  Virginia.  Sir  George  Calvert,  sec- 
retary of  state,  having  in  1621  and  1622 
obtained  of  King  James  a  grant  of  part  of 
Newfoundland,  he  some  time  after  removed 
thither  with  his  family,  but  he  soon  found  it 
to  be  one  of  the  worst  countries  in  the  world  ; 
whereupon  he  returned  back  to  England,  and 
he  being  a  conscientious  Roman  Catholic, 


!  was  inclined  to  retire  to  some  part  of  Virginia, 
there  quietly  to  enjoy  the  free  exercise  of  his 
religion,  for  which  purpose  he  went  thither 
himself  in  or  about  the  year  1631  ;  but  being 
discouraged  by  the  universal  dislike  which 
he  perceived  that  the  people  of  Virginia  had 
to  the  very  name  of  a  papist,  he  left  Virginia, 
and  went  further  up  the  bay  of  Chesapeake  ; 
and  finding  there  a  very  large  tract  of  land 
commodiously  watered  with  many  fine  rivers, 
and  not  yet  planted  by  any  Christians,  he 
returned  for  England,  and  represented  to  the 
king  that  the  colony  of  Virginia  had  not  as  yet 
occupied  any  lands  beyond  Potomac  river : 
whereupon  he  obtained  a  promise  of  the 
king's  grant,  but,  dying  before  it  was  made 
out,  his  son  Cecilius  took  it  out  in  his  own 
name,  June  20th,  1632,  the  king  himself 
naming  it  Maryland,  in  honour  of  the  queen, 
Henrietta  Maria," — Anderson  ;  Hist,  of 
Commerce.  See  also  W.  Keith's  Hist,  of 
Virginia. 

"  It  is  generally  allowed  that  this  charter, 
and  the  fundamental  code  of  laws,  including 
the  provisions  for  the  protection  of  religious 
liberty,  were  drawn  up  by  the  first  Lord 
Baltimore  ;  and  that  his  sons,  (Cecilius,  Lord 
Baltimore,  and  Leonard  Calvert,  who  was 
the  first  governor,)  merely  executed  the  de- 
signs of  their  father," — G,  C.  Verplanck. 

"  The  charter  of  incorporation  was  one  of 
the  most  ample  which  had  been  granted.  It 
not  only  conveyed  the  lands  in  the  fullest 
manner,  but  authorized  a  free  assembly,  with- 
out the  least  royal  interference.  Liberty  of 
conscience  was  allowed  to  Christians  of  all 
denominations.  Presents  were  made  to  the 
Indians  to  their  satisfaction ;  so  that  the 
country  was  at  peace.  These  circumstances, 
together  with  the  rigid  principles  of  the 
Virginians  and  some  of  the  other  colonists, 
had  influence  to  expedite  the  settlement. 
Remarkable  it  was,  that  under  a  Roman 
Catholic  proprietary,  Puritans  were  indulged 
that  liberty  of  conscience  which  was  denied 
them  by  their  fellow  Protestants.  Emigrants 
flocked  in  such  numbers  into  the  colony  that 
it  soon  became  populous  and  flourishing," — 
Trumbull  ;   Gen.  Hist,  of  the  U.  S. 

"  There  is  no  one — no  matter  how  ignorant 


A.  D.  1660.] 


SECOND    DIVISION 


of  other  things,  how  little  conversant  with  the 
events  of  the  age,  how  unversed  in  the  history 
of  the  great  and  the  good — but  at  the  sole 
enunciation  of  Carroll's  name,  understands 
the  full  meaning  and  import  of  all  it  contains  : 
associates  with  it  the  most  exalted  attributes, 
the  most  genuine  prerogatives,  the  most  sub- 
lime relations — identifies  with  it  every  cir- 
cumstance that  should  unite  in  constituting 
the  Christian,  the  patriot,  and  the  philoso- 
pher.        »         *         * 

"The  sublime  charter  of  our  privileges 
and  our  hopes — the  master-piece  of  diplo- 
matic composition,  and  statesman-like  wis- 
dom— at  the  peril  of  peace,  happiness,  for- 
tune, hfe  itself — was  fearlessly  signed  by 
Charles  Carroll. 

"  This  act  proved  him  to  be  one  of  the 
purest  patriots  and  most  unshrinking  men  of 
the  age.  He  was  in  the  prime  of  life  —he 
was  surrounded  with  every  comfort  that  the 
heart  could  wish  for — he  was  immensely 
wealthy.  He  had  nothing  to  gain — he  had 
all  to  hazard.  This  act  was  the  generous 
and  lofty  impulse  of  a  soul  that  sought  to 
make  all  men  happy ;  to  raise  his  fellow 
Christians  from  the  degradation  in  which  they 
were  kept ;  to  exonerate  his  fellow  citizens 
from  the  grievous  and  odious  taxes  that  were 
heaped  upon  them.  He  had  no  ambition  to 
gratify — no  interest  to  secure — no  party  spirit 
to  indulge — no  office  to  obtain — no  wealth  to 
amass.  •  *  *  *  He  was  ready  to  contend  with 
all  the  adversity  of  circumstances,  to  throw 
himself  into  the  war,  to  breast  the  danger  of 
the  struggle,  and  submit  to  the  ignominy  of 
a  failure — ignominy,  did  I  say  ?  In  any 
event,  it  would  have  been  the  ignominy  of 
unsuccessful  patriots,  overtaken  in  their  ca- 
reer of  glory  by  the  rod  of  their  oppressors. 
Ignominy !  had  his  fate  been  that  of  what 
England  would  then  have  styled  a  traitor  and 
a  rebel — the  ignominy  of  his  grave  would 
have  been  encircled  with  a  blaze  of  light.  It 
would  have  been  ignominy  like  that  of  Emmet 
— the  ignominy  of  a  martyr  to  hberty  and 
independence.  He  felt  and  acted  upon  the 
sentiment  of  Cowper — 

« 'Tifl  liberty  alone  that  givea  the  flower 
Of  fleeting  life  its  lustre  and  perfume ; 
42 


And  we  are  weeds  without  it      *      *       • 
•*•**•!  could  endure 
Chains  nowhere  patiently ;  and  chains  at  home, 
Where  I  am  free  by  birthright,  not  at  all.' 

"  But,  I  leave  this  topic  to  the  pens  of 
statesmen.  It  is  not  my  province,  and  cer- 
tainly not  my  wish  to  enter  into  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  Revolution,  unfold  all  the 
intricacies  of  that  perilous  but  glorious  event 
— to  carry  your  attention  through  the  mar- 
vellous labyrinth  of  its  history — I  am  merely 
here  to  point  to  the  date  of  our  glory,  and  to 
place  before  you  in  faithful  delineaments,  one 
of  the  extraordinary  agents,  the  last  of  sages, 
the  *  ultimus  Romanorum^  who  gave  us  our 
standing  among  the  nations  of  the  earth." — 
C.  C.  Pise  ;  Oration  in  honour  of  Chables 
Carroll. 

"  The  mission  of  America  among  the  na- 
tions is  indeed  one  of  republicanism,  of  Ub- 
erty ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  one  of  peace  and 
good-will  to  men.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
we  invoke  the  censure  of  mankind  against 
England.  She  knows  its  power,  for  she  has 
often  excited  and  directed  it,  and  with  au- 
spicious results,  to  her  immortal  honour  be  it 
acknowledged.  She  dare  not  and  will  not 
defy  it.  We  know  indeed  her  vast  miUtary 
power.  We  know  that  the  drum-beat  of  her 
armies  begins  with  the  morning,  '  and  keep- 
ing company  with  the  hours,  encircles  the 
earth  with  one  unbroken  strain  of  the  martial 
airs  of  England.'  But  we  know  also  that  the 
era  of  military  despotism  is  passing  away — 
that  a  greater  and  more  beneficent  power  has 
arisen.  The  moral  power  of  mankind  waits 
not  to  be  awakened  by  the  sun — it  halts  not 
for  the  dilatory  progress  of  the  hours,  hor 
does  it  die  away  as  they  pass  on.  It  per- 
vades camps  not  only,  but  cabinets  and  courts 
and  cities,  and  towns,  villages,  hamlets,  and 
rural  fields  ;  it  defeats  the  designs  of  tyranny 
in  their  conception,  and  converts  hostile  ar- 
mies into  embassies  of  benevolence  and  civil- 
ization."— W.  H.  Seward. 

"  If  Europe  has  hitherto  [1818]  been  wil- 
fully blind  to  the  value  of  our  example  and* 
the  exploits  of  our  sagacity,  courage,  inven- 
tion, and  freedom,  the  blame  must  rest  with 
her,  and  not  with  America. 


330 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1660. 


"  Is  it  nothing  for  the  universal  good  of 
mankind  to  have  carried  into  successful  oper- 
ation a  system  of  self-government,  uniting 
personal  liberty,  freedom  of  opinion,  and 
equality  of  rights,  with  national  power  and 
dignity ;  such  as  had  before  existed  only  in 
the  Utopian  dreams  of  philosophers  ?  Is  it 
nothing,  in  moral  science,  to  have  anticipated 
in  sober  reality  numerous  plans  of  reform  in 
civil  and  criminal  jurisprudence,  which  are, 
but  now,  received  as  plausible  theories  by  the 
politicians  and  economists  of  Europe  ?  Is  it 
nothing  to  have  been  able  to  call  forth  in 
every  emergency,  either  in  war  or  peace,  a 
body  of  talents  always  equal  to  the  difficulty  ? 
Is  it  nothing  to  have,  in  less  than  half  a  cen- 
tury, exceedingly  improved  the  sciences  of 
political  economy,  of  law,  and  of  medicine, 
with  all  their  auxiliary  branches ;  to  have 
enriched  human  knowledge  by  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  great  mass  of  useful  facts  and 
observations ;  and  to  have  augmented  the 
power  and  the  comforts  of  civilized  man  by 
miracles  of  mechanical  invention  ?  Is  it  no- 
thing to  have  given  the  world  examples  of 
disinterested  patriotism,  of  political  wisdom, 
of  public  virtue  ;  of  learning,  eloquence,  and 
valour,  never  exerted  save  for  some  praise- 
worthy end  ?  It  is  sufficient  to  briefly  sug- 
gest these  considerations  :  every  mind  would 
anticipate  me  in  filling  up  the  details. 

"  No — Land  of  Liberty  !  thy  children  have 
no  cause  to  blush  for  thee.  What  though 
the  arts  have  reared  but  few  monuments 
among  us,  and  scarcely  a  trace  of  the  Muse's 
footstep  is  found  in  the  paths  of  our  forests, 
or  along  the  banks  of  our  rivers  ;  yet  our  soil 
has  been  consecrated  by  the  blood  of  heroes, 
and  by  great  and  holy  deeds  of  peace.  Its 
wide  extent  has  become  one  vast  temple  and 
hallowed  asylum,  sanctified  by  the  prayers 

AND  blessings  OF  THE  PERSECUTED  OF  EVERY 
SECT,  AND  THE  WRETCHED  OF  ALL  NATIONS. 

"  Land  of  Refuge — Land  of  Benedictions  ! 
Those  prayers  still  arise,  and  they  are  still 
heard  : — '  May  peace  be  within  thy  walls, 
and  plenteousness  within  thy  palaces  !'  '  May 
there  be  no  decay,  no  leading  into  captivity, 
and  no  complaining  in  thy  streets !'  '  May 
truth  flourish  out  of  the  earth,  and  righteous- 


ness look    down  from    heaven!'" — G.   C. 
Verplanck,  1818. 


"  The  true  lawgiver  ought  to  have  a  heart 
full  of  sensibility.  He  ought  to  love  and 
respect  his  kind,  and  to  fear  himself.  It  may 
be  allowed  to  his  temperament  to  catch  his 
ultimate  object  with  an  intuitive  glance  ;  but 
his  movements  towards  it  ought  to  be  deliber- 
ate. Political  arrangement,  as  it  is  a  work 
for  social  ends,  is  to  be  only  wrought  by 
social  means.  There  mind  must  conspire 
with  mind.  Time  is  required  to  produce 
that  union  of  minds  which  alone  can  produce 
all  the  good  we  aim  at.  Our  patience  will 
achieve  more  than  our  force." — Burke. 

"If  ever  there  appeared  in  any  state  a 
chief  who  was  at  the  same  time  both  tyrant 
and  usurper,  most  certainly  Oliver  Cromwell 
was  such." — Wicquefort  Emb. 

"  He  was  a  tyrant." — Alg.  Sydney. 

"  He  was  a  coward." — Ld.  Holles. 

"With  all  his  faults,  although  he  was  a 
coward  at  first,"  etc.  etc. — Rog.  Manley. 

"  A  bold,  cunning,  and  ambitious  man ; 
unjust,  violent,  and  void  of  virtue." — Mem. 
of  Brandenburg. 

"  A  subtle  and  refined  hypocrite." — Bos- 
suet. 

"  A  dexterous  villain  ;  a  bloody  usurper." 
Voltaire. 

"  A  fortunate  fool." — Card.  Mazarine. 

"  His  face  wears  natural  bufi",  and  his  skin 
may  furnish  him  with  a  rusty  coat  of  mail. 
You  would  think  he  had  been  christened  in  a 
lime-pit,  and  tanned  alive,  but  that  his  coun- 
tenance still  continues  mangy.  We  cry  out 
against  superstition,  and  yet  worship  a  piece 
of  wainscot  and  idolize  a  blanched  almond." 
Hudibras  in  Prose,  1682. 

"  If  I  write  against  tyrants,  what  is  that  to 
kings,  whom  I  am  far  from  associating  with 
tyrants  ?  as  much  as  an  honest  man  differs 
from  a  rogue,  so  much  I  contend  that  a  king 
differs  from  a  tyrant.  Whence  it  is  clear  that 
a  t)n:ant  is  so  far  from  being  a  king,  that  he  is 
always  in  direct  opposition  to  a  king ;  and  he 
who  peruses  the  records  of  history  will  find 
that  more  kings  have  been  subverted  by  ty- 
rants than  by  subjects.     He,  therefore,  that 


A.  D.  1660.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


331 


would  authorize  the  destruction  of  tyrants, 
does  not  authorize  the  destruction  of  kings, 
but  of  the  most  inveterate  enemies  of  kings." 
Milton. 

*'  Cromwell  gorged  himself  with  human 
blood. — He  committed  the  most  hideous 
slaughters ;  deliberate,  cold-blooded,  perse- 
vering. He  stained  the  annals  of  the  Eng- 
lish people  with  guilt  of  a  blacker  dye  than 
has  stained  any  other  nation  on  earth. 

"And — after  all — for  what?  What  did 
he  gain  by  it  ?  Some  four  or  five  years  of 
unsettled  power !  And  if  his  corpse  were 
interred  in  a  royal  grave,  it  was  so  only  to 
have  his  bones  thence  transferred  to  a  gib- 
bet !" O'CONNELL. 

"  With  an  absolute  indifference  to  all  that 
is  praiseworthy  or  blameless,  honest  or  dis- 
honest, he  never  considered  virtue  as  virtue, 
crime  as  crime ;  he  regarded  only  the  rela- 
tion which  the  one  or  the  other  might  have 
to  his  elevation.  This  was  his  idol ;  he  sac- 
rificed to  it  his  king,  his  country,  and  his  re- 
ligion. Cromwell  was  an  illustrious  villain." 
Raynal. 

"  From  of  old,  I  will  confess,  this  theory 
of  Cromwell's  falsity  has  been  incredible  to 
me.  Nay,  I  cannot  believe  the  like,  of  any 
Great  Man  whatever.  Multitudes  of  Great 
Men  figure  in  History  as  false  selfish  men  ; 
but  if  we  will  consider  it,  they  are  hut  Jigures 
for  us,  unintelligible  shadows  :  we  do  not  see 
into  them  as  men  that  could  have  existed  at 
all.  A  superficial  unbelieving  generation 
only,  with  no  eye  but  for  the  surfaces  and 
semblances  of  things,  could  form  such  notions 
of  Great  Men.  Can  a  great  soul  be  possible 
without  a  conscience  in  it,  the  essence  of  all 
real  souls,  great  or  small  ? — No,  we  cannot 
figure  Cromwell  as  a  Falsity  and  Fatuity  ;  the 
longer  I  study  him  and  his  career,  I  believe 
this  the  less.  Why  should  we  ?  There  is 
no  evidence  of  it.  Is  it  not  strange  that,  after 
all  the  mountains  of  calumny  this  man  has 
been  subject  to,  after  being  represented  as 
the  very  prince  of  liars,  who  never,  or  hardly 
ever,  spoke  truth,  but  always  some  cunning 
counterfeit  of  truth,  there  should  not  yet  have 
been  one  falsehood  brought  clearly  home  to 
hini  ?    A  prince  of  liars,  and  no  lie  spoken 


by  him.  Not  one  that  I  could  yet  get  a  sight 
of.  It  is  hke  Pococke  asking  Grotius,  Where 
is  your  proof  of  Mahomet's  Pigeon  ?  No 
proof ! — Let  us  leave  these  calumnious  chi- 
meras, as  chimeras  ought  to  be  left.  They 
are  not  the  portraits  of  the  man ;  they  are 
distracted  phantasms  of  him,  the  joint  product 
of  hatred  and  darkness." — T.  Carlyle,  May, 
1840. 

"  Mr.  Carlyle  reminds  us  of  the  man  in  a 
certain  parish  who  had  always  looked  up  to 
one  of  its  Squires  as  a  secure  and  blameless 
idol,  and  one  day  in  church  when  the  minis- 
ter asked  *  all  who  felt  in  concern  for  their 
souls  to  rise,'  looked  to  the  idol  and  seeing 
him  retain  his  seat,  (asleep  perchance  !)  sat 
still  also.  One  of  his  friends  asking  him 
afterwards  how  he  could  refuse  to  answer 
such  an  appeal,  he  replied,  *  he  thought  it 
safest  to  stay  with  the  Squire.' 

"  Mr.  Carlyle's  Squires  are  all  Heaven's 
Justices  of  Peace  or  War,  (usually  the  lat- 
ter ;)  they  are  beings  of  tiTie  energy  and 
genius ;  and  so  far,  as  he  describes  them, 
'  genuine  men.'  But  in  doubtful  cases,  where 
the  doubt  is  between  them  and  principles,  he 
will  insist  that  the  men  must  be  in  the  right." 
S.  M.  Fuller, 

"  There  never  was  a  mean  and  abject  mind 
that  did  not  admire  an  intrepid  and  dexterous 
villain." — Burke. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

Restoration  of  Charles  the  Second — Court  of  claims 
in  Dublin — Act  of  settlement — Quarrels  orer  the 
prey  of  iniquity — More  plots — Administrations  of 
Berkeley,  Essex,  and  Ormond — Executions  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Armagh  and  the  Earl  of  Strafford 
— Death  of  the  king. 

In  order  to  clearly  understand  the  state  of 
affairs  in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotljmd,  at 
the  removal  of  the  Cromwells,  it  should  be 
noticed  that  Ireland  had  fought  three  years 
longer  than  either  of  the  others  for  the  royal 
cause ;  that  Scotland  was  governed  by  the 
tact  and  firmness  of  General  Monk  ;  and  that 
the  successes  of  the  English  navy  against 
Holland,  (the  only  power  in  Europe  that 
dared  to  oppose  Cromwell,)  were  principally 


332 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1660. 


owing  to  the  vigour  of  Admiral  Blake,  a  good 
old  sterling  republican,  who  always  fought 
for  his  country  without  caring  for  the  "  ins" 
or  the  "  outs." 

General  Monk  was  undoubtedly  favoura- 
ble to  the  monarchy ;  but,  at  the  time,  all  the 
various  parties  were  puzzled  by  his  singular 
movement  towards  London.  On  his  delivery 
of  a  letter  from  Charles  to  the  parliament, 
"  greasy  caps"  flew  in  the  air,  and  everybody 
outside  swore  that  all  England  wanted  to  re- 
store her  greatness  was  for  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond to  take  the  throne. 

The  state  of  Ireland  was  extraordinary  and 
conflicting.  The  Catholics  were  the  first  to 
hail  the  crown  as  the  emblem  of  government. 
They  hoped  now  to  recover  the  estates  which 
they  had  lost  by  their  fidelity  to  the  monarch 
that  had  been  just  restored  ;  and  those  who 
had  been  declared  innocent  by  Cromwell 
were  foremost  in  demanding  restoration  of 
their  property. 

The  Puritans  established  a  provisional  gov- 
ernment in  Dublin,  and  rigorously  put  in 
force  the  most  severe  ordinances  which  had 
been  issued  against  the  Catholics.  They 
were  not  allowed  to  quit  their  places  of  resi- 
dence without  special  permission.  All  as- 
semblies of  the  gentry  were  strictly  prohib- 
ited, and  every  effort  made  to  prevent  their 
electing  agents  to  lay  their  just  claims  before 
the  king.  These  arbitrary  exertions  were 
powerfully  seconded  by  the  English  parlia- 
ment, anxious  at  once  to  retain  its  usurped 
authority  over  Ireland,  and  to  preserve  the 
support  of  a  powerful  body  of  adherents,  in 
case  of  any  future  contest  with  the  crown. 
By  the  time  Charles  arrived  in  London,  ad- 
dresses were  already  prepared  by  both  houses 
of  parliament,  representing  the  dangers  to  be 
dreaded  from  the  violence  of  certain  natives 
of  Ireland  ;  and  the  king  was  obliged  to  issue 
a  proclamation  for  apprehending  "  Irish  reb- 
els," and  for  securing  all  adventurers  and  sol- 
diers in  the  possession  of  the  lands  they  then 
held,  until  "  parliamentary  inquiry"  was  sat- 
isfied. 

Taylor  gives  the  following  excellent  view 
of  the  position  of  Charles  on  "  taking  the 
chair :" — 


"  The  case  of  the  Irish  Catholics  has  been 
so  studiously  and  atrociously  misrepresented, 
that  a  brief  statement  of  the  leading  particu- 
lars is  necessary.  The  imputed  massacre 
of  the  Protestants  has  always  been  the  ex- 
cuse urged  for  the  extensive  spoliation  to 
which  they  were  subjected ;  and  yet  a  mo- 
ment's examination  will  suffice  to  show,  that 
this  massacre,  whether  real  or  fictitious,  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  question. 
The  murders  that  have  been  so  often  men- 
tioned were  all  committed  in  the  north  by  the 
people  of  Ulster,  before  any  of  the  confeder- 
ate Catholics  had  taken  up  arms.  The  for- 
feited lands  lay  principally  in  Leinster  and 
Munster  ;  and  their  proprietors  not  only  had 
no  share  in  the  alleged  atrocities,  but  de- 
nounced them  in  the  severest  terms.  The 
war  of  the  confederates  was  in  no  sense  of 
the  word  a  rebellion.  The  lords  of  the  Pale 
took  up  arms  to  defend  themselves,  and  the 
cause  of  their  king  and  country,  against  the 
unprincipled  Parsons,  and  his  vile  supporters. 
During  the  entire  contest,  they  professed  a 
zealous  attachment  to  the  royal  cause,  and 
were  ready  to  support  the  king  with  their 
lives  and  properties.  The  war  which  had 
been  protracted  by  the  artifices  of  Ormond, 
prevented  them  from  giving  Charles  such 
eflScient  assistance  in  his  contest  with  the 
parliament  as  they  eagerly  desired  ;  but  after 
the  peace,  or  rather  truce,  of  1646,  they  had 
sent  him  aids  both  of  men  and  money.  Two 
solemn  treaties,  in  1 646  and  1 648,  had  been 
concluded  between  them  and  their  sovereign, 
by  which  they  were  promised  security  for 
their  religion,  liberty,  and  property.  In  con- 
sideration of  these  promises,  they  had  boldly 
maintained  their  sovereign's  right  against 
Cromwell,  as  long  as  they  possessed  the 
means  of  resistance,  and  rejected  the  author- 
ity of  the  usurper,  even  after  England  and 
Scotland  had  acknowledged  his  sway.  The 
loss  of  their  estates  was,  in  fact,  the  conse- 
quence of  their  desperate  fidelity ;  for  they 
might  easily  have  secured  them  by  early 
submission  to  the  English  parliament. 

"  It  is  doubtful  whether  Charles  had  the 
power  of  doing  justice  to  these  men :  it  is 
certain  that  he  had  not  the  inclination.     Or- 


A.  D.  1661.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


333 


mond  persuaded  him  that  the  Puritans  had 
unconsciously  done  him  a  great  service  by 
establishing  an  English  interest  in  Ireland, 
and  accomplishing  the  favourite  schemes  of 
his  father  and  grandfather, — an  extensive 
plantation.  He  easily  showed  that  the  new 
proprietors  would  be  more  subservient  than 
the  rightful  owners,  as  the  existence  of  their 
property  entirely  depended  on  their  support  of 
the  government ;  and  proved  how  much  more 
valuable  were  subjects  ready  to  purchase 
favour  than  those  who  possessed  weighty 
claims  on  gratitude.  None  of  the  Stuarts 
were  remarkable  for  preferring  principles  to 
policy  ;  and  Charles  was  troubled  with  fewer 
scruples  than  any  of  them.  He  saw  that  to 
act  justly  was  a  work  of  difficulty  and  dan- 
ger, and  one  in  which  virtue  should  be  its 
own  reward ;  but  an  iniquitous  course  he 
knew  to  be  safe  and  profitable,  and  his  choice 
was  instantly  decided." 

One  of  the  first  movements  Charles  per- 
formed was  a  compliment  to  the  city  of  Dub- 
lin, which  some  readers  will  consider  as  be- 
ing made  in  a  very  appropriate  form.  He 
presented  that  city  with  a  heavy  gold  collar, 
and  bestowed  a  company  of  infantry  to  the 
command  of  Robert  Deey,  the  mayor.  Lord 
Broghill,  (now  created  Earl  of  Orrery,)  hav- 
ing been  requested  to  devise  a  scheme  for 
cheating  all  parties,  and  to  allow  the  king 
leisure  for  enjoying  the  crown  right  royally, 
proposed  that  the  forfeited  lands  not  belong- 
ing to  the  Cromwellians  should  be  formed 
into  a  common  stock,  from  which  the  inno- 
cent or  meritorious  Irish  might  be  compen- 
sated, or  "  reprised,"  as  it  was  termed.^ 
Charles  eagerly  embraced  a  plan  that  prom- 
ised to  relieve  him  from  his  embarrassment, 
and  published  his  celebrated  declaration  for 
the  settlement  of  Ireland.  Of  course  a  par- 
liament must  be  called  in  to  arrange  the  bu- 
siness, and  the  kingly  benefit  of  delay  was 
thus  secured  to  the  lazy  and  careless  mon- 
arch. 

In  1661,  the  principal  subject  that  engaged 
the  attention  of  the  new  parliament  was  the 
restoration  of  the  established  church,  which, 
it  was  supposed,  would  encounter  the  most 
determined  opposition.      But  Ormond,   by 


whose  advice  the  government  was  chiefly 
directed,  formed  a  plan  for  overcoming  the 
scruples  of  the  Puritans.  He  brought  on 
the  question  of  the  church  establishment 
prior  to  the  consideration  of  the  settlement 
of  estates :  and  the  Puritans,  more  careful 
of  new  lands  than  old  principles,  cheerfully 
assented  to  the  revival  of  prelacy  and  the 
liturgy,  the  destruction  of  which  had  been 
the  boasted  excuse  for  taking  up  arms  against 
their  sovereign.  They  also  concurred  in  cen- 
suring their  own  old  "  solemn  league  and 
covenant,"  and  in  condemning  their  former 
oaths  of  association.  Their  next  proceeding 
was  a  curious  sample  of  modem  "justice." 
They  voted  an  address  to  the  lords-justices 
that  the  open  term  should  be  adjourned  and 
the  courts  of  law  shut  up,  in  order  to  prevent 
the  reversal  of  outlawries  and  the  ejectment 
of  adventurers  or  soldiers  before  their  titles 
should  be  adjusted  by  statute.  The  house 
of  lords  refused,  at  first,  to  assent  to  such  an 
outrageous  violation  of  the  constitution ;  but 
they  were  finally  persuaded  to  concur  in  the 
address ;  and  the  lords-justices  of  course 
complied. 

In  the  house  of  commons,  the  members 
were  resolved  on  the  terms  of  the  king's  "  de- 
claration for  the  settlement  of  Ireland,"  a 
document  which  had  been  worded  so  as  to 
exclude  almost  all  the  Irish ;  but  the  lords 
would  by  no  means  concur  in  such  a  deter- 
mination. They  sympathized  with  the  an- 
cient gentry  of  the  land,  and  felt  indignant  at 
seeing  their  properties  usurped  by  men  whose 
vulgarity  subjected  them  to  additional  annoy- 
ance and  insult.  At  the  head  of  those  who 
determined  to  do  something  for  the  old  pro- 
prietors stood  the  Earl  of  Kildare.  The 
principal  object  to  which  the  attention  of  this 
party  was  directed  was  the  enlargement  of 
the  fund  for  reprisals.  It  was  found  that  the 
commissioners  had  been  guilty  of  the  most 
scandalous  practices  in  granting  these  ;  that 
they  had  rejected  the  claims  of  those  whom 
the  king  had  nominated,  and  those  who  served 
under  his  ensigns  abroad  and  shared  the  ca- 
lamities of  his  exile,  under  a  pretence  that 
there  was  no  way  of  reprising  the  present 
possessors ;  and  that  they  had  clandestinely 


334 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  ICOI. 


granted  the  lands  allotted  for  reprisals  to 
their  particular  friends.  The  lords  felt  bound 
to  insist  on  a  clause  for  the  revocation  of 
these  fraudulent  titles. 

Another  subject  was  broached  which  tend- 
ed to  baffle  the  eager  claims  of  the  adven- 
turers. The  English  parliament  having 
squandered  the  proceeds  of  the  robbery  of 
Irish  lands  in  1642,  now  acted  on  what  is 
very  appropriately  called  "  the  Doubling  Or- 
dinance." This  document  declared  that  who- 
ever advanced  one-fourth  more  than  his  origi- 
nal adventure  should  have  the  whole  doubled 
on  account,  and  receive  lands  as  if  the  double 
sum  had  been  actually  paid  ;  and  that,  if  the 
adventurer  refused  to  advance  this  fourth, 
any  other  person,  on  paying  it,  should  reap  the 
same  advantage  on  repaying  the  adventurer 
the  sum  he  had  originally  advanced !  Sir  John 
Clotworthy,  (of  good  old  "  rebellion"  memo- 
ry, and  lately  created  Lord  Massarene,)  was  a 
prime  agent  in  procuring  the  enactment  of 
this  ordinance.  He  had,  in  1642,  purchased 
up  the  shares  of  several  adventurers  ;  and  he 
now  zealously  contended  that  the  king  was 
bound  by  the  terms  of  the  agreement.  Kil- 
dare  replied  that  this  ordinance  could  not  be 
considered  of  the  same  prime  validity  as  an 
act  of  parliament ;  that  the  money  raised  in 
obedience  to  it  had  been  used  to  pay  the 
English  army  then  fighting  against  the  king  ; 
and  that  it  was  absurd  to  require  the  sacrifice 
of  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
acres,  for  which  no  consideration  whatever 
had  been  received.  In  spite  of  Massarene's 
opposition,  Kildare's  clause,  enacting  that  the 
adventurers  should  be  treated  with  only  in 
reference  to  the  money  advanced,  and  no 
more,  was  carried.  The  heads  of  the  bill 
were  at  length  finally  determined.  A  copy 
was  laid  before  the  lords-justices,  and  by 
them  transmitted  to  England  :  whither  went 
also  commissioners  from  both  houses  of  par- 
liament, and  accredited  agents,  to  plead  the 
claims  of  their  respective  principals. 

The  English  adventurers  and  the  old  par- 
liamentary soldiers,  well  knowing  the  eflSca- 
cy  of  money  in  the  neighbourhood  of  West- 
minster Hall,  collected  among  themselves 
very  large  sums  to  bribe  the  English  privy- 


council  ;  and  the  Dublin  house  of  commons 
secured  the  favour  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond 
by  voting  him  a  present  of  thirty  thousand 
pounds.  The  favour  of  the  English  people, 
now  fully  awakened  to  the  importance  of  the 
prize,  and  more  prejudiced  than  ever  against 
the  Irish  Catholics  and  Protestants  by  the 
calumnies  which,  through  the  means  of  their 
numerous  friends  and  relatives,  the  Crom- 
wellians  zealously  circulated  throughout  Eng- 
land, was  also  given  to  the  adventurers.  The 
Irish  had  neither  money  nor  friends  ;  nor  did 
they  now  atone  for  this  deficiency  by  patience 
or  prudence.  Ormond,  anxious  to  secure  an 
interest  with  all  parlies,  advised  them  to  as- 
sume an  humble  tone,  to  appeal  to  the  king's 
mercy,  and  to  win  favour  by  promises  of 
future  submissive  behaviour.  The  Irish, 
knowing  the  duke's  insincerity,  chose  as  their 
patron  Richard  Talbot,  afterward  Earl  of 
Tyrconnel,  who  had  been  a  companion  of 
the  king  when  in  exile,  and  was  a  personal 
friend  of  the  Duke  of  York,  but  who  on  this 
occasion  greatly  overrated  his  own  influence 
and  that  of  his  patron.  The  Irish  rested 
their  claims  upon  right  and  justice.  They 
contrasted  their  unshaken  loyalty  with  the 
conduct  of  those  who  had  brought  their  mon- 
arch to  a  scaffold ;  and  boldly  claimed  the 
fulfilment  of  the  articles  of  peace  that  had 
been  established  with  Glamorgan  in  1648. 
This  demand  interfered  with  the  new  scheme 
of  establishing  an  English  interest  in  Ireland, 
of  which  Charles  declared  himself  the  patron; 
and  the  Irish  rightly  attributing  this  determi- 
nation to  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  sent  Talbot  to 
remonstrate  with  him  on  the  subject. 

Talbot,  finding  Ormond  a  consummate 
shuffler,  challenged  him.  Ormond  had  no 
inclination  to  fight ;  he  therefore  complained 
to  the  council.  Talbot  was  committed  to  the 
Tower,  and  only  released  on  making  humble 
submission  to  the  authorities.  This  operated 
badly  for  the  Irish,  but  they  still  persevered, 
and  thus  displeased  Charles,  who  looked 
upon  every  concession  made  to  them  as  an 
act  of  free  grace  and  favour ;  and  besides, 
offended  the  privy-council,  many  of  whom 
were  personally  concerned  in  causing  the 
death  of  the  late  king. 


A.  D.  1663.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


335 


On  the  general  merits  of  Ormond's  con- 
duct, down  to  the  close  of  the  "  settlement," 
Taylor  has  made  the  following  excellent  re- 
marks : — 

"  The  conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond  in 
these  transactions  has  been  the  theme  of  un- 
measured praise,  and  equally  unmeasured 
censure.  Yet  is  there  no  point  of  fact  at 
issue  between  his  advocates  and  his  oppo- 
nents. If  for  the  sake  of  establishing  a  Prot- 
estant interest  in  Ireland,  it  was  lawful,  and 
even  praiseworthy,  to  commit  treachery, 
fraud,  and  universal  robbery,  then  may  we 
join  in  all  the  eulogiums  that  have  been 
heaped  upon  him  ;  but  if  the  best  end  cannot 
sanctify  the  worst  means,  if  Mammon  and 
Moloch  be  unworthy  allies  to  the  cause  of 
pure  rehgion,  then  must  we  condemn  him  as 
one  who  sacrificed  upright  principle  to  ques- 
tionable policy,  and  was  guilty  of  atrocious 
evil  to  eflfect  a  doubtful  good.  The  most  in- 
structive commentary  on  his  conduct  is  the 
simple  fact,  that  before  the  civil  war  his 
estates  only  yielded  him  about  £7000  per 
annum ;  but  after  the  final  settlement,  his 
annual  income  was  upwards  of  £80,000 — 
more  than  ten  times  the  fonner  amount.  He 
felt  to  the  last  hour  of  his  life  a  lurking  con- 
sciousness that  the  part  he  had  acted  would 
not  bear  a  close  examination ;  and  writhed 
under  the  attacks  made  on  him  in  pamphlets 
by  the  men  he  had  betrayed  and  undone." 

The  "  Act  of  Settlement"  was  no  sooner 
announced  than  it  was  received  with  execra- 
tion by  all  the  parties  whose  interests  were 
involved  by  its  operations.  However,  the 
court  of  claims  commenced  business  at  the 
king's  inns  of  Dubhn.  Those  in  possession 
of  the  secrets  of  the  government  had  been 
making  preparations  for  this  event  during 
more  than  a  year  previously.  On  the  10th 
of  December,  1661,  while  the  preliminary 
negotiations  were  pending  in  London,  a  pro- 
clamation was  issued  in  Dublin,  ordering  the 
Irish  who  had  been  transported  into  Con- 
naught,  to  return  there,  and  not  to  cross  the 
Shannon,  under  pain  of  imprisonment,  and 
such  further  proceedings  against  them  as  the 
lords-justices  might  think  proper.  The  ob- 
ject of  this  was  to  prevent  them  from  making 


arrangements  to  promote  their  applications. 
Their  letters  were  opened,  and  every  means 
adopted  to  prevent  their  escape. 

Ormond,  though  an  enemy  of  the  Irish 
Catholics,  highly  disapproved  of  the  impolicy 
of  condemning  them  unheard.  He  proposed 
the  appointment  of  a  board,  to  be  composed 
of  the  lord-lieutenant  and  six  of  the  privy- 
council,  who  should  be  empowered  to  nomi- 
nate such  of  the  Irish  with  whose  loyalty  they 
were  fully  acquainted,  so  that  they  might 
partake  of  the  same  advantages  as  those  who 
had  passed  the  fiery  ordeal  of  the  commis- 
sioners. To  this  proposition  no  objection 
could  be  honestly  made ;  but  it  was  wickedly 
rejected. 

The  commissioners  appointed  to  consider 
the  qualifications  of  innocence  were  English- 
men ;  they  had  been  especially  selected  on 
account  of  their  attachment  to  the  cause  of 
Protestant  ascendency  ;  but  they  acted  with 
more  impartiality  than  the  government  either 
expected  or  desired.  Rigorous  as  the  quali- 
fications of  innocence  had  been  made,  in  the 
first  month  of  trials  thirty-eight  were  pro- 
nounced innocent,  and  only  seven  guilty ;  in 
the  second,  seven  were  declared  guilty,  and 
fifty-three  acquitted ;  in  the  third,  seventy- 
seven  were  found  innocent,  and  only  five 
condemned.  This  was  a  result  which  no- 
body had  anticipated.  Ormond,  who  had 
devised  the  whole  scheme  of  the  qualifica- 
tions and  commissions,  was  confounded. 

The  Cromwellian  party,  fearing  that  the 
plunder  was  about  to  be  wrested  from  their 
hands,  gladly  determined  to  take  up  arms 
without  warrant.  A  committee  of  the  officers 
who  had  served  in  Cromwell's  army  met  to 
organize  the  scheme  of  a  general  insurrection, 
and  laid  a  plan  for  seizing  the  castle  of  Dub- 
lin. The  house  of  commons  was  enraged  at 
the  probabihty  of  seeing  justice  done  to  the 
Catholics.  They  presented  an  address  to 
the  lord-lieutenant,  requiring  him  to  make 
the  qualifications  still  more  rigorous,  and  sug- 
gesting such  alterations  as  would  have  in- 
volved the  whole  Irish  party  in  one  certain 
ruin. 

As  usual,  Ormond's  answer  was  ambigu- 
ous.    But  he  hung  a  few  of  the  rebels,  and 


336 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1664. 


awed  the  Puritan  faction  in  the  Dubhn  par- 
hament.  In  the  mean  time  he  turned  his 
attention  to  increasing  the  rigour  of  the  court 
of  claims,  and  soon  contrived  a  plan  to  make 
the  act  of  settlement  operate  as  originally  in- 
tended. The  time  for  the  sitting  of  the  com- 
missioners was  limited  by  him  to  a  certain 
number  of  days,  during  which  only  about  one 
fourth  of  the  claims  could  possibly  be  heard  ; 
the  court  then  closed,  August  22,  1663,  and 
was  never  opened  afterwards.  About  three 
thousand  of  the  most  ancient  and  respectable 
Irish  families  were  thus  stripped  of  their 
property,  without  even  the  form  of  a  trial, 
without  enjoying  a  privilege  not  refused  to 
the  basest  criminal,  that  of  being  heard  in 
defence. 

Ormond  and  the  king  now  had  all  parties, 
the  robber  and  the  robbed,  completely  at 
their  mercy.  Such  was  the  state  of  uncer- 
tainty generally  felt,  that  even  the  London 
companies  offered  to  resign  their  lands  to  the 
king,  and  to  account  for  the  mesne  profits, 
on  condition  of  being  repaid  their  principal, 
with  compound  interest  at  three  per  cent; 
the  adventurers  and  soldiers  offered  to  relax 
their  pretensions,  in  order  to  obtain  a  positive 
settlement ;  and  the  fund  for  reprisals  was 
considerably  augmented  by  the  detection  of 
innumerable  frauds  of  which  the  commission- 
ers had  been  guilty.  They  had  given  dispro- 
portionate allotments  to  their  own  friends, 
used  admeasurements  scandalously  false,  and 
returned  some  of  the  best  land  in  the  kingdom 
as  barren  and  worthless.  By  the  correction 
of  these  wrongs,  a  new  and  considerable 
addition  was  made  to  the  stock  of  reprisals  ; 
and,  under  these  favourable  circumstances, 
orders  were  given  to  prepare  the  "  Act  of 
Explanation  and  Final  Arrangement." 

Such  was  the  general  fear  of  the  supreme 
selfishness  of  Charles,  that  the  legislators  who 
produced  the  "  Final  Arrangement"  modestly 
admitted  that  more  "final"  arrangements 
might  be  made  if  their  prey  should  be  in- 
terfered with.  The  last  clause  stipulated 
that  in  case  of  doubts  or  defects  arising  or 
appearing  in  the  act,  the  commissioners  might 
within  two  years  after  their  next  sitting  ac- 
quaint the  lord-lieutenant  and  council  there- 


with ;  and  that  such  order  of  amendment  or 
explanation  as  they  should  make  in  writing 
within  the  said  two  years,  and  enrolled  in 
chancery,  should  be  as  effectual  as  if  it  were 
part  of  the  act.  This  parliament  is  remarka- 
ble for  its  modest  estimate  of  the  power  of 
human  judgment,  even  in  relation  to  things 
that  perish. 

One  of  the  declarations  of  this  famous 
"  Final  Arrangement"  is  either  a  joke  or  an 
insult,  according  as  it  may  be  viewed.  It  is 
to  the  effect  that,  after  the  commissioners  for 
executing  the  said  acts  have  adjudged  any  of 
the  said  lands  so  vested  in,  or  forfeited  to  his 
majesty,  to  any  person  or  persons  who,  by 
said  acts,  are  entitled  thereunto,  and  letters- 
patent  should  be  thereon  passed,  "  the  rights, 
titles,  and  interests  of  all  persons  whatsoever, 
who  had  been  adjudged  innocent,  as  well 
such  as  were  Protestants  as  papists,  should 
be  thereby  concluded  and  barred  for  ever," 
other  than  such  rights  and  titles  as  should 
be  reserved  in  the  letters-patent,  and  such 
rights  as  are  the  proper  act  of  the  party,  to 
whom  such  letters-patent  shall  be  granted, 
or  of  those  under  whom  he  claims  as  heir, 
executor  or  administrator,  and  other  than  such 
debts,  leases  or  payments,  whereunto  the 
same  are  by  the  said  act  made  liable,  and  so 
forth.  Now,  after  all  this  grand  flourish  in 
imitation  of  impartial  legislation,  the  reader 
will  be  astonished  to  observe  that  no  Protest- 
ant was  ever  required  to  establish  the  qualifi- 
cations of  "  innocence."  This  practice  of 
the  courts  also  agreed  with  the  declaration 
and  instructions  of  the  king  himself. 

The  probability  of  a  joke  being  intended  is 
much  weakened  on  finding  an  express  en- 
actment subsequently  made  ordaining  that 
"  when  any  doubt  should  arise  upon  the 
clauses  of  said  act,  it  should  be  explained  in 
favour  of  Protestants,  who  it  was  intended 
should  remain  secure  and  undisturbed."* 

Such  are  the  facts,  and  as  such  they  are 
given.  The  candid  historian  and  the  intelli- 
gent reader  will  always  be  on  their  guard 
against  "  the  sophism  of  name."  Sure  we 
are  that  every  conscientious  Protestant  would 
repudiate  such  conduct ;   and  Taylor  thus 

«  Iriab  Stat.  p.  38. 


A.  D.  1666.] 


SECOND    DIVISION;, 


337 


closes  his  own  chapter  on  these  proceed- 
ings : — 

"  Such  were  the  Acts  of  Settlement  and 
.Explanation,  whose  importance  was  not  over- 
rated by  Sir  Audley  Mervyn,  when  he  called 
them  the  *  Magna  Charta  of  Irish  Protest- 
ants.' But  what  were  they  to  the  Catho- 
lics? What  to  the  Irish  nation?  At  least 
two-thirds  of  the  land  in  the  entire  country 
changed  masters.  The  new  proprietors  felt 
conscious  that  their  claims  were  not  founded 
in  strict  justice,  and  were  tormented  with  a 
sense  of  insecurity ;  they  looked  upon  the 
native  Irish  as  their  natural  enemies,  and 
dreaded  every  hour  some  new  attempt  for  the 
recovery  of  the  forfeited  estates.  This  dread 
of  resumption  existed  within  our  own  mem- 
ory ;  and  the  probability  that  opening  politi- 
cal power  to  the  Catholics  would  lead  to  a 
claim  for  the  restoration  of  property,  was  by 
no  means  a  weak  argument  against  the  con- 
cession of  Catholic  emancipation.  That 
these  acts  had  no  foundation  in  justice  is 
evident.  That  they  were  inconsistent  with 
sound  policy  is  almost  equally  clear :  they 
caused  Ireland  to  retrograde  in  every  thing 
that  gives  a  nation  value  :  they  made  her  a 
drain  on  the  wealth  of  England,  when,  from 
her  natural  resources,  she  might  have  become 
a  source  of  additional  wealth  and  security  : 
they  spread  through  the  country  a  feeling 
that  the  English  are  the  inveterate  enemies 
of  Ireland,  which,  though  it  never  was  per- 
fectly just,  and  has  long  since  lost  even  the 
semblance  of  justice,  is  not  yet  totally  eradi- 
cated. It  is  difficult  to  make  atonement  for 
national  injuries  deep  and  long  continued. 
The  evil  extends  over  the  entire  surface  of 
society :  the  good  will  only  be  felt,  or  at 
least  appreciated,  by  a  few  individuals.  *  *  * 

"  There  was  a  time  when  it  would  have 
been  neither  safe  nor  prudent  to  detail  the 
facts  recorded  in  this  chapter ;  but  that  time 
is  now  past  forever.  The  Roman  Catholics 
are  now  as  much  interested  in  supporting  the 
Cromwellian  settlement  as  the  Protestants, 
The  vicissitudes  of  property,  especially  with- 
in the  last  thirty  years,  have  brought  into 
their  hands  an  immense  share  of  the  lands 
which  their  ancestors  forfeited ;  and  time  has 

43 


effaced  the  lineage  of  the  ancient  proprietors. 
There  is  no  longer  any  prudential  motive  for 
concealing  the  truth  ;  and  it  has  been  there- 
fore told  as  amply  as  our  limits  would  permit, 
and  yet  not  without  some  feelings  of  reluc- 
tance ;  for  the  writer,  being  himself  descend- 
ed from  CromweUian  settlers,  would  gladly 
have  given  a  more  favourable  account  of 
their  proceedings,  if  he  could  have  done  so 
with  truth." 

These  "  proceedings"  were  of  such  a  na- 
ture as  to  require  the  dazzling  influence  of 
money  in  Dublin.  Charles,  in  1665,  accord- 
ingly honoured  the  corporation  with  conferring 
the  title  of  "  lord-mayor"  upon  its  chief  ma- 
gistrate, and  granted  to  the  city  five  hundred 
pounds  a  year  perpetually,  for  the  lord-mayor 
to  support  that  dignity ;  but  the  king  with- 
drew the  foot  company  previously  allowed. 
Sir  Daniel  Bellingham  was  the  first  lord- 
mayor. 

The  Catholics  were  much  alarmed  at  the 
discovery  of  the  peculiar  relations  between 
the  established  church  and  the  government, 
and  called  a  national  synod  to  meet  at  DubUn 
in  1666.  All  the  ordinary  and  constitutional 
means  of  petition  or  redress  were  the  more 
unheeded  in  proportion  as  Charles  and  the 
bishops  began  to  feel  their  own  security. 
The  foreign  trade  had  been  much  injured  by 
the  war  against  Holland  ;  the  plague  among 
the  people,  and  dissipation  among  the  cour- 
tiers, caused  a  general  derangement  of  busi- 
ness, and  an  extraordinary  fall  of  rents. 
Here  was  a  field  for  parhamentary  "  inquiry" 
and  ingenuity  !  It  was  finally  "  resolved" 
that  the  sole  cause  of  English  distress  was 
the  importation  of  lean  cattle  from  Ireland  ! 
This  profound  exposition  was  received  with 
general  applause.  The  English  nation,  with 
one  accord,  denounced  Irish  cattle  as  the 
cause  of  all  their  miseries.  Petitions  to  pre- 
vent the  introduction  of  the  wicked  animals 
were  presented  in  great  numbers  to  the  king 
and  parliament ;  and  at  length  a  bill  was  in- 
troduced into  the  house  of  commons,  (then 
sitting  at  Oxford,)  for  prohibiting  perpetually 
the  importation  of  Irish  cattle,  dead  or  alive, 
fat  or  lean,  great  or  small,  well-behaved  or 
naughty. 


S38 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1672. 


England  having  prohibited  all  foreign  trade 
with  her  provinces  during  the  late  war,  Ire- 
land suifered  yet  more  than  she  need  have 
done  with  her  own  share  of  troubles.  She 
had  no  con\merce,  no  manufactures ;  cattle 
and  wool  were  her  only  exports ;  and  the 
exclusion  of  the  former  from  the  only  market 
open  to  the  Irish  threatened  absolute  ruin. 
Some  of  the  wisest  English  statesmen,  and 
especially  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  attempted  to 
expose  the  delusion  ;  but  their  speeches  only 
increased  the  national  insanity.  Lord  Cas- 
tlehaven  opposed  the  bill  in  the  upper  house  ; 
and  Sir  "William  Petty,  (one  of  the  few  who 
acquired  an  estate  in  Ireland  by  honourable 
means,)  made  an  able  speech  against  it  before 
a  committee  of  the  commons.  By  these  ex- 
ertions, the  report  was  delayed,  and  the  ses- 
sion terminated  by  a  prorogation.  The  great 
fire  of  London  for  a  short  time  distracted 
public  attention  ;  but  the  dispute  about  Irish 
cattle  only  derived  more  strength  from  the 
conflagration.  When  the  news  of  the  calam- 
ity reached  Ireland,  the  Irish  determined  to 
raise  a  contribution  for  the  relief  of  the  suf- 
ferers ;  and  as  they  had  neither  silver  nor 
gold,  they  generously  sent  them  a  present  of 
cattle.  This  conduct  was  industriously  rep- 
resented as  an  attempt  to  evade  the  late  pro- 
hibition under  the  pretext  of  benevolence,  and 
a  political  clamour  was  raised  throughout 
both  countries. 

The  unjust  treatment  of  the  people  of  Hol- 
land by  Charles  exhausted  the  English  ex- 
chequer, and  allowed  a  powerful  party  to 
control  the  government  of  England.  These 
worthies  are  known  in  English  history  as  the 
"  cabal,"  from  the  initials  of  the  leaders,  Chf- 
ford,  Arlington,  Buckingham,  Ashley,  and 
Lauderdale.  The  success  of  their  intrigues 
depended  upon  the  removal  of  Clarendon 
from  the  office  of  chancellor  and  Ormond 
from  the  government  of  Ireland.  The  king 
knew  very  well  that  English  bulls  and  Irish 
cows  would  never  injure  a  nation ;  but  the 
cabal  were  glad  of  any  subject  affording  po- 
litical agitation.  A  bill,  declaring  in  its  pre- 
amble that  the  importation  of  Irish  cattle  was 
"  a  nuisance,"  passed  the  lower  house  with 
wondrous  unanimity,  and  was  sent  up  to  the 


lords.  Their  lordships,  instead  of  "  a  nui- 
sance," introduced  the  words  "a  detriment 
and  mischief."  On  the  commons  refusing  to 
concur  in  the  amendment,  angry  conferences 
with  ludicrous  arguments  ensued  for  some 
time.  At  length  the  king,  fearing  that  if  the 
resistance  were  protracted,  the  commons 
might  refuse  the  supplies,  requested  his 
friends  to  give  up  any  further  opposition, 
and  the  bill, 'with  the  "  nuisance"  clause,  was 
finally  passed.  In  giving  his  assent,  how- 
ever, Charles  complained  bitterly  of  the  harsh 
treatment  he  had  experienced  ;  and  to  com- 
pensate the  Irish  for  this  partial  loss  of  their 
trade,  he  issued  a  proclamation,  permitting 
them  "  to  hold  commercial  intercourse  with 
every  country,  whether  at  peace  or  war  with 
his  majesty." 

The  opposition  of  the  cabal  was  beneficial 
in  one  respect :  it  instigated  Ormond  to  do 
some  good  in  his  position  of  power.  He 
endeavoured  to  establish  manufactures  in 
Ireland ;  and  for  this  purpose  invited  over 
the  most  skilful  artificers  from  Brabant  and 
Flanders,  whom  he  placed  on  his  own  estates 
at  Clonmel  and  Carrick-on-Suir,  and  at  Cha- 
pelizod  in  the  county  of  Dublin.  He  pro- 
cured an  act  of  parliament  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  linen-manufacture  ;  and  success- 
fully laboured  to  improve  the  cultivation  of 
flax.  But  he  was  stopped  in  this  useful 
career  by  the  intrigues  of  his  enemies  in 
England,  aided  by  some  Irish  nobles  who 
were  jealous  of  his  power.  The  **  cabal" 
were  too  powerful  to  be  resisted.  Arlington 
waited  on  Ormond,  and  informed  him  that  his 
majesty  had  determined  to  remove  him  from 
the  office  of  lord-lieutenant,  which  was  given 
to  Lord  Robarts.  The  new  chief  governor 
was  not  permitted  to  rule  long.  He  dissat- 
isfied every  party ;  and  Lord  Berkeley,  of 
Stratton,  was  appointed  his  successor. 

The  appointments  of  Lord  Berkeley  in 
1670,  and  of  Arthur  Capel,  Earl  of  Essex, 
in  1672,  were  as  good  as  any  ever  made  for 
Ireland.  They  were  too  good  for  the  times. 
Berkeley  was  guilty  of  allowing  the  Catholics 
to  exercise  divine  worship  in  their  own  way ; 
and  Essex  actually  wrote  to  the  English 
council  that  he  could  compare  the  distribu- 


A.  D.  1685.] 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


tion  of  the  lands  to  "  nothing  better  than  fling- 
ing the  reward,  upon  the  death  of  the  deer, 
among  a  pack  of  hounds,  where  every  one 
pulls  and  tears  what  he  can  for  himself." 
Such  honest  governors  were  extremely  in- 
convenient, and,  in  1677,  Ormond  was  rein- 
stated. This  unexpected  appointment  gave 
rise  to  much  speculation ;  for  Ormond  had 
been  long  under  a  cloud,  and  was  treated 
with  mortifying  coldness  ever  since  his  re- 
moval from  office.  But  the  king  had  no 
choice  ;  for  Ormond  was  the  only  man  alive 
who  thoroughly  understood  the  state  of  par- 
ties in  Ireland. 

Whatever  good  intentions  Ormond  might 
have  brought  with  him  were  now  prostrated 
by  the  Titus  Oates  "  plots"  manufactured  in 
England.  Notwithstanding  the  detection  of 
the  many  blunders  made  by  the  English  plot- 
ters, arising  from  their  ignorance  of  persons 
and  localities  in  Ireland,  they  recommended 
Ormond  to  arrest  all  the  nobility  and  gentry 
of  Irish  name,  and  to  banish  the  Catholic 
inhabitants  from  every  city  and  walled  town. 
The  lord-lieutenant  clearly  understood  the 
meaning  of  these  hints.  They  wished  that 
the  Irish  should  be  again  goaded  into  rebel- 
lion by  severity,  and  thus  at  once  afford  a 
pretext  for  new  confiscations,  and  confirm  the 
plot,  whose  credit  was  greatly  shaken  by  the 
continued  tranquillity  of  Ireland.  But  James 
Butler,  Duke  of  Ormond,  with  all  his  faults, 
was  above  practising  the  arts  of  the  unprin- 
cipled Parsons,  and,  besides,  was  too  proud 
a  man  to  be  the  willing  instrument  of  others' 
guilt.  He  persevered  in  a  course  of  modera- 
tion ;  and  Ireland  remained  undisturbed  even 
by  the  semblance  of  rebellion. 

The  quiet  state  of  Ireland  rendered  the 
Puritan  party  in  England  furious.  Disap- 
pointed in  their  scheme  of  robbery,  some 
Irish  victim  was  required  to  appease  their 
maddened  vengeance.  Oliver  Plunket,  the 
titular  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  was  a  shining 
mark,  and  he  was  therefore  tried  in  England 
for  treason  alleged  to  have  been  committed 
in  Ireland.  In  the  first  attempt,  the  grand- 
jury  ignored  the  bill  against  Plunket;  but 
the  informers  gained  fresh  accomplices,  and 
succeeded  better  in  a  second  attack.     The 


accused  was  refused  time  to  bring  witnesses 
from  Ireland  ;  and  his  defence  was  necessa- 
rily confined  to  pointing  out  the  inconsisten- 
cies and  improbabilities  of  the  evidence 
against  him.  Innocence  was  but  a  frail  de- 
fence. Plunket  was  found  guilty,  and  exe- 
cuted, July  1,  1681.  In  his  last  moments 
he  protested  his  innocence  in  the  most  solemn 
manner,  disavowing  all  equivocation,  and  per- 
tinently adding,  that  if  he  were  to  acknowl- 
edge what  had  been  laid  to  his  charge,  no 
human  being  acquainted  with  the  circum- 
stances of  Ireland  could  attach  the  least 
credit  even  to  a  dying  confession. 

Ireland  still  remaining  tranquil,  the  Eng- 
lish house  of  commons  "  resolved"  that  there 
was  a  plot  in  Ireland  ;  but  no  sensible  proof 
coming  to  light,  in  1681  the  better  feelings  of 
the  English  people  were  awakened,  and  when 
the  venerable  Earl  of  Stafford,  the  last  that 
fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  Puritan  delusions,  de- 
clared on  the  scaffold  his  utter  ignorance  of 
any  plot,  the  multitude  responded  with  tears, 
"  We  believe  you,  my  lord  !"  The  members 
of  the  cabal  were  soon  dispersed,  and  Charles 
dissolved  the  parliament.  Spies  and  inform- 
ers being  thus  suddenly  thrown  out  of  em- 
ployment, Russell  and  Sydney  perished  on 
a  scaffold  by  the  very  same  arts  which  their 
party  had  used  for  the  destruction  of  others. 
Shaftesbury,  the  great  patron  of  "  popish 
plots,"  died  in  misery  and  exile,  unhonoured 
and  unlamented. 

This  state  of  affairs  in  England  deprived 
the  Irish  Protestants  of  much  of  their  usual 
importance  in  state  business.  They  were  no 
longer  the  compact  and  warlike  body  which 
had  been  able  to  dictate  its  own  terms  at  the 
Restoration.  In  1685,  the  fire  of  enthusiasm 
was  extinct.  Age  had  broken  down  the 
strength  of  the  veterans ;  or  they  had  been 
removed,  and  their  places  filled  by  young 
men  who  had  not  been  trained  and  hardened 
in  the  stern  school  of  poverty.  As  the  Crom- 
wellian  influence  decreased,  the  tyranny  of 
the  king  was  more  prominent.  Ormond  was 
quite  complaisant ;  but  he  received  a  letter 
from  Charles  stating  that  "  he  found  it  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  his  service  to  make  many 
and  very  general  changes  in  Ireland ;  and  that 


340 


HISTORY    OP    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1685. 


for  this  purpose  it  was  necessary  to  remove 
Ormond  from  the  government,  and  transfer 
his  power  to  the  Earl  of  Rochester."  The 
death  of  the  king  took  place  before  this 
change  was  effected,  and  the  sudden  shock 
to  political  profligacy  enabled  Ireland  to  raise 
her  own  head  while  breathing  the  subdued 
aspirations  of  hope. 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXIX. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  In  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second,  the 
Cromwellians  found  an  alliance  with  the 
church  necessary  for  their  interests,  and 
quickly  laid  aside  their  scruples,  and  their 
dread  of  episcopacy.  As  new  generations 
arose,  the  alliance  between  the  established 
church  and  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans 
became  closer,  and  both  joined  in  compelling 
the  peasantry  to  pay  for  the  support  of  the 
church.  But  the  Cromwellians,  though  lib- 
eral enough  with  the  tithes  of  the  cultivators, 
were  by  no  means  inclined  to  pay  any  thing 
out  of  their  own  pockets  ;  and  when  the  par- 
sons applied  for  the  tithe  of  agistment,  which 
fell  exclusively  on  the  gentry,  they  were  sud- 
denly stopped  by  a  vote  of  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment, which  declared  that  such  a  demand 
was  destructive  of  the  Protestant  interest ; 
and  this  vote  had  all  the  effect  of  an  act  of 
the  legislature  down  to  the  time  of  the  Union, 
when  it  was  sanctioned  by  a  positive  law, 
and  formed  part  of  the  bribe  paid  to  the  coun- 
try gentlemen  for  sanctioning  that  measure." 
Taylor. 

"  During  the  reigns  of  Charles  the  First 
and  Charles  the  Second,  the  legislation  of  the 
country  was  in  fact  vested  in  the  privy-coun- 
cil :  a  negative  was  merely  left  to  the  parlia- 
ment, and  the  only  mode  even  of  suggesting 
legislation  was  by  an  address  to  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant." — T.  Mac-Nevin. 

"  The  common  enemy  being  put  down  by 
the  restoration  of  Charles,  the  church  fell 
upon  the  Catholics  with  more  fury  than  ever. 
This  king,  who  came  out  of  exile  to  mount 
the  throne  in  1 660,  with  still  more  prodigality 
tlian  either  his  father  or  grandfather,  had  a 


great  deal  more  sense  than  both  put  together, 
and,  in  spite  of  all  his  well-known  profligacy, 
he  was,  on  account  of  his  popular  manners, 
a  favourite  with  his  people ;  but,  he  was 
strongly  suspected  to  be  a  Catholic  in  his 
heart,  and  his  more  honest  brother,  James, 
his  presumptive  heir,  was  an  openly  declared 
Catholic.  Hence  the  reign  of  Charles  the 
Second  was  one  continued  series  of  '  plots,' 
sham  or  real ;  and  one  unbroken  scene  of 
acts  of  injustice,  fraud,  and  false  swearing. 
These  were  plots  ascribed  to  the  Catholics, 
but  in  reality  plots  against  them." — Cobbett. 

"  The  king  himself  soon  after  his  restora- 
tion, in  his  speech  to  the  parliament,  on  the 
27th  of  July,  1660,  expresses  himself  in  these 
words  :  '  I  hope  I  need  say  nothing  of  Ire- 
land, and  that  they  alone  shall  not  be  without 
the  benefit  of  my  mercy  ;  they  have  shew'd 
much  affection  to  me  abroad,  and  you  will 
have  a  care  of  my  honour,  and  of  what  I  have 
promised  to  them.'  And  again  on  the  30th 
of  November  following,  in  his  declaration  for 
the  settlement  of  Ireland,  he  says :  '  In  the 
last  place  we  did,  and  must  always  remember 
the  great  affection  a  considerable  part  of  that 
nation  express'd  to  us,  during  the  time  of  our 
being  beyond  the  seas,  when  with  all  cheer- 
fulness and  obedience  they  receiv'd  and  sub- 
mitted to  our  orders,  and  betook  themselves 
to  that  service,  which  we  directed,  as  most 
convenient  and  behoofeful  at  that  time  to  us, 
tho'  attended  with  inconvenience  enough  to 
themselves.  Which  demeanour  of  theirs 
cannot  but  be  thought  very  worthy  of  our 
protection,  justice  and  favour.'" — Ireland's 
Case. 

"  Charles,  so  far  from  wishing  to  despoil 
the  Catholics  of  Ireland  of  their  patrimonies, 
evinced  from  the  beginning  an  inclination  to 
do  them  justice  ;  but  he  suffered  himself  tc 
be  deceived  by  those  in  whom  he  reposed 
confidence,  and  who,  under  the  specious 
show  of  loyalty,  always  preferred  their  own 
interests  to  the  glory  of  their  prince." — Mac- 
Geoghegan. 

"  It  is  remarkable  that  Charles,  (the  grace- 
less son  of  the  decapitated  monarch,)  on  his 
restoration,  confirmed  under  his  seal  the  con- 
fiscations against  the  Irish  royalists^  and  ac- 


A.  D.  1685.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


341 


tually  regranted  their  estates  and  territories 
to  the  heirs  and  descendants  of  his  father's 
murderers." — J.  Barrington. 

"  It  is  diflficult  to  discover  the  reasons  that 
induced  the  king  to  prefer  the  enemies  of  the 
royal  authority  to  those  who  had  been  the 
most  zealous  friends  of  himself  and  his  family. 
The  dread  of  a  new  civil  war,  from  the  ex- 
cited feelings  of  the  English  people,  will 
scarcely  account  for  the  readiness  with  which 
he  consented  to  the  arrangement,  though  it 
certainly  was  a  very  influential  motive  ;  and 
the  scheme  of  establishing  an  English  interest 
in  Ireland,  could  have  little  charms  for  a 
monarch  whose  entire  reign  showed  an  utter 
disregard  of  the  interests  of  the  nations  that 
were  cursed  by  such  a  ruler.  We  do  not 
possess  any  secret  memoirs  of  the  early  part 
of  this  disgraceful  reign ;  and  the  private 
documents  that  have  been  collected  are  so 
filled  with  notorious  falsehoods,  that  we  can- 
not place  confidence  in  a  single  statement 
that  they  contain.  Indolence,  and  an  anxiety 
to  put  an  end  to  perplexing  contests,  was 
probably  the  principal  cause  of  his  precipitate 
decision." — Taylor. 

"  To  be  neglected  was  enough ;  but  to  see 
the  enemy  triumph  in  their  spoils,  was  more 
than  nature  could  support.  There  are  in- 
stances of  some  who  were  admitted  into  the 
royal  presence  and  favour  without  being  to- 
tally free  from  the  blood  of  the  [late]  king ; 
while  they,  who  had  lavished  their  own  in 
his  defence,  were  suffered  to  starve  on  the 
pavement.  The  estates  of  the  Irish  who  had 
fought  for  the  king  and  followed  his  fortunes 
in  exile,  were  confirmed  to  drummers  and 
sergeants  who  had  conducted  his  father  to  the 
scaffold." — Remarks  on  Burnet. 

"  In  England,  every  rumour  unfavourable 
to  the  Irish  was  received  with  peculiar  avidity. 
Agents  were  sent  from  Ireland,  who  reported 
their  conduct  and  designs  with  every  offensive 
aggravation,  so  that  before  the  landing  of  the 
king,  the  act  of  indemnity  was  so  prepared 
as  to  exclude  all  those  who  had  any  hand  in 
plotting  or  contriving,  aiding  or  abetting  the 
rebellion  of  Ireland,  by  which  the  whole 
Romish  party  were  in  effect  excluded ;  and 
when,  by  another  clause,  it  was  provided  that 


the  act  should  not  extend  to  restore  to  any 
persons  the  estates  disposed  of  by  authority 
of  any  parliament  or  convention,  it  was  with 
some  difliculty  that  an  exception  was  inserted 
*  that  of  the  marquis  of  Ormond,  and  other 
the  Protestants  of  Ireland.'  Some  other  pro- 
visoes were  attempted,  which  must  have  ut- 
terly ruined  all  the  old  English  families  of 
this  country  ;  but  they  were  suspended,  and 
afterwards  defeated  by  the  marquis." — Le- 

LAND. 

"  Whereas  by  proclamation  dated  the  10th 
day  of  December,  1661,  it  was  for  the  rea- 
sons in  the  said  proclamation  expressed,  de- 
clared and  published,  that  all  persons  who 
had  been  transplanted,  and  had  departed  from 
the  province  of  Connaught,  or  county  of 
Clare,  since  they  were  transplanted  (except 
such  as  are  particularly  mentioned  to  be 
excepted  in  this  said  proclamation)  should, 
by  or  before  the  last  day  of  December  last 
past,  return  back  again  to  the  same  places  to 
which  they  were  respectively  transplanted, 
and  not  to  depart  from  thence,  without  special 
license  in  that  behalf  from  the  then  lords- 
justices,  or  other  his  majesty's  chief  governor 
or  governors  of  this  kingdom  for  the  time 
being ;  and  that  if  after  the  said  last  day  of 
December,  any  of  the  said  persons  (except 
before  excepted)  should  be  found  without 
license,  as  aforesaid,  in  any  part  of  Uiis  king- 
dom, other  than  in  the  said  province  of  Con- 
naught,  or  county  of  Clare,  that  then,  and  in 
such  case,  any  one  or  more  of  his  majesty's 
justices  of  the  peace  of  the  county,  where 
such  person  or  persons  shall  be  found  as 
aforesaid,  were,  by  the  said  proclamation, 
authorized  and  required  to  cause  all  and  every 
such  person  or  persons,  to  be  apprehended 
and  committed  to  the  shire  jail,  there  to 
remain  until  further  express  directions  in  that 
behalf  from  the  said  late  lord-justices,  or  other 
his  majesty's  chief  governor  or  governors  of 
this  kingdom  for  the  time  being." — Dublin 
Proclamation;  Feb.  1663. 

"The  severe  laws  and  ordinances  lately 
made  against  the  Irish  Roman  Catholics  in 
that  kingdom  were  hereupon  put  in  execution ; 
tliey  were  not  allowed  to  go  from  one  prov. 
ince  to  another  to  transact  their  business  i 


342 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  168*. 


abundance  of  them  were  imprisoned  ;  all  their 
letters  to  and  from  Dublin  intercepted  ;  and 
the  gentry  forbid  to  meet,  and  thereby  de- 
prived of  the  means  of  agreeing  upon  agents 
to  take  care  of  their  interest,  and  of  an  op- 
portunity to  represent  their  grievances." — 
Carte. 

"  With  all  these  resources  for  plundering 
the  Catholics,  their  rapacious  enemies  were 
not  satisfied.  They  had  recourse  to  bare- 
faced bribery  and  corruption.  Lord  Orrery 
and  Lord  Mountrath  raised  a  sum  from  20 
to  30,000  pounds  sterling,  to  be  distributed 
in  London,  among  those  who  could  advance 
*  the  English  interest.'  Some  part  of  this 
sum  very  probably  found  its  way  into  the 
pockets  of  Charles  the  Second,  whose  '  itching 
palm,'  at  a  subsequent  period,  did  not  disdain 
to  receive  bribes,  and  to  become  a  standing 
pensioner  of  Louis  XIV." — M.  Carey. 

"  London  was  from  this  time  the  scene  of 
disputes  upon  this  affair ;  and  thither  agents 
were  sent  by  the  Irish  to  plead  their  cause  ; 
which  they  did  under  great  disadvantages. 
The  earls  of  Orrery  and  Mountrath  took.care 
to  raise  privately  among  the  adventurers  and 
soldiers  between  20  and  30,000  pounds,  to 
be  disposed  of  properly,  without  any  account, 
by  way  of  recompense  to  such  as  should  be 
serviceable  to  the  English  interest.  The 
Irish  had  no  such  sums  to  command,  few 
friends  about  the  court,  and  no  means  of  pro- 
curing any.  The  English  nation  had  heard 
nothing  of  the  rebellion  but  what  gave  them 
horror,  and  possessed  them  with  the  worst 
opinion  of  the  whole  Irish  nation.  Those  of 
the  council  before  whom  they  were  to  plead 
their  cause,  knew  little  of  the  conduct  of 
particular  persons  who  deserved  favour,  but 
were  ready  to  involve  everybody  in  the  gen- 
eral guilt  of  the  massacre,  as  well  as  the 
rebellion." — Carte. 

"  I  did  forthwith  give  him  [Sir  James 
Shaen,  the  bribe  agent]  notice  thereof,  and 
at  the  same  time  chid  him  soundly,  for  his 
unadvisedness  in  distributing  such  large  sums 
of  money  without  your  grace's  express  orders, 
or  at  least  permission  and  knowledge  ;  which, 
if  allowed  by  your  grace,  must  bring  the 
names  of  some  persons  of  honour  upon  the 


stage,  or,   if  disallowed,  must  fall   heavily 
upon  his  purse." — Orrery,  to  Ormond. 

"  Only  this  I  do  assure  your  lordship  for 
truth,  that  I  was  so  wary  as  to  pay  the 
money  by  other  hands  than  my  own,  and  in 
such  a  way  that  it  cannot  reflect  upon  any 
person,  because  I  did  give  it  as  a  present." — 
J.  Shaen,  to  Orrery. 

"To  apply  some  remedy  to  the  striking 
grievance  of  a  number  of  Irish  claimants 
abandoned  to  ruin,  merely  for  the  want  of  the 
common  justice  of  being  heard,  he  [Ormond] 
had  proposed  that  the  lord-lieutenant  and  six 
of  the  privy-council  of  Ireland,  should  be 
empowered  to  nominate  such  other  persons 
as  innocents,  of  whose  constant  loyalty  they 
had  sufficient  knowledge,  and  who  should  be 
thus  entitled  to  the  same  advantages  with 
those  who  were  pronounced  innocent  by  the 
court  of  claims.  But  this  proposal  was  re- 
jected by  the  English  council." — Leland. 

"  Mr.  Francis  Betagh,  of  Moynally,  whose 
ancestors,  for  seven  or  eight  hundred  years 
together,  were  in  the  possession  of  a  con- 
siderable estate  in  the  county  of  Meath,  was 
but  nine  years  of  age  in  October,  1641  :  yet 
he  was  sworn  in  the  court  of  claims  to  have 
been  then  in  actual  rebellion,  at  the  head  of 
a  foot  company,  plundering  and  stripping  the 
Protestants,  and  that  by  two  of  the  meanest 
scoundrels  of  the  whole  kingdom,  hir'd  for 
the  purpose,  whereof  one  was  then  and  there 
prov'd  not  to  have  been  three  years  old  at  the 
time  of  that  insurrection,  and  the  other  no 
way  qualified  to  be  believ'd,  when  the  gentry 
of  the  whole  county  declar'd  and  testified  to 
the  contrary.  Nevertheless,  upon  the  bare 
oaths  of  these  fellows,  the  gentleman  was 
adjudg'd  nocent  by  the  court ;  and  altho'  the 
perjury  was  afterwards  more  fully  detected, 
insomuch  that  Sir  Richard  Rainsford,  chief 
commissioner  or  judge  of  that  court,  when 
the  marchioness  of  Antrim  expostulated  the 
case  with  him,  plainly  acknowledg'd  the  in- 
justice of  it,  to  herself,  to  the  now  earl  of 
Limerick,  and  to  other  persons  of  quality ; 
yet  no  redress  cou'd  be  had  for  the  gentle- 
man, nor  any  remedy  to  be  expected,  while 
the  enactment  of  the  act  of  settlement  was  of 
force." — Ireland's  Case. 


A.  D.  1685.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


343 


"  To  have  enjoyed  a  man's  estate  in  the 
Irish  quarters,  was  enough  to  make  a  man 
dehnquent.  'Tis  true,  there  is  such  a  rule, 
and  a  very  hard  rule  it  seems  to  be.  I  re- 
member it  was  long  debated  at  this  board, 
before  that  rule  was  put  into  the  law.  But 
the  reason  which  prevailed  for  the  inserting 
of  it  was  this.  That  the  rebellion  was  almost 
twenty  years  before  the  passing  of  the  act , 
and  the  Irish  having  murdered  all  the  Eng- 
lish or  driven  them  away,  it  was  not  possible 
to  find  a  witness  against  some  persons  in  a 
whole  barony.  And  it  being  certain  no  man 
could  live  quietly  among  the  Irish,  who  did 
not  comply  with  them,  the  very  enjoying  an 
estate  in  those  quarters  was  left  in  the  act  as 
a  mark  of  delinquency." — Reply  to  the  Re- 
monstrants, by  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  Attor- 
ney-General.    See  Carte's  Appendix. 

"  Anybody  that  considers  the  methods  used 
in  the  time  of  Sir  W.  Parsons  to  get  indict- 
ments found  upon  slight  or  no  grounds,  and 
without  adhering  to  the  usual  methods  of 
law,  or  the  violence  of  the  commissioners  of 
claims  in  Oliver's  time,  or  who  has  ever  read 
the  examinations  and  depositions  here  re- 
ferred to,  which  were  generally  given  upon 
hearsay  and  contradicting  one  another,  would 
think  it  very  hard  upon  the  Irish  to  have  all 
those,  without  distinction  or  examination,  ad- 
mitted as  evidence,  especially  when  by  an 
act  of  state,  after  the  restoration,  they  had 
been  hindered  from  reversing  their  outlawries, 
and  procuring  redress  in  a  legal  way.  Of 
the  same  nature  was  their  next  request,  *  that 
all  the  proclamations  and  acts  of  state,  pub- 
lished by  the  lords-justices  before  the  cessa- 
tion, and  declaring  any  person  a  rebel  and  all 
orders  of  the  house  of  commons  since  Oct. 
23,  1641,  for  expelling  any  member,  on  ac- 
count of  his  adherence  to  the  rebels,  might 
be  taken  for  good  evidence.' " — Carte. 

"  It  was  declared  in  the  new  bill,  that  the 
Protestants  were,  in  the  first  place,  and  es- 
pecially, to  be  settled,  and  that  any  ambiguity 
was  to  be  interpreted  in  the  sense  most  fa- 
vourable to  their  interests.  It  was  also  pro- 
vided, that  no  Papist,  who,  by  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  former  act,  had  not  been  adjudged 
innocent,  should  at  any  future  time  be  re- 


puted innocent,  or  entitled  to  claim  any  lands 
or  settlements.  Thus,  every  remaining  hope 
of  those  numerous  claimants  whose  causes 
had  not  been  heard,  was  entirely  cut  off. 
They  complained  of  perjury  and  subornation 
in  the  causes  that  had  been  tried  before  the 
commissioners  of  claims  ;  though  such  wick- 
ed practices  were  probably  not  confined  to 
one  party.  But  their  great  and  striking 
grievance  was,  that  more  than  three  thousand 
persons  were  condemned,  without  the  justice 
granted  to  the  vilest  criminals,  that  of  a  fair 
and  equal  trial.  Of  this  number,  though 
many,  and  probably  the  greater  part,  would 
have  been  declared  nocent,  yet  several  cases 
were  undoubtedly  pitiable  ;  and  now,  twenty 
only  were  to  be  restored  by  especial  favour." 
Leland. 

"  Lord  Antrim's  estate  consisting  of  1 07,61 1 
acres,  was  allotted  to  [Sir  John  Clotworthy, 
afterwards]  Lord  Massareene,  and  a  few 
other  adventurers  and  soldiers,  in  considera- 
tion of  their  adventures  and  pay,  which  did 
not  in  all  exceed  the  sum  of  £7000.  Such 
excellent  bargains  had  these  people  for  their 
money." — Carte  . 

"  Upon  the  final  execution  of  the  acts  of 
settlement  and  explanation,  it  appears  by  the 
Down  survey,  that  7,800,000  acres  of  land 
were  set  out  by  the  court  of  claims,  princi- 
pally, if  not  wholly,  in  exclusion  of  the  old 
Irish  proprietors." — Newenham. 

"  I  have  shown,  on  the  evidence  of  Lord 
Clarendon,  that  the  *  whole  great  kingdom 
[of  Ireland]  was  taken  from  the  just  proprie- 
tors, and  divided  amongst  those  who  had  no 
other  right  to  it,  but  that  they  had  the  power 
to  keep  it' — and  from  the  Duke  of  Ormond, 
and  there  was  '  no  other  reason  given  for 
taking  away  men's  estates  than  that  they 
were  Irish  Papists,'  which,  by  the  way,  was 
one  of  the  greatest  possible  crimes  in  tha* 
bigoted  age." — M.  Carey. 

"  It  is  a  strange  instance  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune,  that  the  soldiers  sent  into 
Ireland  as  victims  eventually  obtained  wealth 
and  estates,  while  their  brethren,  retained 
in  England  by  special  favour,  sunk  after  the 
Restoration  into  poverty  and  contempt.  The 
levellers  established  their  dominion  over  the 


344 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1685. 


fairest  parts  of  Ireland,  and  wrested  from  the 
descendants  of  the  Anglo-Nornnans  the  broad 
lands  which  their  ancestors  had  acquired 
under  the  Plantagenets.  Few  of  the  estates 
acquired  by  the  followers  of  Strongbow  and 
Henry  the  Second  were  preserved  to  their 
posterity ;  but  the  great  majority  of  the 
wealthy  and  noble  families  now  in  Ireland 
were  founded  by  those  veterans  whom  Crom- 
well led  into  the  country." — Taylor. 

"  The  friends  of  the  court  of  Charles  the 
Second,  and  the  advocates  of  lineal  succes- 
sion, were,  by  the  republican  party,  branded 
with  the  title  of  '  Tories,'  which  was  the 
name  of  certain  Irish  robbers ;  while  the 
court  party,  in  return,  could  find  no  other 
revenge  than  appropriating  to  the  covenanters 
and  republicans  of  that  class,  the  name  of 
the  Scottish  beverage  of  sour  milk,  whose 
virtue  they  consider  so  expressive  of  their 
dispositions,  and  which  is  called  *  Whig.'  " — 

D'ISRAELI. 

"  The  Tories  were  the  remains  of  the  ar- 
mies that  had  been  disbanded  after  the  civil 
wars  had  terminated,  joined  by  such  of  the 
peasantry  as  had  been  driven  from  their 
homes,  when  the  lands  of  Ireland  changed 
masters  under  the  act  of  settlement.  These 
banditti  committed  several  outrages ;  but 
none  of  such  a  character  as  to  entitle  them  to 
the  name  of  insurgents.  They  were  in  fact 
nothing  more  than  common  robbers." — Tay- 
lor. 

"  The  English  cavaliers  had  less  to  com- 
plain of  than  the  Irish  royalists.  Some  of 
the  principal  of  them  received  pensions,  and 
the  parliament  distributed  sixty  thousand 
pounds  among  the  rest,  while  the  Irish  were 
excluded  from  all  favour  or  consideration." — 
Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  It  is  impossible  to  discover  the  real  au- 
thors of  that  iniquity  and  absurdity  called 
'  tiie  Popish  Plot.'  If,  as  there  is  reason  to 
suppose,  it  was  originally  contrived  by 
Shaftesbury  and  his  party,  we  must  not  con- 
clude that  they  either  expected  or  wished  for 
the  disgraceful  scenes  that  followed.  They 
could  not  have  anticipated  the  monstrous 
credulity  that  swallowed  the  tales  told  by 
Gates,  Bedloe,  Dangerfield,  and  the  other 


herd  of  informers,  full  of  inconsistencies,  im- 
probabilities, contradictions,  and  even  physi- 
cal impossibilities.  Every  Englishman  must 
wish  that  the  pages  recording  these  scenes 
of  national  injustice,  insanity,  and  disgrace 
could  be  blotted  forever  from  the  history  of 
his  country ;  but  yet  it  is  well  that  they 
should  remain,  to  prove  that  bigotry,  and  its 
attendant,  ferocious  persecution,  have  not 
been  monopolized  by  any  single  sect  or  de- 
nomination ;  and  that  the  excesses  of  *  zeal 
without  knowledge'  belong  not  to  any  par- 
ticular creed,  but  are  the  consequences  of 
ignorance  and  prejudice,  worked  upon  by  the 
unprincipled  and  the  designing." — Taylor. 

"  Power  may  make  men  hypocrites,  but  it 
cannot  make  converts  of  them." — Fenelon. 

"  We  are  arrived  at  the  Restoration — an 
event  of  the  utmost  utility  to  the  English  and 
Scottish  royalists,  who  were  justly  restored  to 
tiieir  properties.  An  event,  which  consigned 
irrevocably  and  forever  to  British  plunderers, 
and  especially  to  the  soldiers  of  Ireton  and 
Cromwell,  the  properties  of  the  Irish  Catholic 
people,  whose  fathers  had  contended  against 
the  usurped  powers  to  the  last  of  their  blood 
and  their  breath. 

"  The  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  James  the 
Second,  took  to  his  own  share  of  the  plunder, 
about  eighty  thousand  acres  of  lands  belong- 
ing to  Irish  Catholics,  whose  cause  of  for- 
feiture was  nothing  more  than  that  they  had 
been  the  friends  and  supporters  of  his  mur- 
dered father,  and  the  enemies  of  his  enemies. 

"  Yet  such  was  in  the  Irish  nation  the  in- 
herent love  of  principle, — a  principle  of  hon- 
ourable, but,  in  this  instance,  most  mistaken 
loyalty — that  when  this  royal  plunderer  was 
afterwards  driven  from  the  throne  by  his 
British  subjects,  he  took  refuge  in  Ireland, 
and  the  Irish  Catholic  nobility,  gentry,  and 
universal  people,  rallied  round  hun,  and  shed 
their  blood  for  him  with  a  courage  and  a 
constancy  worthy  of  a  better  cause." — O'Con- 
NELL. 


« 


A.  D.  1685.] 


SECOND   DIVISION 


345 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

Accession  of  James  the  Second — Liberty  of  con- 
science proclaimed — Inconsistency  of  the  high 
church  bishops — Troubles  of  the  king — Protest- 
ant invitation  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  that  h^ 
might  seize  the  throne  of  his  father-in-law — 
Landing  of  James  at  Kinsale — Movements  of 
Hamilton  and  Antrim — Rally  of  the  Protestants 
at  Derry — Battle  of  the  Boyne,  between  King 
James  and  the  parliamentary  king,  William — 
Douglas  abandons  the  siege  of  Athlone — Limer- 
ick successfully  defended  by  beauty  and  bravery 
—Folly  of  St.  Ruth,  and  final  fall  of  Athlone — 
Battle  of  Aughrim— -Ginckle's  unavailing  siege 
of  Limerick — James's  final  retirement  from  public 
life — ^Instructions  from  William  to  close  the  war 
— Treaty  of  Limerick. 

At  the  period  we  now  approach,  a  "  new 
dictionary"  would  be  required  to  suitably  ex- 
press the  extraordinary  variations  in  moral 
maxims  and  political  results  which  took  place. 
We  behold  a  king  reigning  without  common 
sense ;  a  father  ruined  by  daughters  without 
decency  or  affection ;  a  revolution  without 
specific  objects  ;  a  reign  ending  without  re- 
gard to  chronology  ;  a  kingdom  assumed  by 
a  foreign  prince  without  constitutional  right ; 
royalists  without  a  king,  and  "  rebels"  with- 
out disloyalty ;  sieges  without  any  end,  and 
victories  without  any  triumph  ;  men  without 
principles,  and  women  without  fear. 

Before  commencing  our  own  endeavour  to 
describe  such  contradictory  elements,  per- 
haps the  perusal  of  a  few  paragraphs  of  Jo- 
nah Barrington's  monarchical  logic  would  be 
beneficial.  Those  here  quoted  give  a  very 
philosophical  survey  of  the  whole  ground  :  — 

"  The  Puritans  had  got  out  of  fashion,  and 
the  Stuarts  had  been  restored  to  the  British 
sceptre.  Charles  the  Second,  after  a  long 
and  shameless  reign,  had  by  his  death,  ceased 
to  disgrace  the  throne  and  stigmatize  the  na- 
tion ;  and  England  swore  allegiance  to  his 
brother  James,  as  her  legitimate  monarch,  so 
did  Ireland.  His  English  subjects  soon  be- 
came disgusted  with  his  administration,  and 
privately  negotiated  with  a  foreign  prince  to 
invade  their  country,  and  dethrone  their  king. 
Heedless  of  their  obhgation,  they  renounced 
their  allegiance,  recanted  their  oaths ;  and, 
without  a  trial,  drove  James  from  his  palace, 
and  then  proclaimed  his  throne  empty,  as  if 
vacated  by  an  act  of  voluntary  abdication. 

*'  At  the  head  of  his  foreign  guards,  Wil- 
44 


liam,  unequivocally  an  usurper,  marched  into 
the  metropolis  of  Great  Britain,  seized  on  the 
throne,  and  occupied  the  royal  palaces.  The 
unnatural  desertion  of  Mary  and  of  Anne  to 
the  prince  who  had  dethroned  their  parent, 
exhibited  to  the  world  (whatever  might  have 
been  the  political  errors  of  their  father)  the 
most  disgusting  example  of  filial  ingratitude, 
and  nearly  of  parricide. 

"  Ireland  had  not  as  yet  learned  those  deep 
political  refinements,  the  adoption  of  which 
now  gives  constitutional  sanction  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  revolution.  That  great  precedent 
was  to  come  from  England  herself.  Ireland 
experienced  not,  or  at  least  had  not  felt, 
James's  attempts  at  despotism,  which  the 
English  Commons  had  proclaimed  to  be  a 
forfeiture  of  his  sceptre. 

"  The  pretence  of  his  voluntary  abdication, 
on  which  England  had  proceeded  to  dethrone 
her  king,  had  not  extended  its  operation  to 
Ireland,  nor  even  been  notified  to  that  people. 
On  the  contrary,  James,  a  monarch  de  jure 
and  de  facto,  expelled  from  one  portion  of  his 
empire,  threw  himself  for  protection  upon  the 
faith  and  the  loyally  of  another ;  and  Ireland 
did  not  shrink  from  afibrding  that  protection. 
She  defended  her  legitimate  monarch  against 
the  usurpation  of  a  foreigner ;  and  while  a 
Dutch  guard  possessed  themselves  of  the 
British  capital,  the  Irish  people  remained 
firm  and  faithful  to  their  king  and  fought 
against  the  invader. 

"  In  strict  matter  of  fact,  therefore,  Eng- 
land became  a  nation  of  decided  rebels,  and 
Ireland  remained  a  country  of  decided  royal- 
ists. Historic  records  leave  that  point  be- 
yond the  power  of  refutation. 

"  At  the  period  of  James's  expulsion,  even 
in  England  the  right  of  popular  resistance, 
and  the  deposition  of  a  British  monarch,  by  a 
simple  vote  of  the  Commons  House  of  Parlia- 
ment, though  exemplified  by  Cromwell,  had 
no  acknowledged  place  in  the  existing  con- 
stitution of  the  British  empire.  It  was  then 
an  unsanctioned  principle  of  political  polity ; 
and  though,  in  theory,  according  with  the 
original  nature  and  essence  of  the  social 
compact  between  the  governor  and  the  gov- 
erned, yet  of  the  utmost  difficulty  in  its  con- 


346 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1685; 


structions,  and  dangerous  in  its  execution. 
Even  now  the  quantity  or  quality  of  arbitrary 
acts  and  unconstitutional  practices  which  may 
be  deemed  sufficient  to  put  that  revolutionary 
principle  into  operation,  remains  still  unde- 
fined, and  must,  therefore,  be  a  matter  of 
conflicting  opinions,  and  of  most  dangerous 
investigation  ;  but  it  is  an  open  argument. 

"  The  representatives  of  the  people  in  the 
Commons  House  of  Parliament  are  incom- 
petent solely  to  enact  the  most  unimportant 
local  statute ;  it  is  therefore  not  easy  to  de- 
signate the  cause  and  crisis  which  may  le- 
gally invest  that  one  branch  of  the  Legisla- 
ture with  a  dispensing  power  as  to  the  others, 
or  enable  it  to  erect  itself  into  an  arbitrary 
tribunal,  to  decide  by  its  sole  authority,  ques- 
tions of  revolution.* 

*'  As  to  James,  this  difficulty  was  exem- 
plified. The  British  Commons,  and  the  Irish 
people,  both  subjects  of  the  same  king,  en- 
tirely differed  in  their  opinions  as  to  what 
acts,  regal  or  despotic,  could  be  construed 
into  voluntary  abdication,  a  point  of  great  im- 
portance as  to  subsequent  events  which  took 
place  in  Ireland. 

"  James  was  the  hereditary  king  of  both 
countries,  jointly  and  severally.  The  third 
constitutional  estate,  only  of  one  of  them, 
(England,)   had  deposed  him  by  their  own 

*  "  Though  the  English  Commons  House  of  Parlia- 
ment had  taken  upon  themselves  to  dethrone  and  decapi- 
tate Charles  the  First,  on  their  own  sole  authority,  it  will 
scarcely  be  contended,  that  Bradshaw  and  Cromwell  es- 
tablished any  constitutional  precedent  for  a  similar  pro- 
ceeding. Yet  the  proceedings  of  the  Commons,  in  James's 
case,  though  more  peaceable,  were  not  more  legal. 

"  The  vacancy  of  the  English  throne,  and  consequently 
the  deposition  of  James,  was  strongly  contested  and  nega- 
tived by  the  House  of  Peers  of  England.     The  questions 
and  divisions  of  the  House  of  Lords  were  as  follows : — 
For  the  election  of  a  new  king,    ...  51 
Against  the  election  of  any  kmg,    .     .  49 

Majority,   ...    2 
"  The  next  debate  came  more  to  the  point — '  whether 
James  had  broken  the  original  compact,  and  thereby 
made  the  throne  vacant  V 

"  This  was  negatived  by  a  majority  of  2. 
"  It  therefore  appears,  that  th6  Irish  people  and  the 
English  Peers  were  of  the  same  way  of  thinking.  Even 
after  James  had  quitted  Ireland  in  despair,  the  Irish  did 
not  relinquish  his  cause,  which  was  finally  terminated  by 
the  grallant  defence  and  ultimate  capitulation  of  Limerick 
for  the  whole  of  Ireland." — J.  Barrinqton. 


simple  vote :  but  Ireland  had  never  been 
consulted  upon  that  subject ;  and  the  deposi- 
tion of  the  King  of  Ireland  by  the  Commons 
of  England  could  have  no  paramount  author- 
ity in  Ireland,  or  supersede  the  rights,  and 
dispense  with  the  loyalty,  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment. The  Irish  people  had  held  no  trea- 
sonable intercourse  with  William  ;  they  knew 
him  not ;  they  only  knew  that  he  was  a  for- 
eigner, and  not  their  legal  prince ;  that  he 
was  supported  by  a  foreign  power,  and  had 
succeeded  by  foreign  mercenaries.  But  even 
if  there  was  a  doubt,  they  conceived  that  the 
most  commendable  conduct  was  that  of  pre- 
serving entire  their  allegiance  to  the  king,  to 
whom,  in  conjunction  with  England,  they 
had  sworn  fealty.  The  British  Peers  had 
showed  them  an  example,  and  on  that  prin- 
ciple they  fought  William  as  they  had  fought 
Cromwell :  and  again  they  bled,  and  again 
were  ruined  by  their  adherence  to  legitimate 
monarchy.  Massacre  and  confiscation  again 
desolated  their  entire  country,  and  they  were 
treated  by  William  as  rebels  to  a  throne 
which  they  had  never  sanctioned,  and  to  an 
usurping  prince  whom  they  had  always  re- 
sisted ;  at  length,  the  contest  ended,  and  Ire- 
land finally  submitted,  not  in  the  field,  but  by 
capitulation. 

"  The  triumph  of  William  over  the  Irish 
Royalists  at  the  Boyne  and  at  Aughrim,  and 
the  deceptions  capitulation  of  Limerick,  final- 
ly established  William  on  the  throne  of  both 
nations.  Their  results  introduced  into  the 
theory  of  the  British  Constitution,  certain 
principles  of  a  regenerating  liberty,  which 
have  given  it  a  solid  and  decided  superiority 
over  every  other  system  of  government  as 
yet  devised  by  the  wisdom  of  mankind ;  yet 
the  advantages  of  that  constitution  which 
England  has  thus  raised  upon  the  loyalty, 
and  completed  upon  the  ruins  of  Ireland, 
never  were  participated  in  by  the  Irish  people. 

"  William,  an  able  captain,  a  wise  and  pru- 
dent statesman,  was  yet  a  gloomy  and  dis- 
contented magistrate  ;  and  had  in  his  nature 
a  portion  of  sulky  despotic  principle,  which 
nothing  but  a  consideration  of  the  mode  in 
which  he  had  acquired  the  English  crown 
could  have  restrained  or  counteracted.     But 


A.  D.  1685.] 


SECOND    DIVISION; 


347 


as  to  Ireland,  the  case  was  diflferent.  Wil- 
liam had  been  invited  into  England,  and  he 
felt  that  she  was  his  mistress ;  but  he  had 
fought  for  Ireland,  and  he  considered  her  as 
his  vassal,  and  he  adapted  his  government  to 
the  relative  situation  in  which  he  stood  as  to 
the  two  countries. 

"  The  massacre  of  Mac-John,  his  family 
and  clan,  in.  the  valley  of  Glencoe,  perpe- 
trated by  the  especial  order  of  William,  un- 
der his  sign  manual,  has,  in  point  of  barbarity, 
treachery  and  injustice,  no  parallel  in  the  an- 
nals of  Europe.  Its  details  cannot  be  read 
without  exciting  horror ;  and  while  it  devel- 
ops the  cold-blooded  nature  of  William's 
character,  it  accounts  for  much  of  his  con- 
duct towards  the  Irish  royalists,  whom  he 
called  rebels,  but  who  owed  him  no  allegi- 
ance ;  so  far  as  it  bears  upon  the  events  of 
his  reign  in  Ireland. 

"The  result  of  William's  usurpation,  in 
the  general  establishment  of  constitutional 
liberty  in  England,  and  the  principles  of  pop- 
ular revolution  which  his  accession  has  sanc- 
tioned and  confirmed,  have  rendered  the 
memory  of  his  reign  glorious  in  that  country. 
But  little  did  he  foresee  his  restraints  and 
disappointments  on  the  throne  of  England ; 
there  he  felt  his  arbitrary  nature  unexpectedly 
curbed  and  chained  down  by  the  principles 
of  that  same  liberty  which  his  own  usurpa- 
tion had  originated  ;  and  mortified  by  the  re- 
sistance he  experienced  in  Great  Britain,  he 
lavished  his  redundant  rancour  on  prostrate 
Ireland.  But  had  William  acted  in  Great 
Britain  as  he  did  in  Ireland,  he  would  have 
lost  his  throne,  upon  the  very  same  princi- 
ples by  which  he  acquired  it,  and  have  left 
his  own  short  reign  as  an  historic  supplement 
to  the  deposition  of  his  father-in-law." 

This  long  extract  will  prepare  the  reader's 
mind  for  our  necessarily  condensed  narrative 
of  such  involved  circumstances,  almost  all 
of  which  require  volumes  for  particular  ex- 
planation. The  first  in  order  of  importance 
is  the  general  liberty  of  conscience  suggested 
by  the  address  made  from  James  to  his  par- 
liament on  the  9lh  of  November,  1685.  This 
announcement  was  so  contrary  to  the  state 
of  pubUc  opinion  among  Protestants,  at  that 


time,  that  Monsieur  Rapin  de  Thoyras  could 
scarcely  restrain  his  one-sided  indignation 
while  relating  the  circumstance  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  England,"  a  work  in  which  the  least 
important  facts  are  often  viewed  with  the 
most  unfortunate  strabismus  of  prejudice,  and 
vulgarly  expressed  in  the  blackest  ink  of 
bigotry.  It  is  a  very  disagreeable  task  to 
undervalue  the  productions  of  other  writers, 
and  thus  expose  to  the  world  those  weakness- 
es from  which  not  even  "  high  and  mighty" 
historians  are  exempt ;  but,  our  duty  compels 
us  to  specify  this  particular  case  as  showing 
the  perverted  reasoning  of  Rapin,  because 
his  work  (since  translation)  has  been  com- 
plimented by  furnishing  all  similar  minds 
with  a  stagnant  pool  of  malignant  mud,  fed 
and  festered  from  a  fountain  of  falsehood. 

The  grand  "  faults"  of  James  the  Second 
appear  to  have  been — first,  he  was  a  Catho- 
hc ;  second,  he  wished  to  confer  religious 
liberty  upon  all  his  subjects  ;  third,  he  could 
not  see  that  political  parties  in  England  were 
decidedly  opposed  to  any  thing  of  the  sort, 
in  a  truly  liberal  sense  ;  fourth,  he  took  ar- 
bitrary measures  to  enforce  his  praiseworthy 
intentions. 

On  the  9th  of  November,  1685,  the  king 
alluded  in  his  speech  to  the  rebellion  of  Mon- 
mouth's party,  proposed  an  increase  of  the 
army,  and  announced  his  intention  of  admit- 
ting Catholic  gentlemen  into  the  army.  The 
following  paragraph  is  the  conclusion  of  the 
speech  : — 

"  Let  no  man  take  exception  that  there  are 
some  officers  in  the  army  not  qualified,  ac- 
cording to  the  late  test,  for  their  employments ; 
the  gentlemen,  I  must  tell  you,  are  most  of 
them  well  known  to  me,  and  having  formerly 
served  me  on  several  occasions,  (and  always 
approved  the  loyalty  of  their  principles  by  their 
practice,)  I  think  them  fit  now  to  be  employ- 
ed under  me ;  and  will  deal  plainly  with  you, 
that  after  having  had  the  benefit  of  their  ser- 
vices in  such  time  of  need  and  danger,  I 
will  neither  expose  them  to  disgrace  nor  my- 
self to  the  want  of  them,  if  there  should  be 
another  rebellion  to  make  them  necessary  to 
me.  I  am  afraid  some  men  may  be  so  wicked, 
to  hope  and  expect  that  a  difference  may 


348 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1686. 


happen  between  you  and  me  upon  this  occa- 
sion. But  when  you  consider  what  advan- 
tages have  arisen  to  us  in  a  few  months  by 
the  good  understanding  we  have  hitherto  had ; 
what  wonderful  effects  it  hath  already  pro- 
duced in  the  change  of  the  whole  scene  of 
affairs  abroad,  so  much  more  to  the  honour 
of  the  nation,  and  the  figure  it  ought  to  make 
in  the  world  ;  and  that  nothing  can  hinder  a 
further  progress  in  this  way,  to  all  our  satis- 
factions, but  fears  and  jealousies  among  our- 
selves, I  will  not  apprehend  that  such  a  mis- 
fortune can  befal  us  as  a  division,  or  even  a 
coldness,  between  me  and  you  ;  nor  that  any 
thing  can  shake  you  in  your  steadiness  and 
loyalty  to  me,  who,  by  God's  blessing,  will 
ever  make  you  all  returns  of  kindness  and 
protection,  with  a  resolution  to  venture  even 
my  own  life  in  the  defence  of  the  true  inter- 
ests of  this  kingdom." 

The  man  making  use  of  this  language 
could  not  have  been  very  wicked  :  his  good- 
ness was  his  crime  in  the  eyes  of  both  whig 
and  tory  ;  or,  as  Rapin  and  E  chard  express 
it,  "people's  eyes  began  to  be  opened." 
Rapin  goes  on  to  observe — 

"  But  the  affair  of  the  popish  officers  was 
of  such  a  nature  that  it  no  less  concerned  the 
tory  than  the  whig  party.  It  was  easy  to 
perceive  the  great  danger  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  if  the  parliament,  after  having  agreed 
to  a  standing  army,  should  further  consent  to 
the  king's  employing  as  many  papists  as  he 
pleased.  The  commons  thought  therefore, 
that  on  this  occasion  it  was  necessary  to  set 
some  bounds  to  passive  obedience,  though 
till  now  this  doctrine  had  been  maintained 
^vithout  any  restriction,  because  it  was  not 
imagined  that  the  king  would  attack  religion 
and  the  laws." 

"  Thus  far  Mr.  Rapin,"  as  his  profound 
continuator  would  say.  When  Rapin  states 
that  "  it  was  easy  to  perceive  the  great  dan- 
ger of  the  Protestant  religion,"  we  understand 
him  perfectly,  although  there  exists  no  verbal 
definition  of  what  constitutes  "  the  Protestant 
religion."  Where  Rapin  says  that  "  it  was 
not  imagined  that  the  king  would  attack  re- 
ligion and  the  laws,"  we  plainly  perceive  a 
false  conclusion,  with  an  outrageous  assump- 


tion, which  may  pass  for  what  they  are  worth 
after  this  date. 

The  reader  will  have  already  observed  that 
the  history  of  Ireland  can  scarcely  be  separ- 
ated from  that  of  England  in  the  reign  of 
James  the  Second.  Ormond  was  removed 
from  his  post  of  lord-lieutenant.  He  was 
succeeded  by  two  lords-justices,  Boyle,  the 
primate  and  chancellor,  and  Forbes,  Earl  of 
Granard.  This  arrangement,  designed  to 
conciliate  both  classes  of  Protestants,  the 
churchmen  and  the  dissenters,  gave  dissatis- 
faction to  both :  the  Puritans  alleged  that 
Boyle's  Protestantism  differed  very  little  from 
"  popery  :"  the  churchmen  asserted  that  Gra- 
nard was  a  favourer  of  the  "  sectaries,"  and  a 
bitter  enemy  of  the  "  estabhshment."  The 
Cromwellians  sent  congratulations  to  the  king 
on  his  having  subdued  a  pretender  to  his 
throne.  But  James  was  not  to  be  duped  by 
these  professions :  he  sent  an  order  to  the 
lords-justices  to  disarm  the  militia,  which 
consisted  chiefly  of  Protestants,  under  the 
pretence  that  the  ramifications  of  Monmouth's 
conspiracy  extended  to  Ireland.  The  sup- 
pression of  this  rebellion  was  one  among  the 
causes  of  James's  ruin.  The  cruelties  o£  the 
inhuman  Jeffreys  and  the  brutal  Kirke  alien- 
ated the  affections  of  the  people ;  and  the 
slavish  adulation  of  the  episcopal  clergy  had 
been  exerted  throughout  the  previous  reign 
to  teach  passive  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  a 
king. 

James  gratified  the  wishes  of  his  own  heart 
in  releasing  from  prison  several  thousand 
Catholics,  who  were  detained  on  fines  for  not 
attending  Protestant  worship ;  he  also  dis- 
charged twelve  hundred  Quakers,  who  were 
imprisoned  for  a  like  offence.  His  clemency 
and  justice  were  applauded  by  the  three  king- 
doms. He  publicly  professed  his  Catholic 
principles,  and  published  a  declaration,  allow- 
ing liberty  of  conscience  to  all  his  subjects. 
He  dispensed  with  all  penal  laws  and  tests. 
Even  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy, 
on  entering  office,  were  abolished.  The 
Catholics,  Presbyterians,  Quakers,  and  all 
other  religionists,  were  thus  made  eligible  to 
all  offices  in  the  state.  Perfect  freedom  of 
conscience  was  proclaimed,  and  loyal  ad- 


A.  D.  1688.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


349 


dresses  were  made  in  return  by  the  real  peo- 
ple of  the  nation. 

The  Earl  of  Clarendon  was  for  a  short 
time  acting  as  lord-lieutenant,  but  James 
soon  appointed  Talbot,  Earl  of  Tyrconnel,  to 
hold  the  office,  as  his  popularity  was  very 
great,  having  had  the  command  of  the  army, 
and  being  a  Catholic.  The  Dublin  parlia- 
ment was  now  composed  two  thirds  of  Catho- 
lic members,  and  one  third  Protestant ;  and 
it  is  admitted  this  parliament  passed  a  series 
of  excellent  laws  for  the  promotion  of  trade 
and  manufactures,  without  one  law  of  a  penal 
or  persecuting  character.  The  following  are 
a  few  of  its  principal  acts  : — 

An  act  declaring  that  the  parliament  of 
England  cannot  bind  Ireland ;  and  against 
allowing  writs  of  error  for  removing  suits  out 
of  the  Irish  courts  to  the  courts  of  England. 

An  act  for  indemnifying  those  Catholics 
who  had  been  declared  innocent  by  the  court 
of  claims. 

An  act  for  taking  off  all  political  incapaci- 
ties from  the  natives  of  Ireland. 

An  act  for  liberty  of  conscience,  and  re- 
pealing such  acts  and  clauses  in  any  act  of 
parliament  which  are  inconsistent  with  the 
same. 

An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  strangers 
to  inhabit  and  plant  in  the  kingdom  of  Ireland. 

An  act  for  investing  in  his  majesty  the 
goods  of  absentees. 

An  act  for  the  advance  and  improvement 
of  trade,  and  for  the  encouragement  and  in- 
crease of  shipping  and  navigation. 

The  reader  will  naturally  suppose  that 
such  enactments  as  these  would  have  been 
confirmed  in  England,  where  the  people  were 
contending  (as  is  commonly  pretended)  for 
"  liberty."  The  truth  is,  the  English  people 
were  as  little  consulted  as  their  Irish  breth- 
ren ;  and  we  have  to  record  the  fact  that  the 
Dublin  enactments  were  all  expunged  from 
the  statute  books  by  order  of  the  Enghsh 
privy-council. 

In  1688,  still  adhering  to  his  resolution  of 
proclaiming  perfect  freedom  of  conscience, 
James  made  a  new  declaration  to  that  effect, 
which  he  commanded  to  be  read  for  three 
successive  Sundays  among  the  congregations 


of  every  denomination.  This  gave  a  general 
satisfaction,  in  appearance,  at  least,  except  to 
the  high-church  party.  The  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  six  of  his  bishops,  (although 
they  had  all  taken  the  usual  oath  of  the  Eng- 
lish Protestant  hierarchy,  declaring  the  sove- 
reign to  be,  ex  officio,  their  spiritual  lord  and 
master,)  openly  refused  to  read  the  document 
in  their  churches.  They  also  sent  a  "  peti- 
tion" to  the  king,  the  humility  of  which  con- 
sisted in  telling  him  that  he  possessed  no 
power  to  grant  such  liberty.  James  rashly 
endeavoured  to  punish  the  bishops  for  "  con- 
tempt," but  the  jury  acquitted  them  of  that 
charge.  The  king,  found  that  the  English 
"  headship  of  the  church"  was  a  merely  po- 
litical arrangement ;  and  the  bishops  found 
that  it  was  time  to  leave  off  telling  the  people 
that  kings  could  do  no  wrong.  From  this 
time  forward  the  ruin  of  James  the  Second 
was  determined  on,  at  all  hazards. 

While  relating  these  important  circum- 
stances in  the  history  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land, wherein  that  church  not  only  opposed 
its  power  to  the  grand  and  glorious  cause  of 
religious  freedom,  but  took  a  most  bloody  and 
wicked  revenge  on  its  princely  advocate,  we 
incur  the  risk  of  offending  a  large  class  of 
our  fellow-citizens  whose  generally  tolerant 
behaviour  makes  their  favourable  opinion  de- 
sirable to  all  who  have  the  honour  of  their 
acquaintance.  This  is  not  the  time  or  the 
place  to  give  way  to  personal  sentiments  or 
to  private  friendships  :  there  has  already  been 
displayed  too  much  of  that  weakness  in  his- 
torical works.  Anxious,  however,  to  avoid 
giving  offence,  we  curtail  our  own  remarks 
to  substitute  those  of  Taylor,  an  Episcopalian 
writer  whose  excellent  abilities  and  admira- 
ble candour  shine  conspicuously  among  the 
dark  intricacies  of  this  portion  of  Irish  history. 
He  says — 

"  Hitherto  James  had  been  supported  in 
all  his  arbitrary  acts  by  the  powerful  party, 
then  named  the  high-church,  and  subse- 
quently called  the  tories.  The  murder  of 
Sydney,  the  expulsion  of  Locke,  even  the 
savage  cruelties  of  Jeffreys  had  met  with 
more  than  their  tacit  approbation.  They 
went  so  far  as  to  disturb  the  dying  moments 


360 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1688. 


of  the  unfortunate  Monmouth,  by  eager  soH- 
citations,  mingled  with  threats  of  divine  ven- 
geance, in  order  to  force  from  him  an  assent 
to  the  slavish  doctrine  of  non-resistance. 
Unfortunately  for  himself,  James  gave  credit 
to  these  professions  of  outrageous  loyalty ; 
and  found  that,  when  the  royal  wishes  ran 
counter  to  the  interests  or  prejudices  of  these 
ultra-royalists,  they  weire  far  more  dangerous 
opponents  than  those  who  made  resistance  a 
part  of  their  creed.  The  church,  as  a  politi- 
cal body,  clearly  misled  the  king.  Accord- 
ing to  the  principles  it  inculcated,  resistance 
to  Nero  or  Domitian  would  have  been  just  as 
wicked  as  rebellion  against  a  Trajan  or  An- 
tonine.  The  university  of  Oxford,  in  solemn 
convocation,  denounced  as  '  heretical  and 
blasphemous'  every  principle  on  which  any 
government  short  of  despotism  could  be  es- 
tablished. We  cannot,  therefore,  accuse 
James  of  absolute  folly  in  affording  these 
learned  doctors  and  prelates  an  opportunity 
of  practising  their  own  precepts ;  though  a 
monarch  of  more  discernment  might  have 
foreseen  that  such  extravagant  doctrines  could 
only  be  maintained  when  they  coincided  with 
the  personal  interest  of  their  supporters.  The 
attempt  of  James  to  disturb  the  peaceful  re- 
pose of  the  universities  in  England  and  Ire- 
land was  his  most  fatal  error." 

On  the  10th  of  June,  1688,  the  birth  of  a 
Prince  of  Wales  encouraged  the  royal  party 
and  gratified  the  Catholics  generally ;  but  it 
was  an  event  that  united  all  their  enemies 
against  them.  At  first,  a  vulgar  outcry  was 
raised  that  the  child  was  only  a  supposititious 
prince  ;  but  this  *'  warming-pan"  idea  merely 
served  to  amuse  those  male  and  female  idlers 
who  do  the  talking  of  a  nation.  The  Irish 
Protestants,  and  the  remains  of  the  old  puri- 
tanical factions  in  England  and  Scotland,  had 
long  before  entered  into  secret  and  close  cor- 
respondence with  the  Prince  of  Orange.  The 
whig  aristocracy  wanted  but  an  opportunity 
to  renew  their  struggle  for  power.  The  re- 
membrance of  the  fatal  termination  of  Mon- 
mouth's insurrection  made  them  cautious ; 
and  they  felt  convinced,  that  without  the  aid 
of  the  old  cavaliers  (or  tories)  and  the  sup- 
port of  the  church,  their  chances  of  success 


would  be  very  doubtful.  The  junction  of  the 
whigs  and  tories  was  not  easy  to  effect 
They  detested  each  other's  principles,  and 
extended  their  animosity  to  persons ;  but  the 
union  was  at  length  eflfected  by  the  joint 
hatred  of  the  principles  of  toleration  enter- 
tained by  both,  and  "  freedom"  and  "  liberty" 
were  the  watchwords  employed  to  deceive 
the  people  at  large. 

Encouraged  by  Bishop  Burnet,  the  Prince 
of  Orange  landed  at  the  beautiful  town  of 
Torbay,  in  England,  on  the  5th  of  November, 
1688,  and  kindly  reminded  the  quiet  inhabit- 
ants that  it  was  the  anniversary  of  "  Gunpow- 
der Treason,"  and  so  forth.  He  had  with 
him  about  seven  hundred  men,  and  finding 
but  few  persons  willing  to  join  his  piratical 
standard,  he  practised  his  sailors  in  the  use- 
ful art  of  weighing  anchor  with  celerity. 
The  prince,  knowing  that  delays  are  danger- 
ous in  kingly  piracy,  soon  eumounced  his  in- 
tention of  exposing  the  names  of  those  who 
had  invited  him  to  come  to  England.  This 
settled  the  business ;  and  when  the  fear  of 
exposure  arrived  in  London,  many  a  courtly 
neck  was  agitated  with  emotions  which  caused 
a  sensation  leaving  the  owner  in  doubt  wheth- 
er he  felt  a  rope  or  an  axe.  In  justice  to  the 
prince,  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  had  been 
kept  in  a  sort  of  "  Jemmy  Twitcher"  sus- 
pense for  more  than  a  week ;  but  his  deter- 
mined announcement  brought  the  leading 
whigs  and  tories  completely  under  his  con- 
trol. Lord  Colchester  deserted  from  King 
James's  army,  with  a  few  men  ;  Lord  Corn- 
by  was  the  next ;  and  so,  after  the  examples 
of  two  or  three  of  this  sort,  hundreds,  and 
then  thousands,  fiocked  to  his  standard. 
Meantime  the  prince's  main  army  arrived 
from  Holland,  amounting  to  fourteen  thou- 
sand men.  He  then  marched,  with  all  his 
troops,  towards  London.  The  king  met  him, 
with  thirty  thousand  men,  near  Salisbury ; 
but,  instead  of  fighting,  his  principal  officers 
joined  the  invaders.  The  king  now  fled  to 
London,  whence  he  subsequently  retired  to 
France.  James  was  betrayed  by  his  secre- 
tary, the  Duke  of  Sunderland,  who,  the  bet- 
ter to  efiect  his  treachery,  pretended  to  have 
become  a  Catholic,  but  gave  the  king's  se- 


A.  D.  1688.] 


SECOND  DIVISION 


351 


crets  to  the  Protestant  confederation  all  the 
lime.  Louis  the  Fourteenth  offered  to  send 
James  thirty  thousand  men;  but  this  Sun- 
derland affected  to  consider  would  injure 
James  in  the  estimation  of  the  English  peo- 
ple.* By  the  time  the  Prince  of  Orange  en- 
tered London  the  misguided  people  had  set 
fire  to  the  Catholic  churches.  The  distinc- 
tion between  the  interference  of  troops  from 
Holland  or  troops  from  France  was  evidently 
better  understood  than  the  distinction  between 
real  freedom  and  false  liberty. 

That  James  was  perfectly  sincere  in  his 
wish  for  freedom  of  conscience  may  be  plainly 
seen  in  his  arrangements  where  he  was  un- 
shackled by  the  selfish  and  intriguing  councils 
of  the  English  cabinet.  The  conduct  of  this 
unfortunate  prince  has  been  so  studiously 
misrepresented  by  the  learned  slanderers  who 
write  in  the  English  language,  that  considera- 
ble explanation  is  required  by  the  student  of 
Irish  history  during  his  reign.  To  the  Ameri- 
can reader,  in  particular,  there  are  many  in- 
teresting circumstances  in  the  reigns  of  James 
and  his  elder  brother  which  English  "  re- 
spectable" literature  generally  contrives  to 
avoid.  It  has  been  reserved  for  such  a  man 
as  William  Cobbett  to  tell  the  truth ;  and 
although  an  argument  might  be  easily  raised 
about  his  "respectability,"  (according  to 
modern  English  notions,)  we  have  seen  no 
denial  of  his  statements.  We  therefore  con- 
sider ourselves  justified  in  quoting  matter 
which,  although  published  more  than  twenty 
years  since,  has  not  been  refuted,  and  never 
can  he.  The  old  literary  bull-dog,  without 
caring  whether  he  is  to  be  considered  "  re- 
spectable" or  otherwise,  tells  us — 

"  But,  now,  if  James  be  to  be  loaded  with 
all  those  which  have  been  called  the  had 
deeds  of  his  brother's  reign,  we  cannot,  with 
common  justice,  refuse  him  the  merit  of  the 
good  deeds  of  that  reign.  This  reign  gave 
us,  then,  the  Act  of  Haheas  Corpus,  which 
Blackstone  calls  *  the  Second  Great  Charter 
of  English  Liberty.'  There  are  many  other 
acts  of  this  reign,  tending  to  secure  the 
liberties  and  all  the  rights  of  the  people  ; 

*  Oldmizon.    Sunderland's  "  Apology"  is  unworthy  of 
belief. 


but,  if  there  had  been  only  this  one  act,  ought 
not  it  alone  to  have  satisfied  the  people  that 
they  had  nothing  to  apprehend  from  a  *  po- 
pishly  inclined'  king  on  the  throne  ?  Here 
these  'popish  tyrants,'  Cliarlcs  and  James, 
gave  up,  at  one  stroke  of  the  pen,  at  a  single 
writing  of  Charles's  name,  all  })rerogatives 
enabling  them,  as  their  predecessors  had  been 
enabled,  to  put  people  into  prison,  and  to 
keep  them  there  in  virtue  of  a  mere  warrant, 
or  order,  from  a  minister.  And,  was  this  a 
proof  of  that  arbitrary  disposition,  of  which 
we  hear  them  incessantly  accused  ?  We  are 
always  boasting  about  this  famous  Act  of 
Haheas  Corpus;  but,  never  have  we  the 
gratitude  to  observe,  that  it  came  from  those 
against  whom  Russell  and  Sydney  conspired, 
and  the  last  of  whom  was  finally  driven  from 
his  palace  by  the  Dutch  guards,  in  1688. 

"  Then,  again,  was  this  act  ever  suspended 
during  the  reigns  of  these  *  popish'  kings  ? 
Never ;  not  even  for  a  single  day.  But,  the 
moment  the  *  glorious  revolution'  or  Refor- 
mation the  third  came,  the  Dutch  '  deliverer' 
was,  by  the  Protestant  *  Convention,'  whose 
grand  business  it  was  to  get  rid  of  '  arbitrary 
power ;'  the  moment  that  this  *  glorious'  af- 
fair had  taken  place,  that  moment  was  the 
Dutch  '  deliverer'  authorized  to  put  in  prison, 
and  to  keep  there,  any  Englishman  that  he  or 
his  ministers  might  suspect !  But,  why  talk 
of  this  ?  We  ourselves  have  seen  this  '  sec- 
ond Great  Charter  of  English  Liberty'  sus- 
pended for  seven  years  at  a  time."  *  •  •  ♦ 

Yet  these  are  the  changes  which  monarchi- 
cal and  "  respectable"  ^vriters  tell  us  mark 
the  "  advance"  of  liberty  !  But  James  and 
Charles,  with  all  their  faults,  took  good  care 
to  secure  the  progress  of  liberty  in  reality. 
Hear  Cobbett : — 

"  There  was  another  great  thing,  too,  done 
in  the  reigns  of  these  *  popish'  kings  ;  namely, 
the  settling  of  the  provinces  (now  states)  of 
America.  Virginia  had  been  attempted  to 
be  settled  under  '  good  Bess.'  *  *  *  *  A 
little,  and  very  little,  was  done,  in  the  two 
succeeding  reigns.  It  was  not  imtil  that  of 
Charles  the  Second  that  charters  and  patents 
were  granted,  that  property  became  real,  and 
that  consequent  population  and   prosperity 


368 


HISTORY   OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1689.  ' 


came.  This  was  a  great  event;  great  in 
itself,  and  greater  in  its  consequences,  some 
of  which  consequences  we  have  ahready  felt, 
others  we  are  now  feeling,  but  others,  and 
by  far  of  greater  moment,  we  have  yet  to 
feel. 

"  All  these  fine  colonies  were  made  by 
this  *  popishly  inchned'  king  and  his  really 

*  popish'  brother.  Two  of  them,  the  Caroli- 
nas,  take  their  name  from  the  king  himself ; 
another,  and  now  the  greatest  of  all.  New 
York,  from  the  king's  brother,  who  was  duke 
of  the  city  of  that  name  in  Old  England. 
These  were  the  men  who  planted  these  the 
finest  and  happiest  colonies  that  the  sun  ever 
lighted  and  warmed.  They  were  planted  by 
these  *  popish'  people  :  from  them,  from  their 

*  mere  motion,'  as  the  law  calls  it,  came  those 
charters  and  patents,  without  which  those 
countries  might,  to  this  hour,  have  been  little 
better  than  a  wilderness.  From  these  'po- 
pish' kings  the  colonies  came.  By  whom 
were  they  lost  ?         •         *         * 

"  But  I  must  not  omit  to  notice,  and  to 
request  the  reader  to  notice,  that* of  the  above- 
mentioned  colonies,  the  only  ones  that  wholly 
abstained  from  religious  persecution,  the  only 
ones  that,  from  the  first  settling,  proclaimed 
complete  religious  liberty,  were  those  granted 
by  patent  to  the  Duke  of  York,  (afterwards 
the  Catholic  James  the  Second ;)  to  Lord 
Baltimore,  a  Catholic  nobleman  ;  and  to  Wil- 
liam Penn,  who  suffered  long  imprisonments 
for  his  adherence  to  this  '  popish'  king.  We 
shall,  by-and-by,  find  all  the  colonies  cordially 
united  in  declaring  the  character  of  a  Prot- 
estant king  to  be  *  marked  by  every  act  that 
may  define  a  tyrant ;'  but,  this  much  we 
know,  at  any  rate,  that  the  colonies  granted 
to  and  settled  by  Cathohcs,  and  by  Penn,  an 
adherent  of  James,  were  the  only  ones  that 
had,  from  first  to  last,  proclaimed  and  strictly 
adhered  to  complete  freedom  as  to  matters 
of  religion  ;  and  that,  too,  after  the  Protest- 
ants, at  home,  had,  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years,  been  most  cruelly  and  unremittingly 
persecuting  the  Catholics." 

All  the  "respectability"  that  ever  wal- 
lowed in  plunder  cannot  destroy  these  facts  ; 
nor  can  it  prevent  the  universal  difiusion  of 


those  grand  principles  which  the  American 
people  have  magnanimously  resolved  to  pro- 
tect with  a  national  fiag.  Under  the  blessing 
of  Providence,  the  Lord  of  all  mankind,  the 
ancient  maxim  that  "  Protectio  trahit  sub- 
jectionem,  et  subjectio  protectionem'*  will 
speedily  have  a  universal  acceptation,  and 
"  liberty"  will  be  something  more  than  a 
mere  clap-trap  sentiment  for  heartless  politi- 
cians to  defraud  and  divide  those  whom  they 
have  heretofore  plundered  under  the  pretence 
of  protection. 

The  news  of  the  success  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange  having  arrived  in  Ireland,  some  of 
the  Puritan  leaders  formed  a  party  of  sol- 
diers under  the  command  of  Major  Poor. 
Young  Bellew,  of  Lowth,  dispersed  them  in 
the  name  of  King  James.  From  this  cir- 
cumstcince,  the  strong  royalist  feeling  in  Ire- 
land soon  created  a  large  force  of  men  who 
declared  loudly  in  favour  of  King  James, 
requesting  to  be  armed  and  led  by  field- 
officers. 

The  winter  of  1688  was  employed  in  Eng- 
land with  completing  the  negotiations  of  the 
Revolution.  On  the  12th  of  February,  1689, 
the  Princess  of  Orange  arrived  in  London, 
and  on  the  next  day  the  prince  and  princess 
were  proclaimed  as  "  William  and  Mary, 
King  and  Queen  of  England,"  the  right  of 
administration  being  vested  in  William  alone. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Irish  had  not  been 
idle,  but  their  industry  was  of  a  different  kind. 
They  were  old-fashioned  enough  to  support  a 
king  who  had  only  erred  in  trying  to  benefit 
his  country  in  advance  of  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
Tyrconnel,  never  dreaming  that  such  a  mon- 
strous invasion  of  England  would  have  been 
tolerated  by  the  English  people,  had  sent 
over,  when  William  landed  at  Torbay,  some 
of  the  best  Irish  regiments  to  the  assistance 
of  James ;  but  the  treachery  in  the  upper 
ranks  made  the  English  army  worse  than 
useless  ;  and  the  victories  gained  by  the 
Scottish  royalists,  under  the  gallant  Dundee, 
counted  as  nothing  after  the  death  of  that 
able  commander  at  Killicrankie.  Tyrconnel 
was  therefore  compelled  to  make  some  new 
levies,  which  were  eagerly  filled  by  the  re- 
mains of  the  old  royalist  corps  scattered  over 


A.  D.  1690.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


353 


Ireland.  The  Protestants  became  alarmed, 
and  gave  out  that  the  Catholics  intended  a 
complete  extermination  of  all  Williamites, 
without  waiting  for  the  rules  of  war.  This 
feeling  prevailed  more  especially  in  the  north, 
and  when  Tjnrconnel  sent  the  Earl  of  Antrim 
with  a  regiment  of  Highlanders  to  take  charge 
of  Derry,  several  circumstances  combined  to 
excite  the  feelings  of  the  people,  and  the  en- 
trance of  Tyrconnel's  garrison  was  disputed. 
This  local  affair  was  readily  magnified  into 
a  general  question,  and  the  bravery  with 
which  Derry  was  defended  excited  the  emu- 
lation of  other  northern  towns. 

When  James  landed  at  Kinsale  on  the  12th 
of  March,  he  issued  a  proclamation  to  his 
Protestant  subjects,  advising  them  not  to 
leave  the  country,  and  assuring  them  of  the 
most  impartial  protection.  Parliament  was 
called  to  meet  in  Dublin,  and  on  the  7th  of 
May  the  king  addressed  them.  The  next 
day  he  issued  another  proclamation  to  all 
Protestants  who  would  return  to  their  usual 
residence.  General  Hamilton,  whom  James 
had  left  in  command  before  Derry  when  he 
went  to  meet  the  parliament,  made  an  hon- 
ourable arrangement  with  the  besieged,  but 
the  king  now  refused  his  sanction,  and  the 
siege  continued.  The  defence  was  exceed- 
ingly spirited,  and  succours  arriving  on  the 
last  day  of  July,  the  siege  was  raised.  Ham- 
ilton was  then  ordered  to  oppose  Schomberg, 
who,  however,  effected  a  landing  with  troops 
for  King  William  between  Carrickfergus  and 
Belfast.  James,  the  Duke  of  Tyrconnel,  M. 
Rosen,  and  other  general  officers  arrived 
afterwards,  and  a  field  battle  was  proposed, 
but,  on  the  10th  of  October,  the  troops  took 
up  winter  quarters. 

The  first  movement  of  the  spring  of  1690 
was  made  by  the  gallant  Sarsfield,  who  joined 
the  king  at  Drogheda  and  entreated  him  to 
attack  Schomberg's  army,  but  James's  mind 
was  undecided.  On  the  14lh  of  June,  King 
William  landed  at  Carrickfergus.  The  Wil- 
liamite  force  then  in  Ireland  amounted  to 
nearly  forty-five  thousand  men ;  of  these 
thirty-six  thousand  were  selected  to  attack 
James's  army,  now  posted  on  the  Boyne. 
James  had  twenty  thousand  men  under  his 

45 


conmiand,  six  thousand  of  whom  were  in 
French  regiments  which  were  not  brought 
into  the  field  of  action.  On  the  1st  of  July, 
after  a  severe  battle  of  fifteen  hours,  the  Irish 
retreated  towards  Duleek,  and  the  Williamite 
forces  encamped  on  the  battle-ground.  Tjrr- 
connel  and  Sarsfield  led  off  the  Jamesite 
troops,  and  made  preparations  for  defending 
Sligo,  Athlone,  Limerick,  and  Cork. 

William  sent  General  Douglas,  and  eight 
thousand  men,  with  orders  to  take  Athlone. 
The  town  was  well  fortified  and  the  garrison 
was  under  Colonel  Grace,  an  Irish  officer  of 
great  experience,  who  had  defended  Athlone 
twice  previously.  Douglas,  after  firing  on  the 
town  for  seven  days,  and  losing  between 
three  and  four  hundred  men,  was  ordered  to 
join  William  before  Limerick. 

When  William's  besieging  army,  number- 
ing twenty-five  thousand  men,  approached 
Limerick,  the  French  commander,  Lauson, 
suddenly  withdrew  his  forces  and  ammuni- 
tion to  Galway.  This  movement  has  been 
ascribed  to  the  disgust  occasioned  by  James's 
indecision  at  the  Boyne.  A  similar  senti- 
ment appears  to  have  discouraged  the  Irish 
regiments,  for  they  repeatedly  said,  while 
retreating,  "  Change  generals,  and  we  will , 
fight  the  battle  over  again  ;"  but,  at  Limerick, 
the  Irish  considered  that  although  James  had 
disappointed  their  hopes  as  a  commander,  he 
was  a  fallen  monarch  who  had  thrown  him- 
self upon  their  hospitality.  This  truly  Irish 
and  magnanimous  idea,  combined  with  the 
late  success  at  Athlone,  finally  encouraged 
both  people  and  garrison  to  make  a  deter- 
mined resistance.  In  these  sentiments  the 
women  of  Limerick  also  agreed,  and  they 
determined  to  share  the  dangers  of  the  de- 
fence, although  the  preparations  for  the  attack, 
(as  respects  artillery,  ammunition,  and  other 
resources  of  destruction,)  were  the  most  ter- 
rific and  complete  that  Europe  had  ever  seen. 
It  is  true  that  a  portion  of  the  artillery  was 
waylaid  and  destroyed  by  the  gallant  prompti- 
tude of  Sarsfield,  but  William  was  neverthe- 
less able  to  commence  the  siege  with  forty 
pieces  of  cannon,  and  kept  up  an  incessant 
firing  for  twenty-seven  days.  A  breach  thirty- 
six  feet  wide  being  effected,  William  placed 


354 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1691. 


himself  where  he  could  encourage  his  troops, 
but  was  repulsed  twice,  with  most  disastrous 
losses,  and  his  men  were  hotly  pursued  into 
the  lines  of  their  own  camp. 

In  describing  these  anomalous  proceed- 
ings, whereby  the  resources  of  language  are 
exhausted  in  finding  names  for  the  different 
parties,  we  know  not  how  to  Express  our  ad- 
miration of  the  gallant  £ind  beautiful  defenders 
of  Limerick.  Even  the  poetical  Mooney  is 
at  a  loss,  but  he  exclaims — 

"  O  illustrious  women  and  men  !  where  is 
the  hand  to  sound  your  praises  !  Where  are 
*  Cormac's  bards,'  to  give  your  deeds  to  im- 
mortal song !  But  your  bright  deeds  shall 
live  in  our  hearts,  and  light  the  patriots  of 
other  ages  to  victory  !" 

Mooney  is  correct.  The  defeat  of  Wil- 
liam at  Limerick  is  one  of  those  "bright 
deeds"  which  show  to  the  future  what  the 
Irish  people  can  do  when  engaged  by,  with, 
and  for — themselves. 

Duty  calls,  and  we  obey.  On  the  5th  of 
September,  William,  having  removed  his 
troops  to  Clonmel,  returned  to  England,  and 
sent  out  Marlborough,  with  additional  forces, 
in  an  English  fleet  which  arrived  at  Cork  on 
the  21st.  After  taking  Cork  and  Kinsale, 
this  great  captain  affected  to  consider  the 
Jamesites  as  "  rebels,"  and  treated  them  ac- 
cordingly. As  soon  as  he  could  effect  a 
junction  with  Ginckle  and  Douglas,  he  pro- 
posed and  ordered  a  winter  campaign  ;  this, 
although  unexpected  by  the  Irish,  resulted 
unfavourably  to  the  Williamite  army. 

Many  circumstances,  however,  combined 
to  strengthen  the  Williamite  interests ;  and, 
in  the  spring  of  1691,  the  accession  of  twelve 
thousand  Protestant  militia-men  in  the  dif- 
ferent garrisons  enabled  William's  generals 
to  bring  all  their  troops  into  the  field,  in  case 
of  need.  Ginckle  had  several  times  during 
the  winter  urged  upon  William  the  necessity 
of  treating  with  the  Jamesites  upon  liberal 
terms.  Orders  were  now  sent  from  England 
to  make  a  decided  demonstration  in  the  heart 
of  Ireland,  and  to  take  Athlone,  at  all  hazards. 
On  the  18th  of  June,  Ginckle  proceeded  to 
fulfil  these  haughty  instructions.  James's 
forces  had  been  improved  by  an  arrival  in 


May  of  some  small  arms  and  powder  from 
France,  but  there  was  not  a  single  cannon 
sent  by  the  French  king ;  the  Duke  of  Tyr- 
connel  was  superseded  by  St.  Ruth,  a  good 
soldier,  but  an  unsuitable  man. 

After  three  attacks,  displaying  consummate 
bravery  on  both  sides,  Ginckle  called  a  coun- 
cil of  war  on  the  30th  of  June.  His  orders 
from  William  had  been  peremptory,  and  the 
British  officers  were  compelled  to  advise  an- 
other attack.  St.  Ruth  felt  so  elated  at  the 
astonishing  eflforts  made  by  his  Irish  troops, 
that  he  had  retired  to  his  camp,  two  miles 
from  the  town,  and,  like  a  veritable  French- 
man, announced  a  grand  ball  to  celebrate 
their  success.  About  twelve  hundred  and 
fifty  men  only  were  left  in  charge  of  the  town. 
When  informed  that  Ginckle  was  preparing 
for  a  fourth  attack,  he  scouted  tlic  idea ;  but 
the  sagacious  Sarsfield  assured  him  that 
William's  orders  had  been  positive,  and  that, 
under  such  circumstances,  the  English  gen- 
erals would  persevere  as  long  as  they  had 
men  to  lead  on.  The  cannonade  under 
which  GiiK:kle's  storming  party  advanced 
soon  explained  the  matter  to  St.  Ruth,  and 
he  sent  out  two  brigades  of  infantry  whose 
only  use  was  to  cover  the  retreat  of  the  rem- 
nant of  the  garrison,  five  hundred  of  whom 
were  slain  within  the  walls. 

O'Callaghan,  in  his  "  Green  Book,"  has 
very  properly  observed — 

"  Thus,  not  through  native,  but  foreign 
misconduct,  not  through  the  fault  of  the  Irish, 
but  of  their  general,  Athlone  was  at  length 
taken,  after  a  resistance  that  docs  honour 
even  to  Irish  valour."* 

*  Writers  like  J.  C.  O'Callaghan  eliould  be  cherished, 
not  merely  for  their  rarity,  but  for  their  positive  useful- 
ness. The  happy  combination  of  wit  and  industry  ia 
always  beneficial  in  dispersing  the  clouds  of  calumny. 
Such  writers  not  only  serve  their  native  country,  but  they 
improve  the  tone  of  Uterature,  and  increase  the  grand 
communion  of  thought  between  mind  and  mind,  separ- 
ated by  oceans  of  distance. 

To  form  some  idea  of  the  utility  of  O'Callaghan's  la- 
bours, the  reader  is  invited  to  compare  his  account  of  the 
campaigns  of  1690  and  1691  with  that  of  Rapin's  con- 
tinuator.  For  instance,  in  respect  to  the  final  fall  of 
i  Athlone,  read  note  (2)  page  404,  vol.  iii.  of  the  Ijondon 
edit.  It  may  be  plainly  seen  that  the  notes  in  Rapin  are 
written  by  one  of  those  men  who  are  dctemiiucd  only  to 
tell  the  truth  when  convenient. 


A.  D.  1691.] 


SECOND   DIVISION 


355 


St.  Ruth  now  retreated  to  the  Hill  of  Kil- 
commoden,  where  he  took  positions  for  a 
field  battle.  Ginckle,  having  occupied  about 
ten  days  in  fortifying  Athlone,  advanced  to 
dislodge  the  Jamcsites.  St.  Ruth  endeav- 
oured to  atone  for  his  late  carelessness,  but 
had  not  sufficiently  dispelled  his  unfortunate 
coldness  towards  Sarsfield  to  intrust  him 
with  the  plan  of  operations  which  he  intend- 
ed. On  the  1 2th  of  July,  the  battle  (or  rather 
battles)  of  Aughrim  took  place.  It  was  liter- 
ally a  succession  of  battles,  and  as  obstinate 
a  field  fight  as  history  has  ever  recorded. 
Ginckle  fought  like  a  man  in  the  ranks; 
General  Mackay  exerted  all  his  Scottish 
bravery  and  coolness  ;  and  the  English  gen- 
erals and  their  grenadiers  maintained  their 
usual  obstinate  perseverance.  Ginckle  had 
twenty-five  thousand  men,  and  as  much  ar- 
tillery as  he  wished.  St.  Ruth  had  only 
fifteen  thousand  men  and  nine  clumsy  field- 
pieces  ;  but,  as  the  day  advanced,  the  Wil- 
liamite  forces  were  generally  worsted.  Ginc- 
kle now  resolved  to  secure  one  of  the  only 
two  passes  (except  a  bog)  from  the  field. 
This  pass  was  commanded  by  the  old  castle 
of  Aughrim,  and  when  the  Irish  proceeded 
to  defend  that  point,  it  was  discovered  that 
cannon  shot  instead  of  bullets  had  been  sent 
to  the  officer  in  command.  The  Williamites 
pressed  on  vigorously ;  St.  Ruth  was  killed  ; 
and  Sarsfield  was  ignorant  of  his  loss  and  his 
plans.  The  Jamesiles  seeing  the  pass  forced, 
then  made  their  retreat  also. 

The  Irish  consoled  themselves  with  having 
Sarsfield  for  a  leader,  and  Limerick,  Galway, 
and  Sligo  were  fortified  by  the  Jamesites. 
Ginckle  wrote  to  England  representing  the 
inhumanity  of  carrying  on  such  a  war  with 
such  a  people.  Sarsfield  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  a  splendid  body  of  cavalry,  com- 
posed of  four  thousand  picked  men ;  and  with 
this  truly  Irish  and  formidable  force  he  com- 
pelled Ginckle  to  keep  his  troops  within  the 
fortified  towns.  But  the  enormous  resources 
placed  at  Ginckle's  disposal  enabled  him 
gradually  to  surround  Limerick,  and  during 
August  and  September  the  WiUiamite  ar- 
tillery played  night  and  day  upon  the  walls. 

Several  attacks  and  sorties  having  been 


piade  without  any  perceptible  gain  on  eitlier 
side,  the  news  which  arrived,  from  England 
and  from  the  continent,  to  the  effect  that 
James  intended  to  make  no  further  efforts  for 
his  crown,  and  that  WiUiam  was  willing  to 
grant  the  same  religious  and  political  privi- 
leges which  the  Irish  expected  to  enjoy  under 
James, — disposed  the  contending  parties  in 
Irelcmd  to  negotiate  for  terms  of  peace. 
Twenty-nine  military  and  thirteen  civil  ar- 
ticles were  drawn  up  and  signed  for  the  satis- 
faction of  the  contracting  parlies.  The  sol- 
diers were  allowed  to  choose  the  service  of 
France  or  England,  as  they  might  wish.  On 
the  5th  of  October,  two  days  after  the  solemn 
Treaty  of  Limerick  was  signed,  a  large 
French  force  arrived  in  the  Shannon ;  but 
Patrick  Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lucan,  was  not  the 
man  to  harbour  revenge ;  and,  besides,  the 
arrangements  of  the  treaty  were  perfectly 
satisfactory  to  all  classes. 

That  the  surrender  of  the  garrison  was  not 
considered  as  derogatory  to  the  Irish  military 
character  may  be  inferred  from  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  the  military  articles,  in  which  it  is 
stipulated — 

"  That  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  said  gar- 
rison to  march  out  all  at  once,  or  at  different 
times,  as  they  can  be  embarked,  wiUi  arms, 
baggage,  drums  beating,  match  lighted  at 
both  ends,  bullet  in  mouth,  colours  flying, 
six  brass  guns,  (such  as  the  besieged  may 
choose,)  two  mortar  pieces,  and  one  half  the 
ammunition  that  is  now  in  the  magazines  of 
the  said  place :  and,  for  this  purpose,"  etc. 
etc. 

The  twelve  civil  articles  guarantied  to  the 
Irish  Catholics  a  free  exercise  of  religion; 
the  privilege  of  sitting  in  parliament,  as  en- 
joyed in  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second ; 
freedom  of  trade,  and  the  benefit  of  domestic 
legislation  by  the  national  parhament  in  Dub- 
lin ;  the  guarantee  of  their  estates  to  all  those 
Catholics  who  had  taken  up  arms  for  King 
James  the  Second ;  and  a  general  amnesty 
and  forgiveness  of  all  offences  on  either  side. 

Such  was  the  Treaty  of  Limerick.  Upon 
its  liberal  and  beneficial  intentions  Mooney 
has  tlms  concisely  expressed  the  remarks  we 
had  intended  for  this  work  : — 


356 


HISTORY  OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1691. 


"  And  now,  after  a  war  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  between  the  Irish  and  Eng- 
lish, the  principle  for  which  the  Irish  first 
took  the  field  was  estabhshed,  namely,  re- 
hgious  liberty.  It  had  been  wrung  from 
Elizabeth,  after  a  fifteen  years'  war;  sub- 
verted again  by  James  the  P'irst,  Cromwell, 
and  the  parliamentarians  ;  partly  restored  by 
Charles  the  Second ;  fully  established  by 
James  the  Second  ;  subverted  by  King  Wil- 
liam ;  and  now,  after  many  a  hard-fought 
field,  again  wrung  from  a  reluctant  enemy 
by  the  indomitable  valour  of  the  Irish  heart." 

Our  Protestant  adviser,  Taylor,  also  ex- 
presses similar  views,  but  more  especially 
with  regard  to  the  future  operations  of  the 
treaty,  as  follows  : — 

*'  This  celebrated  treaty  provided  that  all 
Roman  Catholics  should  enjoy  the  exercise 
of  their  religion  as  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
tlie  Second  ;  and  promised  that  their  majes- 
ties would  endeavour  to  procure  them  further 
security  in  this  particular  when  a  parliament 
could  be  convened.  It  was  engaged  that  all 
the  inhabitants  of  Limerick,  and  all  those  in 
arms  for  King  James  in  the  several  counties 
of  Limerick,  Clare,  Kerry,  Cork,  or  Mayo, 
should  enjoy  their  estates,  and  pursue  their 
calHngs  and  professions  freely,  as  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  Second ;  that  the  Catholic 
gentry  should  be  allowed  the  use  of  arms, 
and  should  be  required  to  take  no  oath  but 
the  oath  of  allegiance." 

Any  reasonable  reader,  now  perusing  Irish 
history  for  the  first  time,  would  innocently 
suppose  that  Ireland  was  about  to  possess 
her  proper  share  of  political  welfare ;  but 
those  acquainted  with  the  subject  are  well 
^ware  of  the  perfidy  which  yet  remains  to 
be  related.  Alas  !  what  can  restore  or  imi- 
tate the  happy  sunshine  of  innocence  ! 


APPENDIX  TO  CHAPTER  XXX. 

VARIOUS  AUTHORITIES. 

"  I  have  given  ample  details  of  the  miseries 
of  Ireland,  under  James  the  First,  Charles 
the  First,  and  Charles  the  Second.  Its  ad- 
herence to  James  the  Second  filled  up  the 


measure  of  its  miseries — overspread  the  land 
with  havoc  and  slaughter — and  produced  an- 
other scene  of  rapine  and  confiscation  of 
estates.  James's  abdication  in  England  did 
not  vacate  his  title  to  the  crown  of  Ireland. 
The  vote  of  the  parliament  of  the  latter  island 
was  necessary  to  extend  the  abdication  there. 
No  such  vote  was  passed.  And  the  Roman 
Catholics,  the  great  body  of  the  nation,  fa- 
tally for  themselves,  determined  to  support 
him." — M.  Carey. 

"  One  of  the  first  acts  passed  by  James's 
parliament  was,  '  An  act  for  establishing  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  and  repealing  such  acts 
or  clauses  in  any  act  of  parliament,  as  are 
inconsistent  with  the  same.'  To  this  mea- 
sure the  Irish  Catholic  may  appeal  as  a  full 
and  satisfactory  refutation  of  the  charges  of 
bigotry  and  intolerance  ;  and  the  Irish  Prot- 
estant must  blush  to  remember,  that  William's 
Protestant  parliament,  so  far  from  imitating 
this  noble  example  of  enlightened  liberality, 
took  the  earliest  opportunity  of  establishing 
a  system  of  penal  laws." — Taylor. 

"  But  it  was  after  James  the  Second  was 
set  aside  that  the  penal  code  grew  really  hor- 
rible. And  here  it  is  of  the  greatest  conse- 
quence to  the  cause  of  truth  that  we  trace 
this  code  to  its  real  authors ;  namely,  the 
clergy  of  the  established  church.  This  is 
evident  enough  throughout  the  whole  of  this 
church's  history ;  but,  until  the  reign  of 
James  the  Second,  the  sovereign  was  of  the 
church  religion ;  so  that  the  persecutions  ap- 
peared to  come  from  him,  or  her.  But  now, 
when  the  king  was  for  softening  the  penal 
code  ;  when  the  king  was  for  toleration  ;  now 
the  world  saw  who  were  the  real  persecu- 
tors.       *        *        •        * 

"  James  the  Second  wished  to  put  an  end 
to  the  penal  code ;  he  wished  for  general 
toleration;  he  issued  a  proclamation,  sus- 
pending all  penal  laws  relating  to  religion, 
and  granting  a  general  liberty  of  conscience 
to  all  his  subjects.  This  was  his  offence. 
For  this  he  and  his  family  were  set  aside  for 
ever  !  No  man  can  deny  this.  The  clergy  of 
the  church  [Anglican]  set  themselves  against 
him.  Six  of  the  bishops  presented  to  him  an 
insolent  petition  against  the  exercise  of  this 


A.  D.  1691.] 


SECOND   DIVISION. 


857 


his  prerogative,  enjoyed  and  exercised  by  all 
his  predecessors.  They  led  the  way  in  that 
opposition  which  produced  the  *  glorious  rev- 
olution,' and  they  were  the  most  active  and 
most  bitter  of  all  the  foes  of  that  unfortunate 
king,  whose  only  real  offence  was  his  wish- 
ing to  give  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  his 

subjects." COBBETT. 

"  The  Revolution  was  the  work  of  the 
English  aristocracy.  The  great  body  of  the 
people  had  little  or  no  share  in  producing  it, 
and  gained  scarcely  any  advantages  by  the 
event." — Taylor. 

"  All  things  being  prepared  for  the  expedi- 
tion to  England,  the  Prince  of  Orange  look 
leave  of  his  states,  and  put  to  sea  with  a  fa- 
vourable wind,  about  the  end  of  October, 
1 688.  Fifty  ships  of  war,  followed  by  four 
hundred  transport  vessels,  besides  twenty 
frigates  and  some  smaller  craft,  composed 
the  main  fleet ;  from  twelve  to  thirteen  thou- 
sand troops,  and  arms  for  twenty  thousand 
men,  were  on  board.  Admiral  Herbert,  an 
Englishman,  commanded  the  van ;  in  the 
rear  was  Vice-Admiral  Evertzen,  and  the 
prince  was  in  the  centre.  All  these  vessels 
bore  an  English  flag,  with  the  arms  of  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  around  which  were  these 
words,  *  For  religion  and  liberty,'  and  at  bot- 
tom was  the  device  of  the  house  of  Nassau, 
'  I  will  maintain.'  A  great  number  of  Eng- 
lish noblemen  were  on  board  the  fleet." — 
Mac-Geoghegan. 

"  William  was  justly  regarded  as  the  head 
of  the  Protestant  party  in  Europe  ;  the  pay 
given  by  England  and  Holland  was  higher 
and  more  secure  than  that  of  other  slates ; 
and  both  these  causes  supplied  WiHiam  with 
bodies  of  hardy  veterans,  familiar  with  war 
from  their  cradle. 

"  Bravery,  however,  was  the  chief,  almost 
the  only  valuable  attribute  possessed  by  these 
men.  They  were  the  outcasts  of  all  society, 
familiar  with  every  crime,  abandoned  to  every 
excess.  Vices  for  which  language  scarcely 
ventures  to  find  a  name,  abominations  that 
may  not  be  described,  and  can  scarcely  be 
imagined,  were  constantly  practised  by  these 
bands,  which  the  long  continental  wars  had 
called  into  existence." — Taylor. 


"  Men  are  qualified  for  civil  liberty,  in  ex- 
act proportion  to  their  disposition  to  put 
moral  chains  upon  their  own  appetites ;  in 
proportion  as  their  love  to  justice  is  above 
their  rapacity ;  in  proportion  as  their  sound- 
ness and  sobriety  of  understanding  is  above 
their  vanity  and  presumption ;  in  proportion 
as  they  are  more  disposed  to  listen  to  the 
counsels  of  the  wise  and  good,  in  preference 
to  the  flattery  of  knaves.  Society  cannot 
exist  unless  a  controlling  power  upon  will 
and  appetite  be  placed  somewhere,  and  the 
less  of  it  there  is  within,  the  more  there  must 
be  without.  It  is  ordained  in  the  eternal 
constitution  of  things,  that  men  of  intemperate 
minds  cannot  be  free.  Their  passions  forge 
their  fetters." — Burke. 

"  As  for  Protestantism  in  Germany,  it  is 
so  degenerated  here,  that,  except  the  name, 
little  else  of  it  now  subsists.  It  has  under- 
gone so  many  changes  that  if  Luther,  or 
Melancthon,  were  to  rise  again,  they  would 
not  know  the  church  which  was  the  work  of 
their  industry." — Starke. 

"  The  defection  or  falling  away  from  Chris- 
tianity is  almost  (if  not  quite)  general ;  you 
may  see  the  pastor  and  the  professor,  from 
their  pulpits  casting  doubts  upon  all  the  uni- 
versally received  doctrines  of  religion,  and 
shaking  every  principle  of  Christianity,  while 
the  people  are  looking  on  with  increasing 
indifference." — Staffer. 

"  In  Germany,  multitudes  of  Protestant 
theologians  make  it  their  especial  business  to 
drown  the  principal  doctrines  of  Christianity 
in  Deism." — Muller. 

"  Indeed,  such  is  now  their  incredulity  and 
open  unbelief,  in  relation  to  the  divinity  of 
Christ,  that  it  would  be  more  easy  to  find  in 
their  sermons  the  names  of  Socrates,  or  of 
Plato,  than  the  anointing  appellation  of  our 
Redeemer." — E  mp  a  yte  z  . 

"  Liberal  opinions,  that  is,  no  fixed  princi- 
ples whatsoever,  are  professed  in  every  quar- 
ter ;  and,  in  spite  of  the  apparent  tranquillity 
which  reigns  around,  the  day  cannot  be  dis- 
tant in  which  there  will  be  as  little  belief 
among  us  as  there  is  now  among  the  philoso- 
phers of  Germany ;  that  is,  none  at  all." — 
British'  Critic. 


358 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1691. 


"  The  abuse  of  liberty  has  rendered  Chris- 
tian unity  httle  more  than  an  empty  name  : 
the  generahty  of  Christian  professoru  consider 
themselves  at  liberty,  at  all  times,  to  choose 
their  own  persuasion,  and  to  change  their 
opinions  as  often  as  caprice  may  dictate." — 
Blackburne. 

"  Hence  it  follows  that  Protestants  cannot 
refuse  to  tolerate  the  Atheist  without  aban- 
doning their  own  leading  principle.  If  they 
say  that  the  latter  makes  a  bad  use  of  his 
reason,  or,  that  he  is  not  sincere,  might  not 
the  same  thing,  with  equal  justice,  be  said  of 
every  class  of  opinion-believers  ?  The  re- 
proach is  certainly  inconsistent  in  the  mouths 
of  sectarians,  because  it  applies  equally  to  all 
the  followers  of  opinion ;  what  the  Protest- 
ant says  of  the  Atheist  the  Atheist  has  an 
equal  right  to  say  of  the  Protestant ;  and  who 
is  the  judge  between  them  ?  *  Reason !'  But 
the  judgment  of  reason  is  the  thing  in  dis- 
pute :  therefore,  to  call  in  reason  to  decide 
the  difference  would  only  be  solving  the  ques- 
tion by  the  question  itself.  It  is  a  solemn 
and  laughable  mockery  of  common  sense." — 
La  Mennais. 

"  If  God  could  be  more  nearly  approached 
by  *  searching'  than  by  a  devotional  admira- 
tion, by  knowledge  than  by  feeling,  there 
would  be  good  grounds  for  this  exclusive 
preference  for  reason  ;  but  since  He  is  to  be 
worshipped  both  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  His 
precious  gift  of  the  eye  is  not  to  be  denied 
occasions  for  the  exercise  of  its  exquisite 
sense  of  beauty,  nor  the  imagination  His  own 
foreshadowings,  and  its  purifying  and  celes- 
tial creations. 

"  Be  pacified,  then,  be  comforted,  ye 
church-and-chapel-goers  who  reject  every 
thing  except  what  your  reason  approves ; 
for,  what  with  your  damp  floors,  your  bare 
walls,  your  cold  forms,  and  your  still  colder 
hearts,  there  is  yet  boundless  room  for  refine- 
ment in  your  devotions  before  you  will  be 
chargeable  with  any  *  popery.' " — T.  Dolby. 

"  It  is  meritorious  to  insist  on  forms  ;  Re- 
ligion and  all  else  naturally  clothes  itself  in 
forms.  Everywhere  \\\e  formed  world  is  the 
only  habitable  one.  The  naked  formlessness 
of  Puritanism  is  not  the  thing  I  praise  in  the 


Puritans ;  it  is  the  thing  I  pity, — praising 
only  the  spirit  which  had  rendered  that  in- 
evitable !  All  substances  clothe  themselves 
in  forms  :  but  there  are  suitable  true  forms, 
and  then  there  are  untrue  unsuitable." — T. 
Carlyle. 

'*  The  time  is  not  very  far  distant  when 
England  will  laugh  at  itself  for  sending  to 
Holland,  Hanover,  Zell,  or  Brunswick,  for 
men  who,  at  the  expense  of  a  million  a-year, 
understood  neither  her  laws,  her  language, 
nor  her  interest,  and  whose  capacities  would 
scarcely  have  fitted  them  for  the  office  of  a 
parish  constable.  If  government  could  be 
trusted  to  such  hands,  it  must  be  some  easy 
and  simple  thing  indeed ;  and  materials  fit 
for  all  the  purposes  may  be  found  in  every 
town  and  village  in  England." — T.  Paine. 

"  As  the  Roman  senators,  by  slow  and  im- 
perceptible degrees,  became  masters  of  the 
people,  yet  still  flattered  them  with  a  show 
of  freedom,  while  themselves  only  were  free, 
so  is  it  possible  for  a  body  of  men,  while 
they  stand  up  for  privileges,  to  grow  into  an 
exuberance  of  power  themselves,  and  the 
pubUc  become  actually  dependent,  while  only 
a  few  of  its  individuals  govern." — Gold- 
smith. 

"  Hence  that  double-faced  and  no-hearted 
morality  which  expends  three  hundred  pounds 
per  prisoner  in  jail-building ;  which  expends 
eighty  pounds  per  convict,  annually,  in  send- 
ing out  and  maintaining  sixty  thousand  trans- 
ports in  New  South  Wales  and  Van  Die- 
men's  Land,  rather  than  pay  them  justly  for 
their  labour,  which  would  not  cost  half  the 
money ;  or  bestow  upon  them  the  benefits  of 
a  gentleman-like  example,  or  the  simplest 
means  of  instruction  and  contentment  at 
home,  which  would  cost  nothing  at  all. 

"  It  is  that  double-faced  and  no-hearted 
morality  which  affects  to  be  dreadfully  shock- 
ed at  drunkenness  while  giving  the  highest 
legal  sanctions  to  it ;  saying,  in  effect — '  Let 
the  besotted  wretches  poison  themselves. 
Let  religion  be  supposed  to  be  a  mere  pre- 
tence. Let  those  refined  and  refining  influ- 
ences which  we  are  either  too  vulgar  to  teach 
or  too  corrupted  to  stud)', — let  all  such  con- 
siderations perish.    The  excise  looks  up  ;  the 


A.  D.  1601.1 


SECOND  DIVISION. 


359 


quarter's  revenue,  and  corn,  consols,  and  rents 
stand  firm, — and  all's  well !' " — T.  Dolby. 

"  In  reason,  all  government  w^ithout  the 
consent  of  the  governed  is  the  very  definition 
of  slavery ;  but,  "in  fact,  *  eleven  men  well 
armed  will  certainly  subdue  one  single  man 
in  his  shirt.'  But,  I  have  done :  for  those 
who  have  used  power  to  cramp  liberty  have 
gone  so  far  as  to  resent  even  the  liberty  of 
complaining ;  although  a  man  upon  the  rack 
was  never  known  to  be  refused  the  hberty 
of  roaring  as  loud  as  he  thought  fit." — Jona. 
Swift. 

"  When,  O  when  !  will  justice  be  rendered 
to  thy  sons,  O  loved  fatherland  ?  When,  O 
when  !  will  mankind  recognise  the  just  title 
of  the  Irish  to  pre-eminence  in  the  most  glo- 
rious virtues  ? — to  morality  of  the  purest 
order,  domestic  and  public  ?  Temperance  of 
the  most  extensive  and  practical  utility  ? 
Tenacious  religious  fidelity,  beyond  the  ex- 
ample of  all,  or  any,  of  the  countries  on  the 
face  of  Christendom  ?" — O'Connell. 

"  As  to  the  defeat  of  the  Boyne,  with  which 
Voltaire  connects  such  defamatory  conse- 
quences to  the  Irish  military  character,  that 
river  (which  is  often  no  more  than  three  or 
four  feet  deep  in  some  parts)  is  quite  forda- 
ble  in  summer,  and  consequently  no  such 
wonderful  natural  obstacle  to  the  passage  of 
a  well-disciplined  army  as  Voltaire  would 
represent  it  to  be."— J.  C.  O'Callaghan. 

"  There  is  a  great  difference  in  the  many 
contemporary  narratives  of  this  [the  Boyne] 
engagement  that  have  been  published.  It 
was  long  the  fashion  of  the  Cromwellians  to 
depreciate  the  valour  of  the  Irish  ;  arid  they 
have  not  neglected  it  on  this  occasion.  But 
the  main  facts  of  the  battle  are  indisputable. 
William's  army  was  numerically  superior  to 
his  opponent's  by  several  thousands ;  the 
English  had  a  still  greater  advantage  in  dis- 
cipline and  experience ;  and  also  in  their 
artillery  and  equipments.  Yet  was  the  issue 
of  the  contest  doubtful  to  the  last  moment  of 
the  day ;  and  at  its  close  William  had  gained 
nothing  but  the  ground  on  which  it  had  been 
fought.  Except  Hamilton,  the  Enghsh  took 
no  prisoners  ;  and  the  Irish  preserved  all  their 
artillery,  baggage,  and  standards.    The  num- 


bers slain  in  the  field  of  battle  were  nearly 
equal  on  both  sides ;  but  the  balance  against 
the  Irish  was  increased  after  the  engagement 
by  the  marauders  of  William's  camp,  who 
murdered  the  peasantry  that  had  come  through 
curiosity  to  see  the  battle,  the  stragglers,  and 
the  wounded.  In  this  safe  but  not  very  hon- 
ourable service  the  Enniskilleners  were  par- 
ticularly distinguished.  The  indisputable 
superiority  of  Hamilton's  cavalry  seems  to 
have  sorely  annoyed  those  writers  who  hate 
to  acknowledge  any  merits  in  Irishmen.  •  •  • 
After  the  many  proofs  of  Hibernian  bravery 
exhibited  during  the  late  war,  it  now  seems 
unnecessary  to  vindicate  their  character ;  but 
as  bigotry  and  party  zeal  have  not  unfre- 
quently  revived  these  calumnies,  it  is  the 
duty  of  an  impartial  historian  to  defend  the 
character  of  the  brave,  more  especially  when 
they  have  been  unfortunate." — Taylor. 

"Though  aware  of  the  paramount  im- 
portance of  destroying  William's  transports, 
James,  on  meeting  (during  his  passage  from 
Ireland)  with  the  Marquis  de  Seignelay's 
frigates  coming  to  destroy  William's  tmpro- 
tected  shipping  on  the  Irish  coasts,  actually 
made  the  French  armament  return,  merely 
to  escort  himself  buck  to  France  ! — thus  aban- 
doning Ireland  to  her  invader,  by  depriving 
her  of  the  most  eflfectual  succour  she  could 
have  received." — J.  C.  O'Callaghan. 

"  Drogheda  surrendered  immediately  after 
the  battle  of  the  Bo\Tie,  William  having  de- 
clared that  he  would  give  no  quarter  in  case 
of  resistance.  It  is  scarcely  credible  that  he 
seriously  designed  to  repeat  the  barbarities 
of  Cromwell ;  but  it  is  a  stain  on  his  charac- 
ter that  he  even  threatened  such  an  atrocity." 
Taylor. 

"  When  Drogheda  surrendered  to  King 
William,  after  the  defeat  of  the  Boyne,  the 
sick  and  wounded  soldiers  were,  by  the  capit- 
ulations, to  be  taken  care  of,  and  to  be  sent 
with  passes  to  their  own  army,  as  they  re- 
covered ;  but  they  were  not  only  neglected, 
!  and  might  have  starved,  were  it  not  for  the 
charity  of  some  of  their  own  countrjmien, 
who  sold  their  beds  and  clothes  to  relieve 
them,  but  they  were  also  kept  as  prisoners 
after  they  recovered,  contrary  to  the  arti- 


860 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1691. 


cles." — Lesley.  See  also  Story,  supra; 
adopted  by  Curry;  confirmed  by  J.  C. 
O'Callaghan. 

"  Douglas  [besieging  Athlone]  had  no  lon- 
ger any  hopes  of  success.  He  retired  with 
great  precipitation,  abandoning  his  heavy 
baggage,  and  quitting  the  high  road  for  fear 
of  a  pursuit.  The  miseries  endured  by  this 
unfortunate  army  in  their  retreat  were  dread- 
ful ;  but  they  were  exceeded  by  those  of  the 
unfortunate  Protestants,  who  had  no  other 
alternative  but  to  accompany  their  oppressors. 

"  Douglas  found  William  advancing  to- 
wards Limerick,  fully  persuaded  that  he  was 
marching  to  speedy  and  certain  conquest. 
He  had  learned,  by  his  spies,  the  bitter  jeal- 
ousy that  existed  between  the  Irish  and 
French,  and  that  several  of  Louis's  officers, 
already  disgusted  with  the  nature  of  their 
service,  had  returned  home.  The  reports 
were  true  ;  but  William  was  no  longer  in  a 
situation  to  avail  himself  of  these  circum- 
stances. By  his  commission  of  forfeitures, 
he  had  rendered  justice  to  the  Irish  nearly 
impossible,  and  left  them  no  choice  between 
war  and  a  tame  submission  to  unprincipled 
spoliation ." — T  ay  lor  . 

"King  William  was  amazed  at  the  bra- 
very and  skill  of  Sarsfield,  whom,  as  he  said, 
he  did  not  believe  capable  of  such  an  able 
manoeuvre.  William,  though  disturbed  in 
his  operations,  prosecuted  the  siege  with 
vigour.  Playing  with  forty  pieces  of  ord- 
nance, for  twenty-seven  days,  on  the  walls, 
he  at  length  effected  a  breach  thirty-six  feet 
wide.  He  now  ordered  an  assault,  which 
was  made  by  six  thousand  men,  supported 
by  a  reserve  of  eight  thousand,  all  excited  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm  by  the  pres- 
ence and  example  of  their  king." — Mooney. 

"  The  grenadiers  forced  their  way,  and  part 
of  them  actually  entered  the  town ;  but  the 
Irish  closed  their  ranks  behind  them,  and 
effectually  checked  the  progress  of  the  rest. 
These  brave  men  were  nearly  all  destroyed. 
The  citizens,  in  overwhelming  crowds,  fell 
upon  them;  and  only  a  few,  desperately 
wounded,  succeeded  in  cutting  a  way  back 
to  their  companions.  The  breach  was  again 
assailed,  and  again  defended,  with  the  same 


determined  spirit.  Crowds  of  women  min- 
gled with  the  soldiers,  and  fought  as  bravely 
as  the  men." — Taylor. 

"  The  Irish  then  ventured  upon  the  breach 
again,  and  from  the  walls  and  every  place  so 
pestered  us  upon  the  counterscarp,  that  after 
nigh  three  hours  resisting  bullets,  stones,  and 
broken  bottles,  (from  the  very  women,  who 
boldly  stood  in  the  breach,  and  were  nearer 
to  our  men  than  to  their  own,)  and  whatever 
ways  could  be  thought  on  to  destroy  us,  otir 
ammunition  being  spent,  it  was  judged  safest 
to  return  to  our  trenches." — Story. 

"  In  this  celebrated  repulse  of  William  at 
Limerick,  two  circumstances  occurred  that 
reflect  a  halo  of  the  purest  and  noblest  glory 
upon  the  name  of  Ireland  in  general,  and  of 
Limerick  in  particular.  After  driving  the 
Enghsh  from  the  breach,  a  portion  of  the 
Irish  garrison  entered  the  English  camp  in 
their  turn,  and,  '  in  the  confusion,'  (says  Dal- 
rymple,)  'the  Enghsh  hospital  having  by 
accident  taken  fire,  part  of  the  victorious 
Irish  stopped  the  pursuit,  and  rushing  into 
the  flames  to  quench  them,  saved  the  lives 
of  their  enemies  at  the  hazard  of  their  own  !' 

"  Dalrymple's  authority  is  O'Halloran,  and 
O'Halloran,  both  as  an  Irish  historian  and  a 
native  of  Limerick,  was  sufficiently  well-in- 
formed as  a  writer  and  as  a  native  of  that 
city  to  be  an  adequate  voucher  for  the  fact 
alluded  to,  since,  in  addition  to  his  reading  on 
the  subject,  he  was  born  near  enough  to  the 
period  of  the  occurrence  in  question  to  learn 
I  all  about  it  from  many  old  persons,  yet  living 
in  his  lime.  See  Ferrar's  Hist,  of  Limerick. 
[O'Halloran's  statement  has  been  confirmed, 
and  is  now  undeniable. — Am.  Ed.] 

"  The  other  circumstance  is  that  of  the 
memorable  self-devotion  of  the  women  of 
Limerick,  who,  after  the  English  had  beaten 
the  men  from  their  post,  drove  them  back  to 
the  combat,  boldly  stood  in  the  breach,  even 
nearer  to  the  English  soldiers  than  the  men 
of  the  garrison,  and  for  nearly  three  hours 
contributed  to  assail  the  enemy  so  vigor- 
ously with  stones,  bullets,  and  every  attaina- 
ble missile,  that  to  this  splendid  exertion  of 
female  heroism,  unsurpassed  in  the  brightest 
periods  of  classic  antiquity,  King  Wilhdm's 


A.  D.  1691.] 


SECOND   DIVISION 


361 


own  historian  mainly  attributes  the  triumph- 
ant expulsion  of  the  besiegers  from  the  city — 

•  Foil'd  by  a  woman's  hand  before  a  batter'd  wall !' 

"  These  incidents,  in  which  the  two  sexes 
displayed  such  a  magnanimous  rivalship  that 
the  virtues  which  were  supposed  to  be  more 
peculiarly  distinctive  of  each  were  united  in 
the  conduct  of  both ;  in  which,  when  the  men 
were  repulsed  by  the  enemy,  it  was  only  to 
have  their  places  supplied  by  the  bravery  of 
the  women,  and,  when  the  men,  with  the  aid  of 
that  bravery,  were  routing  the  enemy,  it  was 
only  to  manifest  towards  the  fallen  foe  all  the 
tenderness  and  humanity  of  women,  combined 
with  the  victorious  intrepidity  of  men  ;  these 
incidents,  I  say,  require  no  comment — they 
speak  for  themselves — 

'  The  man  that  is  not  moved  with  what  he  reads, 
That  takes  not  fire  at  such  heroic  deeds, — 
Unworthy  of  the  blessings  of  the  brave, 
Is  base  in  kind,  and  born  to  be  a  slave !'  ^ 

"  So  far,  the  campaign  of  1690,  in  the  pure- 
ly fighting  part  of  it,  was  more  in  favour  of 
the  Irish  than  against  them.  William's  suc- 
cess at  the  Boyne  might  be  called  rather  a 
victory  over  James  than  his  army,  as  they 
proved  by  their  subsequent  triumph  over  the 
conqueror  in  person  at  Limerick." — J.  C. 
O'Callaghan. 

"On  the  18th  of  June,  [1691,]  Ginckle 
appeared  before  Athlone,  and  advanced  to- 
wards the  town,  driving  in  the  Irish  skirmish- 
ing parties  which  had  been  sent  to  annoy 
rather  than  interrupt  his  march.  He  opened 
a  heavy  fire  from  a  battery  of  ten  guns  on 
the  English  town,  and  soon  effected  a  prac- 
ticable breach.  After  a  fierce  resistance  the 
place  was  taken  by  assault ;  but  the  garrison 
retreated  into  the  Irish  town,  and  broke  down 
the  bridge  behind  them.  *  *  *  *  An  attempt 
was  made  to  tuni  the  Irish  position,  by  forcing 
a  passage  at  Lanesborough  ;  but  the  pass 
was  too  well  guarded  to  render  success  at 
all  probable.  Ginckle  saw  that  his  only 
hope  was  to  force  a  passage  by  the  bridge. 
*  *  *  *  The  Irish  received  information  of  his 
designs,  and  were  prepared  for  his  reception. 
The  attack  had  but  just  commenced  when 
tlie  grenades,  throw  n  by  the  Irish,  set  fire  to 
the  English  breastwork  ;  and  before  the  flames 

46 


could  be  extinguished,  all  the  works,  galleries, 
and  pontoons,  which  Ginckle  had  so  labori- 
ously prepared,  were  burned  to  ashes. 

"  Saint  Ruth  was  intoxicated  with  success. 
He  removed  the  brave  defenders  of  Athlone, 
and  supplied  their  place  with  inferior  regi- 
ments. He  issued  invitations  to  all  the  gen- 
try in  the  neighbourhood,  and  gave  them  a 
splendid  entertainment,  followed  by  a  ball, 
in  his  camp,  as  if  there  was  no  longer  any 
reason  to  dread  danger." — Taylor. 

"  St.  Ruth  was  convinced,  when  too  late, 
by  the  thunder  of  the  British  cannon,  that 
the  [fourth]  action  had  commenced,  and 
then  sent  on  two  brigades  of  infantry,  which 
were  useful  only  in  covering  the  retreat  of 
the  remnant  of  the  Irish  garrison,  who  were 
driven  from  the  tewn,  and  were  found  con- 
tending the  ground,  inch  by  inch,  with  their 
pursuers.  The  English,  seeing  the  re-en- 
forcements arrive,  retired  behind  those  walls 
from  which  they  had  dislodged  the  Irish  ; 
and  the  latter,  dispirited  by  the  misconduct 
of  their  chief,  and  the  loss  of  five  hundred  of 
their  body,  who  were  slain  that  morning,  re- 
tired  to   the   main    body   at   the    camp." — 

MOONEY. 

"  King  William's  army,  after  being  entirely 
masters  of  Athlone,  killed  in  c61d  blood  one 
hundred  men  in  the  castle  and  little  out-work 
on  the  river." — Lesley. 

"  Ginckle  was  not  much  intoxicated  by  his 
victory  at  Aughrim.  He  felt  that  it  was 
nothing  better  than  a  lucky  escape  ;  and, 
from  the  spirit  displayed  by  the  enemy,  feared 
that  the  termination  of  the  war  was  still  at  a 
distance.  Neither  were  the  Irish  so  greatly 
dispirited  as  might  have  been  expected.  They 
felt  that  victory  had  been  wrested  from  them 
by  one  of  those  chances  which  baffle  ordi- 
nary calculation,  and  did  not  yet  despair  of 
success  in  another  field." — Taylor. 

"  Story,  who,  through  Colonel  Waller 
Burke,  and  several  Irish  officers  and  soldiers 
taken  in  the  castle,  must  have  known  why 
the  English  horse  were  enabled  to  pass  it  at 
all,  has  preferred  to  suppress  any  mention  of 
the  cause,  and  has  then  expatiated  on  the 
wonderful  success  of  those  horse  in  makmg 
their  way  through  so  many  natural  difRcul- 


S63 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1601. 


lies,  added  to  what  he  calls  *  show'rs  of  bul- 
lets,' where  there  were  no  bullets  unless 
bullet-buttons,  if  I  may  be  allowed  a  pun." 
J.  C.  O'Callaohan. 

"  It  must  in  justice  be  confessed  that  the 
Irish  fought  this  sharp  battle  with  great  reso- 
lution ;  which  demonstrates  that  the  many 
defeats  before  this  time  sustained  by  them 
cannot  be  imputed  to  a  national  cowardice, 
with  which  some,  without  reason,  impeached 
them,  but  to  a  defect  in  military  discipline,  or 
to  the  want  of  skill  and  experience  in  their 
commanders.  And  now,  had  not  St.  Ruth 
been  taken  off,  it  would  have  been  hard  to 
say  what  the  consequences  of  this  day  would 
have  been." — Harris. 

"  This  admission,  from  an  Irish  Williamite, 
is  every  thing." — J.  C.  O'Callaghan. 

"  Many  obvious  reasons  justified  William 
for  putting  an  end  to  the  war  upon  moderate 
terms.  Many  millions  had  already  been  ex^ 
pended  in  the  reduction  of  Ireland.  Near 
100,000  men  had  been  lost  by  sickness  and 
the  sword.  The  army,  though  victorious  in 
the  field,  were  exhausted  with  fatigue.  Win- 
ter was  approaching.  The  siege  of  Limer- 
ick must  in  all  probability  have  been  raised, 
— a  second  disappointment  before  that  place 
would  have  been  equal  to  a  defeat.  The 
spirits  of  the  Irish  would  rise ;  the  French, 
encouraged  by  their  success,  would  aid  their 
allies  with  more  effect." — Macpherson. 

"  In  the  mean  time,  private  messengers 
arrived  from  France  to  Sarsfield,  intimating 
that  King  James's  hopes  of  re-establishing  his 
power  in  Ireland  were  declining  ;  whereupon 
Sarsfield,  Sir  Toby  Butler,  and  others  of  the 
Irish  leaders,  thought  it  best  to  come  to  terms 
of  peace  with  the  English  general,  hearing 
that  he  had  power  and  directions  to  grant 
them  every  advantage  which  they  could  rea- 
sonably hope  for,  if  they  had  conquered  for 
King  James." — Mooney. 

**  Six  weeks  were  spent  before  the  place 
without  any  decisive  effect.  The  garrison 
was  well  supplied  with  provisions.  They 
were  provided  with  all  means  of  defence. 
The  season  was  now  far  advanced,  the  rains 
had  set  in.  The  winter  itself  was  near. 
Ginckle  had  received   orders  to   fiiiisli   the 


war  upon  any  terms.  *•**••  The  English 
general  offered  conditions,  which  the  Irish, 
had  they  even  been  victors,  could  scarce  re- 
fuse with  prudence." — Macpherson. 

*'  William,  as  soon  as  the  treaty  had  been 
signed,  removed  his  foreign  regiments  from 
the  country,  but  not  before  they  had  been 
guilty  of  several  fresh  excesses.  A  large 
sum  of  money  was  given  them,  as  a  compen- 
sation for  the  plunder  which  they  resigned  ; 
and  they  departed  amid  the  joint  execrations 
of  Catholics  and  Protestants.  In  a  few  days, 
the  tranquillity  of  the  country  was  perfectly 
restored." — Taylor, 

*'  The  Irish  had,  in  the  year  preceding  the 
treaty,  driven  William  the  Third  with  defeat 
and  disgrace  from  Limerick.  In  this  Irish 
victory  the  women  participated.  It  is  no 
romance.  In  the  great  defeat  of  William, 
the  women  of  Limerick  fought  and  bled  and 
conquered.  On  the  third  of  October,  1691, 
the  treaty  of  Limerick  was  signed.  The 
Irish  army,  30,000  strong — the  Irish  nobility 
and  gentry,  and  people,  capitulated  with  the 
army  and  Crown  of  Great  Britain.  They 
restored  the  allegiance  of  the  Irish  nation  to 
that  Crown.  Never  was  there  a  more  useful 
treaty  to  England  than  this  was  under  the 
circumstances.  It  was  a  most  deliberate  and 
solemn  treaty — deliberately  confirmed  by  let- 
ters-patent from  the  Crown.  It  extinguished 
a  sanguinary  civil  war.  It  restored  the  Irish 
nation  to  the  dominion  of  England,  and  se- 
cured that  dominion  in  perpetuity  over  one 
of  the  fairest  portions  of  the  globe.  Such 
was  the  value  given  by  the  Irish  people. 

"  By  that  treaty,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Irish 
Catholic  people  stipulated  for  and  obtained 
the  pledge  of  *  the  faith  and  honour'  of  the 
English  Crown,  for  the  equal  protection  by 
law  of  their  properties  and  their  liberties  with 
all  other  subjects — and  in  particular  for  the 
free  and  unfettered  exercise  of  their  religion." 

O'CONNELL. 

"  The  revolution  of  1688  is  generally  and 
justly  considered  the  brightest  epoch  of  Brit- 
ish history  ;  but  though  the  result  was  glori- 
ous, there  are  few  of  the  circumstances  by 
which  it  was  attended,  and  still  fewer  of  the 
actors  in  it,  that  do  not  merit  the  severest 


A.  D.  1691.] 


SECOND    DIVISION. 


363 


reprobation.  *  *  *  *  But  notwithstanding  these 
drawbacks,  Englishmen  are  justly  proud  of 
the  Revolution.  It  freed  them  from  the  in- 
cubus of  a  race  of  sovereigns  equally  de- 
graded and  mischievous.  It  afforded  a  bright 
example  to  other  nations  suffering  under  the 
pressure  of  tyranny." — Taylor. 

*'  Kings  will  be  tyrants  from  policy  when 
subjects  are  rebels  from  principle.  When 
ancient  opinions  and  rules  of  life  are  taken 
away,  the  loss  cannot  possibly  be  estimated. 
From  that  moment  we  have  no  compass  to 
govern  us ;  nor  can  we  know  distinctly  to 
what  port  we  steer.  Europe,  undoubtedly, 
taken  in  a  mass,  was  in  a  flourishing  condi- 
tion the  day  on  which  your  Revolution  was 
completed.  How  much  of  that  prosperous 
state  was  owing  to  the  spirit  of  our  old  man- 
ners and  opinions  is  not  easy  to  say ;  but,  as 
such  causes  cannot  be  indifferent  in  their 
operation,  we  must  presume  that,  on  the 
whole,  their  operation  was  beneficial. 

"  We  are  but  too  apt  to  consider  things  in 
the  state  in  which  we  find  them,  without 
sufficiently  adverting  to  the  causes  by  which 
they  have  been  produced,  and  possibly  may 
be  upheld.  Nothing  is  more  certain  than 
that  our  manners,  our  civilization,  and  all  the 
good  things  which  are  connected  with  man- 
ners and  with  civilization,  have,  in  this  Eu* 
ropean  world  of  ours,  depended  for  ages  upon 
two  principles,  and  were  indeed  the  res'ult  of 
both  combined ;  I  mean,  the  spirit  of  a  gen- 
tleman, and  the  spirit  of  religion.  The  no- 
bility and  the  clergy,  the  one  by  profession, 
the  other  by  patronage,  kept  learning  in  ex- 
istence, even  in  the  midst  of  arms  and  con- 
fusions, and  whilst  governments  were  rather 
in  their  causes  than  formed.  Learning  paid 
back  what  it  received  to  nobility  and  to  priest- 
hood ;  and  paid  it  with  usury,  by  enlarging 
their  ideas,  and  by  furnishing  their  minds. 
Happy,  if  they  had  all  continued  to  know 
their  indissoluble  union,  and  their  proper 
place  !  Happy,  if  learning,  not  debauched  by 
ambition,  had  been  satisfied  to  continue  the 
instructor,  and  not  aspired  to  be  the  master  ! 

"  If,  as  I  suspect,  modern  letters  owe  more 
than  they  are  always  willing  to  own  to  an- 
cient manners,  so  do  other  interests  which 


we  value  full  as  much  as  they  are  worth. 
Even  commerce,  and  trade,  and  manufac- 
tures, the  gods  of  our  economical  politicians, 
are  themselves,  perhaps,  but  creatures,  are 
themselves  but  effects,  which,  as  first  causes, 
we  choose  to  worship.  They  certainly  grew 
under  the  same  shade  in  which  learning  flour- 
ished. They,  too,  may  decay  with  their 
natural  protecting  principles.  With  you,  for 
the  present  at  least,  they  all  threaten  to  dis- 
appear together.  Where  trade  and  manu- 
factures are  wanting  to  a  people,  and  the 
spirit  of  nobility  and  religion  remains,  senti- 
ment supphes,  and  not  always  ill  supplies, 
their  place ;  but  if  commerce  and  the  arts 
should  be  lost  in  an  experiment  to  try  how 
well  a  state  may  stand  without  these  old, 
fundamental  principles,  what  sort  of  a  thing 
must  be  a  nation  of  gross,  stupid,  ferocious, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  poor  and  sordid  bar- 
barians, destitute  of  religion,  honour,  or  man- 
ly pride,  possessing  nothing  at  present,  and 
hoping  for  nothing  hereafter  ? 

"  I  wish  you  may  not  be  going  fast,  and 
by  the  shortest  cut,  to  that  horrible  and  dis- 
gustful situation.  Already  there  appears  a 
poverty  of  conception,  a  coarseness  and  vul- 
garity, in  all  the  proceedings  of  the  assembly 
and  of  all  their  instructors.  Their  liberty  is 
not  liberah  Their  science  is  presumptuous 
ignorance.  Their  humanity  is  savage  and 
brutal." — Burke,  addressing  the  English 
House  of  Commons. 

"  The  Rebellion  was  the  issue  of  the 
crimes  of  the  Reformation.  It  mav  be  the 
crime  was  expiated,  but  the  effects  of  it  still 
remained.  The  church  [of  England]  was  re- 
stored with  the  monarchy,  but  so  enervated 
both  in  principle  and  power  that  it  was  com- 
pelled to  lean  for  support  upon  the  civil  arm, 
instead  of  giving  to  that  arm  its  proper 
strength  and  direction.  It  became  weaker 
and  weaker,  and  the  state  has  felt  the  burden 
every  day  becoming  heavier,  and  more  ene- 
mies rising  up,  against  which  the  church  re- 
quired to  be  defended — and  now,  to  save 
itself  from  trouble  and  to  make  peace,  as  it 
fancies,  for  itself,  the  state  is  willing  to  cast 
off  the  church ;  and  the  church,  if  it  stands 
at  all,  must  stand  by  its  own  resources,  while 


3B4 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1691. 


the  state  will  perish  around  it.  This  is  the 
history  of  our  evils  on  a  large  scale,  but  the 
same  history  is  to  be  repeated  in  every  di- 
vision of  society  and  act  of  life  ;  it  is  the  his- 
tory of  every  parish.       *       *       *       * 

"  Hence  our  vices  and  faithlessness,  our 
avarice  and  hard-heartedness,  our  neglect  of 
the  poor  beneath  us  ;  our  secularized  clergy, 
our  political  dissenters,  our  abuse  of  ec- 
clesiastical patronage  ;  our  absorbing  selfish- 
ness ;  our  foolish,  vulgar  exclusiveness,  which 
has  severed  every  class  of  society  from  those 
above  and  below  it ;  our  disrespect  to  gover- 
nors ;  our  disobedience  to  parents  ;  our  self- 
indulgence  and  vanity  and  extravagance, 
which  have  encumbered  our  states  with  debt. 
Hence  our  colonies  turned  into  dunghills,  on 
which,  for  our  own  convenience,  we  might 
empty  all  the  sewers  of  the  country,  and 
raise  up  pandaemoniums  in  regions  which 
(woD  placed  beneath  our  power  that  we  might 
plant  in  them  his  faith  and  his  church.  Hence 
our  morals  degraded  into  utilitarianism — our 
philosophy  become  sensualism — our  politics 
debased  into  economy — our  science  confined 
to  matter— our  reason  misinterpreted  into 
mean  logic — and  our  piety  stripped  from 
truth,  and  made  matter  of  empty  form,  or  of 
emptier  feeling.  We  have  lost  sight  of  the 
spiritual,  and  can  see  nothing  but  the  ma- 
terial."— London  Quar.  Rev. ;    Sept.,  1840. 


"He  that  hath  read  with  judgment  of 
nations  and  commonwealths,  of  cities  and 
camps,  of  peace  and  war,  sea  and  land,  will 
readily  agree  that  the  flourishing  and  decay- 
ing of  all  civil  societies,  all  the  moments  and 
turnings  of  human  occasions,  are  moved  to 
and  fro  upon  the  axle  of  discipline.  So  that, 
whatever  power  or  sway  in  mortal  things 
weaker  men  have  attributed  to  fortune,  I 
durst,  with  some  confidence,  (the  honour  of 
divine  Providence  ever  saved,)  ascribe  either 
to  the  vigour  or  the  slackness  of  discipline. 
Nor  is  there  any  sociable  perfection  in  this 
life,  civil  or  sacred,  that  can  be  above  disci- 
pline ;  but  she  is  that  which,  with  her  musi- 
cal chords,  preserves  and  holds  all  the  parts 
thereof  together.  And  certainly  discipline  is 
not  only  the  removal  of  disorder,  but,  if  any 
visible  shape  can  be  given  to  divine  things, 
the  very  visible  shape  and  image  of  virtue, 
whereby  she  is  not  only  seen  in  the  regular 
gestures  and  motions  of  her  heavenly  paces 
as  she  walks,  but  also  makes  the  harmony 
of  her  voice  audible  to  mortal  ears.  Yea, 
the  angels  themselves,  in  whom  no  disorder 
is  feared,  (as  the  apostle  that  saw  them  in  his 
rapture  describes,)  are  distinguished  and  qua- 
ternioned  into  celestial  princedoms  and  satra- 
pies, according  as  God  himself  has  written 
his  imperial  decrees  through  the  great  prov- 
inces of  heaven." — Milton. 


END    of    the    second    DIVISION. 


OBSERVATIOIS 


CONNECTING 


THE    SECOND    AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS. 


The  struggles  of  the  Irish  people  for  self- 
preservation,  and  the  efforts  of  their  enemies 
to  conquer  them,  are  subjects  which  appear 
to  require  some  resting-place  out  of  the  nar- 
rative, where  reader  and  writer  may  meet  for 
quiet  reflection,  unembarrassed  by  so  many 
varied  and  conflicting  incidents. 

These  movements  of  the  Irish  people 
should  not  be  confounded  with  the  ordinary 
restlessness  that  is  common  to  mankind  in  all 
countries.  Influential  men,  who  are  learned, 
judicious  and  sensible,  on  almost  all  other 
subjects,  are  too  apt  to  dismiss  the  peculiar 
claims  of  Ireland  as  being  merely  phases  of 
tiic  natural  seeking  after  distinction.  This 
mistake  arose  originally  from  misrepresenta- 
tion, is  maintained  by  superficial  observation, 
and  leads  to  important  errors.  Besides,  the 
general  restlessness  of  human  progress  is  a 
steadily  pervading  principle,  and  has  given 
rise  to  the  college  maxim,  that — "  Better  days 
are  like  Hebrew  verbs  ;  they  have  no  pres- 
ent tense  :  they  are  of  the  past  or  futiire  only." 
Pascal  tells  us — 

"  Man  has  a  secret  instinct  that  leads  him 
to  seek  diversion  and  employment  from  with- 
out; which  springs  from  the  sense  of  his 
continual  misery.  And  he  has  another  se- 
cret instinct,  remaining  from  the  greatness 
of  his  original  nature,  which  teaches  him  that 
happiness  can  only  exist  in  repose.  From 
these  two  contrary  instincts  there  arises  in 
him  an  obscure  propensity,  concealed  in  his 
soul,  which  prompts  him  to  seek  repose 
through  agitation,  and  even  to  fancy  that  the 
contentment  he  does  not  enjoy  will  be  found, 


if  by  struggling  yet  a  little  longer  he  can  open 
a  door  to  rest." 

But  the  agitation  in  Irish  affairs  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  advance  of  social  progress  ;  for 
that  may  safely  be  left  to  itself  among  a  gifted 
and  magnanimous  people.  It  is  an  endeav- 
our to  recover  political  rights  and  religious 
privileges  which  have  been  endangered  or 
impaired  by  remorseless  robbery  and  its  sub- 
sequently interested  falsehoods.  These  false- 
hoods have  been  industriously  circulated  ever 
since  the  invention  of  printing ;  and  in  quo- 
ting the  remark  of  James  Madison  that  "  the 
Irish  nation  has  been  as  much  traduced  by 
the  pen  of  History  as  it  has  been  scourged 
by  the  rod  of  Power,"  we  do  not  intend  to 
undervalue  the  productions  of  our  predeces- 
sors, but  hopefully  to  explain  the  many  influ- 
ences that  have  become  interested  in  causing 
Ireland  to  be  misrepresented  and  vilified. 

Sylvester  O'Halloran  has  ably  exposed  the 
monstrosities  of  ancient  misrepresentation  in 
the  writings  of  Strabo,  Sohnus,  and  Giraldus 
Cambrensis ;  and  the  learned  reader,  who 
might  have  but  little  regard  for  Ireland, 
would,  after  only  a  slight  examination,  be 
astonished  to  observe  so  much  of  what  a 
thoughtful  American  writer  has  well  de- 
scribed as  "  the  startling  sympathy  between 
by-gone  fiction  and  new-fangled  fanaticism." 

The  errors  unavoidably  made  in  all  ancient 
history  are  not  of  so  much  consequence  in 
the  estimation  of  candid  minds  as  the  wicked 
disposition  we  yet  see  to  cherish  untruths 
which  have  been  refuted  over  and  over  again. 
Among  the  thousands  of  dinner-table  histo- 


3G6 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


rians  who  are  quite  willing  to  retail  the  stale 
falsehoods  of  Giraldus,  how  few  are  equally 
willing  to  mention  his  "  Recantation  !"  Sir 
James  Ware,  writing  in  1764,  has  condemn- 
ed this  gross  partiality  with  the  spirit  of  a 
sincere  searcher  after  truth  : — 

"  Many  things  concerning  Ireknd  could  be 
noticed  in  this  place  as  fabulous,  which  Cam- 
brcnsis  hath  heaped  together  in  his  Topogra- 
phy ;  to  analyze  or  descant  upon  each  would 
require  a  whole  tract.  Caution  should  be 
particularly  applied  by  the  reader  to  his  To- 
pography, which  Giraldus  himself  confesses. 
I  cannot  but  express  my  surprise,  how  men, 
now-a-days  otherwise  grave  and  learned, 
have  obtruded  on  the  world  the  fictions  of 
Giraldus  for  truths." 

The  only  blame  generally  given  to  Ware 
shows  a  good  fault  for  an  historian,  namely, 
that  he  did  not  write  enough*  Mac-Geoghe- 
gan  says — 

"  Sir  James  Ware  has  commenced  his 
'  Antiquities  of  Ireland'  with  the  reign  of 
Laogare,  and  the  apostleship  of  St.  Patrick. 
The  reason  he  gives  for  not  beginning  from 
an  earlier  epoch  is,  that  most  of  the  written 
evidence  concerning  the  predecessors  of  that 
monarch  was  mixed  and  confused  with  known 
fables  and  anachronisms.  Two  points  in  this 
argument  ought  to  be  observed ;  first,  that, 
from  the  acknowledgment  of  the  author,  there 
were  kings  who  preceded  Laogare,  and  mon- 
uments which  speak  of  them ;  second,  that 
these  monuments  were  mixed  with  fabulous 
or  uncertain  matter.  I  have  no  doubt  but 
that  Ware's  observation  is  just,  for  the  same 
fault  is  common  to  all  ancient  histories. 
What  would  ever  be  known  of  antiquity,  if  all 
history  be  rejected  which  contains  any  thing 
that  may  be  false,  fabulous,  or  supposed  ?" 

Much  light  has  been  accidentally  thrown 
upon  the  ancient  history  of  Ireland  by  the 
controversy  as  to  the  pagan  or  Christian 
origin  of  the  "round  towers"  by  Valiancy > 
Moore,  Taafe,  Petrie,  O'Brien,  and  others. 
The  results  of  such  inquiries  are  invariably 
honourable  to  the  Irish  name  and  to  Ireland's 
ancient  glory.  The  theory  that  attributes  a 
commercial  as  well  as  monumental  use  to 
the  round  towers,  is,  in  our  opinion,  the  most 


probable  ;  and  the  evidence  is  daily  increas- 
ing to  prove  that  the  commercial  relations  of 
the  navigators  from  the  Mediterranean  with 
Ireland  were  of  such  a  nature  as  to  require  a 
similar  use  for  the  round  towers  as  for  the 
pyramids  of  the  whole  length  of  the  Nile, 
which  are  now  generally  believed  to  have 
been  used  for  the  purposes  of  exhibiting  or 
conveying  intelligence  in  addition  to  their 
original  objects  of  commemorating  events  and 
individuals. 

This  theory  is  not  only  supported  by  the 
concomitant  corroborations  of  truth  and  prob- 
ability, but  is  extended  and  confirmed  by  the 
evidence  lately  brought  to  light,  showing  that 
commercial  information  was  not  only  required 
to  go  to  and  from  the  oriental  climes  where 
similar  customs  or  inventions  prevailed,  but 
also  to  the  more  distant  lands  and  varied  na- 
tions of  the  western  hemisphere  !  The  read- 
er who  may  be  unacquainted  with  the  an- 
cient portions  of  Irish  history  will  smile  in- 
credulously at  this  statement,  and  is,  happily, 
in  possession  of  perfect  liberty  so  to  do  :  we 
shall  continue  to  take  the  liberty  of  searching 
for  the  truth. 

The  great  barrier  that  opposes  a  candid 
examination  of  this  subject  arises  from  the 
prevailing  fashion  of  sitting  down  to  read 
Irish  history  with  some  preconceived  and  fic- 
titious standard  of  national  greatness,  which, 
being  based  on  wrong  premises,  necessarily 
leads  to  false  conclusions.  We  will  not  in- 
sult those  who  may  honour  us  with  their 
attention  by  supposing  that  such  is  the  state 
of  their  minds.  We  refer  more  particularly 
to  what  has  been  the  case,  since  the  inven- 
tion of  printing,  in  a  country  where  the  abuse 
of  Ireland  and  the  falsification  of  her  history 
were  almost  invariably  rewarded  with  riches 
and  political  honours.  As  much  of  tliis  mo- 
ney-poisoned hterature  and  its  accompanying 
"  respectabihly"  of  influence  have  been  un- 
avoidably connected  with  the  introduction  and 
adoption  of  the  English  language,  we  merely 
wish  to  give  the  candid  and  intelligent  in- 
quirer a  hint  for  the  profitable  exercise  of 
those  reasoning  powers  and  charitable  feel- 
ings which  ought  to  make  nations  great  and 
praiseworthy, — recommend  each  to  the  kindly 


SECOND    AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS 


367 


regard  of  all, — and  defeat  the  designs  of  ty^ 
ranny,  whether  they  attack  us  in  the  form  of 
prejudice  or  in  that  of  an  armed  conqueror. 
Those  who  really  believe  that  all  mankind 
are  brothers  will  have  already  and  frequently 
observed  that — "  Prejudice  is  the  tyrant  of 
the  world." 

To  explain  more  fully  our  meaning  we 
might  quote  the  remarks  of  Cobbett,  who 
had  continual  occasion  to  remind  the  English 
people  that  workhouses,  treadmills,  stamp 
duties  and  poor-rates,  "  did  not  come  down 
from  heaven,"  and  are  not  absolutely  indis- 
pensable appendages  to  civilized  society.  On 
the  same  principle,  we  hope  to  be  excused 
for  reminding  our  readers  that,  for  a  nation 
to  have  all  the  elements  and  attributes  of 
greatness,  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that 
fifty  or  sixty  thousand  people  in  one  city 
should  be  dependent  on  parochial  rehef ;  that 
the  poor  ploughman  should  go  to  his  work 
with  less  than  half  the  proper  food  required 
to  sustain  his  strength ;  that  little  children 
should  work  all  day  in  coal  mines  or  cotton 
factories,  and  remain  all  niglit  within  sight 
and  hearing  of  the  most  brutal  wretchedness 
and  promiscuous  depravity ;  that  the  most 
menial  slave  of  corrupted  riches  should  be 
better  treated  and  protected  than  the  actual 
producers  of  the  original  wealth ;  that  the 
people  should  be  compelled  to  pay  for  the 
support  of  a  religion  which  dares  not  rely 
upon  any  thing  better  than  money  and  politi- 
cal power  for  its  "  establishment ;"  that  in 
every  case  wherever  the  voice  of  the  people 
is  elevated  in  behalf  of  mercy  or  to  advance 
the  common  cause  of  humanity,  the  very 
power  which  the  people  are  presumed  to 
have  created  is  turned  against  them,  and  the 
greedy  wretch  who  signalizes  himself  by  the 
greatest  cruelty  is  the  selected  object  for  the 
highest  rewards  in  the  state  ;  that  whenever 
there  is  no  opportunity  or  excuse  for  the  bay- 
onet, the  powder-barrel,  or  the  gallows,  the 
man  who  dares  to  speak  for  the  common 
good  is  assailed  with  packed  juries,  libel 
suits,  and  every  engine  of  legalized  tyranny 
which  the  interested  slaves  of  insatiable  ra- 
])acity  can  invent  in  the  various  shapes  of 
sneers  and  savage  slander. 


The  patient  and  considerate  reader,  being 
thus  duly  warned  in  relation  to  the  false  es- 
timates of  national  happiness  and  greatness, 
will  find  the  study  of  early  Irish  history  ex- 
tremely interesting,  and  would  do  well  to 
peruse  the  work  of  Sylvester  O'Halloran, 
which  has  been  appropriately  described  by 
Mooney,  as  follows  : — 

"Dr.  Sylvester  O'Halloran,  a  native  of 
the  county  L«irnerick,  in  Ireland,  a  gentleman 
of  ancient  family,  published  by  subscription, 
about  the  year  1786,  the  first  part  of  what  he 
designed  to  be  a  comprehensive  History  of 
Ireland.  Being  a  profound  Irish  scholar, 
besides  a  thorough  patriot  and  philanthropist, 
he  infused  into  the  work,  as  far  as  it  went, 
all  the  dignity,  eloquence,  and  research  whicii 
characterize  the  writers  of  the  most  refined 
ages,  ancient  or  modem.  Unfortunately,  he 
did  not  carry  his  history  further  than  the 
twelfth  century ;  death  shortened  a  life  de- 
voted to  the  perpetuation  of  the  history  of  his 
country, — a  fate  which,  by  some  special  des- 
tiny, prematurely  overtook  many  other  men 
engaged  in  the  same  laborious  work !  His 
book  is  a  splendid  and  truthful  one,  as  far  as 
it  goes.  He  had  had  the  advantage  of  the 
zealous  and  learned  labours  of  the  many  erur 
dite  men  who  wrote  before  him  ;  and  it  is 
creditable  to  the  Irish  character  that,  in  a 
period  just  emerging  from  the  gloom  of  the 
penal  code,  under  whose  terrible  influence 
the  intellect  of  Ireland  was  darkened,  so 
powerful  a  man  as  O'Halloran  just  then  made 
his  appearance,  who  flung  out  on  the  world 
a  brilliant  reflection  of  the  almost  departed 
rays  of  Ireland's  renown  and  glory.  O'Hal- 
loran, full  of  acquired  lore,  apposite  similes, 
and  biographical  anecdote,  frequently  sus- 
pends his  narrative  while  he  empties  his  full- 
charged  mind  upon  the  page.  His  digres- 
sions, for  that  reason,  are,  though  always 
interesting,  sometimes  inconveniently  long  ; 
which  effaces  or  disturbs  the  order  of  his- 
torical facts  in  the  reader's  mind.  This,  I 
think,  is  the  only  fault  which  can  be  al- 
leged against  the  work.  It  is  otherwise  a 
splendid  production,  sustained  by  authority, 
enlightened  by  reason,  enriched  by  a  won- 
drous gathering  of  facts,  and  adorned  by  a 


368 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


beautiful  style,  whicli  continues  its  elevated 
tone  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  These 
combined  properties  of  O'Halloran's  work  jus- 
tified Pepper  in  denominating  him  the  Irish 

LiVY." 

Poor  Pepper !  Had  he  Uved,  his  country 
might  have  looked  brighter,  and  her  approv- 
ing smiles  would  have  rewarded  his  patient 
industry.  In  view  of  that  "  fate,  which,  by 
some  special  destiny,"  certainly  does  seem  to 
select  and  prefer  those  who  are  engaged  in 
unravelling  the  thread  of  Irish  history,  we 
beg  leave  to  express  our  own  approbation  of 
this  just  and  highly  honourable  tribute  to  the 
work  of  our  learned  predecessor,  O'Halloran. 
The  "  only  fault"  alluded  to  arises  from  the 
Irish  temperament  of  its  erudite  author,  who 
could  scarcely  restrain  his  astonishment  as 
he  surveyed  the  mountain  of  calumny  which 
tlie  riches  obtained  from  Ireland  had  enabled 
her  robbers  to  fabricate. 

As  the  history  of  Ireland  is  remarkably 
peculiar,  so  also  the  History  of  Ireland  writ- 
ten to  represent  it  must  be  adapted  for  the 
purpose.  Whoever  might  undertake  to  de- 
scribe the  history  of  Ireland's  battles  on  the 
field  of  lime,  mounted  on  the  stilts  of  style 
or  the  hobbies  of  philosophy,  would  soon  be 
left  sprawling  in  a  very  disagreeable  kind  of 
mud,  while  nobody  could  possibly  be  benefit- 
ed by  the  attempt.  The  critic  requiring  such 
a  style  thereby  confesses  his  entire  ignorance 
of  the  merits  of  the  whole  subject.  In  this 
particular  instance,  the  strictness  of  mere 
logic  would  be  as  inapplicable  as  the  desul- 
tory ebullitions  of  feeling  are  unavailing.  The 
History  of  Ireland,  to  be  useful,  never  can  be 
a  mere  class-book  of  Johnsonian  periods ; 
nor  can  it  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the  con- 
fusion of  elementary  crudity,  such  as  biogra- 
phy, anecdote,  and  parliamentary  debate.  It 
should  be  an  exalted  and  elaborated  view  of 
the  national  existence  of  Ireland's  noble  and 
magnanimous  people,  based  upon  a  chrono- 
logical and  analytical  foundation  in  the  wri- 
ter's mind.  The  style  should  be  familiar  and 
truthful,  firm  and  considerate  ;  and  the  re- 
straints taught  by  scholarship  need  not  al- 
ways prevail  over  the  promptings  of  honest 
feeling.     One  of  England's  best  writers  on 


the  true  interests  of  society*  has  judiciously 
observed* — 

"  Books  that  are  learned  enough  to  please 
only  the  learned  will  generally  be  found  too 
learned  to  render  much  service  to  Humanity. 
For  the  truest  history  that  shall  ever  be  writ- 
ten, unless  written  in  the  author's  own  lan- 
guage ;  unless  the  facts  shall  be  linked  into 
one  another  in  his  own  way ;  and  unless  he 
shall  feel  himself  at  liberty  to  say  something 
here  and  there  to  the  simple  as  well  as  to  the 
wise,  admitting,  occasionally  perhaps,  a  little 
light  upon  himself  as  well  as  upon  his  story ; 
such  story,  although  true  to  mathematical 
demonstration,  will  be  but  a  superficial  pro- 
duction after  all.  Very  few  people  would 
read  it  to  the  end,  and  those  who  did  would 
no  more  believe  it  than  if  it  had  been  dehv- 
ered  from  '  the  chair'  of  political  economy  ; 
or,  than  the  written  address  of  a  corporate 
body  to  a  throne,  and  the  throne's  written 

tt  *  4fc  4k 

answer. 

"  With  respect  to  style,  it  should  be  re- 
membered that  an  author's  first  duty  is  to 
fix  attention  to  his  subject  and  course  of  ac- 
tion ;  for  more  readers  have  fallen  asleep 
over  the  dull  accuracy  of  Addison's  '  Cato,' 
than  have  been  offended  by  the  amiable  ab- 
surdities of  Goldsmith's  '  Good-natured  Man.' 
Many,  and  perhaps  the  most  interesting  works 
too,  upon  wrongs  and  privations,  have  been 
written  by  those  who  never  felt  them  ;  or,  if 
they  felt  them,  may  have  wanted  that  faith 
in  human  nature,  and  its  inexhaustible  capa- 
bilities of  amelioration,  which,  infused  into 
language,  can  alone  enter  and  permanently 
abide  in  a  reader's  memory  and  belief." 

From  our  own  experience,  we  can  affirm, 
that  the  ancient  history  of  Ireland  receives 
more  light  from  works  collaterally  connected 
with  the  subject  than  from  the  ostensible 
histories.  There  are  many  of  these  works, 
standing  in  scattered  disorder  and  almost  un- 
noticed among  tlie  paths  of  literature,  because 
it  is  not  the  fashion  to  speak  of  Ireland  except 
with  second-hand  opinions.  One  of  the  best 
prizes  of  this  kind  which  we  have  discovered 
is  North  Ludlow  Beamish's  **  Brief  Account 
of  the  Discovery  of  America  by  the  Nortli- 

*  Thomas  Dolby. 


SECOND    AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS 


369 


men  in  the  Tenth  Century ;  with  Notices  of 
the  Early  Settlements  of  the  Irish  in  the 
Western  Hemisphere,"  The  attention  of 
those  who  are  willing  to  think  for  themselves 
is  respectfully  invited  to  ponder  on  the  fol- 
lowing prefatory  remarks  by  Beamish,  in  re- 
lation to  the  startling  discoveries  of  the  Ice- 
landic annals  : — 

"  The  incidental  allusions  to  the  voyages 
and  settlements  of  the  Irish,  which  are  con- 
tained in  the  minor  narratives,  are  more  likely 
to  excite  than  satisfy  inquiry.  Much  still 
remains  to  be  unravelled  in  this  interesting 
subject,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  com- 
petent hands  have  yet  been  applied  to  this 
neglected  portion  of  Irish  history.  It  has 
been  too  much  the  practice  to  decry  as  fabu- 
lous all  statements  claiming  for  the  earlier 
inhabitants  of  Ireland  a  comparatively  high 
degree  of  advancement  and  civilization.  And, 
notwithstanding  the  many  valuable  publica- 
tions connected  with  the  history  and  antiqui- 
ties of  that  country,  which  have  from  time  to 
time  come  forth,  and  the  more  recent  candid, 
learned,  and  eloquent  production  of  Mr. 
Moore,  there  are  not  wanting,  even  among 
her  sons,  those  who,  with  the  anti-Irish  feel- 
ing of  the  bigoted  Cambrensis,  would  sink 
Ireland  in  the  scale  of  national  distinction, 
and  deny  her  claims  to  that  early  eminence 
in  religion,  learning,  and  the  arts,  which  un- 
questionable records  so  fully  testify ;  and  yet 
a  very  little  unprejudiced  inquiry  will  be 
sufficient  to  satisfy  the  candid  mind,  that  Erin 
had  good  claims  to  be  called  the  school  of 
THE  WEST,  and  her  sons — 

'  luclyta  gens  hominum,  roilite,  pace,  fide.' 

"  Thus  much,  at  least,  will  the  following 
pages  clearly  show,  that  sixty-five  years  pre- 
vious to  the  discovery  of  Iceland  by  the 
Northmen  in  the  ninth  century,  Irish  emi- 
grants had  visited  and  inhabited  that  island. 
That  about  the  year  725,  Irish  ecclesiastics 
had  sought  seclusion  upon  the  Faroe  Islands ; 
that  in  the  tenth  century,  voyages  between 
Iceland  and  Ireland  were  of  ordinary  occur- 
rence, and  that  in  the  eleventh  century,  a 
country  west  from  Ireland  and  south  of  that 
part  of  the  American  continent  which  was 
discovered  by  the  adventurous  Northmen  in 

47 


the  preceding  age,  was  known  to  them  under 
the  name  of  White-Man's  Land,  or  Great 
Ireland." 

The  whole  of  the  book  is  very  valuable, 
with  comprehensive  and  excellently  arranged 
information.  Towards  the  end,  Mr.  Beamish 
thus  pleads  his  argument  that  the  ancient 
Irish  had  no  small  share  in  the  successive 
discoveries  of  America,  particularly  that  por- 
tion of  it  called  by  the  name  of  Great  Ire- 
land : — 

"  From  what  cause  could  the  name  of 
Great  Ireland  have  arisen,  but  from  the  fact 
of  the  country  having  been  colonized  by  the 
Irish  ?  Coming  from  their  own  green  island 
to  a  vast  continent,  possessing  many  of  the 
fertile  qualities  of  theif  native  soil,  the  ap- 
pellation would  have  been  natural  and  ap- 
propriate ;  and  costume,  colour,  or  peculiar 
habits,  might  readily  have  given  rise  to  the 
country  being  denominated  White-Man's 
Land,  by  the  neighbouring  Esquimaux.  Nor 
does  this  conclusion  involve  any  improbabili- 
ty. We  have  seen  that  the  Irish  visited  and 
inhabited  Iceland  towards  the  close  of  the 
eighth  century ;  to  have  accomplished  which 
they  must  have  traversed  a  stormy  ocean  to 
the  extent  of  about  eight  hundred  miles.  A 
hundred  years  before  the  time  of  Dicuil, 
namely,  in  the  year  725,  they  had  been  found 
upon  the  Faroe  Islands.  In  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, voyages  between  Ireland  and  Iceland 
were  of  ordinary  occurrence.  And  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  White- 
Man's  Land,  or  Great  Ireland,  is  mentioned 
not  as  a  newly-discovered  country,  but  as  a 
land  long  known  by  name  to  the  Northmen. 
Neither  the  Icelandic  historians,  nor  naviga- 
tors, were  in  the  least  degree  interested  in 
originating  or  giving  currency  to  any  fable 
respecting  an  Irish  settlement  on  the  south- 
ern shores  of  North  America,  for  they  set  up 
no  claim  to  the  discovery  of  that  part  of  the 
western  continent,  their  interest  being  limited 
to  the  coast  north  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  The 
discoveries  of  Vinland,  and  Great  Ireland, 
appear  to  have  been  totally  independent  of 
each  other.  The  latter  is  only  incidentally 
alluded  to  by  the  northern  navigators.  With 
the  name  they  were  familiar,  but  of  the  pc- 


370 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


culiar  locality  of  the  country  they  were  igno- 
rant ;  nor  was  it  till  after  the  return  of  the 
Karlsefne  [Thorfinn]  from  Vinland  in  1011, 
and  the  information  which  he  obtained  from 
the  Skroilings  or  Esquimaux,  who  were  cap- 
tured during  the  voyage,  that  the  Northmen 
became  convinced  that  White-Man's  Land, 
or  Great  Ireland,  was  a  part  of  the  same  vast 
continent  of  which  Helluland,  Markland,  and 
Vinland,  formed  portions." 

Luckily  for  the  author  from  whom  we  have 
just  quoted,  his  work  was  ably  reviewed  in 
the  "  Dublin  Review,"  and  the  talented  re- 
viewer unfolds  an  irresistible  chain  of  evi- 
dence supporting  the  theory  of  successive  dis- 
covery. If  prejudice  and  calumny  are  some- 
limes  strong  enough  to  weaken  the  force*  of 
truth,  we  are  nevertheless  often  consoled  by 
observing  that  nothing  can  injure  its  actual 
power.  We  therefore  hail  with  pleasure  all 
the  indications  of  inquiry  relating  to  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  whatever  may  be  the 
effects  upon  Irish  history.  There  is  much 
to  learn  on  this  important  and  interesting 
subject,  and  we  are  glad  to  perceive  that 
public  attention  is  now  generally  inclined  to 
favour  the  investigation.  To  show  that  the 
arguments  of  O'Halloran  and  Beamish  have 
considerable  merit  and  foundation,  it  may  be 
proper  to  mention  that  such  men  as  Albert 
Gallatin,  Joshua  Toulmin  Smith,  William 
Henry  Harrison,  and  Messrs.  Stephens  and 
Catherwood,  (aided  by  the  liberality  and  fore- 
sight of  Martin  Van  Buren,)  have  given  their 
attention  to  the  same  general  subject.  To 
the  American  mind  it  opens  a  grand  field  for 
antiquarian  discovery  :  the  object  is  useful, 
and  the  curiosity  is  laudable.  Since  the  ex- 
cellent translations  and  publications  of  the 
"  Royal  Society  of  Northern  Antiquaries,"  at 
Copenhagen,  by  M.  Rafn,  in  1837,  this  branch 
of  study  is  much  abbreviated,  and  has  now 
become  quite  interesting.*  We  are  confident, 
and  again  repeat,  that  whenever  correct  in- 
formation is  obtained  of  the  ancient  and 
mighty  nations  of  America,  we  shall  find  great 

*  Soe  also  Waldeck's  "  Voyage  Pittoreaque  et  Arche- 
ologique  dans  la  Province  d"  Yucatan,  Amerique  Cen- 
trale."  The  reader  of  Freuch  and  English  can  master 
the  whole  range  of  the  subject  now. 


corroborative  light  thrown  upon  early  Irish 
history.  In  fact,  we  are  but  just  beginning 
to  learn  that  which  has  been  forgotten  or 
hidden.     Mr.  Beamish  says — 

"  A  further  examination  of  the  Icelandic 
annals  may  possibly  throw  more  light  on  this 
interesting  question,  [the  discovery  of  Great 
Ireland,]  and  tend  to  unravel  the  mystery  in 
which  the  original  inhabitants  of  America  are 
involved.  Lord  Kingsborough's  splendid  pub- 
lication in  1829  first  brought  to  the  notice  of 
the  British  public  the  striking  similitude  be- 
tween Mexican  and  Egyptian  monuments. 
The  ruins  of  Palenque,  Guatemala,  and  Yu- 
catan, rivalling  the  pyramids  of  Egypt  or  the 
ruins  of  Palmyra,  were  only  known  to  a  few 
hunters  till  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  modern  travellers  are  still  engaged  in 
bringing  the  hidden  wonders  of  this  and  other 
regions  of  the  vast  American  continent  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  literary  world." 

Beamish  evidently  intends  to  remind  his 
readers  that  the  successive  discoveries  of 
America  form  a  subject  which  had  only  lately 
occupied  the  attention  of  English  writers,  and 
that  he  is  anxious  to  excite'  further  inquiry. 
He,  of  course,  is  aware  that  the  discovery  of 
America  by  the  Northmen  was  indirectly 
asserted  by  Ortelius,  in  1570.  Suhm  and 
Schoning,  Liadenbrog  and  Schroder,  have 
only  reiterated  the  statements  of  Torfaeus, 
published  in  1703.  Reinhold,  Foster,  and 
Make  Brun  have  handed  them  down  to  these 
inquiring  days  ;  and  Dr.  Johnson  collaterally 
tells  us  that  Ireland  was  "  the  school  of  the 


west 


»* 


The  article  in  the  "Dublin  Review"  to 
which  we  have  alluded  was  written  in  1841, 
and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  argument  in 
favour  of  the  doctrine  of  "  successive  discov- 
eries," the  gifted  writer  has  thus  brilliantly 
expressed  the  following  sublime  thoughts  : — 

"If,  then,  we  have  estabhshed  our  case 
relative  to  the  ante-Columbusian  discoverers 
of  America,  we  come  to  regard  Columbus 
himself  in  a  new  light.  We  may  not  admire 
him  so  much  as  an  original  discoverer,  but 
as  one  who  repeated  and  established  the  ac- 
credited discoveries  of.  his  predecessors  in  a 

-•  Letter  to  Dr.  O'Conor,  of  Bealenagar,  May  19,  1777. 


SECOND   AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS. 


371 


most  heroic  and  glorious  style  of  experiment. 
Thus  was  the  ancient  Syrian  and  Pythago- 
rean system  of  astronomy  revived,  restored, 
and  developed  by  Copernicus  and  Newton. 
Their  immense  merit  consisted  in  the  exam- 
ination, accumulation,  and  demonstration,  of 
antique  theories  that  had  been  well-nigh  con- 
signed to  oblivion. 

"And  this,  in  our  estimation,  requires  a 
loftier  and  wider  range  of  intellectual  science 
than  original  discovery  itself.  Original  dis- 
covery, as  it  is  called,  is  often  the  result  of 
chance,  accident,  the  spirit  of  contradiction, 
and  even  the  rashness  of  desperation.  Orig- 
inal discoveries  are  often  struck  out  in  an 
instant,  to  the  astonishment  of  their  inventors, 
who  had  no  anticipation  of  them.  Not  so 
with  the  profound  truth-searcher,  who,  know- 
ing that  WHAT  IS  TRUE  IS  NOT  NEW,  and  that 
WHAT  IS  NEW  IS  NOT  TRUE,  searches  back 
through  the  recondite  annals  of  our  planets 
for  the  golden  links  of  the  sole  philosophy. 
For  this  man,  what  perseverance  is  required, 
what  subtlety,  what  fine  perception  of  ana- 
logies, what  a  critical  analysis  of  all  the  ele- 
ments which  constitute  probability ! 

"  Such  men,  if  not  original  discoverers,  are 
discoverers  of  a  still  higher  order.  They  lay 
hold  of  the  neglected  germ  which  original 
discovery  had  flung  on  the  harsh  rocks  of 
incredulity,  and  develope  it  into  an  august 
and  glorious  system  of  demonstrated  verity. 
They  seize  the  little  spark  of  Promethean 
fire  which  was  just  about  to  perish  in  the 
fogs  of  forgetfulness,  and  by  it  they  rekindle 
the  universe  into  a  blaze  of  exulting  hope." 

The  historical  compiler  who  is  actuated 
by  such  sentiments  can  well  afford  to  be  pa- 
tient during  the  obtuse  mirth  of  tliose  cavil- 
ling objectors  who  sneer  at  every  scheme  of 
beneficence  aiming  beyond  something  to  eat, 
drink,  or  wear.  To  those  who  never  send  a 
thought  beyond  one  term  of  life,  (and  that 
one  their  own,)  httle  can  be  taught,  and  no- 
thing permanently  useful  need  be  expected, 
for  they  achieve  nothing  more  instructive 
than  illustrating  the  luck  of  a  fool.  One 
humble  monk,  or  poor  labouring  man,  or 
thoughtful  mother,  is  worth  more  than  a  mil- 
lion of  such  self-worshipping  animals  for  all 


the  grand  purposes  and  permanent  interests 
of  human  existence.  Those  cavillers  who 
may  affect  to  wonder  why  it  is  that  we  con- 
tend so  earnestly  for  the  greatness  of  the  Irish 
people,  should  pause  and  consider  whether 
they  themselves  have  a  correct  idea  of  na- 
tional greatness.  On  this  subject  there  is  a 
fine  passage  in  "  Wace's  Chronicle,"  a  poeti- 
cal romance  (in  old  Prankish  and  corrupted 
Latin)  of  the  Norman  Conquest.  Being  in 
possession  of  a  copy  of  the  translation  by 
Edgar  Taylor,  we  make  use  of  it  on  account 
of  the  quaintness  of  the  original  being  so  well 
preserved  : — 

"  Many  a  city  hath  once  been,  and  many 
a  noble  state,  whereof  we  should  now  have 
known  nothing,  if  such  things  had  not  been 
written  down,  and  read,  and  rehearsed  by 
clerks.  The  fame  of  Thebes  was  great,  and 
Babylon  had  once  a  mighty  name ;  Troy 
was  also  a  great  power,  and  Nineveh  was  a 
city  broad  and  long :  but  whoso  should  now 
seek  them,  would  scarce  find  their  place. 
Nebuchadnezzar  was  a  great  king  ;  he  made 
an  image  of  gold  sixty  cubits  high,  and  six 
cubits  in  breadth :  but  he  who  should  now 
seek  ever  so  carefully  would  not,  I  ween, 
find  out  where  his  bones  were  laid.  Alex- 
ander was  a  mighty  king  ;  he  conquered 
twelve  kingdoms  in  twelve  years :  but  his 
conquests  availed  him  little,  for  he  was  poi- 
soned, and  died.  Caesar,  whose  deeds  were 
so  many  and  bold,  who  conquered  and  pos- 
sessed more  than  any  man  before  or  since 
could  do,  was  at  last  slain  by  treason,  and 
fell  in  the  capitol.  Both  these  mighty  men, 
the  lords  of  so  many  lands,  who  had  van- 
quished so  many  kings,  after  their  deaths, 
held  of  all  their  conquests  nought  but  their 
bodies'  length :  what  availed  them  then,  or 
how  are  they  the  better  for  all  their  rich  booty 
and  wide  conquests  ?  All  things  hasten  to 
decay ;  all  fall ;  all  perish,  and  come  to  an 
end.  Man  dielh,  iron  consumeili,  wood  de- 
cayeth  :  lowers  crumble  to  dust ;  strong  walls 
fall  down ;  the  rose  witliereth  away  ;  the  war- 
horse  waxeth  feeble  ;  gay  trappings  grow  old . 
all  the  works  of  man's  hands  perish." 

The  grej^test  nations  have  decayed,  and 
will  decay,  in  the  revolutions  of  time ;  but 


372 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


the  peculiar  fate  of  Ireland  is,  that  after  hav- 
ing taken  the  most  praiseworthy  means  to 
perpetuate  her  history  by  rewarding  a  privi- 
leged class  of  historians  with  the  highest  rank 
and  honours  that  subjects  could  attain,  this 
very  liberality  and  consequent  national  great- 
ness have  been  the  principal  incentives  of  the 
rapacity  employed  to  rob  and  calumniate  her, 
and  is  even  now  the  temptation  for  further 
defamation.  It  is  for  these  reasons  we  re- 
peat our  remark,  that  the  main  body  of  evi- 
dence on  early  Irish  history  is  more  likely  to 
be  fairly  treated  in  works  only  incidentally 
mentioning  Ireland.  Besides,  authors  seek- 
ing for  fame  need  not  be  blamed  for  avoiding 
the  direct  advocacy  of  the  claims  of  Ireland. 
They  could  but  be  tolerated  were  they  to  dis- 
play their  talents  upon  some  ancient  glorifi- 
cation that  is  much  more  doubtful,  far  less 
instructive,  and  of  scarcely  any  use  except  in 
the  scholastic  elucidation  of  classic  or  lin- 
guistic affinities.  All  this  wide  field  might 
be  explored  without  giving  offence  to  "  the 
powers  that  be."  The  customs  of  the  Moors, 
the  commerce  of  the  Phenicians  and  the  Es- 
quimaux, the  "  native"  policy  of  the  Ishmael- 
ites,  the  manufactures  of  the  Chinese,  the 
military  systems  of  the  Carthaginians,  the 
power  of  the  Tartars,  the  politics  of  the  Ethi- 
opians, the  war-councils  of  the  North  Ameri- 
can Indians,  the  many-sided  mysteries  of  the 
Hindoos, — all  form  subjects  which  (ranging 
from  the  mathematical  to  the  mythological) 
generally  allow  the  writers  upon  them  some 
"  safe"  degree  of  reward  in  return.  But 
with  regard  to  the  history  of  Ireland,  there 
has  been  only  one  view  of  the  narrative  that 
might  probably  bring  any  worldly  benefit  to 
tlie  writer.  Whoever  could  not  so  far  divest 
himself  of  candour  and  fairness  as  to  produce 
a  history  that  would  confirm  the  "  respecta- 
ble" prejudices  already  existing,  was  sure  to 
fail  of  being  what  is  commonly  called  suc- 
cessful. 

In  uttering  this  deliberate  opinion,  we  al- 
lude to  what  has  been  the  case  :  the  attention 
NOW  given  by  the  sympathy  of  the  advocates 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty  leads  us  to  ex- 
pect better  things.  In  this  country  of  happy 
freedom,  the  English  language  will  not  only 


be  purified  elocutionally  but  politically  and 
morally.  It  is  now  a  simple  question  for  the 
calm  judgment  of  the  American  mind,  glo- 
riously exempted  as  it  is  from  the  petty  and 
almost  parochial  disputes  of  Europe,  to  solve 
and  resolve  whether  the  desire  of  men  to  live 
like  brothers  and  make  their  own  laws,  is,  in 
reality,  such  a  very  dreadful  crime  as  **  re- 
spectable" English  literature  has  chosen  to 
represent.  Considering  the  despotic  influ- 
ence of  the  combined  powers  of  church  and 
state,  and  the  significant  treatment  of  those 
who  have  dared  to  tell  the  truth,  or  even  a 
hopeful  share  of  it,  we  ought  not  to  expect 
too  much  from  writers  who  may  have  done 
the  best  they  could  in  the  path  of  danger. 
The  fate  of  Thomas  Leland  is  indicative  of 
the  influence  we  have  mentioned.  He  was 
led  on  and  encouraged  with  the  hope  of  a 
bishopric  ;  but  his  duty  as  a  man  and  a  Chris- 
tian compelled  him  to  record  many  things 
which  looked  very  "  inconvenient"  in  print. 
Consequently,  there  is  no  reward  for  that 
man  from  the  power  that  was  conscious  of 
being  based  upon  robbery  and  secured  by 
falsehood.     William  Sampson  tells  us — 

"  In  judging  of  a  writer  upon  Irish  history, 
regard  should  be  had  to  the  inherent  difficul- 
ties of  the  subject ;  and  we  find  every  author 
who  pretends  to  impartiality  preluding  with 
some  observations  to  that  effect :  and  why  ? 
because  centuries  of  remorseless  aggression 
and  fierce  retaliation  had  swelled  the  tide  of 
conflicting  passions  and  antipathies,  and  the 
still  chafed  and  fretted  waters  of  bitterness 
and  strife  had  never,  during  that  long  period, 
been  suffered  to  subside.  And,  as  Doctor 
Leland  observes,  it  is  scarcely  possible  for  a 
writer  not  to  share  in  the  passions  and  preju- 
dices of  those  around  him  ;  for  however  can- 
did, dispassionate,  and  accurate,  still  he  must 
have  done  dangerous  violence  to  their  feelings 
and  prepossessions ;  and  that,  even  in  this 
day,  the  historian  must  be  armed  against 
censure  by  an  integrity  which  confines  him 
to  truth,  and  a  literary  courage  which  de- 
spises every  charge  but  that  of  wilful  or  care- 
less misrepresentation. 

"  Doctor  Leland's  example  justifies  the 
soundness  of  his   observation.     He  was  a 


SECOND   AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS. 


373 


senior  fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  and 
a  clergyman  of  the  established  church,  by  his 
learning  and  •  talents  entitled  to  distinction  ; 
but  he  could  never  hope  for  preferment  if  he 
incurred  the  displeasure  of  those  patrons  to 
whom  the  honest  truth  could  hardly  be  ac- 
ceptable ;  and  from  his  education  and  the 
principles  he  was  bound  to  teach,  his  affec- 
tions and  his  judgment  were  very  liable  to 
bias.  And  accordingly  we  find  him  often 
stating  facts  with  sufficient  integrity,  and  yet, 
as  it  were,  unconsciously  concluding  against 
the  ordinary  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  Nev- 
ertheless, considering  what  Irish  history  was 
when  he  undertook  to  write  it,  the  low  de- 
gradation to  which  the  fortune  of  war  and  in- 
ternal dissensions  had  reduced  the  majority 
of  his  countrymen,  and  the  jealous  monopoly 
of  power  inhumanly  exercised,  there  is  some 
praise  as  well  as  censure  due  to  him ;  and 
with  such  allowances,  his  history,  the  first 
regular  and  connected  one  that  had  appeared, 
may  yet  be  read  with  some  advantage.  And 
it  argues  something  in  his  favour  that  he 
never  did  attain  to  any  such  high  preferment 
as  Archbishop  King  and  others  did,  for  works 
far  more  undeserving." 

This  is  better  language  for  our  purpose 
than  any  we  could  expect  to  construct.  The 
same  brilliant  writer  has  also  left  the  follow- 
ing judicious  opinion  upon  W.  C.  Taylor's 
noble  effort  to  bring  forward  the  truth  and 
invite  impartial  inquiry : — 

"  How  far  this  well-penned  and  lucid  sum- 
mary of  Ireland's  tragic  story,  which  I  have 
so  freely  commended,  may  please  every  class 
of  readers,  I  cannot  say.  Some  may  think 
that  it  states  too  mildly  what  called  for  heavier 
and  more  indignant  reprobation,  and  passes 
too  lightly  over  details  that  should  have  ex- 
cited horror :  that  vengeance  should  have 
been  invoked  upon  the  head  of  the  oppressor, 
and  a  brand  imprinted  upon  the  forehead  of 
every  wretch, '  whether  concealed  by  a  mitre 
or  a  coronet,  who  owed  his  greatness  to  his 
country's  ruin  :'  that  on  the  bloody  escutch- 
eon of  the  titled  traitor  should  have  been  em- 
blazoned his  peculiar  achievements,  till  his 
high-sounding  titles  became  by-words  of  re- 
proach to  future  generations ;   and  that  the 


voice  of  the  murdered  patriot  should  have 
been  made  to  speak  in  accents  of  awful  warn- 
ing from  his  tomb.  But  would  that  have  been 
more  wise,  or  more  likely  to  accomplish  the 
honest  ends  and  objects  of  the  author  ?  Al- 
lowing that  some  things  have  been  softened, 
is  there  not  enough  disclosed  ?  And  if  this 
intelligent  author  had  gone  further,  and  de- 
claimed with  impassioned  indignation  against 
the  perpetrators  of  crime,  might  he  not  have 
been  charged  with  the  like  fault  as  David 
Hume  and  other  great  and  popular  writers, 
who,  for  the  swelling  of  their  descriptions 
and  display  of  their  eloquence,  have  pos- 
sessed whole  generations  with  rancorous  an- 
tipathies attended  with  baleful  effects  as  well 
to  Great  Britain  as  to  Ireland.  To  this  point 
a  saying  has  been  cited  by  that  living  poet, 
who  often  veils  deep  thoughts  and  strong  con- 
ceptions under  the  graceful  folds  of  light  and 
airy  drapery  :*  *  If  I  had  my  hand  full  of 
truths,  I  would  open  but  one  finger  at  a 
time.' " 

Once  more  from  the  learned  counsellor : — 
"  Mr.  Taylor  avows  himself  a  Protestant, 
and  a  Cromwellian  descendant,  whose  wish 
is  to  conciliate,  not  to  inflame.  His  objects 
are  laudable,  and  he  knows  his  ground  and 
is  master  of  his  subject.  He  was  publishing 
in  Britain  and  for  British  readers,  and  he 
may  have  considered  that  too  much  light  let 
in  at  once  on  those  who  have  lain  in  dark- 
ness closes  the  eye  that  it  offends ;  and  that 
it  may  sometimes  better  serve  the  ends  of 
truth  even  to  lower  that  truth  by  some  de- 
grees to  the  standard  of  human  credibility, 
than  to  insist  too  far  upon  what  might  stag- 
ger belief." 

On  observing  these  corruptions  of  power 
and  the  consequent  aberrations  in  the  tone 
of  literature,  there  can  be  no  presumption  in 
our  pointing  out  the  absorbing  study  required 
to  overcome  the  many  difficulties  which  op- 
pose the  formation  of  a  plain  narrative  of 
Irish  history,  especially  as  regards  the  time 
comprised  in  our  second  division,  1171  to 
1691. 

*  Sampson  here  alludes  to  Thomas  Moore,  in  Iho 
"  Fudge  Family."  Fontenello  mako3  use  of  the  same 
idea. 


374 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


From  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Second  to  the 
close  of  that  of  Henry  the  Seventh,  among  all 
the  stirring  incidents  that  attract  the  attention 
of  the  student,  none  are  more  worthy  of  ob- 
servation than  those  which  prove  tlie  steady 
advance  of  the  influence  of  money  as  a  na- 
tional power  in  the  governments  of  Europe.* 
It  is  true  that  the  forest  laws  and  feudal  ser- 
vices were  abolished  or  mitigated ;  but  it 
is  equally  true  that  parliaments  and  plun- 
der were  gradually  corrupted  and  extended. 
Certain  circumstances  (which  need  not  be 
enumerated  here)  having  caused  Henry  the 
Eighth  to  take  advantage  of  this  corrupt  in- 
fluence in  English  society,  and  Elizabeth 
and  her  Stuart  successors  findhig  themselves 
irretrievably  pledged  by  necessity  to  follow 
out  the  same  policy,  the  actual  liberties  of 
the  mass  of  the  people  became  not  only 
jeoparded,  but  positively  diminished. 

This  assertion,  that  in  a  period  of  five 
hundred  and  twenty  years  the  liberties  of 
England  had  retrograded,  will  be  looked  upon 
as  absurd  by  those  who  unfortunately  possess 
false  notions  of  liberty  as  well  as  of  national 
greatness.  To  save  time  and  come  to  a 
correct  understanding  of  the  much-mistaken 
definitions  of  "  liberty,"  let  us  again  inquire, 
— What  is  political  liberty  ?  This  is  our 
answer.  Political  liberty  is  a  willing  com- 
pact in  human  society,  which  guaranties 
more  personal  security  and  moral  freedom 
than  the  variable  and  unrestrained  liberty  of 
separate  individuals.  The  real  possession 
of  this  political  liberty  makes  the  difference 
between  the  civilized  man  and  the  barba- 
rian. 

Keeping  this  distinction  in  view,  can  we 
say,  with  justice,  that  the  liberties  of  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  or  even  Europe,  had  advanced 
during  the  interval  from  1171  to  1691?  We 
cannot.  Were  the  people  of  each  succes- 
sive generation  more  (or  less)  consulted  as 
to  the  "  willing  compact"  of  political  liberty  ? 
Read  the  answer  in  Henry  the  Eighth's  des- 
potic dictation,  not  only  concerning  political 
privileges,  but  even  invading  the  sacred  rights 

*  The  reader  will  perhaps  gain  a  clearer  exposition  of  I 
this  remark  by  referring  back  to  page  109.  It  may  re-  j 
ward  the  time  so  granted.  I 


of  conscience.  Read  the  answer  in  Eliza- 
beth's extension  of  the  uses  of  money,  by 
purchasing  the  custody  of  her  unfortunate 
cousin  Mary,  for  the  purpose  of  gratifying 
and  consummating  a  murderous  hate.  Read 
the  answer  in  James's  pecuniary  piracies, 
his  barefaced  perversion  of  parliaments  into 
princely  tools,  and  his  still  further  extension 
of  money-power  in  the  very  formation  of 
the  parliaments  so  employed.  Read  the  an- 
swer in  Charles's  greediness  to  sell  "  graces" 
which  were  no  more  than  common  justice, 
already  due,  by  his  coronation  oath,  to  those 
who  paid  him  the  money  ;  and  observe,  that 
both  he  and  his  victims  are  cheated  after  all. 
Read  the  answer  in  Oliver  Cromwell's  only 
constant  maxim,  that  "  Every  man  in  office 
had  his  price."  Read  the  answer  in  the  re- 
vived profligacy  on  the  "  restoration"  of  the 
former  set  of  thieves  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second.  Read  the  answer  in 
James  the  Second's  discoveiy  (when  too 
late)  of  the  subtle  influence  which  not  only 
destroyed  him,  but  caused  his  calculating 
daughters  to  desert  their  father's  falling  for- 
tunes. Read  the  answer  in  the  grand  united 
torrent  of  continental  bigotry  and  royal  ra- 
pacity which  over-ran  Ireland  with  a  deluge 
of  blood  in  the  commencement  of  the  reign 
of  Mary  and  her  fighting  partner,  sweet 
William,  imported  expressly  for  the  occa- 
sion. To  divert  the  attention  of  the  English 
people  from  the  double  yoke  of  slavery  being 
imposed  upon  them,  it  may  now  be  seen  that 
ten  out  of  the  thirteen  years  comprised  in 
this  reign  were  occupied  in  war,  domestic 
or  foreign.  These  despotic  evils  not  only 
"crowned"  all  the  previous  encroachments 
upon  liberty,  under  the  guise  of  liberty,  but 
they  have  been  permitted  (by  the  lack  of 
unanimity  among  the  English  and  Irish  peo- 
ple) to  perpetuate  their  poisonous  blight  down 
to  the  present  time.  In  proof  of  this  our 
"  crowning"  statement,  here  arc  the  words 
of  Wade,  a  talented  (Protestant  and  English) 
author,  writing  in  1838  : — 

"  In  furtherance  of  his  [William's]  ambi- 
tious aspirations,  he  was  unscrupulous  as  to 
the  means  he  employed.  Parliament  was 
bribed,  the  morals  of  the  people  corrupted, 


SECOND    AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS. 


375 


and  the  pernicious  principle  introduced  of 
borrowing  on  remote  funds,  by  which  was 
engendered  a  swarm  of  loan-contractors, 
speculators,  and  stock-jobbers,  whose  har- 
vest is  gathered  only  in  the  midst  of  a  na- 
tion's difficulties.  It  is  to  this  monarch  we 
owe  the  commencement  of  the  practice  of 
issuing  exchequer-bills  ;  of  raising  money  by 
lottery ;  the  excise  and  stamp  duties  ;  which 
burdened  posterity,  and  generated  and  sup- 
ported wars  of  despotism  and  folly." 

In  relation  to  the  parliaments  of  William 
and  Mary,  which  helped  in  the  infliction  of 
this  perpetuated  money-worship,  Smiles  (also 
Protestant  and  English)  has  remarked  : — 

"  Such  were  the  Protestant  parliaments 
from  the  hands  of  which  Ireland  afterwards 
received  its  destinies,  and  such  the  constitu- 
tion to  which  the  monopolists  of  the  present 
day  wish  that  we  should  revert !  Such  men 
and  such  assemblies  were  much  more  fitting 
to  entertain  the  petitions  of  coal-heavers  for 
the  exclusion  of  papists  from  their  trade,  or 
the  infamous  castration-clause  in  the  bill  for 
mending  the  laws  against  popery,  or  to  burn 
Molyneux's  book  by  the  public  hangman, — 
than  to  legislate  for  the  rights  and  interests 
of  a  free  nation." 

In  the  plain  business  language  of  these 
two  quotations  from  England's  most  modem 
writers,  our  American  readers  will  at  once 
perceive  the  whole  political  merits  of  the 
case,  from  1171  to  1691,  and  from  1691  to 
1846. 

Our  opponents  may  possibly  urge  that 
there  is  nothing  new  in  the  discovery  that 
"money  is  the  root  of  all  evil."  There 
would  indeed  be  no  novelty  if  this  were  the 
only  object  of  our  inquiries  and  disquisitions  ; 
but  we  have  a  higher  object  in  view  than  the 
mere  repetition  of  a  truism,  however  correct 
it  may  be,  of  itself.  It  would  ill  become  a 
poor  author  to  speak  disdainfully  of  money, 
considered  by  itself.  Dr.  Johnson  tells  us 
that  "  no  man  likes  mustard,  per  se  ;"  the  ru- 
minating doctor  is  correct ;  beef  or  other  solid 
meat  would  inevitably  be  required  by  a  sen- 
sible man.  So  also  of  money.  No  real 
freeman  desires  money,  per  se :  liberty  is 
always  a  requisite  in  making  him  happy. 


"  Liberty  ig  like  the  air  we  breathe  ;  if  we 
have  it  not — we  die." 

It  is  our  business  in  these  pages  to  extract 
the  moral  lessons  and  political  experience  of 
the  history  contained  in  the  chapters  of  narra- 
tive. To  do  this  cfTectually  we  must  dissect 
the  springs  of  action  which  originated  the 
movements  there  described.  Another  of  the 
results  of  our  observation  is  the  detection  of 
the  fact  that  the  bitter  persecutions  in  Ireland 
have  been  mainly  caused  by  a  general  and 
continual  war  against  the  liberties  of  mankind. 
It  would  be  a  sad  task  to  prove  this  statement, 
for  it  is  too  true.  Ireland  has  been  a  rallying- 
point  for  the  shocks  of  opposing  principles, 
and  while  some  nations  in  Europe  have  easily 
changed  again  and  again,  Ireland  has  painfully 
bled  again  and  again ;  but  her  reward  is  in 
the  conscious  inflexibility  of  principle,  the 
conscious  integrity  of  nationality,  and  the 
conscious  reliance  upon  hope  or  reward,  ei- 
ther politically  or  religiously. 

Nothing  has  deceived  so  many  nations  as 
the  affected  superiority  arising  from  innova- 
tions which  flatter  individuals  with  the  as- 
sumption that  increased  wisdom  comes  with 
increased  wealth.  It  would  be  very  bene- 
ficial for  nations  possessing  much  money- 
power  to  pause  and  inquire  whether  ihey  are 
really  so  much  happier  and  so  much  wiser, 
as  they  imagine,  than  those  which  have  pre- 
served one  uniform  allegiance  to  principles 
based  on  human  wants  and  agreeing  with 
divine  wisdom.  Yes,  absurd  as  it  may  ap- 
pear in  simply  enunciating  the  truth,  the 
great  battles  for  the  permanent  principles  of 
liberty  have  been  (and  are  being)  fought  in 
places  least  known  to  the  commercial  "  ears" 
of  the  modern  Midas.  All  the  grand  truths 
and  sacred  principles  truly  worthy  of  the 
reverence  of  human  and  responsible  beings 
have  been  intrusted  to  (and  faithfully  kept 
by)  "  the  poor."  The  money-worshipper 
may  scoff",  but  the  god  whom  he  adores  can- 
not disprove  our  statement.  It  is  not  only 
incontrovertible,  but  we  have  an  addition  to 
make,  which  will  be  unpalatable  only  to  ihe 
falsely  rich  and  the  falsely  learned  ;  namely, 
that  all  knowledge  of  truth  desirable  for  the 
permanent  good  of  mankind  has  been  pri' 


376 


OBSERVATIONS    CONNECTING    THE 


marily  confided  to  (and  maintained  by)  "  the 
ignorant."  This  confession  is  not  at  all  hu- 
miliating, for  it  is  the  height  and  sum  of  all 
learning  to  be  able  to  make  the  observation. 

Men  whose  object  is  to  plunder  their 
neighbours  and  deceive  the  world,  have  need 
of  cunning  and  worldly  wisdom.  The  truth- 
seeker  and  the  truth-finder  have  other 
thoughts.  St.  Augustine,  speaking  of  the 
divinely-blessed  labours  of  the  early  apostles, 
says — 

**  They  have  succeeded  in  bending  to  the 
yoke  of  faith  the  greatest  geniuses,  the  most 
eloquent,  subtle  and  learned  men  of  the  world  ; 
ihey  have  made  them  not  only  followers  but 
expounders  of  the  doctrine  of  salvation  and 
true  piety."* 

Montesquieu,  discussing  the  comparative 
merits  of  different  forms  of  civil  government, 
thus  argues  : — 

"  Bayle,  after  having  treated  with  contempt 
all  religious  worship,  insults  the  Christian 
religion  when  he  dares  to  assert  that  true 
Christians  could  never  form  a  system  of  gov- 
ernment capable  of  duration.  And  why  not  ? 
Such  a  government  would  be  composed  of 
citizens  with  enlightened  ideas  of  their  duties, 
and  zealous  in  their  proper  discharge.  They 
would  be  sensitively  alive  to  the  rights  of 
national  defence  ;  in  proportion  as  they  con- 
sidered themselves  bound  to  their  religion,  in 
the  same  proportion  would  be  their  allegiance 
to  their  countiy.  The  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity firmly  established  in  the  heart,  would 
be  infinitely  more  powerful  than  the  false 
honour  of  monarchies,  the  merely  human 
virtues  of  republics,  or  the  servile  fear  of 
despotic  states."t 

These  noble  sentiments  from  two  such 
master-minds  are  worthy  of  especial  atten- 
tion. Montesquieu,  it  will  be  observed,  pre- 
sumes, as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  people 
of  a  country  would  be  consulted  in  making  '| 
laws  for  it.  What  shall  be  said  of  countries 
where  hypocrisy  and  extorted  wealth  have 
introduced  the  "latest  improvcrncnls"  with 
such  a  monopolizing  effect  that  the  people 
proper  are  not  only  never  consulted,  but  the 

»  137th  Epist.  to  VoIuB,  N.  16. 
t  Spirit  of  LawH,  book  xxiv. 


man  who  dares  to  expose  the  evil  is  looked 
upon  as  a  prodigy  !  Thomas  Dolby,  in  one 
of  his  excellent  works,  (which  brilliantly  con- 
tribute the  most  efficient  aid  in  rendering 
political  economy  agreeable  and  instructive,) 
has  well  denounced  the  selfism  of  "  property 
and  respectability"  in  the  government  of 
England,  a  political  system  which  is  arro' 
gantly  and  ignorantly  supposed  to  be  wise  in 
riches  and  rich  in  wisdom.  At  the  conclusion 
of  a  powerful  appeal  for  the  employment  of 
charitable  discrimination  in  such  matters,  the 
magnanimous  and  patient  author  prophetically 
observes — 

"  Having  thus  related  *  A  Tale  of  Humani- 
ty,' so  far  as  to  give  the  wits  of  this  educated 
and  critical  age  a  little  employment  of  a 
somewhat  unusual  kind, — if  it  be  only  to  put 
a  writer  into  a  more  direct  and  orderly  line 
of  procedure  on  future  occasions, — and  hav- 
ing stopped  very  frequently  by  the  way, 
sometimes,  perhaps,  from  an  over-anxious 
desire  to  amuse  and  to  keep  alive  the  atten- 
tion of  *  the  reading  public,'  and  sometimes 
to  anticipate  cavils  and  to  obviate  objections 
which  always  beset  those  who  venture  to 
meddle  with  ancient  vices ;  it  is  now  time  to 
inquire  what  '  property  and  respectability' 
intend  to  do  next  ? — what  it  is  that  the  landed 
lords  and  gentlemen,  the  monopolists,  and 
the  moneyed  aristocracy  in  general  (who,  all 
put  together,  are  but  one  eighth  part  of  the 
population  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland)  in- 
tend to  do  to  ward  off  the  consequences  of 
their  own  acts  and  proceedings  towards  the 
other  seven  eighths  ? — because  they  cannot 
remain  much  longer  in  the  position  they  now 
occupy  by  virtue  of  merely  nominal  capital, 
of  taxing,  shooting,  and  parliamentary  prating. 

"  For  it  is  too  mucii  to  expect  that  selfish- 
ness, like  a  gnomon  upon  a  dial-plate  on 
which  are  marked  all  the  degrees,  minutes 
and  seconds,  of  shifting  and  obliquity,  will 
for  ever  be  suffered  to  describe  the  same 
dull  and  tedious  round ;  in  the  course  of 
which  not  one  momentary  indication  can  it 
present  without  a  fallacy  and  a  peril  at  the 
point  of  it. 

"  There  will,  one  of  these  days,  be  discov- 
ered an  active  principle  in  the  very  simpli- 


SECOND    AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS 


377 


city  of  sincerity,  which  will  acquire  a  force 
from  opposition  and  a  polish  from  abuse ; 
carrying  knowledge,  in  its  simplest,  most 
engaging,  and  most  practical  forms,  into  the 
most  obscure  regions  of  error ;  and  by  which 

THE  ENSLAVERS  OF  THE  MIND  AND  THE  DE- 
FRAUDERS  OF  THE  BODY  WILL  BE  BROUGHT, 
CONVICTED  AND  CONFESSED  DELINQUENTS,  TO 
THE  BAR  OF  UNIVERSAL  OPINION."* 

Yes  !  and  the  brave  upholders  of  the  "  sim- 
phcity  of  sincerity"  will  also  be  discovered. 
It  will  be  seen  that  the  Tuscan  peasant,  the 
Flemish  farmer,  the  Spanish  servant,  the 
Jesuit  explorer,  the  American  pioneer,  the 
Irish  labourer,  the  Alpine  vine-dresser, — the 
gallant  followers  of  Tell  and  the  O'Neills, — 
THESE  have  been  the  unobtrusive  and  faithful 
worshippers  of  liberty  ;  not  according  to  the 
changeable  and  despotic  dictates  of  some 
selfish  cabal  or  kingly  whipper-in,  but  stead- 
ily, silently,  and  surely,  with  all  the  devotion 
of  a  conscious  and  hereditary  principle. 

These  statements  are  not  so  very  strange 
as  may  be  supposed,  for  we  should  recollect 
that  by  the  perversion  of  liberty  mankind 
have  always  retrograded  instead  of  advtmcing, 
however  flattering  the  accompanying  appear- 
ances might  have  been.  Liberty  is  too  glo- 
rious a  blessing  to  be  abused  with  impunity. 
Let  us  extend  our  argument  to  ancient  times, 
and  make  a  comparison  which  ought  to  shame 
the  boasting  preachers  of  pretended  liberty. 
It  is  a  comparison  easily  mad^  by  those  who 
are  willing  to  abide  the  result. 

Plato  has  said  that  "  Man  cannot  do  good 
and  live  happily  without  bringing  into  sub- 
jection that  power  of  the  soul  wherein  evii 
resides,  and  setting  free  for  action  that  which 
is  the  abode  of  the  promptings  of  virtue." 
The  evidence  is  abundant  that  "  the  fear  of 
Ate,"  among  the  Athenians,  was  sufficient  to 
teach  the  danger  of  possessing  a  proud  and 
unchastened  disposition.  We  read  in  Thu- 
cydides  how  Nicias,  during  the  dangers  of 
the  Sicilian  campaign,  tells  his  troops  that 
"  his  hope  and  comfort  is  to  reflect  that  he 
had  always  dealt  honestly  with  his  neighbour, 
and  been  mindful  of  his  God."     Euripides 

*  Floreston ;   or,  The  New  Lord  of  the  Manor :  A 
Tale  of  Humanity,  etc. ;  p.  390,  London  Edit,  1839. 

48 


says  that  '*  The  man  who  has  his  God  for  his 
friend  has  the  most  justifiable  hope  of  pros- 
perity." Pliny  holds  that  "  It  is  godlike  in 
man  to  show  charity  to  man,  and  this  is  the 
road  to  eternal  life."  Compare  these  senti- 
ments of  pagan  philosophy  with  the  Crom- 
wellian  cant  and  corruption,  as  well  as  the 
ineffable  hypocrisy  of  those  prelatical  plun- 
derers whom  even  Cromwell  was  too  honest 
to  tolerate.     Yes  ;  compare  !    Oh,  compare  ! 

In  suggesting  this  comparison  we  are  only 
making  use  of  our  freedom  from  the  tram- 
mels of  the  narrative.  The  perusal  of  his- 
tory without  observation  and  reflection  would 
be  useless.  Besides,  good  old  Jeremy  Tay- 
lor says — "  I  consider  that  the  wisest  persons, 
and  those  who  know  how  to  value  and  to  en- 
tertain the  more  noble  faculties  of  their  soul 
and  their  precious  hours,  take  pleasure  in 
reading  the  productions  of  those  old  wise 
spirits  who  preserved  natural  reason  and  re- 
ligion in  the  midst  of  heathen  darkness,  such 
as  Homer,  Euripides,  Orpheus,  Pindar,  and 
Anacreon,  iEschylus,  and  Menander,  and  all 
the  Greek  poets,  Plutarch  and  Polybius, 
Xenophon,  and  all  those  other  excellent  per- 
sons of  both  faculties,  [the  Ionian  and  the 
Italian,]  whose  choicest  dictates  are  collected 
by  Stobaeus  ;  Plato  and  his  scholars,  Aristo- 
tle, and  after  him  Porphyry,  and  all  his  other 
disciples,  Pythagoras,  and  especially  Hiero- 
cles,  and  all  the  old  academics  and  stoics 
within  the  Roman  school."  And  we  more 
than  ever  agree  with  our  discursive  favourite 
on  finding  him  express  a  hope  that  such  read- 
ers "  may  be  invited  to  love  and  consider  the 
rare  documents  of  Christianity,  which  cer- 
tainly are  the  great  treasure-house  of  those 
excellent,  moral,  and  perfective  discourses 
which  with  much  pains  and  pleasure  we  find 
thinly  scattered  in  all  the  Greek  and  Roman 
poets,  historians,  and  philosophers." 

Notwithstanding  the  limited  bounds  of  this 
work,  it  may  be  seen  that  we  have  not  shrunk 
from  the  proper  discussion  of  the  principal 
subjects  connected  with  the  history  of  Ire- 
land. We  have  grappled  with  political  and 
moral  considerations  and  topics  which  many 
writers  who  are  continually  and  vaguely  va- 
pouring about  •*  the  wrongs  of  Ireland,"  and 


378 


OBSERVATIONS,    ETC, 


80  forth,  generally  contrive  to  avoid.  There 
yet  remains  one  more,  however,  which  we 
would  approach  in  all  Christian  reverence 
and  caution.  Without  being  drawn  into  any 
erratic  argument,  we  shall  fearlessly  con- 
clude what  we  fearlessly  began, — a  "rea- 
sonable and  discriminating  History  of  Ire- 
land." The  subject  now  particularly  alluded 
to  is — religion  ;  and  although  we  are  not  to 
be  deterred  from  its  legitimate  discussion,  we 
do  indeed  shrink  from  assuming  the  respon- 
sibility of  interfering  with  particular  states 
of  beUef.  A  reflective  historian  knows  that 
the  rights  of  conscience  are  too  sacred  to  be 
trifled  with,  and  all  we  shall  now  say  is 
merely  to  explain  our  general  motives  and 
objects  when  treating  of  ecclesiastical  history 
throughout  the  narrative  chapters.  True  re- 
ligion involves  principles  which  cannot  be 
moulded  or  altered  by  mere  opinion,  and 
should  not  be  hastily  expressed  in  pretty  sen- 
tences to  excite  the  admiration  of  superficial 
searchers  after  intellectual  excitement.  With 
these  views,  we  have  been  guided  by  the 
writings  of  Thomas  a  Kempis  for  our  theolo- 
gy, and  by  those  of  Francis  Bacon  for  our 
experimental  philosophy,  as  the  following  ex- 
tract from  the  preface  of  the  "  Ncmum  Orga- 
non  Scientiarum"  will  best  explain  : — 

"  Since,  therefore,  these  matters  are  be- 
yond our  control,  we  in  the  beginning  of  our 
work  pour  forth  most  humble  and  ardent 
prayers  to  God  the  Father, 


******* 


that,  mindful  of  the  cares  of  man  and  of  his 
pilgrimage  through  this  life,  in  which  we 
wear  out  some  few  and  evil  days,  they  would 
vouchsafe  through  our  hands  to  endow  the 
family  of  mankind  with  these  new  gifts  ;  and 
we  moreover  humbly  pray  that  human  know- 
ledge may  not  prejudice  divine  truth,  and 
that  no  incredulity  and  darkness  in  regard  to 
the  divine  mysteries  may  arise  in  our  minds 
upon  the  disclosing  of  the  rays  of  sense,  and 
this  greater  kindhng  of  our  natural  light ;  but 
rather  that  from  a  pure  understanding,  cleared 
of  all  fancies  and  vanity,  yet  no  less  submit- 
ted to,  nay,  wholly  prostrate  before  the  divine 
oracles,  we  may  render  unto  faith  the  tribute 
due  unto  faith ;  and  lastly,  that  being  freed 
from  the  poison  of  knowledge  infused  into  it 
by  the  serpent,  and  with  which  the  human 
soul  is  swollen  and  puffed  up, — we  may  nei- 
ther be  too  profoundly  nor  immoderately 
puffed  up,  but  may  worship  truth  in  charity." 
With  such  sentiments  as  these  our  obser- 
vations have  been  made,  not  only  here  but  in 
the  casual  remarks  dispersed  among  the  nar- 
rative ;  and,  if  errors  should  occur  while  ad- 
vocating the  cause  of  truth,  it  is  humbly 
hoped  that  the  sincerity  of  intention  will 
ultimately  prevail  in  that  awful  period  when 
the  historian  and  those  whom  he  had  occasion 
to  judge  will  together  be  infallibly  judged  and 
distinguished,  not  by  the  boastful  triumphs 
of  temporary  success,  but  in  the  subdued 
aspirations  of  honest  endeavour. 


PRELIMIIAEY  DISCOURSE 


TO     THE 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


Supposing  that  we  have  now  established 
a  mutual  famiUarity  with  the  reader,  our  ob- 
servations, preUminary  discourses,  and  so 
forth,  are  permitted  to  occupy  a  greater 
proportion  of  these  pages  than  when  we 
humbly  commenced  to  follow  Sylvester 
O'Halloran  in  tracing  the  history  of  Ireland 
from  the  earliest  times.  The  increasing  im- 
portance of  the  abundant  evidence  condensed 
for  our  narrative  is  an  additional  excuse  for 
this  prolixity  of  remark. 

The  interval,  however,  between  the  Treaty 
of  Limerick  and  the  arming  of  the  Volunteers, 
is  one  which  has  been  described  as  the  days 
when  "  Ireland  had  no  history."  The  atro- 
cious violation  of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick 
stunned  the  Irish  nation.  The  outrageous 
enactments  of  the  penal  code,  framed  pur- 
posely to  destroy  or  embarrass  all  the  ties  of 
affection  and  society,  being  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  grovelling  and  invidious  magistra- 
cy, were  circumstances  which  combined  in 
taking  advantage  of  the  temporary  torpor  of 
their  noble  victim,  and  little  more  than  moans 
and  groans  could  be  heard  from  Ireland  until 
the  grand  contest  of  the  American  colonies 
against  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  ohgar- 
chy,  then  ruling  in  England,  taught  the  ne- 
cessity and  the  propriety  of  resuming  ener- 
getic endeavours  to  repel  that  insolence  which 
is  composed  of  "hatred  of  'popery,'  igno- 
rance of  Christianity,  and  total  absence  of 
moral  principle." 

In  England,  the  circumstances  of  the  time 
were  as  different  as  possible  from  those  in 
Ireland.     The  church  "  by  law  established" 


had  established  a  suitable  and  splendid  king 
"  by  law  established,"  and  these  two  influ- 
ences combined  in  deluding  the  people  to 
suppose  that  political  liberty  was  "by  law 
established."  The  delusion  was  increased 
by  the  intoxicating  but  fictitious  wealth  fol- 
lowing the  general  adoption  of  paper  securi- 
ties. Dr.  Burnet,  the  king-maker,  now 
became  an  imitation-money  manufacturer. 
Money  being  cheap,  every  thing  rose  in 
price  and  fell  in  value ;  yea,  every  thing, 
virtue  inclusive.  Children  learned  to  ap- 
praise their  parents  in  pounds,  shillings,  and 
pence.  Painters,  poets,  musicians,  vnriters 
and  historians,  were  called  in,  not  only  from 
Grub  street,  but  from  all  Eiirope.  The  con- 
descension of  the  upper  classes  was  excru- 
ciating to  behold,  and  the  elevation  of  the 
lower  would  have  astonished  Jack  Ketch — 
the  only  vicarial  "  immortal"  now  acknowl- 
edged by  the  "  oldest  inhabitant"  in  England, 
or  deified  and  comprehended  in  the  entire 
range  of  the  modern  British  classics.  This 
disgusting  state  of  affairs  has  been  slavishly 
styled  "  the  Augustan  age"  of  England. 

An  impartial  inquirer  may  now  easily  per- 
ceive that  the  apparent  patronage  of  intel- 
lectual and  mechanical  excellence  which  dis" 
tinguished  England  in  the  eighteenth  century 
was  not  merely  for  the  indulgence  of  gener- 
ous sentiments  and  liberal  feelings.  The 
court  gave  the  cue  to  the  stage  of  pubhc  Ufe 
in  this  matter,  and  the  individual  whose  real 
independence  prompted  him  to  speak  and 
act  for  himself  was  speedily  hissed  off  by  the 
"  gods"  and  the  "  groundhngs,"  who  could 


380 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


not  see  that  they  thus  did  the  dirty  work  of 
their  real  enemies,  while  ignorantly  injuring 
their  real  friends. 

In  the  matter  of  history,  which  is  more 
particularly  connected  with  our  present  in- 
quiry, great  attention  was  paid  to  keep  pace 
with  the  "  improvements"  of  the  day.  The 
most  talented  and  plausible  of  the  historians 
thus  corrupted  was  David  Hume.  He  was 
influenced  to  appear  as  if  in  opposition  to  the 
new  dynasty  of  Bible-and-crown  religion,  but 
to  please  the  extremes  of  parties  with  pre- 
tending kindness  for  the  Stuart  sovereigns  ; 
taking  good  care,  however,  to  accompany  the 
kindness  with  an  assertion  that  they  were  no 
worse  than  their  predecessors,  and  that  the 
English  people  had  no  true  liberty  until  the 
revolution  of  1688.  The  fact  is,  that  the 
English  court  considered  any  amount  of 
falsehood  or  infidelity  preferable  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  new-fashioned  liberty  experi- 
encing a  relapse  towards  catholicity. 

When  such  monstrous  popular  delusions 
were  invented  in  relation  to  the  people  of 
England,  we  need  not  wonder  at  the  wilful 
misrepresentations  of  the  affairs  of  the  Irish 
people,  and  particularly  of  the  '*  rebellion" 
of  1641,  persisted  in  by  Hume,  although 
Dr.  Curry  sent  to  him,  at  Paris,  in  1764,  a 
complete  refutation  of  the  whole  scheme, 
showing  its  ecclesiastical  and  pohtical  bear- 
ings. Dr.  Curry's  accompanying  letter  was 
expressed  in  the  kindest  and  most  respectful 
manner,  but  the  answer  of  David  Hume  was 
shuffling  and  evasive.  Hume  knew  very 
well  that  the  admission  of  the  truth  would 
have  a  direct  tendency  to  slop  that  bloodshed 
and  rapacity  which  men  like  him  are  gener- 
ally so  forward  to  identify  with  what  they 
call  "  Christianity." 

These  perversions  of  names  and  things 
cannot  exist  longer  than  other  bubbles  of 
error.  Christianity  is  precisely  what  it  al- 
ways was,  and  always  will  be.  The  false- 
hoods of  Hume,  and  of  the  solemn  humbugs 
who  were  glad  to  make  a  cat's-paw  of  him, 
must  take  their  chance  in  the  conflicts  of 
opinion.  In  England,  everybody  reads  Hume, 
but  nobody  can  be  found  ignorant  enough  to 
depend  upon  him  historically.    Nearly  twenty 


years  ago  the  highest  literary  authority  in  the 
United  States  thus  quietly  and  completely 
extinguished  Hume  as  an  historian  : — 

"  The  English  nation  has  been  in  nothing 
more  unfortunate  than  in  her  historians. 
While  she  was  advancing  step  by  step  in  the 
attainment  of  freedom,  it  was  hardly  possible 
that  history  should  keep  pace  with  her.  In 
times  of  excitement,  we  do  not  look  for  phi- 
losophical history  from  contemporary  authors. 
The  actors  in  those  great  events  which  for 
half  a  century  agitated  the  nation  could  not 
be  expected  to  be  impartial  narrators  of 
them.  That  Clarendon  should  have  leaned 
to  one  side,  and  Whitelock  and  Burnet  to  the 
other,  is  saying  no  more  than  that  they  were 
subject  to  the  infirmities  of  humanity.  Un- 
happily, however,  passion  and  prejudice  long 
survived  the  contest  which  produced  them. 
The  moment  which  seemed  most  favourable 
for  the  appearance  of  a  British  historian,  after 
the  house  of  Brunswick  had  become  quietly 
established  on  the  throne,  was  seized  upon 
by  Mr.  Hume,  who  possessed  almost  every 
requisite  for  the  undertaking  but  that  without 
which  all  the  rest  are  worthless — a  fair  and 
candid  mind.  At  this  time  of  day  it  is  un- 
necessary to  enlarge  on  the  faults  of  Mr. 
Hume's  History  of  England.  Like  all  great 
evils,  this  one  has  at  length  wrought  its  own 
cure.  His  misrepresentations  are  now  so 
glaring,  that  the  very  party  he  intended  to 
aid  has  been  obliged  to  turn  against  him  in 
self-defence.  In  nothing  is  the  progress  of 
liberal  opinions  more  clearly  shown  than  in 
the  fate  of  this  historian.  Notwithstanding 
the  charms  of  his  style,  no  Englishman  of 
sense  pretends  now-a-days  to  justify  or  de- 
fend him."* 

This  general  condemnation  of  Hume  has 
our  cordial  approbation,  and  previous  inves- 
tigation of  Irish  history  and  of  the  Reforma- 
tion compel  us  to  agree  with  the  following 
cutting  but  good-humoured  casligation  of 
Hume's  perversions  in  a  particular  instance. 
A  charge  against  an  historian's  accuracy 
should  always  be  accompanied  with  a  speci- 
fication.    Comparing  Hume's  account  of  the 

•  N.  Am.  Review  ;  No.  64,  July,  1829.     See  also  No. 
61,  for  October,  1828. 


TO    THE    THIRD    DIVISION 


381 


reigns  of  Mary  and  of  Elizabeth,  the  same 
high  authority  judiciously  remarks  : — 

"  The  first  inquisition  established  in  Eng- 
land was  the  Court  of  High  Commission, 
which  took  its  rise  in  an  act  of  the  first  year 
of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  A  more  odious 
and  oppressive  tribunal  never  existed  in  any 
country.  The  fury  of  Mary's  resentment 
fell  upon  those  who  had  distinguished  them- 
selves in  favour  of  the  new  religion.  Her 
sister  persecuted  both  Catholics  and  Prot- 
estants. She  was  a  Catholic  in  ail  points 
except  the  acknowledgment  of  the  pope's  su- 
premacy. She  had  mass  in  her  private 
chapel,  and  ordered  her  bishops  to  expel  all 
ministers  who  differed  ever  so  little  from  the 
discipline  of  '  the  church  by  law  established.' 
The  treatment  of  the  Catholics  was  still  more 
iniquitous  than  that  of  the  Puritans.  Cam- 
den and  Hume,  with  other  writers  of  the  i 
same  stamp,  would  have  it  believed  that  no 
one  suflfered  death  for  his  religious  sentiments 
under  Elizabeth.  What  will  be  the  indig- 
nation of  the  student  when  he  learns  that  this 
is  a  miserable  prevarication !  No  one  was 
put  to  death  expressly  for  professing  the 
Catholic  religion  ;  but,  by  an  act  of  parlia- 
ment, the  professing  of  that  religion  under 
certain  circumstances  was  declared  to  be 
*  treason,'  and  for  this  species  of  treason  many 
suffered ;  some  writers  make  them  amount 
to  two  hundred.  Now,  that  the  good  Prot- 
estants of  those  days  should  have  thought  it 
treason  to  be  a  Jesuit,  as  honest  Dogberry  in 
his  zeal  ruled  it  to  be  '  flat  perjury'  to  call 
Prince  John  a  villain,  is  one  of  those  ex- 
travagances which  party  spirit  is  constantly 
committing.  As  to  the  man,  who,  two  hun- 
dred years  afterwards,  under  pretence  of  wri- 
ting an  impartial  history,  leaves  such  a  fact 
unexplained,  it  may  certainly  be  said  that  his 
statements  should  be  received  with  the  utmost 
caution." 

We  sincerely  thank  our  venerable  "  North 
American"  adviser  for  teaching  us  calmness 
on  this  occasion,  for  we  are  of  opinion  that 
Hume's  writings  deserve  the  severest  con- 
demnation of  historical  detection  and  expo- 
sure. But,  with  all  Hume's  faults,  it  is  no 
more  than  strict  justice  to  observe  that  the 


really  vindictive  and  systematic  falsifiers  of 
history  are  the  "  respectable,"  Bible-and- 
crown  worshipping  fraternity  of  solemnity- 
mongers  ;  the  selfish,  grovelling,  and  unscru- 
pulous upstarts,  who  drink  port  and  write 
"  history"  with  equal  facility ;  deluging  the 
fair  fields  of  literature  with  the  stale  and 
second-hand  scandal  which  owes  its  origin  to 
the  base  purposes  of  party  and  the  prayerful 
piracy  of  ecclesiastical  robbery. 

It  is  these  worthies,  generally  possessing 
talents  of  a  high  order,  and  surrounded  wilii 
all  the  appliances  of  learning  and  greatness, 
originally  founded  by  those  whom  they  have 
robbed ; — it  is  these  men  (having  every  op- 
portunity for  knowing  and  acting  better)  who 
are  the  real  persecutors  of  truth,  because 
they  are  really  interested  in  the  success  and 
duration  of  falsehood.  These  are  the  "  re- 
spectable" wretches  who  are  always  willing 
to  prostitute  their  talents  for  any  thing  over 
"  three  hundred  pounds  a-year,"  so  that  they 
may  ride  rough-shod  over  the  more  learned 
and  more  faithful  of  the  humble  curates ; 
always  ready  to  write  "  history"  which  is  as 
much  like  the  truth  as  the  royal  arms  are 
like  the  all-conquering  symbol  of  universal 
redemption ;  to  send  "  spirited"  articles  to 
the  reviews,  and  "  rich"  ones  to  the  maga- 
zines ;  to  prate  in  the  pulpit  about  "  eccle- 
siastical tyranny"  while  taking  (by  laws  of 
their  own  making  and  enforcing)  the  last 
shilling  from  the  poor  cottager  or  his  still 
poorer  widow ;  to  follow  the  expatriated  la- 
bouring emigrant  with  incessant  ridicule  and 
prejudice  wherever  he  may  travel  in  search 
of  true  Uberty ;  to  crack  worn-out  college 
jokes  on  the  honest  labours  of  every  sincere 
advocate  for  the  cause  of  universal  benevo- 
lence ;  to  encourage  disparaging  writers  on 
the  "  domestic  manners"  of  every  nation 
which  Bible-and-crown  selfishness  may  not 
choose  to  understand  ;  to  gull  the  Avorld  with 
the  idea  that  no  revolution  was  ever  justifia- 
ble except  that  of  1688;  and  to  pretend 
"virtuous  indignation"  at  the  fictitious  use 
of  a  national  flag  under  any  circumstances,-^ 
while  all  the  world  knows  that  the  Prince  of 
Orange's  fleet  arrived  in  England  having  the 
English  national  colours  hoisted,  without  the 


383 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


least  warrant  or  authority  from  either  the 
actual  government  or  the  real  people.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  writers  we  speak  of  can  come 
down  from  their  pulpits,  after  preaching 
peace,  and  just  as  appropriately  play  the 
patriot  with  the  pen  obtained  by  plunder  and 
piratical  pretence,  deliberately  dealing  out 
death  and  destruction  (as  much  as  English 
church-and-state  power  can)  to  those  who 
dare  to  defy  them  at  sea,  and  slandering  with 
literary  spleen  all  the  faithful  writers  who 
calmly  expose  them  on  shore. 

The  tyrannical  trash  that  is  forced  upon 
the  world  as  English  literature  has  done 
much  to  spread  prejudice  and  create  divisions 
among  the  friends  of  freedom.  But,  happily, 
in  the  United  States,  the  argumentative  Smd 
practical  spirit  of  the  people  cannot  long  be 
misled  or  deceived  by  merely  literary  talent : 
their  accurate  sense  of  justice  soon  recovers 
its  correct  balance.  Peter  Parley  (S.  G. 
Goodrich)  gave  the  following  Yankee  "  cau- 
tion" about  six  years  since,  being  one  among 
the  many  American  writers  who  have  boldly 
volunteered  to  stem  the  torrent  of  universal 
misrepresentation  issued  from  the  "univer- 
sity" presses  and  their  assistants  in  England. 
Hear  the  voice  of  Peter,  from  the  Athens  of 
the  west : — 

**  Let  us  by  no  means  join  in  the  popular 
outcry  against  foreigners  coming  to  our  coun- 
try and  partaking  of  its  privileges.  They 
will  come,  whether  we  will  or  no ;  and  is  it 
wise  to  meet  them  with  inhospitality,  and 
thus  turn  their  hearts  against  us  ?  Let  us 
rather  receive  them  as  friends,  and  give  them 
welcome  to  our  country.  Let  us,  at  least, 
extend  the  hand  of  encouragement  and  sym- 
pathy to  the  Irish.  Their  history,  for  cen- 
turies, is  but  a  record  of  sorrow  and  oppres- 
sions. They  have  been  made  to  feel,  not 
only  iiow  cruel,  but  how  universal  are  the 
miseries  which  follow  a  bad  government; 
and,  even  when  leaving  their  native  soil,  they 
are  obliged  to  carry  with  them  the  bitter 
memory  of  their  country's  wrongs.  A  peo- 
ple of  quick  and  ardent  sympathies,  of  a  poet- 
ical and  romantic  love  of  country,  they  are, 
in  exile,  ever  looking  back  to  the  Emerald 
Isle  with  mingled  sorrow  and  sickness  of 


heart.  How  heavy  is  the  burden  which  such 
bosoms  must  bear,  as  they  wander  over  dis- 
tant lands  in  the  bitter  consciousness  that 
their  country  is  the  desponding  victim  of 
oppression !  Shall  not  those  who  come  to 
our  shores  afflicted  with  such  sorrows,  find 
in  the  friends  and  sharers  of  freedom  both 
welcome  and  release  ?  Let  us  beware  of 
adding  to  their  wrongs.  Let  us  remember 
that  there  is  other  tyranny  than  that  of  chains 
and  fetters, — the  invisible  but  cruel  tyranny 
of  oppression  and  prejudice.  Let  us  beware 
how  we  exercise  this  towards  the  Irish ;  for 
it  is  wicked  in  itself,  and  doubly  mischievous 
in  its  tendency.  It  injures  both  its  subject 
and  its  object,  and  brings  no  counterbalancing 
good. 

"  Let  us  especially  be  guarded  against  two 
sources  of  prejudice,  to  which  we  are  par- 
ticularly liable.  In  the  fvLA  place,  in  our 
personal  experience,  we  are  famihar  with  the 
most  ignorant  and  unfortunate  of  the  Irish 
nation.  We  see,  in  servile  employments, 
those  who  have  been  exposed  to  all  the  de- 
basing influences  that  degrade  mankind.  Is 
it  fair  to  draw  from  these  a  standard  by  which 
to  judge  of  the  whole  people  ?  Let  us  rather 
ask  ourselves,  where  is  there  another  nation 
who  have  been  so  long  trampled  down  by 
oppression  ;  who  have  been  bom  in  poverty 
and  nursed  in  adversity  ;  who  have  inherited 
little  from  the  past  but  sorrow,  and  can  be- 
queath nothing  to  the  future  but  hope ; — 
where  is  there  a  people  so  wronged,  that 
have  yet  preserved  so  many  virtues  ?  How 
gallantly,  indeed,  do  Irish  wit,  and  cheerful- 
ness, and  hospitality,  and  patriotism,  ride  on 
the  wreck  of  individual  hopes,  and  sparkle 
through  the  waves  of  adversity  ! 

"  Let  us  beware  of  prejudice  from  another 
source.     We  read  English  books,  papers 

AND  PAMPHLETS,  PORTRAYING  THE  IrISH  AS 
AN  UNTAMEABLE  RACE,  ONLY  TO  BE  RULED 
BY  THE  HARSH  INFLICTIONS  OF  POWER.       Let 

US,  Americans,  see  that  our  minds  are  not 
driven  from  the  moorings  of  justice  by  this 
sinister  current  in  which  they  are  placed. 
Influenced  by  such  considerations  as  these, 
let  us,  by  all  fair  means,  bring  about  a  good 
understanding  between  the  Irish  emigrants 


TO    THE    THIRD    DIVISION. 


383 


and  society.  Let  us  deal  gently  with  them, 
even  with  their  errors.  Thus  we  shall  win 
their  confidence.  Thus  they  may  be  per- 
suaded to  take  counsel  of  the  good  and  the 
wise,  and  not  throw  themselves  into  the  arms 
of  those  who  flatter  their  vices,  and  minister 
to  their  passions,  only  to  use  and  abuse  them. 

"  Let  this  reasonable  and  just  policy  mark 
our  conduct  towards  the  grown-up  Irish 
among  us ;  and,  in  regard  to  their  children, 
let  us,  individually  and  collectively,  use  our 
best  endeavours  to  bestow  upon  them  the 
benefits  of  education.  But  let  us  remember, 
that  even  an  attempt  to  educate  the  Irish  will 
fail  if  it  be  not  founded  in  a  recognition  of  the 
elements  of  their  national  character — quick 
perception,  a  keen  sense  of  justice,  and  ready 
resentment  of  wrong.  If  over  these,  preju- 
dice, suspicion  and  pride,  have  thrown  their 
shadows,  let  us  adapt  the  instruction  we 
would  offer  to  the  light  they  can  bear.  In 
this  way,  a  numerous  people  may  be  re- 
deemed from  misery  to  happiness,  and  ren- 
dered a  blessing  to  our  country.  Let  us  thus 
deal  with  those  Irish  who  have  left  their  na- 
tive home  to  find  a  dwelhng  among  us  ;  and, 
in  regard  to  the  millions  that  remain  in  *  the 
green  and  weeping  island,'  let  us  hope  for  the 
speedy  dawn  of  a  brighter  and  better  day. 
A  youthful  queen  now  sways  the  sceptre  of 
Britain ;  and  what  may  not  humanity  hope 
from  the  generosity  of  youth  and  the  heavenly 
charity  of  woman  ?" 

This  advice,  given  in  the  most  persuasive 
modification  of  the  imperative  mood,  and 
breathing  the  real  sentiments  of  American 
patriotism,  deserves  especial  attention,  for 
the  friends  of  liberty  should  always  sympa- 
thize, whatever  may  be  their  country  or  creed : 
the  abusers  of  power  are  intuitively  united 
by  the  magic  force  of  their  peculiar  interests. 
With  sincere  respect,  however,  for  Mr.  Good- 
rich's kind  intentions,  we  beg  leave  to  differ 
in  the  benevolent  allusion  to  Queen  Victoria 
with  which  he  refers  to  the  future.  It  is  not 
possible  for  any  individual  to  exceed  our  faith 
in  the  "  heavenly  charity  of  woman."  His- 
tory tells  us  that  the  purest  and  most  invinci- 
ble patriots  were  those  whom  Heaven  had 
blessed  with  the  companionship  and  cheering 


voice  of  noble-minded  women.  But  as  re- 
gards the  pubhc  conduct  of  the  present  Queen 
of  England,  we  have  no  faith  at  all  in  any 
**  heavenly  charity"  from  that  quarter.  In- 
deed, the  expectation  would  be  unreasonable 
and  somewhat  unfair  in  a  personal  sense,  al- 
though complimentary  as  a  general  supposi- 
tion ;  for  her  majesty,  on  taking  the  throne, 
has  her  social  position  defined  with  more 
strictness  than  that  of  any  of  her  subjects ; 
with  this  additional  difference,  that  they  may 
ascend,  while  the  sovereign  can  only  descend, 
in  case  of  social  change.  The  horrible  in- 
cubus of  tyranny  which  domineers  over  the 
sovereign  as  well  as  the  people  of  glorious 
Old  England  is  equally  terrifying  and  inju- 
rious to  both. 

Historians,  like  poets,  are  privileged  occu- 
piers and  possessors  of  the  bosom  of  beauty, 
while  the  chit-chat  and  nonsense  of  the  day 
may  be  considered  good  enough  for  the  com- 
ers and  goers  of  the  boudoir.  But  the  les- 
sons of  history,  (English,  for  instance,)  which 
generally  contain  something  interesting  to  all 
hearts,  convey  a  terrible  and  a  dreadful  im- 
portance of  meaning  to  the  amiable  and  ex- 
cellent creature  of  God  now  ruling  on  the 
throne  of  England.  Such  is  the  paradoxical 
nature  of  the  tyranny  we  have  endeavoured 
to  explain  in  these  pages,  that  no  individual 
in  the  whole  British  dominions  is  better  quali- 
fied to  plead  "  Impotentia  excusat  legem" 
than  the  present  highly  gifted  and  accom- 
plished possessor  of  the  title  of  "  queen." 

This  tyranny  cannot  be  traced  to  any  one 
person,  or  family,  or  class.  It  is  a  system 
founded  upon  the  delusion  and  partial  ex- 
tinction of  conscience,  effected  originally  by 
wholesale  plunder  and  now  perpetuated  by 
wholesale  slander.  Those  who  are  tempo- 
rarily benefited  have  reason  to  be  anxious  for 
putting  forward  royalty  as  the  object  of  ven- 
geance in  case  of  popular  discontent.  It 
need  not  be  considered  at  all  surprising,  then, 
if  the  intense  feelings  of  family  preservation 
(which  form  the  most  admirable  portion  of 
the  female  character)  should  influence  Queen 
Victoria  to  observe  that  of  all  the  false  social 
positions  in  Great  Britain  her  own  is  the  most 
dangerous.     The  study  of  history  is  some- 


384 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


thing  more  weighty  than  intellectual  diversion 
to  a  royal  reader.  If  the  Georges, — when 
popular  and  powerful,  when  the  chancellor 
of  the  exchequer  was  not  "  cornered"  by  the 
year  at  a  time,  when  the  cabinet  were  not 
harassed  by  the  daily  and  continual  clamour 
of  party  presses, — if  these  world-knowing 
sovereigns  did  not  dare  to  expose  the  mitred 
ruffians  and  brutal  blockheads  who  really 
rule  with  safety  and  profit, — how  can  we 
expect  a  confiding  and  domesticated  woman 
to  voluntarily  immolate  life  and  love  and 
loyalty  on  the  altar  of  patriotism,  especially 
while  uncertain  of  success  in  the  object  ? 

We  say  "  uncertain  of  success"  because 
the  English  people  are  in  a  similarly  equivo- 
cal position  before  the  world.  They  are  not 
only  misplaced  and  misrepresented  in  their 
government,  but  they  have  to  endure  all  the 
odium  of  that  very  evil.  The  robbers  of  the 
nation  are  aware  that  the  time  is  coming 
when  escape  is  impossible ;  they  are  there- 
fore extremely  anxious  to  prolong  their  own 
safety  by  instilling  hatred  and  dislike  among 
those  whom  they  rob  and  deceive.  Hence 
the  national  prejudices  which  "  respectable" 
literature  has  devoted  its  talents  to  encourage. 
The  actual  truth  is,  all  the  time,  that  the 
same  unseen  power  which  steals  an  Irish- 
man's land  according  to  legal  form,  also  sends 
an  Englishman's  children  supperless  to  bed 
according  to  the  latest  social  improvements. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  Englishman  is  un- 
consciously hated  because  his  government  is 
secretly  feared  for  its  ferocious  rapacity. 
Surely  the  historian,  endeavouring  to  un- 
ravel such  complicated  affairs  and  absorbing 
tyranny,  may  be  allowed  some  indulgence  of 
attention. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  these  discove- 
ries are  original ;  but  they  must  be  reiterated, 
because  "  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty." 
Daniel  O'Connell,  the  elected  champion  of 
his  country,  the  great  representative  of  mil- 
lions, the  possessor  of  one  of  the  most  mighty 
intellects  and  most  devotional  hearts  in  Eu- 
rope, has,  in  an  extremely  loyal  and  respect- 
ful manner,  explained  them  in  a  "  Memoir" 
inscribed  to  the  Queen  of  England.  The 
fact  that  her  majesty  has  made  no  public 


answer  is  a  conclusive  proof  that  Queen  Vic- 
toria deserves  sympathy  rather  than  blame. 
"  The  O'Connell"  is  not  a  man  to  be  treated 
with  contempt,  courteous  or  uncourteous ; 
and  the  proper  answer  to  his  "  Memoir"  will 
arrive  in  due  course  of  events.  At  least  the 
equal  of  her  majesty  in  princely  lineage,  a 
member  of  the  imperial  parliament,  the  tacit 
sovereign  of  a  gallant  and  loyally  devoted 
nation,  the  acknowledged  chief  of  one  of  the 
noblest  professions  which  protect  the  rights 
of  man,  and  speaking,  not  merely  super  sub- 
jectam  materiam,  but  for  himself  as  a  gen- 
tleman and  a  patriot, — it  is  clear  that  silence 
towards  such  a  champion  cannot  be  construed 
into  contempt.  In  the  preface  to  his  "  Me- 
moir," dated  at  Dublin,  he  says — 

"  What  the  sovereign  and  statesmen  of 
England  should  understand  is,  that  the  Irish 
people  feel  and  know,  that  there  cannot  hap- 
pen a  more  heavy  misfortune  to  Ireland  than 
the  prosperity  and  power  of  Great  Britain. 
When  Britain  is  powerful,  the  anti-Irish  fac- 
tion in  this  country  are  encouraged,  fostered, 
promoted ;  Irish  rights  are  derided ;  the 
grievances  of  Ireland  are  scoffed  at ;  we  are 
compelled  to  receive  stinted  franchises  or 
none  ;  limited  privileges,  or  none  ! — to  sub- 
mit to  a  political  inferiority,  rendered  doubly 
afflictive  by  the  contrast  with  the  advantages 
enjoyed  by  the  people  of  England  and  the 
people  of  Scotland.  The  tory  landlord  class, 
exterminators  and  all,  are  prime  favourites  at 
the  Castle,  countenanced  and  sustained  as 
the  nucleus  of  that  anti-Irish  faction  which 
would  once  again  transplant  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland  to  the  remotest  regions,  if  that  faction 
had  the  power  to  do  so  ;  and  which  actually 
drives  those  Cathohcs  to  transport  themselves 
in  multitudes  to  every  country  out  of  Ireland. 

"  The  worst  result  of  British  prosperity  is, 
the  protection  it  gives  to  the  hard-hearted  and 
bigoted  class  among  the  Irish  landlords. 

"  It  is  also  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
the  sovereign  and  statesmen  of  England 
should  be  apprized  that  the  people  of  Ire- 
land know  and  feel  that  they  have  a  deep 
and  vital  interest  in  the  weakness  and  ad- 
versity of  England.  It  was  not  for  them- 
selves alone  that  the  Americans  gained  the 


TO    THE    THIRD    DIVISION 


385 


victory  over  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga.  They 
conquered  for  Irish  as  well  as  for  American 
freedom.  Nor  was  it  for  France  alone  that 
Dumourier  defeated  the  Austrian  army  at 
Gemappe,  The  Catholics  of  Ireland  par-" 
licipated  in  the  fruits  of  that  victory. 

"  At  the  present  day  it  would  be  vain  to 
attempt  to  conceal  the  satisfaction  the  people 
of  Ireland  feel  at  the  fiscal  embarrassments  of 
England.  They  bitterly  and  cordially  regret 
the  sufferings  and  privations  of  the  English 
and  Scottish  artisans  and  operatives.  But 
they  do  not  regret  the  weakness  of  the  Eng- 
lish government,  which  results  from  fading 
commerce  and  failing  manufacture.  For  the 
woes  of  each  suffering  individual  they  have 
warm  compassion  and  lively  sympathy.  From 
the  consequent  weakness  of  the  government 
party,  they  derive  no  other  feelings  than  those 

of  SATISFACTION  and  of  HOPE," 

This  singular  state  of  affairs  is  evidently 
well  understood  by  the  writer  of  the  preceding 
language.  It  is  from  a  man  who  has  devoted 
his  life  to  the  attainment  of  a  national  object, 
but  who  invariably  regards  the  rights  of  all 
men  with  the  magnanimous  solicitude  of  a 
Washington.  For  this  very  reason,  the  "  re- 
spectable" literature  of  his  time  is  employed 
to  forestall  his  influence  by  misrepresentation 
and  abuse,  circulated  with  all  the  foolish 
facility  of  national  and  social  prejudices.  As 
for  the  English  people,  it  is  time  that  they 
should  declare  their  knowledge  of  the  true 
interests  of  their  country,  and  overhaul 
("  overhaul"  is  a  very  good  word.  Master 
Parson)  the  titled  traitors  who  have  made 
England's  ruin  desirable  to  both  friends  and 
enemies.  At  present,  the  power  and  preju- 
dice wielded  by  the  Bible-burglars  of  the 
British  government  "follow  the  sun"  with 
such  romantic  veracity  that  we  suppose  it 
will  be  necessary  to  support  O'Connell's 
statements  with  an  endorsement  by  an  Ameri^ 
can  citizen  of  undoubted  patriotism.  The 
rampant  robbers  of  the  rights  of  England,  and 
of  the  provincial  charters  of  her  sister-king- 
doms and  colonies,  have  represented  O'Con- 
nell  as  an  enemy  of  American  institutions ; 
not,  mind,  from  any  regard  towards  the 
American  people,  (for  history  shows  that  the 

49 


church-and- state  party  in  England  form  the 
only  portion  of  that  once  free  nation  which 
can  possibly  have  any  objection  to  the  glorious 
influence  of  American  example,)  but,  because 
it  is  important  for  the  safely  of  that  party 
that  they  should  prevent  a  good  understand- 
ing between  all  those  whom  they  have 
robbed,  deceived  or  enslaved,  politically  or 
socially,  at  home  or  abroad.  Experience 
shows  that  their  harvest  is  made  and  secured 
during  misdirected  political  revolutions  and 
unavailing  servile  insurrections. 

The  grand  secret  of  American  national 
superiority  is,  that  the  people  are  not  merely 
free  by  political  toleration,  but  slowly  and 
surely  and  safely  attaining  freedom  as  an 
individually  universal  principle.  During  the 
performance  of  this  sublime  attempt  to  restore 
and  confirm  the  rights  of  man,  we  need  no 
dictation  from  any  foreign  government.  The 
exuberant  eloquence  of  our  orators,  and  the 
agitations  of  our  organized  societies  are  tacitly 
and  merrily  excused,  because  the  main  ob- 
jects of  patriotism  and  truth  are  always  safe 
with  the  freedom  of  the  press  and  liberty  of 
discussion.  So  also  we  can  excuse  the 
"strong  expressions"  which  an  orator,  en 
deavouring  to  protect  Ireland  from  her  bitter 
persecutors,  might  have  occasion  to  use  while 
contending  against  the  bloated  and  unrelent- 
ing enemies  of  liberty.  It  is  a  sad  mistake 
to  assist  in  stabbing  with  slander  the  back  of 
a  patriot  who  is  so  engaged. 

The  persons  who  misrepresent  this  won- 
derful country  after  a  residence  in  it  are  those 
who  should  be  blamed.  The  United  States 
of  America,  composed  of  several  independ- 
ently governed  and  legislated  communities, 
extending  over  a  vast  surface  of  territorial 
possession,  comprising  several  parallels  of  • 
latitude,  with  as  much  variety  of  production 
as  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  containing  a 
population  which  geographical  and  commer- 
cial accidents  have  contributed  to  render  an 
epitome  of  the  natural  history  of  man, — the 
enfranchised  citizens  of  such  a  conglomerated 
repubUc  can  well  afford  to  permit  sectional 
discussion  while  they  know  that  they  are 
actually  possessing  the  priceless  jewel  of 
constitutional  liberty.    It  may  suit  the  jealous 


3S6 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


and  disappointed  imperiwn  in  imperio  of 
England,  whose  last  and  only  hope  is  in  the 
continued  prostitution  of  the  English  name, 
to  urge  the  introduction  and  agitation  of  sub- 
jects creating  discord  ;  but  all  such  attempts 
must  fail  while  the  American  people  remain 
true  to  themselves  and  to  the  catholic  spirit 
of  their  excellent  constitution.  Hence  the 
"  respectable"  anxiety  in  England  to  magnify 
every  presidential  election  into  a  revolution  ; 
the  solemn  and  senseless  blockheads  of  the 
oligarchy  being  unwilling  to  believe  that  amid 
all  the  violence  of  political  opposition,  or 
sectional  interests,  the  contending  parties  in 
America  are  always  equally  and  unchangeably 
unanimous  in  patriotism.  We  wish  we  could 
make  the  same  consoling  observation  upon 
Great  Britain  or  Ireland.  What  nation  in 
Europe,  Asia  or  Africa,  has  ever  successfully 
presumed  to  legislate  between  the  universal 
principle  of  necessity  and  tiie  particular  evils 
of  accidental  degradation  ?  What  commercial 
or  manufacturing  nation  of  Europe  dares  even 
to  mention  the  subject  of  social  servitude  in 
its  hojfie  legislation  ? 

Happy  in  truth  and  in  fact  is  that  glorious 
and  truly  civilized  nation  which  strives  to 
attain  all  that  is  good  of  ancient  institutions 
and  gradually  to  conquer  the  inoculated  re- 
mains of  whatever  is  bad !  With  political 
freedom  and  religious  liberty,  social  servitude 
and  social  elegance  are  subjects  which  local 
opinions  will  regulate  while  progressing  to- 
wards correct  principles.  Where  argumen- 
tative antagonism  has  full  liberty,  political 
and  social  truth  must  advance.  Notwith- 
standing all  the  slander  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, the  fact  cannot  be  denied  that  Amer- 
ica is — in  the  words  of  a  British  writer  whose 
name  is  familiar  in  England — "  America  is 
the  paradise  of  poor  men."  A  more  sub- 
lime or  more  justifiable  compliment  was 
never  paid  to  any  nation  since  the  beginning 
of  the  world. 

Of  course  the  legislative  metropolis  of  the 
United  States  exhibits  the  sturdy  technicality 
of  the  northern  influence,  and  the  patriarchal 
generosity  of  the  southern ;  the  commercial 
and  showy  spirit  of  the  eastern  shores,  and 
the  consolidated  stability  of  the  agricultural 


resources  of  the  great  and  mighty  west. 
Some  of  our  most  amiable  and  sincere  citi- 
zens may  honestly  and  warmly  differ  in  their 
views  of  future  action  ;  but  the  day  has  never 
yet  been  seen  when  any  portion  of  this  hap- 
pily governed  nation  became  so  oppressed 
with  cruel  and  intolerable  evils  as  to  derive 
"  satisfaction"  and  "  hope"  from  the  "  weak- 
ness" or  "  adversity"  of  any  other  portion. 
Such  a  day  never  can  occur  to  a  country  in 
which  the  people  govern. 

O'Connell's  statement  was  to  have  an 
American  endorser,  but  it  is  unfortunately 
so  little  required  that  we  nearly  forgot  our 
promise.  For  the  satisfaction  of  the  incred- 
ulous, however,  we  beg  leave  to  enhst  the 
testimony  of  a  tried  and  unflinching  Ameri- 
can patriot — W.  H.  Seward.     He  says — 

"  The  Irish  people  allege  that  the  sway 
of  Elizabeth,  recalled  by  Englishmen  as  one 
of  triumph,  repose  and  general  happiness — 
of  James — of  Charles,  whom  loyal  subjects 
call  the  Martyr — of  Cromwell,  variously  re- 
garded as  a  deliverer  and  a  regicide — of  the 
Second  James — of  W^illiam  and  Mary,  dis- 
tinguished as  of  *  blessed  and  immortal  mem- 
ory'— of  Anne — of  all  the  Georges — and  even 
of  the  present  youthful  and  virtuous  queen, 
however  benign  towards  other  portions  of 
the  empire — has,  in  regard  to  Ireland,  been 
marked  with  all  the  acts  that  define  relentless 
tyranny.  The  people  of  that  unhappy  coun- 
try submit  facts  to  justify  these  high  accusa- 
tions before  the  *  candid  world.' 

"  I  dwell  not  now  on  the  rapine  of  the  ar- 
mies of  Ehzabcth,  distinguished  by  the  re- 
fined inhumanity  of  destroying,  year  after 
year,  the  growing  corn  in  the  fields,  so  as  to 
depopulate  the  country  by  starvation — nor  of 
the  outlawry  of  the  whole  people,  so  that 
Irish  men  and  Irish  women,  described  in  the 
royal  proclamations  as  '  Irish  enemies,'  might 
lawfully  be  murdered  by  whomsoever  the 
unhappy  fugitives  might  chance  to  meet  by 
the  wayside ;  nor  of  the  confiscation  of  a 
fourth  of  the  island,  and  the  expulsion  of  the 
inhabitants  by  the  sword  aud  the  terrors  of 
the  scaffold,  under  the  First  James ;  nor  of 
the  perjured  verdicts  and  bribery-procured 
judgments  under  Charles  the  First ;  nor  of 


TO    THE    THIRD    DIVISION. 


387 


the  fierce  and  barbarous  civil  war  in  which 
Ireland  was  punished  by  Cromwell  with  the 


i  fundannentally  the  powers  of  their  provincial 
j  governments.     The  act  of  Union,  abolishing 


deportation  of  eighty  thousand  persons  for  ||  the  Irish  parliament  and  conferring  on  the 
loyalty  to  the  throne  that  England  herself  re-  ;j  legislature  of  the  United  Kingdom  exclusive 
stored  after  a  brief  interregnum  ;  nor  of  the  !  power  to  legislate  for  Ireland — what  was  this 
spoliations  committed  by  the  Second  James  j  but  taking  away  the  charier  of  Ireland,  alter- 
upon  the  faithful  defenders  of  his  imbecile  it  ing  fundamentally  its  form  of  government,  and 
dynasty  in  Ireland ;  nor  of  the  Treaty  of  |l  abrogating  the  British  constitution  as  to  that 
Limerick,  that  guarantied  to  the  Irish  people  j|  part  of  the  empire  ?  And  what  was  granted 
the  free  and  unfettered  exercise  of  their  reli-  I  to  Ireland  in  lieu  of  the  power  of  self-legis- 
gion,  perfidiously  violated  by  enactments  i  lation  ?  Representation  in  a  legislature  whose 
which  forbade  the  Catholic  to  charge  his  land  ;i  sessions  are  confined  to  the  metropolis  of  the 
with  provisions  for  the  support  of  his  wife  or  :j  conquering  stale.  And  what  representation  ? 
of  his  daughters,  or  even  to  dispose  of  his  'I  Eight  millions  of  people  represented  in  both 
land  by  last  will  and  testament — which  de-  i|  houses  of  parliament  by  one  hundred  and 
nied  hini  the  guardianship  and  education  of  i  thirty-seven  members,  while  the  remaining 
his  children — which  solicited  the  son  to  mer-  ■;  sixteen  millions  within  the  United  Kingdom 
cenary  and  corrupt  confession  of  the  Prot-  !|  have  one  thousand  and  sixty-one  representa- 
estant  faith,  by  offering  him  the  estate  of  his  jj  lives.  The  church  of  England,  supported  by 
living  father ;  which  transferred  to  the  first  i  the  public  treasury  and  by  compulsory  tithes, 
Protestant  who  might  meet  the  retiring  pur-  ij  and  its  hierarchy  installed  as  an  estate  spirit- 
chaser,  chattels,  and  even  lands  bought  by  a  ual  in  the  senate  ;  while  the  church  of  Ire- 
Catholic  with  his  own  treasure — which,  for  I  land,  (that  is  to  say,  the  church  of  three- 
ihe  consideration  of  one  shilling,  authorized  j  fourths  of  its  inhabitants,  coeval  with  the  in- 
any  Protestant  to  deprive  a  Catholic  of  any  troduclion  of  Christianity,)  is  proscribed,  op- 
estate  acquired  by  devise  or  gift — which  sup-  pressed  and  despoiled.  The  aristocracy,  or 
pressed  schools  by  confiscating  the  estate  of   j  landed  interest  of  England,  being  represented 


the  pupil,  and  banished  the  schoolmaster  on 
pain  of  death ;  which  disabled  the  Catholic 
for  all  trusts,  civil,  military  and  ecclesiastic, 
even  for  voting  for  his  own  representatives  ; 


in  the  house  of  lords  by  three  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  peers,  while  the  nobility  of  Ire- 
land, having  equal  claim  to  veneration,  (if 
veneration  be  at  all  due  to  any  aristocracy,) 


for  bearing  arms  as  a  citizen  soldier  in  de-  <  are  represenl<^  by  twenty-eight  barons.  The 
fence  of  his  country,  and  for  offering  public  :  commoners,  the  merchants,  farmers  and  arti- 
prayers  and  sacrifices.  I  speak  not  of  these  sans  of  England,  Scotland  and  Wales,  hav- 
enormous  and  atrocious  wrongs,  the  incidents  ing  five  hundred  and  fifty-three  representa- 
and  consequences  of  sectarian  wars  in  an  age  tives,  with  the  right  of  suffrage  vested  in  one 
when  '  Christianity'  so  far  forgot  the  precepts  j  of  every  twenty-five  persons,  while  the  same 
of  her  divine  Author,  as  to  drive  charity  from  I  classes  in  Ireland  are  limited  to  representa- 
her  side  and  surround  herself  with  ministers  !  tion  by  one  hundred  and  five  delegates,  and 

suffrage  is  exercised  by  only  one  of  four  hun- 
dred of  the  people, 

"  Where  fundamental  laws  are  so  radically 
unequal  and  unjust,  we  Americans  have  no 
need  to  inquire  after  their  operation.  We  at 
least  know  that  there  must  be  misrule,  op- 
pression and  suffering,  where  there  are  ine- 
quality and  unrestrained  power.  And  so  it 
has  happened  in  Ireland." 

This  lucid  statement  was  made  at  Albany 
in  January,  1844,  being  within  one  year  from 


OF  DESOLATION.  Tlicsc  wrongs  have  lately 
ceased,  though  their  impress  is  still  left  on 
the  social  condition  of  Ireland,  and  their 
memory  is  still  written  in  the  mutual  preju- 
dices of  the  Celtic  and  Saxon  races.  I  speak 
of  Ireland  as  she  is,  and  of  her  existing 
wrongs. 

"  It  is  record(iifl  among  the  grievances  suf- 
fered by  our  forefathers,  that  the  King  of 
England  had  taken  away  their  charters,  abol- 
ished their  most  valuable  lav^s,  and  altered 


388 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


the  publication  of  O'Connell's  "  Memoir." 
The  "  foul  fiend"  of  party  may,  perhaps,  as- 
cribe political  motive  to  W.  H.  Seward. 
This  insinuation  shall  be  refuted  on  its  own 
terms,  as  the  following  confirmation  by  an- 
other of  America's  noblest  sons  will  prove. 
It  is  one  of  many  voluntary  offerings  to 
the  cause  of  freedom  by  Martin  Van  Bu- 
ren : — 

"  Respect  for  the  Irish  character ;  sympa- 
thy for  the  oppressions  they  have  endured ; 
and  admiration  of  the  heroic,  uncalculating 
and  uncompromising  devotion  to  popular 
rights  which  they  have  displayed,  both  at 
home  and  in  every  country  that  has  adopted 
them,  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstan- 
ces— are  feelings  which  I  have  cherished 
without  interruption,  through  a  public  life 
already  greatly  protracted — which  I  have 
through  a  series  of  years  embraced  all  proper 
occasions  to  express  ;  and  which,  as  they 
have  grown  with  my  growth  and  strength- 
ened with  my  strength,  will,  I  feel  very  con- 
fident, continue  to  my  last  day.     *     *     •     * 

"  Nine  millions  of  human  beings,  oppressed 
for  centuries,  and  with  every  incentive  to  vio- 
lence that  can  influence  the  breast  of  man, 
'  conquering  their  own  appetites  and  passions, 
practising  temperance  in  their  social  habits, 
and  preserving  peace  towards  their  rulers 
and  among  themselves,'  in  the  midst  of  a 
mighty  effort  to  redress  their  wrongs,  pre- 
sents a  moral  spectacle  of  unsurpassed  sub- 
limity. Instances  of  virtuous  patriotism  thus 
far  so  nobly  sustained,  are  but  seldom  to  be 
found  in  the  history  of  -mankind,  and  cannot, 
in  the  nature  of  things,  fail  to  command  the 
respect,  the  sympathies,  and  the  best  wishes 
of  all  generous  minds." 

It  may  be  urged  that  these  are  only  partial 
expressions,  written  by  one  "  agitator"  in  fa- 
vour of  another.  What  a  convenient  world 
this  would  be  if  the  agitators  would  only  be 
quiet !  But,  here  follows  the  testimony  of  a 
lord,  a  "  real  lord,"  enclosing  a  subscription 
of  fifty  pounds,  to  assist  O'Connell  in  the  agi- 
tation of  Ireland  and  the  world.  Joseph 
Hume  was  temporarily  the  secretary  of  the 
association  for  which  the  money  was  intend- 
ed : — 


"June  26,  1836. 

"  Sir, — It  is  with  much  pleasure  that  I  re- 
ply to  your  circular  of  the  22d  inst.  by  for- 
warding a  subscription,  very  inadequate  to 
my  wishes,  but  which  I  trust  will  be  consid- 
ered as  a  mark  of  respect  and  gratitude  for 
the  man  from  whose  extraordinary  talents, 
energies,  and  perseverance,  we  have  received 
such  signal  advantages,  having  been,  without 
any  doubt,  the  principal  means  in  the  hands 
of  Providence  for  rescuing  us  from  the  state 
of  social  and  political  degradation  to  which 
we  have  so  long  been  reduced.  I  have  the 
honour  to  be.  Sir,  Your  most  obedient  ser- 
vant, Shrewsbury, 

"  Waterford  and  Wexford. 

"  To  Joseph  Hume,  Esq.,  M.  P." 

This  may  possibly  be  objected  to  on  the 
ground  of  the  religious  belief  of  the  Earl  of 
Shrewsbury.  The  Talbots  have  heard  such 
objections  in  their  ancient  reckoning,  and  can 
charitably  excuse  such  mistaken  cavils  from 
the  pretended  professors  of  religious  liberty. 
Here,  however,  is  the  evidence  of  a  noble- 
man who  is  acknowledged  as  "  a  man  of  the 
people,"  writing  to  O'Connell  himself: — 
"  Association  Corn  Exchange,  Dublin. 

"  Sir, — I  have  just  read  in  the  Morning 
Chronicle  your  address  to  the  people  of  Ire- 
land. It  was  what  I  fully  expected,  and  I 
rejoice  that  I  have  not  been  disappointed. 
Believing  that  some  such  measure  as  that 
which  you  propose,  can  alone  save  Ireland 
from  confusion,  and  possibly  civil  war,  I  en- 
close you  a  small  contribution  to  the  *  rent 
of  Ireland,'  in  aid  of  your  proposed  *  General 
Association.'  Permit  me  to  add,  that  if  you 
accomplish  your  object,  as  I  hope  and  believe 
you  will,  you  will,  in  my  opinion,  add  to  your 
claims  to  the  admiration  of  your  countrymen, 
and  of  the  lovers  of  freedom,  a  claim  to  the 
eternal  gratitude  of  all  who  love  peace,  and 
dread  above  all  things,  a  civil  and  religious 
War.  You  are,  of  course,  welcome  to  make 
what  use  you  please  of  this  letter ;  but  I  con- 
fess I  am  anxious  that,  in  Ireland,  at  least,  it 
should  be  publicly  known,  that  Englishmen 
(I  believe  I  may  safely  say  the  great  majority 
of  the  PEOPLE  of  England)  sympathize  with 
the  Irish  in  their  wrongs  and  sufferings,  and 


TO    THE    THIRD    DIVISION. 


389 


are  desirous  to  assist  them  in  every  legal  and 
peaceable  mode  of  obtaining  redress.  I  am, 
Sir,  your  most  obedient,  humble  servant, 

"  Radnor. 

"  Daniel  O'Connell,  Esq.,  M.  P." 

As  a  last  resort,  perhaps  some  profound 
toad-eater  may  suggest  that  Queen  Victoria 
has  never  seen  the  "  Memoir"  which  O'Con- 
nell issued  in  1843.  We  can  assure  the 
sagacious  possessor  of  court  secrets  that 
much  as  he  may  think  he  knows,  he  cannot 
imagine  the  books  which  the  royal  family 
will  read  during  a  residence  in  London,  not- 
withstanding bolts,  bars,  and  etiquette.  Be- 
sides, Mr.  O'Connell  became  an  historian, 
and  historians  have  privileges  which  the  lord- 
chamberlain  may  not  hope  for  or  expect. 

But  we  cannot  here  waste  time  with  para- 
sites or  objectors.  Ireland  is  our  subject; 
and  governments,  nations  and  principles,  form 
the  illustrations.  Observing  her  history  from 
Henry  the  Second  to  the  present  time,  the 
questions  arise, — What  moral  or  political  les- 
sons do  we  learn  by  it  ?  and.  What  political 
or  moral  agency  does  history  authorize  to  be 
employed  for  the  future  ? 

Daniel  O'Connell  has  incontrovertibly  shown 
the  anomalous  position  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  under  a  government  which  is  useless 
for  all  purposes  but  one.  This  being  the 
case,  if  the  prey  were  released  from  the  wolf- 
ish plunderers,  they  would  soon  find  their 
proper  place  in  society.  The  English  peo* 
pie  will  doubtless  take  care  of  themselves 
when  they  fully  understand  the  subject ;  the 
Irish  have  had  plenty  of  schooling,  and  are 
noble  scholars :  we  therefore  feel  assured 
that  the  men  will  arise  who  are  fully  equal 
to  the  emergency. 

Considering  that  the  genius  of  Liberty 
now  has  a  home  and  a  flag,  it  is  time  for 
freemen  to  discontinue  the  fashion  of  com- 
plaining and  petitioning  to  a  government 
which  is  based  upon  robbery  and  perpetuated 
by  the  stiflings  of  conscience ;  and  we  do 
solemnly  believe  that  the  lady-writers  men- 
tioned in  pages  5  and  6  of  this  work  were 
correct,  after  all,  in  their  estimation  of  pa- 
triotic services.  O'Connell  says — "  Agitate 
— agitate — agitate  !"  not  because  he  dishkes 


quiet,  but  because  he  must  have  observed 
that  in  all  political  and  patriotic  movements 
the  three  main  principles  may  be  described 
as  action — action — action. 

Meetings  have  been  held,  patriotic  senti- 
ments have  been  expressed,  and  magnani- 
mous resolves  have  been  registered,  in  pro- 
vincial and  national  assemblages,  on  occasions 
when  eyes  of  light  and  forms  of  beauty  came 
to  grace  the  scene.  The  hearts  of  all  ordi- 
nary men  will  unconsciously  own  the  enno- 
bling and  charitable  influence  of  woman's 
presence ;  but  the  enemies  of  Ireland  are 
those  whose  selfish  and  irreclaimable  gross- 
ness  is  habitual,  whose  sole  study  is  national 
plunder,  and  whom — in  the  words  of  a  well- 
qualified  judge — "  no  experience  can  teach 
and  no  instruction  enlighten." 

Patience  and  patriotism  must  no  longer 
evaporate  in  the  ordinary  methods  of  com- 
plaint. According  to  the  mournful  compre- 
hensiveness of  William  Sampson's  lan- 
guage— 

"  Enough  of  eloquence  and  passion  has 
been  bestowed  upon  the  wrongs  of  Ire- 
land. Every  string  has  been  touched ;  every 
strain  has  been  sounded.  The  loftiest  efforts 
of  man's  highest  powers,  and  the  prevailing 
strains  of  woman's  eloquence — all  has  been 
exhausted,  from  the  whispers  and  murmurs 
of  subdued  misery,  to  the  loud-toned  denun- 
ciations of  honest  and  fearless  indignation. 
Of  these  the  world  is  full,  and  they  may  be 
repeated  even  to  satiety,  but  cannot  be  en- 
hanced." 

Who  can  tell  the  pangs  of  patriotic  anguish 
which  thrilled  the  frame  and  throbbed  the 
heart  of  the  noble  exile  when  writing  the 
preceding  lines,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  ten 
or  twelve  years  since  !  Their  substance  was 
true  then  ;  and  now — what  can  we  presume 
to  add  ? 

As  human  beings,  we  may  mourn  the 
mentally  mangled  misery  of  those  who  fall 
around  us  during  the  opposing  conflicts  with 
tyranny  ;  but,  as  civilized  men,  knowing  our 
rights  and  daring  to  maintain  them,  we  must 
act.  There  is  therefore  no  impropriety  at 
all  in  stating  that  the  ladies  (Queen  Victoria 
included)  look  to  us  for  action. 


.%0 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE 


The  lime  has  now  arrived  for  the  people 
of  Ireland  to  act  with  that  independence 
which  nationally  and  consciously  belongs  to 
them,  [n  advocating  this  opinion,  as  there  is 
a  possibilifij  of  otir  feelings  out-running  our 
judgment,  let  us  take  the  advice  of  a  sober 
and  well-tried  champion  of  liberty  and  pro- 
priety— the  "  North  American  Review  :" — 

"  The  wisest  statesmen  of  the  old  world 
confess  themselves  at  fault  on  this  moment- 
ous subject.  That  '  something  must  be  done 
with  Ireland,  or  far  Ireland'  is  now  more 
than  the  common-place  cant  of  a  dominant 
party  in  the  state,  ready  to  heap  some  new 
infliction  on  the  country,  or  of  a  hungry  op- 
position, willing  to  turn  her  bitter  sufferings 
to  political  account.  To  solve  the  perilous 
problem,  and  say  what  that  '  something'  is, 
we  shall  not,  as  we  have  already  intimated, 
attempt.  Neither  can  any  English  faction, 
tory,  whig,  or  radical,  now  dare  to  do  it. 
The  great  question  has  become  a  grand  ex- 
periment, and  it  has  fallen  into  proper  hands 
at  last.  Ireland  herself  must  work  it  out. 
Her  yet  unfulfilled  destiny,  as  a  portion  of 
European  civilization,  is  to  be  completed 
only  on  her  own  soil,  by  her  own  sons. 
England  has  never  had  the  virtue,  and  never 
probably  could  have  the  wisdom,  to  accom- 
plish it.  This  incapacity  is  not,  however,  a 
lot  pecuhar  to  England.  No  nation  has  ever 
yet  done  perfect  justice  to  another.  No 
spontaneous  spring  of  magnanimity  has  ever 
thrown  wide  the  portals  to  a  conquered  or 
imprisoned  people.  A  section  of  a  population 
may  be  joined  with  its  victors,  under  a  prom- 
ise of  equal  rights  and  a  semblance  of  amal- 
gamation, as  was  often  effected  by  ancient 
Rome.  A  class  may  be  emancipated  ;  a  part 
may  be  freed  from  local  restraints :  modern 
England  furnishes  examples.  But  no  whole- 
sale manumission  has  ever  taken  place  from 
nation  to  nation  ;  and  England  is  probably  the 
last  of  all  to  make  such  an  original  and  glori- 
ous bound  on  the  career  of  greatness. 

"  In  saying  this,  we  do  not  mean  to  put  a 
brand  on  the  brow  of  a  great  people,  or  fix  a 
stigma  of  tyranny  on  their  character.  We 
only  specify,  after  all,  a  peculiarity  of  race, 
when  we  say  that  England  has,  as  yet,  most 


broadly  developed  the  instinct  of  territorial 
ambition.  It  is  no  new  position  of  ours  ;  and 
the  Anglo-Saxon  blood  will  everywhere  rise 
up  to  admit  it,  with  a  glow  of  pride  rather 
than  a  blush  of  shame.  From  the  earliest 
of  her  wars  with  France  down  to  the  present 
time,  England  has  been  too  narrow  for  the 
English.  The  possession  of  Gascony, 
wrenched  from  her  after  a  fearful  struggle  ; 
the  invasion  of  Ireland,  where  she  has  from 
the  first  kept  firm  hold  ;  the  seizure  of  the 
American  continent  and  islands,  where  she 
still  has  a  footing,  slippery  it  is  true,  but  un- 
disputed ;  the  overrunning  of  India ;  the  ac- 
quisition of  Gibraltar,  of  the  Cape  of  (jrood 
Hope,  Malta,  the  Ionian  isles,  and  the  colo- 
nization of  Australia,  are  points  enough  on 
which  to  rest.  We  say  notliing  of  expedi- 
tions now  [1840]  on  foot  for  China,  with 
views  still  in  embryo,  nor  of  imputed  designs 
on  California.  The  brief  enumeration  al- 
ready made  sufficiently  establishes,  that  the 
pride  of  colonial  conquest  is  the  absorbing 
'  appetite,  which  grows  by  what  it  feeds  on,'  in 
the  English  mind  ;  a  passion  without  bounds  ; 
the  sustaining  excitement  of  the  most  won- 
derful nation  the  world  has  ever  seen.  *  *  * 
"  When  did  England  ever  concede  any 
great  boon,  of  herself,  and  in  good  time  J 
Let  her  domestic  history  answer  the  question. 
Let  American  independence  and  Catholic 
emancipation  stand  forth  in  relief,  as  evidence 
all-sufficient.  When  necessity /orces  a  great 
measure  from  British  power,  it  is  always 
yielded  greatly.  There  is  no  half-opening 
of  the  hitherto  closed  hand,  no  faltering,  no 
fear  of  misrepresentation,  no  care  for  the 
opinion  of  others,  no  doubt  of  her  own  judg- 
ment. The  peace  of  1783,  with  the  United 
States,  the  pacification  of  Europe,  in  1814, 
the  Catholic  Relief  Bill,  in  1829,  the  Reform 
Bill,  in  1830,  are  a  few  out  of  many  splendid 
monuments  of  national  power  and  of  the 
largest  political  sagacity.  Whenever  other 
nations  or  her  own  subjects  act,  for  their 
own  interest,  with  courage  and  industry, 
England  has  always  shown,  in  the  long  run, 
her  appreciation  of  those  two  main  qualities 
in  her  own  character.  Sympathy  with  them 
will  obtain  fully  what  justice  or  policy  may 


TO    THE    THIRD    DIVISION 


391 


fail  to  obtain  at  all.  England,  above  all  na- 
tions, knows  how  to  yield  with  dignity  and 
to  give  with  grandeur.  We  are  not  blind  to 
her  faults  ;  but  we  glory  in  her  virtues.  And 
we  are  sure,  that,  if  Ireland  can  put  forward 
and  sustain  her  just  and  rational  claims,  in  a 
spirit  worthy  of  British  admiration  and  esteem, 
those  claims  will,  sooner  or  later,  force  their 
concession  from  the  magnanimous  spirit 
which  is  enshrined  in  a  tabernacle  of  pride 
and  ambition.  But,  to  expect  that  Great 
Britain  will  lop  oif  the  right  arm  of  her  power, 
fling  away  the  best  weapon  of  her  armoury, 
and  lay  herself  open  to  the  assaults  of  an 
envious  world,  is  to  expect  a  suicidal  infatua- 
tion of  which  she  has  as  yet  shown  no  symp- 
toms. Ireland  must,  we  think,  soon  open 
her  eyes  to  this." 

Ireland  Its  opened  her  eyes,  and  with 
considerable  effect,  as  our  narrative  shows, 
since  1840;  and  unless  the  government  of 
Great  Britain  treats  "  the  right  arm  of  her 
power"  with  something  like  proper  considera- 
tion, it  certainly  does  appear  inevitable  that 
TWO  DISTINCT  FLAGS  inust  protcct  cach  island 
separately.  This  is  the  true  "  repeal"  of 
evils  which  have  become  intolerable.  This 
is  the  "  repeal"  which  will  enlist  the  sympa- 
thies of  all  nations,  and  even  advance  the 
cause  of  true  liberty  among  the  power-trodden 
and  church-ridden  people  of  England. 

From  events  which  occur  with  such  ra- 
pidity as  to  have  beneficially  changed  the 
aspect  of  this  subject  since  these  observations 
were  first  prepared,  we  need  not  now  bring 
forward  the  arguments  with  which  we  had 
intended  to  propose  the  annexation  of  Ire- 
land TO  the  American  confederacy   of 

INDEPENDENT  STATES.     The  tOUC  of  tliC  whoic 

work  shows  that  this  object  was  contemplated 
from  the  beginning ;  and  we  are  happy  to 
observe  that  circumstances  have  since  occur- 
red which  protect  us  from  the  slavish  impu- 
tation of  rashness,  or  the  yet  more  contempti- 
ble charge  of  failing  to  treat  our  noble  sub- 
ject with  becoming  dignity.  The  glorious 
proposition  is  now  pubUshed  abroad  in  the 
minds  of  men,  and  may  be  safely  left  to 
itself.  The  men  are  now  living  who  will 
attend  to  it. 


It  is  time  to  deliberately  announce  to  the 
world  that  the  brave  and  devoted  Irish  peo- 
ple, who  have  for  centuries  been  accustomed 
to  advance  the  colours  of  other  nations  through 
all  dangers,  and  over  acres  of  mangled  limbs 
and  quivering  flesh,  will  in  future  use  that 
bravery  for  themselves  and  a  flag  of  their 
own  adoption.  This  is  no  new  or  rash  sen- 
timent. The  last  words  of  the  gallant  Sars- 
field,  when  dying  in  the  service  of  France, 
express  this  determination.  Taking  in  his 
hand  some  of  the  life-blood  which  was  fast 
flowing  from  his  heart,  he  made  one  desper- 
ate efibrt  to  turn  his  face  towards  the  west, 
and  exclaimed — "  O,  if  this  blood  had  been 
shed  for  Ireland  !"  There  can  be  no  rashness 
in  such  a  sublime  sentiment,  uttered  and 
confirmed  with  the  "  last  libation  that  liberty 
draws"  from  the  last  gasp  of  a  dying  patriot. 
It  is  a  sentiment  which  has  also  had  the 
illustrious  confirmation  of  the  deliberate  and 
conscientious  Bishop  of  Ardagh,  who  wrote 
to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  1843,  that  "  The  myr- 
midons of  England  may  follow  us  into  our 
sanctuaries  ;  but  we  will  prepare  our  people 
for  the  scaffold,  and  bequeath  our  wrongs  to 
posterity !"  The  heart  of  every  American 
citizen  will  readily  sympathize  with  such 
glorious  manifestations  of  the  unconquerable 
spirit  of  liberty,  for  it  is  upon  the  pampas 
and  prairies  of  America  that  the  true  "  four- 
leaved  shamrock"  can  be  found  ;  and  not  only 
found,  but  exercising  its  magic  sway  over 
the  hearts  and  minds  of  men  with  a  universal 
benefit.  It  is  time  now  for  the  gallant  friends 
of  freedom  to  bid  a  temporary  farewell  to 
"  the  melting  thought,  the  kiss  ambrosial,  and 
the  yielding  smile," — and  unanimously  come 
forward  to  battle  for  the  safety  and  security 
of  those  who  naturally  look  to  them  for  pro- 
tection. 

Have  the  plunderers  of  England  and  Ire- 
land ever  calculated  the  effects  resulting  from 
the  expatriation  of  virtuous  industry  and  un- 
alterable faith  ?  When  shall  history  describe 
the  mighty  reaction  of  American  principles 
upon  European  governments, — a  terrible  re- 
action, terrible  from  its  irresistible  firmness 
and  calmness, — a  reaction  carried  on  by  men 
or  the  SONS  of  men  who  were  formerly  robbed 


392 


PRELIMINARY    DISCOURSE,    ETC 


for  their  honesty  and  then  expatriated  for 
their  poverty  ?  Let  the  proud  slaves  of  Bel- 
shazzar  and  his  father  begin  to  study  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall. 

No  sovereign,  or  dictator,  or  agitator,  or 
cabinet  minister,  or  army,  or  navy,  or  penal 
code  can  prevent  the  silent  operation  of  this 
reaction  upon  the  thoughts  of  the  toiling  mil- 
lions who  pant  for  real  freedom,  and  are  dis- 
gusted with  the  legalized  mockery  of  liberty 
which  is  yet  hypocritically  inflicted  upon  Ire- 
land, Scotland,  and  England. 

In  any  event,  the  agitation  of  the  subjects 
of  preliminary  independence  and  confirmed 
protection  must  operate  beneficially  for  Ire- 
land. They  are  subjects  involved  with  the 
everlasting  principles  of  justice,  and  never 
can  be  extinguished  by  any  power  on  earth. 
Their  effects  will  form  important  matter  for 
succeeding  historians.  Who  can  tell  how 
soon  ? 

While  searching  the  evidences  of  literature 
for  this  History  of  Ireland,  we  have  presumed 
to  avail  ourselves  of  whatever  was  good  or 
useful  for  our  peculiar  plan,  without  regard 
to  the  name,  country,  or  creed  of  the  author. 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  opposition 
to  tyranny  should  sometimes  assume  such  an 


exclusive  form  as  to  cause  many  of  the  warm 
friends  of  Ireland  to  detract  from  the  good 
name  of  those  public  individuals  who  may 
happen  to  have  followed  the  fashion  of  their 
day  in  persecuting  the  Irish  people.  No 
possible  good  can  ever  arise  from  recrimina- 
ting prejudices.  With  all  due  sympathy  for 
the  excusable  warmth  in  the  very  nature  of 
resistance  to  oppression,  we  cannot  help 
considering  Spenser  a  fine  poet,  Raleigh  a 
thorough  man  of  business,  and  Bacon  a  pro- 
found philosopher. 

There  are  many  reasons  which  might  be 
cited  for  the  course  we  have  taken,  if  the 
time  were  arrived  when  the  success  and 
safety  of  the  Irish  people  would  accompany 
the  announcement.  We  may  remark,  how- 
ever, that  the  firm  belief  of  brighter  days 
being  near  at  hand  should  teach  all  classes  to 
put  away  exclusiveness  of  every  description  ; 
and  prepare  our  minds,  not  merely  for  the 
reception  of  a  few  facts  and  principles,  but 
also  for  the  discovery  and  entertainment  of  a 
glorious  and  genuine  fraternity  of  action, — 
harmonized  with  religious  liberty,  secured 
with  legislative  independence,  and  properly 
protected  with  a  power-defying  star-spangled 
banner  of  peace. 


THE 


HISTORY     OF     IRELAND 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Reign  of  William  and  Mary — Church-and-state  es- 
timation of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick — Immediate 
resumption  and  continual  progress  of  the  penal 
laws — Accession  of  Queen  Anne — Legislative 
union  of  Scotland  with  England — Disputes  be- 
tween the  English  ministry  and  the  Dublin  parlia- 
ments— Accession  of  George  the  First — Act  of 
the  6th  George  the  First — Ireland's  darkest  hour, 
and  the  lowest  degradation  of  Christianity — 
Wood's  conscientious  copper — United  rally  of  the 
people — Returning  dawn  of  Irish  liberty. 

The  unfashionable  harshness  which  our 
historical  discoveries  have  compelled  us  to 
^adopt,  in  relation  to  the  supporters  of  church- 
and-state  power  in  England,  is  no  more  than 
what  has  been  positively  required  by  a  con- 
scientious performance  .of  duty.  Look  at 
them,  as  a  party,  (from  the  respectable  regi- 
cides of  the  government  to  the  roystering 
ragamuffins  who  presume  to  rule  over  the 
parish  poor,)  and  observe  the  rancour  and 
rapine  which  actuate  their  public  movements. 
Is  it  possible  to  exaggerate  the  iniquity  of 
their  conduct  ?    We  proceed. 

On  the  Sunday  following  the  return  of  the 
lords-justices,  Sir  Charles  Porter  and  Mr. 
Coningsby,  who  had  been  deputed  (in  con- 
junction with  Baron  de  Ginckle)  to  sign  the 
Treaty  of  Limerick  on  behalf  of  the  British 
crown,  they  attended  public  worship  in  Christ- 
Church  Cathedral ;  and  Dr.  Dopping,  Bishop 
of  Meath,  took  occasion  to  occupy  the  first 
sermon  after  their  return  to  Dublin  with  bitter 
denunciations  of  the  treaty,  finding  great 
faults  in  its  general  spirit  and  particular  pro- 
visions, and  exerting  all  his  abilities  in  a  vig- 
orous argument  to  prove  that  Protestants 
were  never  bound  to  keep  faith  with  '  pa- 

50 


pists.'  King  William,  however,  gave  intima- 
tions to  the  clergy  that  the  treaty  must  have 
no  gross  infraction,  at  least  during  his  life- 
time. It  was  deemed  advisable  to  silence 
the  eagerness  of  the  officious  Dr.  Dopping. 
On  the  following  Sunday,  Dr.  Moreton,  Bish- 
op of  Kildare,  preached  in  advocacy  of  the 
binding  nature  of  all  solemn  contracts.  Wil- 
liam was  busy  at  Whitehall  and  on  the  con- 
tinent, and  this  explanation  was  important. 

Nineteen  days  after  the  Treaty  of  Limer- 
ick was  signed,  an  English  parliament  was 
summoned  which  passed  an  act  requiring 
that  "  all  the  members  of  the  Irish  legislature 
should  take  the  oath  of  supremacy^  Of 
course,  the  Catholics  had  to  submit ;  but  the 
law  w^as  not  actually  binding  in  Ireland  until 
made  part  of  the  constitution  of  1782.  It 
serves  to  show  the  spirit  of  what  is  called 
"the  English  government."  Honest  Peter 
Plymley  had  good  occasion  to  write — 

"  I  solemnly  believe  blue  and  red  baboons 
to  be  more  thought  of  in  England  than  dis- 
senters. When  a  country-squire  hears  of 
an  ape,  his  first  feeling  is  to  give  it  nuts  and 
apples  :  when  he  hears  of  a  dissenter,  his 
immediate  impulse  is  to  commit  it  to  the 
county-jail,  to  shave  its  head,  to  alter  its 
customary  food,  and  to  have  it  privately 
whipped." 

Men  who  know  that  they  deserve  no  re- 
spect are  always  anxious  to  be  feared.  The 
"  Protestant  ascendency"  comes  into  histori- 
cal notice  based  upon  this  rancorous  feeling. 
The  Puritan  and  Episcopalian  factions  were 
united  in  condemning  what  they  considered 


394 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1695. 


the  slowness  of  King  William  and  his  lord- 
lieutenant,  Henry,  Lord  Sidney.  They  op- 
posed the  decisions  of  the  court  of  claims 
which  assembled  to  determine  the  qualifica- 
tions of  those  who  were  to  be  restored  to 
their  property  by  the  Treaty  of  Limerick. 
The  court  adjudged  about  one-fifth  of  the 
confiscated  lands  to  the  original  proprietors, 
and  several  others  were  given  back  their 
estates  by  the  special  favour  of  the  king. 
The  largest  forfeiture  was  that  of  the  Earl 
of  Clancarty ;  and  it  was  a  doubtful  point 
whether  he  was  not  included  in  the  articles. 
Wilham  was  anxious  to  preserve  this  ancient 
family  ;  but  Sir  Richard  Cox,  who  had  long 
indulged  a  fancy  for  confiscated  lands,  pro- 
cured a  declaration  from  the  county  of  Cork 
grand-jury,  stating  that  the  restoration  of  the 
Earl  of  Clancarty  would  be  "  prejudicial  to 
the  Protestant  interest;"  meaning  thereby, 
that  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  such  of  these 
gentry  to  part  with  the  earl's  estates  which 
they  had  seized.* 

The  difficulties  created  by  the  influence 
of  such  a  state  of  affairs  caused  Sidney  to 
be  recalled  in  1693.  Henry,  Lord  Capel, 
was  his  successor,  but  not  till  1695.  His 
power  was  shared  with  two  other  lords-jus- 
tices, Sir  Cecil  Wyche  and  Mr.  Duncomb, 
who  innocently  presumed  to  suppose  that  the 
Treaty  of  Limerick  ought  to  be  respected. 
Capel  soon  outwitted  such  inconvenient  col- 
leagues ;  and  then,  indeed,  under  his  lieu- 
tenancy, the  Catholics  were  outrageously 
punished  for  their  honourable  confidence  in 
the  efficacy  of  the  treaty.  Their  sufferings 
were  bitter — too  horrible  to  be  described  in 
words. 

Capel's  speech  at  the  opening  of  the  ses- 
sion of  1695  declared,  that  "the  king  was 

*  Taylor  here  observes — "This  precious  argument 
was  deemed  sufficient  ;  and  the  extensive  estates  of  this 
nobleman  in  Cork,  Limerick  and  Kerrj*,  were  fraudu- 
lently sold  by  the  commissioners  at  Chichester  House. 
At  a  later  period,  George  the  Second  made  a  similar 
effort  in  favour  of  the  earl,  but  was  defeated  by  the  Irish 
house  of  commons ;  and  to  shut  out  Clancarty's  hopes 
for  ever,  they  voted,  that  any  lawj'er  who  pleaded  in  his 
behalf  should  "be  deemed  an  enemy  of  his  country!" 
This  is  only  one  specimen  of  Irish  parliaments  while 
nnder  "  British"  influence  !  Tlie  sovereign  and  the  peo- 
ple are  both  cheated  with  that  influence. 


intent  upon  a  firm  settlement  of  Ireland  upon 
a  Protestant  interest."  The  parliament  now 
laid  aside  the  constitutional  jealousies  dis- 
played by  its  predecessor,  and  eagerly  em- 
barked in  the  scheme  of  establishing  a  Prot- 
estant interest.  They  appointed  a  committee 
to  consider  what  penal  laws  were  already  in 
force  against  the  Catholics.  The  most  im^ 
portant  were — 

1.  An  act,  subjecting  all  who  upheld  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  see  of  Rome,  to  the  pen- 
alties of  a  premunire ;  and  ordering  the  oath 
of  supremacy  to  be  a  qualification  for  office 
of  every  kind,  for  holy  orders,  or  for  a  degree 
in  the  university. 

2.  An  act  for  the  uniformity  of  common 
prayer,  imposing  a  fine  of  a  shilling  on  all 
who  should  absent  themselves  from  places 
of  worship  of  the  established  church  on  Sun- 
days. 

3.  An  act,  allowing  the  chancellor  to  name 
a  guardian  to  the  child  of  a  Catholic. 

4.  An  act  to  prevent  Catholics  from  be- 
coming private  tutors  in  families,  without 
license  from  the  ordinaries  of  their  several 
parishes,  and  taking  the  oath  of  supremacy.  • 

Capel  and  the  Irish  parliament  were  on 
such  excellent  terms  of  amity  and  similarity 
of  purpose  that  the  following  additions  were 
shortly  enacted : — 

1.  An  act  to  deprive  Catholics  of  the  means 
of  educating  their  children  at  home  or  abroad, 
and  to  render  them  incapable  of  being  guar- 
dians of  their  own  or  any  other  person's  chil- 
dren. 2.  An  act  to  disarm  the  Catholics. 
3.  An  act  to  banish  all  the  Catholic  priests 
and  prelates. 

Having  thus  already  violated  the  treaty, 
they  very  gravely  brought  in  a  bill  "  to  con- 
firm the  articles  of  Limerick."  The  very 
title  of  the  bill  contains  evidence  of  its  injus- 
tice. It  is  styled,  "  A  bill  for  the  confirma- 
tion of  articles  [not  the  articles]  made  at  the 
surrender  of  Limerick."  And  the  preamble 
shows,  that  the  little  word  the  was  not  acci- 
dentally omitted.  It  reads  thus  : — "  That 
the  said  articles,  or  so  much  of  them  as  may 
consist  with  the  safety  and  welfare  of  your 
majesty's  subjects  in  these  kingdoms,  may 
be  confirmed,"  etc.     The  parts  which  ap- 


A.  D.  11-03.] 


THIRD    DIVISION, 


395 


peared  to  these  legislators  inconsistent  with 
"  the  safety  and  welfare  of  his  majesty's  sub- 
jects," were — the  first  article,  which  provided 
for  the  security  of  the  Catholics  from  all  dis- 
turbances on  account  of  their  religion  ;  those 
parts  of  the  second  article  which  confirmed 
the  Catholic  gentry  of  Limerick,  Clare,  Cork, 
Kerry,  and  Mayo  in  the  possession  of  their 
estates,  and  allowed  all  Catholics  to  exercise 
their  trades  and  professions  without  obstruc- 
tion ;  the  fourth  article,  which  extended  the 
benefit  of  the  peace  to  certain  Irish  officers 
then  abroad ;  the  seventh  article,  which  al- 
lowed the  Catholic  gentry  to  ride  armed  ;  the 
ninth  article,  which  provides  that  the  oath 
of  allegiance  shall  be  the  only  oath  required 
from  Catholics ;  and  one  or  two  others  of 
minor  importance.  All  of  these  are  omitted 
in  the  bill  for  "  The  confirmation  of  articles 
made  at  the  surrender  of  Limerick." 

In  the  house  of  lords  the  bill  was  strongly 
opposed  by  the  more  considerate  of  the  no- 
bility and  bishops  ;  and,  when  carried,  a  pro- 
test was  recorded  which  was  signed  by  thir- 
teen of  the  peers.  The  slavish  exultation  of 
the  commons  over  the  ruin  of  the  Catholics 
seemed  to  have  become  rampant  beyond  all 
restraint  or  decency.  Plunder  passed  the 
wink,  and  three  more  "additional"  enactments 
were  passed: — 1.  An  act  to  prevent  Prot- 
estants from  marrying  with  Catholics.  2.  An 
act  to  prevent  Catholics  from  being  solicitors. 
3.  An  act  to  prohibit  Catholics  being  em- 
ployed as  gamekeepers. 

Two  circumstances  occurred  about  this 
time  which  show  the  light  in  which  the  Irish 
parliament  was  viewed  from  England.  The 
British  parliament  presented  a  joint  address 
to  the  king,  praying  that  he  would  discourage 
the  woollen  manufacture  of  Ireland.  The 
royal  reply  is  thus  recorded  : — 

"  My  Lords  and  Gentlemen, — I  shall  do 
all  that  in  me  lies  to  discourage  the  woollen 
manufacture  of  Ireland,  and  to  encourage  the 
linen  manufacture  there  ;  and  to  promote  the 
trade  of  England.     July  2,  1698." 

The  other  indicative  circumstance  is  the 
behaviour  of  the  English  parliament  when 
Mr.  William  Molyneux,  member  for  the 
Dublin  University,  published  a  book  assert- 


ing the  independence  of  the  Irish  legislature. 
The  English  house  of  commons  experienced 
a  paroxysm  of  rage.  They  resolved  unani- 
mously, "that  the  book  pubhshed  by  Mr. 
Molyneux  was  of  dangerous  tendency  to  the 
crown  and  people  of  England,  by  denying  the 
authority  of  the  king  and  parliament  of  Eng- 
land to  bind  the  kingdom  and  people  of  Ire- 
land, and  the  subordination  and  independence 
that  Ireland  had,  and  ought  to  have,  upon 
England,  as  being  united  and  annexed  to  the 
imperial  crown  of  England."  They  also,  in 
a  body,  presented  an  address  to  his  majesty, 
beseeching  him,  "  that  the  laws  directing  and 
restraining  the  Irish  parliament  should  not  be 
evaded  ;"  and  finally  obtained  from  the  king 
a  promise  of  compliance.  They  then  ordered 
the  dreadful  book  to  be  burned  by  the  com- 
mon hangman. 

The  Irish  parliament  took  these  two  blows, 
one  on  each  cheek,  quite  tamely.  In  their 
anxiety  to  rob  the  Catholics,  they  ruined  their 
country  and  enslaved  themselves. 

Thus  were  matters  continued  to  the  end 
of  William's  reign.  On  the  8th  of  March, 
1702,  Anne,  Princess  of  Denmark,  and 
daughter  of  James  the  Second,  succeeded  to 
the  English  throne.  The  successes  of  Marl- 
borough, the  transfer  of  the  Spanish  mon- 
archy to  the  house  of  Bourbon,  the  useful 
friendship  of  Holland,  and  the  great  profu- 
sion (in  appearance)  of  wealth,  are  the  prin- 
cipal circumstances  which  combined  to  make 
England  shine  with  splendour  at  this  time. 
Religion  and  conscience  were  voted  bores 
of  the  first  magnitude,  money  became  the 
national  god,  and  men  and  nations  were  con- 
sidered purchasable  commodities. 

In  1703,  the  first  bill  openly  acknowledged 
as  being  "  to  prevent  the  growth  of  popery" 
was  introduced.  The  following  are  among 
the  most  remarkable  of  its  enactments  :— 

The  third  clause  provides,  that  if  the  son 
of  an  estated  Catholic  would  conform  to  the 
established  religion,  the  father  shall  be  inca- 
pacitated from  selling  or  mortgaging  his  es- 
tate, or  disposing  of  any  portion  of  it  by  will. 
The  fourth  clause  prohibits  a  Catholic  from 
being  the  guardian  of  his  own  child ;  and 
orders,  that  if  at  any  tim.e  the  child,  though 


396 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1708. 


ever  so  young,  pretends  to  be  a  Protestant, 
it  shall  be  taken  from  its  father,  and  placed 
under  the  guardianship  of  the  nearest  Prot- 
estant relation.  The  sixth  clause  renders 
Catholics  incapable  of  purchasing  any  man- 
ors, tenements,  hereditaments,  or  any  rents 
or  profits  arising  out  of  the  same,  or  of  hold- 
ing any  lease  of  lives,  or  other  lease  whatever, 
for  any  term  exceeding  thirty-one  years.  And 
with  respect  even  to  such  limited  leases,  it 
further  enacts,  that  if  a  Catholic  should  hold 
a  farm  producing  a  profit  greater  than  one- 
third  of  the  amount  of  the  rent,  his  right  to 
such  should  immediately  cease,  and  pass  over 
entirely  to  the  first  Protestant  who  should 
discover  the  rate  of  profit.  The  seventh 
clause  prohibits  Catholics  from  succeeding 
to  the  properties  or  estates  of  their  Protest- 
ant relations.  By  the  tenth  clause,  the  es- 
tate of  a  Cathohc,  not  having  a  Protestant 
heir,  is  ordered  to  be  gavelled,  or  divided  in 
equal  shares  between  all  his  children.  The 
sixteenth  and  twenty-fourth  clauses  hnpose 
the  oath  of  abjuration,  and  the  sacramental 
test,  as  a  qualification  for  office,  and  for  vo- 
ting at  elections.  The  twenty-third  clause 
deprives  the  Catholics  of  Limerick  and  Gal- 
way  of  the  protection  secured  to  them  by  the 
articles  of  the  treaty.  The  twenty-fifth  clause 
■vests  in  her  majesty  all  advowsons  possessed 
ty  Catholics. 

L.  Hyde,  Earl  of  Rochester,  had  succeed- 
ed Lord  Capel  in  1701.  In  1703,  he  was 
displaced  for  James  Butler,  Duke  of  Ormond, 
who  promised  to  carry  out  firmly  the  law  of 
1703  ;  and  il  is  almost  needless  to  inform  the 
reader  that  he  kept  that  promise.  The  whig 
party  being  uppermost  in  England,  and  Prot- 
estantism having  become  an  element  in  cabi- 
net popularity,  the  new  English  ministry 
were  negotiating  with  the  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many for  a  general  toleration  of  Protestant- 
ism in  his  dominions,  and  were  very  anxious 
that  he  might  not  retort  that  he  treated  his 
Protestants  better  than  they  did  their  Catho- 
lics. But  the  cry  against  "popery"  which 
had  so  often  been  serviceable  to  the  whigs, 
was  not  to  be  stopped  or  decreased  so  easily 
as  it  could  be  set  going.  When  the  law  of 
1703  came  up  for  confirmation  they  were 


anxious  to  avoid  it,  and  observing  that  the 
Irish  parUament  was  mainly  composed  of  dis 
senters,  they  added  a  clause  requiring  the 
sacramental  test,  supposing  that  it  would 
cause  an  abandonment  of  the  bill.  The  pre- 
vailing faction  in  the  Irish  parliament  were, 
however,  too  greedy  to  be  dainty;  and,  in 
the  expressive  phraseology  of  one  of  their 
own  writers,  "  swallowed  their  scruples  and 
the  sacrament  together."  Such  a  monstrous 
law  found  many  opponents  among  the  more 
conscientious  of  the  magistracy,  and  the  peo- 
ple generally  spurned  the  office  of  common 
informer.  The  Irish  parliament  deliberately 
persevered,  as  if  in  the  performance  of  some 
praiseworthy  object,  and  on  St.  Patrick's 
Day,  1705,  they  voted,  "  that  all  magistrates, 
and  other  persons  whatsoever,  who  neglected 
or  omitted  to  put  the  penal  laws  into  due  ex- 
ecution, were  betrayers  of  the  liberties  of  the 
kingdom."  In  June  of  the  same  year,  they 
denounced  such  persons  as  "  enemies  to  her 
majesty's  government."  And  they  also  re- 
solved, "  that  the  prosecuting  and  informing 
against  papists  was  an  honourable  service  to 
the  government."  The  English  parliament 
having  manufactured  money,  the  Irish  par- 
liament appear  to  have  imagined  that  they 
had  an  equal  right  to  manufacture  honour. 

The  "  modern  improvements"  of  second- 
hand legislation  and  tlie  blinding  influence 
of  money  were  now  extended  to  Old  Scot- 
land. The  articles  of  union  were  signed 
July  20,  1706,  and  ratified  January  16,  1707. 
This  was  a  cash  transaction. 

In  1708,  on  a  report  arising  that  the  young 
Pretender  was  about  to  invade  Scotland,  the 
Dublin  authorities  immediately  arrested  forty- 
one  of  the  Cathohc  nobility  and  gentry  as  reb- 
els and  traitors.  The  government  rebuked 
this  eagerness  by  ordering  their  release  as 
soon  as  heard  of  in  England,  their  entire  in- 
nocence being  well  known. 

But  the  cry  of  "  No  popery  !"  is  connected 
with  passions  not  easily  managed  or  restrain- 
ed. The  Dubhn  parliament  very  gravely 
voted  that  the  pilgrimages  of  the  sick  and 
infirm  to  St.  John's  Well,  in  the  county  of 
Meath,  "were  inconsistent  with  the  safety 
of  the  kingdom !"     In  1709,  during  the  fac- 


A.  D.  1720.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


397 


tious  divisions  of  the  English  parliament  and 
people,  whig  and  tory,  high  church  and  low 
church,  they  passed  another  penal  law  against 
the  Catholics.  The  first  clause  declares,  that 
no  Catholic  shall  be  capable  of  holding  an 
annuity  for  life.  The  third  provides,  that 
the  child  of  a  Catholic,  on  conforming,  shall 
at  once  receive  an  annuity  from  his  father ; 
and  that  the  chancellor  shall  compel  the  father 
to  discover,  upon  oath,  the  full  value  of  his 
estate,  real  and  personal,  and  thereupon  make 
an  order  for  the  support  of  such  conforming 
child  or  children,  and  for  securing  such  a 
share  of  the  property,  after  the  father's  death, 
as  the  court  shall  think  fit.  The  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  clauses  secure  jointures  to  Cath- 
olic wives  who  would  conform.  The  six- 
teenth prohibits  a  Catholic  from  teaching, 
even  as  assistant  to  a  Protestant  master. 
The  eighteenth  gives  a  salary  of  £30  per 
annum  to  Roman  Catholic  priests  who  would 
conform.  The  twentieth  provides  rewards 
for  the  discovery  of  Roman  Catholic  clergy- 
men, valuing  the  betrayal  of  an  archbishop 
or  bishop  at  £50 ;  a  priest,  not  registered, 
£20  ;  a  schoolmaster  or  usher,  £10.  The 
twenty-first  clause  empowers  two  justices 
to  summon  before  them  any  Catholic  over 
eighteen  years  of  age,  and  interrogate  him 
when  and  where  he  last  heard  mass  said,  and 
the  names  of  the  persons  present,  and  like- 
wise touching  the  residence  of  any  Catholic 
priest  or  schoolmaster ;  and  if  he  refuse  to 
give  testimony,  subjects  him  to  a  fine  of  £20, 
or  imprisonment  for  twelve  months. 

Before  adjourning,  several  similar  enact- 
ments were  created  which  appear  to  have 
been  considered  trifling  in  those  days  ;  one, 
however,  deserves  particular  notice,  as  some 
of  its  infernal  effects  are  yet  to  be  seen  in 
unhappy  Ireland.  It  excludes  Catholics  from 
the  office  of  sheriff",  and  from  grand-juries, 
and  enacts,  that,  in  trials  upon  any  statute 
for  strengthening  the  Protestant  interest,  the 
plaintiff"  might  challenge  a  juror  for  being  a 
Catholic,  which  challenge  the  judge  was  to 
allow.  What  must  the  American  citizen 
think  of  this  style  of  government  ? 

The  consolidation  of  the  Episcopal  influ- 
ence in  England  and  the  increasing  "  wealth" 


of  the  Puritan  influence  in  Ireland  occasion- 
ally led  to  diff"crences  between  the  two  par- 
liaments, under  which  each  influence  carried 
on  its  wholesale  robbery  of  the  Catholics. 
The  most  sanctimonious  thieves  and  best 
regulated  plunderers  are  liable  to  the  acci- 
dents of  clashing  interests.  The  Irish  lords 
passed  a  resolution  denouncing  those  who 
appealed  against  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  the 
commons  rejected  a  money-bill,  because  it 
had  been  altered  by  the  English  privy-council. 
Another  case  was  the  act  of  the  English  par- 
liament to  prevent  the  "  growth  of  schism," 
aimed  principally  against  the  Presbyterians, 
which  was  made  to  include  Ireland  ;  for  the 
ministry  knew  that  such  a  bill  would  not  pass 
the  Irish  house  of  commons,  where  the  dis- 
senters had  now  a  large  majority. 

Thus  the  business  of  "  government"  was 
carried  on  until  the  death  of  Queen  Anne, 
August  1,  1714.  The  Duke  of  Ormond  was 
removed  for  Thomas  Herbert,  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke, in  1707  ;  he  was  succeeded  by  Thomas 
Wharton,  Earl  of  Wharton,  in  1709;  the 
Duke  of  Ormond  was  restored  July  3,  1711  ; 
and  Charles,  Duke  of  Shrewsbury,  became 
lord-lieutenant  October  27,  1713. 

The  sincerity  with  which  the  Catholics 
had  observed  the  Treaty  of  Limerick,  espe- 
cially as  regards  the  oath  of  allegiance,  made 
the  accession  of  George  the  First  a  circum- 
stance of  little  interest  in  Ireland.  Even  the 
Scottish  "  rebellion",  in  1715  was  almost  un- 
noticed. The  attainder  of  the  Duke  of  Or- 
mond for  his  adherence  to  the  Pretender  was 
no  more  than  retributive  justice  to  a  man  who 
displayed  his  attachment  to  a  Catholic  king 
by  the  very  safe  process  of  plundering  a 
Catholic  people. 

The  submissive  loyalty  and  devotion  of 
the  Catholics  puzzled  all  their  enemies.  The 
Irish  parliament,  in  1720,  gradually  discov- 
ered that  they  had  sold  the  trade  and  freedom 
of  their  country  for  the  one  privilege  of  plun- 
dering their  Catholic  fellow-countrymen.  The 
Irish  house  of  lords,  however,  having  resisted 
the  exclusive  right  of  appeal  claimed  for  the 
house  of  lords  in  England,  the  English  par- 
liament thought  fit  to  pass  "  an  act  for  the 
better  securing  the  dependency  of  Ireland 


398 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1727. 


on  the  crown  of  Englandj"  which  reduced 
the  Irish  legislature  to  a  mere  idle  mockery. 
It  deprived  the  Irish  house  of  lords  of-  their 
jurisdiction  in  cases  of  appeal ;  and  it  declares 
that  the  British  parliament  "  has  full  power 
and  authority  to  make  laws  and  statutes  of 
sufficient  force  and  validity  to  bind  the  peo- 
ple of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland;"  This  is  the 
substance  of  the  renowned  "  act  of  the  6th 
George  the  First."  It  extinguished  the  rights 
of  the  Irish  people  until  the  glorious  spirit  of 
the  Volunteers  of  1782  exploded  it  in  car- 
tridge-paper for,  by,  and  with  their  parades 
and  reviews. 

We  now  approach  a  subject  on  which,  for 
a  variety  of  reasons,  the  language  of  other 
persons  is  preferable.  As  an  unobjectionable 
witness,  we  select  that  of  Taylor : — 

"  The  penal  laws  were  executed  in  the 
same  sanguinary  and  intolerant  spirit  that  had 
originally  dictated  iheir  enactment.  Priest- 
hunting  became  a  fashionable  amusement. 
Catholic  chapels  were  forcibly  shut  up.  The 
Catholic  clergy  sent  into  prison,  and  from 
thence  hurried  into  exile.  But  one  bill, 
which  was  passed  by  both  of  the  Irish  houses 
of  parliament,  is  quite  sufficient  to  show  how 
violent  and  shameless  was  the  Protestant 
bigotry  of  this  disgraceful  period.  li  actually 
contained  a  clause — how  can  it  be  mentioned 
without  offence  to  delicacy? — a  clause  for 
subjecting  every  Catholic  ecclesiastic  who 
should  come  to  Ireland  to  the  penalty  of  cas- 
tration !  On  presenting  this  bill  to  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  both  houses  added  the  remarkable 
request,  *  That  he  would  recommend  the 
same  in  the  most  effectual  manner  to  his 
majesty  ;'  and  his  excellency  promised  Com- 
pliance. Sir  Robert  Walpole,  being  solicited 
by  Cardinal  Fleury,  successfully  exerted 
himself  to  prevent  even  an  Irish  statute-book 
from  being  sullied. by  such  disgusting  bru^ 
tality  ;  and  the  bill  was  scouted  by  the  Eng- 
lish privy-council.  The  lord-lieutenant,  in 
closing  the  session,  attempted  to  console  the 
parliament  for  the  loss  of  their  favourite  bill. 
He  told  them  that  '  it  miscarried  merely  by 
not  being  brought  into  the  house  before  the 
session  was  so  far  advanced.' " 

The   scarcity  of  small  specie  which  in- 


evitably follows  the  excessive  introduction  of 
paper  money  for  general  use  was  sensibly 
noticed  in  the  copper  coin  of  Ireland.  Va- 
rious remedies  were  proposed,  and  at  last  a 
"  parliamentary  job"  was  authorized  in  1722. 
A  rich  wretch,  rampant  with  piety  and  prettily 
prepared  pennies,  was  soon  found  to  under- 
take the  task  of  "relieving"  the  poor.  The 
Irish  people  might  have  petitioned  to  this  day 
without  any  relief;  but  when  it  was  discovered 
that  piety,  pennies  and  philanthropy,  were 
made  all  perfectly  compatible  in  a  very  "  re- 
spectable" manner,  a  patent  was  granted  to 
one  William  Wood  allowing  him  to  speculate 
and  adulterate  to  the  amount  of  £108,000. 
This  monstrous  insult  to  the  misfortunes  of  a 
whole  people,  united  all  classes  in  a  resist- 
ance which  was  led  on  and  maintained  with 
all  the  ability  and  courage  of  Jonathan  Swift. 
The  result  was  that  the  administration  had  to 
yield,  and  the  patent  was  revoked.  This 
was  the  effect  of  national  unity.  It  was  the 
first  dawn  of  a  bright  day  of  liberty,  immc'- 
diately  following  Ireland's  darkest  hour. 

Notwithstanding  the  quiet  state  of  Ireland 
previous  to  Swift's  noble  resistance  of 
"  Wood's  half-pence,"  the  disputes  in  the 
exchequers  and  parliaments  were  of  such  a 
serious  nature  as  to  require  many  changes 
of  the  lord-lieutenancy  during  the  forming  of 
the  penal  laws.  Whenever  we  may  have 
occasion  to  mention  these  laws  in  future 
chapters  we  hope  our  readers  will  recollect 
the  meaning  of  them.  The  Duke  of  Shrews- 
bury was  succeeded  by  Charles,  Duke  of 
Bolton,  August  f,  1717 ;  then,  Charles,  Duke 
of  Grafton,  August  28,  1721  ;  then,  John, 
Lord  Carteret,  October  22,  1724.  The  reign 
of  George  the  First  ended  June  11,  1727. 

The  friends  of  liberty  will  share  our  pleas- 
ure and  participate  in  the  hopes  with  which 
we  now  record  the  fact  that  the  people  of 
Ireland  were  once  united  for  their  own  in- 
terest.    "  Spirit  of  Swift !"  we  are  grateful. 


CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 

1691  TO  1727. 

"  From  a  report  presented  to  the  English 
House  of  Commons,  it  appears  that  the  for 


A.  D.  1727.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


399 


feitures  made  by  the  government  of  King 
William,  stripped  three  thousand  nine  hun- 
dred and  twenty-one  persons  of  lands,  amount- 
ing to  more  than  one  million  and  sixty  thou- 
sand acres,  valued,  in  that  day,  at  three  mil- 
lions three  hundred  and  nineteen  thousand 
nine  hundred  and  forty-three  pounds  sterling 
— a  prize  well  worthy  the  attention  of  the 
'exclusively  loyal,'  as  they  termed  them- 
selves, especially  when,  without  any  risk  of 
their  own,  they  could  contend  for  it  with  the 
blood  of  foreigners  and  the  wealth  of  Eng- 
land.        »         *         #         * 

"  In  fact,  the  oligarchy,  formed  in  an  evil 
hour,  had  the  power  of  checking  the  govern- 
ment, and  oppressing  the  people ;  and  it 
scrupled  not  to  insult  and  ill-treat  both," — 
Taylor. 

'*  About  seven  years  after  the  treaty  was 
signed,  King  William,  who  had  been  all  that 
time  at  war  with  France,  concluded  a  peace 
at  Ryswick,  after  which  his  army  returned  to 
England  to  receive  their  pay.  There  was 
then  more  than  a  million  sterling  due  to  them, 
and,  to  obtain  the  means,  the  king  turned  his 
eyes  directly  towards  the  estates  of  the  Irish 
Catholics — those  estates  which  had  been 
guarantied  to  the  owners  by  the  treaty  of  the 
battle-field  of  Limerick.  Parliament,  the 
tool  of  every  tyrant,  instituted,  to  cover  the 
robbery,  a  commission,  the  sort  of  instrument 
used  by  British  kings  for  three  hundred  years, 
either  to  rob  or  delude  the  Irish  ;  an  instru- 
ment used  down  to  the  very  last  session,  e.  g. 
*  the  land  commission,'  *  the  Catholic  Chari- 
ties' commission,'  of  the  year  1844,  for  the 
like  purposes." — Mooney. 

"  The  Irish  had  engaged  extensively  in  the 
import  and  export  trade  to  the  continent,  par- 
ticularly in  the  linen  yarn  and  twine  trade  ; 
and  so  great  were  the  profits,  and  so  flourish- 
ing the   condition  of  the   merchants, — who 
were  principally  Catholics, — that  apprehen- 
sions were  entertained  that  the  estates  of 
Protestants,    by    mortgage    and    otherwise, 
would  soon  revert  to  the  hands  of  the  Catho-  ' 
lies.     Lands  rose  by  the  influx  of  capital ;  ' 
the  peasantry  acquired  valuable  interests  ;  a  j 
sturdy  yeomanry  appeared ;  the  very  cotter 
was  less  miserable.     All  this,  a  few  years  j 


after,  was  bartered  for  a  shadow.  The  Irish 
Protestant  sold  Ireland  for  the  maintenance 
of  his  monopoly  in  sectarian  ascendency  ;  and 
the  English  Protestant  trampled  on  the 
Catholic  in  order  to  maintain  his  national 
supremacy." — Ld.  Taafe. 

**  The  parliament  of  the  Revolution  is  im- 
mortal from  the  perfidy  with  which  it  disre- 
garded and  violated  the  articles  of  the  Treaty 
of  Limerick,  and  from  having  originated  the 
extraordinary  code  under  which  the  Catholics 
of  Ireland  were  so  long  and  so  terribly  op- 
pressed ;  but  its  history  presents  no  feature 
of  interest.  It  made  no  struggle  for  its  own 
fireedom  ;  it  scandalously  adopted  the  jealous 
legislation  which  sacrificed  the  woollen  trade 
of  Ireland.  It  made  no  struggle  to  disenthral 
itself  of  the  parliamentary  supremacy  of  Eng- 
land— this  remained  an  unquestioned  and  de- 
grading fact.  It  was  as  contemptible  a  body 
as  any  that  ever  assumed  the  functions  of 
legislation.  Its  two  grand  achievements  were 
the  persecution  of  the  Catholics,  and  the  de- 
struction of  the  trade  of  their  country.  In 
a  vain  attempt  to  usurp  all  the  power  of  the 
state,  the  parliaments  of  William  and  of  Anne 
accumulated  on  the  devoted  heads  of  the 
Catholics,  a  mass  of  penal  legislation  un- 
paralleled in  the  history  of  human  oppression. 
But  after  having  had  their  own  will  of  the 
Catholics,  being  allowed  to  use  freely  the 
powers  of  legislation  while  engaged  in  the 
grateful  work  of  torture ;  they  found  out  at 
last,  that  they  were  only  permitted  the  privi- 
lege of  persecution  to  serve  the  purposes  of 
England.  For  the  6lh  George  the  First  gave 
the  last  blow  to  any  legislative  freedom  which 
might  have  survived  the  restrictions  of  ages 
— and  plainly  demonstrated  to  the  Protestant 
nation,  how  little  they  had  to  expect  at  the 
hands  of  the  English  parliaments,  to  which 
they  had  sold  the  trade  and  liberties  of  their 
country  for  the  right  to  persecute  and  rob 
their  *  popish'  fellow-countrymen." — T.  Mac- 
Nevin. 

"  No  condescension  was  excessive  which 
could  purchase  for  the  Protestants  of  Ireland 
the  uncontrolled  indulgence  of  their  hatred. 
They  did  not  hesitate  to  fall,  like  Samson, 
beneath  the  temple,  provided  the  same  ruin 


400 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1727. 


might  become  fatal  to  their  adversaries  :  nor, 
in  the  warmth  of  zeal  against  popery,  did 
they  recollect  that  the  freedom  and  commerce, 
which,  with  so  much  solicitude,  they  rejected, 
might  not  perhaps  appear  equally  unaccepta- 
ble to  their  children.  After  having  hazarded 
the  possession  of  every  object  that  can  make 
life  precious,  to  avoid  the  probability  of 
slavery,  they  shaped  for  themselves  a  bond- 
age which  the  most  hardy  tyrant  could  scarce- 
1}'^  venture  to  propose  ;  and  resigned,  by  an 
*  awful  interdict,'  every  intercourse  with  the 
rest  of  mankind,  while,  in  the  narrow  com- 
pass which  remained,  they  might  wanton  in 
the  unconstrained  enjoyment  of  revenge. 
Content  to  convert  their  country  into  one  vast 
prison,  if  lliey  could  find  within  its  bosom  a 
dungeon  slill  more  hideous  for  their  unhappy 
captives." — Revieio,  etc. 

"  It  would  be  a  mere  waste  of  words  to 
reprobate  this  iniquitous  law,  [of  1703,]  or 
rather  this  violation  of  all  law  human  and 
divine.  No  Irish  Protestant  can  peruse  its 
enactments  without  a  blush  for  the  shame 
thus  brought  on  his  religion,  when  it  was 
thus  virtually  declared  that  the  reformed  sys- 
tem sliould  owe  its  strength  and  security, 
not  to  the  purity  of  its  principles,  not  to  the 
excellence  of  its  doctrines,  but  to  robbery  and 
oppression,  to  dissension  between  father  and 
child,  to  stimulating  one  neighbour  to  seize 
the  fruits  of  another's  industry,  to  the  desecra- 
tion of  a  solemn  sacrament,  by  making  it  a 
test  for  office.  How  can  we  be  surprised 
that  the  reformed  religion  is  unpopular  in 
Ireland,  when,  by  this  and  similar  laws,  a 
Protestant  legislature  virtually  declared  that 
Protestantism  could  not  be  secure  unless  it 
entered  into  alliance  with  Belial,  Mammon, 
and  Moloch  ?"— Taylor. 

"  These  laws  were  not  the  gi-owth  of  one 
reign,  but  were  improved  and  refined  upon 
in  the  reigns  of  William,  Anne,  and  the  first 
of  the  Georges.  Sir  Toby  Butler,  Mr.  Cu- 
sack,  Malone,  and  others,  included  in  the 
treaty  of  Limerick,  pleaded  against  those 
bills  at  the  bar  of  both  houses ;  but  after 
hearing  their  arguments,  the  houses  coolly 
proceeded  to  pass  them,  replying  that,  if  they 
Buffered  any   inconvenience  by  those  laws, 


they  had  only  to  blame  themselves  for  not 
conforming.  Edmund  Burke,  speaking  of 
those  laws,  says,  *  The  most  refined  inge- 
nuity of  man  could  not  contrive  any  plan  or 
machinery  better  calculated  to  degrade  hu- 
manity than  this  terrible  code  ;'  and  Montes- 
quieu, the  French  lawgiver,  says,  *  This  hor- 
rible code  was  conceived  by  devils,  written 
in  human  gore,  and  registered  in  hell.'" — 

MOONEY. 

*'  There  is  hardly  a  code  in  the  world,  that 
does  not  afford  some  instances  of  unjust  and 
immoral  laws,  enacted  in  moments  of  delu- 
sion or  faction.  But  this  is  the  only  one 
universally  and  undeviatingly  profligate  and 
depraved, — of  which  every  provision  and 
paragraph  violated  some  law  of  God  or  man, 
and  the  plainest  dictates  of  eternal  justice, — 
which  legalized  robbery,  and  punished  with 
death  acts  of  humanity — the  tuition  of  youtli 
— the  celebration  of  marriage,  etc.  etc. 

"  The  professed  object  of  the  hypocritical 
tyrants  who  framed  this  '  ferocious  system,' 
as  Burke  appropriately  styles  it,  was  to  res- 
cue the  objects  of  its  rapacity  from  the  dark- 
ness of  popish  idolatry.  But  they  might 
worship  Jupiter  Ammon,  Juno,  Venus,  Mars, 
Bacchus,  and  Apollo,  with  the  Romans ;  the 
sun  with  the  Gucbres ;  or  Apis,  with  the 
Egyptians ;  they  might  even  disbelieve  in 
God  altogether.  Provided  they  forswore 
transubstantiation  and  the  pope's  authority, 
they  became  pure  and  immaculate ;  their 
property  and  persons  were  secure  ;  and,  un- 
der the  fornis  and  ceremonies  of  the  law  of 
the  land,  they  then  acquired  a  right  to  rob 
and  plunder  the  blind  and  idolatrous  papists 
whom  they  had  abandoned." — M.  Carey. 

"  This  code  prevented  the  accumulation  of 
property,  and  punished  industry  as  a  crime. 
Was  there  ever  such  legislation  in  any  other 
country,  Christian  or  Pagan  ?  But  that  is 
not  all,  because  the  party  who  inflicted  this 
horrible  code,  actually  reproached  the  Irish 
people  with  wilful  and  squal id  poueriy. 

"  This  code  enforced  ignorance  by  Statute 
Law,  and  punished  the  acquisition  of  knowl- 
edge as  a  felony.  Is  this  credible  ? — yet  it 
is  true.  But  that  is  not  all ;  for  the  party 
that  thus    persecuted   learning,   reproached 


A.  D.  1731.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


401 


and  still  reproach  the  Irish  people  with  igno- 

*         *         * 
ranee.   ■ 

"  It  is  not  possible  for  me  to  describe  that 
code  in  adequate  language — it  almost  sur- 
passed the  eloquence  of  Burke  to  do  so." — 

O'CONNELL. 

"  It  had  a  vicious  perfection — it  was  a 
complete  system — full  of  coherence  and  con- 
sistency ;  well  digested  and  well  disposed  in 
all  its  parts.  It  was  a  machine  of  wise  and 
elaborate  contrivance,  and  as  well  fitted  for 
the  oppression,  impoverishment,  and  degrada- 
tion of  a  people,  and  the  debasement  in  them 
of  human  nature  itself,  as  ever  proceeded 
from  the  perverted  ingenuity  of  man.  *  *  * 

"  When  those  laws  were  not  bloody,  they 
were  worse.  They  were  slow,  cruel,  out- 
rageous in  their  nature,  and  only  kept  men 
alive  to  insult  in  their  persons  every  one  of 
the  rights  and  feelings  of  humanity." — Burke. 

"  King  William  left  no  heir,  and  he  was 
succeeded  by  Anne,  Princess  of  Denmark, 
daughter  of  James  the  Second.  She  was  a 
princess  full  of  bigotry  and  toryism.  It  was 
in  her  reign  that  the  parliament  of  Scotland 
was  united  to  the  parliament  of  England, 
principally  by  the  means  of  bribes  or  honours 
showered  on  a  venal  portion  of  the  members. 

"  Then  followed  George  the  First,  son  of 
the  Princess  Sophia.  He  was  chosen,  by 
the  parliament  of  Britain,  from  one  of  the 
remote  branches  of  the  palatine  family  found 
in  Germany.  The  lawful  succession  was 
passed  over,  and  he  was  taken  from  the  last 
of  fifty  generations  from  the  palatinate  of  the 
Richards. 

"  It  was  thus  that  the  house  of  Hanover 
was  brought  in  to  govern  England,  swearing, 
agreeably  to  the  oath  of  William  the  Third, 
that  the  religion  of  the  state  should  be  Prot- 
estant."— MooNEY. 

"  Observe  the  policy  of  government,  setting 
a  price  on  the  head  of  Jonathan  Swift — and 
conferring  its  bounties  on  William  Wood  ! 
Molyneux's  *  Case  of  Ireland'  was  burned  by 
the  hands  of  the  fit  representative  of  English 
power,  the  hangman ;  Swift  had  a  price  set 
on  his  head  ;  and  at  a  later  period  Lucas,  a 
man  quite  as  zealous  though  not  as  able,  was 
forced  to  fly  his  country ;  and  his  writings 

51 


were  prosecuted  as  libels  for  maintaining  the 
freedom  of  the  Irish  constitution.  The  his- 
tory of  a  government,  may  be  well  read  in  its 
rewards  and  punishments. 

"  The  defeat  of  Wood  was  the  first  triumph 
of  the  virtue  of  the  country,  and  the  first  les- 
son of  union  taught  to  a  divided  nation.  It 
was  learned — but  slowly  and  not  as  yet  per- 
fectly,"—T.  Mac-Nevin. 


CHAPTER    II. 

Accession  of  George  the  Second — Terror  of  the 
privileged  tyrants  at  the  union  of  the  people  by 
Swift — Progress  of  the  penal  laws — Census  under 
the  Duke  of  Dorset — Bishop  Berkeley  and  Ameri- 
ca— Primate  Stone  and  Ireland — Quarrels  of  the 
factions  over  the  surplus  revenue — Lucas  as  a 
writer — Patient  submission  of  the  people  until 
better  times  for  Ireland. 

When  the  temporary  union  of  the  Irish 
people,  during  the  opposition  to  Wood's 
halfpence,  was  observed  by  the  prelatical 
pilferers  of  Ireland,  it  struck  terror  into  the 
traitorous  hearts  of  the  tyrants.  The  primate 
(Boulter)  immediately  and  successfully  pro- 
posed a  bill  prohibiting  any  and  every  Catho- 
lic from  voting  at  any  election,  and  thus,  at 
one  blow,  disfranchised  five-sixths  of  the 
population. 

As  soon  as  possible,  several  additions  were 
made  to  the  existing  state  of  the  penal  code. 
The  Catholics  were  excluded  from  acting  as 
barristers,  six-clerks,  solicitors,  etc.  Barris- 
ters or  solicitors  marrying  Cathohcs  were 
subjected  to  all  the  penalties  and  disqualifica- 
tions of  Catholics.  No  convert  can  act  as  a 
justice  of  peace  whose  wife  or  children  con- 
tinue Catholics.  Persons  robbed  by  priva- 
teers, during  war  with  a  Catholic  prince, 
were  to  be  reimbursed  by  grand-jury  present- 
ment ;  and  the  money  be  levied  upon  the 
goods  and  lands  of  the  Catholic  inhabitants 
of  Ireland.  Another  law,  which  had  been 
passed  but  not  made  use  of,  was  now  brought 
forward.  It  excludes  all  Catholics  from 
voting  at  any  vestry  held  for  the  purpose  of 
levying  or  assessing  money  for  rebuilding  or 
repairing  parish-churches.  This  law,  we 
believe,  is  yet  in  force. 

On  the  11th  of  September,  1731,  Lionel, 


403 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1745. 


Duke  of  Dorset,  commenced  his  oflfice  as 
lord-lieutenant.  A  strong  opposition  party 
existed  in  the  Dublin  house  of  commons,  and 
the  English  ministry  attempted  to  obtain  a 
grant  of  the  supplies  for  twenty-one  years  ; 
but  the  cou^ers  were  outvoted  by  a  majority 
of  one.  Tne  gentleman  who  gave  the  casting 
vote  was  Mr.  C.  Tottenham,  of  New  Ross, 
who  arrived  so  late  that  he  hurried  to  the 
house  in  his  travelling  costume.  This  was 
considered  a  remarkable  breach  of  etiquette  ; 
and,  in  allusion  to  it,  "  Tottenham  in  boots  !" 
became  a  popular  toast  in  Ireland. 

The  members  of  the  opposition  party  were 
styled  patriots,  and  their  conflicts  with  the 
English  ministerial  influence  enabled  the  oli- 
garchy hi  Dublin  to  rob  the  church  by  means 
of  the  parliament,  and  to  rob  the  people  by 
means  of  the  church.  They  also  passed 
severe  resolutions  against  all  who  should 
demand  the  tithe  of  agistment ;  and  thus 
threw  the  burden  of  supporting  the  Protest- 
ant ministers  from  the  Protestant  landholders 
on  the  Catholic  peasants. 

As  the  penal  code  progressed,  the  Irish 
people  gradually  submitted  to  the  attainment 
of  excellence  as  peasants,  leaving  commerce 
and  pohtics  to  their  enemies.  The  census 
of  Ireland,  taken  in  1731,  is  now  worthy  of 
notice  as  comparatively  indicating  the  superi- 
ority of  agricultural  employments  in  remedy- 
ing political  evils  and  preserving  national 
dignity.  The  witty  and  sly  O'Callaghan, 
after  quoting  the  celebrated  maxim  of  "  the 
Wife  of  Bath,"  remarks,  with  a  recuperative 
conclusion,  that — "  Generation  in  an  individ- 
ual will  ultimately  work  out  regeneration  in 
a  political  sense."  The  census  of  1731, 
ordered  by  the  Duke  of  Dorset,  is  thus  re- 
corded : — 

Protestants  Catholics. 

Connaught,  .  .  .     21,604  221,780 

Leinster,   ....  203,087  447,916 

Munster,  .  .  .  .  115,130  482,044 

Ulster, 360,632  158,028 

700,453      1,309,768 

William,  Duke  of  Devonshire,  became 
Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland  September  7, 
1737.  This  nobleman  took  pleasure  in  ex- 
pending his  private  fortune  in  works  of  pub- 


Uc  utility,  and  all  Ireland  was  benefited  by 
his  residence  in  Dublin.  The  penal  laws,  of 
course,  were  in  the  hands  of  those  who  would 
not  let  them  be  idle,  but  the  passive  and 
hopeful  state  of  the  Catholics  left  the  country 
in  a  state  of  comparative  quiet.  It  is,  also 
our  duty  to  state  that  throughout  all  our  in- 
quiries we  have  seen  overwhelming  evidence 
of  the  general  disposition  of  the  Irish  people 
to  obey  the  law,  and  that  even  their  opposi- 
tion is  carried  on  with  a  merry  frankness. 
Sir  Jonah  Barrington  says — 

"  An  innate  spirit  of  insubordination  to  the 
laws  has  been  strongly  charged  upon  the 
Irish  peasantry  ;  but  a  people — to  whom  the 
punishment  of  crimes  appears  rather  as  a 
sacrifice  to  revenge  than  a  measure  of  pre- 
vention— can  never  have  the  same  deference 
to  the  law  as  those  who  are  instructed  in  the 
principles  of  justice,  and  taught  to  recognise 
its  equality.  It  has,  however,  been  uniformly 
admitted  by  every  impartial  writer  on  the 
affairs  of  Ireland,  that  a  spirit  of  strict  justice 
has  ever  characterized  the  Irish  peasant.  *  *  * 

*'  An  attachment  to  and  a  respect  for  fe- 
males is  another  marked  characteristic  of  the 
Irish  peasant.  The  wife  partakes  of  all  her 
husband's  vicissitudes  ;  she  shares  his  labour 
and  his  miseries,  with  constancy  and  with 
affection.  At  all  the  sports  and  meetings  of 
the  Irish  peasantry,  the  w^omen  are  always 
of  the  company  :  they  have  a  great  influence  ; 
and,  in  his  smoky  cottage,  the  Irish  peasant, 
surrounded  by  his  family,  seems  to  forget  all 
his  privations.  The  natural  cheerfulness  of 
his  disposition  banishes  reflection  ;  and  he 
experiences  a  simple  happiness  which  even 
the  highest  ranks  of  society  might  justly 
envy." 

Not  even  the  penal  code  could  conquer 
such  a  brave  and  gallant,  and  faithful  and 
affectionate  people  as  that. 

The  "rebellion  of  1745,"  in  Scotland, 
created  some  fears  of  an  invasion  of  Ireland. 
The  British  government,  judging,  as  usual, 
that  a  man  who  is  kind  cannot  be  firm,  re- 
moved the  Duke  of  Devonshire,  and  on  the 
31st  of  August,  1745,  the  Earl  of  Chester- 
field (who  was  a  troublesome  opponent  of 
the  home  ministry)  took  command  in  Dub- 


A.  D.  1748.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


403 


lin.  He  did  the  best  he  could  for  all  classes, 
and  roughly  handled  the  pretended  plots 
charged  against  the  Catholics.  The  oligar- 
chy, however,  succeeded  in  passing  two  more 
monstrously  cruel  penal  laws  ;  the  first,  an- 
nulling all  marriages  between  Protestants  and 
Catholics,  or  that  were  celebrated  by  Catho- 
lic priests  ;  the  second,  ordering  that  every 
Catholic  priest  who  married  two  Protestants, 
or  a  Protestant  and  Catholic,  should  be 
hanged. 

Chesterfield  was  succeeded,  September  13, 
1747,  by  William,  Earl  of  Harrington  ;  but 
the  actual  government  was  obliged  to  be  in- 
trusted to  one  of  those  wolves  who  constrain 
us  to  use  harsh  language  in  these  pages. 
Let  Taylor  speak  for  us  : — 

"  After  the  departure  of  Chesterfield,  Stone 
(the  primate)  became  the  head  of  the  Irish 
government.  This  profligate  prelate  scrupled 
not  to  employ  the  most  detestable  means  to 
effect  his  political  designs.  His  great  object 
was  to  make  government  independent  of  the 
factious  oligarchy  that  wielded  the  destinies 
of  Ireland.  To  procure  partisans  in  parlia- 
ment, he  is  said  to  have  gratified  the  sensual 
desires  of  the  young  members  with  the  most 
unlimited  indulgence.  His  residence  became 
in  fact  a  tavern  and  a  brothel.  The  oligar- 
chy, determined  to  preserve  its  power  over 
the  crown  and  the  people,  under  the  mask 
of  patriotism,  encountered  him  with  great 
virulence.  The  injury  done  by  such  a  pre- 
late to  the  cause  of  the  Protestant  religion 
requires  no  comment.  It  is  however  re- 
markable, that  in  none  of  the  attacks  made 
on  him,  do  we  find  any  allusion  to  the  effects 
of  his  scandalous  life  on  the  religious  feelings 
of  the  people." 

The  clergy  of  the  established  church  num- 
bered among  them  some  of  the  best  men  of 
Ireland.  They  deeply  felt  the  unavoidable 
disgrace  of  having  such  a  leader.  In  accord- 
ance with  the  general  plan  and  object  of  this 
work,  we  here  introduce  a  subject  which  will 
show  that  Stone  was  not  a  fair  sample  of  his 
own  class,  as  respects  morality ;  and,  also, 
how  much  good  men  may  do  if  they  rightly 
use  the  gifts  of  talent  and  station.  To  bal- 
ance such  a  vjnretch  as  Stone,  the  world  has 


been  honoured  with  the  angelic  presence  of 
such  a  man  as  Berkeley,  Bishop  of  Cloyne. 
With  regard  to  his  American  views,  we  here 
select  the  elegant  language  of  Gulian  C. 
Verplanck : — 

"  Berkeley  was  equally  distinguished  for 
the  depth  and  variety  of  his  knowledge,  the 
exuberance  and  gracefulness  of  his  imagina- 
tion, the  elegance  of  his  conversation  and 
manners,  and  the  purity  of  his  life.  It  wa« 
about  the  fortieth  year  of  his  age,  that,  wearied 
out  by  those  fruitless  speculations  in  which 
the  most  vigorous  mind  '  can  find  no  end,  in 
wandering  mazes  lost,'  he  conceived  the  pro- 
ject of  founding  a  university  in  the  island  of 
Bermuda,  on  so  liberal  a  scale  as  to  afford 
the  amplest  means  of  diffusing  scientific  and 
religious  instruction  over  the  whole  of  the 
British  possessions  in  America.  Dr.  Berke- 
ley, at  that  time,  held  the  richest  church  pre- 
ferment in  Ireland,  and  had  the  fairest  pros- 
pects of  advancement  to  the  first  literary  and 
ecclesiastical  dignities  of  that  country,  or  even 
of  England.  All  these,  with  a  disinterested- 
ness which  excited  the  astonishment  and 
sneers  of  Swift  and  his  literary  friends,  he 
proposed  to  resign  for  a  bare  maintenance  as 
principal  of  the  projected  American  Univer- 
sity. His  personal  character  and  influence, 
and  the  warmth  of  his  benevolent  eloquence, 
soon  subdued  or  silenced  open  opposition. 
He  obtained  a  charter  from  the  crown,  and 
the  grant  of  a  large  sum  of  money,  to  be 
raised  from  the  sale  of  certain  lands  in  the 
island  of  St.  Christopher's,  which  had  been 
ceded  by  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  to  the  British 
government,  but  had  afterwards  been  totally 
forgotten  or  neglected,  and  of  the  real  value 
of  which  he  had  with  great  industry  acquired 
an  accurate  knowledge. 

"  To  describe  Berkeley's  confident  antici- 
pations of  the  future  glories  of  America,  we 
must  have  recourse  to  his  own  words  : — 

*  The  muse,  disgusted  at  an  age  and  clime 

Barren  of  every  glorious  theme, 
In  distant  lands  now  waits  a  better  time. 
Producing  subjects  worthy  fame. 

*  In  happy  climes,  where  (from  the  genial  sun 

And  virgin  earth  such  scenes  ensue) 
The  force  of  art  by  nature  seems  outdone. 
And  fancied  beauties  by  the  true : 


404 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1749. 


'  In  happy  climes,  the  seat  of  innocence, 
Where  nature  guides  and  virtue  rules ; 
Where  men  shall  not  impose  for  truth  and  sense 
The  pedantry  of  courts  and  schools : — 

*  There  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age, 

The  rise  of  empires  and  of  arts, 
The  good  and  great,  inspiring  epic  rage,     . 
The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 

'  Not  such  as  Europe  breeds  in  her  decay  ; 
Such  as  she  bred  when  fresh  and  young. 
When  heavenly  flame  did  animate  her  clay, — 
By  future  poets  shall  be  sung. 

'  Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way  ; 

The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day, — 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last.' 

*•  I  have  quoted  these  fine  hnes  at  length 
because  I  do  not  recollect  to  have  seen  or 
heard  them  referred  to  in  this  country.  They 
were  written  fifty  years  before  the  declaration 
of  independence  ;  and  to  the  patriot  who  may 
now  [1818]  exult  with  undoubting  hope,  in 
the  great  and  sure  destinies  of  our  nation, 
they  may  well  seem  to  revive  the  old  connec- 
tion between  the  prophetic  character  and  that 
of  the  poet : — 

•  For,  in  a  Roman  mouth,  the  graceful  name 
Of  poet  and  of  prophet  were  the  same.'* 

"  Confiding  in  these  glorious  auguries,  and 
animated  by  the  pure  ambition  of  contributing 
to  hasten  forward  this  '  rise  of  empires  and  of 
arts,'  he  sailed  from  England  in  1728.  He 
came  first  to  Rhode  Island,  where  he  deter- 
mined to  remain  for  a  short  time,  for  the 
purpose  of  purchasing  lands  on  this  continent 
as  estates  for  the  support  of  his  college,  as 
well  as  in  order  to  gain  a  more  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  northern  colonies.  Here 
he  soon  became  convinced  that  he  had  erred 
altogether  in  his  choice  of  Bermuda ;  and  he 
applied  for  an  alteration  of  his  charter,  em- 
powering him  to  select  some  place  on  the 
American  continent  for  the  site  of  the  univer- 
sity, which  would,  probably,  have  been  fixed 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  or  in  its  vicinity. 
But  in  the  succeeding  year  all  his  sanguine 
hopes  were  at  once  extinguished  by  an  un- 
expected court-intrigue  ;  and  a  large  sum, 
(£90,000  sterling,  in  all,)  that  had  been  paid 
into  the  treasury  from  the  funds  pointed  out 
by  Berkeley,  and  part  of  which  had   been 

*  Cowper. 


solemnly  appropriated  to  the  projected  insti- 
tution by  a  vote  of  parliament,  was  seized  by 
Sir  Robert  Walpole  to  pay  the  marriage- 
portion  of  the  princess-royal ;  an  additional 
proof,  if  proof  were  needed,  of  the  truth  of 
the  old  republican  adage,  that  the  very  trap- 
pings of  a  monarchy  are  sufficient  to  support 
a  moderate  commonwealth. 

"  The  two  years  and  a  half  of  Berkeley's 
residence  in  Rhode  Island  had  not  been  idly 
spent.  It  was  there  that  he  composed  his 
*  Minute  Philosopher,'  a  work  written  on  the 
model  of  the  Philosophical  Dialogues  of  his 
favourite,  Plato,  and,  like  them,  to  be  admired 
for  the  graces  which  a  rich  imagination  has 
carelessly  and  profusely  scattered  over  its 
pages,  as  well  as  for  novelty  of  thought  and 
ingenuity  of  argument.  The  rural  descrip- 
tions which  frequently  occur  in  it,  are,  it  is 
said,  exquisite  pictures  of  some  of  those  de- 
lightful landscapes  which  presented  them- 
selves to  his  eye  at  the  time  he  was  writing. 

"  His  residence  in  this  country  gave  a 
general  stimulus  to  literary  and  scientific 
exertion.  He  became  personally  acquainted 
with  all  who  had  any  literary  taste  or  acquire- 
ment, especially  among  the  clergy  of  differ- 
ent denominations,  with  several  of  whom  he 
formed  a  close  intimac}^  and  continued  to 
encotirage  and  patronize  them  by  every 
means  in  his  power  during  his  whole  life. 
He  minutely  examined  into  the  state  of  the 
public  institutions  in  the  northern  and  middle 
colonies,  and  after  his  return  to  England, 
rendered  them  several  important  services  by 
his  J3en  and  his  influence.  Having  observed 
the  serious  inconveniences  underwhich  Amer- 
ican students  laboured  from  the  want  of  books, 
and  the  defects  in  early  classical  education, 
shortly  after  his  return  he  sent  out  to  Yale 
College  a  large  and  choice  collection  of  the 
best  works  in  different  branches  of  learning, 
which  still  forms  the  most  valuable  part  of 
the  public  library  of  that  respectable  and  use- 
ful institution.  He  accompanied  this  present 
with  a  deed  of  gift  of  his  property  in  Rhode 
Island,  directing  it  to  be  appropriated  to  the 
support  of  three  scholarships,  to  be  bestowed 
upon  the  best  classical  scholars  of  each  year. 
This  soon  produced  a  happy  effect,  and  the 


A.  D.  1757.] 


THIRD    DIVISION, 


405 


*  Dean's  Bounty,'  as  it  is  still  called,  has  ma- 
terially contributed  to  keep  up,  and  gradually 
to  raise,  the  standard  of  learning  in  a  college 
which  has,  for  many  years,  educated  a  large 
portion  of  the  scholars  and  professional  men 
of  this  country. 

"  Dr.  Berkeley  was  also  a  liberal  oenefac- 
tor  to  the  library  of  Harvard  College ;  and 
the  college  [King's,  now  Columbia]  of  New 
York,  on  its  first  establishment  some  years 
after,  was  essentially  indebted  to  him  for 
assistance  and  support. 

•'  Berkeley  returned  to  Europe  mortified 
and  disappointed ;  but  as  there  was  nothing 
selfish  or  peevish  in  his  nature,  the  failure  of 
this  long-cherished  and  darling  project  could 
not  abate  the  ardour  of  his  philanthropy. 

"  The  rest  of  his  history  belongs  more  to 
Ireland  than  to  America.  Never  had  that 
ill-governed  and  injured  country  a  purer  or 
more  devoted   patriot.      His    *  Querist,'  his 

*  Letters  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Clergy,'  and 
his  other  tracts  on  Irish  politics,  are  full  of 
practical  good  sense,  unbounded  charity,  and 
the  warmest  affection  for  his  country. 

"  Such  was  the  strong  and  general  sense 
of  the  usefulness  of  these  labours,  that,  in 
1749,  the  body  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic 
clergy,  in  a  formal  address  to  Dr.  Berkeley, 
who  was  then  Protestant  Bishop  of  Cloyne, 
returned  him  '  their  sincere  and  hearty  thanks' 
for  certain  of  these  publications,  assuring  him 
that  *  they  were  determined  to  comply  with 
his  advice  in  all  particulars  :'  they  add,  '  that 
every  page  contains  a  proof  of  the  author's 
extensive  charity  ;  his  views  are  only  towards 
the  public  good,  and  his  manner  of  treating 
persons,  in  their  circumstances,  so  very  un- 
common, that  it  plainly  shows  the  good  man, 
the  polite  gentleman,  and  the  true  patriot.' 

"  This  was  a  panegyric  as  honourable  to 
those  who  gave  it  as  it  was  to  him  who  re- 
ceived it.  It  presents  an  instance  of  pure 
and  enlightened  benevolence  on  the  one  side, 
and  of  liberal  gratitude  on  the  other,  which,  I 
fear,  has  few  parallels  in  the  ecclesiastical 
annals  of  Ireland. 

"  Berkeley's  was  one  of  those  rare  minds 
which,  by  the  alchemy  of  true  genius,  can 
transmute  and  ennoble  all  that  they  touch. 


In  his  queries  proposed  for  the  good  of  Ire- 
land he  incidentally  laid  open  many  new  and 
interesting  views  in  the  then  uncultivated 
science  of  political  economy ;  and  all  his 
writings  on  ephemeral  subjects  are  marked 
with  that  sure  indication  of  an  elevated  mind, 
— the  habit  of  referring  objects  of  local  or 
transitory  interest  to  those  broad  grounds  of 
general  reason  and  conscience,  without  the 
frequent  contemplation  of  which,  says  he,  '  a 
man  may  indeed  be  a  thriving  earth-worm, 
but  he  will  prove  only  a  sorry  patriot.' " 

Let  the  "  respectable"  and  "  thriving  earth- 
worms" read  the  respect  paid  in  after  years 
and  other  nations  to  the  memory  of  a  good 
and  useful  man.  Berkeley  is  something 
more  than  a  bishop — he  is  almost  a  prophet. 
Millions  on  the  continent  of  America  shall  re- 
echo the  honourable  approbation  and  splendid 
eloquence  of  Gulian  C.  Verplanck  in  their 
estimation  of  the  views  of  Berkeley.  The 
battles  of  the  elements  cannot  prevent  the 
communication  and  sympathy  of  thought 
between  Europe  and  America,  America  and 
Europe. 

To  return  to  Ireland.  The  Duke  of  Dor- 
set was  reinstated  September  19,  1751  ;  re- 
moved May  5,  1755,  by  William,  Marquis 
of  Hartington  ;  who  was  succeeded  by  John, 
Duke  of  Bedford,  September  25,  1757. 
Stone's  outrageous  conduct  brought  (in  con- 
junction with  an  exposure  of  the  political 
corruptions  of  the  corporation  of  Dublin)  the 
renowned  Lucas  forward  as  a  writer.  In 
October,  1749,  the  house  of  commons  re- 
solved "  that  Charles  Lucas  was  an  enemy 
to  his  country,"  and  presented  an  address  to 
the  viceroy,  requesting  "  that  Lucas  should 
be  prosecuted  by  the  attorney-general,  and  a 
reward  offered  for  his  apprehension."  Lucas, 
unable  to  resist  such  a  storm,  went  into  tem- 
porary exile.  The  writings  of  Lucas,  he  be- 
ing a  Protestant  and  a  man  of  excellent  char- 
acter, created  "  a  very  pretty  quarrel,"  which 
is  best  described  by  an  Irish  pen  : — 

"  The  accession  of  George  Stone  to  the 
primacy  and  to  the  virtual  government  of  Ire- 
land, was  felt  for  the  time  to  be  a  great  blow 
to  the  patriot  party.  Stone  was  an  unscru- 
pulous ecclesiastic,  devoted   to  the  mainte- 


406 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1760. 


nance  of  the  English  interest  against  the  Irish 
people.  He  stooped  to  the  most  polluted 
means  to  procure  adherents — some  have  gone 
so  far  as  to  say  that  he  converted  his  private 
residence  into  a  trap  baited  with  all  the  temp- 
tations of  sense,  with  wine  and  easy  beauty 
to  catch  the  light  youth  of  the  metropolis. 
His  personal  demeanour  was  full  of  haughty 
dignity ;  his  measures  were  arbitrary,  and 
his  power  overweening.  He  was  opposed 
in  the  exercise  of  the  latter,  by  Henry  Boyle, 
speaker  of  the  house  of  commons  :  and  their 
rivalries,  though  dignified  on  the  part  of  Boyle 
with  the  name  of  patriotism,  were  no  more 
than  the  struggles  of  two  ambitious  and  pow- 
erful men  for  their  own  ends.  Their  per- 
sonal contests  were  most  violent  on  a  subject 
of  some  importance,  which  renewed  the  ar- 
dour of  the  nation,  and  shed  lustre  on  the  de- 
bates of  the  commons.  The  matter,  though 
despatched  summarily  by  an  arbitrary  act  of 
the  king,  sunk  deep  in  the  hearts  of  a  people, 
lately  moved  by  the  writings,  the  labours,  and 
the  sufferings  of  Lucas.  It  occurred  in  this 
way  : — 

"In  1753,  a  surplus  after  the  public  ser- 
vice remained  in  the  treasury.  The  com- 
mons proceeded  to  bring  in  the  heads  of  a 
bill  to  apply  it  to  the  payment  of  the  national 
debt.  The  Duke  of  Dorset  told  them  that 
the  king  '  consented,  and  recommended  them 
to  apply  it  to  the  reduction  of  the  debt.' 
Consent  involved  a  principle,  and  the  com- 
mons took  fire  at  the  word.  They  sent  the 
bill  to  England,  taking  no  notice  of  the  royal 
consent.  The  bill  was  transmitted  with  the 
consent  introduced — the  patriots  were  not 
strong  enough  to  resist  the  change — but  next 
year  they  rejected  the  bill,  which  had  the 
same  unconstitutional  word.  The  king  by 
his  letters-patent  taking  the  money  out  of  the 
treasury,  cut  the  matter  short.  It  was  an  act 
of  simple  despotism,  and  excited  such  rage 
among  the  people,  that  the  Duke  of  Dorset, 
formerly  a  most  popular  viceroy,  fled  the 
country  in  abject  fear.  However,  despotism 
without  corruption  was  not  considered  as  a 
fit  exemplar  of  government — and  the  matter 
for  the  present  terminated  by  a  title  and  a 
pension  conferred  on  the  greatest  patriot  of 


the  day ;  Henry  Boyle  bore  about  the  blush- 
ing honours  of  his  public  virtue,  emblazoned 
on  the  coronet  of  the  Earl  of  Shannon.  The 
primate  did  not  fare  so  well,  he  was  removed 
from  the  privy-council.  The  rest  of  the  pat- 
riots found  comfortable  retreats  in  various 
lucrative  oflices,  and  the  most  substantial 
compliments  were  paid  to  those  who  were 
noisiest  in  their  patriotism  and  fiercest  in  their 
opposition. 

"  A  better  spirit  appeared  on  another  ques- 
tion in  1757.  Some  strong  resolutions  of  a 
committee  appointed  to  inspect  the  public 
accounts  were  reported  to  the  house,  which 
determined  that  they,  accompanied  by  their 
speaker,  should  attend  the  lord-lieutenant  and 
should  desire  his  excellency  to  lay  the  reso- 
lutions before  the  king.  He  gave  a  quibbling 
answer,  but  a  refusal — a  division  ensued  on 
the  question  whether  his  reply  was  satisfac- 
tory ;  and  the  government  was  beaten  by  a 
majority  of  twenty-one." 

This  well-condensed  and  admirably  told 
account  is  taken  from  T.  Mac-Nevin's  "  His- 
tory of  the  Volunteers  of  1782,"  and  he  very 
properly  treats  the  quarrel  and  its  conse- 
quences as  steps  of  the  grand  restoration  of 
liberty  that  is  in  store  for  Ireland. 

In  the  beginning  of  1760  a  small  French 
force,  which  left  Dunkirk  two  or  three  months 
previously,  landed  at  Carrickfergus  and  took 
the  town,  notwithstanding  a  determined  re- 
sistance by  the  inhabitants.  The  invaders 
soon  had  to  leave.  The  loyalty  of  the  Cath- 
olics caused  an  announcement  from  England 
that  the  penal  laws  were  to  be  mitigated. 
The  Irish  Brigade  were  winning  the  respect 
of  Europe  in  the  service  of  France.  With 
the  exception  of  the  Dublin  faction  and  their 
mobs,  the  Irish  people  were  confiding  their 
hopes  in  the  future. 


CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 
1727  TO  1760. 
"  It  will  be  remembered  by  our  readers 
that  the  flower  of  the  Irish  army  entered  the 
service  of  France,  after  the  peace  of  Limer- 
ick.    That  gallant  body  of  men,  nineteen 


A.  D.  1760.] 


THIRD    DIVISION 


407 


thousand  strong,  soon  rendered  themselves 
famous-  in  continental  history.  In  every 
great  battle  did  they  signalize  themselves  by 
their  bravery,  till  the  Irish  Brigade  became  a 
veord  of  terror  to  its  enemies.  The  French 
government  highly  valued  the  services  of  their 
gallant  allies,  and  resolved  to  keep  up  the 
strength  and  efficiency  of  the  force  by  syste- 
matic recruiting.  A  regular  traffic  was  ac- 
cordingly commenced  and  carried  on,  from 
most  of  the  seaports  in  the  south  of  Ireland, 
— contractors  for  recruits  undertaking  to  sup- 
ply a  certain  number  of  men,  and  providing 
vessels  for  their  transport." — Smiles. 

"We  pass  into  the  reign  of  George  the 
Second.  It  began  in  the  year  1727.  He 
was  an  illiterate  person ;  no  better  than  an 
ordinary  farmer  or  yeoman  ;  he  was  tasteless, 
of  narrow  and  inveterate  prejudices.  His 
predilections  for  his  German  connections  led 
him  into  wars  with  Spain  and  France.  In 
these  wars  England  was  soundly  beaten,  and 
beaten,  too,  principally  by  Irishmen  who  had 
enlisted  in  the  armies  of  those  countries  then 
opposed  to  her.  Spain  took  one  hundred 
and  fifty  English  ships  during  that  war,  while 
England  took  but  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  Spanish  ships.  One  of  the  chief  grounds 
of  war  with  the  Spaniards  was  the  right 
which  England  then  assumed  of  searching 
their  ships,  which  claim  she  relinquished  on 
making  peace  with  Spain.  At  Fontenoy,  the 
English  were  beaten  by  the  French  army, 
when  and  where  they  were  driven  from  the 
field  with  a  loss  of  ten  to  fifteen  thousand 
men.  Among  thdse  French  forces  that  cov- 
ered themselves  with  such  glory,  was  the 
Irish  Brigade,  commanded  by  Dillon.  It 
was  in  reference  to  these  disasters,  and  hear- 
ing that  Irish  Catholics  swarmed  in  the  ar- 
mies of  France,  that  George  the  Second 
exclaimed,  in  reference  to  the  penal  laws, 
'  Cursed  be  such  laws,  that  rob  me  of  such 
subjects  !' " — MooNEY. 

"  Any  descriptive  detail  that  we  could  give 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  Irish  people,  during 
this  lamentable  period,  must  fall  far  short  of 
the  reality.  It  would,  indeed,  be  impossible 
for  any  pen,  no  matter  how  graphic  or  elo- 
quent, to  depict  the  daily  and  hourly  suffer- 


ings of  a  whole  people,  endured,  without  in- 
termission, from  infancy  to  old  age — from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave.  We  can  readily  appre- 
ciate the  miseries  and  horrors  of  a  period  of 
destructive  civil  warfare.  We  see  the  blood, 
we  hear  the  groans,  we  witness  the  deaths ;  the 
circumstances  make  a  deep  impression  upon 
our  minds,  and  we  imagine  them  to  be  the 
very  worst  that  civilized  society  can  suffer. 

"  But  there  is  a  greater  misery  than  this, 
though  one  that  is  calculated  to  make  less 
impression  on  the  mind  of  the  general  ob- 
server. It  is  a  period  of  slow  national  tor- 
ture, by  means  of  the  law — of  quiet  oppres- 
sion and  tyranny,  inflicted  by  a  bigoted  '  as- 
cendency'— of  insult,  and  cruelty,  and  wrong, 
heaped  upon  an  entire  nation  by  act  of  par- 
liament— of  calamity  and  mischief  infficled 
upon  a  crushed  and  plundered  people,  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  the  smallest  and  least 
deserving  class  in  the  state.  What  must  be 
the  feelings  of  a  nation,  when  they  perceive 
law  and  religion  alike  converted  into  instru- 
ments of  torture  against  them — when  they 
see  justice  systematically  per\'erted,  and  gov- 
ernment used  as  a  mere  instrument  of  coer- 
cion and  plunder  !" — Smiles. 

"  In  one  of  his  letters.  Primate  Boulter 
states  the  number  of  priests  at  three  thou- 
sand, a  number  which  seems  incredible,  con- 
sidering the  violence  of  the  persecution  against 
them.  Many  of  them,  indeed,  had  returned 
from  exile,  and  displayed  that  invincible  cour- 
age and  persevering  constancy  which  religion 
inspires.  The  spirit  which  invited  them  to 
the  ministry  lightened  their  chains  and  bolts, 
illuminated  their  dungeons,  supported  them 
in  exile,  and  prompted  them  to  return,  under 
fictitious  names,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives. 
These  were  mostly  the  sons  of  reduced  gen- 
tlemen, had  tasted  of  ease  and  affluence  in 
their  younger  years,  and  were  accustomed  to 
refinement  of  manners  and  the  graces  of  edu- 
cation ;  they  were  now  confined  to  the  asso- 
ciation of  poverty  and  ignorance,  were  ex- 
posed to  the  merciless  pursuit  of  priest- 
catchers,  and  to  the  cold,  and  damps,  and 
starvation,  of  bogs  and  caverns.  When  the 
rage  of  persecution  abated,  they  issued  from 
their  hiding-places  bareheaded,  barefooted, 


406 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1761. 


half  naked,  and  half  famished ;  proceeded 
from  cabin  to  cabin,  instructing  the  ignorant, 
consoling  the  unfortunate,  infusing  the  balm 
of  religion  into  the  wounds  of  the  wretched. 
Against  these  men  the  iron  hand  of  power 
was  raised  to  crush  them  as  the  last  of  male- 
factors."  O'CONOR. 

"  After  the  Revolution,  the  Catholics  had 
literally  nothing  but  their  virtue  to  support 
them.  They  were  destitute  of  friends  in 
every  quarter.  I  have  accordingly  shown  to 
what  a  degree  they  were  the  victims  of  wan- 
ton persecution,  while  the  whigs  and  the 
tories  contended,  in  pure  spite  to  each  other, 
whicii   should  afflict  the  '  papists'  most." — 

J.  MiLNER. 

"  After  this  enumeration,  will  you,  Illus- 
trious Lady,  be  pleased  to  recollect  that  every 
one  of  these  enactments,  that  each  and  every 
of  these  laws,  was  a  palpable  and  direct  vio- 
lation of  a  solemn  treaty  to  which  the  faith 
and  honour  of  the  British  Crown  was  pledged, 
and  the  justice  of  the  English  nation  une- 
quivocally engaged." — O'Connell. 

**  The  appeals  of  the  opposition  to  the  na- 
tion awakened  the  attention  of  the  people  to 
political  subjects,  and  called  into  the  field  an 
obscure  individual,  who  quickly  outstripped 
the  tardy  march  of  the  aristocratic  patriots. 
Charles  Lucas,  an  apothecary,  having  become 
a  member  of  the  common  council  of  the  city 
of  Dublin,  commenced  a  vigorous  attack  on 
the  usurpations  of  the  board  of  aldermen. 
His  views  expanded  as  he  went  on  ;  and  he 
published  several  tracts  on  the  rights  of  the 
people,  and  the  claims  of  Ireland  to  legisla- 
tive independence.  The  oligarchy  became 
alarmed  :  they  had  struggled  for  their  own 
power :  but  now  there  was  reason  to  fear 
that  the  nation  would  reap  the  benefit  of  their 
exertions  :  they  therefore  joined  the  govern- 
ment to  crush  Lucas  as  a  common  enemy." 
Taylor. 

"  When  the  dawn  of  political  liberty  begins 
to  diffuse  itself  over  a  nation,  great  and  gifted 
characters  suddenly  spring  up  from  among 
the  people  ;  animated  by  new  subjects,  their 
various  talents  and  principles  become  de- 
veloped— they  interweave  themselves  with 
the  events  of  their  country,  become  insepara- 


ble from  its  misfortunes,  or  identified  with 
its  prosperity." — J.  Barrington. 

"  It  was  important  to  have  cleared  the  way 
to  the  king,  but  more  important  to  have  chas- 
tised the  insolence  of  his  deputy.  The  spirit 
of  the  debates  was  animated  and  just — it 
breathed  of  legislative  freedom  ;  and  though 
the  doctrines  were  not  yet  ripened,  nor  the 
courage  of  men  sufficient  to  demand  a  con- 
stitution, every  successive  triumph  over  the 
English  interest — each  victory  over  the  inso- 
lence of  power  prepared  the  nation  for  what 
was  to  be.  The  fruit  was  slowly  but  surely 
coming  to  its  maturity  :  the  seed  which  was 
planted  by  tlie  learning  of  Molyneux,  and 
tended  by  the  genius  of  Swift,  and  intrepidity 
of  Lucas,  was  soon  to  break  the  earth  and 
ripen  to  the  glory  of  the  country.  The  nation 
waited  but  an  example  of  successful  patriot- 
ism ;  and  all  the  subsequent  events  prepared 
the  mind  of  Ireland  for  the  lessons  of  freedom 
which  were  before  long  to  be  borne  across 
the  Atlantic  from  a  young  and  liberated 
world."— T.  Mac-Nevin. 


CHAPTER    III. 

Accession  of  George  the  Third — Continued  agitation 
in  Ireland — Right  of  petition,  and  encouragement 
of  the  manufacture  of  paper  by  the  receivers — 
Lucas — Flood — G rattan — Burke — Revolution  of 
the  American  colonies — Sympathy  of  Irishmen — 
Organization  of  the  Volunteers. 

If  a  History  of  Ireland  were  to  be  com- 
posed m  a  thousand  chapters,  each  chapter 
ouglit  to  contain  a  caution  against  the  "  soph- 
ism of  name."  The  sources  of  political  gov- 
ernment and  moral  instruction  were  so  poi- 
soned and  perverted  in  Ireland  during  the  first 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  it  is  difficult 
for  the  most  studied  inoffensiveness  to  express 
the  accompanying  circumstances  in  pleas- 
ing language.  In  exposing  the  rapacity  of 
the  heads  of  the  established  church  we  wish 
not  to  be  understood  as  attacking  Protestant- 
ism. It  is  done  to  expose  the  robbers  who 
now  affect  to  despise  Ireland  for  being  so 
poor  and  troublesome.  This  caution  is  given 
here,  not  on  account  of  any  lack  of  intelligence 
in  readers,  but  because  the  thieves  cry  out. 


A.  D.  1764.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


409 


when  exposed  in  their  villany,  "  Oh,  we  will 
settle  that  writer.  We  will  either  smother 
his  book  with  contempt,  or,  if  we  must  notice 
it  in  our  reviews,  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  call 
him  a  Catholic  or  an  Infidel :  the  good  public 
will  do  all  the  vulgarity  of  the  quarrelling  for 
us,  and  we  can  pluck  the  fat  goose  at  our 
leisure." 

Sincerely  wishing  to  unite  the  Irish  people, 
how  could  we  propose  to  offend  those  who 
may  think  proper  to  be  Protestants  ?  Sin- 
cerely desiring  the  unity  of  all  mankind  in  the 
attainment  of  freedom,  why  should  we  not 
point  out  their  real  enemies  ?  These  enemies 
wallow  in  the  income  of  deceit  and  destruc- 
tion, and  it  is  our  duty  to  ungown  the  Cant- 
wells  who  live  by  instigating  the  bad  passions 
of  their  Maw- worms. 

As  regards  the  course  of  the  "  ascendency" 
party  in  Ireland,  Dr.  Madden  informs  us — 

"  The  penal  code  was  framed  for  the  pro- 
tection of  confiscated  property  ;  and  the  as- 
sumed hostility  to  the  religion  of  the  people 
who  were  dispossessed,  was  only  a  prac- 
tice in  accordance  with  the  purport  and 
pretence  of  the  iniquitous  statutes  which  had 
already  legalized  three  general  confiscations 
within  a  period  of  two  hundred  years.  This 
legalized  system  of  rapine  and  proscription 
has  been  productive  of  evils  which  still  are 
felt ;  and  those  who,  along  with  the  lands  of 
the  proscribed  people,  obtained  all  the  politi- 
cal privileges  that  were  thought  essential  to 
the  security  of  their  new  possessions,  would 
have  been  more  just  than  the  generality  of 
mankind,  if,  having  power  to  protect  the 
spoils  they  had  obtained,  or  were  encouraged 
to  expect,  they  had  not  abused  their  privileges, 
and  did  not  see  in  every  extension  of  the 
people's  liberties,  another  encroachment  on 
the  limits,  now  daily  narrowing,  of  their  power, 
property,  and  political  pre-eminence." 

Gradually  the  Protestant  people  discovered 
the  position  that  they  and  their  English  breth- 
ren were  in ;  and  now,  indeed,  the  history  of 
Ireland  is  rendered  full  of  instruction.  But 
the  greatest  errors  and  real  ignorance  exist 
where  the  established  church  is  strongest — 
England.  The  consummate  hypocrisy  of  the 
legalized  wolves  still  contributes  to  give  out 

52 


the  idea  that  if  Ireland  only  had  the  "  bless- 
ings" of  England  they  would  be  found  suita- 
ble for  Ireland.  A  greater  delusion  cannot 
be  invented.  It  merely  serves  to  mislead  the 
Irish  people,  divide  the  energies  of  her  ad- 
vocates, and  perpetuate  the  security  of  her 
enemies.  What  "blessings''  can  England 
give  to  Ireland  ?  Ask  the  factory  myriads 
and  the  chain-clanking  miners.  Ask  the 
voter  who  is  disfranchised  unless  he  pays  up 
his  church-rate.  Ask  the  thousands  who 
pine  in  genteel  obscurity  and  unmarketable 
honesty.  Ask  them :  their  answers  will 
illustrate  the  wide  difference  between  the 
"  government  of  England"  and  "  the  English 
government" — a  difference  as  wide  as  that 
between  the  followers  of  religion  and  the 
traders  of  religion, 

Taylor  says — 

"  The  English  people  always  regard  their 
constitution  with  just  pride  ;  and  they  thought 
that  the  blessings  of  good  government  must 
be  secured  to  every  country'  in  which  it  was 
established.  They  did  not  reflect,  that  the 
mere  forms  of  the  constitution  may  be  pre- 
served, and  yet  more  cruel  despotism  exist 
than  Rome  witnessed  in  the  days  of  Nero. 
The  mistake  was  very  natural ;  but  it  was, 
at  the  same  time,  as  gross  a  mistake  as  was 
ever  made  by  a  nation." 

This  difference  is  well  understood  now  in 
England,  and  many  a  noble  heart  beats  high 
with  the  recognition.  But  these  noble  hearts 
have  little  power  against  the  proud,  unscru- 
pulous, and  insatiable  wretches  who  have 
become  initiated  and  identified  with  the  secret 
tyranny  of  "  the  government  of  England." 
It  was  America  that  put  the  difference  into 
shape,  and  explained  it  to  the  world  !  A  new 
light  burst  forth  in  and  shone  upon  Ireland — 
the  light  of  real  freedom.  Let  one  of  Ire- 
land's sons  tell  the  glad  tidings  : — 

"  The  reign  of  George  the  Third  was  one 
which,  beyond  all  others,  destructive  to  the 
glory  and  injurious  to  the  prestige  of  England, 
in  which  her  armies  were  captured,  her  flag 
dishonoured,  and  her  policy  made  a  sport  and 
a  scorn,  was  distinguished  in  the  history  of 
Ireland  for  struggles  of  lofty  patriotism  and 
national  virtue.     Yet  the  commencement  of 


410 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1769. 


the  reign  was  not  auspicious.  The  country 
was  torn  by  the  agrarian  outrages  of  the 
White  Boys,  Oak  Boys,  and  the  Hearts  of 
Steel.  The  peasantry,  labouring  under  every 
form  of  exaction,  ground  into  the  dust  by  the 
requisitions  of  the  landlord  and  the  visitations 
of  the  iminemorially  accursed  agent  of  clerical 
right,  the  titlie-proctor,  rose  in  riot  to  do  vio- 
lence against  a  system  they  only  knew  by 
their  miseries.  However,  the  remedy  was 
at  hand — not  to  lessen  rent  or  abolish  tithe  : 
the  ready  gibbet  did  its  duty,  and  tranquillity 
was  restored.  Meanwhile,  emigration  drew 
away  thousands  from  the  north  of  Ireland  ; 
and  the  armies  of  America  gained  many  a 
recruit  throuurh  the  active  services  of  the 
driver  and  the  tilhe-proctor. 

"  One  of  the  greatest  measures  which  the 
patriots  carried  was  the  Octennial  Bill.  Lu- 
cas had  worked  with  incessant  energy  in  the 
service  of  his  country  ;  but  disiieartened  with 
repeated  failure,  and  having  but  little  hope 
of  effecting  substantial  constitutional  freedom, 
he  often  sighed  with  the  bitterness  of  a  good 
man  working  in  vain.  But  he  worked.  One 
object  of  his  struggles  often  sought  for,  always 
eluding  his  grasp,  was  to  limit  the  duration 
of  parliament.  The  lease  for  life  which  men 
held  in  their  seats  rendered  responsibility  a 
delusion, — and  the  length  to  wliich  their  cor- 
rupt services  might  thus  extend,  made  the 
wages  of  servility  enormous.  It  was  an  evil 
of  serious  magnitude,  and  Lucas  met  it  with 
boldness,  and  at  length  triumphed  over  it. 
The  Octennial  Bill  was  sent  to  England,  and 
returned.  It  passed  both  houses  and  received 
the  royal  assent.  The  horses  were  taken 
from  the  viceroy's  carriage,  and  the  people 
drew  him  home.  Some  doubts  arose  as  to 
the  benefits  produced  by  this  bill  in  the  way 
designed  by  its  framers  ;  but  no  one  doubted 
that  the  spirit  discovered  by  the  patriot  party 
in  the  house  produced  effects  at  the  time  and 
somewhat  later,  which  cannot  be  overstated 
or  overvalued.  It  may,  indeed,  be  doubted 
whether  any  measure,  however  beneficial  in 
itself,  could  in  those  days  of  venality  and 
oppression,  with  a  constitution  so  full  of 
blemishes,  and  a  spirit  of  intolerance  influen- 
cing the  best  and  ablest  men  of  the  day,  such 


as  Lucas,  for  example,  could  be  productive 
of  any  striking  or  permanent  advantage.  We 
must  not  be  astonished  then  that  the  Octen- 
nial Bill  was  found  incommensurate  with  the 
expectations  of  the  patriots,  who  might  have 
looked  for  the  reasons  of  this  and  similar 
disappointments  in  their  own  venality,  intol- 
erance, fickleness,  and  shortcomings,  if  they 
had  ciiosen  to  reflect  on  themselves  and  their 
motives.  The  real  advantages  are  to  be 
found  in  the  principles  propounded  and  the 
spirit  displayed  in  the  debates. 

"  The  next  parliament  after  the  passing  of 
the  Octennial  Bill  met  on  the  17th  of  October, 
1769.  Lord  Townshend  was  lord-lieutenant. 
The  struggle  between  the  English  interest 
and  the  patriots  was  never  more  violent,  and 
never  more  successful,  on  the  part  of  the 
friends  of  the  people,  than  in  the  parliament 
which  Lord  Townshend  met.  He  came  to 
Ireland  the  master  of  parliamentary  tactics — 
a  practised  manager  of  contumacious  senators. 
No  effects  were  too  unlikely  or  too  remote 
for  his  genius  to  attempt — and  he  had  his 
hands  filled  to  overflowing  with  those  splen- 
did excuses  for  political  profligacy  which  the 
patriots  of  that  day  appreciated  but  too  well. 
But  Lord  Townshend,  in  making  his  bargains 
with  recreant  patriotism,  had  left  open  one 
question  on  which  the  Irish  members  ap- 
peared obstinate — the  right  to  resist  the  ori- 
ginating of  money  bills  in  England. 

"  The  Enghsh  privy-council  claimed  this 
risht  to  the  destruction  of  the  constitutional 
powers  of  the  Irish  commons.  The  latter 
refused  to  pass  a  money  bill,  sent  from  Eng- 
land, and  added  the  causes  of  the  rejection, 
that  it  had  originated  in  the  English  privy- 
council  and  not  in  the  Irish  legislature.  Lord 
Townshend  sought  to  place  his  protest  on  the 
books  of  the  commons  ;  they  would  not  per- 
mit so  gross  an  encroachment  on  their  privi- 
leges- The  lords,  however,  did  not  refuse, 
and  it  was  solemnly  recorded  in  their  books  ; 
but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  done  much  for 
the  English  interest,  to  restore  which  to  all 
its  pristine  vigour  was  the  special  mission  of 
Townshend  to  Ireland.  The  Money  Bill 
was  again  refused  by  ninety-four  to  seventy- 
one,  and  it  was  resolved  that  the  bill  was 


A.  D.  1770.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


411 


rejected  because  it  did  not  take  its  rise  in  the 
Irish  commons.  These  affairs  gave  great 
umbrage  in  England ;  and  the  press  there 
abounded  with:  the  most  insulting  representa- 
tions of  the  transaction.  Woodfall's  '  Public 
Advertiser'  of  the  9th  of  December,  contain- 
ing some  offensive  paragraphs,  the  Irish  com- 
mons remembered  the  precedents  of  England, 
and  ordered  the  paper  to  be  burned  by  the 
hangman.  They  further  resolved  to  address 
the  lord-lieutenant,  to  inform  them  whether  it 
was  his  intention  to  prorogue  the  house ;  and 
they  carried  the  address  by  a  majority  of  one 
hundred  and  six  to  seventy-three.  The  sec- 
retary brouglit  up  to  the  house  his  reply, 
which  was  not  gracious,  and  he  put  an  end  to 
his  own  discomfitures  and  the  triumphs  of 
the  patriots  by  proroguing  parliament  with 
most  indecent  haste.  This  measure,  while 
it  enabled  him  to  set  more  active  agencies  at 
work  to  diminish  the  force  of  the  opposition, 
and  consolidate  the  English  interest,  *  to  do 
the  king's  business'  more  effectually  than  he 
had  done  it  since  his  arrival,  gave  great  cause 
of  anger  and  disgust  to  the  parliament  and 
the  people  of  Ii-eland.  He  dismissed  the 
members  in  a  short  and  offensive  speech, 
which  the  house  with  great  spirit  refused  to 
insert  upon  their  journals.  Upon  the  occasion 
of  this  prorogation,  unexpected  and  uncon- 
stitutional, Mr.  Ponsonby,  the  speaker,  made 
a  speech  at  the  bar  of  the  house  of  lords,  of 
which  the  journals  take  no  notice  whatsoever. 
Plowden  says  that  his  speech  was  very 
spirited-  It  appears  to  have  been  peculiarly 
tame.  It  is  filled  with  the  usual  servile 
common-places  ;  testifies  the  accustomed 
loyalty  to  his  majesty's  person,  and  presents 
two  bills  of  supply,  voted  during  the  last 
session.  It  is  not  singular  that  the  house  of 
lords  takes  no  notice  of  the  speech. 

"  Lord  Harcourt  succeeded  Lord  Town- 
shend,  and  adopted  his  policy  of  consolidating 
the  English  interest.  In  the  same  degree 
that  the  feeling  and  organization  of  a  national 
party  were  growing  stronger,  the  exertions 
of  the  faction  in  the  confidence  of  government 
became  zealous  to  create  an  antagonist  influ- 
ence. However,  Lord  Harcourt  had  one 
merit,  the  proposition  of  an  absentee  tax  of 


two  shillings  in  the  pound  on  the  net  results 
of  all  landed  property,  payable  by  all  parlies 
not  residing  in  the  country  for  six  months.  It 
is  wonderful  how  old  are  most  of  the  reme- 
dies which  modern  conservatism  stigmatizes 
with  the  name  of  innovation.  The  proposal 
was,  however,  by  the  usual  influence,  re- 
jected ;  but  by  a  small  majority.  Conces- 
sions, too,  were  made  in  this  administration 
to  the  Catholics.  But  its  general  lone  and 
temper  was  tyrannic  and  profligate.  The 
national  debt  was  increased,  and  several  pen- 
sions created  to  reward  the  usual  services 
which  England  stood  in  need  of  here. 

"  The  American  question  was  every  day 
becoming  serious  ;  the  last  resort  of  war  had 
nearly  arrived,  and  it  is  strange  enough  that 
just  at  the  time  the  colonies  were  breaking 
out  into  open  insurrection,  the  strong  analo- 
gies between  the  case  of  America  and  Ireland 
were  pointed  out  by  a  furious  English  mem- 
ber, Mr.  Rigby,  who  had  been  secretary  to 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  and  who  held  what 
was  then  a  sinecure,  the  office  of  ]\Iaster  of 
the  Rolls  in  Ireland.  In  a  debate  on  certain 
commercial  advantages  about  to  be  extended 
by  the  house  of  commons  in  England  to  the 
Irish  people,  this  Rigby  said  that  '  the  Par- 
liament of  England  had  a  right  to  tax  Ireland 
in  all  cases  whatsoever  as  well  as  America* 

"  The  expression  was  fortunate ;  it  sug- 
gested identity  of  grievance  and  identity  of 
resistance.  The  analogy  was  entirely  com- 
plete when  the  arms  of  America  vindicated 
her  freedom,  and  when  the  constitution  of 
Ireland  was  restored  by  the  Declaration  of 
Right.  In  both  cases  there  was  rude  aggres- 
sion— in  both  cases  the  right  assumed  to  dic- 
tate legislation — in  both  cases  there  was  tax- 
ation without  representation — in  both  cases 
the  people  flew  to  arms — in  both  cases  they 
triumphed  ;  but  in  the  case  of  Ireland,  the 
fruits  of  hard-won  victory  were  lost — but  not 
forever. 

"  The  season  of  war  was  in  England  made 
a  season  of  commercial  speculation  and  fur- 
ther plunder  of  Ireland.  Under  the  plausible 
excuse  of  preventing  this  country  from  sup- 
plying America  with  provisions,  an  embargo 
was  laid  on  their  exportation.     The  real  dc- 


412 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1776. 


sign  of  this  ruinous  measure,  was  to  allow 
the  British  speculators  to  ply  their  trade 
without  any  rivalry.  The  poverty  and  the 
perils  of  the  country  at  this  period  may  be 
imagined  from  two  propositions  made  by  the 
government.  One  was  to  draw  4000  troops 
out  of  the  establishment,  which  were  not  to 
be  paid  by  Ireland  unless  when  employed  in 
that  country  :  another  was  to  introduce  4000 
foreign  troops  into  the  kingdom.  These 
troops,  as  an  inducement,  were  to  be  Protest- 
ants. But  the  Protestant  parliament  of  Ire- 
land spurned  the  servile  thought,  and  nega- 
tived the  proposition  of  the  minister  by  a 
large  majority.  They  addressed  the  lord- 
lieutenant,  and  assured  him  that  they  would 
render  such  a  measure  unnecessary  by  their 
own  exertions.  This  was  a  great  step  to- 
wards liberty. 

"  We  have  now  arrived  at  the  period  of  the 
American  Revolution,  the  giant-birth  of  a 
new  world  of  liberty. 

"  The  great  questions  involved  in  the  dis- 
pute between  England  and  her  colonies,  were 
also  the  subject  of  discussion  between  Eng- 
land and  Ireland.  It  is  not  therefore  at  all 
surprising,  tliat  the  development  and  progress 
of  the  Revolution  were  watched  with  great 
anxiety  by  the  Irish  people,  and  that  they 
desired  to  view  the  triumph  of  their  own 
principles,  in  the  success  of  the  American 
arms,  and  to  read  the  final  issue  of  their  own 
efforts,  in  the  establishment  of  a  free  govern- 
ment on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
example  of  America  was  contagious,  and  Ire- 
land was  not  long  without  showing  some  of 
the  symptoms  of  revolution. 

"  But  there  was  another  cause  at  work 
with  the  Irish  nation  in  exciting  the  spirit 
which  was  so  wonderfully  heightened  by  the 
Revolution  of  the  colonies  :  namely,  the  pov- 
erty of  the  people.  The  misery  of  the  pea- 
sants ;  the  broken  and  decayed  fortunes  of 
the  manufacturers ;  the  general  decline  or 
ruin  of  trade  and  commerce,  were  brought 
home  without  much  difficulty  to  a  long  course 
of  selfish  legislation  by  the  parliaments  of 
England ;  which  tlie  servile  assemblies  of 
Ireland  had  not  the  courage  or  the  virtue  to 
repudiate. 


"  The  latest  act  of  English  influence  was 
before  the  nation  in  all  its  destructive  effects. 
The  embargo  on  the  export  of  provisions,  im- 
posed by  a  proclamation  of  the  privy-council, 
had  increased  beyond  measure  the  distresses 
of  the  people ;  the  manufacturers  in  Dublin 
were  without  employment ;  the  tables  of  the 
house  groaned  under  the  numerous  petitions 
of  the  impoverished  population ;  and  the 
many  voices  of  wo  spoke  in  the  ears  of  a 
deaf  and  hardened  government.  The  restric- 
tions on  commerce  went  hand  in  hand  with 
a  profligate  pension  list,  sinecure  salaries, 
and  wanton  application  of  the  public  money, 
to  the  extravagance  of  administration. 

"  Lord  Harcourt  left  Ireland  in  1776,  and 
Lord  Buckinghamshire  assumed  the  reins  of 
government,  at  a  period  when  the  distresses 
of  the  people  were  at  their  height.  Govern- 
ment had  little  money  to  spare  to  alleviate 
the  urgent  wants  of  an  impoverished  country 
— the  liberalities  of  the  pension  list,  the  enor- 
mous salaries  to  reward  sycophancy  and  se- 
cret services,  had  drained  the  government 
purse,  and  taxed  to  the  utmost  the  endurance 
of  the  people.  The  expenses  in  1777,  ex- 
ceeded by  £^80,000  the  revenue  ;  Ireland  had 
been  long  a  slave,  she  was  now  a  bankrupt ; 
and  had  been  brought  to  this  state  by  the 
policy  of  England.  The  code  of  preventive 
law,  which  reduced  the  country  to  so  impov- 
erished a  condition,  having  no  excuse  in  the 
religious  passions,  and  being  the  result  of 
mere  monopoly,  presents  even  more  repug- 
nant features  than  the  penal  laws.  The 
latter  were  intended  to  destroy  a  creed  ;  but 
the  commercial  restrictive  code  had  a  much 
wider  object — to  ruin  a  people.  The  laws 
against  the  Catholic  were,  to  the  greatest  de- 
gree, sanguinary ;  but  those  statutes  which 
forbid  industry,  and  made  the  gifts  of  God 
lie  idly  unproductive  in  the  midst  of  an  im- 
poverished people,  were  more  abundant  in 
the  spirit  of  despotic  evil  than  the  other. 
'  The  distresses  of  the  kingdom,'  said  Grat- 
tan,  '  are  twofold  :  the  poverty  of  the  people, 
and  the  bankruptcy  of  the  state.  The  first  I 
will  not  ask  the  commissioners  of  the  revenue 
to  prove ;  but  I  will  ask  them  upon  oath, 
whether  the  restrictions  on  our  trade  are  not 


A.  D.  1776.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


41S 


the  cause  ?  Whether  the  prohibitions  laid 
on  by  England  against  the  exports  of  woollen 
cloths  did  not  occasion  it  ?  Whether  there 
were  not  too  many  inhabitants  in  this  king- 
dom, though  not  half  peopled  ?  Whether,  if 
to  those  inhabitants  the  American  continent 
were  still  open,  would  they  not  have  emi- 
grated thither,  rather  than  pine  in  their  native 
land  the  victims  of  English  tyranny — rather 
than  starve  in  it  by  an  English  act  of  parlia- 
ment V  " 

This  elegant  extract,  from  T.  Mac-Nevin's 
writings,  shows  the  mind  of  a  man  who  is  an 
American  in  heart  and  sentiment,  uncon- 
sciously. 

The  Americans  did  not  offend  in  advoca- 
ting liberty  or  in  going  to  heaven  their  own 
way.  Their  offences,  in  the  eyes  of  that 
which  goes  by  the  name  of  "  the  English 
government,"  consisted  in  presuming  to  claim 
the  benefits  of  their  own  labour  and  legisla- 
tion; in  building  saw-mills  and  other  im- 
provements ;  in  making  their  own  hats  as 
well  as  wearing  their  own  heads ;  and  in 
daring  to  require  the  home  government  to 
pay  proper  attention  to  the  petitions  of  the 
people.  The  facility  with  which  the  Er^lish 
government  "receives"  petitions  is  truly  won- 
derful. The  sanctimonious  scoundrels  are 
aware  that  the  people  of  England  were  once 
free  in  fact  and  in  truth  ;  it  is  therefore,  as 
Doctor  O'Toole  would  say,  "  a  part  of  the 
system"  to  let  petitions  be  "  received"  at  all 
events.  But  these  Americans  actually  pre- 
sumed to  think  that  constitutional  petitions 
should  have  constitutional  treatment.  The 
results,  which  are  inseparable  from  Irish  his- 
tory, are  thus  told  in  the  spirited  style  of 
Mooney,  being  a  sort  of  musical  accompani- 
ment in  the  relation  of  the  noble  struggles  of 
those  American  colonists  who  taught  the 
world  a  never-dying  lesson,  and  gave  a  prac- 
tical and  political  vitality  to  the  maxim — 
"  Dormitur  aliquando  jus,  moritur  nun- 
quamr  Hear  Mooney,  who  has  heard  "  both 
sides"  of  the  Atlantic,  in  calms  and  in 
storms : — 

"  Then  came  the  propositions  to  tax  the 
colonies,  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  revenue 
to  England.    An  agitation  in  opposition  to 


these  measures  was  begun  in  Philadelphia, 
in  1764,  by  Mr.  Charles  Thompson,  an  Irish- 
man, afterwards  the  secretary  of  Congress. 
The  agitation  was  continued  and  extended. 
Benjamin  Franklin  was  sent  to  London  by 
Pennsylvania  to  remonstrate  with  the  minis- 
try ;  other  states  also  appointed  him  their 
agent.  He  could  effect  nothing;  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  Thompson,  saying,  '  The  sun  of 
liberty  is  set ;  we  must  now  light  up  the  can- 
dles of  industry.'  Thompson  replied,  '  Be 
assured  we  shall  light  up  torches  of  a  very 
different  kind.'  The  agitation  was  continued. 
On  the  ISlh  of  December,  1773,  several 
armed  persons,  at  Boston,  in  the  disguise  of 
Mohawk  Indians,  boarded  three  ships  laden 
with  tea,  and  threw  the  entire  of  the  cargoes 
overboard,  without  doing  further  damage. 
The  ships  belonged  to  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. Similar  resistance  to  the  tax  was 
made  in  New  York  and  South  Carolina.  A 
cargo  of  tea  landed  in  New  York,  under  pro- 
tection of  a  man-of-war,  was  obliged  to  be 
locked  up. 

"  In  1774,  the  stamp  and  other  bills  were 
withdrawn  by  the  British  minister ;  but  the 
American  people,  now  surprised  at  their  own 
strength,  looked  for  a  free  trade,  and  liberty 
to  use  their  own  great  resources. 

"  In  January,  1775,  thirty  men-of-war  were 
fitted  out,  by  England,  to  scour  the  Ameri- 
can coast,  and  prevent  the  colonies  receiving 
European  manufactures.  In  February,  a  hot 
debate  took  place  in  the  British  parliament, 
on  the  propriety  of  coercing  the  Americans — 
carried  in  the  affirmative,  by  ayes  304,  noes 
105.  In  the  minority  were  Edmund  Burke, 
Barr}^  Connolly,  and  other  Irishmen. 

"  Mr.  Burke,  in  his  celebrated  speech,  22d 
of  March,  1775,  moved  his  thirteen  concilia- 
tory resolutions  towards  America,  which  were 
rejected,  noes  270,  ayes  78.  The  royal  as- 
sent was  given  to  a  bill  for  restraining  the 
trade  of  the  colonies  of  New  England,  and 
preventing  their  fishing  on  the  banks  of  New- 
foundland. 

"  Mr.  Wilkes,  as  Mayor  of 'London,  went 
up  with  an  address  to  the  king,  approving  of 
the  resistance  of  the  Americans,  and  praying 
the  dismissal  of  ministers. 


4U 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1776. 


"  Meetings  were  held  in  Belfast,  in  Ire-  '\  and  his  brave  volunteers,  many  of  whom 
land,  approving  of  the  resistance  of  the  Amer-  J!  were  Irishmen,  from  the  Irish  settlement  of 
icans  !  Subsequent  meetings  in  that  town  Londonderry,  in  New  Hampshire, — on  which 
sent  money  to  the  American  patriots.  occasion  he  destroyed  a  British  detachment, 

"  A  petition  was  brought  up  by  Mr.  Burke,  kilhng  and  capturing  more  than  nine  hundred, 
from  Bristol,  approving  of  the  resistance  of     in  a  desperate  assault, — led  to  a  series  of  still 


the  Americans.      A  great  excitement  grew 
up  in  London  in  consequence. 

"  The  delegates  of  the  thirteen  colonies  of 
America  met  at  Philadelphia,  10th  May, 
1775,  and  formed  a  congress.  To  this  con- 
gress Mr.  Charles  Thompson,  the  Irish  agita- 
tor, was  appointed  secretary.     He  had  been 


more  brilliant  victories  in  the  north,  which 
ended  in  the  capture  of  Burgoyne,  at  Sara- 
toga, with  five  thousand  Enghsh  troops,  arms, 
and  baggage  ! 

"  This  brilliant  run  of  victory  changed,  ac- 
cording to  Jefferson,  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
war ;  from  a  period  of  gloom,  disaster,  and 
one  of  the  leading  agitators  against  the  power  p  despondency,  which  was  previously  experi- 
of  England  for  the  previous  ten  years.  He  ||  enced  by  Washington's  diminished  army, 
was,  in  fact,  among  the  first  who  raised  the     every  battle  was  now  better  sustained.     The 


standard  of  opposition  to  the  tyranny  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  he  had  the  signal  honour  of  bearing 
the  commission  of  appointment  from  congress 
to  the  immortal  Washington  to  take  the  com- 
mand of  the  forces  of  the  United  Slates. 
"On  the    19th   of  April,   1775,  the    first 


Americans  supported  more  vigorously  the 
cause  of  liberty,  and,  amid  great  privations, 
defeated  the  British  in  several  engagements. 
At  length,  on  the  8th  of  February,  1778, 
Lord  North  introduced  his  bill  into  the  Brit- 
ish house  of  commons,  which  proposed  to 


blood  was  shed  at  Lexington,  and  the  battle  1;  concede  every  thing  the  Americans  contended 
of  Bunker  Hill,  in  which  the  king's  army  lost  Ij  for,  except  their  nominal  independence  of  the 
upwards  of  one  thousand  men,  took  place  on  i  crown  ' 


the  17th  of  June  following. 

"  Montgomery,  an  Irish  commander,  of 
brilliant  talents,  as  major-general  of  the  nor- 
thern army,  penetrated  into  Canada,  and  cap- 
tured Montreal,  in  the  name  of  the  United 
States.  He,  afterwards,  with  a  hardy  band 
from  thence,  attacked  Quebec  by  a  coup  de 
main.  They  carried  the  first  redoubts  ;  but 
one  of  a  company  of  British  soldiers,  in  re- 
tiring from  their  ground,  fired  off  a  cannon 
loaded  with  grape,  which  killed  the  brave 
Montgomery  as  he  was  encouraging  his  men 
to  the  advance. 

"  The  first  naval  battle,  on  the  American 
shores,  was  fought  in  the  harbour  of  Mar- 
garetta,  where  O'Brien,  an  Irishman,  was 
placed,  by  twenty-seven  volunteers,  in  com- 
mand ;  and  a  British  sloop-of-war  was  taken. 
John  Barry,  an  Irishman,  from  Wexford,  vol- 
unteered as  a  navy  captain,  and  received  the 
command  of  one  of  the  first  American-built 
war-ships.  He  acted  bravely  on  the  seas,  as 
the  eventful  pages  of  American  history  testify. 

*'  The  brilliant  exploit,  at  Bennington,  of 


Stark,  (whose  mother  was  an  Irishwoman,)  j  state  of  the  country,  extend  over  the  entire 


*'  The  sudden  abandonment  of  all  points  in 
dispute  produced  astonishment  in  the  house, 
and  his  lordship's  proposition  was  received, 
says  the  Annual  Register,  with  a  *  dull,  mel- 
ancholy silence.' 

"  In  a  few  days  after  this,  the  independ- 
ence of  the  United  States  was  acknowledged 
by  France.  Franklin,  Silas  Deane,  and  Ar- 
thur Lee,  were  publicly  received  at  the 
French  court  as  the  ambassadors  of  the  Uni- 
ted States  of  America.  A  PVench  army  was 
then  voted  to  aid  the  patriots,  and  from 
thenceforward  their  cause  rose  in  Europe, 
and  America,  until  at  length  they  triumphed. 
America  soon  after  established  her  independ- 
ence, which  was  the  first  move  in  advance 
towards  establishing  greater  liberties 
IN  Europe." 

To  fully  understand  the  real  value  of  the 
"  right  of  petition"  in  the  practice  of  the  un- 
warrantable upstarts  who  presume  to  act  as 
the  British  government,  let  us  again  consult 
the  classic  elegance  of  T,  Mac-Nevin  • — 

"  Addresses  complaining  of  the  miserable 


A.  D.  1776.] 


THIRD    DIVISION 


415 


reigns  of  Anne  and  George  the  First.  The 
Irish  parhament  was  confined  to  addresses — 
for,  while  the  records  of  their  proceedings 
are  but  the  cries  of  distress,  we  find  no  ac- 
tive legislation  ;  whatever  was  their  will,  they 
had  been  stripped  of  their  power  by  the  usur- 
pations of  England.  In  1728  and  1729,  there 
w^as  a  great  scarcity  of  corn,  and  general  ap- 
prehensions of  famine  ;  in  1731,  there  was  a 
deficiency  in  the  revenue.  In  1740,  for  the 
second  time  in  a  few  years,  a  scarcity  of  pro- 
visions was  felt.  The  deaths  of  the  people — 
those  unrecorded  and  silent  executions  by 
famine  and  by  misery,  were  frightfully  in- 
creased beyond  the  usual  proportion — manu- 
facturers had  no  money  to  buy  corn,  and  the 
farmers  had  no  market  for  their  produce — 
and  we  cannot  better  obtain  a  true  estimate 
of  the  poverty  of  the  nation,  than  by  the  fol- 
lowing fact.  The  national  debt  of  Ireland 
commenced  in  1715;  it  was  £16,106  lis. 
0  l-2d.,  and  increased  in  a  short  time  to 
<£:371,312  12s.  2  l-2d. ;  and  to  pay  this  sum, 
which  modern  extravagance  would  think  a 
very  mean  item  in  the  budget  of  a  minister, 
occupied  the  nation  forty  years,  and  exhausted 
all  the  experiments  of  struggling  bankruptcy, 
loans,  and  national  mendicancy. 

"  Rapidly  and  surely  did  poverty  over- 
spread our  country.  The  monstrous  specta- 
cle was  seen  of  a  nation  immersed  in  want, 
yet  with  a  productive  soil,  a  laborious  peas- 
antry, a  mild  climate  ;  with  all  the  means  of 
wealth  scattered  around,  and  all  the  material 
of  tiiriving  manufacture  wooing  the  industry 
of  the  hungry  and  oppressed.  Without  his 
sin,  the  people  suffered  the  punishment  of  the 
son  of  Jove  ;  they  were  condemned  to  hun- 
ger and  thirst  in  the  midst  of  plenty ;  their 
outstretched  hands  were  stayed  by  the  man- 
date of  English  avarice,  and  their  parched 
lips  denied  the  cooling  draught  by  the  dread- 
ful decree  of  foreign  tyranny.  *  *  *  English 
law,  and  Irish  servility,  had  created  the  stri- 
king contrast  between  the  bounty  of  Nature, 
and  the  poverty  of  iMan. 

*'  The  want  of  industry  soon  produced 
crime ;  and  the  outbreaking  of  the  White- 
boys  in  1762,  was  an  indication  of  that  great 
suffering  which  had  been  relieved  out  of  the 


public  purse,  in  the  viceroyalty  of  the  Duke 
of  Bedford,  in  1754,  when  £20,000  was 
voted  to  stay  the  steps  of  famine.  The  em- 
ployment of  the  people  was  suggested  as  a 
remedy — but  the  gibbet,  as  more  simple  in 
its  stern  activity,  was  adopted.  In  1771,  the 
revenue  was  again  deficient,  and  the  bounties 
and  public  works  were  left  unprovided  for ; 
and  in  the  years  1772,  1773,  and  1774,  the 
linen  trade,  the  only  remaining  manufacture 
that  survived  the  wreck  of  general  prosperity, 
shared  the  depression,  and  declined  consid- 
erably. Yet,  with  all  this  want,  with  utter  ruin 
approaching,  the  large  sum  of  £1,401,925 
was  sent  abroad  to  pay  troops,  from  the  year 
1751  to  1778. 

"  Thus,  at  the  period  when  the  American 
contest  attracted  the  earnest  attention  of  Eu- 
rope, but  most  peculiarly  of  the  Irish  people, 
the  state  of  the  country  had  reached  a  state 
of  depression,  between  which  and  destruction 
there  was  scarcely  one  step  to  be  passed. 

"  There  was  one  consolation  to  be  derived 
from  '  contemplating  the  results  of  the  evil 
policy  of  government :  those  who  distributed 
ruin  were  not  without  their  share  of  general 
calamity.  The  embargo  on  Irish  exports 
consummated  the  destruction  of  the  industry 
of  the  people,  and  the  disasters  of  govern- 
ment. It  w-as  a  measure  adopted  contrary 
to  lofty  and  generous  public  opinion  in  both 
countries.  Mr.  Pery  wrote  to  8ir  R.  Heron, 
the  English  secretary  in  Ireland,  stating  facts 
of  a  mosXmarvellous  description,  and  ventur- 
ing upon  predictions  which  would  have  been 
marvellous  but  that  they  were  fully  verified 
by  time.  Several  Englishmen  of  principle, 
Lord  Newhavcn  and  the  Marquis  of  Rock- 
ingham among  the  number,  pressed  on  the 
parliament  of  England  the  propriety  of  grant- 
ing to  the  Irish  nation  the  liberty  of  exporting 
their  produce,  with  the  extraordinary  excep- 
tion of  their  woollens,  which  formed  a  princi- 
pal ingredient.  Lord  Weymouth,  however, 
resisted  so  dangerous  a  concession  to  the 
claims  of  Ireland  ;  and  the  only  compromise 
which  was  effected,  was  an  Export  Bill,  with 
the  special  exception  of  woollens  and  cottons. 
The  Bristol  merchants,  who  appear  through 
the  whole  history  of  English  avarice  and  ty- 


410 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1777. 


ranny  to  have  been  influenced  by  a  policy 
pre-eminently  mean,  selfish,  and  grasping — 
the  genuine  spirit  of  paltrj'  trade — went  so 
far  as  to  heap  insults  on  their  representative, 
Edmund  Burke,  for  supporting  the  measure, 

"  The  results  of  this  barbarous  system  can 
be  studied  in  the  letters  which  passed  be- 
tween the  lord-lieutenant  and  Lord  Wey- 
mouth. The  former  bitterly  complains  of 
the  peculiar  grievance  under  which  the  Irish 
government  laboured — '  disappointments  in 
respect  of  money.'  The  pauper  executive 
had  got  a  loan  of  £20,000  from  the  banking- 
house  of  the  Messrs.  La  Touche — it  tried 
again,  but  the  fountain  was  dry  ;  the  prudent 
money-dealers  sent  back  word,  that  '  it  was 
not  in  their  power,  though  very  much  in  their 
inclination.' 

"  Bearing  these  facts  in  mind,  let  us  ob- 
serve the  progress  of  affairs  in  America.  By 
the  efforts  of  the  colonies  of  England,  Irish- 
men were,  to  a  considerable  extent,  guided 
and  influenced  ;  and  from  the  analogies  of  the 
case  of  Ireland,  and  the  case  of  America,  they 
learned  to  appreciate  more  deeply,  as  well 
the  infringements  on  their  rights  as  the  only 
substantial  remedy  of  their  grievances, 

"  The  English  parliament,  disregarding 
those  principles  of  the  English  constitution 
which  the  colonists  had  carried  with  them  to 
the  new  world,  had,  in  1765,  imposed  on  the 
American  colonies,  without  the  consent  of 
their  local  parliaments  or  councils,  a  stamp 
tax.  Its  payment  was  resisted ;  and  the 
tyrannous  measure  denounced  from  New 
York  to  Georgia.  In  deference  to  the  irrita- 
ted patriotism  of  the  colonies,  the  stamp  duty 
was  repealed  in  the  following  year ;  but  the 
English  parliament,  who,  while  they  fled 
from  their  own  measure,  were  unwilling  to 
relinquish  the  privileges  of  unconstitutional 
interference,  in  1767,  imposed  six  duties,  to 
be  collected  in  America.  Five  of  these  duties 
were  repealed — the  mixture  of  shrinking  and 
interference  was  astonishing.  But  the  duty 
on  tea  was  left  unrepealed  ;  and  this  miserable  i 
tax,  as  Burke  said,  '  shook  the  pillars  of  a 
commercial  empire  that  circled  the  globe.' 

"  America  stood  upon  the  ancient  ways  of 
the  British  constitution ;  she  denied  that  any 


right  existed  to  tax  her  in  a  legislature  where 
she  was  unrepresented  ;  she  appealed  as  well 
to  the  spirit  of  British  law  as  to  the  precedent 
the  British  minister  himself  had  set  in  the 
repeal  of  the  stamp  duty.  But  strong  meas- 
ures, and  a  more  intelligible  mode  of  reason- 
ing, were  adopted  by  the  fiery  spirits  of  New 
England.  Disguised  as  Mohawk  Indians,  a 
crowd  of  bold  young  men  seized  upon  three 
chests  of  duty-paying  tea,  and  plunged  the 
slavish  luxury  into  the  waters  of  the  Bay  of 
Boston.  These  were  noble  precedents  to 
teach  a  nation  how  freedom  may  be  won, 
and  how  deserved — they  were  not  forgotten 
by  the  Volunteers. 

"  The  Americans  had,  up  to  1775,  avoided 
the  last  resort  of  war.  But  a  rumour  was 
circulated  through  the  colonies,  that  German 
mercenaries — the  habitual  vicarious  butchers 
of  England,  who  did  her  coarser  work — were 
to  be  employed  against  their  liberties,  and 
they  renounced  an  allegiance  which  could 
only  be  preserved  by  treason  to  their  country. 
They  planted  the  seed  which  ripened  in  the 
French  Revolution ;  and  the  declaration  of 
Independence  by  Congress,  on  July  6th, 
1776,  was  the  declaration  of  war  against  old 
and  obsolete  opinions,  systems,  and  despo- 
tisms ;  it  was  the  first  great  movement  of  the 
world's  mind  towards  popular  power. 

"  It  was  impossible  that  an  excitable  peo- 
ple, like  the  Irish,  suffering  under  analogous 
wrongs,  could  have  watched  the  throes  of  the 
great  birth  of  freedom,  without  catching  some 
of  the  noble  fire  which  inflamed  their  distant 
brethren.  And  though  '  four  thousand  armed 
negotiators'  were  voted  by  the  house  of  com- 
mons, *  to  cut  the  throats  of  the  Americans,' 
the  people  shared  little  of  the  feeling  of  their 
government,  and  proudly  pointed  to  the  bri- 
gades of  Irishmen  who  fought  in  the  ranks 
of  freedom,  as  an  expiation  for  the  services 
of  their  mercenary  counlr}men.  Much  did 
they  regret,  then,  the  early  ill-fortune  of  the 
Americans.  The  efforts  of  the  republicans 
were  at  first  unsuccessful  ;  defeat  followed 
defeat ;  and  the  victories  of  England  prom- 
ised wo  in  every  form  to  the  conquered. 
Philadelphia  surrendered  ;  Washington  was 
twice  beaten  with  considerable  loss  ;  Howe 


A.  D.  1779.] 


THIRD    DIVISION 


417 


scoured  the  banks  of  the  Delaware ;  and  it 
was  not  until  far  in  the  year  1777,  that  vic- 
tory declared  for  the  patriots.  But  when 
Victory  came,  she  came  with  a  liberal  hand ; 
an  entire  English  army  under  Burgoyne  was 
captured  ;  Clinton  retreated  before  the  Ameri- 
cans ;  and  to  crown  the  successes  of  the 
army  of  liberty,  France  declared  herself  the 
ally  of  the  republican  government. 

"  Singular  contrast !  England,  the  boasted 
friend  of  freedom,  warring  against  the  princi- 
ples her  own  constitution  taught — France, 
the  despot  of  centuries,  fighting  in  the  ranks 
of  liberty !" 

The  successes  of  the  Americans  caused 
astonishing  changes  in  the  ranks  of  all  the 
parties,  however  confirmed,  in  English  poli- 
tics. The  mercantile  portion  of  the  whig 
party,  in  particular,  became  all  at  once  very 
friendly  with  the  bishops  and  blockheads  of 
the  court.  The  following  is  Burke's  defence 
of  his  course,  addressed  to  his  angry  and 
money-making  constituents  at  Bristol,  in 
1779  :— 

"  It  has  been  said,  and  it  is  the  second 
charge,  that,  in  the  questions  of  the  Irish 
trade,  I  did  not  consult  the  interests  of  my 
constituents,  or,  to  speak  out  strongly,  that  I 
rather  acted  as  a  native  of  Ireland,  than  as 
an  English  member  of  parhament. 

"  I  certainly  have  very  warm  good  wishes 
for  the  place  of  my  birth.  But  the  sphere 
of  my  duties  is  my  true  country.  It  was 
as  a  man  attached  to  your  interests,  and 
zealous  for  the  conservation  of  your  power 
and  dignity,  that  I  acted  on  that  occasion, 
and  on  all  occasions.  You  were  involved 
in  the  American  war.  A  new  world  of 
policy  was  opened,  to  which  it  was  necessary 
we  should  conform,  whether  we  would  or 
NOT ;  and  my  only  thought  was  how  to  con- 
form to  our  situation  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
unite  to  this  kingdom,  in  prosperity  and  affec- 
tion, whatever  remained  of  the  empire,  I 
was  true  to  my  old,  standing,  invariable 
principle,  that  all  things,  which  came  from 
Great  Britain,  should  issue  as  a  gift  of  her 
bounty  and  beneficence,  rather  than  as  claims 
recovered  against  a  struggling  litigant ;  or  at 
least,  that  if  your  beneficence  obtained  no 

53 


credit  in  your  concessions,  yet  that  they 
should  appear  the  salutary  provisions  of  your 
wisdom  and.  foresight ;  not  as  things  wrung 
from  you  with  your  blood,  by  the  cruel  gnpe 
of  a  rigid  necessity.  The  first  concessions, 
by  being  (much  against  my  will)  mangled 
and  stripped  of  the  parts  whicli  were  neces- 
sary to  make  out  their  just  correspondence 
and  connection  in  trade,  were  of  no  use.  The 
next  year  a  feeble  attempt  was  made  to  bring 
the  thing  into  better  shape.  This  attempt, 
(countenanced  by  the  minister,)  on  the  very 
first  appearance  of  some  popular  uneasiness, 
was,  after  a  considerable  progress  through 
the  house,  thrown  out  by  him. 

"  What  was  the  consequence  ?  The  whole 
kingdom  of  Ireland  was  instantly  in  a  flame. 
Threatened  by  foreigners,  and,  as  they  thought, 
insulted  by  England,  they  resolved  at  once 
to  resist  the  power  of  France,  and  to  cast  off 
yours.  As  for  us,  we  were  neither  able  to 
protect  nor  to  restrain  them.  Forty  thousand 
men  were  raised  and  disciplined  without 
commission  from  the  crown.  Two  illegal 
armies  were  seen  with  banners  displayed  at 
the  same  time,  and  in  the  same  country.  No 
executive  magistrate,  no  judicature,  in  Ire- 
land, would  acknowledge  the  legality  of  the 
army  which  bore  the  king's  commission  ;  and 
no  law,  or  the  appearance  of  law,  authorized 
the  army  commissioned  by  itself.  In  this 
unexampled  state  of  things,  which  the  least 
error,  the  least  trespass  on  the  right  or  left, 
would  have  hurried  down  the  precipice  into 
an  abyss  of  blood  and  confusion,  the  people 
of  Ireland  demanded  a  freedom  of  trade  with 
arms  in  their  hands.  They  interdict  all  com- 
merce between  the  two  nations.  They  deny 
all  new  supply  in  the  house  of  commons, 
although  in  time  of  war.  They  stint  the 
trust  «f  the  old  revenue,  given  for  two  years 
to  all  the  king's  predecessors,  to  six  months. 
The  British  parliament,  in  a  former  session, 
frightened  into  a  hmited  concession  by  the 
menaces  of  Ireland,  frightened  out  of  it  by 
the  menaces  of  England,  was  now  frightened 
back  again,  and  made  a  universal  surrender 
of  all  that  had  been  thought  the  peculiar, 
reserved,  uncommunicable  rights  of  England  ; 
— the  exclusive  commerce  of  America,  of 


418 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1777. 


Africa,  of  the  West  Indies — all  the  enumera- 
tions of  the  acts  of  navigation — all  the  manu- 
factures— iron,  glass,  even  the  last  pledge  of 
jealousy  and  pride,  the  interest  hid  in  the 
secret  of  our  hearts,  the  inveterate  prejudice 
moulded  into  the  constitution  of  our  frame, 
even  the  sacred  fleece  itself,  went  together. 
No  reserve,  no  exception,  no  debate,  no  dis- 
cussion. A  sudden  light  broke  in  upon  us 
all.  It  broke  in,  not  through  well-contrived 
and  well-disposed  windows,  but  through  flaws 
and  breaches  ;  through  the  yawning  chasms 
of  our  ruin.  We  were  taught  wisdom  by 
humiliation.  No  town  in  England  presumed 
to  have  a  prejudice,  or  dared  to  mutter  a 
petition.  What  was  worse,  the  whole  parlia- 
ment of  England,  which  retained  authority 
for  nothing  but  surrenders,  was  despoiled  of 
every  shadow  of  its  superintendence.  It  was, 
without  any  qualification,  denied  in  theory,  as 
it  had  been  trampled  upon  in  practice.  This 
scene  of  shame  and  disgrace  has,  in  a  man- 
ner while  I  am  speaking,  ended  by  the  per- 
petual establishment  of  a  military  power,  in 
the  dominions  of  this  crown,  without  consent 
of  the  British  legislature,*  contrary  to  the 
policy  of  the  constitution,  contrary  to  the 
declaration  of  right :  and  by  this,  your  lib- 
erties are  swept  away  along  with  your  su- 
preme authority — and  both,  linked  together 
from  the  beginning,  have,  I  am  afraid,  both 
together  perished  forever. 

"  What !  gentlemen,  was  I  not  to  foresee, 
or,  foreseeing,  was  I  not  to  endeavour  to  save 
you  from  all  these  multiplied  mischiefs  and 
disgraces  ?  Would  the  little,  silly,  canvass 
prattle  of  obeying  instructions,  and  having  no 
opinions  but  yours,  and  such  idle,  senseless 
tales,  which  amuse  the  vacant  ears  of  un- 
thinking men,  have  saved  you  from  'the 
pelting  of  that  pitiless  storm,'  to  which  the 
loose  improvidence,  the  cowardly  rashness, 
of  those  who  dare  not  look  danger  in  the 
face,  so  as  to  provide  against  it  in  time,  and 
therefore  threw  themselves  headlong  into  the 
midst  of  it,  have  exposed  this  degraded  na- 
tion, beaten  down  and  prostrate  on  the  earth, 
unsheltered,  unarmed,  unresisting  ?  Was  I 
an  Irishman  on  that  day  that  I  boldly  with- 
*  Irish  Perpetual  Mutiny  Act 


stood  our  pride  ?  or  on  the  day  that  I  hung 
down  my  head,  and  wept  in  shame  and  si- 
lence over  the  humiliation  of  Great  Britain  ? 
I  became  unpopular  in  England  for  the  one, 
and  in  Ireland  for  the  other.  What  then  ? 
What  obligation  lay  on  me  to  be  popular  ?  I 
was  bound  to  serve  both  kingdoms.  To  be 
pleased  with  my  service  was  their  affair,  not 
mine. 

"  I  was  an  Irishman  in  the  Irish  business, 
just  as  much  as  I  was  an  American,  when, 
on  the  same  principles,  I  wished  you  to  con- 
cede to  America,  at  a  time  when  she  prayed 
concession  at  our  feet.  Just  as  much  was  I 
an  American  when  I  wished  parliament  to 
offer  terms  in  victory,  and  not  to  wait  the 
well-chosen  hour  of  defeat,  for  making  good 
by  weakness,  and  by  supplication,  a  claim  of 
prerogative,  pre-eminence,  and  authority, 

"  Instead  of  requiring  it  from  me,  as  a 
point  of  duty,  to  kindle  with  your  passions, 
had  you  all  been  as  cool  as  I  was,  you 
would  have  been  saved  disgraces  and  dis- 
tresses that  are  unutterable.  Do  you  re- 
member our  commission  ?  We  sent  out  a 
solemn  embassy  across  the  Atlantic  ocean, 
to  lay  the  crown,  the  peerage,  the  commons 
of  Great  Britain,  at  the  feet  of  the  American 
congress.  That  our  disgrace  might  want  no 
sort  of  brightening  and  burnishing,  observe 
who  they  were  that  composed  that  famous 
embassy.  My  Lord  Carlisle  is  among  the 
first  ranks  of  our  nobility.  He  is  the  identical 
man  who  but  two  years  before  had  been  put 
forward,  at  the  opening  of  a  session  in  the 
house  of  lords,  as  the  mover  of  a  haughty 
and  rigorous  address  against  America.  He 
was  put  in  the  front  of  the  embassy  of  sub- 
mission. Mr.  Eden  was  taken  from  the 
office  of  Lord  Suffolk,  to  whom  he  was  then 
under  secretary  of  state  ;  from  the  office  of 
that  Lord  Suffolk,  who,  but  a  few  weeks 
before,  in  his  place  in  parliament,  did  not 
deign  to  inquire  where  a  'congress  of  va- 
grants' was  to  be  found.  This  Lord  Suffolk 
sent  Mr.  Eden  to  find  these  vagrants,  without 
knowing  where  this  king's  generals  were  to 
be  found,  who  were  joined  in  the  same  com- 
mission of  supplicating  those  whom  they 
were  sent  to  subdue.     They  enter  the  capital 


A.  D.  1780.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


419 


of  America  only  to  abandon  it ;  and  these 
assertors  and  representatives  of  the  dignity 
of  England,  at  the  tail  of  a  flying  army,  let 
fly  their  Parthian  shafts  of  memorials  and 
remonstrances  at  random  behind  them.  Their 
promises  and  iheir  offers,  their  flatteries  and 
their  menaces,  were  all  despised ;  and  we 
were  saved  the  disgrace  of  their  formal  recep- 
tion, only  bec?iuse  the  congress  scorned  to 
receive  them  ;  while  the  state-house  of  in- 
dependent Philadelphia  opened  her  doors  to 
the  public  entry  of  the  ambassador  of  France. 
From  war  and  blood  we  went  to  submission  ; 
and  from  submission  plunged  back  again  to 
war  and  blood ;  to  desolate  and  be  desolated, 
without  measure,  hope,  or  end.  I  am  a 
royalist,  I  blushed  for  this  degradation  of  the 
crown.  I  am  a  whig,  I  blushed  for  the  dis- 
honour of  parhament.  J  am  a  true  English- 
man, I  felt  to  the  quick  for  the  disgrace  of 
England.  I  am  a  man,  I  felt  for  the  melan- 
choly reverse  of  human  affairs,  in  the  fall  of 
the  first  power  in  the  world. 

"  To  read  what  was  approaching  in  Ire- 
land, in  the  black  and  bloody  characters  of 
the  American  war,  was  a  painful,  but  it  was 
a  necessary  part  of  my  public  duty.  For, 
gentlemen,  it  is  not  your  fond  desires  or  mine 
that  can  alter  the  nature  of  things  ;  by  con- 
tending against  which  what  have  we  got,  or 
shall  ever  get,  but  defeat  and  shame  ?  I 
did  not  obey  your  instructions  :  no,  I  con- 
formed to  the  instructions  of  truth  and  nature, 
and  maintained  your  interest,  against  your 
opinions,  with  a  constancy  that  became  me. 
A  representative  worthy  of  you  ought  to  be  a 
person  of  stability.  I  am  to  look,  indeed,  to 
your  opinions  ;  but  to  such  opinions  as  you 
and  I  miLst  have  five  years  hence.  I  was  not 
to  look  to  the  flash  of  the  day.  I  knew  that 
you  chose  me,  in  my  place,  along  with  others, 
to  be  a  pillar  of  the  state,  and  not  a  weather- 
cock on  the  top  of  the  edifice,  exalted  for  my 
levity  and  versatility,  and  of  no  use  but  to 
indicate  the  shiftings  of  every  fashionable 
gale.  Would  to  God,  the  value  of  my  senti- 
ments on  Ireland  and  on  America  had  been 
at  this  day  a  subject  of  doubt  and  discussion  ! 
No  matter  what  my  suffering  had  been,  so  that 
this  kingdom  had  kept  the  authority  I  wished 


it  to  maintain,  by  a  grave  foresight,  and 
by  an  equitable  temperance  in  the  use  of 
its  power." 

To  return  to  Ireland.     Here  is  a  noble  and 
lovely  picture,  drawn  by  T.  Mac-Nevin  : — 

"The  19th  of  April,  1780,  was  th'e  day 
selected  by  G  rattan  to  crown  the  triumph  of 
the  principles  of  Swift,  of  Molyneux,  and 
Lucas.  On  that  great  day,  he  took  posses- 
sion of  the  heritage  of  their  wisdom,  and  gave 
form  to  their  noblest  conceptions.  Every 
exertion  had  been  made  to  impede  him  in  his 
career;  he  had  been  treated  as  a  Phaeton 
rashly  meddling  with  the  chariot  of  the  sun  ; 
he  was  described  as  a  madman.  But  with 
wise  passion  he  scanned  the  future,  he  de- 
cided that  no  time  was  to  be  given  to  the 
enemies  of  his  country,  and  his  assault  upon 
old  usurpation  was  one  full  of  brilliancy,  fire, 
and  wisdom.  No  greater  day,  none  of  more 
glory  ever  rose  upon  this  countr)^  than  that 
which  dawned  upon  the  senate  house  of  Ire- 
land, on  the  19th  of  April,  1780.  The  dull 
chronicles  of  the  time,  and  the  meager  press 
which  then  represented  popular  opinion,  are 
filled  with  details  of  the  circumstances  under 
which  Grattan  brought  forward  his  Declara- 
tion of  Right.  They  were  circumstances 
certainly  unequalled  in  our  history,  of  milita- 
ry splendour  and  moral  triumph.  The  streets 
around  the  Attic  temple  of  legislation  were 
thronged  with  the  disciplined  numbers  of  the 
Volunteers,  and  the  impatient  multitude  of  the 
people.  The  uniforms  of  the  Irish  army,  the 
gaudy  orange,  the  brilliant  scarlet,  and  the 
chaster  and  more  national  green — turned  up 
with  different  facings,  according  to  the  tastes 
of  the  various  corps — contrasted  gayly  with 
the  dark  back-ground  of  the  civilian  mass, 
that  watched  with  eager  eyes  the  extraordi- 
nary scene.  Over  the  heads  of  the  crowd 
floated  the  banners  of  the  Volunteers,  with 
the  watchwords  of  freedom  and  political  re- 
generation worked  in  gold  or  silver  on  a 
giound  of  blue,  green,  or  white.  And  truly, 
the  issue  to  be  tried  within  the  walls  of  that 
magnificent  building,  was  one  great  in  its 
effects,  and  illustrious  from  the  character  of 
the  contending  parties.  It  was  a  trial  of  right 
between  two  great  nations — but  more,  it  was 


430 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1780. 


to  be  either  a  precedent  of  freedom,  or  an  ar- 
gument of  usurpation.  Much  depended  on 
the  result,  not  alone  as  to  the  present  inter- 
ests, but  as  to  the  future  destinies  of  the 
country ;  and  the  great  men  who  were  en- 
gaged in  conducting  this  controversy  of  lib- 
erty were  fully  alive  to  the  dignity  of  their 
parts,  and  fully  competent  to  the  successful 
discharge  of  the  lofty  mission  they  had  un- 
dertaken, 

"  Within  the  walls  of  the  house  of  com- 
mons, a  scene  of  great  interest  presented  it- 
self to  the  eye.  The  galleries  were  thronged 
with  women  of  the  first  fashion,  beautiful, 
elegantly  dressed,  and  filled  with  animated 
interest  in  the  anticipated  triumphs  of  an 
eloquence  to  wiiich  the  place  was  sacred. 
Scattered  through  the  house,  were  several 
officers  of  the  Volunteers  ;  for  a  Considerable 
number  of  the  members  held  commissions  in 
that  great  body.  But  the  chief  attractions 
of  the  house,  were  those  distinguished  men 
who  were  upon  that  day  to  make  the  noblest 
chapter  in  the  history  of  Ireland — men  cele- 
brated beyond  those  of  almost  any  age  for  the 
possession  of  the  highest  of  man's  qualities, 
eloquence,  wit,  statesmanship,  political  wis- 
dom, and  unbounded  knowledge.  There 
were  to  be  seen  and  heard  there  that  day,  the 
graceful  and  eloquent  Burgh — the  intrepid 
advocate,  the  consummate  orator,  the  im- 
maculate patriot,  John  Philpot  Curran — the 
wise  statesman,  Flood — and  the  founder  of 
Irish  liberty,  who  watched  it  in  its  cradle, 
and  who  followed  it  to  its  grave,  Grattan. 
Among  the  spectators,  were  Lifford,  the 
chancellor,  whose  voice  had  negatived  every 
liberty,  and  denied  every  concession — Charle- 
mont,  the  truest  of  patriots,  but  the  worst  of 
statesmen — and  Frederick,  (Earl  of  Bristol 
and  Bishop  of  Derry,)  whose  coronet  and 
miti-e  could  not  keep  down  the  ambition  of 
a  tribune,  nor  conceal  the  finest  qualities 
of  a  demagogue.  All  eyes  were  turned  to 
Grattan.  *  .  ♦  * 

"  The  Volunteers  were  unpaid  ;  they  were 
of  the  people,  the  children  and  champions  of 
the  state  ;  the  preservation  of  public  peace 
was  an  object  most  dear  to  them,  not  as  a 
specific  duty,  but  as  a  matter  of  pride  and 


love ;  and  therefore  the  testimonies  of  all 
men,  in  the  houses  of  parliament  of  England 
and  of  Ireland,  and  in  the  newspapers  and 
political  literature  of  the  day,  attribute  to  the 
existence  of  the  Volunteers,  the  profound 
peace,  the  respect  to  law,  and  the  regard  for 
property  which  existed  in  Ireland  during  their 
confederation." 

The  truth  of  this  picture  is  confirmed  by 
the  testimony  of  a  man  not  very  likely  to  be 
influenced  with  superficial  enthusiasm — Jere- 
my Bentham.     He  says — 

"  Such  being  for  five  years  together  the 
effect  of  the  volunteer  system — of  the  will  of 
the  people  manifesting  itself  on  the  principle 
of  universal  suffrage — in  a  word,  of  demo- 
cratic ascendency  substituted  for  a  mixture 
of  monarchical  and  aristocratical  ascendency 
under  a  foreign  monarch,  and  calling  itself 
'  Protestant  ascendency'  because  it  was  by 
Protestant  hands  that  the  tyranny  was  exer- 
cised— such  being  the  nature  of  the  powerful 
influence  exercised  by  the  body  of  the  people 
on  the  conduct  of  the  government — what  were 
the  results  ? 

"  Subversion  of  the  rights  of  property  ? 
No  such  thing.  Subversion  of  the  constitu- 
tion ?  No  such  thing.  In  the  constitution 
of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland,  a  change  was  in- 
deed effected.  But  even  on  the  occasion  on 
which  it  was  effected,  numerous  as  were  the 
authorities,  without  the  concurrence  of  which 
the  change  neither  was  nor  could  have  been 
effected,  ample  in  every  case  was  the  ap- 
plause bestowed  upon  it.  Scarcely  in  any 
one  was  an  objection  made  to  it — nor  has  so 
much  as  the  shadow  of  an  objection  been 
raised  against  it  since.  The  only  flagrantly 
bad  point  removed,  all  the  other  points,  good 
and  bad  together,  continued  as  before. 

"  Such  being  the  institution — democratic 
ascendency — behold  its  fruits  :  tranquillity, 
harmony,  morality,  felicity,  unexampled 
Such  as  they  were — behold  another  miracle 
— by  the  evidence  of  all  parties  in  one  voice, 
their  existence  was  acknowledged.  People's 
men  triumphed  in  their  golden  age,  and  re- 
corded it.  Aristocratic  whigs,  even  after 
they  had  succeeded  in  destroying  it — in  sub- 
stituting for  it  the  iron  age — trumpeted  it, 


A.  D.  1782] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


421 


calling  it  their  own  work.  So  conspicuous 
was  it— T-so  incontestable,  that  not  even  could 
the  most  zealous  monarchists  and  tones  for- 
bear confessing  its  existence." 
-  The  year  1781  closed  in  Ireland  with  a 
movement  which  is  thus  described  by  T. 
Mac-Nevin : — 

"  On  the  28th  of  December,  1781,  the  offi- 
cers and  delegates  of  the  Ulster  first  regi- 
ment, commanded  by  Lord  Charlemont,  as- 
sembled at  Belfast  to  take  into  consideration 
the  state  of  the  country  and  the  prospects  of 
the  national  cause.  Consideriqg  what  little 
attention  the  corrupt  majority  of  the  house  of 
commons  had  paid  to  the  constitutional  rights 
of  Ireland,  they  invited  the  Volunteer  regi- 
ments of  Ulster  to  assume  the  functions  vir- 
tually abdicated  by  parliament,  and  to  send 
delegates  to  deliberate  on  the  alarming  situa- 
tion of  public  affairs.  They  fixed  upon  the 
15th  February,  1782,  for  the  intended  con- 
vention, and  Dungannon  as  the  theatre  of  the 
warlike  delegation." 

These  glorious  struggles,  although  after- 
wards made  useless  by  the  cajolery  and  ty- 
ranny of  the  British  government,  fully  explain 
the  readiness  and  facility  with  which  Irish- 
men become  good  American  citizens.  The 
struggles  of  Ireland  form  the  history  of  con- 
stitutional liberty.  But  our  words  are  little 
needed  in  the  observations  of  a  discriminating 
reader. 


CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 

1760  TO  1782. 
"  Before  the  war  against  American  inde- 
pendence, Ireland  was  poor,  but  owed  no 
debt.  That  war  was  to  her  ^fraterna  acies, 
for  it  was  against  the  interests  and  inclina- 
tions of  the  majority  of  her  people.  It  be- 
stowed upon  her  a  debt  of  between  two  and 
three  millions ;  but  it  brought  some  advan- 
tage. It  gave  her  her  volunteer  army,  and 
somewhat  of  a  national  spirit,  and  won  for 
her  that  sunny  hour  of  independence  and 
prosperity  which,  all  transient  as  it  was,  suf- 
ficed to  show  what — with  the  free  employ- 
ment of  her  own  great  national  resources — 


she  might  soon  become  :  and  for  a  little  sea- 
son, rare  and  wonderful,  there  was  in  Ireland 
peace,  union,  and  contentment." — W.  Samp- 
son. 

"After  the  laws  had  disfranchised  four- 
fifths  of  the  population,  all  the  emoluments 
of  office,  all  the  wealth  of  the  richest  church 
in  the  world,  all  the  distinctions  of  power,  all 
the  pomp,  circumstance,  and  advantages  of 
dominion  fell  into  the  lap  of  the  favoured 
few.  These  men  never  wished  to  lessen  the 
pretext  of  their  gains  ;  they  never  sought  the 
conversion  of  their  helots  by  any  means  that 
ever  made  proselytes  to  any  cause. 

"  The  domestic  spoliation  of  the  Catholics 
was  the  share  of  the  Irish  Protestants  in  this 
wholesale  robbery.  The  spoliation  of  the 
Irish  nation  was  the  part  of  England  in  the 
boundless  plunder :  she  took  the  whole  trade, 
prosperity,  and  independence  of  Ireland,  which 
the  Irish  Protestants  freely  surrendered  for 
the  license  to  pillage  and  tyrannize  at  home. 
These  wrongs  inflicted  and  endured  begat 
mutual  hatred  and  frequent  collision,  and  will 
account  for  the  little  union  among  Irishmen, 
and  the  ferocity  of  character  to  be  found  in 
those  districts  where  the  adverse  parties  came 
oftenest  into  contact. 

"  This  barter  of  a  nation's  rights  for  the 
lucre  of  a  faction  is  what  was  called  the  Prot- 
estant ascendency  in  church  and  state.  It 
was  also  called  the  British  constitution." — 
W.  J.  Mac-Neven. 

"The  organization  of  the  Volunteers  spread 
like  lightning  through  the  land.  The  Prot- 
estants of  the  country  thronged  the  ranks : 
the  leading  noblemen  and  gentlemen  assumed 
command.  But  there  was  one  great  section 
of  the  people,  which  at  this  time  of  peril  from 
foreign  foe,  and  weakness  of  the  government, 
might  have  been  well  excused  if  they  had 
stood  aloof  in  cold  indifference  or  moody  an- 
ger. What  had  the  Catholics  to  hope  from 
any  change  ?  What  to  them  was  change  of 
dynasty  or  change  of  system  ?  In  every 
benefit,  in  every  grace,  they  stood  excepted. 
They  had  felt  the  iron  of  oppression  in  their 
souls — they  had  suffered  for  their  loyalty  as 
for  their  treason.  Deprived  of  property,  and 
plunged  in  darkest  ignorance,  despoiled  of 


493 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1782. 


rank,  and  power,  and  privilege,  and  land, 
little  was  left  for  that  unhappy  people  in  their 
own  country,  but  the  pursuits  of  paltriest 
trade  or  meanest  usury.  But  they  waxed 
great  and  numerous,  and  strong  in  persecu- 
tion ;  the  masters  trembled  at  the  number  of 
their  slaves.  Yet,  tortured  as  they  had  been 
during  centuries  of  wrong — debased  by  ig- 
norance, and  beset  by  foes,  it  was  not  in  the 
hour  of  national  uprising  that  this  suffering, 
but  gallant  race,  remembered  their  hard  fate, 
or  dreamed  of  vengeance.  Far  different  feel- 
ings and  nobler  passions  stirred  their  souls. 
They  looked  with  pride  upon  the  glorious 
pageant  of  their  armed  countrymen  ;  they 
saw  in  the  great  movement  a  bright  though 
distant  hope,  that,  when  the  objects  of  the 
Volunteers  should  have  been  achieved,  their 
rights  so  long  withheld  would  be  awarded  to 
their  great  endurance,  and  the  wrongs  so  long 
and  ruthlessly  inflicted,  would  cease  forever. 
•  *  *  *  The  Catholics  of  Limerick,  forbid- 
den the  use  of  arms,  subscribed  and  made  a 
present  of  £800  to  the  treasury  of  the  Vol- 
unteers."— T.  Mac-Nevin. 

"  The  Irish  nation,  it  is  true,  possessed,  at 
this  time,  a  parliament,  but  one  withal  so 
subservient  and  restrained,  that  it  could  do 
little.  By  Poynings's  law,  passed  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  the  Seventh,  the  Irish  parliament 
could  originate  no  measure  that  had  not  the 
sanction  of  the  British  privy-council.  Not- 
withstanding this,  the  Irish  parliament  fre- 
quently manifested  signs  of  vital  independ- 
ence, and  kept  the  hand  of  England  out  of 
her  exchequer.  An  occasional  gleam  of  na- 
tional spirit  would  flicker  in  the  dark  horizon." 

MOONEY. 

"  The  government  was  stimulated  to  exer- 
tion in  the  amelioration  of  the  penal  code,  by 
the  intelligence  which  arrived  from  across  the 
Atlantic  towards  the  close  of  the  year.  Gen- 
eral Burgoyne  had  surrendered  to  the  Ameri- 
can '  rebels'  at  Saratoga,  and  the  entire  Brit- 
ish army  had  been  led  into  captivity  !  Of  the 
Irish  in  America,  a  large  proportion  every- 
where stood  foremost  on  the  side  of  the  pa- 
triots. It  seemed  as  if  Providence  had  mys- 
teriously used  the  victims  of  Britain's  cruelty 
to  Ireland — the  men  whom  her  persecutions 


had  banished  from  the  bosom  of  their  own 
land — as  the  means  of  her  final  punishment 
and  humiliation  on  a  foreign  soil.  As  the 
Irish  Brigade  struck  down  the  British  power 
at  Landen  and  Fontenoy,  so  did  the  refugee 
Irish,  in  the  ranks  of  the  American  patriot 
army,  contribute  to  pluck  from  the  haughty 
brow  of  Britain  the  palm  of  empire." — 
Smiles. 

"  Free  trade  was  carried  in  the  Irish  par- 
liament, but  it  was  not  yet  sanctioned  by  the 
king.  Meantime  the  Dubhn  volunteers  met 
for  review  in  Dubhn.  They  were  the  artil- 
lery corps  commanded  by  James  Napper 
Tandy,  and  they  appeared  on  parade  with 
their  guns  covered  over  with  placards  ;  and 
pasted  very  near  the  touchholes  was  the  sig- 
nificant sentence,  *  Free  Trade  or  Speedy 
Revolution !'  This  cry  alarmed  the  king. 
Free  trade  was  conceded.  It  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  a  cry  for  a  free  parliament.  From 
this  to  1782  the  public  mind  was  ripening  for 
independence." — Mooney. 

"  Ireland  has  strong  claims  to  the  good 
will  and  affection  of  America.  Let  it  be  re- 
membered, that,  when  the  war  of  our  Revo- 
lution broke  out,  the  inhabitants  of  Belfast,  in 
the  north  of  Ireland,  were  the  very  first  Eu- 
ropean community — the  court  of  France  does 
not  come  under  that  classification — that  gave 
open  expression  to  their  good  wishes  for  the 
American  cause.  Public  meetings,  quickly 
following  the  first,  were  held  throughout  the 
country,  to  encourage  the  transatlantic  re- 
sistance ;  and,  as  the  contest  went  on,  Ire- 
land, catching  inspiration  from  the  example 
of  the  New  World,  took  that  noble  attitude 
of  resistance  which  gained  for  her,  in  1782, 
under  the  guidance  of  Grattan  and  his  patriot 
associates,  the  legislative  and  commercial  in- 
dependence which  was  destined  to  so  short  a 
life.  But,  from  that  period  of  a  common 
sympathy — which  ought  not  to  be  affected 
by  success  or  failure — Irishmen  have  never 
ceased  to  look  towards  America  with  ardent 
affection ;  loving  the  people  who  won  the 
freedom  for  which  they  vainly  sighed  and 
valiantly  fought ;  and  regarding  this  country 
as  the  natural  haven  for  hopes — too  often 
shipwrecked  in  the  tempest  of  hard  fate  that 


A.  D.  1782.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


423 


assails  their  native  land." — N.  Am.  Review ; 
January,  1841. 

"  There  is  no  truth  more  thoroughly  estab- 
lished than  that  there  exists  in  the  economy 
and  course  of  nature  an  indissoluble  union 
between  virtue  and  happiness,  between  duty 
and  advantage,  between  the  genuine  maxims 
of  an  honest  and  magnanimous  policy  and 
the  solid  rewards  of  public  prosperity  and 
felicity ;  since  we  ought  to  be  no  less  per- 
suaded, that  the  propitious  smiles  of  Heaven 
can  never  be  expected  on  a  nation  that  disre- 
gards the  eternal  rules  of  order  and  right 
which  Heaven  itself  has  ordained,  and  since 
the  preservation  of  the  sacred  fire  of  liberty 
and  the  destiny  of  the  republican  model  of 
government  are  justly  considered  as  deeply, 
perhaps  as  finally,  staked  on  the  experiment 
intrusted  to  the  hands  of  the  American  peo- 
ple."— Washington. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Proceedincrs  of  the  Volunteers — The  Americans  dis- 
posed of  by  British  submission — Immediate  rally 
of  the  church-and-state  influence  in  Ireland — 
Lord  Charlemont  cajoled — Dispersion  of  the  Vol- 
unteers— Splendid  accommodations  for  the  spare 
energies  of  aristocratic  patriots — The  principle 
of  unity  extending  among  the  real  people — Rise 
of  the  United  Irishmen. 

To  properly  appreciate  the  initiatory  glory 
which  actually  belongs  to  the  Volunteers  of 
1782,  we  should  not  expect  to  be  gratified 
with  great  or  immediate  successes.  The 
worst  patriots  and  the  most  doubtful  freemen 
are  those  who  measure  every  effort  by  its 
"  quick  return"  of  profit.  It  would  be  unfair 
towards  both  the  living  and  the  dead  if  we 
were  to  proceed  with  our  story  until  the 
reader  is  informed  of  the  state  of  Ireland 
before  the  Volunteers  appeared,  bringing 
their  good  intentions,  it  is  true,  to  an  unfor- 
tunate result,  but  preparing  the  way  and 
building  the  experience  to  fully  enjoy  the 
brighter  days  of  the  future. 

This  can  be  explained  in  a  few  lines,  ac- 
cording to  our  method  of  quoting  illustrative 
examples.  Here  is  the  evidence  of  one  of 
the  privileged  faithful,  written  in  1775  : — 

"  It  appears  there  are  forty-four  charter 
working  schools  in  Ireland,  wherein  two  thou- 


sand and  twenty-five  boys  and  girls  are  main- 
tained and  educated.  These  establishments 
are  supported  by  an  annual  bounty  from  his 
majesty  of  £1000,  by  a  tax  on  hawkers  and 
pedlers,  and  by  sundry  subscriptions  and 
legacies.  The  children  eligible  are  to  be 
born  of  '  popish'  parents,  sound  in  health  and 
limbs,  from  six  to  ten  years  of  age.  The 
boys  at  sixteen,  and  the  girls  at  fourteen,  are 
apprenticed  into  Protestant  families.  A  pre- 
mium of  £5  is  given  to  every  person,  edu- 
cated in  these  schools,  on  marrying  a  Prot- 
estant." 

With  the  calculation  of  a  grazier,  and  the 
statesmanship  of  a  schoolboy,  he  then  pro- 
ceeds to  infer — 

"  This  must  in  time  leave  a  very  beneficial 
effect,  in  lessening  the  number  of  Catholics, 
and  thus  giving  a  greater  stability  to  gov- 
ernment." 

This  is  paraphrased  from  Twiss's  "  Tour 
in  Ireland"  for  "  The  British  Tourists,"  by 
"W^illiam  Mavor,  LL.  D."  The  book  was 
"  Printed  for  E.  Newberry,  St.  Paul's  Church- 
yard, London  ;  and  sold  by  every  bookseller 
in  the  three  kingdoms."  Undoubtedly  it  was, 
and  pertinaciously  "  put  into  the  hands  [and 
heads]  of  British  youth." 

Such  was  Ireland  just  before  the  gallant 
rising  of  the  Volunteers.  Let  justice  be 
done  to  men  who  do  the  best  they  can,  ac- 
cording to  the  times.  We  now  proceed, 
with  the  valuable  assistance  of  T.  Mac- 
Nevin : — 

"  The  church  of  Dungannon  was  chosen 
for  the  convention  of  the  delegates.  On  the 
memorable  15th  February,  1782,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  regiments  of  Ulster — one 
hundred  and  forty-three  corps — marched  to 
the  sacred  place  of  meeting  two  and  two, 
dressed  in  their  various  uniforms  and  fully 
armed.  Deeply  they  felt  the  great  responsi-  ^ 
bilities  which  had  been  committed  to  their 
prudence  and  courage  ;  but  they  were  equal 
to  their  task,  and  had  not  lightly  pledged  their 
faith  to  a  trustful  country.  The  aspect  of 
the  church,  the  temple  of  religion,  in  which 
nevertheless  no  grander  ceremony  was  ever 
performed,  was  imposing,  or,  it  might  be  said, 
sublime.     Never,  on  that  hill  where  ancient 


424 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1783. 


piety  had  fixed  its  seat,  was  a  nobler  offering 
made  to  God  than  this,  when  two  hundred  of 
the  elected  warriors  of  a  people  assembled  in 
His  tabernacle,  to  lay  the  deep  foundations 
of  a  nation's  liberty.         *         •         *         » 

"  Addresses  were  issued  to  the  Volunteers 
of  the  three  provinces,  filled  with  the  noblest 
sentiments  in  favour  of  liberty,  and  abundant 
in  the  impassioned  if  not  inflated  eloquence 
in  which  the  spirit  of  the  day  delighted  to  be 
clothed.  There  was,  however,  an  anomaly 
in  their  proceedings,  and  a  striking  and  pain- 
ful contrast  between  their  abstract  theories 
of  liberty,  and  their  practical  manifestation. 
A  proposition  in  favour  of  the  Catholics  was 
rejected — singular  fact !  Here  was  a  body 
of  men,  not  endowed  with  the  powers  of 
legislation,  but  acting  as  a  suggestive  assem- 
bly, dictating  to  legislation  the  way  in  which 
it  should  go,  and  declaring  that  freedom 
should  be  made  more  diffusive  in  its  enjoy- 
ment ;  yet,  they  are  found  on  grave  delibera- 
tion rejecting  from  their  scheme  the  vast  body 
of  the  nation,  whom  they  professed  to  eman- 
cipate and  raise.  The  practical  absurdity 
was  the  rock  on  which  they  split.  And  it  is 
said  regretfully  and  without  reproach,  that 
the  influence  of  this  intolerant  principle  upon 
their  counsels  is  attributable  to  Lord  Charle- 
mont  and  Henry  Flood.  These  good  men 
were  the  victims  of  a  narrow  religious  antip- 
athy, which  prevented  either  of  them  from 
rendering  permanent  service  to  the  cause  of 
liberty.  »  *  #  # 

"  Previous  to  the  first  meeting  of  the  Dub- 
lin Convention,  provincial  assemblies  were 
held  in  Leinster,  Munster,  and  Connaught. 
They  passed  resolutions  similar  to  those 
adopted  at  Dungannon — delegates  were  ap- 
pointed— and  the  whole  nation  was  prepared 
for  the  great  congress  on  which  the  fate  of 
Ireland  seemed  to  depend.         »         *         • 

"As  a  great  measure  of  revolution,  the  Con- 
vention would  have  been  all  powerful,  if  the 
Volunteers  were  ready  to  back  its  mandates 
with  their  arms,  and  the  people  with  their 
sympathies.  But  the  Volunteers  were  irres- 
olute— the  people  were  apathetic.  It  was  a 
madness  to  suppose  that  a  mere  oligarchy 
could  contend  with  the  power  of  England. 


And  in  the  hour  when  they  required  every 
assistance  that  could  be  procured,  with  wan- 
ton folly  they  estranged  the  affections  of  a 
brave  and  faithful  people.  Herein  is  con- 
tained a  lesson  that  may  be  usefully  studied, 
and  never  more  usefully  than  at  present. 
England  was  weak,  Ireland  powerful — Eng- 
land assailed  by  French  and  American  hos- 
tility, and  sinking  under  domestic  embarrass- 
ments, could  resist  no  demand  which  Ireland 
chose  to  make.  There  existed  in  Ireland 
every  element  of  constitutional  or  absolute 
freedom^— all  the  forms  of  government,  a  le- 
gislature, and  an  executive,  a  standing  army 
— there  was  a  wealthy  and  ancient  aristocra- 
cy, a  bold  and  martial  people.  Yet  in  this 
great  and  powerful  machine  there  was  one 
principle  of  self-destruction,  working  stealthi- 
ly but  surely  the  ruin  and  the  disorganization 
of  its  power.  Intolerance  was  that  evil  and 
malignant  principle — a  principle  planted  in 
Ireland  by  English  policy,  and  now  con- 
servative OF  English  power.  That  fatal 
disunion — that  mixed  feeling  of  religious 
hatred,  personal  suspicion,  and  contempt  with 
which  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  were  regard- 
ed by  the  Protestant  people,  gave  way  for 
awhile  to  the  enthusiasm  of  volunteering,  and 
seemed  to  be  exercised  by  the  Convention 
of  Dungannon.  But  it  revived  after  the  con- 
cessions of  parliamentary  independence.  The 
aristocratic  party — the  nobility  of  the  Pale — 
were  contented  with  their  own  triumph,  and 
jealous  of  all  participation  in  their  glory. 
They  churlishly  refused  to  the  Catholics 
their  political  rights.  It  became  an  easy 
task  for  the  dark  and  evil  genius  of  the  great- 
est of  English  ministers  to  ripen  the  seeds  of 
division.  The  Catholics  were  disgusted — 
the  Protestants  deceived.  If  Grattan  had 
gone  on  with  the  movement,  his  tolerant 
genius  would  possibly  have  influenced  the 
timed  spirit  of  Charlemont,  or  rendered  his 
bigotry  as  harmless  as  it  was  contemptible. 
The  Volunteers  would  have  become  a  na- 
tional body,  not  an  aristocratic  institution ; 
and  the  constitution  of  1782  would  have 
withstood  every  effort  of  England  to  destroy 
that '  final  adjustment.' " 

Dr.  Madden  has  made  some  excellent  re- 


A.  D,  1783.] 


THIRD    DIVISION, 


425 


marks  upon  the  proceedings  of  the  Volun- 
teers ;  and,  being  severely  just  as  well  as 
bold  and  original,  we  again  give  the  caution 
relating  to  the  deceptions  of  the  "  sophism  of 
name."  Persons  and  parties  are  equally  lia- 
ble. Dr.  Madden  evidently  understands  the 
real  want  of  Ireland  : — 

"  It  is  not  inconsistent  with  truth,  though 
it  may  be  with  the  military  glory  of  this  in- 
stitution of  the  Volunteers,  to  say  that  it  com- 
bined, in  one  great  national  phalanx,  the  tal- 
ent, the  intolerance,  the  chivalry,  the  extrava- 
gance, the  prodigality,  the  embarrassment,  the 
republicanism  and  patriotism,  for  one  brief 
epoch,  of  all  ranks  and  classes.  Here  we 
find  the  ill-assorted  names  of  the  Earl  of 
Charlemont  and  the  Right  Hon.  Robert 
Stewart  (Lord  Castlereagh)— of  John  Clau- 
dius Beresford  and  Henry  Grattan — of  Toler 
and  Ponsonby — of  Saurin  and  Flood — of 
Col.  Rowley  and  Major  Sandys — of  Ireland's 
only  duke  [Leinster]  and  Sir  Capcl  Moly- 
neux — of  the  rabid  zealot.  Dr.  Patrick  Dui- 
genan,  and  the  Right  Rev.  ultra-liberal,  the 
Bishop  of  Derry — of  Archibald  Hamilton 
Rowan  and  Jack  Giffard — of  the  red-hot  pa- 
triot, James  Napper  Tandy,  and  the  facetious 
knight  and  slippery  politician.  Sir  Jonah 
Barrington — and  last,  not  least  in  celebrity, 
of  George  Robert  Filz-Gerald,  of  fighting 
notoriety,  and  Mr.  Joseph  Pollock,  the  great 
advocate  of  peace  and  order.  These  incon- 
gruous names  are  found  jumbled  together  in 
the  pages  of  the  history  of  the  volunteer  as- 
sociation. The  world  never  saw  an  army  of 
such  heterogeneous  materials,  collected  from 
all  conflicting  parties,  for  a  patriotic  purpose." 

This  is  not  mere  personality.  With  all 
his  severity,  the  good  doctor  is  mainly  cor- 
rect.    Hear  him  again  : — 

"  The  services  of  the  Volunteers  are,  on 
the  whole,  greatly  exaggerated  by  our  his- 
torians ;  the  great  wonder  is,  how  little  sub- 
stantial good  to  Ireland  was  effected  by  a 
body  which  was  capable  ©f  effecting  so  much. 
As  a  military  national  spectacle,  the  exhibi- 
tion was,  indeed,  imposing ;  but  it  is  not 
merely  the  spectacle  of  their  array,  but  the 
admirable  order,  conduct,  and  discipline  of 
their  various  corps — not  for  a  short  season 

54 


of  political  excitement,  but  for  a  period  of 
nearly  ten  years — that,  even  at  this  distance 
of  time,  are  with  many  a  subject  of  admira- 
tion."        *         *         *         * 

"  But,  WHAT  USE  did  the  friends  and  advo- 
cates of  popular  rights  make  of  this  powerful 
association  of  armed  citizens,  which  paralyzed 
the  Irish  government,  and  brought  the  Brit- 
ish ministry  to  a  frame  of  mind  very  different 
to  that  which  it  hitherto  exhibited  towards 
Ireland  ?  Why,  they  wielded  this  great  wea- 
pon of  the  nation's  collected  strength,  to  obtain 
an  illusory  independence,  which  never  could 
rescue  the  Irish  parliament  from  the  influence 
of  the  British  minister  without  reform,  and 
which  left  the  parliament  as  completely  in 
the  power  of  the  minister,  through  the  me- 
dium of  his  hirelings  in  that  house,  as  it  had 
been  before  that  shadow  of  parliamentary 
independence  had  been  gained.  The  only 
change  was  in  the  mode  of  using  that  influ- 
ence in  the  parliament :  the  material  differ- 
ence was  but  between  an  open  and  a  secret 
interference  in  its  concerns."     *     *     *     * 

Let  our  Irish  readers  and  their  American 
sons  calmly  view  this  sincere  language  of  a 
true  patriot.  All  the  concessions  the  Brit- 
ish government  ever  can  make  would  still 
merely  differ  in  the  "  mode  of  using"  the 
lives  and  liberties  of  the  Irish  people.  What 
benefit,  other  than  preliminary,  can  accrue 
from  the  repeal  of  the  Union  ?  The  English 
people  being  entirely  misrepresented  by  their 
government,  and  their  own  parliament  being 
a  mere  school  of  genteel  bribery,  what  can 
be  expected  from  Irish  parliaments  as  long  as 
they  have  the  least  connection,  direct  or  indi- 
rect, with  such  a  mockery  and  imposture, 
which  has  grown  aged — although  not  vener- 
able— in  iniquity  and  tyranny?  History 
tells  ;  Religion  weeps  :  the  sword  of  Justice 
is  being  raised  for  use,  not  blindly  but  im- 
partially, 

We  proceed,  with  the  aid  of  the  far-seeing 
Dr.  Madden  : — 

"  No  great  measure  of  parliamentary  re- 
form, or  Catholic  emancipation,  was  seriously 
entertained,  or  wrung  from  a  reluctant  but 
then  feeble  government.  The  error  of  the 
leaders  was,  in  imagining  that  they  could 


426 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1783. 


retain  the  confidence  of  the  Cathohcs,  or  tlie 
co-operation  of  that  body,  which  constituted 
the  great  bulk  of  the  population,  while  their 
convention  publicly  decided  against  their  ad- 
mission to  the  exercise  of  the  elective  fran- 
chise." 

This  was  a  sad  error  on  the  part  of  men 
who  should  have  acted  nationally.  But  some 
idea  of  the  blighting  influence  they  had  to 
contend  with  may  be  formed  after  reading 
the  fate  of  their  attempt  to  procure  reform  in 
parliament.  When  the  monstrous  mockery 
of  "  British  power"  is  alarmed  for  its  "  rights" 
there  is  but  a  small  chance  for  justice  in  either 
England  or  Ireland.  Until  the  government 
of  England  is  strictly  and  properly  "  the 
English  government,"  it  is  absurd  to  expect 
justice  from  a  source  which  only  exists  by 
injustice,  carried  on  with  man-degrading  tyr- 
anny and  GoD-defying  mockery.  The  purer 
the  victims,  the  more  easy  are  the  temporary 
successes  of  such  an  elaborated  and  organi- 
zed iniquity.     Mooney  says — 

"  Flood  moved  the  adoption  of  a  plan  for 
the  complete  reform  of  the  Irish  house  of 
commons.  It  was  carried  in  the  convention 
by  an  overwhelming  majority.  Flood,  who 
was  himself  a  member  of  the  corrupt  parlia- 
ment, together  with  other  members,  who 
were  also  members  of  the  convention,  were 
nominated  to  move  that  measure  in  the  house 
of  commons.  This  petition  was  presented  to 
the  assembled  parliament  as  the  petition  of  a 
convention  of  three  hundred  armed  delegates. 
It  was  debated  at  great  length  in  the  house  ; 
messengers  and  reporters  were  constantly 
passing  between  the  members  of  each  body, 
both  of  whom  were  sitting  at  the  same  mo- 
ment— the  one  in  Rutland  Square,  iht;  other 
in  College  (ireen. 

"  The  government  became  alarmed,  and 
affected  to  fear  a  physical  collision  ;  the  Eng- 
lish ministry  were  glad  that  this  division  had 
taken  place,  for  they  now  saw  a  way  opening 
through  which  they  might  destroy  the  inde- 
pendence of  that  parliament  which  these  very 
volunteers  had,  a  little  while  previous,  so 
signally  contributed  to  establish.  The  Brit- 
ish minister  had  reasons  nearer  home  for 
doing  all  in   his   power  to   undermine    the 


reforming  spirit  of  the  Irish  volunteers.  If 
the  Irish  parliament  were  reformed,  nothing 
could  prevent  the  English  parliament  from 
likewise  changing  its  nature.  The  British 
minister  in  Ireland,  therefore,  resolved  to 
separate  the  volunteers  from  the  parliament, 
and,  if  possible,  destroy  them  both. 

*'  For  this  purpose,  the  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  Ireland  worked  on  the  pride  and  fears  of 
the  courtly  Charlemont.  He  was  told  that 
the  volunteers  were  bent  on  enforcing  their 
demands  for  reform  by  physical  force,  and 
that  he,  as  their  president,  would  be  held 
responsible  for  all  their  acts.  Lord  Charle- 
mont found  himself  in  a  situation  of  great 
embarrassment.  If  he  held  the  presidency 
of  the  convention,  he  became  responsible  for 
its  proceedings ;  if  he  resigned,  the  bishop 
[Derry]  succeeded  him  in  the  chair.  '  Lord 
Charlemont's  pride,'  says  Sir  Jonah  Barring- 
ton,  '  resisted  his  resignation,  and,  after  much 
deliberation,  he  adopted  the  suggestions  of 
the  courtiers ;  he  did  not  oppose  the  volun- 
teers, but  he  duped  them.' 

"  I  beseech  the  reader  to  pay  attention  to 
the  development  of  this  momentous  transac- 
tion ;  for  to  Lord  Charlemont's  weakness, 
or  duplicity, — and  his  friends  may  take  their 
choice  of  the  motives, — is  Ireland  indebted 
for  the  destruction  of  the  volunteers,  her  na- 
tional guard  ;  the  bloody  onslaught  made  on 
her  by  Pitt's  mercenaries  in  '97 ;  the  san- 
guinary massacres  of  '98  ;  and  the  loss  of  her 
parliament  in  1800.         *         * 

"  Mr.  Hardy,  the  protege  and  biographer 
of  the  late  earl,  may  impart  to  the  transaction 
a  hue  of  '  peace  and  order  ;'  but  the  naked 
fact  cannot  be  dressed,  even  by  him,  in  tol- 
erable sophistry.  The  convention  was  dis- 
solved, sine  die,  early  in  the  day,  before  '  a 
house'  had  assembled ;  and,  it  never  after 
was  called  together  by  his  lordship.    *    *     • 

"  Mr.  Flood,  as  I  have  said,  was  selected 
by  the  convention  to  present  their  reform  pe- 
tition to  the  Irish  pafliament.  The  lord-lieu- 
tenant and  his  party  in  the  house  resolved  to 
make  a  political  assault  on  the  convention 
and  on  their  advocate.  They  resisted  the 
consideration  of  the  petition  because  it  pro- 
ceeded from  an  armed  association ;  a  long 


A.  D.  1784.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


427 


and  furious  debate  ensued,  which  continued 
by  adjournment  for  some  days,  the  conven- 
tion still  meeting  and  deliberating  daily  at 
the  rotunda. 

"  Up  to  twelve  o'clock  on  Saturday  night, 
16th  November,  1783,  rto  division  was  ar- 
rived at  in  the  house  of  commons.  The 
convention  adjourned  over  till  the  ensuing 
Monday  morning.  The  house  continued  the 
debate  on  to  an  early  hour  on  Sunday  morn- 
ing, and  finally  divided,  and  decided  against 
considering  the  petition  for  reform. 

"  The  utmost  excitement  grew  up  on  Sun- 
day. The  Duke  of  Leinster  and  several 
other  friends  of  the  government  saw  Lord 
Charlemont  on  that  memorable  Sabbath,  and 
prepared  him  for  that  act  of  timidity  or  du- 
plicity, which  Ireland  afterwards  deplored  in 
tears  of  blood  !" 

"  Barrington,  being  the  historical  executioner 
of  Ireland  at  a  time  when  the  nation  "  was 
extinguished,"  we  employ  him  as  the  "  grim 
headsman"  on  the  present  occasion : — 

"  On  the  Monday  morning  on  which  the 
convention  was,  by  adjournment,  to  have  met 
at  the  rotunda,  his  lordship  and  some  of  his 
friends  were  at  the  place  of  meeting  an  hour 
before  the  appointed  time.  As  the  clock 
struck  twelve,  Lord  Charlemont  took  the 
chair.  A  delegate  rose  to  allude  to  the  insults 
flung  upon  their  body  by  some  members  of 
the  government  in  the  parliamentary  debate 
of  Saturday ;  his  lordship  became  alarmed  ; 
a  protracted  statement  might  give  time  for  the 
arrival  of  other  delegates,  when  his  objects 
would  surely  be  frustrated  ;  he  at  once  look 
a  step  which  had  scarcely  a  parallel  in  du- 
plicity in  the  history  of  political  bodies ;  he 
instantly  silenced  the  member,  as  being  out 
of  order,  and  after  a  few  minutes  more,  he 
adjourned  the  convention  sine  die ;  the  ro- 
tunda was  quickly  emptied,  and  when  the 
residue  of  the  delegates  came  to  the  meeting, 
they  found  the  doors  closed,  the  chairman 
withdrawn,  and  that  body  to  which  the  nation 
was  indebted  for  its  independence,  dissolved 

FOREVER." 

^  The  dissolution  of  the  convention  has  been 
artfully  left  as  a  matter  of  uncertainty  so  far 
as  regards  the  motives  of  the  courtly  presi- 


dent. The  best  evidence  on  this  subject  is, 
for  a  variety  of  reasons,  to  be  found  in  Ameri- 
ca. The  commander  of  the  celebrated  Bill 
of  Rights  Battalion  is  now  living  at  Salisbury 
Mills,  Orange  county,  New  York.  He  is 
the  father  of  Mr.  .lohn  Caldwell,  of  New 
York,  one  of  our  most  valuable  and  public- 
spirited  citizens.  The  aged  patriot  thus 
writes  in  answer  to  Mooney,  who  made  an 
apphcation  to  him  (Aug.  4,  1845)  for  his 
evidence  in  this  matter  : — 

"You  should  recollect  that  in  1782  I  was 
only  thirteen  years  old,  and  had  just  been 
brought  home  from  a  four  years'  residence  at 
an  academy  in  England ;  but  I  am  firmly 
impressed  with  the  truth  of  Barrington's  state- 
ment (though  I  never  liked  the  man  nor  his 
conduct  in  '98)  of  the  dissolution  of  the  con- 
vention.    I  believe  him  correct  in  that  point. 

"  The  open  hostility  of  many  of  the  former 
leaders  of  the  volunteer  cause,  together  with 
the  apathy  of  others  who  still  affected  zeal, 
wore  the  uniform,  and  attended  partial  re- 
views, occasioned  a  woful  diminution  of  their 
numbers ;  the  Catholic  question  diminished 
their  ranks ;  the  government  called  in  the 
arms  which  they  had  lent ;  and  at  length,  by 
proclamation,  and  the  attempt  to  establish  on 
the  ruins  of  the  volunteer  system  a  yeomanry 
corps,  and  that  succeeded  by  a  regular  militia, 
effectually  put  down  and  prostrated  the  most 
noble  military  array  that  ever  blessed  and 
dignified  a  nation.  You  can,  from  these 
facts,  draw  somewhat  of  a  conclusion  whether 
the  body  was  annihilated  by  force,  fraud, 
treachery,  intrigue,  or  a  combination  of  all 
and  each." 

It  was,  indeed,  "  a  combination  of  all  and 
each."  It  shows  clearly  the  extent  of  all  the 
good  that  ever  can  be  drawn  from  what  yet 
goes  by  the  name  of  "  British  influence." 
This  venerable  witness  is  one  of  the  men 
who  knew  the  real  want  of  Ireland.  He  did 
not  despair ;  he  endeavoured  to  cherish  the 
feelings  of  nationality  which  the  success  of 
the  British  ministry  had  apparently  smothered. 
He  was  subjected  to  prosecution  and  im- 
prisonment. Explaining  his  adventures  to 
Mooney,  he  writes — 

"  A  number  of  influential   (government) 


428 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1788. 


friends  in  Belfast  solicited  my  discharge,  and 
offered  any  security  which  might  be  demand- 
ed for  my  future  *  loyalty,'  or,  as  the  wording 
of  the  writing  was,  for  my  '  future  good  be- 
haviour.' This  was  acceded  to,  but  utterly 
(though  thankfully  to  my  friends)  declined  by 
me  ;  and,  after  a  series  of  adventures  and  per- 
ils by  land  and  by  water,  I  at  length  arrived 
in  safety  in  this  blessed  land  of  liberty." 

Such  an  honourable  and  incorruptible  wit- 
ness settles  the  subject  of  the  dissolution  of 
the  Volunteers. 

The  success  of  this  insult  to  the  Irish  na- 
tion was  greater  than  the  contrivers  had  im- 
agined, and  some  more  of  their  "  influence" 
was  needed.  The  Earl  of  Northington,  who 
had  only  been  in  office  about  four  months, 
was  soon  superseded  by  Charles,  Duke  of 
Rutland,  whose  administration  is  thus  de- 
scribed in  Grattan's  "  Life  and  Times  :" — 

*'  The  Duke  of  Rutland  was  by  no  means 
a  bad  governor.  He  was  a  weak  man,  and 
he  was  young,  but  of  gallant  bearing,  and 
great  spirit ;  handsome  in  his  person,  and 
pleasing  in  his  manner,  the  true  descendant 
of  the  celebrated  and  popular  Marquis  of 
Granby.  His  government,  though  expensive 
and  dissipated,  was  not  a  bad  one ;  it  cer- 
tainly added  to  the  pension  list,  and  commit- 
ted some  acts  that  were  below  its  dignity  ; 
but  these  could  scarcely  form  a  ground  for 
general  complaint.  His  court  was  gay,  lux- 
urious, and  extravagant,  and  was  upheld  by 
a  splendour  hitherto  unprecedented,  but  to 
whose  dissipation  he  unfortunately  may  have 
been  considered  to  have  fallen  a  victim.* 
The  duchess,  so  distinguished  for  her  beauty, 
became  not  only  the  object  of  attraction,  but 
even  of  more  than  admiration.  General 
Cradock,  Dennis  Daley,  and  Sir  Hercules 
Langrishe  were  high  on  the  list  of  votaries 
and  admirers  ;  and  while  the  duchess  adorned 
the  revelry  of  the  castle  by  her  smiles  and 
charms.  Sir  Hercules  enlivened  it  by  his 
wit  and  mirth.     Ministerialist  and  opposition- 

*  This  language  is  painfully  apologetic.  Charles, 
Duke  of  Rutland,  "  may  have  been  considered  to  have" 
died  October  24,  1787.  The  main  difference  between 
him  and  the  better  men  whom  he  (perhaps  unconscioualy) 
assisted  to  dupe,  was,  that  he  suited  himself. 


ist  seemed  to  have  laid  down  their  arms  at 
the  feet  of  beauty  in  search  of  repose  and 
enjoyment.  These  gratified  the  taste  though 
they  somewhat  impaired  the  dignity  of  the 
court,  and  inflicted  a  wound  upon  the  moral- 
ity of  the  island,  which  has  ever  been  its 
proud  characteristic.  This  mixture  of  re- 
fined gallantry,  and  the  cessation  of  political 
hostility,  seemed  to  be  the  reward  of  those 
political  warriors,  and  a  compensation  after 
all  their  toils.  They  had  succeeded  in  1782, 
they  had  got  over  the  difficulties  of  1783  and 
the  Volunteer  Convention ;  they  got  rid  of 
the  propositions  ;  and  they  relaxed  from  their 
labours  in  1785  and  1786.  The  hvely  dis- 
position of  the  nation,  and  the  gallantry  of 
her  people,  expanded  themselves  with  free- 
dom and  without  reserve,  and  all  parties 
seemed  disposed  to  enjoy  some  pleasant  mo- 
ments under  this  administration :  every  one 
sought  to  add  to  the  gayety  of  the  hour." 

If  the  elegant  biographer  of  the  Grattan 
were  freed  from  the  restraints  of  connection 
and  interest  which  prevail  so  strongly  in  Eng- 
gland,  this  story  would  have  been  told  in  a 
bolder  style  of  expression.  As  it  is,  the 
reader  who  knows  the  world,  and  the  politi- 
cian who  comprehends  the  nature  of  what  is 
called  "  British"  policy,  will  easily  see  that 
the  British  influence  was,  as  usual,  secured 
and  perpetuated  by  the  deliberately  planned 
prostitution  of  all  that  woman  should  cherish 
or  man  revere. 

There  were  many  firm  patriots,  however, 
who  more  than  ever  contended  for  a  national 
and  united  organization  of  the  people.  Theo- 
bald Wolfe  Tone  and  several  others  carried 
out  the  principle  of  agitation  on  this  subject 
under  various  forms  and  in  various  methods. 
The  "  United  Irishmen"  became  an  important 
body.  Let  one  of  them  speak  :  it  is  W.  J. 
Mac-Neven : — 

"  Warned  by  these  errors,  the  United  Irish- 
men altered  the  system  of  reform  fundamen- 
tally. *  They  extended  their  base,  .ind  es- 
tablished their  plan  upon  three  simple  princi- 
ples, necessarily  dependent  on  each  other, 
and  containing  the  disease,  the  remedy,  and 
the  mode  of  its  attainment.'  The  excess  of 
English  influence  was  the  disease,  a  reform 


A.  D.  1791.] 


THIRD    DIVISION, 


439 


in  parliament  the  remedy,  and  the  inclusion 
of  the  Catholics  the  mode  of  its  attainment. 

"  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  had  of  all  others 
the  greatest  part  in  effecting  this  change  of 
sentiment  among  the  Protestants,  to  whose 
communion  he  belonged.  He  wrote  the 
original  declaration  for  the  first  society  of 
United  Irishmen  of  Belfast,  and  his  powerful 
writings  brought  the  Presbyterians  of  the 
north  very  generally  into  the  system.  I  was 
among  the  earliest  of  the  Catholics  who  joined 
it  in  Dublin,  and  there  I  first  knew  Emmet, 
and  there  I  often  heard  him  in  strains  of  pure 
and  forceful  eloquence  expand,  inculcate,  and 
apply,  for  the  benefit  of  his  beloved  country, 
the  pohtical  principles  of  the  United  Irish- 
men. 

"  Wherever  men  had  no  means  of  legiti- 
mate redress,  we  have  seen  them  become 
their  own  avengers,  the  worst  government 
being  always  marked  by  the  greatest  com- 
motions. If  there  be  not  an  impartial  admin- 
istration of  justice,  the  stiletto  takes  place  of 
the  jury,  and  for  want  of  a  government  re- 
stricted and  accountable  in  Ireland,  insurrec- 
tion and  civil  war  were  the  resource  of  an 
exasperated  people.  Left  without  the  pro- 
tection of  a  national  parhament,  Ireland  was 
always  tyrannically  ruled,  the  frame  of  so- 
ciety dislocated  and  broken,  and  her  numer- 
ous insurrections  were  the  throes  of  agonized 
nature. 

"  But  from  the  moment  the  Protestant  re- 
formers recognised  the  principle  that  no  re- 
form was  practicable,  efficacious,  or  just, 
which  should  not  equally  include  Irishmen 
of  every  religious  persuasion,  the  measure 
was  feasible.  It  received  the  assent  of  the 
whole  nation,  save  only  the  established  church 
and  the  other  dependants  of  the  British  gov- 
ernment. *  *  •  • 

"  Against  that  impious  combination  of 
treachery  within  and  tyranny  from  without, 
the  United  Irishmen  pointed  their  oath  of 
union, — '  To  forward  a  brotherhood  of  affec- 
tion, a  community  of  rights,  an  identity  of  in- 
terests, and  a  union  of  power  among  Irishmen 
of  every  religious  persuasion :'  it  was  this 
oath,  embracing  the  precept  of  'love  one 
another,'  that  the  British  government  prose- 


cuted as  a  felony  of  death,  and  for  which  it 
sent  frequent  victims  to  the  scaffold.  It  was 
made  treason  by  that  government  for  Irish- 
men to  love  one  another,  to  bury  religious 
feuds  in  charity,  and  to  promote  as  brothers 
the  welfare  of  their  native  land." 

In  1791,  the  Irish  people  were  thus  begin- 
ning to  make  some  use  of  their  bitterly-earned 
experience.  The  wretches  who  presume  to 
call  themselves  the  British  government  were 
more  terrified  than  a  dozen  money-expending 
wars  could  make  them,  for  they  know  well 
that  if  the  Irish  people  were  once  "  United 
Irishmen"  in  reality,  they  could  not  govern 
either  Ireland  or  England  for  one  single 
DAY.  The  seven  years  between  1782  and 
1791  may  be  called  the  apprenticeship  of  Ire- 
land in  the  service  of  liberty,  and  although 
not  so  happily  concluded  as  the  seven  years 
of  warfare  by  the  American  colonists,  the 
Irish  people  showed  to  their  friends  and 
proved  to  their  enemies  that  they  deserved 
success,  and  will  be  properly  experienced 
when  the  time  shall  arrive  for  cancelling 
Ireland's  indentures. 


CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 

1782  TO  1791. 

"  The  people  were  severed,  but  the  gov- 
ernment remained  compact;  the  parliament 
was  corrupted,  the  Volunteers  were  par- 
alyzed, and  the  high  spirit  of  the  nation  ex- 
hibited a  rapid  declension.  The  jealousy  of 
patriots  is  always  destructive  of  liberty." — 
J.  Barrington. 

"  Who  govern  us  ?  English  ministers,  or 
rather  the  deputies  of  English  ministers — 
mere  subalterns  in  office,  who  never  dare 
aspire  to  the  dignity  of  any  great  sentiment 
of  their  own.  Yet  all  this  we  submit  to — 
we  are  satisfied — we  are  content — and  only 
ask  in  return  for  an  honest  and  frugal  gov- 
ernment. Is  it  just — is  it  wise — is  it  safe  to 
deny  it?         ♦         *         ♦         *         • 

"  To  what  purpose  is  it  that  we  are  free 
from  the  expenses  of  a  fleet,  or  of  foreign 
ministers,  or  royal  court,  or  all  the  splendid 
appendages  of  empire,  if  we  are  to  be  as 


430 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1791. 


much  exhausted  by  a  pilfering,  jobbing,  ra- 
pine at  home  ?  If  we  are  to  have  expense, 
let  us  have  empire ;  or,  since  wc  are  wiUing 
to  reUnquish  empire,  let  us  be  freed  from 
expense.  *  •  *  • 

"The  people  of  this  island  are  growing 
more  enlightened  every  day,  and  will  know 
and  feel  their  situation  :  they  will  do  more — 
they  will  know  and  feel  their  power.  Nearly 
four  millions  of  people,  in  a  most  defensible 
country,  ought,  perhaps,  to  be  courted,  but 
certainly  ought  not  to  be  insulted  with  the 
petty,  pilfering,  jobbing,  corrupting  tricks  of 
every  deputy  of  an  English  minister  that  is 
sent  over  here.  The  people  of  Ireland  have 
the  feelings  of  men,  they  suffer  like  men,  and 
they  may  be  found  to  resent  like  men.     *     * 

"  It  shall  be  found  and  felt  that  this  island 
abounds  with  men  of  as  high  minds  as  any 
nation  whatsoever." — Earl  Kosse,  while  Mr. 
Lawrence  Parsons. 

"  If  history  were,  indeed,  *  philosophy 
teaching  by  examples,'  the  largeness  or  the 
exeguity  of  the  scene,  its  nearness  or  distance 
in  time  and  place,  would  but  slightly  affect 
its  value  and  estimation.  Lessons  of  politi- 
cal wisdom  may  be  drawn  from  the  res  gestce 
of  a  St.  Marino  as  effectually  as  from  those 
of  the  all-absorbing  republic  of  Rome  ;  and 
genius  and  self-devotion  should  as  much 
commend  themselves  to  reason  and  to  the 
affections,  when  exerted  in  some  remote  and 
obscure  warfare,  as  when  exhibited  at  a  Tra- 
falgar or  a  Waterloo,  Such,  however,  is  not 
the  practical  effect.  With  the  mass  of  man- 
kind, history  is  but  a  vast  picture-book,  a 
collection  of  dissolving  views,  put  forth  to 
keep  the  *  children  of  a  larger  growth'  out  of 
mischief;  and  they  are  valued  in  proportion 
to  their  gaudy  colouring,  or,  at  best,  for  their 
picturesque  effect.  The  imagination  has  a 
much  larger  part  than  the  judgment  in  our 
historical  appreciations ;  and  abstract  hu- 
manity, unsupported  by  interests,  and  un- 
backed by  associations,  is,  what  it  has  so 
well  been  name^,  an  old  almanac." — London 
AthencBum ;  July,  1842. 

"  History  tells  us  that  the  pride  of  Pitt 
was  piqued  in  the  early  period  of  his  reign 
by  the  rejection  of  his  commercial  proposi- 


tions ;  and  from  that  time,  it  would  appear, 
that  vengeance  was  mingled  with  every  meas- 
ure that  regarded  Ireland,  and  the  subsequent 
question  of  the  regency  in  1788  increased  his 
desire  to  overturn  her  independence  and  fetter 
her  growing  prosperity.  He  chose  fitting 
agents  for  this  purpose,  whose  obedience  and 
fidelity  he  secured  by  a  large  license  to  op- 
press and  spoil  their  native  land  ;  for  Fitz- 
Gibbon,  Beresford,  and  Foster  were,  as  well 
as  Lord  Castlereagh,  all  of  Irish  birth.  Fitz- 
Gibbon,  afterward  Earl  Clare,  was  made  lord- 
chancellor  of  Ireland,  Mr.  Foster  speaker  of 
the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  and  Mr.  Beres- 
ford first  commissioner  of  the  revenue,  by 
which  means  he  secured  the  presidencies  of 
the  parliament  and  treasury ;  and  while  the 
resources  of  England  were  employed  in  dic- 
tating forms  of  government  and  subsidizing 
unwilling  nations,  the  treasures  wrung  from 
indigence  in  Ireland  were  spent  in  pampering 
worthless  magnificence,  bribing  parliament 
men  and  parliament  owners,  fomenting  un- 
holy religious  and  political  animosities,  and 
in  entertaining  a  host  of  infamous  informers, 
creatures  such  as  Reynolds,  Bell,  Martin, 
Newell,  Dutton,  Jemmy  O'Brien,  and  a  thou- 
sand such  others,  whose  description  is  so 
admirably  given  by  Curran  in  the  case  of 
Heevy  vs.  Sirr,  which  the  character  and  ex- 
ploits of  Jemmy  O'Brien  and  the  episode  of 
Heevy 's  mare  have  rendered  so  memorable. 
These  were  a  part  of  what  were  called  the 
'  loyal,'  or  the  '  king's  friends,'  sometimes  sa- 
viours of  their  country  ;  but  more  popularly 
designated  the  *  battalion  of  testimony  ;'  and 
the  most  polluted  of  them  all  was  that  Rey- 
nolds, whom  Lord  Ellenborough,  chief-justice 
of  the  King's  Bench  in  England,  was  not 
ashamed  to  say  he  could  embrace  with  grati- 
tude. And  it  is  worth  noting  that  on  the 
same  day  when  the  corporation  of  Dublin,  in 
a  paroxysm  of  Orangeism,  disfranchised  Grat- 
tan  and  a  number  of  the  honestest  patriots, 
they  voted  the  freedom  of  the  city  to  Lord 
Nelson  and  to  Reynolds  the  informer.  Such 
were  the  alliances  made  in  the  name  of  the 
monarch  whom  it  had  pleased  Heaven  to 
afflict  with  mental  darkness,  and  by  such 
associates  the  government  was  upheld  ;  such 


k^ 


A.  D.  1791.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


431 


the  uses  lo  which  the  pubUc  treasure  was 
devoted." — Sampson. 

"  To  the  historian  of  United  Irishmen,  and 
the  men  of  Ninety-Eight,  belong  the  details 
of  the  decline  of  the  Volunteers.  Out  of  the 
embers  of  that  institution  grew  the  Whig 
Club,  and  that  other  powerful  confederacy 
of  which  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  was  the 
founder.  These  two  bodies  partook  of  the 
character  of.  their  parents.  The  Whig  Club 
established  by  Lord  Charlemont,  led  a  dilet- 
tante life  and  died  of  its  own  debility — the 
United  Irishmen  were  deep,  bold,  and  saga- 
cious, and  but  for  the  errors  of  a  few  leaders, 
would  have  overthrown  the  empire  of  Eng- 
land in  their  country,  and  established  on  its 
ruins  an  Irish  Republic." — T.  Mac-Nevin. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Ireland  united,  and  the  true  restoration  commenced 
— Addresses  of  the  United  Irishmen — Means  ta- 
ken by  the  British  government  to  produce  the 
"  rebellion"  of  1798,  and  establish  the  Union — 
Titles  for  treachery,  and  the  gallows  for  good- 
ness ;  gold  for  spies,  and  paper-money  for  the 
people — Pitt  triumphant,  and  the  United  Irishmen 
temporarily  defeated. 

According  to  the  plan  and  design  of  this 
work,  the  narrative  has  now  reached  its  cul- 
minating stage.  The  long  struggles  of  the 
Irish  people,  against  the  power  which  robs 
them  in  prosperity  or  kicks  them  in  adversity, 
were  beginning  to  assume  a  form  and  direc- 
tion. The  glorious  example  of  America  gives 
birth  to  nations  of  people,  and  embodies  the 
scattered  evidences  of  constitutional  history. 
The  English  people,  hving  so  near  the  daz- 
zling tyranny  which  is  temporarily  installed 
as  "  tlie  English  government,"  and,  to  use  a 
common  expression,  "  sailing  in  the  same 
boat,"  will  very  naturally  be  the  last  to  per- 
ceive the  false  trim  and  rotten  rig  of  the 
abused  colours  they  sail  under.  The  Ameri- 
can Declaration  of  Independence,  on  the  4th 
of  July,  1776,  achieved  much  more  than  a 
mere  separation  from  British  power  and  mis- 
rule. History  shows  that  the  American  col- 
onies, (notwithstanding  the  poetical  flourishes 
of  Fourth-of-July  orators  to  the  contrary,) 
had  always  enjoyed,  in  the  very  worst  of 


times,  every  privilege  of  English  subjects. 
The  success  of  the  Americans,  in  1783, 
proved  to  the  whole  world  that  the  tyranni- 
cal abuses  which  they  complained  of  pro- 
ceeded from  a  power  in  England  that  was 
at  variance  with  the  real  constitution  as  well 
as  the  wishes  of  the  real  people.  From  the 
4th  of  July,  1776,  the  downfall  of  that  grov- 
elling greediness  (which  had  become  organ- 
ized and  consolidated  in  the  mongrel  money- 
monarchy  of  1688-89)  was  doomed  to  fall, 
as  historians  will  have  occasion  to  relate. 
Fall  it  must :  the  people  of  England  and  the 
rights  of  man  demand  the  sacrifice,  for  the 
love  of  truth  and  the  sake  of  liberty. 

The  lesson  was  not  lost  among  the  long- 
suffering  and  freedom-desiring  Irish  people, 
for  none  but  Irish  hearts  can  fully  appreciate 
the  bitter  results  of  the  outrageous  violation 
of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick, — a  violation  which, 
alone,  ought  to  sink  a  "  government"  with  in-- 
famy.  After  the  American  war,  the  Irish 
people  breathed  wilh  hope  ;  their  arms  were 
raised  to  heaven  with  resolutions  of  perse- 
verance :  a  new  light  illuminated  the  minds 
of  millions.  The  Irishman  learned  lo  con- 
sider that  an  Englishman,  as  such,  is  not  ne- 
cessarily an  enemy ;  the  Protestant  began  to 
see  that  the  Catholic,  as  such,  need  never 
be  treated  as  an  enemy  ;  in  short,  the  people 
discovered  how  their  own  power  had  been 
taken  from  their  own  control,  and  vested  in 
the  hands  of  real  and  implacable  enemies.  It 
was  a  glorious  discovery ;  heart  could  now 
speak  to  heart ;  the  American  flag  was  aC' 
knowledged :  there  was,  at  last,  a  home  for 
freedom.  The  very  word  "  United"  became 
a  tower  of  strength,  a  citadel  of  hope,  a  bond 
of  sympathy. 

Among  the  Catholics,  generally,  these  feel- 
ings were  at  first  subdued  but  cherished  with 
a  conflicting  silence  ;  for  their  clergy,  being 
usually  loyal  and  conservative,  became  some- 
what alarmed  by  the  excesses  which  "  the 
British  government"  industriously  charged 
upon  the  French  and  American  republicans. 
Among  the  Protestants,  however,  were  many 
men  who,  like  the  American  colonists,  well 
knew  the  way  that  "  loyal"  pamphlets  are 
published  and  "  respectable"  newspapers  are 


433 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1793. 


purposely  edited  in  England.  These  men, 
retaining  among  them  some  of  the  genuine 
and  original  principles  of  old  English  liberty, 
did  not  hesitate  to  express  their  universal 
sympathy  and  Irish  nationality.  The  ster- 
ling freedom  and  old  English  frankness  which 
had  been  expatriated  from  England  by  in- 
trigue and  corruption,  (a  policy  which  even 
Cromwell  exercised  when  in  power,)  were 
now  revived  and  emboldened  with  the  exam- 
ple of  their  American  brethren.  The  prov- 
ince of  Ulster  rang  with  imprecations  on  the 
proud  usurpers  of  English  power  ;  the  town 
of  Belfast  not  only  approved,  publicly,  of  the 
American  revolution,  but  the  spirited  inhabit- 
ants sent  over  valuable  supplies  and  assist- 
ance. The  unpopularity  of  the  American 
war,  among  the  English  people,  would  show 
itself,  in  spite  of  "  the  government."  The 
French  Revolution  was  the  first  rude  attempt 
at  an  enlarged  development  of  republican 
principles.  The  aid  of  Christianity,  and  the 
importance  of  harmony,  were  well  understood 
in  Ireland.  Such  were  the  circumstances 
which  immediately  preceded  the  formation 
of  the  society  of  "  United  Irishmen." 

This  state  of  reliance  upon  the  sympathy 
of  America  could  not  be  crushed  in  the  de- 
feat and  dispersion  temporarily  effected  by 
Pitt  and  (what  goes  by  the  name  of)  the 
"  Union."  The  "  North  American  Review" 
(1841)  justly  observes — 

"  Any  one  who  has  ever  travelled  in  Ire- 
land, not  merely  with  eyes  to  see  her  wretch- 
edness, but  also  with  ears  to  hear  her  aspira- 
tions, must  have  remarked  the  enthusiastic 
feeling  that  exists  towards  America  among 
all  classes.  *  *  *  By  the  small  farmers,  arti- 
sans and  peasantry,  the  United  States  are 
considered  as  a  sort  of  half-way  stage  to 
heaven,  a  paradise,  whither  some  of  the  kin- 
dred or  friends  of  almost  every  family  have 
.  already  repaired ;  and  whence  they  receive 
accounts,  that,  even  when  unexaggerated  or 
falhng  short  of  the  truth,  paint  this  new-found 
home,  in  comparison  with  their  own  domestic 
misery,  as  the  very  El  Dorado  of  Spanish 
romance.  Infants  suck  in,  as  it  weje,  with 
their  mother's  milk,  this  passionate  admira- 
tion of  the  New  World.     They  are  cradled 


in  eulogiums  on  its  excellence.  Its  praises 
are  the  lullaby  of  the  child.  The  boy  is 
taught  to  venerate  its  greatness  ;  and  the  man 
believes,  talks  of,  and  sighs  for  its  far-off 
shores,  with  a  fervid  admiration  that  knows 
no  bounds."         *         *         *         * 

"  It  is,  in  fact,  unquestionable,  that  the 
Irishman  looks  upon  America  as  the  refuge 
of  his  race,  the  home  of  his  kindred,  the  her- 
itage of  his  children  and  their  children.  The 
Atlantic  is,  to  his  mind,  less  a  barrier  of  sep- 
aration between  land  and  land,  than  is  St. 
George's  Channel.  The  shores  of  England 
are  further  off,  in  his  heart's  geography,  than 
those  of  New  York  or  Massachusetts.  De- 
grees of  longitude  are  not  taken  into  account 
in  the  measurements  of  his  enthusiasm.  Ire- 
land,— old  as  she  is,  and  fond  as  he  is  of  call- 
ing her  so, — seems  to  him  but  a  part  and 
parcel  of  that  great  continent  which  it  sounds, 
to  his  notions,  unnatural  to  designate  as  '  the 
new  world.'  He  has  no  feeling  towards 
America  but  that  of  love  and  loyally.  To 
live  on  her  soil,  to  work  for  the  public  good, 
and  die  in  the  country's  service,  are  genuine 
aspirations  of  the  son  of  Erin,  when  he  quits 
the  place  of  his  birth  for  that  of  his  adoption. 
No  nice  distinctions  of  nationality,  no  cold 
calculation  of  forms,  enter  into  his  mind. 
*  Exile'  and  '  alien'  are  words  which  convey 
no  distinct  meaning  to  him.  He  only  feels 
that  he  belongs  to  the  country  where  he  earns 
his  bread.  His  birthright  has  hitherto  been 
but  a  birthright  of  suffering.  The  instinct 
of  naturalization  is  within  his  soul.  And  he 
cannot  conceive  that  the  ocean  which  he  is 
crossing  should  be  more  powerful  to  deprive 
him  of— than  his  own  heart-yearnings  are  to 
secure  to  him — all  the  rights  and  privileges 
which  that  instinct  seems  to  claim." 

It  was  these  rights  and  privileges  which 
Theobald  Wolfe  Tone  (a  Protestant  gentle- 
man, of  great  worth  and  excellent  attain- 
ments) proposed  to  his  countrymen  should 
be,  in  future,  the  one  sole  object  of  public 
attention,  discarding  all  strife  except  in  the 
emulations  of  charity  and  freedom.  Being  a 
barrister,  and  much  respected,  he  had  an  ex- 
traordinary influence  at  an  early  period  of 
life.     His  efforts  to  secure  the  fojrty-shilling 


^■.ff. 


w. 


'"^sr--  fj-' 


♦**« 


V   <      ■ .  '  J 


i 


■h 


m 


■I 


4t    '1 


%  \ 


.«. 


'^ 


9 


g 


% 


•  4 


A.  D.  1793.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


433 


franchise,  in  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill  of  1793, 
were  successful ;  and  the  sympathy  of  the 
English  people  could  not  be  stifled  by  all 
"  the  government"  can  do.  The  reform  party 
in  England  was  headed  by  Erskine,  who,  in 
speeches  and  writings,  kept  alive  the  spirit 
of  old  English  liberty.  In  his  work  on  "  Par- 
liamentary Reform"  he  says — 

"  The  spirit  of  reform  is  at  present  high  in 
Ireland.  The  recent  zeal  of  that  brave  and 
virtuous  people  has  completely  detected  the 
false  and  pernicious  calumnies  on  both  coun- 
tries. It  has  demonstrated  that  a  desire  to 
reform  abuses  in  government  is  not  at  all 
connected  with  disloyalty  to  its  establish- 
ment ;  and  that  the  restoration  of  a  free  con- 
stitution, by  the  wisdom  and  spirit  of  a  nation, 
has  no  alliance  with,  but  oh  the  contrary  is 
abhorrent  to,  a  submission  to  foreign  force." 

In  1793,  the  United  Irishmen  of  Dubhn 
held  a  general  meeting  and  issued  an  address 
"  to  the  Irish  nation,"  from  which  we  select 
the  following  specimen  : — 

"  It  is  our  right  and  our  duty  at  this  time, 
and  at  all  times,  to  communicate  our  opinion 
to  the  y^ublic,  whatever  may  be  its  success ; 
and  under  the  protection  of  a  free  press,  itself 
protected  by  a  jury,  judges  of  law  as  well  as 
fact,  we  will  never  be  afraid  to  speak  freely 
what  we  freely  think ;  appealing,  for  the 
purity  of  what  we  write,  to  the  justness  of 
our  cause,  and  the  judgment  of  our  country. 
On  the  9th  of  November,  1791,  was  this  so- 
ciety founded.  We,  and  our  beloved  breth- 
ren of  Belfast,  first  began  that  civic  union 
which,  if  a  nation  be  a  society  united  for  mu- 
tual advantage,  has  made  Ireland  a  nation ; 
and  at  a  time  when  all  wished,  many  willed, 
but  few  spoke,  and  fewer  still  acted,  we. 
Catholics  and  Protestants,  joined  our  hands 
and  our  hearts  together ;  sank  every  distinc- 
tive appellation  in  the  distinctive  name  of 
'  Irishman ;'  and,  in  the  presence  of  our  God, 
devoted  ourselves  to  universal  enfranchise- 
ment, and  a  real  representation  of  the  people 
in  parliament,  knowing  that  what  the  tongue 
is  to  the  man,  the  press  is  to  the  people. 
Though  nearly  blasted  in  our  cradle  by  the 
sorcery  of  the  law-oflicers  of  the  crown,  we 
have  rallied  around  this  forlorn  hope  of  free- 

55 


dom,  and  will  maintain  this  last  citadel  of  the 
constitution  at  the  risk  of  our  personal  secu- 
rity and  all  that  is  dear  to  us  in  life. 

"  They  have  come  to  us  with  a  writ,  and 
a  warrant,  and  an  ex  officio  information ;  but 
we  have  come  to  them  in  the  name  of  the 
genius  of  the  British  constitution,  and  the 
majesty  of  the  people  of  Ireland.     *     *     ♦ 

"We  have  addressed  the  friends  of  the 
people  in  England,  and  have  received  their 
concurrence,  their  thanks,  and  their  gratula- 
tion.  We  have  addressed  the  Volunteers. 
Deliverers  of  this  injured  land,  have  we  done 
wrong  ?  If  we  have,  tear  your  colours  from 
the  staff,  reverse  your  arms,  muffle  your 
drums,  beat  a  funeral  march  for  Ireland,  and 
then  abandon  the  corpse  to  militia,  fencibles, 
and  dragoons.  If  we  have  not  done  wrong, 
— and  we  swear  by  the  revolution  of  1782 
that  we  have  not, — go  on,  with  the  zeal  of 
enterprising  virtue,  and  a  sense  of  your  own 
importance,  to  exercise  the  right  of  self-de- 
fence which  belongs  to  the  nation." 

That  this  was  truly  a  national  movement 
may  be  seen  by  the  solemn  declarations  of 
the  Catholics,  who,  although  not  accustomed 
or  permitted  to  take  such  a  prominent  part 
in  politics,  were  equally  firm  and  sincere. 
They  drew  up  some  of  the  ablest  documents 
we  can  find  connected  with  these  proceedings. 

The  United  Irishmen  also  issued  a  spirited 
address  to  the  delegates  for  promoting  a  re- 
form in  Scotland,  the  tone  of  which  may  be 
inferred  from  the  following  paragraph  : — 

"  Look  now,  we  pray  you,  upon  Ireland. 
Long  was  this  unfortunate  island  the  prey 
of  prejudiced  factions  and  ferocious  parties. 
The  rights  or  rather  duties  of  conquest  were 
dreadfully  abused,  and  the  Catholic  religion 
was  made  the  perpetual  pretext  for  subjecting 
the  state  by  annihilating  the  citizen,  and  de- 
stroying not  the  religious  persuasion  but  the 
man ;  not  popery,  but  the  people.  It  was 
not  till  very  lately  that  the  part  of  the  nation 
which  is  truly  colonial,  reflected  that  though 
their  ancestors  had  been  victorious,  they 
themselves  were  now  included  in  the  general 
subjection ;  subduing  only  to  be  subdued, 
and  trampled  upon  by  Britain  as  a  servile 
dependency.    When  therefore  the  Protest- 


434 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1793. 


ants  began  to  suffer  what  the  CathoHcs  had 
suffered  and  were  suffering  ;  when  from  ser- 
ving as  the  instruments  they  were  made 
themselves  the  objects  of  foreign  domination, 
then  they  became  conscious  they  had  a  coun- 
try ;  and  then  they  felt — an  Ireland.  They 
resisted  British  dominion,  renounced  colonial 
subserviency,  and  following  the  example  of  a 
Catholic  parliament  just  a  century  before, 
they  asserted  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  and 
legislative  competency  of  this  island.  A  sud- 
den light  from  America  shone  through  our 
prison.  Our  Volunteers  arose.  The  chains 
fell  from  our  hands.  We  followed  Grattan, 
the  angel  of  our  deliverance,  and  in  1782 
Ireland  ceased  to  be  a  province,  and  became 
a  nation.  But,  with  reason,  should  we  de- 
spise and  renounce  this  revolution  as  merely 
a  transient  burst  through  a  bad  habit, — the 
sudden  grasp  of  necessity  in  despair,  from 
tyranny  in  distress,  did  we  not  believe  that 
the  revolution  is  still  in  train  ;  that  it  is  less 
the  single  and  shining  act  of  1782,  than  a  se- 
ries of  national  improvements  which  that  act 
ushers  in  and  announces  ;  that  it  is  only  the 
herald  of  liberty  and  glory,  of  Catholic  eman- 
cipation, as  well  as  Protestant  independence  ; 
that,  in  short,  this  revolution  indicates  new 
principles,  foreruns  new  practices,  and  lays  a 
foundation  for  advancing  the  whole  people 
higher  in  the  scale  of  being,  and  diffusing 
equal  and  permanent  happiness." 

Upon  these  sentiments  and  with  these 
views,  the  United  Irishmen  managed  their 
proceedings,  successfully  with  regard  to 
themselves,  but  unfortunately  in  whatever 
they  relied  upon  from  other  persons  or  parties. 
Even  the  Irish  parliament,  for  twenty  whole 
years,  liad  done  nothing  but  exercise  corrup- 
tion in' -the  mockery  of  liberty.  An  Irish 
parliament,  under  British  influence,  is  worse 
than  useless — it  is  a  shameful  and  blood- 
shedding  delusion,  as  the  "  RebeUion  of  '98" 
conclusively  proves.  Further  experiments 
with  an  Irish  parhament  may  please  a  suc- 
cessful faction,  but  never  will  and  never 
would  satisfy  the  real  wants  and  objects  of 
the  Irish  people.  At  the  time  we  now  speak 
of,  it  was  no  more  the  "  Irish"  parliament 
than  the  present  parliament  in  England  is  the 


"  English"  parliament.  Under  the  "  en- 
lightened" practice  of  the  British  government, 
the  parliament  never  has  the  scope  of  power 
legitimately  belonging  to  it  by  the  balancing 
and  judicious  intention  of  the  constitution. 
Being  duly  warned  of  the  existence  of  such 
an  absorbing  and  despotically  controlling  in- 
fluence, the  reader  will  not  much  wonder  to 
observe  the  temporary  defeat  of  the  best  men 
or  the  purest  measures.  This  is  the  influ- 
ence which  "  yielded  to  the  Beresfords,  but 
was  deaf  to  the  cries  of  a  nation."  The 
same  thing  is  yet  done  every  day  in  England. 
Those  who  may  wish  for  a  restoration  of  an 
Irish  "  royal  parliament"  are  at  liberty  to  get 
it ;  but  it  is  a  liberty  which  will  only  rivet 
their  chains,  excite  the  murderous  merriment 
of  their  enemies,  and  dishearten  the  hopes  of 
their  true  friends.  The  lesson  taught  by  the 
Irish  parliament  for  twenty-eight  years  should 
be  forgiven,  but  must  never  be  forgotten. 
Remember  1782  to  1800 :  remember  the 
"parliamentary"  neglect  towards  the  noble 
and  sincere  "  United  Irishmen." 

The  principal  names  we  find  connected 
with  the  formation  of  the  United  Irishmen 
are  those  of  Archibald  Hamilton  Rowan, 
John  Keogh,  William  Drennan,  Simon  But- 
ler, James  Napper  Tandy,  Hutton,  Tone, 
Neilson,  and  Russell.  Butler  and  Drennan 
were  prosecuted,  and  Napper  Tandy  fled  to 
America  and  afterwards  to  France,  where  he 
took  the  rank  of  general  of  brigade.  Rowan 
was  obliged  by  similar  prosecutions  and  per- 
secutions to  lake  the  same  tour.  Tone  also 
settled  in  Princeton,  New  Jersey ;  but,  in 
1796,  his  Irish  friends  invited  him  to  return, 
and  he  left  his  wife  and  sister  in  America, 
as  they  nobly  urged  his  defence  of  Ireland. 
During  Tone's  absence,  the  United  Irishmen 
had  become  properly  disgusted  with  the  con- 
temptible body  which  acted  in  the  name  of 
an  Irish  parliament.  In  this  state  of  mind 
they  were  more  favourably  inclined  to  receive 
that  assistance  from  France  which  was  im- 
agined to  be  requisite  for  success. 

In  the  summer  of  1796,  the  United  Irish- 
men received  many  accessions  to  their  ranks, 
talented  and  worthy  men,  who  had  no  further 
hopes  from  the  parliament.    Among  these  we 


A.  D.  1798.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


435 


observe  John  Caldwell,  Arthur  O'Connor, 
Roger  O'Connor,  T.  A.  Emmet,  W.  J.  Mac- 
Neven,  Simms,  Tennant,  Chambers,  Bond, 
Byrne,  Trenor,  Dowling,  Hudson,  M'Cor- 
mack,  Sweeny,  Sweetman,  Finnerty,  M'Cann, 
Esmond,  Lawless,  Dowdall,  Wilson,  Orr, 
and  William  Sampson. 

The  terms  upon  which  French  aid  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  United  Irishmen  were  these — 
"  They  accepted  the  offer  on  condition  that 
the  French  would  come  as  allies  only,  and 
consent  to  act  under  the  direction  of  the  new 
government,  as  Rochambeau  did  in  America ; 
that,  upon  the  same  principle,  the  expenses 
of  the  expedition  must  be  reimbursed,  and 
the  troops,  while  acting  in  Ireland,  receive 
Irish  pay." 

-  Arthur  O'Connor,  and  Lord  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald  had  been  appointed  to  make  these 
arrangements  between  the  French  and  Irish 
principals.  For  several  reasons,  and  politi- 
cal considerations,  his  lordship  did  not  cross 
the  French  frontier,  but  generally  remained 
at  Hamburgh  during  the  negotiation.  His 
lordship,  like  many  other  persons  who  know 
the  world,  was  nevertheless  unable  to  com- 
prehend or  imagine  the  "  fitting  agents"  which 
such  a  candied  corruption  as  the  British  gov- 
ernment will  not  scruple  to  employ.  This 
fatal  innocence  is  proved  by  a  trifling  circum- 
stance which  has  an  instructive  significance. 
On  returning  to  Hamburgh,  after  his  ar- 
rangements were  made  with  the  French  di- 
rectory, his  lordship  met,  in  the  same  con- 
veyance, a  high-bred  madam  who,  of  course, 
was  going  to  the  same  city,  and  who  had 
actually  been  the  mistress  of  an  official  col- 
league of  Pitt.  "  Wholly  ignorant  of  her 
relationship  with  the  British  ministry,"  slyly 
remarks  Tommy  Moore,  "  the  habitual  frank- 
ness of  his  nature  not  only  expressed  freely 
his  opinions  on  all  political  subjects,  but  af- 
forded some  clews,  it  is  said,  to  the  secret 
of  his  present  journey,  which  his  fellow- 
traveller  was,  of  course,  not  slow  in  trans- 
mitting to  her  official  friend." 

This,  O  ye  Christian  nations !  is  what 
goes  by  the  name  of  "  government"  in  Great 
Britain.  To  sustain  this  system,  hes  are 
invented,  prejudices  are  manufactured,  and 


millions  are  slaughtered.  To  ruin  and  de- 
stroy the  honest  opponents  of  this  iniquity, 
male  and  female  fiends  are  sought  out  and 
caressed  and  promoted. 

Let  us  see  how  the  governed  are  treated. 
In  Ireland,  during  those  days,  as  the  people 
had  been  driven  to  rebel,  so  the  Dublin  fac- 
tion of  the  British  minister  were  now  anxious 
to  make  a  profit  by  the  rebellion.  Instruc- 
tions were  therefore  given,  and  wretches 
were  hired,  to  bring  the  rebellion  to  a  head  ; 
and  then,  by  introducing  and  effecting  the 
Union,  to  crush  the  national  party  forever. 
These  statements  cannot  be  denied.  By  a 
system  of  perjury  and  treachery,  the  move- 
ments of  the  Irish  people  shared  the  same 
fate  as  the  efforts  of  their  French  allies. 
Lord  Cornwallis  was  blamed  for  being  too 
good ;  but  significantly  informed  that  he 
might  retrieve  his  character,  if  he  would,  on 
the  Irish.  The  really  chosen  leaders  of  the 
people  were  betrayed,  arrested,  imprisoned, 
or  despatched  with  ignominious  deaths.  Tay- 
lor says — 

"  It  became  now  the  deliberate  policy  of 
the  Irish  government — a  policy  unblu  shingly 
acknowledged  and  defended  by  the  Irish 
ministers — to  goad  the  people  by  torture  into 
a  premature  insurrection,  before  the  organi- 
zation of  the  conspiracy  would  have  been  so 
complete  as  to  be  irresistible.  Martial  law 
was  proclaimed  in  several  counties  ;  a  savage 
soldiery,  and  a  still  more  savage  yeomanry, 
were  encouraged  to  emulate  each  other  in 
acts  of  cruelty ;  the  tortures  of  whipping, 
picketing,  half-hanging,  and  the  pitch-cap 
were  put  in  active  operation  ;  the  huts  of  the 
peasantry  were  burned,  their  sons  tortured  or 
slain,  their  daughters  subjected  to  all  the  out- 
rages of  brutal  passion.  Disgusted  at  wit- 
nessing such  barbarity,  the  lamented  Aber- 
crombie,  then  in  command  of  the  army,  pub- 
lished a  proclamation,  in  which  he  described 
the  Irish  [?]  soldiery  to  be  so  demoralized  by 
licentiousness,  as  *  to  be  formidable  to  every- 
body but  the  enemy.'  Finding  that  no  atten- 
tion was  paid  to  his  remonstrances,  and  that 
government  had  resolved  to  let  loose  this  de- 
moralized army  on  the  people,  he  resigned 
the  command,  and  was  succeeded  by  General 


436 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1798. 


Lakej^ho  was  not  troubled  by  such  impo- 
litic scruples.  The  atrocities  committed  by 
the  army  and  yeomanry  in  the  counties  of 
Kildare,  Carlow,  and  Wexford  are  almost 
beyond  belief;  they  had  the  effect  of  pro- 
voking a  fearful  retaliation.  When  the  peas- 
antry at  length  had  recourse  to  arms,  they 
showed  that  they  had  not  been  inapt  scholars 
in  the  lessons  of  cruelty  taught  them  by  the 
government." 

The  routine  of  the  facts  as  they  occur  will 
convince  any  impartial  inquirer  that  there 
were  secret  influences  at  work  among  the 
governed.  Those  readers  who  are  already 
acquainted  with  the  services  of  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  as  a  "  British  statesman,"  will  under- 
stand the  point  of  the  following  capital  hit  by 
Dr.  Madden : — 

"  The  idea  of  general  union  is  said  to  have 
originated  with  the  rebel,  Theobald  Wolfe 
Tone  ;  but  the  merit  or  demerit  of  its  origin 
evidently  belonged  to  the  Volunteers,  whom 
the  king  himself,  and  parliament,  session 
after  session,  thanked  for  their  devoted  loy- 
alty. When  the  meeting  took  place  in  Dun- 
gannon  in  which  the  Irish  people  were  told 
the  western  world  was  temptingly  holding 
out  a  system  of  equal  liberty  to  mankind, 
to  profit  by  which  these  Volunteers  declared 
it  was  necessary  to  unite  men  in  Ireland,  of 
all  religious  persuasions,  for  one  common 
object, — when  this  meeting  took  place,  Tone 
was  a  loyal  subject,  and  Colonel  Robert 
Stewart  (subsequently  Lord  Casllereagh) 
was  the  chairman  of  a  meeting  at  which  se- 
dition was  pretty  plainly  inculcated,  in  the 
example  held  forth  of  the  successful  struggle 
for  American  independence.  But,  in  the 
course  of  the  ca:/raordinary  events  of  this 
world.  Tone  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged  for 
attempting  to  carry  into  effect  the  project  im- 
phed  in  the  example  so  temptingly  held  forth, 
by  *  uniting  men  of  all  religious  descriptions  ;' 
and  Colonel  Robert  Stewart,  (subsequently 
Lord  Castlereagh,)  who  sanctioned  with  his 
presence  the  sedition  of  the  sword-in-hand 
deliberators  on  reform,  became  a  foremost 
man  in  those  councils  which  consigned  the 
United  Irishmen  to  the  gallows." 

The   honourable   privilege  of  a  soldier's 


death  was  invariably  denied  to  the  gallant 
and  noble  leaders  of  the  United  Irishmen,  and 
every  means  were  employed  that  money 
could  buy  or  treachery  procure,  to  build  up  a 
monument  of  terror,  to  confound  the  move- 
ments and  oppose  the  hopes  of  future  pa- 
triots. That  monument  of  terror  was  crowned 
with  the  Union. 

In  this  our  humble  attempt  to  attract  the 
American  or  general  reader  towards  the  con- 
sideration of  Irish  history,  it  may  be  proper 
to  inform  those  who  desire  further  particulars 
of  the  "  Rebellion  of  '98"  that  they  will  find 
an  excellent  and  spirited  account  in  Mooneys 
"  History  of  Ireland,"  a  book  which  breathes 
the  combined  hopes  of  both  hemispheres,  and 
enlightens  its  main  subject  in  a  suitable  and 
pleasing  manner.  For  those  who  might  de- 
sire a  nearer  acquaintance  with  the  noble 
and  persevering  Tone,  or  with  his  gallant 
and  faithful  comrades,  we  would  recommend 
Dr.  Madden's  "  The  United  Irishmen,  their 
Lives  and  Times."  It  is  a  delightful  book, 
portraying  the  varieties  of  human  character 
in  a  provincial  circle,  and  soothing,  with  a 
tone  of  patient  wit  and  faithful  endurance, 
the  painful  feelings  excited  by  the  subject. 
If  we  had  more  such  biographical  treasures, 
the  compilation  of  history  would  be  a  philo- 
sophical pleasure,  and  the  style  of  the  epic 
would  then  be  appropriate  for  a  History  of 
Ireland.  We  cordially  endorse  the  following 
historically  instructive  remarks  on  Dr.  Mad- 
den's book  in  the  "  London  Athenaeum  :" — 

"  Coming  as  Dr.  Madden  does  after  so 
many  biographers  of  United  Irishmen  and 
their  contemporaries,  it  cannot  be  expected 
that  much  novelty  remained  for  even  the 
most  industrious  to  glean  in  relation  to  the 
causes  which  brought  these  men  into  action. 
As  far  as  the  great  outlines  of  the  story  of 
the  rebellion  are  concerned,  little,  if  any 
thing,  indeed,  was  left  to  be  told.  The  cor- 
ruption of  the  Irish  parliament,  the  prostration 
of  the  Irish  commerce  before  the  supposed 
interests  of  England,  the  predominance  of 
English  ideas  in  all  matters  of  government, 
the  encampment  of  a  handful  of  English  pro- 
prietors on  the  soil,  (the  monopolists  of  wealth 
and  power,)  and  the  abuse  they  made  of  their 


A.  D.  1799.] 


THIRD  DIVISION. 


437 


supremacy,  are  sufficiently  understood.  The 
rising  importance  of  the  Catholic  population 
also,  and  the  influence  of  the  American  and 
French  revolutions  .on  the  minds  of  the  dis- 
senting Protestants,  are  equally  clear;  and 
the  policy  of  the  dominant  faction,  the  masters 
of  all  the  clews  of  the  conspiracy,  and  the 
possessors  of  abundant  means  of  crushing  it, 
who  nevertheless  suffered  events  to  take  their 
course,  and,  finally,  by  a  series  of  measures, 
comparable  only  with  the  war  of  the  Palati- 
nate, drove  the  ignorant  and  innocent  peas- 
antry into  overt  acts  of  resistance,  is  well 
known.  Still  a  vast  deal  of  detail,  a  mass  of 
illustrative  anecdote,  and  of  not  unimportant 
fact,  was  afloat  in  Irish  society,  and  likely  to 
perish,  which  was  wanting  to  clear  up  doubts  ; 
— and  of  these.  Dr.  Madden  has  possessed 
himself  to  enrich  his  narrative.  To  the  read- 
ers disposed  to  study  the  policy  of  the  Irish 
government  of  those  days,  the  volumes  be- 
fore us  present  the  additional  advantage  of  a 
clear  and  succinct  narrative  of  a  vast  many 
particulars,  necessary  to  be  thoroughly  un- 
derstood in  order  to  form  a  correct  notion  of 
the  character  of  the  events.  Dr.  Madden  has 
more  particularly  thrown  into  strong  relief 
the  leading  circumstance,  that,  as  the  asser- 
tion of  national  independence  was  the  first 
link  in  the  chain  which  terminated  in  the 
Union,  so  the  spirit  which  was  then  developed 
was  the  same  which  manifested  itself  in  every 
successive  effort  at  resistance.  The  Volun- 
teers were  the  parents  of  the  first  association 
of  United  Irishmen.  The  progressive  vio- 
lence of  the  government  ripened  this  associa- 
tion into  an  armed  organization  of  the  coun- 
try ;  but  the  same  spirit  which  animated 
these  associations  still  smoulders  in  the  Re- 
peal agitation." 

This  "spirit"  makes  the  grand  truth  of 
consolation,  and  the  imperishable  sentiment 
of  nationality.  A  hundred  manufactured  re- 
bellions cannot  extinguish  the  spirit  which 
perseveringly  accommodates  itself  to  the 
temporary  forms  of  territorial  protection,  par- 
liamentary reform,  emancipation  from  eccle- 
siastical tyranny,  or  the  repeal  of  the  Union. 
It  is  the  spirit  of  national  freedom  and  legis- 
lative liberty ;  a  spirit  which  all  the  Pitts  from 


the  lowest  depths  of  hell  cannot  conquer, 
however  successful  they  may  appear  for  a 
short  interval  of  money-triumphs. 

Mooney  thus  describes  the  Pitt  and  Casile- 
reagh  triumphs  after  the  close  of  the  rebellion 
of  1798  :— 

"  Ireland  was  now  seized  as  the  spoil  of 
the  pirates.  Her  chiefs  were  all  either  de- 
stroyed, in  captivity,  or  in  exile.  The  gov- 
ernment abandoned  the  country  to  the  licen- 
tious soldiery — to  spies,  informers,  and  pil- 
lagers. Desolation  swept  along  its  verdant 
fields.  Ruin  was  pictured  on  all  the  towns 
and  villages.  The  weeping  of  widows  and 
orphans  disturbed  the  repose  of  the  dead. 
The  ground  went  untilled.  The  jails  were 
crammed.  The  executioners  were  busy,  and 
the  work  of  death  alone  proceeded.  A  fam- 
ine came  the  following  year,  and  carried  off 
hundreds  of  thousands.     •     •     •     •     • 

"  Such  was  the  condition  of  unhappy  Ire- 
land in  1799,  after  a  contest  which  cost  the 
British  government  twenty  thousand  of  their 
best  soldiers,  and  in  which  fifty  thousand  of 
the  Irish  were  slain, — the  majority  of  whom 
were  butchered  in  cold  blood  !" 

Such  is  the  power  which  presumes  to 
teach  nations,  to  despise  the  ignorant,  and  to 
convert  the  heathen ! 


CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 

1792  TO  1799. 

"  The  '  United  Irishmen'  and  their  story, 
we  may  be  told,  is  an  episode  in  a  provincial 
history,  which  has  already  passed  from  the 
remembrance  of  a  generation,  whose  mind 
has  been  absorbed  and  whose  sensations  have 
been  exhausted  by  the  grander  spectacle  of  a 
European  revolution.  To  this  class  of  ob- 
jectors it  were  but  a  bootless  labour  to  reply 
by  pointing  to  the  moral  and  political  import- 
ance of  the  tale  ;  to  offer  it  as  the  most  preg- 
nant instance  in  British  story  of  the  misery 
of  corruption.  It  were,  perhaps,  scarcely 
less  idle  to  declare  the  tragic  interest  of  the 
story,  a  drama  simple  in  action,  prepared, 
combined,  matured,  and  brought  to  its  catas- 
trophe, in  all  the  perfection  of  Aristotelian 


438 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1799. 


poetics ;  or  to  enumerate  the  characters  of 
the  dramatis  personcB,  great  in  passion, 
prominent  in  good  or  in  evil,  and  agitated  by 
vast  and  sudden  reverses  of  fortune.  Such, 
however,  is  the  fact :  but  much  and  frequent- 
ly as  Irish  affairs  have  of  late  years  been 
brought  in  strong  relief  before  the  English 
eye, — ^frequently  as  the  injuries  and  the  claims 
of  Irishmen  have  been  the  objects  or  pretences 
of  contending  British  factions, — the  subject 
is  as  yet  more  unknown  to  Englishmen  than 
the  circumstances  of  many  of  their  remotest 
and  poorest  colonies  ;  nor  can  one  educated 
man  in  a  thousand  among  us  give  a  clear  and 
satisfactory  reason  for  the  countless  anoma- 
lies which  present  themselves  in  the  actual 
condition  of  the  sister  country." — London 
AthencBum,  July,  1841. 

"From  the  history  of  Ireland,  also,  may  the 
enlightened  American  find  lessons  of  deep 
moral  import  for  the  government  of  his  own 
conduct,  which  can  nowhere  be  better  studied 
than  there,  where  the  conflicting  principles 
of  good  and  evil  have  been  most  strenuously 
active.  He  will  there  learn  to  value  the 
blessing  which  his  forefathers,  at  the  peril  of 
more  than  life,  and  with  years  of  pain  and 
toil,  achieved  for  their  country,  when  they 
redeemed  it  from  colonial  dependence  and 
provincial  degradation.  He  will  see  by  what 
subtle  means  corruption  enters  and  treason 
triumphs,  and  how  what  is  hardly  won  may 
be  too  easily  lost.  He  will  apply  to  his  own 
heart  the  farewell  advice  of  the  Father  of  his 
Country,  and  '  cherish  with  immoveable  at- 
tachment its  union,  the  fortress  against  which 
the  batteries  of  internal  and  external  enemies 
will  be  most  constantly  and  actively,  though 
often  insidiously  and  covertly  directed :  he 
will  watch  for  its  preservation  with  jealous 
anxiety,  and  indignantly  frown  upon  the  first 
dawn  of  any  attempt  to  alienate  any  part  of 
his  country  from  the  rest.'  And  if  he  be  one 
whose  name  stands  yet  high  and  unsullied  in 
the  estimation  of  his  fellow-citizens,  he  will 
forbear  to  urge  any  merely  local  measure 
which,  should  it  succeed,  would  only  serve 
to  sap  the  strength  and  glory  of  his  country, 
and  tarnish  his  own  name  and  memory  for- 
ever and  forever." — W.  Sampson. 


"  In  1792  the  petition  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics for  the  extension  of  the  elective  fran- 
chise to  their  body,  and  the  petition  of  the 
Protestants  of  Belfast  in  their  favour,  were 
rejected  with  circumstances  of  great  con- 
tumely. During  the  parliamentary  recess, 
the  different  grand  juries  were  directly  en- 
couraged by  the  government  to  adopt  very 
strong  resolutions  against  further  concessions 
to  the  Catholics.  Having  thus  raised  the 
hopes  of  the  violent  Protestants,  and  provoked 
the  just  enmity  of  the  Catholics,  the  govern- 
ment, to  the  utter  astonishment  of  both  par- 
ties, early  in  the  session  of  1793  introduced 
a  bill  for  extending  the  elective  franchise  to 
the  Catholics,  which  passed  into  a  law  by 
nearly  the  same  majority  that  only  a  few 
months  before  had  voted  against  even  taking 
the  subject  into  consideration.  Several  pop- 
ular and  conciliatory  measures  were  at  the 
same  time  adopted ;  among  others,  leave 
was  given  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  amending  the 
state  of  the  popular  representation ;  and  a 
bill  for  disqualifying  certain  placemen  was 
actually  passed.  The  minority  in  return 
supported  the  minister  in  several  coercive 
measures ;  such  as,  an  act  against  the  im- 
portation of  arms  and  military  stores,  an  act 
against  conventions,  and  an  act  for  raising  a 
militia.  The  plan  of  parliamentary  reform, 
which  had  been  prepared  apparently  with  the 
implied  sanction,  or  at  least  neutrality,  of  the 
ministry,  was  rejected  in  1794  by  a  great 
majority ;  but  there  was,  however,  some  rea- 
son to  hope  that  measures  of  justice  and  con- 
ciliation would  yet  be  adopted,  and  the  fatal 
calamities  of  civil  war  averted." — Taylor. 

"  But  it  should  be  recollected  that  these 
concessions  were  made  more  in  fear  than  in 
friendship.  The  revolutionary  war  was  about 
to  commence — the  flames  of  republicanism 
had  spread  far  and  near.  It  was  eagerly 
caught  up  among  the  Protestant  and  espe- 
cially among  the  Presbyterian  population  of 
the  north  of  Ireland.  Belfast  was  its  warm- 
est focus ;  it  was  the  deep  interest  of  the 
British  government  to  detach  the  wealth  and 
intelligence  of  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  from 
the  republican  party.  This  policy  was 
adopted.     The  Catholics  were  conciliated. 


A.  D.  1799.] 


THIRD    DIVISION, 


4M 


The  Catholic  nobihty,  gentry,  mercantile, 
and  other  educated  classes,  almost  to  a  man, 
separated  from  the  republican  party.  That 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  a  revolu- 
tion, became  only  an  unsuccessful  rebellion. 

"Illustrious  Lady — the  Rebellion  of  1798 
itself  was,  almost  avowedly  and  beyond  a 
doubt  proveably,  fomented  to  enable  the 
British  government  to  extinguish  the  Irish 
legislative  independence  and  to  bring  about 
the  Union." — O'Connell. 

"  Mr.  Pitt,  having  sent  Lord  Fitz-William 
to  Ireland  with  unlimited  powers  to  satisfy 
the  nation,  permitted  him  to  proceed  until  he 
had  unavoidably  committed  himself  both  to 
the  Catholics  and  country,  when  he  suddenly 
recalled  him,  leaving  it  in  a  state  of  excitation 
and  dismay. 

**  The  day  Lord  Fitz-William  arrived, 
peace  was  proclaimed  throughout  all  Ireland. 
The  day  he  quitted  it,  she  prepared  for  insur- 
rection. 

"  The  Beresfords  and  the  Ponsonbys  were 
arrayed  against  each  other  ;  and,  in  one  week 
more,  the  Beresfords  would  have  been  pros- 
trate. Mr.  Pitt,  however,  terminated  the 
question  by  dethroning  Lord  Fitz-William ; 
the  whigs  were  defeated;  and  Ireland  was 
surrendered  at  discretion  to  Lord  Clare  and 
his  connection.  Within  three  months  after 
Lord  Fitz- William's  dismissal.  Lord  Clare 
had  got  the  nation  into  full  training  for  mili- 
tary execution." — J.  Barrington. 

"  A  proclamation  was  issued  by  the  Irish 
government  on  the  30th  of  March,  [1798,] 
declaring  the  entire  kingdom  in  a  state  of  re- 
bellion, and  at  the  same  time  they  published 
an  order  signed  by  Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie, 
the  commander  of  the  forces,  authorizing  the 
troops  to  act  without  waiting  for  the  authority 
of  a  civil  magistrate. 

"  The  brave  Abercrombie,  finding  himself 
compelled  to  sign  such  an  order  by  the  com- 
mands of  the  king  and  Pitt,  resigned  the  com- 
mand of  the  army  in  Ireland.  Disgusted 
with  both  the  army  and  ministry,  he  thus 
described  the  former :  *  It  was  in  a  state  of 
licentiousness  that  rendered  it  formidable  to 
every  one  but  the  enemy.' " — Mooney. 

"  Mr.  Pitt  counted  on  the  expertness  of  the 


Irish  government  to  effect  a  premature  explo- 
sion. Free  quarters  were  now  ordered,  to 
irritate  the  Irish  population ;  slow  tortures 
were  inflicted,  under  the  pretence  of  forcing 
confessions.  The  people  were  goaded  and 
driven  to  madness. 

"  General  Abercrombie,  who  succeeded  as 
commander-in-chief,  was  not  permitted  to 
abate  these  enormities,  and  therefore  resigned 
with  disgust.  Ireland  w^s  by  these  means 
reduced  to  a  state  of  anarchy,  and  exposed  to 
crime  and  cruelties  to  which  no  nation  had 
ever  been  subject.  The  people  could  no 
longer  bear  their  miseries.  Mr.  Pitt's  object 
was  now  effected,  and  an  insurrection  was 
excited." — J.  Barrington. 

"  In  former  times,  resort  was  had  to  simi- 
lar acts  of  outrage,  for  the  purpose  of  driving 
the  native  into  a  resistance  that  should  be  fol- 
lowed by  a  forfeiture  of  their  estates  :  now  a 
rebeUion  was  intentionally  produced  by  the 
chief  agents  of  the  British  ministry,  in  order 
to  give  an  ojjportunity  for  confiscating  the 
whole  power  of  the  nation,  by  an  act  of  union." 
W.  J.  Mac-Neven. 

"  That  the  enormities  recited  by  Sir  John 
Davies  have  been  even  exceeded  in  modern 
days  is  not  so  well  known  nor  admitted  as, 
for  the  sake  of  truth,  and  justice,  and  of  last- 
ing peace,  (which  can  only  be  founded  on 
those  principles,)  it  should  be.  But  abundant 
evidence  is  recorded  in  statute-books  and  rolls 
of  parliament  of  this  great  truth.  There  will 
be  found,  coexisting,  a  gunpowder  bill  de- 
priving the  people  of  arms  for  their  defence  ; 
a  convention  act,  to  prevent  meetings  to  peti- 
tion for  redress ;  insurrection  acts,  authori- 
zing the  infliction  of  the  curfew,  of  depopu- 
lation, banishing,  dungeoning,  and  every 
other  act  of  tyranny  by  the  most  unworthy 
agents,  and  making  the  sacred  and  holy  obli- 
gation '  to  promote  union  and  brotherhood  of 
afiection  among  all  religious  denominations,' 
a  felony  of  death  ;  bills  of  indemnity  to  screen 
from  justice  the  acts  of  sworn  exterminators. 
It  was  upon  a  motion  for  such  a  bill  upon  the 
heel  of  the  Union,  when  the  speech  from  the 
throne  had  'declared'  that  all  was  tranquil 
and  loyal,  that  Mr.  (Earl)  Grey  well  ob- 
served, *  that  it  should  have  been  entitled  '  a 


i 


440 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1799. 


bill  for  the  encouragement  and  protection  of 
secret  informers,'  and  that  to  cover  every  il- 
legal act  of  ministers  for  twelve  years  was 
unprecedented  and  unconstitutional,  and  was, 
in  fact,  the  severest  censure  upon  the  admin- 
istration that  required  it.' 

"Add  to  all  these  the  suspension  of  the 
habeas  corpus  act  for  a  long  series  of  years, 
authorizing  summary  imprisonment  in  secret 
dungeons,  hulks,  and  military  prisons,  and 
finally  the  estabUshment  of  military  law  where 
no  standard  was  raised,  nor  no  enemy  in  pres- 
ence ;  and  let  no  man  now  wonder  if  a  peo- 
ple so  treated  should  be  turbulent  and  vindic- 
tive ;  that  they  should  not  all  at  once  discard 
their  resentments,  or  look  with  confidence  to 
a  quarter  whence  so  many  wrongs  proceeded, 
and  where  faith  had  been  so  often  and  so 
lately  broken." — W.  Sampson. 

"  It  appears,  from  a  variety  of  evidence 
laid  before  your  committee,  that  the  rebellion 
would  not  have  broken  out  as  soon  as  it  did, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  well-timed  measures 
adopted  by  the  government,  subsequent  to 
the  proclamation  of  the  lord-lieutenant  and 
council,  bearing  date  30th  March,  1798." — 
Report  of  the  Secret  Committee  appoirited 
by  the  Brit.  Gov. 

"When  men  imagine  that  their  food  is 
only  a  cover  for  poison,  and  when  they  nei- 
ther love  nor  trust  the  hand  that  serves  it,  it 
is  not  the  name  of  the  roast  beef  of  Old  Eng- 
land that  will  persuade  them  to  sit  down  to 
the  table  that  is  spread  for  them.  When  the 
people  conceive  that  laws,  and  tribunals,  and 
even  popular  assemblies,  are  perverted  from 
the  ends  of  their  institution,  they  find  in  those 
names  of  degenerated  establishments  only 
new  motives  to  discontent." — Burke. 

"  It  cannot  be  denied,  that  from  the  year 
1782,  at  least,  Ireland  was  indisputably  as 
independent  of  England  in  her  laws,  legisla- 
ture, and  trade,  as  England  was  of  Ireland  ; 
and  ministers  were  no  less  impeachable  for 
their  acts  of  misrule  in  the  one  country  than 
in  the  other.  Happily  for  the  English  peo- 
ple, they  timely  anticipated  the  last  extremi- 
ties before  the  picket,  pitch-cap,  walking  gal- 
lows, and  indemnified  murders  and  treasons 
had  been  wrought  into  their  system  of  police. 


But  why  did  they  not  raise  their  voice  as 
audibly  against  these  abuses  in  the  sister 
island  ?  For  the  same  reasons  that  have 
been  assigned,  as  will  be  shown  presently, 
for  the  evils  of  the  first  four  centuries  of  Eng- 
lish misrule ;  that  is  to  say,  the  hostile  spirit 
of  the  administration,  that  delivered  the  coun- 
try into  the  hands  of  usurping  factions,  and 
the  mischievous  and  treacherous  councils  of 
the  great  lords,  who  *  laboured  to  effect  a  per- 
petual bar  and  separation,'  and  whose  interest 
lay  in  misrepresentation  and  division,  and  in 
opposition  to  the  true  interests  of  both  na- 
tions."— W.  Sampson. 

"  Lord  Castlereagh  had  been  more  than 
seven  years  in  the  Irish  parliament,  but  was 
undistinguished.  In  private  life,  his  honour- 
able conduct,  gentlemanly  habits,  and  enga- 
ging demeanour,  were  exemplary.  Of  his 
public  life,  the  commencement  was  patriotic, 
the  progress  corrupt,  and  the  termination 
criminal.  His  first  public  essay  was  a  mo- 
tion to  reform  the  Irish  parliament,  and  his 
last  to  annihilate  it.  It  is  impossible  to  deny 
a  fact  so  notorious.  History,  tradition,  or  the 
fictions  of  romance,  contain  no  instance  of 
any  minister  who  so  fearlessly  deviated  from 
all  the  principles  which  ought  to  characterize 
the  servant  of  a  constitutional  monarch  or  the 
citizen  of  a  free  country.  Incontestable  facts 
prove  the  justice  of  this  observation." — J. 
Barrington. 

"  Now,  my  lord,  shall  I  scruple  to  declare 
to  the  world, — I  wish  I  could  to  the  four 
quarters  of  it ! — that  among  you,  your  ill- 
treatment  has  murdered  my  brother,  [Edward 
Fitz-Gerald,]  as  much  as  if  you  had  put  a 
pistol  to  his  head.  In  this  situation,  no  char- 
itable message  arrives  to  his  relations,  no 
offer  to  allow  attached  servants  to  attend  upon 
him,  who  could  have  been  depended  upon  in 
keeping  dreadful  news  of  all  sorts  from  him. 
No,  no  !  To  his  grave,  in  madness,  you 
would  pursue  him — to  his  grave  you  perse- 
cuted him." — Letter  from  Lord  Henry  Fitz- 
Gerald  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant. 

"  Be  firm.  Irishmen,  but  be  cool  and  cau- 
tious ;  be  patient  yet  awhile ;  trust  to  no  un- 
authorized communications ;  and,  above  all, 
we  warn  you,  again  and  again  we  warn  you, 


A.  D.  1799.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


441 


against  doing  the  work  of  your  tpants,  by 
premature,  by  partial,  or  divided  exertion. 
If  Ireland  shall  be  forced  to  throw  away  the 
scabbard,  let  it  be  at  her  own  time,  not  at 
theirs.  Dublin,  March  17th,  St.  Patrick's 
Day,  1798." — Proclamation  of  the  United 
Irishmen. 

"  But,  ere  we  fight,  go  call  at  Edward's 
tomb ;  cry  in  his  ears ;  bid  him  who  sleeps 
to  wake ;  bid  him  rise  and  fight  his  enemies. 
Brave  as  the  lion,-  gentler  than  the  lamb,  the 
sparkling  jewel  of  an  ancient  home,  the  no- 
blest blood  of  any  in  our  land  ran  through  his 
veins.  He  hears  you  not.  He  sleeps  to 
wake  no  more  !  Of  all  his  country,  and  of 
all  he  owned,  there  rests  no  more  to  him  than 
the  cold  grave  he  lies  in. 

"  O,  gallant,  gallant  Edward  !  fallen  in  the 
flower  of  youth,  and  pride  of  manly  beauty, 
— had  you  lived  to  see  your  country  free,  the 
proudest  conqueror  that  wears  a  sword  dare 
not  invade  it !" — ^W.  Sampson. 

"The  patriots  of  1796,  '97,  and  '98  had 
not  the  power  of  '  wielding  at  will  the  fierce 
democracy,'  possessed  by  the  agitators  of  the 
present  day ;  but  they  had  a  belter  and  more 
consistent  view  of  the  remedies  that  their 
country  needed.  It  would  be  folly  to  deny 
that  we  do  not  accord  the  confidence  to  the 
political  unions  we  would  have  given  to  the 
societies  of  United  Irishmen.  Personal  mo- 
tives, private  pique,  and  petty  objects  of  am- 
bition are  too  often  conspicuous  in  the  de- 
bates of  the  present  men  of  the  people  ;  with 
them  we  find  no  traces  of  any  fixed  and  defi- 
nite plan  for  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the 
peasantry,  and  rendering  the  resources  of  the 
country  available  for  the  support  of  its  inhab- 
itants."— Taylor. 

"  One  hope  there  is  ;  if  it  prove  vain,  then 
all  is  vanity.  It  is  in  the  renewal  and  fur- 
therance of  that  union  which,  in  spite  of  ad- 
verse interests  and  unforeseen  disasters,  went 
so  near  to  make  of  Ireland  a  nation,  and  of 
her  children  a  people.  When  the  Catholics, 
represented  by  men  of  unsophisticated  under- 
standings, and  acting  in  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
embraced  their  countrymen  who  had  first  lent 
them  a  succouring  hand ;  and  when  they 
vowed  together  on  the  altar  of  their  country 

56 


to  abjure  those  hatreds  fomented  by  their 
enemies,  which  had  set  Christians  against 
their  Christian  countrymen  with  a  zeal  no 
less  than  that  of  infidels  in  the  dark  days  of 
pagan  superstition,  pride  was  alarmed  and 
prejudice  was  shocked.  And  the  oligarchy, 
which,  like  the  Mameluke  powers  of  Egypt, 
servile  and  tyrannical,  preyed  upon  the  peo- 
ple with  whom  they  felt  no  sympathy,  saw 
nothing  in  this  union  but  a  treasonable  con- 
spiracy against  their  prescriptive  sway :  and 
this  sacred  obligation,  which  warred  against 
the  oath  of  sworn  exterminators,  was  made 
by  law  a  felony  of  death.  And  many  were 
the  martyrs  who  fell  by  the  law  and  by  the 
sword,  whose  virtues  were  enough  to  conse- 
crate the  axe,  the  cord,  and  all  the  vilest  im- 
plements of  their  destruction.  But  there  was 
in  the  motive  and  the  object  an  ennobling 
principle  which  gave  to  those  even  in  the 
humblest  walks  of  life  a  dignity  and  elevation 
which  did  not  forsake  them  under  the  severest 
trials.  •  •  #  # 

"  And  many  there  were  in  whose  hearts 
the  duties  of  my  profession  and  the  ties  of 
friendship  gave  me  to  read,  when  there  was 
no  concealment  or  reserve,  and  nobler  never 
were.  They  did  for  their  country  what  they 
could ;  and,  when  they  could  do  no  more, 
they  met  their  fate  with  manly  firmness. 
And  he,  if  such  there  be,  who  thinks  success 
the  only  title  to  remembrance,  is  himself  un- 
deserving of  confidence  and  unworthy  of  suc- 
cess : — 

'  Careat  successibus  opto 
Quisquis  ab  eventu  facta  notanda  putat' " 

W.  Sampson. 
"  We  may  observe,  that  as  the  Irish  re- 
bellion was  not  an  isolated  fact  unconnected 
with  political  antecedents ;  so  it  cannot  be 
regarded  as  unproductive  of  future  conse- 
quences. The  causes  of  discontent  which 
provoked  that  outbreak,  though  partially  re- 
moved by  law,  still,  we  fear,  survive  in  the 
manner  in  which  that  law  is  administered : 
nor  is  it  credible  that  the  vast  and  wide- 
spreading  organization  of  the  United  Irish- 
men was  so  completely  broken  as  to  leave  no 
traces  behind  it.  Many  of  its  detached  links, 
not  improbably,  still  subsist,  and  are  applied 


449 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1600. 


in  a  resistance  to  agrarian  oppression,  of 
which  such  dreadful  results  occasionally  are 
exhibited  to  *  fright  the  isle  from  its  propriety.' 
Evidences  of  a  general  intelligence  among 
the  peasantry  for  the  purposes  of  revenge, 
(that  wild  justice  of  the  hopeless,)  again  and 
again  exhibit  themselves  ;  and  the  same  truth 
is  evinced  in  the  diflSculty  with  which  the 
offenders  are  traced  and  brought  to  justice  : 
the  spirit  of  conspiracy  has  descended  from 
the  higher  to  the  lower  classes." — London 
AthencBum ;  July,  1841. 

"  Rich  and  poor  there  will  be,  so  long  as 
the  world  endureth  ;  if  only  to  give  employ- 
ment to  the  higher  virtues  of  humanity ;  and 
without  wealth  and  poverty,  the  Gospel  itself 
would  be  unintelligible  : — 

"  But  as  the  natural  current  of  example  is 
not  upwards,  but  downwards,  social  vices, 
having  the  same  origin  as  the  fashions,  must 
needs  descend,  as  the  fashions  do ;  and  it 
can  be  but  by  ill  example  that  the  poor  could 
be  generally  corrupted. 

"  And  seeing  that  the  poor  have  never  yet 
established  a  fashion,  neither  could  they,  with 
all  their  labour  and  patient  endurance,  give 
currency  to  social  immoralities  and  disorders. 

"  The  privations  of  poverty,  then,  are  all 
its  own ;  but  its  vices  challenge  a  higher 
parentage. 

"Let  the  rich  duly  consider  their  duties 
and  natural  influences,  their  means  and  op- 
portunities ;  for  it  can  be  but  by  their  default, 
that  infidelity  and  manifestations  of  ill-will 
can  ever  afflict  a  nation." — Christian's  Econ. 
of  Human  Life. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

Leffislative  union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland — 
Awful  pause  under  the  paws  of  the  British  lion — 
The  scaffold  for  faithful  patriots,  but  respectable 
titles  for  legislative  liars  and  traitorous  thieves — 
Wonderful  efforts  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  a  cham- 
pion of  the  people  proper — Glorious  awakening  of 
the  English  mind — Death  of  George  the  Third — 
Success  of  Catholic  emancipation. 

The  legislative  union  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  is  the  next  subject  in  the  historical 
course  of  our  narrative  ;  and  it  is  one  which 
has  been  commonly  considered  a  very  im- 


portant epoch.  It  is  true  that  the  measure 
has  produced  an  immense  amount  of  mischief 
and  misery,  but  the  days  of  its  duration  are 
numbered,  and  the  subject  will  hereafter 
(towards  which  history  instructs)  have  very 
little  importance.  Properly  speaking,  the 
reigns  or  acts  of  English  power  ought  not  to 
be  considered  at  all  in  reference  to  Irish  his- 
tory ;  and  we  have  only  noticed  them  for  the 
purpose  of  making  our  subject  agreeable  to 
the  recollections  of  the  general  reader.  Ac- 
cording to  our  view  of  the  Union,  it  is  a  very 
small  affair,  and  we  shall  treat  it  as  such. 

Among  all  the  subjects  of  real  and  positive 
and  perpetual  importance  in  the  history  of 
Ireland,  the  organization  of  the  United  Irish- 
men is  the  most  truly  worthy  of  attention  and 
memory.  Grieving  that  we  cannot  bestow 
more  space  in  this  work  to  relate  their  pa- 
triotic exertions,  we  must  be  allowed  to  con- 
tribute our  humble  endeavours  to  hand  down 
the  names  of  the  principal  leaders  for  the  ad- 
miration of  all  the  well-wishers  of  mankind. 
The  impartial  readers  in  future  times  will 
perceive  that  the  "  rebellion,"  like  many  other 
such  struggles,  was,  in  its  primitive  and  pop- 
ular origin,  neither  a  fanatical  nor  a  factious 
movement.  It  was  one  of  the  most  sublime 
attempts  to  overcome  the  prejudices  and  dif- 
ficulties of  time  and  place  that  the  world  had 
ever  seen.  And  it  is  also  worthy  of  additional 
observation,  that  when  parties  and  sects  be- 
gan to  see  how  contemptibly  they  were  gov- 
erned by  means  of  their  separated  antago- 
nism, the  old  barriers  of  prejudice  were  at 
once  broken  down,  and  men  saw  each  other 
as  they  ought  to  be — a  band  of  brothers. 
Similar  discoveries,  on  a  small  scale,  had 
often  occurred,  in  spite  of  governmental  t3nr- 
anny ;  the  early  English  settlers  became 
"  more  Irish  than  the  Irish  :"  the  first  Lord 
Baltimore,  having  examined  Ireland  for  him- 
self, the  noble-hearted  Yorkshireman  soon 
shone  out  as  "Irish"  as  any  of  the  O'Neills. 
These  truly  important  and  consistent  inci- 
dents we  have  endeavoured  to  describe,  be- 
cause they  present  the  main  evidence  of  Ire- 
land's true  position  and  real  progress.  In 
1798,  these  movements  were  confirmed  and 
consolidated  by  the  unquestionable  fact  that 


A.  D.  1800.] 


THIRD    DIVISION, 


443 


a  hundred  thousand  of  the  brave  and  well- 
equipped  Protestants  of  Ulster  could  scarcely 
be  restrained  from  voluntarily  hurling  the 
British  power — where  it  ought  to  be. 

The  year  1798  was  truly  an  epoch  in  the 
national  history  of  Ireland.  It  is  a  lesson 
teaching  that  unity  which  now  animates  the 
advocacy  of  repeal.  All  its  teachings  yield 
hope  to  freemen,  but  strike  terror  to  tyrants. 

Of  the  many  excellent  men  brought  for- 
ward into  public  notice  by  the  1798  mani- 
festation of  the  inextinguishable  sentiment 
of  nationality,  Dr.  Madden  and  others  among 
them  have  enabled  us  to  make  the  following 
classification,  which  we  believe  is  mainly 
correct : —  / 

Episcopalians. — Executed. — Henry 
Sheares  ;  John  Sheares ;  B.  B.  Harvey  ; 
Leonard  M'Nally ;  Anthony  Perry  ;  Bar- 
tholomew Tone  ;  Matthew  Keuogh ;  Robert 
Emmet ;  Lord  Edward  Fitz-Gerald,  died  in 
prison  ;  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  ditto ;  Ohver 
Bond,  died  just  after  pardon. 

Sent  to  Fort  George. — Thomas  Addis 
Emmet;  Arthur  O'Connor;  Roger  O'Con- 
nor ;  Thomas  Russell ;  John  Chambers ; 
Matthew  Dowling ;  Edward  Hudson  ;  Hugh 
Wilson  ;  William  Dowdall ;  Robert  Hunter. 

Other  Leading  Members. — A.  H.  Rowan ; 
J.  N.  Tandy  ;  Simon  Butler ;  John  Russell ; 
Thomas  Wright;  W.  L.  Webb;  William 
Hamilton ;  Richard  Kirwan ;  James  Rey- 
nolds ;  Deane  Swift ;  Joseph  Holt ;  WilUam 
Weir ;  John  Allen ;  Thomas  Bacon ;  W. 
Corbett ;  T.  Corbett. 

Presbyterians. — Executed. — Henry 
Byers ;  William  Orr ;  Samuel  Orr ;  H.  J. 
McCracken  ;  James  Dickey ;  Henry  Monroe. 

Sent  to  Fort  George. — W.  S.  Dickson, 
(Rev. ;)  W.  Tennant ;  R.  Simms  ;  S.  Neil- 
son  ;  G.  Cumming ;  J.  Cuthbert. 

Other  Leaders. — William  Sampson ;  W. 
Drennan ;  W.  P.  McCabe  ;  H.  Haslett ;  W. 
Sinclair ;  J.  Sinclair ;  R.  McGee ;  J.  Milli- 
ken ;  G.  Mcllvaine  ;  R.  Byers  ;  S.  Kennedy  ; 
R.  Hunter ;  J.  Hope  ;  Robert  Orr ;  J.  Rabb  ; 
H.  Grimes  ;  W.  Simms  ;  W.  Kean ;  —  Tur- 
ner ;  J.  Burnside ;  J.  Greer ;  R.  Osborne. 
-  Catholics. — Executed. — John  M'Cann  ; 
W.  Devereux ;  Felix  Rourke ;  W.  Byrne ; 


W.  M.  Byrne ;  J.  Esmond ;  John  Kelly ;  J. 
CUnch  ;  S.  Barrett ;  E.  Kyan  ;  Col.  O'Doude. 

Sent  to  Fort  George. — W.  J.  Mac-Neven ; 
J.  Sweeny ;  Joseph  Cormick ;  John  Sweet- 
man. 

Other  Leaders. — Charles  Teeling;  Bar- 
tholomew Teeling;  E.  Fitz-Gerald,  (Wex- 
ford ;)  Peter  Finnerty ;  William  Lawless ; 
E.  J.  Lewins ;  Gen.  J.  Devereux ;  Garret 
Byrne  ;  R.  McCormick  ;  Thomas  Doorley ; 
B.  Mahon ;  M.  Dwyer ;  J.  Sweetman ;  J. 
Farrell ;  W.  Aylmer ;  Ferd.  O'Donnell ;  Gen- 
eral Cloney. 

Among  the  clergy  who  were  implicated  or 
accused,  we  find  the  following : — 

Presbyterians.  —  Executed.  —  Rev. 
Messrs.  William  Porter ;  —  Warwick  ;  — 
Stevelly. 

Others. — Rev.  Messrs.  W.  Steele  Dick- 
son ;  —  Simpson  ;  —  Barber ;  —  M'Neill ; 

—  Sinclair ;  —  Mahon  ;  —  Smith ;  —  Birch ; 

—  Ward. 

Catholics. — Executed. — Rev.  Messrs.  J. 
Quigley  ;  Moses  Keams  ;  Michael  Murphy, 
(shot ;)  P.  Roche  ;  —  Redmond  ;  —  Pren- 
dergast ;  John  Murphy. 

Others. — Rev.  Messrs.  H.  O'Keon ;  Den- 
nis Taafe ;  — Harrold ; — Stafford ; — Kava- 
nagh. 

On  looking  over  this  list,  and  especially 
the  glorious  names  among  the  Episcopalians, 
the  reader  will  naturally  ask — What  were 
the  established  clergy  doing  ?  This  question 
the  historian  is  somewhat  puzzled  to  answer 
as  might  be  required  by  both  duty  and  in- 
clination ;  but,  let  us  charitably  suppose  that 
they  were  doing  their  duty. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  Union,  an  event 
which  Sylvester  O'Halloran  would  have  treat- 
ed precisely  as  Charles  Phillips  has  done  in 
a  short  note  appended  to  his  beautiful  poem 
of  "  The  Emerald  Isle  :"— 

"  Of  the  Irish  '  union,' — that  infamous  con- 
summation of  our  calamities,  Tsegot  in  bribery 
and  baptized  in  blood,  which  robbed  the 
Irishman  of  the  impulse  of  a  name,  degraded 
his  country  into  a  province,  gave  him  an  itin- 
erant legislature  and  an  absentee  aristocracy, 
left  him  at  the  mercy  of  every  'prentice  states- 
man, and  carried  away  his  wealth  to  bribe 


i 


444 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1800. 


his  foreign  masters  into  contemptuous  civility, 
— I  shall  not  speak,  because  I  trust  it  is  but 
a  fleeting  spark,  and  that  Irishmen  will  never 
DESIST  until  the  very  memory  of  that  penal 
statute  on  our  national  pride  is  obliterated 
and  erased." 

Previous  to  the  solemn  farce  of  the  Union 
being  enacted,  Lord  Castlereagh  and  the 
British  government  were  very  anxious  to 
make  some  arrangements  for  the  silence  or 
absence  of  the  fifteen  or  twenty  state-prison- 
ers then  in  Dublin.  The  negotiations  were 
carried  on  by  Lord  Castlereagh  with  that 
grace  of  exquisite  delusion  which  was  so  pe- 
culiarly his  fortCy  and  which  constituted  the 
whole  and  sole  secret  of  his  elevated  differ- 
ence above  those  less-pompous  geniuses 
whom  the  criminal  laws  usually  send  to  Bot- 
any Bay  or  to  the  Old  Bailey  for  a  patent  of 
elevation.  After  several  wicked  but  fruitless 
attempts  to  ensnare  the  brave  captives  of 
Dublin  into  a  confession  of  submission,  Lord 
Castlereagh  and  his  government  very  coolly 
undertook  to  assure  the  world  that  they  had 
submitted ;  and  the  inflexible  patriots  were 
then  suddenly  removed  to  Fort  George,  in 
the  north-eastern  part  of  Scotland.  They 
had  already  been  in  prison  nearly  a  year ; 
among  them  were  men  estimable  for  every 
virtue  that  could  adorn  the  most  happily  gov- 
erned nation ;  they  had  wives  or  families 
whose  social  qualities  would  either  grace  a 
prison  or  dignify  a  palace  :  but  what  availed 
all  these  considerations  to  such  a  "  nobleman" 
(we  believe  that  is  the  "  respectable"  word) 
as  the  then  Lord  Castlereagh  !  There  were 
twenty  state-prisoners  included  by  the  order ; 
and,  at  four  o'clock  the  next  morning,  this 
noble  band  of  exiles,  already  despotically  de- 
prived of  hearth  and  home,  tearfully  but 
hopefully  beheld  the  dim  and  dew-bathed 
shores  of  Ireland  for  the  last  time. 

These  incorruptible  patriots  being  disposed 
of,  a  bill  to  raise  £1,500,000  for  bribes 
among  the  Irish  representatives  became 
speedily  arranged.  The  men  who  opposed 
the  Union  in  1799  were  placed  under  the 
"respectable"  tuition  of  Lord  Castlereagh, 
and  the  money,  in  his  diabolical  hands,  had 
the  desired  effect  of  corrupting  sufficient  vic- 


tims for  the  required  purpose.  The  third 
reading  of  the  bill  for  a  "  Legislative  Union 
between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland"  was 
moved  by  Lord  Castlereagh  with  his  usual 
elegance  of  style.  A  British  regiment  was 
placed  at  the  doors,  to  secure  the  fulfilment 
of  the  "  government  arrangements,"  and  con- 
summate the  deed  of  loyal  log-rolling  with 
legislative  lying.  There  were  no  back  doors 
for  the  half-repentant  victims  of  the  money- 
fiend.  The  bill  was  passed.  Lord  Castle- 
reagh buttoned  his  diamond-studded  gloves 
and  retired  with  all  the  temporary  honours  of 
that  locomotive  atmosphere  of  cool  placidity 
which  accompanied  him  when  on  earth. 

This  is  sober  history.  It  is  too  true.  No 
amount  of  romantic  language  can  exceed  the 
facts.  Consult  Barrington,  Plowden,  and  the 
official  journals  of  the  parliaments.  The  con- 
duct of  Lord  Castlereagh  was  neither  acci- 
dental nor  sincere  ;  for  although  his  presence 
graced  public  affairs  for  twenty  years  after- 
wards, his  happiness  was  always  drawn  from 
the  misfortunes  of  society,  and  even  his  best 
friends  never  imagined  him  incommoded  by 
the  human  warmth  of  sincerity. 

The  political  career  of  this  "nobleman" 
scattered  and  desolated  many  loyal  hearts ; 
but  their  descendants,  possessing  the  true 
patent  of  nobility,  are  not  likely  to  cease 
execrating  the  wretch  whose  only  title  to  his- 
torical notice  was  built  upon  the  ruin  of  good 
men  and  saintly  women,  infinitely  his  supe- 
rior in  all  national  and  moral  excellence. 
The  pen  that  here  has  to  record  the  perfidy 
of  such  a  titled  traitor  belongs  to  one  of  the 
many  hands  which  are  thus  naturally  and 
unconsciously  united  in  deliberately  exposing 
the  moneyed-monster  whose  diabolical  diplo- 
macy is  a  real  title  to  the  scorn  of  all  hon- 
ourable men.  The  repeal  of  the  Union  would 
create  quite  a  rustling  of  new  readings  among 
the  modern  mongrels  of  the  British  peerage. 

More  than  thirty  years  after  the  Union, 
when  the  gallant  Sampson  had  conquered  the 
bitter  feelings  of  personal  injury,  and  when 
he  was  well  qualified  to  speak  historically, 
he  thus  writes  : — 

"  Robert  Stewart,  [Lord  Castlereagh,] 
when  he  first  set  up  upon  the  republican  or 


A.  D.  1801.] 


THIRD  DIVISION. 


446 


Presbyterian  interest  against  *  the  lordly  in- 
terest,* for  his  native  county,  (Down,)  solemn- 
ly pledged  himself  upon  the  open  hustings  to 
his  constituents  to  support  and  promote  in 
and  out  of  the  house  of  parliament,  with  all 
his  ability,  the  following  bills :  1st,  for  amend- 
ing the  representation  of  the  people  ;  2d,  to 
exclude  pensioners  and  placemen ;  3d,  for 
limiting  their  number;  4th,  for  preventing 
revenue  officers  from  voting;  5th,  for  ren- 
dering the  servants  of  the  crown  in  Ireland 
responsible  ;  6th,  to  protect  the  personal 
safety  of  the  subject  against  arbitrary  and  ex- 
cessive bail,  and  against  the  stretching  of  the 
power  of  attachment  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
constitution !  Such  was  he  who  corrupted 
and  annihilated  that  parliament ;  held  places 
and  sat  in  parliament ;  gave  places  to  men 
who  sat  in  it,  increased  the  number  of  place- 
men and  pensioners,  suspended  the  habeas 
corpus,  enacted  the  insurrection  act,  which, 
together  with  the  gunpowder  bill,  etc.,  left 
no  right  unviolated,  established  martial  law, 
and  instead  of  responsibility,  gave  a  large  and 
unlimited  charter  of  indemnity  to  the  delin- 
quent servants  of  the  crown,  for  the  adminis- 
tering of  a  system  of  torture  and  rigour  be- 
yond the  laws  ;  and  pursued  with  renegado 
vengeance  to  death,  and  even  beyond  the 
GRAVE,  the  friends  to  whom  he  stood  so 
pledged,  and  over  whose  shoulders  he  had 
risen  to  power." 

Our  duty  required  the  mention  of  this  "  no- 
bleman" in  his  peculiar  connection  with  the 
Union,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the  task  has  been 
as  impartially  performed  as  if  we  had  never 
seen  the  "  gentleman." 

On  the  27th  of  March,  1800,  the  house  of 
lords  and  that  of  the  commons  waited  upon 
the  lord-lieutenant  with  the  articles  of  the 
Union.  In  England,  the  "Union  Act  for 
Ireland"  was  passed  July  2.  On  the  1st  of 
January,  1801,  the  imperial  united  standard 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  was  raised  and 
saluted  in  Dublin  by  the  mercenary  men  and 
mercenary  guns  of  a  mercenary  government. 
Sampson  tells  us — 

"  It  was  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1801, 
at  the  hour  of  noon,  that  the  imperial  united 
standard  mounted  on  the  Bedford  Tower  in 


Dublin  Castle,  and  the  guns  of  the  royal 
salute  battery  in  the  Phenix  Park,  announced 
to  weeping,  bleeding,  prostrate  Ireland  that 
her  independence  was  no  more,  and  that  her 
guilt-stained  parliament  had  done  itself  to 
death.  It  was  proclaimed  abroad  that  rebel- 
lion was  crushed,  that  those  '  designing'  men 
who  had  led  the  people  astray  were  all  brought 
to  justice  or  to  '  submission,'  and  now  with  the 
opening  century  was  to  arise  a  new  and  hap- 
pier era. 

"  The  government  was  now  possessed  of 
the  power  that  a  vanquished  insurrection 
gives,  with  an  army  of  126,000  well-appoint- 
ed soldiers,  highly  commended  for  the  tri- 
umphs they  had  won,  and  the  great  and  loyal 
spirit  with  which  they  had  achieved  such 
victories.  Ministers  certainly,  upon  their 
own  showing,  were  all-powerful  for  evil  or 
for  good.  Here  was  the  time,  had  there 
been  wisdom  or  virtue  in  the  authors  of  this 
sanguinary  revolution,  so  long  darkly  con- 
templated by  the  despotic  minister,  and  now 
dictated  by  his  will  to  his  blind  instruments  : 
here  was  the  moment  to  let  the  curtain  fall 
softly  down  upon  the  bloody  and  tragical  ca- 
tastrophe ;  to  throw  back  to  the  account  of 
past  centuries  the  crimes  and  cruelties  with 
which  the  last  had  closed ;  to  make  good  the 
promises  and  alluring  hopes  held  out  by  the 
royal  revolutionists  and  rebellion-makers,  who 
had  themselves  so  lately,  when  it  suited  a 
temporary  purpose,  drawn  such  strong  and 
glowing  pictui'es  of  former  misgovernment, 
and  of  the  contamination  of  the  parhament 
which  they  themselves  had  poisoned,  as  more 
than  justified  rebellion.  They  had  taken 
upon  themselves  the  credit,  and  with  it  the 
responsibility,  of  the  rebellion,  or,  which  is 
the  same  thing,  the  *  explosion ;'  and  the  re- 
volution called  the  Union  was  from  first  to 
last  the  entire  work  of  their  own  hands.  It 
is  not  in  the  memoirs  of  Theobald  Wolfe 
Tone,  nor  in  the  prophetic  speeches  of  Fox 
and  Grey,  that  this  truth  is  to  be  found,  but 
in  their  own  deliberate  avowals." 

The  Union  was  succeeded  by  one  of  those 
dreadful  pauses  which  indicate  the  extent  of 
the  injury  inflicted.  As  in  that  national 
stupor  which  followed  the  violation  of  the 


i 


446 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1808. 


Treaty  of  Limerick,  the  popular  mind  be- 
came fitful  occasionally,  but  soon  reverted 
into  sullen  silence, — an  English  characteristic 
which  is  only  of  comparatively  modern  intro- 
duction in  Irish  affairs.  At  first,  the  Union 
was  openly  condemned  by  a  few  energetic 
patriots,  who  knew  the  real  sentiments  of  the 
country ;  and  Robert  Emmet  was  the  actual 
representative  of  the  Irish  people  when  he 
made  his  last  speech  before  the  brutal  butcher 
whom  blood-bought  bribery  and  unscrupu- 
lous servility  had  bolstered  on  the  bench. 

After  the  execution  of  Robert  Emmet  and 
eighteen  of  his  gallant  comrades,*  tyranny 
became  more  quiet  and  confirmed  ;  but,  such 
is  the  invincible  nature  of  truth  and  liberty, 
that  Daniel  O'Connell,  a  champion  who  had 
been  gradually  attracting  notice  since  1799, 
commenced  wielding  those  wonderful  abili- 
ties which  promise  to  break  up  all  the  "  re- 
spectable" quietude  of  the  consolidated  tyr- 
anny built  upon  the  ruin  of  the  Irish  parlia- 
ment and  the  fate  of  Robert  Emmet. 

Never  had  the  chains  upon  Ireland  been 
80  artfully  or  so  strongly  bound.  Tyranny 
had  learned  to  assume  a  half-pious,  half-gal- 
lant exterior,  evidently  borrowed  from  Cas- 
tlereagh  and  Norbury.  In  the  dreary  inter- 
val between  the  death  of  Emmet  and  the 
peace  of  Europe,  little  could  be  done.  The 
"  government"  profited,  by  its  difficulties 
abroad,  in  conquering  the  voice  of  reform  at 
home.  The  habeas  corpus  act  and  trial  by 
jury  were  suspended,  martial  law  proclaimed, 
and  the  freedom  of  the  press  fettered  with  a 
nominal  liberty  of  no  use  except  to  tamper- 
ing traitors.  Tyranny  wore  all  the  externals 
of  a  respectable  sinner  : — the  morning  had  its 
Te  Deum  of  sanctified  sleepiness ;  dinner 
was  composed  of  a  large  slice  of  French  or 
American  glory  ;  and,  in  the  evening,  treach- 
ery was  invited  to  take  tea  and  tell  tales. 

Legal  forms  being  the  order  of  the  day,  | 

*  Notwithstanding  our  confined  limits,  we  must  men-   1 
tion  the  names,  at  least,  of  these  true  noblemen: — Tho-   j 
mas  Russell,  Edward  Kearney,  Thomas  Maxwell  Roach, 
Thomas  Keenan,  John  McEntoeh,  Owen  Kirwan,  Hen-  j 
ry  Howley,  James  Byrne,  John  Hay,  John  Biggs,  Mi-  , 
chael  Kelly,  Denis  Lambert  Redmond,  Nicholas  Tyrell, 
Felix  Rourke,  Laurence  Regley,  John  Killen,  Thomas 
Donelly,  and  John  McCaiin 


legal  remedies  are  therefore  principally  em- 
ployed ;  but,  to  the  minds  of  competent  ob- 
servers, the  contest  between  O'Connell  and 
the  government,  in  behalf  of  the  people  of 
Ireland,  has  evidently  been  carried  on  with 
brilliant  activity  and  steady  success  in  the 
great  cause  of  freedom.  Daniel  O'Connell 
has  perseveringly  watched  the  best  opportuni- 
ties and  proved  himself  equal  to  the  times  and 
to  his  task.  With  truth  and  right  on  his  side, 
he  has  maintained  a  continual  war  against 
the  royally  reposing  church-and-state  com- 
bination of  selfish  interest  and  spiritual  tyr- 
anny.    Mooney  says — 

"  In  future  ages,  this  mighty  man  will  be 
deemed  the  creature  of  the  fabulist.  His 
labours  will  be  doubted.  The  voice  of  his- 
tory will  be  insufficient  to  attest  them.  Some 
mighty  monument  should  be  raised  on  which 
his  triumphs  could  be  engraved  in  brass  or  in 
granite ;  for,  although  his  labours  ought  to 
live  in  the  hearts  of  his  liberated  countrymen 
to  the  remotest  generation,  yet  the  habitual 
apathy  of  mankind  may  blunt  the  recollection 
of  his  deeds  of  glory.  Raise  a  Theban  pyra- 
mid, ye  men  of  Ireland,  to  his  fame  !  Carry 
it  beyond  the  flight  of  your  own  eagle.  Hang 
on  its  apex  the  harps  of  your  country ;  and 
when  the  beams  of  the  morning  sun  shall 
strike  upon  their  chords,  the  music  of  praise 
shall  be  heard  for  him,  the  greatest  master 
of  the  human  mind  that  ever  Ireland  produced. 
Gather  around  its  base  on  each  returning  anni- 
versary of  his  birth  ;  renew  there  your  vows 
to  freedom,  and  perpetuate  to  other  ages  the 
peaceful  doctrines  of  her  greatest  champion. 

"  Nor  does  Ireland  alone  feel  and  acknowl- 
edge the  benefit  of  his  labours.  Other  coun- 
tries accord  to  him  their  obligations.  The 
chief  writers  of  the  earth  have  recorded  their 
high  estimation  of  his  worth.  His  fame  will 
live  in  their  literature,  and  his  example  will 
be  followed  by  patriots  that  are  unborn.  His 
grateful  and  admiring  countrymen  have  desig- 
nated him,  by  way  of  eminence,  the  Libera- 
tor and  moral  regenerator  of  Ireland.  They 
may  heap  upon  him  title  upon  title,  epithet 
upon  epithet,  until  the  pyramid  reach  the  very 
clouds  ;  and  yet  the  name  alone  by  which 
posterity  will  recognise  him,  is  O'Connell." 


A.  D.  1816.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


447 


The  "  apathy  of  mankind"  is  of  little  con- 
sequence to  a  Christian  patriot.  But  the 
time  is  assuredly  coming  when,  as  Mooney 
says  of  O'Connell,  "his  labours  will  be 
doubted."  The  English  people  will  scarcely 
believe  the  historian  who  tells  them  that  they 
had  an  act-of-pariiament  religion  and  a  state- 
church  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Thousands  of  millions  will  be  happily 
incapacitated  from  believing  in  the  existence 
of  such  a  traitorous  wretch  as  Castlereagh  ; 
so  also  will  be  doubted  the  necessity  and  use- 
fulness of  such  a  devoted  patriot  as  O'Connell. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Pitt,  January  23,  1806, 
caused  a  slight  improvement  in  the  treatment 
of  Ireland.  Lord  Grenville  became  first  lord 
of  the  treasury ;  Mr.  Fox,  secretary  of  state 
for  foreign  affairs  ;  and  Mr.  Erskine  (created 
a  baron)  was  appointed  lord-chancellor.  But 
Mr.  Fox  dying  on  the  13th  of  September,  and 
the  negotiations  for  peace  with  Buonaparte 
having  failed,  Ireland  was  again  given  up  to 
the  same  arrogant  selfishness  that  dictated 
the  "  orders  in  council"  against  America. 

In  1807,  a  bill  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
Catholics  passed  both  houses  of  parliament. 
The  king  suddenly  remembered  that  he  had 
a  conscience,  and  not  only  refused  to  sign 
the  bill,  but  ordered  the  cabinet  to  abandon 
the  subject  forever.  They  refused  to  comply 
with  such  despotic  dictation,  and  his  majesty 
called  in  the  Duke  of  Portland  and  Mr.  Per- 
ceval to  form  a  new  ministry.  The  amiable 
Erskine  was  displaced  for  Lord  Eldon,  a  man 
capable  of  any  amount  of  crocodile  meanness, 
or  any  degree  of  Bible-and-crown  rapacity. 

George  the  Third's  prospective  despotism 
caused  much  attention  to  what  was  called  the 
"  veto  question,"  and  the  years  1808-9  were 
occupied  in  arguing  its  merits.  The  Con- 
vention Act  was  enforced  by  the  government, 
and  Lord  Fingal  was  arrested  for  presiding 
at  a  Catholic  meeting.  The  vigilance  of 
the  "government"  was  not  always  victori- 
ous ;  and,  in  1810,  a  very  large  repeal  meet- 
ing was  held  in  Dublin,  at  which  Lord  Clon- 
curry  and  Mr.  O'Connell  spoke  with  great 
effect,  and  a  petition  was  sent  to  parliament. 
In  1812,  the  "  Cathohc  Board"  was  organized 
for  the  fourth  time,  under  the  legal  advice  of 


Mr.  O'Connell.  The  illegal  excesses  com- 
mitted by  the  "  Carders"  in  1813  operated 
very  badly  against  the  Cathohcs,  and  enabled 
Sir  Robert  Peel  to  saddle  several  insurrec- 
tion acts  upon  the  country.  The  curfew  law 
was  revived ;  and  Mooney,  writing  from  ob- 
servation, says — 

"  The  trial  by  jury  was  a  '  mockery,'  and 
the  laws  a  *  snare.'  In  truth,  the  law  was  a 
scourge,  its  officers  corrupt,  the  judges  par- 
tial, the  juries  packed,  and  the  government 
unprincipled  and  despotic.  Peel  was  sec- 
retary of  state  in  Ireland,  and  Castlereagh 
secretary  of  state  in  England  !" 

In  1814,  the  fall  of  Buonaparte  strength- 
ened the  hands  of  the  "government,"  and 
the  constitutional  rights  of  either  England  or 
Ireland  were  little  heeded.  The  nation  found 
men  and  money,  and  the  government  lived  in 
clover.  The  escape  of  Buonaparte  from 
Elba  only  confirmed  that  state  of  alarm  which 
gives  to  the  collection  of  taxes  a  "  respecta- 
ble" excuse. 

After  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  the  cessation 
of  hostilities  lessened  the  peculiar  power 
of  that  very  peculiar  usurpation  called,  in 
"respectable"  parlance,  "the  British  gov- 
ernment." During  the  previous  five  years, 
the  annual  average  of  expenditure  was 
£108,720,000.  The  following  five  years 
reduced  the  average  to  £64,660,000. 

The  proceedings  of  the  session  of  1816 
show  that  the  ministry  were  unable  to  con- 
tinue the  property-tax  for  another  year.  They 
were  also  compelled  to  relinquish  the  malt- 
tax,  which  usually  brought  in  £2,000,000. 
The  Bank  Restriction  Bill  was  extended 
for  two  years.  The  Catholics,  however, 
failed  again  with  their  claims.  In  those 
thinking  "  times  of  peace,"  the  inventive 
faculties  of  the  government  were  much  tried 
to  divert  the  reflective  sobriety  of  the  ex- 
hausted nation. 

Among  the  novel  expedients  invented  to 
amuse  the  public  mind  were  the  marriage  of 
the  Princess  Charlotte  to  Prince  Leopold  of 
Saxe  Cobourg ;  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  mar- 
ried the  Princess  Mary ;  and,  as  a  sort  of 
national  restorative  of  hock  and  soda.  Lord 
Exmouth  was  sent  to  give  the  Algerines  and 


^^ 


448 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAT^D, 


[A.  D.  1817. 


the  quotations  in  gunpowder  a  brilliant  blow- 
ing up. 

In  1817,  the  unnatural  and  unconstitutional 
treatment  to  which  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
had  long  been  subjected  could  not  be  hidden 
any  longer.  The  people  of  England  were 
aroused  to  the  examination  of  names  and 
meanings.  Public  meetings,  addresses,  and 
petitions  were  spirited  and  incessant;  and 
the  voice  of  Old  Ireland  swelled  the  popular 
demand  for  parliamentary  reform. 

This  state  of  affairs  brought  to  hght  a  sin- 
gular and  sympathetic  juxtaposition  of  two 
classes  who  were  previously  supposed  to  be 
widely  separated  :  one  was  the  nobility  in  the 
ministerial  interest,  and  the  other  (what  is 
known  since  1817  as)  the  *' shopocracy." 
A  more  grovelling  set  of  inveterate  t3nrants 
than  the  latter  never  grew  up  among  the  gar- 
bage of  profligate  power.  As  they  are  the 
latest  growth  of  political  corruption,  so  they 
will  be  the  last  class  to  deserve  the  liberty 
that  is  in  store  for  freemen.  At  the  present 
moment  they  are  the  most  wilhng  slaves  and 
the  most  contemptible  despots  in  the  whole 
world.  They  have  no  hope  in  the  future, 
except  for  the  accumulation  of  capital.  Ig- 
norant, base  and  servile,  they  know  nothing 
about  Ireland ;  and  if  they  did,  they  would 
not  dare  to  use  the  knowledge  before  their 
church-and-king  masters.  These  "thriving 
earth-worms"  are  easily  detected  by  their 
peculiar  stupidity,  which  is  quite  different 
and  profound  in  comparison  with  the  simpli- 
city of  excusable  ignorance  ;  and  every  man 
of  them,  however  he  may  dress  or  behave, 
wears  by  nature  the  everlasting  shroud  of  a 
stupid  and  satisfied  slave. 

When  we  say  "  every  man  of  them"  it  is 
because  we  suppose  that  they  should  be 
called  men  ;  but  the  meaning  only  refers  to 
that  description  of  English  "comfortable" 
tradesmen  who  are,  emphatically,  the  "  shop- 
ocracy." In  England  our  words  would  re- 
quire no  explanation.  The  "gentry"  we 
allude  to  are  well  known  and  well  despised 
among  their  neighbours.  Like  their  Dublin 
imitators,  they  may  be  infallibly  distinguished 
by  never  giving  any  thing  to  the  poor  except 
Bibles,  or  abuse  in  the  form  of  advice ;  but. 


on  such  occasions  as  an  addition  to  the  royal 
family,  or  a  disastrous  misfortune  to  other 
nations,  they  will  expend  a  hundred  pounds 
each  in  guzzling  and  vulgar  glorification. 

It  should  not  be  supposed  that  the  posses- 
sion of  wealth  is  or  was  favourable  only  to 
this  clique  of  a  class.  Happily,  such  is  not 
the  fact,  although  the  government  would  have 
prevented  it,  if  possible.  The  city  of  Lon- 
don proper,  possessing  the  means  of  preserv- 
ing the  true  principles  of  constitutional  free- 
dom better  than  either  Dublin  or  Edinburgh, 
is,  even  yet,  the  repository  of  old  English 
liberty,  and  presents  the  spectacle  of  a  nearly 
perfect  model-republic  existing  and  flourish 
ing  among  all  the  contaminations  of  a  cor- 
rupted and  imperial  legislation.  The  return 
of  peace  had  the  effect  of  distinguishing  the 
men  who  deserve  their  wealth  from  those  who 
abuse  it  by  their  senseless  servility.  The 
agitation  of  parliamentary  reform  and  Cath- 
olic emancipation  necessarily  made  London 
the  forum  of  debate,  especially  after  the 
Union.  During  the  mayoralty  of  Mr.  Saw- 
bridge,  an  excellent  epitome  of  the  principles 
of  liberty  was  drawn  up  by  Dr.  Richard 
Price,  for  which  service  he  received  a  vote 
of  thanks,  and  a  gold  box  of  the  value  of  fifty 
pounds,  containing  the  usual  documents  con- 
ferring the  freedom  of  the  city.  In  1817, 
William  Beck  added  a  new  preface,  and  a 
dedication  to  Lord-Mayor  Wood.  It  was 
then  issued  in  a  cheap  and  popular  form  by 
Thomas  Dolby,  (the  undaunted  publisher  of 
Cobbett's  Register,)  and  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  copies  were  circulated  throughout 
the  three  kingdoms.  This  little  paper-pellet 
struck  terror  among  the  war-making,  tax- 
inventing  traitors  who  pretend  to  govern 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  following 
short  extract  will  show  a  few  of  the  argu- 
ments which  really  do  frighten  the  long-eared 
imitators  of  the  British  lion  : — 

"  It  is  obvious,  that  all  civil  government, 
as  far  as  it  can  be  denominated  free,  is  the 
creature  of  the  people.  It  originates  with 
them.  It  is  conducted  under  their  direction ; 
and  has  in  view  nothing  but  their  happiness. 
All  its  different  forms  eire  no  more  than  so 
many  different  modes  in  which  they  choose 


A.  D.  1817.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


440 


to  direct  their  affairs,  and  to  secure  the  quiet 
enjoyment  of  their  rights.  In  every  free  state 
every  man  is  his  own  legislator.  All  taxes 
are  free  gifts  for  public  services.  All  laws 
are  particular  provisions  or  regulations  es- 
tablished by  common  consent  for  gaining  pro- 
tection and  safety.  And  all  magistrates  are 
trustees  or  deputies  for  carrying  these  regula- 
tions into  execution. 

**  Liberty,  therefore,  is  too  imperfectly  de- 
fined when  it  is  said  to  be  *  a  government  by 
laws,  and  not  by  men.'  If  the  laws  are 
made  by  one  man,  or  a  junto  of  men  in  a 
state,  and  not  by  common  consent,  a  govern- 
ment, by  them,  does  not  differ  from  slavery. 
In  ihis  case  it  would  be  a  contradiction  in 
terms  to  say  that  the  state  governs  itself. 

"  From  hence  it  is  obvious  that  civil  lib- 
erty, in  its  most  perfect  degree,  can  be  en- 
joyed only  in  small  stales,  where  every 
member  is  capable  of  giving  his  suffrage  in 
person,  and  of  being  chosen  into  public  of- 
fices. When  a  state  becomes  so  numerous, 
or  when  the  different  parts  of  it  are  removed 
to  such  distances  from  one  another,  as  to 
render  this  impracticable,  a  diminution  of 
liberty  necessarily  arises.  There  are,  how- 
ever, in  these  circumstances,  methods  by 
which  such  near  approaches  may  be  made 
to  perfect  liberty  as  shall  answer  all  the  pur- 
poses of  government,  and  at  the  same  time 
secure  every  right  of  human  nature. 

"  Though  all  the  members  of  a  state  should 
not  be  capable  of  giving  their  suffrages  on 
public  measures,  individually  and  personally, 
they  may  do  this  by  the  appointment  of  sub- 
stitutes or  representatives.  They  may  in- 
trust the  powers  of  legislation,  subject  to 
such  restrictions  as  they  shall  think  necessary, 
with  any  number  of  delegates  ;  and  whatever 
can  be  done  by  such  delegates,  within  the 
limits  of  their  trust,  may  be  considered  as 
done  by  the  united  voice  and  counsel  of  the 
community.  In  this  method  a  free  govern- 
ment may  be  established  in  the  largest  slate ; 
and  it  is  conceivable  that  by  regulations  of 
this  kind,  any  number  of  states  might  be 
subjected  to  a  scheme  of  government  that 
would  exclude  the  desolations  of  war,  and 
produce  universal  peace  and  order. 

57 


"  Let  us  think  here  of  what  may  be  prac- 
ticable in  this  way  vdth  respect  to  Europe  in 
particular.  While  it  continues  divided,  as  it 
is  at  present,  into  a  great  number  of  inde- 
pendent kingdoms  whose  interests  are  con- 
tinually clashing,  it  is  impossible  but  that 
disputes  will  often  arise  which  must  end  in 
war  and  carnage.  It  would  be  no  remedy  to 
this  evil  to  make  one  of  these  states  supreme 
over  the  rest,  and  to  give  it  an  absolute  pleni- 
tude of  power  to  superintend  and  control 
them.  This  would  be  to  subject  all  the  states 
to  the  arbitrary  discretion  of  one,  and  to  es- 
tablish an  ignominious  slavery  not  possible 
to  be  long  endured.  It  would,  therefore,  be 
a  remedy  worse  than  the  disease ;  nor  is  it 
possible  it  should  be  approved  by  any  mind 
that  has  not  lost  every  idea  of  civil  liberty. 
On  the  contrary, — Let  every  state,  with  re- 
spect to  all  its  internal  concerns,  be  continued 
independent  of  all  the  rest ;  and  let  a  general 
confederacy  be  formed  by  the  appointment 
of  a  senate  consisting  of  representatives  from 
all  the  different  slates.  Let  this  senate  pos- 
sess the  power  of  managing  all  the  federal  or 
general  concerns  of  the  united  states,  and  of 
judging  and  deciding  between  them,  as  a 
common  arbiter  or  umpire,  in  all  disputes  ; 
having,  at  the  same  time,  under  its  direction, 
the  common  force  of  the  states  to  support  its 
decisions.  In  these  circumstances,  each  sep- 
arate state  would  be  secure  against  the  in- 
terference of  foreign  power  in  its  private  con- 
cerns, and,  therefore,  would  possess  liberty ; 
and  at  the  same  time  it  would  be  secure 
against  all  oppression  and  insult  from  every 
neighbouring  state.  Thus  might  the  scattered 
force  and  abilities  of  a  whole  continent  be 
gathered  into  one  point ;  all  litigations  settled 
as  they  rose ;  universal  peace  preserved ; 
and  nation  prevented  from  any  more  hfting 
up  a  sword  against  nation." 

The  sentiments  expressed  in  this  quotation 
from  Dr.  Price's  observations  are  imperish- 
able, and  the  utmost  that  the  British  govern- 
ment ever  can  do  is  merely  to  delay  their 
certain  and  inevitable  adoption  ;  indeed,  it  is 
quite  probable  that  Ireland  will  voluntarily 
step  forward,  and  again  lead  the  march  of 
true  improvement  in  Europe,  as  she  did  be- 


i 


450 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1820. 


fore  the  days  of  Alfred,  Columb  Kille,  or  St. 
Patrick. 

On  the  10th  of  June,  1818,  the  imperial  par- 
liament was  dissolved,  and  the  excitements 
of  an  election  diverted  the  attention  of  the 
people  from  the  ministry;  but  the  reform 
leaders  took  the  opportunity  of  pressing  for 
parliamentary  reform.  All  the  ministerial 
candidates  in  the  city  of  London  were  thrown 
out.  Sir  Samuel  Romilly  and  Sir  Francis 
Burdett  being  relumed  for  Westminster,  and 
the  really  active  members  of  the  reform  party 
having  gained  many  valuable  accessions  to 
their  ranki^  we  find  that  the  ministry  in  this 
year,  notwithstanding  the  death  of  Queen 
Charlotte,  availed  themselves  of  the  occur- 
rence of  no  less  than  four  marriages  in  the 
royal  family.  The  names  of  the  parties  are 
of  little  consequence  in  this  place.  The  ex- 
pedient had  the  usual  political  effect  in  favour 
of  the  government,  and  at  the  close  of  the 
session,  the  ministerial  majority  was  as  safe 
in  both  houses  as  even  Lord  Castlereagh 
might  have  desired. 

The  "Manchester  Massacre,"  in  1819, 
was  wickedly  made  the  foundation  of  an  ex- 
cuse to  bring  out  and  enforce  the  famous 
"  six  acts"  of  despotic  power  which  enabled 
Lord  Castlereagh  and  his  tribe  to  set  aside 
the  constitution,  and  to  inflict  the  same  hor- 
rors upon  England  which  he  had  so  profitably 
(for  himself)  employed  in  Ireland.  Such 
was  the  state  of  the  "  most  enlightened"  na- 
tion at  the  time  its  most  Bible-reading  mon- 
arch closed  a  reign  of  sixty  similar  years. 

George  the  Fourth,  who  had  been  Prince 
Regent  since  1811,  succeeded  to  the  title  of 
king  on  the  29th  of  January,  1820 ;  and  then, 
indeed,  there  was  "  high  life  below  stairs." 
Then  came  in  a  tribe  of  government  spies, 
bawds  and  pimps,  who  had  long  revelled  in 
the  regal  profusion  of  the  regency,  and  had 
learned  to  pray  with  fervour  for  the  death  of 
the  third  George,  so  that  the  harvest  of 
crowned  extravagance  might  reward  the  gen- 
teel meanness  and  fashionable  crimes  which 
they  had  so  long  exercised  in  the  political 
perfidy  of  their  ministerial  masters.  Among 
these  privileged  robbers,  who  cared  for  Ire- 
land, except  to  wring  the  rents  in  profligacy, 


or  to  take  the  tithes  in  hypocrisy?  Who 
cared  for  Scotland,  except  to  tax  the  simple, 
or  corrupt  the  learned  ?  Who  cared  for  Eng- 
land, except  to  cheat  her  people,  or  perpetrate 
modem  and  double-refined  wickedness  under 
shelter  of  the  glory  of  her  ancient  name  ? 

It  was  about  the  time  that  this  diabohcal 
democracy  of  dastards  had  become  rich  in 
roguery  when  some  small-beer  imitators  un- 
dertook to  set  up  the  same  trade,  under  cover 
of  a  money-making  combination  of  the  popu- 
lar and  the  "respectable"  interests.  For 
this  purpose,  every  person  who  did  not  hap- 
pen to  agree  in  opinion  with  the  cabinet  min- 
isters was  represented  as  a  "  cut-throat"  radi- 
cal, an  enemy  of  the  law,  and  a  despiser  of 
religion  !  Nearly  all  of  the  "  respectables" 
of  the  British  and  Irish  press  joined  in  the 
chorus  ;  and  thousands  of  well-meaning  peo- 
ple actually  believed  that  the  advocates  of 
parliamentary  reform  or  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion must  necessarily  be  anarchists,  infidels, 
or  "  bloody  papists."  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land were  pertinaciously  informed  that  the 
"  constitution"  was  in  danger  ;  the  "  church" 
was  also  duly  discovered  to  be  in  danger.  In 
this  predicament,  what  were  the  money- 
making  respectables  to  do  ?  The  holy  "  So- 
ciety for  the  Suppression  of  Vice"  was  de- 
clared insuflicient  to  meet  the  crisis  of  dis- 
loyalty and  infidelity ;  nothing  could  save  the 
country,  or  the  church,  unless  every  loyal 
Briton  were  to  pay  a  guinea  and  become  a 
member  of  the  "  Constitutional  Association," 
that  being  the  name  of  the  new  shield  for 
Britannia  invented  by  the  vulgar  imitators  of 
the  lucky  parasites  of  the  court. 

This  mimic  "  British  government"  levied 
enormous  sums  on  the  loyal  and  religious 
fears  of  that  notice-seeking  class  of  society 
which  is  mainly  composed  of  haggling  haber- 
dashers, blockhead  booksellers,  and  church- 
going  professionals,  ornamented,  occasionally, 
with  pious  and  perjured  stationery-contract- 
ors. The  guineas  came  in  by  thousands, 
and  the  "  new  broom,"  having  been  consecra- 
ted by  the  semi-oflficial  consent  of  court  and 
clergy,  began  to  do  its  work  against  the 
friends  of  reform.  The  equivocal  characters 
and  doubtful  advocates,  (many  of  them  hired 


"*^ 


A.  D.  1823.] 


THIRD   DIVISION, 


451 


spies,)  were  soon  dispersed ;  but  the  original 
band  of  indomitable  patriots  (who  had  risked 
life  and  fortune  for  years  together)  were  not 
to  be  dismayed  by  imitative  tyranny.  Ma- 
jor Cartwright,  Jeremy  Bentham,  Thomas 
Dolby,  Sir  Charles  Wolseley,  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell,  Joseph  Hume,  Sir  Richard  Phillips, 
Thelwall  of  "The  Champion,"  the  Hunts  of 
"  The  Examiner,"  and  the  Roscoes  of  Lon- 
don and  Liverpool, — were  well-tried  leaders, 
not  only  proved  to  be  incorruptible,  but  gen- 
erally acknowledged  as  above  suspicion. 

Of  this  unconquerable  band,  Dolby,  being  a 
printer  and  publisher,  was  especially  exposed 
to  the  attacks  of  the  self-styled  "  Constitu- 
tional Association,"  which  generally  evinced 
its  activity  in  the  form  of  libel  suits  or  crimi- 
nal informations,  purposely  playing  into  the 
hands  of  the  attorney-general  and  the  packed 
juries  of  the  "government."  The  associa- 
tion, having  usually  met  with  success,  and 
being  unconstitutionally  encouraged  to  act 
like  a  "  fourth  estate"  in  the  realm,  had  its 
arrogance  crushed  after  presuming  to  attack 
Dolby.  He  legally  and  successfully  fought 
the  battle  out,  (silently  burying  his  almost 
indescribable  injuries,)  and,  after  a  long  strug- 
gle, ultimately  secured  that  freedom  of  the 
press  which  now  strikes  every  traveller  in 
Europe  as  the  most  glorious  remnant  of  Eng- 
lish constitutional  liberty. 

The  main  scene  of  legislative  and  political 
action  for  Ireland  having  been  removed  to 
England  since  the  Union,  the  relation  of 
these  circumstances  will  assist  in  showing 
the  nature  of  the  difficulties  Mr.  O'Connell 
and  the  Irish  people  had  to  encounter  in  pro- 
curing Catholic  emancipation  and  parliament- 
ary reform. 

In  1821,  George  the  Fourth  visited  Ire- 
land, and  made  his  public  entry  into  Dublin  on 
the  17th  of  August.  His  majesty  was  most 
loyally  entertained,  although  Lord  Castle- 
reagh,  the  Great  Undisturbed,  marred  the 
festive  scene  with  the  hateful  reminiscences 
brought  forward  by  his  constant  presence. 

The  census  of  Ireland,  in  1821,  is  various- 
ly reported.  The  parliamentary  returns, 
since  discovered  to  have  been  incomplete, 
were  thus  rendered :  — 


Provinces. 
Leinster, 
Munster, 
Ulster,     . 
Connaught 


Total, 


Population. 

1,737,295 

1,971,683 

1,985,348 

1,105,573 

6,799,899 


The  Dublin  directories,  which  are  more 
likely  to  be  correct,  make  the  total  6,846,949. 

During  the  absence  of  George  the  Fourth 
from  London  in  August,  1822,  when  on  a 
visit  to  Scotland,  the  Great  Undisturbed  cut 
his  OWN  throat  with  that  elegance  of  precis- 
ion which  graced  all  the  movements  of  Lord 
Castlereagh  to  the  last.  There  was  none  of 
that  vulgar  indecision  which  might  possibly 
affect  the  trembling  hands  of  unsuccessful 
patriots  while  immured  and  betrayed  in  dun- 
geons of  darkness ;  none  of  that  uncertainty 
with  which  a  broken  heart  or  a  wounded 
spirit  sometimes  afflicts  and  unmoors  even 
the  noblest  minds.  By  no  means.  Like  the 
celebrated  "  Mr.  Gammon,"  the  Great  Un- 
disturbed could  not  err  in  decorum ;  and,  on 
the  present  occasion,  he  deliberately  diplo- 
matized and  did  the  deed  "  according  to  the 
rubric."  Living  in  one  of  his  many  houses, 
on  one  of  the  most  delightful  spots  in  all 
England,  surrounded  with  all  that  worldly 
wealth  can  buy,  and  enjoying  "  the  personal 
esteem  of  his  sovereign,"  he  condescended  to 
cut  his  OWN  throat. 

As  the  life  of  Robert  Stewart,  Lord  Castle- 
reagh, Marquis  of  Londonderry,  and  so  forth, 
was  a  continual  violation  of  all  law,  human 
and  divine,  so  also  his  injudicious  friends  de- 
termined that  his  funeral  should  be  a  practi- 
cal defiance  of  the  common  law  of  England  ; 
and  "  a  tomb  in  Westminster  Abbey"  is  now 
rapidly  ceasing  to  be  a  desirable  object  in  the 
minds  of  all  reasonable  and  honourable  men. 

In  1823,  after  exertions  deserving  volumes 
of  explanation,  Mr.  O'Connell  succeeded  in 
organizing  the  "  Catholic  Association  of  Ire- 
land." His  principal  supporters  were  Rich- 
ard Lalor  Shell,  John  Lawless,  Henry  Grat- 
tan,  Maurice  O'Connell,  Thomas  Wyse, 
O'Gorman  Mahon,  Thomas  Steele,  Richard 
Barrett,  Michael  Staunton,  and  the  Right 
Rev.  James  Doyle.  This  band  of  unshrink- 
ing patriots  finally  obtained,  in  1829,  (after 


453 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1829. 


repeated  disasters  and  continual  triumphs,) 
the  emancipation  of  the  Cathohcs  from  their 
legal  disabilities.  On  examining  the  whole 
proceedings  of  the  time,  we  are  compelled  to 
declare  that  it  was  extorted  and  procured 
solely  from  the  monarchical  fears  of  the 
British  government ;  and,  for  such  reasons. 
Catholic  emancipation  was  finally  passed  as 
a  ministerial  measure. 

How  much  gratitude  is  due  from  the  Irish 
people  towards  O'Connell  and  his  assistants, 
and  how  httle  towards  the  British  govern- 
ment, for  the  "  boon"  of  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion, may  be  easily  seen  in  the  following  ex- 
tract from  Thomas  Wyse's  "  History  of  the 
Catholic  Association,"  admirably  describing 
the  state  of  Ireland  during  the  agitation  of 
the  Catholic  question  : — 

"  Many  began  to  adopt  a  tone  of  thinking 
quite  in  harmony  with  the  first  addresses  from 
America.  They  began  to  consider  even 
Cathohc  emancipation  but  a  very  partial 
remedy  for  the  political  and  moral  evils  of 
Ireland.  They  looked  to  a  regeneration  far 
more  sweeping  and  decisive ;  they  believed 
that  Ireland  had  outgrown  the  connection, 
and  could  now  set  up  for  herself.  Reason- 
ing on  past  experience,  they  were  disposed 
to  treat  with  distrust  and  contempt  all  over- 
tures from  England.  They  had  in  history 
pfoof  that  she  had  never  made  concessions 
to  Ireland,  except  upon  compulsion.  They 
looked  only  to  such  a  crisis  as  might,  by  its 
appalling  force,  loose  the  iron  grasp  altogether, 
and  liberate  the  country  for  ever  from  its  de- 
pendence. They  laughed  at  any  thing  less 
than  self-government  in  its  amplest  sense  ; 
separation  and  republicanism  were  the  two 
head  articles  of  their  political  creed.  Such 
a  party  has  been  rapidly  increasing  in  Ireland 
— far  more  formidable  than  the  French  party 
which  haunted  the  imagination  of  Mr.  Grat- 
tan,  and  which  he  so  often  denounced  in  par- 
liament. It  based  its  projects,  not  on  the 
fanciful  theories  of  the  French  revolutionists, 
but  on  the  practical  model  which  it  saw  in 
America,  expanding  to  a  greater  maturity  and 
vigour  every  day  before  them.  They  com- 
pared the  resources,  the  advantages,  the  pop- 
ulation, the  energies,  the  intolligence,  of  the 


two  countries.  They  opposed  the  oppres- 
sion and  wretchedness  of  one  to  the  freedom 
and  prosperity  of  the  other.  They  calcula- 
ted that  there  was  no  other  emancipation  for 
Ireland  than  the  absolute  assertion  of  her 
independence ;  and  that  the  attempt,  if  con- 
ducted with  ordinary  prudence  and  perse- 
verance, quietly  husbanding  and  augmenting 
their  forces,  and  awaiting  with  patience  the 
propitious  and  certain  hour  for  the  experi- 
ment, could  not  ultimately  fail  of  the  most 
entire  success." 

Such  is  the  historical  value  of  the  extraor- 
dinary circumstances  attending  the  memora- 
ble fact  of  Catholic  emancipation  on  the  13th 
of  April,  1829. 


CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 
1799  TO  1829. 

"  The  operation  of  dangerous  and  delusive 
first  principles  obliges  us  to  have  recourse  to 
the  true  ones.  In  the  intercourse  between 
nations,  we  are  apt  to  rely  too  much  on  the 
instrumental  part.  We  lay  too  much  weight 
upon  the  formality  of  treaties  and  compacts. 
We  do  not  act  much  more  wisely  when  we 
trust  to  the  interests  of  men  as  guarantees  of 
their  engagements.  The  interests  frequently 
tear  to  pieces  the  engagements  ;  and  the  pas- 
sions trample  upon  both.  Entirely  to  trust 
to  either,  is  to  disregard  our  own  safety,  or 
not  to  know  mankind.  Men  are  not  tied  to 
one  another  by  papers  and  seals.  They  are 
led  to  associate  by  resemblances,  by  con- 
formities, by  sympathies.  It  is  with  nations 
as  with  individuals.  Nothing  is  so  strong  a 
tie  of  amity  between  nation  and  nation  as 
correspondence  in  laws,  customs,  manners, 
and  habits  of  life.  They  have  more  than  the 
force  of  treaties  in  themselves.  They  are 
obligations  written  in  the  heart.  They  ap- 
proximate men  to  men  without  their  know- 
ledge, and  sometimes  against  their  intentions. 
The  secret,  unseen,  but  irrefragable  bond  of 
habitual  intercourse  holds  them  together, 
even  when  their  perverse  and  litigious  nature 
sets  them  to  equivocate,  scuffle,  and  fight 


A.  D.  1829.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


463 


about  the  terms  of  their  written  obligation." 
Burke. 

"The  history  of  Ireland  for  the  last  six 
hundred  years,  was  a  history  of  blood,  with 
the  exception  of  one  bright  but  brief  period, 
under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Grattan ;  shortly 
before  her  fatal  union  with  England.  Then, 
indeed,  for  a  short  period,  her  commerce  and 
manufactures  sprung  up  with  the  elasticity 
of  youth.  The  just  administration  of  some- 
thing like  just  and  equal  laws,  inspired  a  con- 
fidence in  the  safety  and  durability  of  her 
institutions ;  and  something  like  a  fair  re- 
muneration for  labour  brought  a  transient 
gleam  of  happiness  to  her  peasantry.  Then 
it  was  that  her  eloquence  and  her  wit  and  her 
song  electrified  the  world.  But  the  sun  of 
that  'bright  morning'  went  down  in  blood, 
and  was  succeeded  by  the  long  dark  night 
of  the  Union,  upon  which  no  mom  has  yet 
arisen.  To  Ireland  it  had  been  indeed  a 
night  of  death,  relieved  only  by  the  memory 
of  that  great  man  upon  whose  name  the  mo- 
mentary sunshine  of  her  sad  history  rests." — 
S.  Stevens  ;  Address  to  the  Albany  Re- 
pealers, Jan.  3,  1844. 

"  It  has  been  well  and  truly  observed,  that 
whoever  desires  to  study  the  intimate  nature 
of  the  English  government,  to  discover  the 
manner  in  which  the  representative  system 
has  been  worked,  by  those  who  have  made 

THEMSELVES    THE    MASTERS    OF    ITS    POWERS, 

must  look  to  Ireland  for  the  most  demonstra- 
tive illustration.  The  Irish  representation 
and  administration,  up  to  the  Union,  were  a 
magnified  and  distorted  image  or  reflection 
of  their  prototypes  on  this  side  of  the  water. 
Power  exercised  with  less  responsibility,  re- 
presentation on  a  narrower  basis,  and  selfish- 
ness less  controlled  by  public  opinion  than 
with  us,  formed  a  combination  whose  results, 
like  the  preparations  of  morbid  anatomy,  were 
luminous  in  proportion  as  they  were  diseased. 
To  Englishmen,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  small 
import  to  gather  from  Irish  story  the  leading 
fact  that  a  fictitious  representation  and  a  gov- 
ernment of  class  interests  carried  with  them 
the  seeds  of  an  inevitable  and  calamitous  end. 
All  the  energies  of  an  uncontrolled  and  not 
feeble  series  of  Irish  administrations  applied 


to  consolidating  and  fortifying  that  systeifi, 
ended  in  their  utter  incapacity  to  continue  it 
in  activity.  The  Union  with  England  was 
pohlically  inevitable  ;  and  the  rebellion  which 
preceded  it,  even  if  fomented,  as  is  asserted, 
for  the  Machiavellian  purpose  of  hurrying  on 
that  consequence,  was  still  a  demonstration 
of  its  necessity.  The  example  is  striking, 
and  deserves  to  be  meditated  beyond  the 
sphere  of  mere  Irish  interests." — London 
Athenceum;  July  1841. 

"  The  British  minister,  having  permitted 
the  Irish  parliament  to  convict  itself  of  in- 
competence and  intolerable  tyranny,  com- 
pelled it  to  pass  on  itself  the  sentence  of  con- 
demnation, and  assent  to  its  own  annihilation. 
Scarcely  had  the  insurrection  ended,  when 
the  question  of  Union  began  to  be  jigitated. 
It  was  at  first  so  decidedly  unpopular,  that, 
exhausted  as  the  country  had  been  by  the 
late  commotions,  its  independence  might  prob- 
ably have  been  maintained  by  arms,  had  not 
the  minister,  by  a  wonderful  mixture  of  cor- 
ruption and  cunning,  effectually  broken  the 
strength  of  the  opposition.  The  measure  of 
Union  was  rejected  in  the  session  of  1799 
by  the  house  of  commons ;  but,  by  a  lavish 
profusion  of  bribes,  the  same  house  was  in- 
duced to  adopt  it  in  the  next  session,  by  a 
considerable  majority.  The  Catholics  were 
induced  to  give  a  species  of  tacit  assent, 
though  certainly  with  considerable  reluc- 
tance, by  the  promise  of  obtaining  their  eman- 
cipation. Hopes,  utterly  inconsistent  with 
such  a  promise,  were  presented  to  the  violent 
Protestants ;  money  was  liberally  bestowed 
on  all  who  could  forward  the  views  of  gov- 
ernment ;  and  at  length,  after  unparalleled 
scenes  of  bribery  and  deception,  the  Irish 
legislature  assented  to  its  own  destruction." 
Taylor. 

"  By  the  measure  of  a  legislative  union, 
Ireland  reverts  again  to  the  same  wretchetl 
state  as  when  bound  by  acts  of  the  EngUsli 
parliament.  On  the  misery  of  that  state  the 
ablest  men  who  ever  advocated  her  cause, 
even  other  than  United  Irishmen,  have  ex- 
hausted eloquence  and  invective,  and  the 
brightest  page  in  her  history  is  the  one 
which  records  the  extorted  renunciation  of 


454 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1829. 


► 


that  usurped  power  and  her  plenary  right  of 
self-government." — W.  J.  Mac-Neven. 

"  It  is  my  settled  sentiment,  and  I  am  sat- 
isfied it  is  the  sentiment  not  only  of  every 
man  who  now  hears  me,  but  of  the  Catholic 
people  of  Ireland,  that  if  our  opposition  to 
this  injurious,  insulting,  ruinous,  and  hated 
measure  were  to  draw  upon  us  the  revival 
of  the  whole  penal  code,  in  its  most  Satanic 
form ;  we  would  boldly,  cheerfully,  and 
unanimously  endure  it,  sooner  than  withhold 
that  opposition,  and  sooner  throw  ourselves 
once  more  on  the  kindness  of  our  Protestant 
brethren,  than  give  our  assent  for  one  mo- 
ment to  the  political  murder  of  our  country. 

"  Yes  !  I  know,  although  exclusive  advan- 
tages may  be,  and  are,  held  out  to  the  Irish 
Catholic  to  seduce  him  from  the  duty  he  owes 
his  country,  that  the  Catholics  of  Ireland  still 
remember  they  have  a  country,  and  that  they 
never  will  accept  of  any  advantage  as  a  sect 
which  would  debase  them  and  their  Protest- 
ant countrymen  as  a  people." — O'Connell  ; 
First  Public  Speech,  Dublin,  1799. 

"  It  was  the  opinion  of  Emmet  [T.  A.]  that 
the  legislative  union  was  a  measure  more 
suited  to  facihtate  the  despotism  of  the  min- 
istry than  to  strengthen  the  dominion  of  Eng- 
land. Since  the  abuse  of  power  has  ever 
followed  its  excess,  no  less  in  nations  than 
individuals,  a  restraint  upon  human  actions  is 
salutary  for  all  parties,  and  the  impediment 
that  shall  stop  the  career  of  ministerial  tyran- 
ny will  be  found  to  work  best  for  the  stability 
of  the  connection.  If  this  operate  to  the  good 
of  Ireland,  she  will  observe  it  for  its  utility, 
an  Irish  parliament  being  then  its  best  pre- 
servative. If,  on  the  contrary,  it  be  made, 
as  at  present,  to  sacrifice  the  many  to  the 
few,  it  will  be  viewed  as  a  curse  by  the  Irish 
people,  who  have  in  all  cases  most  power, 
and,  in  this,  will  have  least  reason  to  sustain 
it." — W.  J.  Mac-Neven. 

"  The  Union  deprived  Ireland  of  self-gov- 
ernment. It  reduced  her  into  the  state  of  a 
province  from  being  an  independent  nation. 

"  The  second  great  evil  of  the  Union  is  the 
financial  robbery  of  Ireland  which  has  been 
effected  by  means  of  that  measure. 

*'  The  third  evil  resulting  from  the  Union 


is  one  that  now  no  compensation  can  be  given 
for.  It  was  not  the  less  a  monstrous  mischief. 
It  was  this  : — The  Union  retarded  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  Irish  Catholics  for  a  full  quar- 
ter of  a  century.  A  full  generation  hved  and 
died  in  slavery,  who  would  have  enjoyed  the 

blessings  of  equal  laws  but  for  the  Union." 

•  *         *   •  •  * 

"  If  an  Irishman  be  equally  fit  to  govern, 
to  make  laws,  and  to  execute  them,  as  the 
native  of  any  other  country,  why  should  we 
give  to  others  the  power  of  m£iking  laws  for 
us,  or  of  executing  them  ?  Is  it  not  evident 
that  no  persons  can  have  so  great  an  interest 
in  there  being  good  laws  in  Ireland  as  the  in- 
habitants of  Ireland  ?  Having,  then,  the  most 
deep  interest  in  there  being  good  laws  in  Ire- 
land ;  having  our  properties,  our  lives,  our 
comforts,  our  liberties,  all  at  stake  in  the 
good  government  of  our  country ;  must  we 
not  be  the  most  fit  persons  to  take  care  of 
those  properties  by  wise  laws ;  to  protect 
our  lives  by  just  institutions  ;  to  attend  to  the 
promotion  of  our  comforts  by  salutary  regu- 
lations, and  to  establish  our  hberties  by  sound 
legislation  ?  Who  else  can  have  the  deep, 
the  entire,  the  perpetual  interest  we  have  in 
these  things  ?  If  this  be  so,  as  it  certainly  is 
so — is  it  not  the  height  of  wicked  absurdity 
in  us,  to  devolve  upon  strangers  the  care  of 
these  most  important  concerns,  and  to  de- 
prive ourselves  of  the  natural  control  and 
superintendence  over  our  own  affairs  ? 

"  This  government  and  management  we 
were  deprived  of  by  the  Union, — they  can  be 
restored  to  us  only  by  the  abrogation  of  that 
measure. 

"  It  is  true — familiarly  true  even  to  the  trite- 
ness of  a  proverb — that  he  who  intrusts  his 
business  to  others  is  sure  to  have  it  neglected  ; 
that  no  man's  business  is  well  done,  but  the 
business  of  a  man  who  superintends  it  himself. 

"What  is  true  of  each  individual  is  equally 
true  of  the  aggregate  of  individuals  called  a 
nation.  Each  nation  has  a  sacred  duty  im- 
posed on  it,  to  attend  to  its  own  affairs  ;  that 
duty  is  also  a  sacred  right,  which  in  our  case 
has  been  most  treacherously  as  well  as  basely 
violated. 

"  This,  as  I  have  said,  is  manifestly  an  evil 


;' 


A.  1).  1829.] 


THIRD  DIVISION. 


455 


inherent  in  the  Union,  and  for  which  there 
can  of  course  be  no  remedy  but  in  the  repeal 
of  that  measure." — O'Connell  ;  Reply  to 
the  Earl  of  Shrewsbury,  etc. 

"  The  first  insurrection  that  followed  upon 
the  renewal  of  the  laws  of  terror  was  that  of 
Robert  Emmet,  which  has  been  treated  as 
an  insane  attempt.  It  is  not  easy  for  the 
truest  friend  and  admirer  of  the  talents  and 
virtues  of  that  youth  to  venture  upon  his  de- 
fence :  his  own  last  and  most  impressive 
words  forbid  it,  and  they  must  be  sacred  : — 
*  Let  no  man  write  my  epitaph  till  my  country 
is  free.'  Oppression,  we  are  told,  maketh 
the  wise  man  mad,  and  he  had  his  share  of 
it.  He  was  the  youngest  and  perhaps  the 
most  shining  of  three  brothers,  sprung  from 
gifted  and  honourable  parents,  all  of  spotless 
name  and  great  endowments ;  and  if  ever 
there  were  patriots  pure  and  devout,  they 
deserved  that  glorious  name.  His  only  sur- 
viving and  beloved  brother  had  been,  by  a 
signal  breach  of  ministerial  faith,  long  in- 
carcerated, previous  to  his  final  and  perpetual 
exile  from  his  native  land,  of  which  he  was 
indeed  an  ornament ;  and  he  himself  had  been 
long  before  rancorously  expelled  from  his 
alma  mater,  which  never  did  before  nor  since 
possess  so  fair  a  bud  of  merit  and  of  hope ; 
and  this  for  no  crime  alleged  but  that  he  loved 
his  country,  and  maintained  her  rights  with 
all  the  energies  and  eloquence  of  youth  in- 
spired by  truth.  Noble  of  nature,  his  coun- 
try's degradation  touched  his  heart ;  the  cries 
of  the  tortured  entered  his  soul.  His  mind 
caught  fire — it  was  a  holy  flame,  and  may 
have  burned  too  bright  for  mortal  government. 
With  him  too  fell  Russell,  whom  to  know 
was  to  love.  Gentle  of  heart  and  merciful 
in  nature,  faithful  and  brave,  with  every  grace 
of  mind  and  person,  and  every  charm  of  vir- 
tue ;  he  too,  after  having  suffered  years  of 
imprisonment  without  trial,  was  driven  to 
desperation,  and  also  doomed  to  die  upon  a 
gallows. 

"  There  is  a  cloud  over  this  subject  which 
time  may  yet  clear  up,  and  then  it  may,  per- 
haps, appear  how  far  the  hand  of  a  faction, 
long  practised  in  the  wily  art  of  luring  men 
to  their  destruction,  was  in  these  transactions. 


The  government  accounts  and  proceedings 
of  that  day  are  full  of  contradictions,  and 
argue  either  extreme  folly,  or  great  and 
wicked  cruelty." — W.  Sampson. 

"  Lord  Castlereagh,  the  betrayer  and 
butcher  of  Ireland,  died  by  his  own  hand,  at 
North  Cray,  in  Kent.  Borne  down  by  the 
remembrance  of  the  dreadful  deeds  he  had 
perpetrated  towards  his  country,  he  sank  be- 
neath the  summary  vengeance  of  his  own 
will.  It  may  be  worth  remarking  that,  when 
his  coffin  was  taken  out  to  be  interred,  the 
populace  of  London  rent  the  air  with  their 
acclamations." — Mooney. 

"  Ireland  lost  all  and  gained  nothing  by  the 
Union.  Every  promise  was  broken,  every 
pledge  was  violated.  Ireland  struggled,  and 
prayed,  and  cried  out  to  friends  for  aid,  and 
to  Parliament  for  relief. 

"  At  length  a  change  came  over  the  spirit 
of  our  proceedings.  The  people  of  Ireland 
ceased  to  court  patronage,  or  to  hope  for 
rehef  from  their  friends.  They  became 
'  friends  to  themselves,'  and  after  twenty-six 
years  of  agitation,  they  forced  the  concession 
of  Emancipation.  They  compelled  the  most 
powerful  as  well  as  the  most  tricky,  the  most 
daring  as  well  as  the  most  dexterous,  of  their 
enemies,  to  concede  Emancipation.  •  •  •  • 

"  Let  it  be  recollected  that  our  struggle 
was  for  *  freedom  of  conscience.'  Oh,  how 
ignorant  are  the  men  who  boast  of  Protestant 
tolerance,  and  declaim  on  Catholic  bigotry  ! 
This  calumny  was  one  of  the  worst  evils  we 
formerly  endured.  At  present  we  laugh  it 
to  scorn.  The  history  of  the  persecutions 
perpetrated  by  the  Protestant  Established 
Church  of  England,  upon  Catholics  on  the 
one  hand,  and  upon  Presbyterians  and  other 
Protestant  dissenters  on  the  other,  is  one  of 
the  blackest  in  the  page  of  time." — O'Con- 


nell. 


"  In  England  and  Germany,  Protestantism 
introduced  itself  by  the  head  of  the  state,  by 
princes,  and  nobles,  and  magistrates,  and  men 
of  letters,  and  descended  slowly  into  the 
lower  ranks.  Christianity  followed  an  oppo- 
site course ;  it  commenced  in  the  plebeian 
classes,  with  the  poor  and  ignorant.  The 
faith  ascended  by  degrees  into  the  higher 


466 


HISTORY   OP   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1829, 


ranks,  and  reached  at  length  the  imperial 
throne.  It  is  a  remark  of  Chateaubriand,  too 
just  to  be  rejected,  *  that  the  two  impressions 
of  these  two  origins  have  remained  distinct 
in  the  two  communions.'  The  same  differ- 
ence continues  in  the  propagation  of  the  two 
religions." — Ages  of  Faith. 

"  Whatsoever  knowledge  hath  in  it  no  part 
nor  concern  for  the  general  welfare,  is  but  an 
art  political,  self-seeking  and  ostentatious  ; 
great  in  sound,  but  little  in  substance  ;  some- 
thing in  prospect,  but  nothing  in  possession. 

"  Excess  of  toil  tendelh  only  to  brutish- 
ness  :  hunger  is  indocible  ;  and  book-instruc- 
tion is  but  mockery  to  the  destitute  :  for  the 
ignorant  will  ever  think  as  they  are  made  to 
feel. 

"  Will  man  never  begin  to  understand  the 
wants  of  his  own  nature,  and  perceive  that 
he  can  govern  and  be  governed  only  by  jus- 
tice and  benevolence  ? 

"  The  virtues  are  qualities  to  be  inspired, 
but  not  enforced ;  and  a  frowning  principal 
must  not  rely  too  far  on  the  fidelity  of  his  de- 
pendants. 

"  As  wisdom  was  said  of  old  to  cry  in  the 
streets,  so  may  her  plaintful  appeals  be  still 
overheard  in  fields  and  senates  ;  and  the  cry 
is  still, — '  How  long  will  the  scorners  delight 
in  their  scorning,  and  fools  hate  knowledge  ?' 

"  Christianity  halh  been  preached  and  pro- 
fessed for  nearly  two  thousand  years ;  but 
there  is  still  more  learning  in  the  world  than 
knowledge,  and  knowledge  than  goodness : 
hence  the  Christian  profession  is  still  held  in 
a  state  of  slavish  subjection  to  infidelity. 

"  The  wisest  labour  in  vain  for  their  own 
approbation,  and  their  own  imperfections 
teach  them  humility ;  but  they  will  have 
advanced  nearer  to  the  attainment  of  their 
better  aspirations,  when  they  begin  to  per- 
ceive the  wisdom  of  befriending  the  igno- 
rant."— Christian's  Econ.  of  Human  Life. 

"  Among  the  manifold  blessings  enjoyed 
under  the  exercise  of  the  ancient  faith,  none 
deserves  more  special  notice  than  the  happy 
state  of  the  lower  classes,  caused  by  their 
constant  access  to  religious  buildings  and 
solemnities,  and  the  temporal  relief  dispensed 
to  them  by  ecclesiastics.     It  is  to  the  poor 


and  humble  man,  whose  worldly  pilgrimage 
lies  in  an  obscure  and  barren  track,  that  the 
Catholic  church  imparts  the  greatest  store  of 
blessings.  Without  faith  and  the  wondrous 
consolations  of  religious  joy,  how  abject  and 
wretched  must  be  the  lot  of  such  a  being ! 
with  them,  who  on  earth  tastes  truer  joys  ? 

"  Among  men  of  worldly  minds,  he  is  an 
object  of  scorn  and  derision ;  he  is  not  suf- 
fered to  partake  of  the  banquet ;  he  is  thrust 
from  the  festive  assembly.  Had  he  no  place 
of  refuge, — had  he  no  consolation,  what  an 
outcast  would  he  be  !  But  see,  the  doors  of 
the  temple  stand  ever  open  to  receive  him  ; 
poverty,  there,  is  no  disgrace  ;  lowliness  is 
accounted  glory.  Once  within  the  sacred 
walls,  as  if  the  barrier  of  the  grave  was  al- 
ready passed,  all  distinctions  of  rank  and 
riches  cease.  No  cushioned  pew  or  veiled 
partition  divides  him  from  the  high-bom  and 
the  wealthy  ;  from  one  common  floor  ascend 
the  supplications  of  the  poor  and  the  rich, — 
the  powerful  and  the  humble, — the  learned 
and  the  simple.  Here,  then,  untaunted,  un- 
rebuked,  may  the  lowly  man  pour  forth  his 
supplications  and  his  hymns  of  praise  :  he  is 
carried  far  away  from  his  worldly  troubles, 
and  seems  as  if  already  in  Abraham's  bosom  ! 
What  regrets  can  he  feel  at  his  exclusion 
from  the  sumptuous  banquets  of  the  great, 
when  he  is  deemed  a  worthy  guest  at  the 
table  of  his  Redeemer,  and  is  fed  with  the 
bread  of  angels  ?  What  musical  assembly 
can  produce  such  melody  as  that  which  is 
hourly  sent  forth  from  our  choirs  ?  how  vain 
are  the  glittering  shows  of  worldly  pomp, 
when  compared  with  the  holy  splendour  of 
the  Church, — the  glory  of  whose  solemnities, 
sanctified  by  the  presence  of  God  himself,  as 
far  transcends  all  worldly  grandeur,  as  heaven 
the  earth  !  What  palace  or  mansion  can  boast 
such  towering  pillars,  lofty  vaults,  or  gorge- 
ous richness,  as  the  cathedral  where  he  may 
enter  and  dwell !  Then  the  sound  of  the 
almonry-bell  will  summon  him  to  receive  the 
dole  of  temporal  rehef,  dispensed  by  the  same 
kind  hands  that  ministered  to  his  spiritual 
assistance.  The  poorer  classes,  being  thus 
continually  familiarized  with  every  species  of 
excellence,  became  a  set  of  intellectual  be- 


A.  D.  1829.] 


THIRD  DIVISION. 


457 


ings,  infinitely  superior  in  mind  and  conduct 
to  many  of  the  best  educated  of  our  times. 

"  The  ennobling  influence  of  the  Catholic 
religion  on  the  mind  is  truly  surprising :  the 
humblest  labourers  and  artisans  were  as 
eager  to  promote  the  splendour  of  religion  as 
the  learned  and  the  rich.  In  proof  of  this, 
all  the  magnificent  stained  windows,  which 
decorate  the  choir  of  Rouen  Cathedral,  were 
given  by  these  sorts  of  persons ;  and,  in  the 
lower  corners  of  those  windows,  may  be  seen 
representations  of  the  donors'  occupations. 
In  one  will  be  found  '  the  water-carriers  of 
the  city ;'  in  another  *  the  fish-sellers  ;'  '  the 
bargemen  and  sailors  of  the  port'  in  a  third ; 
in  a  fourth  *  the  weavers.'  Each  window,  in 
fine,  was  the  combined  donation  of  the  per- 
sons following  some  humble  occupation  or 
trade ;  and,  I  may  add,  similar  instances  of 
pious  devotion  are  frequently  met  with  in  the 
decorations  of  ancient  churches. 

"  What  a  subject  is  this  for  the  considera- 
tion of  those  who  maintain  that  the  establish- 
ment of  Protestantism  has  not  debased  the 
human  mind,  and  destroyed  religious  influ- 
ence !  I  will  ask,  do  the  fishwromen,  the  coal- 
heavers,  or  even  the  mechanics  of  London 
ever  bestow  the  slightest  consideration  on 
church  ornaments  ?  For  the  most  part,  they 
never  enter  the  precincts  of  a  place  of  wor- 
ship ;  hardly  do  they  think  of  the  existence 
of  a  God.  Yet  these  very  classes  of  people, 
four  centuries  ago,  were  largely  contributing, 
and  that  in  no  mean  manner,  to  the  decora- 
tions of  the  most  splendid  temples  ever  raised 
for  the  worship  of  the  Almighty :  and  yet  the 
religion  which  produced  such  wondrous  ef- 
fects, on  even  the  humblest  minds,  is  impu- 
dently denounced,  by  modern  writers,  as  one 
which  generates  *  ignorance  !'  and  the  periods 
which  produced  such  glorious  results  are  de- 
nominated the  '  dark  ages  !'  " — A.  W,  Pugin. 

"  Let  England,  with  her  weight  of  influ- 
ence, the  learned  and  pious  of  her  clergy,  put 
forward  a  little  longer  in  her  fervent  prayers 
— and  we  shall  see  her — to  use  the  language 
of  one  of  the  most  beautiful  writers  among 
the  divines  [See  Brit.  Critic,  July,  1841]  at 
Oxford — *  taking  the  lead  in  the  return  of  her 
sister  churches  to  the   reverential  faith  of 

.58 


other  ages — to  that  high,  and  holy,  and  self- 
denying  spirit  of  devotion  and  charity,  which 
visibly  embodied  itself  of  old  in  our  cathe- 
drals, and  our  abbeys ;  but  which  has,  alas, 
been  far  from  impressing  such  clear  traces 
of  her  influence  on  any  portion  of  the  church, 
in  more  recent  times.' 

"  Let  once  more  that  mother  country  enter 
into  the  arms  of  Rome,  the  great  head  and 
mother  of  all  that  is  Christian,  Catholic,  and 
holy  in  the  world,  and  just  so  surely  will  she 
lead  after  her,  not  only  the  sister  churches 
of  Europe — not  only  America — the  Reuben 
ofher  children,  her  firstborn  and  her  strength, 
but  all  the  millions  of  her  adopted  families. 
Quando,  heu  quando  !  Deus  mens  ne  tarda- 
veris.  Send  forth  thy  spirit,  O  my  God,  and 
let  the  face  of  the  earth  be  created  anew.  O 
glorious,  0  venerable,  O  holy  Church !  whose 
saints  are  sages,  whose  sages  are  apostles, 
whose  apostles  are  martyrs,  whose  princes 
are  the  humble  !  O  beautiful  Church,  whose 
poetry  is  divine,  whose  music  is  angelical, 
whose  painting  is  inspired,  whose  architec- 
ture is  inimitable  !  Rise  up,  O  shepherd  of 
this  flock  of  ages  ;  rise  up,  O  head  and  leader 
of  the  hosts  of  God  on  earth ;  rise  up,  O 
bishop  of  the  churches  of  Rome  and  of  the 
world,  call  around  thee  some  few  honour- 
ed from  among  thy  multitudes  ;  show  to 
those  who  know  thee  not,  (and  are  proud  be- 
cause they  know  thee  not,)  show  them  thy 
great  Gregories,  thy  great  Auguslines,  thy 
Aquins,  thy  Benedicts,  and  thy  Loyolas ; 
show  to  them  thy  Anthonys  and  thy  Xaviers, 
thy  Edwards  and  thy  Charlemagnes,  thy 
Catharines,  and  thy  Clares ;  show  them  thy 
Dantes,  thy  Angelos,  thy  Raphaels ;  and 
show  them  those  whose  names  we  know  not, 
but  whose  works  are  superhuman  in  science, 
in  beauty,  and  in  majesty.  Show  thyself  to 
them,  O  St.  Peter,  the  fisherman  of  Galilee  ; 
founder  of  an  eternal  dynasty,  father  of  an 
eternal  philosophy,  master  of  the  great  mas- 
ters in  all  the  arts  noble.  Show  thyself  to 
them,  O  thou  rock  Catholic,  that  all  who 
would  have  their  works  to  stand  may  build 
on  thee.  Show  thyself  to  them,  O  thou 
shepherd  Catholic,  that  all  who  would  be 
folded  with  the  flock  of  Christ  may  flee  to 


458 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND, 


[A.  D.  1830. 


tliee  Show  thyself  to  all  the  world,  that  all 
the  world  may  become  catholic  in  wisdom, 
catholic  in  science,  catholic  in  faith  ;  that  the 
beauties  and  the  miracles  of  Rome  may  be 
seen  everywhere  ;  that  the  ministers  of  Eng- 
land may  be  multiplied  in  both  the  Indies ; 
that  thy  schools  may  be  ubiquitary,  and  their 
scholars  once  more  be  armies.  Rise  up,  O 
glorious  vicar  of  God !  not  in  anger,  but  in 
power.  Smite  not,  but  pity.  Remember 
thine  own  unfaithfulness ;  and  pray  for  those 
who  have  not  followed  thy  repentance.  Pray 
for  our  country,  pray  for  the  dear  islands  of 
our  fathers,  pray  for  our  offspring,  that  the 
people  whose  habitations  the  daylight  never 
dies  upon,  the  music  of  whose  language  is 
breathed  by  all  the  winds,  may  become  dwell- 
ers in  the  tabernacles  of  holiness,  and  chant 
tliy  hallowed  liturgy,  and  the  name  of  Jesus, 
with  the  sun  that  never  sets." — P.  Connel- 
ly; Lecture  at  Baltimore,  1842. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Accession  of  William  the  Fourth — Parliamentary 
reform  obtained — Movements  for  repeal — Exer- 
tions of  Daniel  O'Connell — Accession  of  Queen 
Victoria — Father  Mathew — Declaration  of  Irish 
rights — Sympathetic  resolutions  proposed  in  the 
American  congress — The  national  redemption  of 
Ireland  inevitable — Close  of  the  narrative. 

From  the  Union  in  1800  to  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  Catholics  in  1829,  Ireland  was 
suffering  all  the  aggravated  results  of  the 
previous  misgovemment  of  six  centuries. 
The  foresight  of  Mr.  O'Connell  taught  him 
to  persevere  with  Catholic  relief  and  parlia- 
mentary reform.  These  obtained,  the  repeal 
movement  appears  to  be  his  next  great  pre- 
liminary in  view  of  legislative  and  national 
independence.  When  we  consider  that  thirty 
years  of  O'Connell's  life  were  occupied  in 
procuring  the  first  great  item — Catholic  eman- 
cipation— we  may  form  some  idea  of  his  in- 
cessant efforts  for  the  general  welfare  of  the 
Irish  people.  No  historian  or  historians, 
whatever  may  be  their  abilities,  can  ever  do 
justice  to  such  a  wonderful  man — the  mighty 
agent  in  the  regeneration  of  a  nation's  liberty 
— stepping  forth  from  the  ranks  of  a  class  of 
Christians  politically  and  cruelly  degraded 


by  act  of  parliament,  and  yet  beating  the 
usurpers  of  the  government  with  their  own 
weapons,  "  according  to  law."  It  is  a  moral 
triumph  taught  by  the  devotion  of  a  valuable 
life  to  the  cause  of  universal  freedom  and 
religious  equality.  Mooney  has  well  ob- 
served—"The  *  Life  of  O'Connell'  and  the 
'  History  of  Ireland'  for  that  period,  are  iden- 
tified— the  self-same  work." 

An  additional  incentive  for  delay  exists  in 
the  British  government  beyond  those  ordi- 
narily exercised  while  opposing  reforms :  it 
arises  from  a  settled  policy  that  the  origina- 
tors and  defenders  of  legal  improvements 
should  be  scattered,  worn  out,  or  otherwise 
disposed  of,  so  that  some  ignorant  or  truck- 
ling slave  may  give  to  the  world  such  a  ver- 
sion of  the  affair  as  might  suit  the  learned 
liars  and  political  pickpockets  of  the  govern- 
ment to  have  promulgated.  This  truly  "  Brit- 
ish" policy  has  been  shamefully  adopted  in 
relation  to  parliamentary  reform  and  Catho- 
lic emancipation ;  but  it  has  signally  failed. 
Who  cares  for  the  splendid  style  of  Ali- 
son, or  the  maudlin  slanders  of  Maunder  ? 
The  truth  will  prevail.  Here  is  a  speech 
from  the  Protestant  lips  of  Charles  Phillips, 
spoken  at  Liverpool  about  the  days  of  eman- 
cipation : — 

"  You  may  quite  depend  on  it,  a  period  is 
approaching  when,  if  penalty  does  not  pause 
in  the  pursuit,  patience  will  turn  short  on  the 
pursuer.  Can  you  wonder  at  it?  Con- 
template Ireland  during  any  given  period  of 
England's  rule,  and  what  a  picture  does  she 
exhibit !  Behold  her  created  in  all  the  prod- 
igality of  nature ;  with  a  soil  that  antici- 
pates the  husbandman's  desire ;  with  har- 
bours courting  the  commerce  of  the  world  ; 
with  rivers  capable  of  the  most  effective  navi- 
gation; with  the  ore  of  every  metal  strug- 
gling through  her  surface ;  with  a  people, 
brave,  generous,  and  intellectual,  literally 
forcing  their  way  through  the  disabilities  of 
their  own  country  into  the  highest  stations 
of  every  other,  and  well  rewarding  the  policy 
that  promotes  them,  by  achievements  the 
most  heroic,  and  allegiance  without  a  blemish. 
"  How  have  the  successive  governments 
of  England  demeaned  themselves  to  a  nation 


A.  D.  1830.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


459 


offering  such  an  accumulation  of  moral  and 
political  advantages  ?  See  it  in  the  state  of 
Ireland  at  this  instant ;  in  the  universal  bank- 
ruptcy that  ovenvhelms  her ;  in  the  loss  of 
her  trade ;  in  the  annihilation  of  her  manu- 
factures ;  in  the  deluge  of  her  debt ;  in  the 
divisions  of  her  people  ;  in  all  the  loathsome 
operations  of  an  odious,  monopolizing,  hypo- 
critical fanaticism  on  the  one  hand,  wrestling 
with  the  untiring  but  natural  reprisals  of  an 
irritated  population  on  the  other !  It  required 
no  common  ingenuity  to  reduce  such  a  coun- 
try to  such  a  situation.  But  it  has  been  done ; 
man  has  conquered  the  beneficence  of  the 
Deity;  his  harpy  touch  has  changed  the 
viands  to  corruption;  and  that  land,  which 
you  might  have  possessed  in  health,  and 
wealth,  and  vigour,  to  support  you  in  your 
hour  of  need,  now  writhes  in  the  agonies  of 
death,  unable  even  to  lift  the  shroud  with 
which  famine  and  fatuity  try  to  encumber 
her  convulsions.  This  is  what  I  see  a  pen- 
sioned press  denominates  tranquillity.  O, 
wo  to  the  land  threatened  with  such  tran- 
quillity ;  solitudinem  fadunt,  pacem  appel- 
lant :  it  is  not  yet  the  tranquillity  of  solitude  ; 
it  is  not  5'et  the  tranquillity  of  death  ;  but  if 
you  would  know  what  it  is,  go  forth  in  the 
silence  of  creation,  when  every  wind  is  hush- 
ed, and  every  echo  mute,  and  all  nature  seems 
to  listen  in  dumb,  and  terrified,  and  breath- 
less expectation, — go  forth  in  such  an  hour, 
and  see  the  terrible  tranquillity  by  which  you 
are  surrounded  !  How  could  it  be  otherwise, 
when,  for  ages  upon  ages,  invention  has  fa- 
tigued itself  with  expedients  for  irritation ; 
when,  as  I  have  read  with  horror  in  the  pro- 
gress of  my  legal  studies,  the  homicide  of  a 
*  mere  Irishman'  was  considered  justifiable  ; 
and,  when  his  ignorance  was  the  origin  of  all 
his  crimes,  his  education  was  prohibited  by 
act  of  parliament ! — when  the  people  were 
worm-eaten  by  the  odious  vermin  which  a 
CHURCH-AND-STATE  ADULTERY  had  Spawned  ; 
when  a  bad  heart  and  brainless  head  were 
the  fangs  by  which  every  foreign  adventurer 
and  domestic  traitor  fastened  upon  office ; 
when  the  property  of  the  native  was  but  an 
invitation  to  plunder,  and  his  non-acquies- 
cence the  signal  for  confiscation ;  when  reli- 


gion itself  was  made  the  odious  pretence 
for  every  persecution,  and  the  fires  of  hell 
were  alternately  lighted  with  the  cross,  and 
quenched  in  the  blood  of  its  defenceless  fol- 
lowers. 

"  I  speak  of  times  that  are  passed ;  but  can 
their  recollections,  can  their  consequences, 
be  so  readily  eradicated^  Why,  however, 
should  I  refer  to  periods  that  are  so  distant  ? 
Behold,  at  this  instant,  five  millions  of  her 
people  disqualified  on  account  of  their  faith, 
and  that  by  a  country  professing  freedom! 
and  that  under  a  government  calling  itself 
Christian !  You  (when  I  say  you,  of  course 
I  mean  not  the  high-minded  people  of  Eng- 
land, but  the  men  who  misgovern  us  both) 
seem  to  have  taken  out  a  roving  commission 
in  search  of  grievances  abroad,  while  you 
overlook  the  calamities  at  your  own  door, 
and  of  your  own  infliction.  You  traverse 
the  ocean  to  emancipate  the  African ;  you 
cross  the  line  to  convert  the  Hindoo ;  you 
hurl  your  thunder  against  the  savage  Alge- 
rine ;  but  your  own  brethren  at  home,  who 
speak  the  same  tongue,  acknowledge  the 
same  king,  and  kneel  to  the  same  God,  cannot 
get  one  visit  from  your  itinerant  humanity." 

This  "  itinerant  humanity"  is  one  of  the 
principal  characteristics  of  that  class  of  "  re- 
spectables" who  generally  win  their  power 
during  the  war  expenditures  of  the  "  govern- 
ment." The  poUcy  of  setting  up  subjects  of 
impossibility,  or  ultimate  inutility,  is  so  well 
established  in  the  every-day  practice  of  the 
British  government  that  a  similar  versatility 
of  proceeding  is  partly  forced  upon  all  politi- 
cal action,  even  in  the  hands  of  the  most 
straightforward  patriots ;  and  such  must  al- 
ways, by  necessity,  be  the  case,  as  long  as 
the  expected  redress  is  sought  for  in  British 
legislation.  "  Justice  for  Ireland"  can  never 
be  granted  by  Great  Britain  unless  the  peo- 
ple of  Great  Britain  have  a  government 
which  would  do  justice  to  themselves.  His- 
tory shows  how  "justice  for  Ireland"  is  treat- 
ed in  the  British  cabinet :  it  is  a  lingering 
drawn-battle  between  the  patience  of  those 
who  are  robbed  and  the  occasional  fears  of 
those  who  rob  "by  authority"  and  "cwot 
priviUgior 


460 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1833. 


Lady  Morgan,  while  advocating  unceasing 
opposition  to  tyranny,  has  judiciously  ob- 
served— 

"  The  number  of  those  who  see  questions 
in  their  wholeness  is  very  small.  The  mass 
are  more  moved  by  especial  instances  and 
examples.  In  knowledge,  nothing  is  isolated. 
The  establishment  of  one  truth  is  the  de- 
thronement of  many  errors.  With  these  it  is 
better  to  deal  in  detail,  and  await  the  gradual 
development  of  a  growing  spirit  before  ven- 
turing upon  points  in  which  the  age  is  not 
prepared  to  follow.  A  man  may  ensure  for 
himself  the  palm  of  martyrdom  without  ad- 
vancing public  opinion  one  iota.  Proceed, 
therefore,  like  the  snail,  with  your  feelers 
before  you,  and  reserve  to  yourself,  by  a 
timely  halt,  the  privilege  of  never  combating 
with  more  opponents  at  once  than  you  feel 
yourself  able  to  overthrow.  Disgraceful  re- 
treats are  pregnant  with  fearful  delays  ;  for  a 
coup  manque  is  followed  by  a  revulsion  of 
sentiment  which  may  require  the  lapse  of  a 
generation  to  recover." 

Mooney  remarks,  (after  quoting  a  similar 
extract  from  Lady  Morgan's  spirited  wri- 
tings,) that  O'Connell  has  always  acted  with 
a  "patient,  persevering,  and  peaceful"  en- 
ergy. Our  industrious  predecessor  then  con- 
tinues— 

*'  It  was  the  actual  basis  of  his  entire  sys- 
tem of  agitation,  and  affords  us  the  means  of 
understanding  his  apparently  inconsistent  and 
Protean  movements — to-day  praising,  to-mor- 
row abusing,  the  whigs  ;  one  day  execrating 
Peel  and  Graham,  and  then  forgiving  and 
receiving  them  into  favour;  again,  condemn- 
ing the  Chartists,  and  anon  applauding  to  the 
skies  the  hon-hearted  democracy  of  England  ; 
to-day  applauding  republics,  to-morrow  laud- 
ing constitutional  monarchies  ;  upon  one  oc- 
casion exalting  the  wisdom  and  chivalry  of 
the  French,  on  another  execrating  their  vio- 
lence and  infidelity  ;  to-day  praising  America 
for  its  valour  in  the  field  and  its  independence, 
to-morrow  condemning  *  the  last  resort  of 
freemen,'  and  pouring  indignation  upon  the 
traflic  in  men.         *         *         *         * 

"  The  weathercock  upon  the  steeple,  or  the 
straw  upon   the  stream,  does   not  indicate 


more  unerringly  the  point  of  the  wind,  or  the 
direction  of  the  tide,  than  does  O'Connell  the 
sentiment  and  will  of  the  Irish  people  ;  and 
as  well  might  the  British  government,  by 
grasping  the  straw,  or  pulling  down  the  vane, 
try  to  stop  the  current  of  the  tide,  or  change 
the  direction  of  the  wind,  as  try  to  impede, 
by  arresting  O'Connell,  the  progress  of  Ire 
land  to  her  destiny  among  the  nations." 

We  have  made  room  for  these  explanations 
of  English  modern  and  "  enlightened"  gov- 
ernment, because  they  will  supersede  the 
necessity  of  recounting  the  voluminous  par- 
ticulars of  O'Connell's  exertions,  and  enable 
the  American  reader,  who  may  never  have 
been  out  of  his  own  happy  country,  to  com- 
prehend the  mill-horse  circle  of  generations 
going  round  and  round,  from  the  ministers  to 
the  sovereign,  from  the  sovereign  to  the  par- 
liament, from  the  parliament  to  the  London 
press,  (which  grows  and  revels  in  the  very 
manure  of  exalted  corruption,)  and  so  on, 
round  and  round  again. 

The  passage  of  the  Catholic  Relief  Bill 
was  followed  by  several  circumstances  highly 
favourable  for  its  beneficial  action.  Mr. 
O'Connell,  who  had  long  been  elected  mem- 
ber for  Clare,  took  his  seat  in  the  house  of 
commons  on  the  first  day  of  the  1830  session. 
He  was  the  first  Catholic  representative  who 
had  that  privilege  in  either  the  English  or 
Irish  parliament  after  an  interval  of  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-five  years.  On  the  26th  of 
June,  1830,  the  Duke  of  Clarence  succeeded 
to  the  throne  of  England  as  William  the 
Fourth.  In  July,  revolutions  occurred  in 
France  and  in  Belgium,  having  for  their  ob- 
ject the  improvement  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment. In  November,  the  Wellington 
cabinet  resigned,  and  the  "  reform  ministry," 
under  Earl  Grey,  was  organized, — a  most 
"  motley  crew"  of  mountebanks  and  monopo- 
lists. The  interval  between  November,  1830, 
and  April  14,  1832,— when  the  Reform  Bill 
passed  the  house  of  lords  by  a  majority  of 
nine, — was  occupied  by  the  "  respectables" 
in  eating  the  words  they  had  uttered  against 
parliamentary  reform.  The  task  appears  to 
have  been  generally  diflficult  and  unpalatable 
to  all  except  Sir  Robert  Peel,  who,  with  his 


A.  D.  1834.] 


THIRD   DIVISION, 


461 


usual  promptitude  and  self-reliance,  swal- 
lowed the  whole  mountain  of  his  anti-reform 
speeches  during  about  three  days  of  quiet 
retirement. 

The  parliamentary  census  of  Ireland  in 
1831  is  thus  stated  for  the  four  provinces  : — 

Provinces.  Population. 

Leinster,       ....  1,928,067 

Munster,       ....  2,215,364 

Ulster, 2,293,128 

Connaught,  ....  1,348,097 

Total,  7,784,636 

The  annual  revenue  of  the  archbishops  and 
bishops,  in  1831,  (then  22  in  number,  now 
reduced  to  12,)  amounted  to  £151,128,  and 
the  total  income  of  the  established  church 
was  jC865,535.  The  tithes  of  most  parishes 
have  since  been  compounded  for, — the 
amount  being  usually  estimated  at  £555,000 
for  ecclesiastical  purposes.  The  amount  of 
church  revenues,  in  1833,  was  stated  at 
£937,456,  including  £657,670  for  tithes. 

The  English  Reform  Bill  became  a  law 
by  the  royal  assent,  June  7,  1832.  On  the 
29th  of  January,  1833,  the  first  "reformed 
parliament"  was  opened  by  commission  ;  and, 
on  the  5th  of  February,  William  the  Fourth 
delivered  his  speech  in  person.  In  it  the 
worthy  monarch  was  made  to  speak  of  "  the 
increasing  spirit  of  insubordination  and  vio- 
lence in  Ireland,"  and  to  expatiate  on  the  ne- 
cessity of  severer  laws  for  the  good  of  the 
"  government."  No  long  agitation  of  litera- 
ture or  politics  need  be  employed  to  carry 
out  this  ready-made  advice.  In  less  than  a 
month  the  "  insurrection  acts"  were  in  full 
force,  violating  every  right  of  law,  nature, 
and  religion. 

In  June,  1833,  Feargus  O'Connor  placed 
a  notice  on  the  order-book  of  the  house  of 
commons,  that  the  Union,  after  the  experi- 
ence of  thirty-two  years,  was  a  measure  of 
bad  policy ;  that  all  the  conditions  of  it  had 
been  violated,  etc.  Mr.  O'Connell  gave  no- 
tice in  July,  that,  on  the  first  day  in  the  en- 
suing session,  he  should  move  a  resolution 
for  the  introduction  of  a  bill  for  the  re-estab- 
lishment of  the  Irish  parliament,  with  a  view 
to  secure  the  connection  between  the  two 
countries. 


The  repeal  question  came  up,  by  arrange- 
ment, on  the  22d  of  April,  1834,  in  the  house 
of  commons.  O'Connell  astonished  his  most 
intimate  friends  with  the  vigour  and  brilliancy 
of  his  attack  on  the  "  government."  On  the 
28th  of  May,  being  the  anniversary  of  Wil- 
liam the  Fourth's  birthday,  the  "  Irish  pre- 
lates" presented  to  him  a  "  loyal  and  dutiful 
address,"  in  which  they  "  protested"  against 
"  ecclesiastical  innovations."  This  latter 
circumstance  is  one  of  the  richest  jokes  his- 
tory affords  for  the  last  three  centuries.  The 
remainder  of  the  year  was  occupied  in  argu- 
ing on  the  Irish  Coercion  Bill ;  and,  at  last, 
the  Melbourne  cabinet  was  formed  out  of  the 
very  dregs  of  the  Grey  ministry. 

During  the  discussions  on  repeal,  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Union  was  revived,  and  an 
article  in  the  New  MontlJy  Magazine,  of 
February,  1834,  says — 

"  Sir  Jonah  Barrington  exposes  the  places, 
pensions,  sinecures,  and  literally  the  hard 
cash  vulgarly  put  into  the  palms  of  individual 
members  for  their  parliamentary  speeches 
and  votes,  not  only  upon  occasion  of  the 
Union,  but  upon  all  others.  He  shows  you 
how  the  clergy,  the  judges,  the  bar,  the  no- 
bihty,  gentry,  and  even  corporate  oflicers, 
were  bought  and  sold  by  government,  until 
all  pollutions  ever  known  in  England,  and  a 
tithe  of  which  would  now  rouse  the  English 
to  rebellion,  were  as  immaculate  purity  com- 
pared to  the  undisguised  habits  and  practices 
in  Ireland.  Nay,  more  than  this,  he  shows 
how  duellists  were  hired  and  bribed,  even  by 
judgeships,  as  assassins  (for  they  deserve  no 
better  name)  against  any  man  that  dared  to 
be  honest ;  and  a  mixture  of  more  horrible 
barbarity,  of  daring  and  of  sneaking  paltry 
crimes,  never  disgraced  the  human  species, 
under  the  name  of  a  government  and  a  parlia- 
ment. The  effects  on  the  population  were 
dreadful,  and  Dean  Swift's  fiction  of  the 
Yahoos,  and  the  fictions  of  cannibalism, 
seemed  to  be  realized,  or  surpassed,  in  the 
climax  of  1798,  which  led  to  the  Union.  To 
revert,  therefore,  to  any  thing  Irish,  before  the 
Union — to  talk  of  restoring  any  thing  that 
ever  existed  under  the  name  of  Irish  parlia- 
ment— displays  either  mania,  ignorance,  or 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1639. 


the  political  ruse  of  obtaining  an  object  by 
inflaming  the  passions  of  ignorance,  by  means 
of  pretending  to  aim  at  that  of  which  the 
mere  thought  of  the  real  acquisition  would 
appal  the  worst  nature  that  ever  had  exist- 
ence, or  that  fancy  ever  created.  Mr.  O'Con- 
nell  would  be  one  of  the  last  men  in  the  em- 
pire to  consent  to  a  repeal  of  the  Union,  and 
a  RESTORATION  of  the  Irish  parliament." 

But,  whatever  are  the  ulterior  views  of 
Daniel  O'Connell,  his  "  agitation"  was  pro- 
ductive of  new  good.  The  new  "  Commis- 
sion of  Inquiry"  was  forced  to  make  some 
kind  of  a  report,  and,  (like  the  most  ancient 
politician  on  record,)  was  obliged  to  tell  some 
truth.  The  state  of  religious  instruction  is 
thus  stated : — 

Eccles.  Provinces.         Livings.  Parishes.     Epis.  Pop. 

Armagh,  (Ulster,)     .  552  658  517,722 

Dublin,  (Leinster,)  .  311  624  177,930 

Cashel,  (Munster,)  .  469  791  111,813 

Tuam,  (Connaught,)  103  275  44,599 

Total,  1435     2348       852,064 

Upon  this  statement,  the  statistical  Edwin 
Williams*  has  observed  : 

"  This  shows  an  average  of  only  363  per- 
sons, (men,  women,  and  children,)  to  a  par- 
ish, and  less  than  600  persons,  on  an  average, 
to  each  living.  The  amount  of  the  tithes 
varies  much  in  the  different  parishes,  viz. 
from  Id.  to  4s.  per  acre.  In  some  of  the 
parishes  where  tithes  are  exacted,  there  are 
no  Protestants.  The  tithe  composition,  for 
the  whole  tilheable  land  of  Ireland,  amounts 
to  about  £665,000  a  year;  of  this,  about 
£555,000  is  for  ecclesiastical,  and  £110,000 
for  lay  tithe." 

In  the  anxiety  of  the  hybrid  whigs  to  retain 
office,  they  determined  to  avoid  Irish  agita- 
tion by  inundating  Ireland  with  gold  and 
kindness.  The  Earl  of  Mulgrave,  as  lord- 
lieutenant,  and  Viscount  Morpeth,  as  chief 
secretary,  (men  of  true  nobility,)  were  the 
instruments  employed  on  this  occasion.  For 
once,  even  Daniel  O'Connell  was  unable  to 
"  surround  the  enemy."  This  mode  of  at- 
tacking Ireland  was  quite  new  and  unexpect- 
ed. Places,  pensions,  and  pickings  silenced 
the  selfish  tribe  who  make  a  trade  of  me- 
•  PoUtical  Hirt.  of  Ireland:  Nev  York,  1843. 


chanically  repeating  the  cry  of  "  Justice  fcJr 
Ireland  !"  Instead  of  being  crushed  with 
cruelty,  Ireland  was  smothered  with  kind- 
ness :  the  object  attained  was  the  same  during 
the  four  years  it  lasted.  O'Connell  "  bided 
his  time,"  as  usual. 

The  lieutenancy  of  the  Earl  of  Mulgrave 
began  on  St.  George's  Day,  (April  23,)  1835, 
and  ended  April  3,  1839,  when  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Viscount  Ebrington.  In  the  in- 
terval, June  20,  1837,  the  Princess  Victoria 
ascended  the  throne  as  Queen  of  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Ireland.  The  crown  of  Hanover 
was,  from  the  salic  law,  assumed  by  the  next 
male  heir,  the  Duke  of  Cumberland. 

One  of  those  mathematical  engines  of 
charity  which  suit  the  peculiar  administration 
of  the  British  "  government,"  and  which  are 
commonly  supposed  to  act  for  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  was  now  partly  carried  into  effect 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Irish  Poor- Law." 
The  enactment  of  all  such  laws  proves  the 
wicked  connivance  between  parliaments  and 
ministers  to  deceive,  rob,  and  murder  the 
people.  It  is  also  worthy  of  notice  that,  for 
fear  there  should  ensue  a  good  understand- 
ing between  this  amiable  sovereign  and  her 
abused  people,  the  most  talented  and  corrupt 
portions  of  the  press  were  employed  to  mis- 
represent the  subjects  while  vilifying  their 
queen.  The  London  Times  actually  dared 
to  impugn  her  virtue,  and  the  Quarterly  Re- 
view seriously  advocated  the  immediate  en- 
actment of  an  English  salic  law  !  Such  were 
the  means  taken  by  the  black-coated  wolves 
of  the  "  government"  to  teach  her  majesty 
the  initiatory  principles  of  the  art  of  "  reign- 
ing with  dignity." 

The  real  nature  of  this  assumed  "  dignity," 
and  the  blessings  of  "  British"  rule,  will  be 
seen  in  the  following  remarks  of  Gustave  de 
Beaumont,  while  speaking  of  the  Irish 
"  Commission  of  Inquiry"  appointed  by  Wil- 
liam the  Fourth  in  his  first  unchecked  zeal 
for  the  welfare  of  his  subjects  : — 

"  The  commissioners  charged  with  this 
memorable  inquiry  estimate  that  in  Ireland 
there  are  nearly  three  millions  of  individuals 
who  yearly  sink  into  absolute  destitution. 
These  three  millions  are  not  merely  poor, 


A.  D.  1840.] 


THIRD   D 


ivreioN. 


they  are  wretchedly  poor.  Besides  these 
three  millions  of  poor,  there  are  still  millions 
of  unhappy  creatures  who,  as  they  do  not  die 
of  absolute  hunger,  are  not  counted. 

"  The  author  of  this  book,*  to  whom  simi- 
lar testimony  would  have  undoubtedly  ap- 
peared sufficient,  thought  proper,  however, 
to  see  with  his  own  eyes  that  painful  scene 
which  his  reason  was  unwilling  to  believe. 
Twice,  in  1835  and  in  1837,  he  has,  while 
traversing  Ireland,  visited  expressly  the  coun- 
ties where  famine  has  been  accustomed  to 
rage  with  violence,  and  he  has  verified  these 
facts.  Shall  he  relate  here  the  sum  of  that 
misery  which  he  there  saw  ?  No.  Ireland 
presents  social  horrors  which  are  so  much 
beyond  the  endurance  of  humanity  that  hu- 
man LANGUAGE  CANNOT  DESCRIBE  THEM." 

Such  being  the  state  of  Ireland,  under  the 
most  "  enlightened"  government,  on  the  ac- 
cession of  Queen  Victoria,  we  are  warned 
against  attempting  to  portray  that  misery 
which  "human  language  cannot  describe." 
The  events  of  really  historical  value  are  few 
and  far  between. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  many  of  the  pea- 
cock patriots  who  are  continually  brawling 
out  "  Justice  for  Ireland !"  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  (or  care  for)  the  actual  condition  of 
the  people  of  Ireland.  Like  the  British  min- 
istries and  Irish  parliaments,  they  consider 
the  population  as  a  mere  field  of  selfish  and 
cold-blooded  speculation.  Taylor  remarks, 
in  a  very  valuable  post-union  note  at  the  end 
of  his  work,  that — 

"  Much  surprise  has  been  expressed  by 
those  unacquainted  with  Ireland  that  the  con- 
cession of  emancipation  in  1829  has  not  been 
followed  by  the  immediate  tranquillization  of 
Ireland  :  those  who  have  read  the  preceding 
pages  can  scarcely  feel  any  wonder  on  the 
subject.  The  exclusive  laws  produced  many 
evil  consequences  not  specially  mentioned  in 
their  enactments,  and  perhaps  it  would  not 
be  too  much  to  say  that  greater  calamities 
•^suited  from  their  indirect  than  their  direct 
operation.  They  aggravated  and  perpetuated 
the  abominable  system  of  land-letting,  which 

*  L'Irlande,  Sociale,  Politique,  et  Religieuse :  Paris, 
1839. 


has  been  the  greatest  source  of  the  evils  that 
afflicted  the  wretched  island, — a  system  that 
has  led  the  landlord  to  exult  in  his  tenant's 
misery,  and  the  tenant,  not  unjustly,  to  regard 
his  landlord  as  a  t)rrant.  The  Irish  parlia- 
ment during  the  period  of  its  mischievous 
existence  passed  laws  by  the  hundred  to  arm 
the  lords  of  the  soil  with  /resh  power,  but 
NOT  ONE  single  enactment  appears  on  their 
records  for  securing  to  the  cultivator  any 
share  in  the  profits  of  his  industry." 

This  state  of  local  misery  and  national  dis- 
content had  been  increasing  in  Ireland,  un- 
checked by  any  act  of  really  wise  government 
or  sound  legislation,  when  an  angel  of  be- 
nevolence, familiarly  knov^n  on  earth  as 
"  Father  Malhew,"  carried  out  the  idea  of 
blending  the  principle  of  "  total  abstinence" 
with  the  religious  obligations  to  Christian 
temperance  already  existing  among  a  large 
majority  of  his  countrymen.  Considering 
the  urgent  necessity  of  the  case,  and  the  im- 
portance of  a  united  and  firm  resolution  on 
the  part  of  the  people  to  redeem  their  usual 
character  and  former  rights,  it  was  a  sublime 
endeavour  to  prevent  the  many  murderous 
advantages  derived  by  wrong-doers  from  the 
excitable  temperament  of  the  mass  of  the 
population.  The  faithful  virtues  of  the  Irish 
people  now  shine  all  the  brighter  for  previous 
failings  and  present  trials.  They  have  proved 
to  the  world  that  they  are  capable  of  every ' 
moral  superiority,  in  addition  to  that  religious 
fidelity  which  can  only  be  registered  in 
heaven. 

The  moral  regeneration  of  the  Irish  people, 
(and  their  happy  deliverance  from  the  intoxi- 
cating influences  formerly  introduced  by  mod- 
ern luxury  and  countenanced  by  "  British" 
legislation,)  encouraged  Daniel  O'Connell  to 
permanently  organize  the  *'  Repeal  Associa- 
tion" on  the  15th  April,  1840.  His  principal 
assistants  in  this  movement  were  John  O'Con- 
nell, W.  J.  O'Neill  Daunt,  Thomas  Mooney,* 
Thomas  Re3aiolds,  and  Richard  Barrett. 

*  Mooney's  "  History  of  Ireland"  pVte  an  admirable 
account  of  the  political  details  of  O'Connell's  "  Life  and 
Times,"  and  opens  a  new  field  of  historical  reading  for 
students  who  may  have  been  accustomed  to  depend  upon 
merely  English  sources. 


4R4 


H I  S  T  O  R^  O  F 

is  certainly  mve 


IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  18  4«. 


The  population  of  Ireland  is  certainly 
than  nine  millions.  Of  the  whole  number, 
82  per  cent,  are  Roman  Catholics  ;  10  per 
cent,  are  Episcopalians  ;  and  8  per  cent,  are 
Presbyterians  or  other  "  dissenters."  ^ut 
the  entire  people  (separating  a  very  few  ex- 
ceptions) became  united  in  demanding  the 
repeal  of  the  Union.  The  number  of  repeal- 
ers in  other  countries  has  been  greatly  in- 
creased by  the  circulation  of  O'Connell's 
"  Memoir,"  which  appears  to  have  been 
specially  adapted  for  those  readers  whom 
circumstances  had  heretofore  prevented  from 
being  drawn  towards  the  examination  of  the 
historical  grounds  of  Irish  remonstrance. 
That  talented  tyranny  which  perverts  every 
constitutional  measure  as  soon  as  it  is  at- 
tained, and  then  gravely  turns  round  to  the 
public  (as,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  the 
Reform  Bill)  and  says — "  What  have  you 
gained  by  it  ?"  is  well  exposed  in  the  Libera- 
tor's "historical  indictment."  For  all  use- 
ful purposes,  it  is  worth  fifty  of  the  old  dot- 
and-carry-one  histories  written  without  sym- 
pathy or  hope. 

With  the  combined  influences  of  O'Con- 
nell  and  Father  Mathew,  the  redeeming 
progress  of  Ireland  is  rapid  and  steady.  A 
gloriously  national  spirit  has  been  brought 
forward,  and  some  of  the  noblest  men  in  the 
1  world  (of  all  ranks  and  creeds)  have  joined  in 
the  agitation  for  repeal.  The  whole  of  this 
book  would  not  contain  a  mere  list  of  their 
names.  The  most  thoughtful  men  of  Ireland, 
Scotland,  England,  and  the  United  States  are 
with  them,  heart  and  hand.  In  spite  of 
prosecutions,  packed  juries,  and  all  the'well- 
known  tyrannical  machinery  of  the  '*  govern- 
ment," O'Connell  arid  his  Catholic  and  Prot- 
estant supporters  generally  progressed  in  the 
national  and  righteous  cause ;  and,  on  the 
30th  of  May,  1845,  William  Smith  O'Brien 
brought  forward  in  Dublin  the  **  Declaration 
of  Irish  Rights,"  so  that  the  following  pledge 
was  signed  by  the  Eighty-Two  Club,  and 
the  provincial  delegations  appointed  for  the 
purpose  by  the  whole  actual  people  of  Ire- 
land. The  phraseology^  this  pledge  is  as 
significant  as  its  substanSP: — 

"We,  the  undersigned,  being  convinced 


that  good  government  and  wise  legislation 
can  be  permanently  secured  to  the  Irish  peo- 
ple only  through  the  instrumentality  of  an 
Irish  legislature,  do  hereby  solemnly  pledge 
ourselves  to  our  country  and  to  each  other, 
that  we  will  never  desist  from  seeking  the  re- 
peal of  the  legislative  union  with  England,  by 
all  peaceable,  moral,  and  constitutional  means, 
until  a  parliament  be  restored  to  Ireland." 

This  glorious  event  has  awakened  the  at- 
tention and  sympathy  of  all  the  lovers  of  lib- 
erty throughout,  the  world.  In  the  United 
States,  notwithstanding  many  untoward  cir- 
cumstances, the  cause  of  repeal  has  more 
true  friends  than  ever ;  and,  on  the  5th  of 
January,  1846,  one  of  America's  purest  pa- 
triots, Felix  G.  M'Connell,  moved  for  per- 
mission to  read  the  following  resolutions  in 
the  house  of  representatives  at  Washington. 
Leave  was  granted,  and  they  were  read  for 
the  information  of  the  house  : — 

"  Resolved,  That  we  hail  the  elevated  feel- 
ing which  now  universally  prevails  in  our 
glorious  confederacy  to  strengthen  and  con- 
solidate the  principles  of  republican  freedom, 
and  to  extend  the  blessings  of  our  free  institu- 
tions in  every  practicable  quarter  of  the  uni- 
verse, in  the  spirit  of  Christian  love  and 
peaceful  brotherhood. 

"  Resolved,  That  while  we  hail  the  ad- 
mission of  Texas,  (which  fought  its  way  to 
independence,)  as  a  sister  state  into  our 
Union,  and  view  with  unaffected  pride  and 
satisfaction  the  palriotic\resolulions  of  the 
executive  governmen^^HJHj^ngress  of  the 
United  States,  to  uphdl^^ff. title  to  Oregon  ; 
and  also  observe  the  ^ojwing  desire  to  in- 
corporate Mexico,  Yucatan  and  California 
into  this  confederacy — that  Ireland-  is  fully 
entitled  to  share  the  blessings  of  our  free  in- 
stitutions. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Irish  people,  ks  a 
nation,  have  long  been  ground  down  by  the 
tyranny  of  British  misrule  and  misgovem- 
ment,  and,  while  her  people  for  centuries 
have  groaned  under  a  foreign  monarchical 
yoke,  they  have  always  cherished  the  princi- 
ple of  republican  governn^ent — the  only  civil- 
ized institution  that  has  ever  secured  freedom 
to  man. 


\ 


A.  D.  1846.] 


THIRD  DIVISION. 


465 


"  Resolved,  That  this  house  receive  with 
due  consideration  and  attention  any  commu- 
nication that  may  be  forwarded  from  that 
^^„^igh-minded  and  liberty-loving  people  with  a 
view  to  eflFect  such  an  object." 

Here  our  narrative  rests.  What  "  action" 
may  be  taken  on  these  resolutions  by  the 
friends  of  freedom  remains  to  be  seen.  Daniel 
O'Connell  has  said  and  written  that — "  No 
honest  man  ever  despaired  of  his  country  !" 
We  add — "  Nitor  in  adversurrC 


5 


-^        CONFIRMATORY  APPENDIX. 
1829  TO  1846. 

"  Ireland  is  the  most  deplorable  instance 
of  modern  history,  that  a  great  and  noble 
people  may,  for  centuries  together,  be  in- 
volved in  the  same  inmstice  and  infatuation — 
and  all  the  highly-jflBped /orms  of  jj|g  con- 
stitution be  paralyzedby  the  force  c^^fesion 
and  prejudice.  King,  lords,  and  commons, 
have,  alternately  or  simultaneously,  wronged 
Ireland.  How  should  order,  humanity,  mild- 
ness, and  obedience  to  the  laws,  proceed 
from  such  education?" — Von  Raumer's  ting- 
land  in  1835. 

"  The  history  of  the  world  presents  nothing 
to  equal  the  Irish  penal  code  against  the 
Catholics,  for  comprehension  and  for  vigour. 
Yet  the  population  of  Ireland  increased  in 
wealth,  and  in  numbers,  to  a  degree  that  ren- 
dered the  further  continuance  of  that  system 
impossible.  The  pride  an^the  natural  feel- 
ings of  the  landed  gentry,  wno  were  the  first 
depositaries  of  this  force,  directed  it  to  the 
attainment  of  an  "Independent  parliament. 
That  parliament,  for  its  own  purposes,  broke 
through  the  coarser  links  of  the  chain  of 
Catholic  oppression.  Catholics  obtained 
wealth,  and  were  aAaditted  to  the  possession 
of  land.  Land  bro^^t  power  to  its  possess- 
ors ;  commerce  (snatched  from  the  grasp  of 
English  monopoly)  still  further  strengt^aed 
the  Catholic  subject.  ThAiation  has^las, 
in  an  inconceivably  short  time,  increased 
from  three  to  eight  millions,  while  inability 
after  inability  has  been  removed  from  the 

69 


Catholics,  in  deference  to  the  growing  im- 
portance of  the  people.  Every  step  in  this 
progress  was  the  consequence  of  that  which 
preceded  it,  and  the  whole  leads  with  an  . 
overwhelming  force  to  its  practical  con- 
clusion. It  is  disagreeable  to  resign  ac- 
quired supremacy  ;  it  is  painful  to  be  driven 
to  a  conclusion  hostile  to  our  presumed  in- 
terests ;  but  the  past  is  the  best  warrant  for 
the  future  ;  and  the  hopelessness  of  a  con- 
tinued struggle  against  what  man  cannot 
PREVENT,  must  become  eventually  evident  to 
all  those  to  whom  history  is  any  thing  better 
than  an  old  almanac." — London  Atheneeum, 
May,  1841. 

"  The  pope  was  in  the  custom  of  giving 
away  not  only  all  bzirbarous  countries,  with 
their  inhabitants,  but  at  times,  civilized  coun- 
tries too.  He  dethroned  sovereigns,  laid 
their  kingdoms  under  an  interdict,  and  ex- 
communicated them ;  and  all  this  was  sub- 
mitted to.  And  the  government  of  Great 
Britain  at  this  day  holds  Ireland  by  no  other 
title.  Three  hundred  years  before  the  grant 
of  America  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  Pope 
Adrian  gave  Ireland  to  Henry  the  Second, 
of  England;  and  England  holds  the  island 
under  that  title  now,  unless,  indeed,  she  sets 
up  another  title  by  conquest ;  but  Ireland,  if 
in  form  conquered,  has  been  in  almost  per- 
petual rebellion  ever  since.  England  has 
been  obliged  to  reconquer  her  some  half  doz- 
en times,  and  if  she  means  to  do  it  again  now, 
SHE  MUST  BEGIN  SOON.  The  qucstiou  has 
been  raised  whether  Ireland  shall  be  inde- 
pendent, and  if  we  get  into  a  war  it  will  be  a 
pretty  serious  matter  for  England  t^^ain- 
tain  her  title." — J.  Q.  Adams  ;  Addressing 
the  American  House  of  Representatives, 
1845-6.  _         -—  'v 

"  Look  at  the  wars  that  are  now  actually  ^^M 
raging  in  the  different  parts  of.  the  earth ;  ^* 
wars  which  have  no  excuse ;  that  are  not 
dignified  even  by  a  decent  ambition,  or  a  re- 
spectable thirst  for  glory ;  wars  commenced 
from  the  meanest  motives ;  prosecuted  by 
the  most  inglorious  means.  In  Algeria,  the 
power  of  enlightened  France  is  put  forth  in 
the  vain  endeavour  to  butcher  into  submission 
»  people  whose  ancestors  successfully  re- 


466 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1846. 


sisted  Carthage  and  Rome,  ages  before  the 
egg  was  laid  from  which  was  hatched  the 
Gallic  cock,  and  who  succumbed  not  to  the 
Vandals  of  the  north  or  the  Saracens  of  the 
east.     In  the  Euxine,  the  black  bear  of  Rus- 
sia is  growling,  with  his  claws  on  Circassia, 
and  slowly  wading  in  blood  up  the  slopes 
of  Caucasus,  marking  as  he  goes  each  fair 
valley  and  broad  plain  with  the  carcasses  of 
a  people  whose  fathers  crouched  not  before 
the   triumphal   chariot    of    Sesostris ;    who 
laughed  to  scorn  the  efforts  of  the  Caesars, 
and  from  whom  obedience  never  could  be 
enforced,  even  in  the  mightiest  days  of  the 
Turk.     And  what  do  we  see  in  the  extreme 
east  ?     Swarms   of  red-coated   vermin,   the 
spawn  of  that  canting  hypocrite  of  the  Isles, 
whose  bullies  have  deflowered  more  nations 
than  the  legions  of  imperial  Rome — do  we 
not  see  them  threading  the   passes   of  the 
Hymmalayah,  bridging  the  Indus  on  the  one 
side,  and  the  Ganges,  ay,  even  the  Berum- 
pooter  on   the    other,   murdering  Arabs   at 
Aden,    hunting   Kaffirs   and    Bushmen    and 
other  poor  beings  over  the  flowery  karoos  of 
South  Africa,  baptizing  in  their  own  blood 
-  "  the  godless  nations  of  the  Bay  of  Islands,  or 
^      stuffing  opium  pills  on  the  point  of  a  bayonet 
1^  down  the  throat  of  the  Brother  of  the  Sun 
^^^  and   Moon !     Talk  about   Christianity  and 
^^B  civilization,  and  enlightened  public  opinion  !" 
B^iV.  Y.  Tracts  for  the  Times,  1846. 
W^         "  But  there  is  one  man  in  Great  Britain 
who  has  done  and  is  doing  more  for  humanity 
than  Brougham  ;  one  who  has  never  tripped, 
halted,  varied,  or  shifted  his  course  ;  who  has 
made  more  public  speeches  than  any  man 
now  living,  and  always  spoken  like  a  repub- 
lican ;  who  abhors   oppression  with  all  his 
heart ;  who  has  been  hated,  courted,  feared, 
(but  never  despised,)  by  every  party ;  a  man 
who  has  been  a  target  for  all  Britain  to  shoot 
at  for  a  whole  generation  ;  who  has  come 
victorious  from  every  conflict,  even  when  he 
has  been  beaten ;  who  has  never  betrayed 
his  principles ;  who  is  eternally,  and  with  a 
zeal  that  never  grows  cold,  demanding  jus- 
tice for  all  the  subjects  of  the  British  empire  ; 
a  man  that  now  stands  higher  in  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen,  and  in  the  opinion  of  the 


world,  than  ever — Daniel   O'Connell." — C. 
£.  Lester. 

"Mr.  O'Connell,  with  all  his  talents  for 
excitation,  would  have  been  utterly  powerless 
and  incapable,  unless  he  had  been  allied  with 
a  great  conspirator  against  the  public  peace  ; 
and  I  will  tell  you  who  that  confederate  is  ;  it 
is  the  law  of  the  land  itself  that  has  been  his 
main  associate,  and  that  ought  to  be  de- 
nounced as  the  mighty  agitator  of  Ireland. 
The  rod  of  oppression  is  the  wand  of  this 
potent  enchanter  of  the  passions,  and  the 
book  of  his  spells  is  the  penal  code.  Break 
the  wand  of  this  political  Prospero,  and  take 
from  him  the  volume  of  his  magic,  and  he 
will  evoke  the  spirits  which  are  now  under 
his  control  no  longer." — R.  L.  Sheil. 

"Will  the  clergy  deny  that  the  men 
whom  they  employ  are  ruffians,  who  must 
cheat  the  parson  or  plunder  the  poor;  and 
that  the  clerical  remedy  against  connivance 
is,  to  make  the  poor  pay  a  premium  for  the 
increase  of  the  plunder  and  exaction  of  which 
they  themselves  are  the  objects  ?  •  •  *  • 
The  tithe  rises  on  the  poor,  and  falls  in  com- 
pliment to  the  rich.  It  proceeds  on  prin- 
ciples the  REVERSE  of  the  gospel ;  it  crouches 
to  the  strong  and  oppresses  the  feeble,  and  is 
guided  by  the  two  worst  principles  in  society 
— servility  and  avarice — united  against  the 
cause  of  charily,  and  all  under  the  cloak  of 
religion." — Grattan  the  Illustrious. 

"  The  tithe-farmers  make  the  composition 
of  the  Protestant  gentleman  very  light,  while 
the  poor  Catholic  is  made  to  pay  for  the  de- 
ficiency of  his  betters." — A.  Young. 

"  Thus  these,  and  all  the  ascending  grades, 
weave  their  flimsy  webs  of  exclusiveness  ; 
one  and  all  esteeming  nothing  so  derogatory 
as  to  have  it  imagined  that  they  can  have 
any  connection  with,  much  less  dependence 
upon,  *  the  poor  :'  and  this  is  the  vile  squeak- 
ing called  social  harmony.  This  is  that 
chorus  of  the  mock  sublime  which  has  no 
bass  to  it ;  and  it  is  an  offering  worthy  of 
that  derision  to  which  it  is  everlastingly  dedi- 
cated."— T.  Dolby. 

"  Aristarchus,  heretofore,  could  scarcely 
find  seven  wise  men  in  Greece  ;  but,  with  us, 
scarcely  are  to  be  found  so  many  idiots,  for 


A.  D.  1849.] 


THIRD    DIVISION. 


467 


all  are  doctors,  all  divinely  learned.  There 
is  not  so  much  as  the  meanest  Jack-Pudding 
who  does  not  give  you  his  own  dreams  for 
the  word  of  God.  For  the  bottomless  pit 
seems  to  have  been  set  open,  from  which  a 
smoke  has  arisen  which  has  darkened  the 
heavens  and  the  stars,  and  locusts  are  come 
out  with  stings,  a  numerous  race  of  sectaries 
and  heretics,  who  have  renewed  all  the  an- 
cient heresies  and  invented  many  monstrous 
opinions  of  their  own.  These  have  filled  our 
cities,  villages,  camps,  houses,  nay,  our 
churches  and  pulpits,  too,  and  lead  the  poor 
deluded  people  with  them  into  the  pit  of  per- 
dition."— H.  Wharton  ;  Pre/,  to  Polyglot. 

"  If  you  recollect  that  we  are  now  in  Prot- 
estant Germany,  you  will  be  astonished  at 
the  laxity  of  the  Sabbath.  The  German  re- 
formers never,  I  believe,  undertook  to  reform 
the  continental  Sabbath.  They  probably  un- 
derstood too  well  the  inflexible  nature  of  na- 
tional customs,  and  how  much  more  difficult 
it  is  to  remodel  them  than  to  recast  faith. 
We  are  accustomed  to  talk  of  '  the  horrors 
of  a  continental  Sabbath,'  and  are  naturally 
shocked  with  an  aspect  of  things  so  different 
from  our  own.  But,  when  I  remember  the 
dozing  congregations  I  have  seen,  the  do- 
mestics stretched  half  the  heavy  day  in  bed, 
the  young  people  sitting  by  the  half-closed 
blind,  stealing  longing  looks  out  of  the  win- 
dow, while  the  Bible  was  lying  idle  on  their 
laps  ;  and  the  merry  shouts  of  the  children 
at  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  as  if  an  enemy 
had  disappeared, — it  does  not  seem  to  me 
that  we  can  say  to  the  poor,  ignorant,  toil- 
worn  peasant  of  Europe,  '  I  am  holier  than 
thou  !' " — Sedgwick's  Letters  from  Abroad 
to  Kindred  at  Home. 

"Formerly  it  was  the  fashion  to  preach 
the  natural,  now  it  is  the  ideal.  People,  too, 
often  forget  that  these  things  are  profoundly 
compatible  ;  that  in  a  beautiful  work  of  im- 
agination the  natural  should  be  ideal,  and  the 
ideal  natural." — Schlegel,  (A.  W.) 

"  There  are  ideal  trains  of  events  which 
run  parallel  with  the  real  ones.  Seldom  do 
they  coincide.  Men  and  accidents  commonly 
modify  every  ideal  event  or  train  of  events, 
so  that  it  appears  imperfect.     Thus  it  was 


with  the  Reformation ;  instead  of  Protest- 
antism arose  Lutheranism." — Novalis. 

"  I  dislike  all  people  who  desire  to  found 
sects.  It  is  not  error,  but  sectarian  error — 
nay,  and  even  sectarian  truth — which  causes 
the  unhappiness  of  mankind." — Lessing. 

"  It  is  only  necessary  to  grow  old  to  be- 
come more  indulgent.  I  see  no  fault  com- 
mitted that  I  have  not  committed  myself." — 
Goethe. 

"  The  last,  best  fruit,  which  usually  ar- 
rives with  late  perfection,  even  in  the  most 
kindly  souls,  is  tenderness  towards  the  hard, 
forbearance  towards  the  unforbearing,  warmth 
of  heart  towards  the  cold,  philanthropy  to- 
wards the  misanthropic." — J.  P.  Richter. 

"  Arrogance  and  injustice,  (when  associa- 
ted with  power,)  never  listen  to  reason  or 
remonstrance  as  long  as  the  power  lasts." — 
Cobbett. 

"  Let  us  then,  in  uniting  our  voices  with 
those  of  our  brethren  throughout  our  widely- 
extended  land,  demanding  that  you  who,  like 
other  men,  are  endowed  by  Heaven  with  in- 
alienable rights,  may  enjoy  with  us  the  bless- 
ings of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  entreat  you, 
by  every  consideration  which  can  influence 
human  action — by  and  in  the  name  of  that 
Liberty  which  we  invoke  for  you  in  our 
common  prayer — to  pursue  faithfully  to  the 
end  the  precepts  inculcated  by  your  fearles 
and  patriotic  Liberator — ^by  peaceably  de 
manding  justice  at  the  hands  of  man,  while 
raising  '  invocations  to  the  living  God  ;'  and 
Ireland — devoted,  persecuted,  down-trodden 
Ireland — Ireland  shall  be  free." — D.  S. 
Dickinson  ;  Address  of  Albany  Repealers 
to  the  People  of  Ireland,  Jan.  3,  1844. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 
EXPRESSION   OF  -SYMPATHY, 

FOR  conscientious  CURATES. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  readers  of  this  work 
will  not  understand  the  language  which  his- 
tory compels  us  to  employ  (when  speaking 
of  the  state-church  of  England)  as  being  in 


468 


HISTORY  OF  IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1840. 


tended  to  injure  or  depreciate  any  individual 
whatever.  On  the  contrary,  we  have  seen 
abundant  evidence  that  the  really  deserving 
curates  of  Ireland  challenge  the  sympathy  of 
all  those  hearts  which  are  illuminated  with 
Christian  charity.  The  following  communi- 
cation, from  a  Dublin  "  Churchwarden"  to 
the  London  "  New  Monthly,"  thus  explains 
the  social  position  of  the  established  clergy 
in  1833.  We  wish  we  could  say  that  it  had 
been  improved  in  1846  : — 

"  It  has  been  stated,  that  the  total  expense 
of  the  established  church  in  Ireland  was 
about  2,239,000Z.  per  annum,  and  this  is  not 
overrated.  It  might  have  been  further  added, 
that  this  enormous  sum  is  paid  for  the  spirit- 
ual instruction  of  about  500,000  persons  who 
frequent  that  particular  service  :  and  so,  com- 
paring the  income  of  the  pastors  with  the 
number  of  the  flock,  it  is  the  richest  church 
that  not  only  now  is,  but  that  ever  was  in  the 
world. 

"Were  this  large  sum  allocated  in  any 
fair  or  reasonable  proportions  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  clergy,  so  that  every  one  who 
ministered  to  others  in  spirituals  should  have 
a  competent  share  of  temporal  things,  it 
might  serve  to  abate  the  public  clamour 
against  this  immense  and,  as  it  appears  to 
them,  unnecessary  expenditure ;  but  when 
they  see  it  accumulated  in  heaps,  and  mo- 
opolized  by  the  indolent  few,  while  the  ac- 
tive, laborious,  and  efficient  members  are 
abandoned  to  absolute  want ;  when  they  see 
the  dignitaries  like  large  wens  on  the  hu- 
man body,  with  the  limbs  that  support  it 
feeble  and  emaciated,  while  the  whole  nutri- 
ment is  absorbed  by  a  few  unsightly  and 
morbid  excrescences, — they  consider  it  not 
only  a  useless  waste,  but  a  scandalous  abuse  ; 
and  it  is  one  of  the  principal  causes  which 
increases  the  sectarian  congregations  by  the 
secession  of  Protestants  from  the  establish- 
ment who  first  disapprove  of,  and  then  desert, 
what  they  call  a  worldly,  mercenary,  and 
unchristian  system  of  worship. 

"  In  order  that  this  opinion  of  the  public 
may  be  fairly  appreciated,  let  us  see  what 
grounds  there  are  for  it.  There  are  in  Ire- 
land about  three  thousand  clergymen  of  the 


church  of  England.  Of  these  two-thirds 
have  no  benefice  of  their  own,  but  officiate 
for  others  as  their  curates  or  deputies. 
They  are  men  who  have  all,  or  with,  very 
few  exceptions,  graduated  in  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.  Their  education  in  a  university 
more  strict  than  those  of  England  procures 
them  a  literary  reputation  to  which  they  are 
well  entitled  ;  the  certificates  of  grave  and 
reverend  men,  who  have  known  their  de- 
portment for  some  years  before  ordination, 
is  a  pledge  of  their  moral  worth  ;  and  the 
severe  examination  they  must  undergo  by 
the  archdeacon  of  the  diocese  renders  it  next 
to  impossible  that  they  can  be  other  than 
men  of  religious  knowledge.  They  are, 
moreover,  gentlemen  in  rank  and  deport- 
ment, and  their  general  conduct  is  such,  that 
there  is  no  class  of  persons  more  esteemed, 
and  justly  esteemed,  in  the  community. 
When  appointed  to  a  duty,  they  are  never 
absent  from  the  spot,  but  always  to  be  found 
in  active  service  on  their  cure,  officiating  in 
church,  baptizing  infants,  catechising  chil- 
dren, visiting  the  sick,  burying  the  dead,  in 
fact  performing  all  the  necessary  functions, 
and  so  supporting  all  the  real  interests  of 
the  established  church.  Yet  what  is  their 
reward  out  of  the  expenditure  of  more  than 
two  millions  of  the  public  money  ?  Their 
stipend,  till  of  late  years,  was  601.  and  un- 
der. A  trifling  amelioration  of  their  condi- 
tion then  took  place,  and  it  was  fixed  at  75/., 
as  an  important  favour,  at  the  very  time  when 
I  the  salary  of  the  lowest  clerk  in  the  custom- 
house of  Dublin,  down  to  the  seventeenth 
grade,  was  raised  to  80/.  with  an  arrange- 
ment for  a  gradual  increase.  Even  this 
paltry  addition  of  15/.  was  not  mandatory, 
and  at  this  day  some  laborious  curates  are 
obliged  to  work  for  50Z.  and  60/.  Supposing, 
however,  the  whole  to  have  been  75/.,  their 
case  will  stand  thus  : — 

Expenditure  of  the  established  church  for  one 

year,  2,239,000Z. 

Stipend  of  2000  curates  at  75Z.  each,  150,000/. 

"  Thus  it  appears  that,  out  of  this  enor- 
mous sum  paid  by  the  country  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Church,  the  active,  serviceable 
clergy,  who  do  all  the  real  duties,  receive  no 
more  than  one  fifteenth  part ! 


A.  D.  1846.] 


THIRD  DIVISION. 


4«9 


"  It  further  appears  that  the  following  in- 
come is  divided  among  the  beneficed  clergy, 
the  majority  of  whom  are  pluralists,  and  hold 
two  and  three  benefices  at  a  time,  so  that  the 
actual  number  of  individuals  who  share  this 
income  does  not  amount  to  one  thousand  : — 

Tithes  of  2436  parishes,      .     .       £880,000 

Glebes, 120,000 

Rent  in  houses, 48,000 

Churchyards, 102,000 

Marriage  and  other  fees,      .     .     .       12,000 
Ministers'  money,  Dubhn,   .     .     .       10,000 

Income  of  1000  beneficed  clergy,  £1,262,000 
Ditto  of  2000  curates,     ....     150,000 

"The  curate,  who  is  bound  to  the  soil, 
and  cannot  hold,  because  he  cannot  do  the 
duty  of,  more  than  one  cure,  thus  receives  no 
more  than  one-sixteenth  part  of  his  rector's 
income,  who,  being  usually  a  pluralist,  is 
necessarily  a  non-resident  on  one  or  more  of 
his  livings,  and  so  does  no  part  at  all  of  the 
duty. 

"Finally,  there  are  twenty-two*  bishops 
whose  income  is  as  follows  : — 

Income  of  22  bishoprics  in  rent 

and  fines  ....:..  £222,000 
Income  of  2000  curates    .     .     .        150,000 

"  Thus  it  appears  that  twenty-two  persons, 
who  are  known  to  do  comparatively  nothing, 
receive  more  than  one-and-a-half  as  much 
as  the  whole  two  thousand  effective  and 
operative  members  of  the  church.  In  order 
that  the  operation  of  this  system  may  be 
justly  appreciated,  I  will  take  an  individual 
case  out  of  the  multitude,  because  it  has 
been  recently  made  a  scene  of  public  no- 
tice. The  living  of  Finglas,  in  the  vicinity 
of  Dublin,  consists  of  a  union  of  four  parish- 
es, on  all  of  which  there  were  formerly  places 
of  worship,  as  is  evident  by  the  existing  ru- 
ins ;  but  at  present  there  is  but  one  church 
which  has  three  clergymen  nominally  at- 
tached to  it, — a  rector,  a  vicar,  and  a  curate. 
•  *  *  [We  omit  the  names.]  •  •  •  The 
rector  never  goes  near  the  parish,  except  to 
collect  his  tithes  ;  he  performs  no  duty,  never 
officiated  in  the  church  in  his  life,  and,  such 
is  the  state  of  things,  that  it  is  not  even  ex- 

*  Our  Correspondent  wrote  before  the  Irish  Church 
Reform  Bill  had  passed. — Ed.  N.  M.  Maq 


pected  that  he  would.  The  vicar  has  other 
engagements,  so  numerous  that  he,  of  course, 
is  seldom  present.  The  curate  is  never  ab- 
sent, resides  near  the  church,  and  attends 
alone  to  the  duties  of  four  extensive  parishes, 
and  this  is  the  division  of  the  income  : — 

Rector,  who  never  attends,  .  £1400  per  an. 
Vicar,  who  has  other  duties,  .  800  per  an. 
Curate,  who  is  never  absent,   .       75  per  an. 

"  It  would  be  a  waste  of  time  to  multiply 
instances  of  this  kind,  when  four-fifths  of 
the  parishes  in  Ireland  are  similarly  situa- 
ted." •  *  •  ♦ 

[The  honest  churchwarden  here  gives  the 
names  and  particulars,  relating  several  affect- 
ing examples.] 

"  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  there  are 
means  to  which  unbeneficed  clergymen  may 
resort,  and  add  to  their  limited  income  by 
useful  and  appropriate  employment.  This 
has  been  done  heretofore  ;  and  many  excel- 
lent schools  and  seminaries  were  kept  by 
Dublin  curates  highly  beneficial  to  the 
parishes  in  which  they  resided.  It  appears, 
however,  that  his  grace  the  late  archbishop 
had  thought  that  this  employment  of  leisure 
hours  might  interfere  with  parochial  duties, 
and  so  it  was  notified  to  every  teacher  in 
the  diocese  that  he  must  give  up  either  his 
curacy  or  his  school."         ♦         *         * 

[Here  follow  several  statements  illustrative 
of  this  unjust  treatment  of  curates.] 

"  That  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  com- 
plete the  series  of  injustice  which  a  Dublin 
curate  has  to  complain  of,  the  injury  does 
not  cease  with  the  dead,  but  seems  to  be 
visited,  as  it  were,  on  the  surviving  families 
of  those  devoted  men.  In  almost  every  other 
department,  provision  is  made  for  the  widow 
of  a  pubUc  servant  whose  income  dies  wiUi 
him,  and  she  has  either  some  house  or  asy- 
lum provided  for  her,  or  the  means  of  pro- 
curing it ;  but  there  is  no  such  thing  for  the 
widow  of  an  Irish  curate  :  indeed  it  was 
naturally  supposed  that  the  immense  reve- 
nues of  the  church  would  be  sufficient  for 
every  such  purpose,  and  that  its  guardians 
would  take  care  that  a  competent  part  of  it 
should  be  so  applied.  In  the  diocese  of 
Dublin  there  are  about  70  unbeneficed  cler- 


470 


HISTORY    OF    IRELAND 


[A.  D.  1846. 


gymen.  The  repeal  of  the  ecclesiastical  law 
enjoining  celibacy,  being  one  of  the  supposed 
great  improvements  of  the  Reformation,  the 
curates  think  they  are  not  only  permitted,  but 
enjoined  to  marry,  and  so  they  do,  unwarily 
entangle  themselves  with  a  family  they  are 
not  allowed  the  means  of  providing  for,  die  in 
indigence,  and  leave  the  survivers  in  deep 
distress.  •  •  • 

"  Thus  then  with  a  revenue  exceeding  two 
millions  per  annum,  adequate,  and  more  than 
adequate,  to  all  the  wants  which  an  establish- 
ment could  feel,  the  most  numerous  and  re- 
spectable part, — because  its  real  and  efficient 
strength, — is  left  in  extreme  indigence  while 
they  live,  and  their  families  denied  the  com- 
mon protection  of  a  pauper  asylum  when 
they  die. 

"  But  it  may  be  said  that  the  church  in 
England  is  chargeable  with  the  same  in- 
equality in  its  remuneration  of  services,  and 
that  of  Ireland  has  no  exclusive  right  to  com- 
plain. This  is  very  true  ;  yet  it  does  not  at 
all  lessen  the  grievance  because  another  is 
equally  afflicted  with  it.  But  besides  this, 
there  is'  an  infinite  difference  in  many  re- 
spects in  the  state  of  both  ecclesiastical  es- 
tablishments. That  of  England  is  the  re- 
ligion of  the  people ;  it  has  grown  up  with 
their  habits  and  is  interwoven  with  all  their 
feelings  ;  and  if  any  part  of  their  pastors  re- 
ceive too  large  a  remuneration,  they  have  at 
least  a  numerous  flock  to  attend  to,  and  an 
apparent  duty  as  extensive  as  their  income. 
Besides,  the  character  of  their  dignitaries  is 
of  that  high  tone,  that  it  ensures  veneration 
and  respect ;  and,  except  in  the  collision  of 
politics,  they  never  commit  it,  nor  is  there 
any  other  standing  beside  it  to  lessen  it  by 
invidious  contrast.  In  the  church  of  Ireland, 
there  have  been  also  many  excellent  and 
learned  men  of  exalted  rank,  and  there  are 
some  now  who  would  do  honour  to  any  pro- 
fession ;  but,  unfortunately,  there  have  been 
others  who  do  not  stand  so  high  in  public 
opinion,  who  have  devoted  their  whole  atten- 
tion to  the  acquisition  of  wealth,  and  stamped 
upon  the  church  that  mercenary  character 
which  its  enemies  delight  to  attach  to  it ;  and 
whose  immense  accumulation  formed    not 


only  a  strong  contrast  with  the  poverty  of 
their  own  humble  curates,  but  with  persons 
of  correspondent  standing  with  themselves  in 
other  persuasions.  As  it  is  not  safe  to  med- 
dle with  the  living,  we  will  advert  to  those 
that  are  gone,  as  mere  matter  of  historical 
record. 

"The  Rev.  Dr.  Moody, the  Rev.  Dr.  Troy, 
and  his  grace  the  Rev.  Dr.  Eager,  were 
lately  the  contemporary  heads  of  the  Pres- 
byterian, the  Catholic,  and  the  Protestant 
Church  in  Dublin,  and  for  many  years  were 
well  and  personally  known  to  every  inhabit- 
ant in  the  city.  Dr.  Moody  was  a  tall,  thin 
man,  with  long  gray  hair.  He  had  an  in- 
come of  about  AOOl.  per  ann.,  on  which  he 
lived  in  a  plain,  hospitable  manner,  and  had 
besides  something  for  acts  of  kindness  and 
charity.  He  was  never  absent  from  his 
duties  in  his  church,  or  among  his  congre- 
gation. All  his  leisure  hours  were  devoted 
to  literary  labours  connected  with  his  sacred 
profession ;  and  he  was  not  less  distinguished 
as  an  author  than  as  a  pastor.  After  a  most 
useful  life  of  80  years  he  was  called  away, 
leaving  behind  him  nothing  but  his  writings, 
and  the  memory  of  his  good  works,  which  is 
still  cherished  by  people  of  every  persuasion. 

"  The  Rev.  Dr.  Troy  was  a  short,  fat  man, 
of  an  exceedingly  kind  disposition,  and  an* 
active  and  useful  clergyman.  Without  com- 
promising the  interest  of  the  church  over 
which  he  presided,  he  was  distinguished  by 
his  attachment  to  the  government  of  the 
country  ;  and  his  various  addresses  and  ex- 
hortations to  his  flock,  in  times  of  peril  and 
commotion,  are  a  proof  of  his  zeal  and  utility 
at  a  trying  period.  The  whole  income  of 
this  archbishop,  who  presided  over  the  spirit- 
ual concerns  of  five  milhons  of  people,  did 
not  exceed  800Z.  per  ann.,  the  voluntary  con- 
tributions of  his  flock,  and  this  sum  he  im- 
mediately returned  to  those  who  gave  it.  He 
was  never  known  to  have  a  shilling  in  his 
pocket ;  he  was  so  liberal  to  others  and  so 
careless  of  himself,  that  he  would  have  want- 
ed common  necessaries  if  his  friends  did  not 
take  care  of  him ;  and  when  he  died,  at  the 
age  of  85,  it  was  well  known  that  he  did  not 
leave  enough  to  bury  him. 


A.  D.  1846.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


471 


"  Of  Dr.  Eager's  services  to  his  church 
I  am  unable  to  speak,  not  being  acquainted 
with  them.  I  know,  however,  that  he  was 
neither  so  tall  as  Dr.  Moody,  nor  so  fat  as 
Dr.  Troy,  nor  so  liberal  or  charitable  as 
either  of  them.  He  had  an  income  of  about 
12,000/.  per  ann.,  which  he  endeavoured  to 
increase  by  every  allowable  means.  He 
sold  the  venerable  archiepiscopal  residence 
in  Kevin-street  to  government  for  7000Z., 
and  the  Bishop's  Palace  is  now  a  soldier's 
barracks.  But  there  was  one  expedient  for 
increasing  his  income  which  the  curates  of 
his  diocese,  at  least,  will  never  forget-  It 
was  once  upon  a  lime  a  practice  in  the 
church,  as  the  curate  of  our  parish  tells  me, 
for  bishops,  as  S'jrio'xowoi,  or  overseers,  to 
visit  their  clergy  in  person,  and  inspect  their 
parishes ;  on  which  occasion  certain  among 
the  clergy  were  appointed  procuratores  to 
provide  a  suitable  dinner  for  the  bishop  when 
he  came.  But  when  prelates  fell  into  that 
love  of  ease  which  too  much  wealth  naturally 
brings  with  it,  instead  of  visiting  their  clergy, 
they  enjoined  their  clergy  to  visit  them  ;  and 
as  they  came  from  different  distances  to  a 
strange  place,  the  bishop  always  provided  for 
them  the  same  kind  of  dinner  which  they 
were  accustomed  to  provide  for  him.  But  in 
order  that  this  should  be  attended  with  no 
expense  to  the  prelate,  they  were  still  obhged 
to  pay  for  it  under  the  form  of  fees,  called,  in 
their  visitation  ticket,  proxies  (quasi  procura- 
tores) and  exhibits,  which  every  clergyman 
is  obliged  to  pay  when  he  visits  his  bishop 
on  this  occasion.  During  the  prelacy  of  Dr. 
E.  the  dinner  was  omitted,  though  the  prox- 
ies or  price  of  it  was  regularly  exacted  ! 
This  was  really  a  severe  privation  to  the 
curates,  some  of  whom  looked  forward  to 
the  periodical  enjoyment  of  a  good  dinner, 
wine,  and  the  society  of  friends,  as  indulgen- 
cies  which  their  own  scanty  means  never 
allowed.  Many  of  them  came  from  distant 
parts  of  the  country,  and  had  no  friends  in 
the  metropolis  who  would  give  them  a  din- 
ner. On  this  occasion  the  worthy  curate  of 
our  parish  always  sent  out  into  the  highways 
to  collect  stragglers.  He  could  not  well 
afford  it,  but  he  could  not  see  his  brethren 


hungry  in  the  streets  while  he  could  procure 
any  thing  to  give  them  to  eat.  Dr.  Eager 
died,  like  his  contemporaries,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  80,  but  left  behind  him  rather  more 
money :  his  property  sworn  to,  I  think, 
amounted  to  200,000/. 

"  It  is  to  this  mercenary  character  of  the 
church  here,  to  which  the  conduct  of  some 
of  its  dignitaries  gives  too  much  cause,  that 
is  to  be  attributed  much  of  that  disrepute  into 
which  it  has  fallen,  and  from  which  all  the 
excellence  of  its  pure  and  tolerant  doctrines, 
and  apostolic  and  becoming  discipline,  can- 
not rescue  it ;  for  that  it  has  fallen,  and  is 
falling,  in  public  estimation,  its  real  friends  at 
once  admit  and  deplore.  In  fact,  what  part 
of  the  community  have  any  feeling  of  interest 
or  sympathy  in  its  prosperity,  out  of  the  seven 
millions  of  people  among  whom  it  is  estab- 
lished ?  Five  millions  of  Catholics  hate  it  as 
a  usurpation  on  their  own,  refuse  to  pay  its 
tithes,  and  loudly  complain  of  the  misappli- 
cation of  those  immense  funds,  which  they 
say  were  much  more  equally  and  usefully 
applied  by  themselves.  One  million  of  Dis- 
senters profess  to  despise  it  as  a  mere  worldly 
establishment,  whose  ministers,  they  say, 
sacrifice  not  to  God  but  to  mammon.  Even 
the  half  million  of  its  own  members  think  of 
it  without  affection  and  talk  of  it  without 
respect ;  while  two-thirds  of  the  ministers 
who  officiate  within  its  walls  have  reason  to 
repine  at  its  injustice,  and  to  wish  that  their 
lot  had  been  cast  in  any  other  estabhsh- 
ment." 

Surely  there  must  be  some  cure  for  such 
monstrous  social  evils.  We  beg  leave  to 
suggest  the  voluntary  principle.  Every  read- 
er has  a  public  voice,  which  may  be  effect- 
ively employed  in  the  cause  of  civil  arj^.^- 
hgious  liberty. 


CHAPTER    IX. 
DIGRESSION    OF    ADVICE, 

TO  RAMBLING  READERS. 

According  to  the   present    fashionable 
styles  in  literature  and  the  drama,  any  "  ta- 


473 


HISTORY   OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1846. 


king"  production  without  a  pair  of  lovers,  a 
poor  simpleton,  a  licentious  priest,  or  a  blun- 
dering Irishman,  would  be  incomplete.  All 
such  unmanly  and  unjust  libels  on  human 
nature  should  be  counteracted  by  constant 
vigilance  in  the  minds  of  improvement-de- 
siring readers.  The  test  to  be  employed  in 
such  cases  is — to  pause  and  inquire  the  ob- 
ject of  the  writer ;  whether  it  is  to  flatter  the 
falsely  proud  or  to  befriend  the  truly  humble. 
That  is  the  grand  test  of  all  authorship  and 
public  service. 

The  earnest  and  amiable  author  of  "  Flo- 
reston"  makes  an  instructive  digression  on  this 
subject,  in  the  following  manner : — 

"  The  truth,  however  accurately  expressed, 
being  in  itself  a  thing  inert  and  ineffectual, 
and  being  indebted  therefore  to  belief  for  all 
its  activity  and  potency,  there  must  needs  be 
different  kinds  of  belief,  requiring  to  be  ap- 
pealed to  in  different  ways,  to  make  the  dif- 
ferent truths  effective.  Truth  is  swallowed 
up  in  accuracy ;  nearly  all  the  mere  search- 
ers after  it  having  stopped  short  at  the  dis- 
covery of  it.  This  is  not  written  to  discour- 
age inquiries  after  truth,  and  least  of  all  to 
recommend  fallacies  ;  but  to  show  that  works 
that  are  not  humanly,  as  well  as  scientifically 
true,  will  but  in  a  very  limited  degree  engage 
the  feelings,  and  promote  the  happiness  of 

ankind,  which  ought  to  be  the  primary  ob- 
ject of  all  science  and  authorship. 

"  It  is  possible,  therefore,  for  a  book  to  be 
scientifically  correct,  while,  humanly  and  so- 
cially speaking,  it  may  contain  many  errors  ; 
and  therefore  be  as  unnatural,  as  unlike  hu- 
man life,  and  of  no  more  use  to  it  than  an 
Italian  opera  :  and  it  was  probably  some  such 
conviction  as  this  that  had  flashed  upon  the 
mind  of  Bacon,  when,  at  the  close  of  his  in- 
viflttable  labours,  he  modestly  said,  he  had 
*  only  rung  a  bell  to  call  the  wits  together.' 

"  With  all  due  deference  to  the  learned, 
and  to  learning  be  it  spoken  : — the  wants  of 
Humanity  are  daily  becoming  far  more  ur- 
gent than  those  of  science ;  and  that  unless 
the  former  shall  be  more  adequately  provided 
for  than  they  appear  likely  to  be  at  present, 
tlie  growing  desire  for  scientific  distinction 
will  greatly  tend  to  widen  social  inequalities, 


until,  perhaps,  there  shall  be  only  one  sci- 
entific man  to  a  million  of  simple  ones  ;  and, 
finally,  there  shall  be  a  great  gulf  fixed  be- 
tween knowledge  and  happiness. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  for 
works  of  pure  fiction  to  be  humanly  true  ; 
and  this  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of 
what  should  he  the  standard  to  which  writers 
ought  to  submit  their  productions ;  for  ill- 
directed  sensibility  is  worse  than  boorish 
stupidity ;  and  because  there  are  shades  of 
difference  and  gradations  in  all  the  different 
departments  of  truth,  from  the  acme  of  per- 
fection to  downright  lying.  It  has  appeared, 
after  a  due  and  careful  consideration,  that 
writers,  even  of  acknowledged  fictions,  (who 
must  naturally  have  need  of  some  rules  to 
work  by  as  well  as  other  artificers,)  could 
not  desire  a  more  plausible,  reasonable,  nor 
equitable  groundwork  whereon  to  erect  the 
creations  of  their  fancy,  than  the  honour  and 
happiness  of  mankind  at  large ;  laying  their 
foundations  broadly  and  deeply  in  the  great 
primeval  masses,  on  which  must  any  sci- 
entific, literary,  or  social  superstructure  rest 
securely,  or  not  at  all. 

"  It  is  true  a  recourse  to  this  mode  of  au 
thorship,  and  to  this  way  of  measuring,  form- 
ing a  judgment  upon,  and  testing  literary 
productions,  might  sometimes  appear  to  cast 
an  occasional  slur  upon  polished  marble 
busts,  and  mural  entablatures  ;  a  column  or 
so  might  begin  to  totter  on  its  base  ;  a  title, 
once  in  a  century,  might  not  appear  *  right 
worshipful  on  shoulder-blade  ;'  and  some  fa- 
vourable reviews  would  appear,  perhaps,  to 
have  been  a  little  overdone. 

"  But  this  is  an  age  of  inquiry^  Where 
are  the  classes,  or  what  the  interests,  that 
can  feel  confident,  from  day  to  day,  that  their 
gamers  are  safe  !  Who  can  be  sure  that  the 
insidious  enemy  is  not  boring  through  his 
castle-walls  ?  that  the  bane  is  not,  even  now, 
in  his  private  chambers  ?  that  the  worm  of 
inquiry  is  not  already  eating  up  the  covenant, 
the  indenture,  the  very  bond  and  seal  of  his 
vested  rights  ? 

"  Only  see,  for  instance,  how  valorously 
the  knights  have  pressed  forward  to  shiver  a 
lance  with  misery,  and  the  cry  is  still,  *  They 


A.  D.  1846.] 


THIRD   DIVISION, 


473 


come !'  How  mendicity  has  been  cut  up  ! 
How  the  *  back  slums,'  and  the  underground 
abodes  of  wretchedness  are  periodically  ex- 
plored ;  and  all  the  gluttony,  midnight  orgies, 
and  the  profligacy  of  mendicity  are  brought 
to  light,  and  proclaimed  in  the  high  places,  to 
prevent  the  milk  of  our  human  kindness  from 
continuing  to  be  poured  out  to  waste  !    Will 

*  a  generous  pubhc'  never  be  convinced  of  its 
amiable  weaknesses,  and  stay  its  too  bounti- 
ful hand  ? 

"But  our  magnanimity  exceeds,  if  pos- 
sible, our  munificence  ;  for  see  how  patient- 
ly we  submit  to  be  told  of  our  misjudging 
tenderness !  Seventy  times  seven  have  we 
withstood  the  soft  impeachment,  and  the  beg- 
gars still  live  ;  they  are  still  allowed  to  hob- 
ble and  to  crawl  onward  towards  their  in- 
quests and  post  mortem  examinations,  on 
which  the  surgeons,  and  'most  respectable' 
juries  find  nobody  in  fault  but  God,  whose 

*  visitation'  removes  those  whom  the  consti- 
tuted authorities,  the  dispensers  of  our  bounty, 
and  the  depositaries  of  the  public  sympathy, 
had  so  tenderly  pressed  to  remain,  and  be  fed, 
instructed,  and  comforted  !  But  what  need 
have  we  now  of  more  inquiries  and  reports  ? 
Can  we  require  more  witnesses  against  the 
beggars  and  their  evil  ways,  than  the  prints 
of  their  own  naked  and  frostbitten  feet  ? 
Does  not  everybody  now  know  that  all 
wretchedness  is  imputable  to  the  wretched  ? 

"  Next  came  the  inquiry  into  pauperism. 
In  this  case  it  appeared  that  none  could  be 
so  well  qualified  to  enter  into  the  feelings  of 
our  rural  poor,  and  to  do  justice  to  their  va- 
rious good  and  evil  propensities,  their  wants 
and  errors,  as  London  barristers  and  book- 
makers. Forth  went  a  chosen  band  accord- 
ingly, both  to  inquire  and  compose  reports  ; 
and  never  did  lovers  shape  their  woful  bal- 
lads to  their  mistress's  eyebrows  with  a  more 
fervent  desire  to  win  favour,  than  did  our  in- 
quirers shape  their  reports  to  square  with  the 
views  and  one-sided  notions  of  those  who 
employed  them,  for  everywhere  the  victims 
were  the  wrongdoers.  Had  the  victimizers 
then  done  nothing  amiss  ?  O,  minime  gen- 
tium! Whosoever  possessed  wealth  and 
power,  in  any  degree,  had  been,  as  in  the 

60 


case  of  the  beggars,  most  grievously,  most 
cruelly  wronged.  The  latent  mischief,  as 
we  have  now  discovered,  was  happily  brought 
to  light  just  in  time  to  prevent  the  founda- 
tions of  our  social  fabric  from  becoming  as 
tender  and  yielding  as  our  own  hccirts  ;  and 
but  for  these  inquiries  and  reports,  future 
generations  would  scarcely  have  beheved  to 
what  a  lamentable  extent  our  benevolence 
had  been  imposed  upon ! 

"  Let  those,  then,  who  take  pen  in  hand, 
and  have  hitherto  enjoyed  the  comfort  of 
finding  that,  *  a  little  wit  to  any  thing  will 
screw,'  begin  to  bethink  them  what  their  fate 
might  turn  out  to  be  under  a  commission  of 
inquiry.  How  they  would  like  to  have  sal- 
low and  hard-featured  barristers,  and,  per- 
haps, rival  book-makers,  turned  loose  among 
them,  to  force  them  into  the  vanguard  of  so 
desperate  a  '  battle  of  the  books,'  that  a  pre- 
cious hfe  must  drop  for  every  inch  of  shelf ! 
Direful  the  clash ;  many  the  grim  fighter, 
Fulvosque  lupi  de  pelle  galeros,  and  having 
more  temerity  than  brains,  that  must  die  the 
death. 

"All  novelists  and  dramatists,  therefore, 
are  hereby  forewarned  and  earnestly  exhort- 
ed, to  lose  no  time  in  beginning  to  widen 
the  groundwork  of  their  plots !  For  if  Sym- 
pathy has  made  but  little  or  no  progress 
during  these  inquiries.  Utility  has  begun  to 
look  narrowly  into  the  reason  of  things ;  am 
there  are  readers  now-a-days  who  do  not 
scruple  to  ask  why  we  should  wade  through 
three  volumes,  post-oclavo,  before  we  can  be 
sure  whether  a  man  will  turn  out  to  be  a 
pnnce  or  a  bandit  ?  or  what  is  the  use  of  fol- 
lowing an  ill-natured  man,  with  a  Norman 
name,  over  the  same  extent  of  ground,  upon 
the  strength  of  the  author's  assurance  that  his 
teeth  are  perfectly  regular,  and  that  there  is 
a  kind  of  curl,  up  or  down,  or  one  way  or 
other,  in  one  or  both  of  his  lips ;  and  upon 
these  very  slender  premises  to  call  upon  us 
to  behold  his  hero,  out-Heroding  him  that 
last  swayed  the  sceptre  of  Judah,  outraging 
all  the  aflTections  that  existed  before,  and  all 
the  decencies  that  have  been  established  in 
civilized  society  since ;  and  then,  just  upon 
the  very  last  page  of  all,  perhaps,  to  let  us 


474 


HISTORY    OF   IRELAND. 


[A.  D.  1848. 


into  the  secret,  that  notwithstanding  all  his 
midiTulged  guiltiness,  he  was  a  lord,  and  had 
been  a  lord  all  the  time  !  And  not  only  that, 
but  that  this  world,  though  God  made  it,  was 
not  good  enough  for  my  lord  to  take  a  kindly 
interest  in  it,  or  my  lord  would  unquestion- 
ably have  condescended  to  be  happy  in  it ; 
but  that,  notwithstanding  the  world  had  dis- 
appointed his  lordship's  expectations,  he  ac- 
tually intended  to  marry  the  lovely,  faithful, 
and  too-confiding  creature  whom  he  had  so 
inhumanly  tortured  ;  not,  mark,  because  it 
were  just  and  kind  in  him  so  to  do ;  oh,  no  ! 
but  because  he  had  found  out  that  if  himself 
would  once  more  know  what  comfort  is,  if  he 
would  put  an  end  to  the  agonistic  struggle 
between  the  man  and  the  monster,  he  must 
be  neither  cruel,  nor  indecent,  nor  dishonest 
any  longer.  •  •  • 

"Two  persons,  then,  and  in  some  cases 
only  one,  are  made  theatrically  happy.  And 
in  order  to  bring  about  this  result,  half-a- 
dozen  others,  perhaps,  in  one  way  or  other, 
are  to  be  made  wretched ;  and  this  is  the- 
atrical enjoyment !  This  is  poetic  justice  ! 
For  this  are  all  the  natural  charms  of  this 
beauteous,  wide-spreading,  and  soul-eleva- 
ting world  gladly  sacrificed ;  for  this  are 
chaplets  woven  and  psans  sung.  For  this 
are  all  the  sweet  influences  of  real  pity  for 
^real  distress,  abandoned  or  set  at  naught. 
;For  nothing  more  than  this  are  men  and  wo- 
men hailed,  and  honoured,  and  rewarded,  as 
though  they  had  led  the  way  in  reclaiming 
contemporary  miUions  from  ignorance,  misery, 
and  moral  degradation ! 

"  This,  then,  is  the  corollary  of  the  fore- 
going digression, — namely,  that  the  very 
narrow  and  exclusive  grounds  taken  by  many 
of  our  novelists,  have  a  tendency  to  blunt  the 
feelings  and  contract  the  notions  of  what  is 
called  the  reading  public  ;  and  that  the  most 
of  the  modern  dramatic  plots,  being  equally 
or  more  narrow,  exclusive,  and  ungenerous, 
and  developed,  as  they  are,  in  the  enervating 
steams  of  theatres,  have  a  like  tendency  to 
destroy  all  genuine  sympathy  for  real  distress, 
all  relish  for  a  noble  and  generous  wit ;  to 
enfeeble  and  derange  the  animal  functions, 
and  therefore  to  deteriorate  the  better  quali- 


ties of  both  the  mind  and  body  of  those  who 
attend  them." 

These  judicious  observations  have  the  ad- 
ditional merit  of  being  written  by  one  of  the 
most  Uberal  patrons  that  ever  encouraged  the 
English  drama  or  general  literature. 


CHAPTER    X. 
CONCLUSION   OF   CAUTION, 

PRO  BONO  PUBLICO. 

Thomas  Mac-Nevin  has  shrewdly  ob- 
served that  "  the  history  of  a  government 
may  well  be  read  in  its  rewards  and  punish- 
ments." The  nature  and  policy  of  a  gov- 
ernment can  also  be  discovered  by  similar 
indications.  The  history  of  Ireland,  there 
fore,  PROVES  that  the  British  government  is  a 
power  composed  of  those  elements  which 
never  would  voluntarily  grant  any  actual 
benefit  or  common  justice  to  the  Irish  people. 
Perhaps  the  most  concise  description  of  Brit- 
ish rule  that  language  affords  is  to  be  found 
in  Cobbett's  "  Postscript"  to  the  "  Life  of 
Andrew  Jackson,"  in  which  the  "  respecta- 
ble" and  pious  "  band  of  spungers"  are  con- 
spicuously illuminated  by  the  light  of  truth 
and  the  colours  of  ridicule  : —  ^ 

"  I  thought  I  had,  in  the  dedication  or  the 
preface,  done  justice  to  the  Irish  people,  rela- 
tive to  the  deeds  of  this  famous  man,  who 
sprang  from  among  them.  But,  I  have  since 
looked  into  the  peerage  of  Pakenham,  and 
found  what  he  was,  what  honours  had  been 
heaped  upon  him,  who  died  in  the  midst  of 
disgrace  unparalleled ;  for  all  the  disgrace 
was  his,  as  all  the  honour  would  have  been 
his.  The  valour  that  takes  a  man  up  to  an 
intrenchment,  or  makes  him  the  first  to  enter 
a  breach,  is  of  a  character  not  a  thousandth 
part  equal  to  that  of  a  bulldog.  Many  hun- 
dreds of  his  soldiers  went  nearer  to  the  mouths 
of  the  American  muskets  than  he  did ;  it  is  / 
the  valour  which  discovers  itself  in  cool  \ 
moments  and  day-after-day  reflections,  an<i_y 
comes,  at  last,  to  conclusions,  such  as  are  in 
so  many,  many  instances,  recorded  of  thif 


A.  D.  1846.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


479 


famous  American  general.  My  readers  have 
seen  with  what  dehght  I  have  recorded  the 
triumphs  of  this  man.  First,  for  his  own 
sake ;  secondly,  because  he  is  descended  im- 
mediately from  poor  Irish  parents :  thirdly, 
because  he  was  so  basely  and  infamously 
treated  by  British  officers,  at  the  early  part 
of  the  American  revolutionary  war:  but, 
above  all  things,  because  he  sprang  imme- 
diately from  poor  Irish  parents.  The  cir- 
cumstances stated  by  me  relative  to  this 
matter  are  very  striking;  but,  until  I  saw 
the  peerage  of  the  antagonist  whom  he  laid 
sprawhng  upon  the  ground, — ^until  I  saw  this 
peerage,  this  bragging,  this  boasting  peerage, 
I  had  not  the  means  of  making  the  contrast 
so  striking  as  it  ought  to  be  made.  Let  us 
take  him,  then,  as  he  is  described  by  the  her- 
alds of  his  family,  copied  from  the  peerage 
itself.     It  is  a  thing  for  eternal  laughter." 

[Our  object  being  historical,  with  motives 
free  from  personahty,  we  omit  this  "  rigma- 
role" of  respectable  rapacity.] 

"  Here  is  a  pretty  story  :  here  is  a  rigma- 
role :  this  is  the  sort  of  way  in  which  the 
base  part  of  mankind  are  held  in  subjection. 
Here  is  as  great  a  piece  of  work  in  recording 
the  lineage  of  this  gang  of  people,  as  if  each 
individual  of  them  had  performed  exploits 
equal  to  those  of  Jackson.  Why,  it  must 
give  one  pleasure  ;  it  must  fill  one  with  de- 
light to  see  such  contemptible  rubbish  brought 
to  the  test,  and  to  be  proved  to  be  not  worth 
a  straw.  We  see  here  that  our  particular 
hero  had  received  the  unanimous  thanks  of 
the  house  of  commons.  And  for  what  was 
it  ?  For  his  valour,  etc.,  in  repelling  repeated 
attacks  made  on  the  positions  of  the  aUied 
army.  This  is  a  very  unsatisfactory  de- 
scription. Here  is  no  deed  done  ;  no  strong 
place  captured ;  no  army^beaten,  but  merely 
attacks  repelled.  Very  doubtful  words  ;  and 
a  pretty  house  of  commons  it  must  have  been, 
to  have  voted  its  unanimous  thanks  to  a  man 
upon  grounds  so  very  equivocal ;  and,  in- 
deed, who  does  not  perceive  that  if  he  had 
been  the  son  of  a  common  man,  he  would 
have  had  no  thanks  at  all  ?  Yes,  yes ;  the 
*  French  force ;'  he  could  do  very  well  with 
Aa  French  force  ;  but  it  was  another  matter 


when  he  cam^to  do  with  ah  American  force, 
though  it  was  only  about  the  seventh  part  of 
his  own. 

"  Mark,  too,  the  curious  way  in  which  his 
death  is  mentioned ;  '  Killed  in  action,  near 
New-Orleans,  in  America,  January  8lh,  1815, 
to  whose  memory  a  monument  is  erected  in 
the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  at  the  public  ex- 
pense.' Now,  observe,  first,  that  you  do  not 
know  whether  he  was  commander  or  not; 
second,  whether  those  on  his  side  were  the 
victors  or  not ;  third,  whether  it  was  a  battle 
fought  for  the  purpose  of  taking  New-Or- 
leans or  for  defending  it,  or  whether  it  was 
for  any  other  object ;  but  taking  into  view 
the  fact  immediately  following,  that  he  had  a 
monument  erected  immediately  to  his  mem- 
ory in  St.  Paul's,  at  the  public  expense,  and 
is  there  one  single  man  in  this  world,  who, 
being  unacquainted  with  the  facts,  would  not 
believe  that  he  lost  his  life  in  the  arms  of 
victory  in  a  battle  which  happened  to  take 
place  near  the  city  of  New-Orleans,  in  Ameri- 
ca. Thus  it  is  that  the  people  of  England 
have  been  basely  betrayed,  and  insulted,  and 
cheated.  Not  one  man  in  ten  thousand,  or 
in  fifty  thousand,  knows  to  this  day  that  this 
Pakenham  was  selected  for  this  enterprise  ; 
that  the  army  and  the  navy  were  all  ready 
long  before  his  arrival ;  that  they  waited  for 
that  arrival  to  begin  operations  ;  that  the  force 
was  so  great,  the  suppUes  so  large,  so  super- 
abundant in  every  respect ;  an  outfit  costing 
more  than  a  million  of  money,  and  this  for 
the  double  object  of  carrying  the  city,  and 
puffing  Pakenham  into  a  lord.     *     *     •     • 

"  This  was  a  something  to  make  the  nation 
pay  for  a  monument  for  this  man,  and  in  St. 
Paul's  too.  But  it  is  no  matter ;  if  a  com- 
mander belongs  to  any  of  these  people,  beaten 
or  not  beaten,  so  that  he  die,  he  is  sure  to 
have  a  monument  to  his  memory  at  the  peo- 
ple's expense,  in  order  to  keep  up  the  blaze 
of  these  families.  It  was  well  for  this  poor 
fellow  that  he  was  killed  ;  if  he  could  have 
made  shift  to  hobble  ofi"  with  his  beating,  I 
have  no  question  that  he  would  have  had  the 
thanks  of  the  house  of  commons,  as  I  beheve 
Cockburn  had,  for  his  work  on  the  coast  of 
Virginia. 


476 


HISTORY  OF   IRELA::^t>. 


[A.  D.  19461 


7*?! 


"  Burke  called  nobility  *  the  cheap  defence 
of  nations/  Look  at  our  half-pay  list ;  look 
at  our  pension-hst ;  look  at  the  retired-allow- 
ance list;  look  at  this  very  family  of  Pak- 
enham.  We  find  that  this  man  had  nine 
brothers  and  sisters  ;  one  a  lieutenant-colonel 
in  the  army  ;  one  a  captain  in  the  navy ;  one 
in  the  church  :  so  far  for  the  men  ;  and  as  to 
the  women,  I  could  be  bound  to  find  them 
all  out  if  I  had  time  ;  but  we  know  that  one 
of  tli«i»  was  the  wife  of  Wellington.  A 
pretty  dearish  defence  of  nations,  I  should 
think,  all  this.  But,  not  to  waste  any  more 
words  upon  the  subject,  here  we  have  all  this 
swaggering  nobility,  this  hunting  down  from 
'William  de  Packenham,'  in  the  time  of 
Edward  the  First  to  the  present  time ;  and 
only  think  of  their  publishing  their  mottoes  : 
*  Gloria  virtutis  umhra*  that  is  to  say, 
'  Glory  is  the  shadow  of  virtue  ;'  a  saying 
which  we  can  hardly  understand  the  meaning 
of ;  but  the  more  senseless,  the  more  it  ex- 
cites the  cogitating  wonderment  of  stupid 
and  base  people.  When  a  public  robber  gets 
into  a  carriage  with  three  or  four  Latin  words 
written  on  it,  and  with  the  other  insignia 
which"  he  chooses  to  have  put,  all  the  base 
part  of  the  people,  and  that  is  not  a  small 
part,  look  upon  him  as  something  or  other  a 
wonderful  deal  better  than  themselves.  Now, 
unless  this  feeling  be  changed  ;  unless  the 
people  be  cured  of  this  baseness,  nothing  that 
can  be  done  by  men,  even  the  most  able,  and 
industrious,  and  zealous,  will  ever  render 
them  better  oflf  than  they  now  are.  How- 
ever, that  which  I  have  here  exhibited  will 
do  real  good  in  America ;  it  will  make  the 
people  there  resolve  to  guard  against  all  the 
crafty  and  subtle  approaches  of  aristocracy, 
which  have  always  been  begun  by  suffering 
wealth  to  be  drawn  into  a  small  number  of 
hands.  When  once  that  is  done,  then  the 
titling  work  begins  ;  and  then  come  all  the 
curses  under  which  we  are  now  labouring. 
I  shall  be  told  that  I  have  always  been  an 
advocate  for  a  government  of  king,  lords,  and 
commons,  and  for  bishops  seated  among  the 
lords.  Now,  this  is  very  true  ;  and  my  ar- 
gument always  has  been  that  those  things 
could  not  be  bad  in  their  nature,  along  with 


which  co-existed  ^u^  wise^^nd  just  laws ;  so 
much  freedom,  so  much  power,  possessed  by 
so  comparatively  small  a  country ;  and  such 
an  immense  mass  of  national  resources  of 
all  sorts,  together  with  a  degree  of  reputa- 
tion for  integrity,  frankness,  and  all  public 
virtue,  was  never  surpassed  by  any  other 
nation,  and,  indeed,  never  any  thing  like 
equalled. 

"Well,  then,  ought  you  not  to  cherish 
these  orders  now  ?  Are  they  not  what  they 
always  were?  Have  we  not  still  dukes, 
marquises,  earls,  just  as  in  the  time  of  *  *  *  ? 
Stop  :  yes,  my  friend,  we  have  dukes,  mar- 
quises, earls,  and  so  forth  still ;  but  those 
that  we  have  now  are  no  more  like  those  in 
former  times,  than  a  French  crab  is  like  a 
Newtown  pippin. 

"  Well,  but  in  what  do  the  present  lords 
differ  from  the  lords  of  former  times  ?  In 
every  thing,  except  in  the  shape  of  their 
bodies,  and  the  manner  of  receiving  their 
nutriment,  though  even  in  this  latter  I  do  nqt 
know  that  I  am  not  admitting  too  much. 
The  people  of  England,  when  called  out  in 
the  wars,  and  especially  in  defence  of  their 
country,  were  commanded  by  the  lords  ;  and 
observe,  the  lords  found  them  theirSrnjs,  and 
their  clothing,  and  their  provisions,  and  their 
money  for  the  service,  out  of  their  own  pock- 
ets and  estates.  It  was  the  business  of  the 
lords  each  one  to  protect  his  people  from 
wrong  ;  to  see  that  they  had  fair  play  ;  they 
were  their  advocates  in  courts  of  justice ; 
pleading  their  causes  in  their  defence,  and 
always  for  nothing.  There  was  no  such 
thing  as  a  tax  for  a  poor  or  working  man  to 
pay,  nor  ever  heard  of  to  pay,  of  any  sort  or 
kind.  The  bishops  and  abbots  were  in  par- 
hament  to  take  care  that  the  poor  were  not 
plundered  of  their  patrimony ;  and  thus  it 
was  that  nobility  was  *  the  cheap  defence  of 
nations.' 

"  What  do  we  behold  now  ?  Every  great 
family,  as  it  is  called,  not  paying  for  warriors 
to  come  forth  to  defend  the  country ;  but 
making  the  people  pay  them,  men,  women, 
and  children,  to  the  amount  of  thousands, 
and  thousands  upon  thousands  !  In  short,  it 
is  a  prodigious  band  of   spungers,  livii^ 


A^D.  1846.] 


THIRD   DIVISION. 


477 


upon  the  labour  of  the  industrious  part  of  the 
community,  and  making  the  people  pay  them, 
and  men  that  they  enhst ;  the  object  of  hav- 
ing such  men  in  pay  and  armed  with  bayo- 
nets, can  be  hidden  from  nobody  in  this  world 
but  an  idiot ;  a  nobility,  not  paying  the  people 
to  come  out,  and  furnishing  them  with  arms 
and  ammunition,  and  clothing  them,  to  de- 
fend the  country;  but  a  nobility,  actually 
LIVING  UPON  the  sweat  of  the  people,  and 
passing  laws  at  the  same  time  to  transport 
the  very  same  people,  if  caught  in  pursuit  of 
pheasant,  partridge,  or  hare!  While  (oh, 
gracious  God  !)  these  same  people,  still  call- 
ing themselves  nobility,  are  breeding  those 
wild  animals  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  the 
wretches  in  London  whom  they  support  in 
the  demanding  and  the  receiving  of  three 
days'  work  instead  of  one." 

This  description,  by  Cobbett,  agrees  with 
all  the  results  of  historical  teaching  in  rela- 
tion to  the  "  British"  treatment  of  Ireland, 
and  shows  the  thievish  cohesiveness  of  that 
monstrous  mockery,  united  usurpation,  and 
patented  policy  which  rules  England  in  de- 
fiance of  her  own  people.  It  is  a  govern- 
ment whose  favourite  agents  are  stationed 
around  the  globe  without  daring  to  show 
themselves  among  other  ambassadorial  repre- 
sentatives, but  living  like  spiders,  profiting  by 
entanglements,  and  producing  cool  falsehoods 
from  the  warm  eggs  of  corruption. 

The  British  government,  as  at  present  ex- 
isting, is  one  vast  scheme  of  diplomatic  false- 
hood and  administrative  tyranny,  forming  a 
fabric  which  is  based  upon  the  misfortunes 
of  individuals  and  nations,  and  sustained  and 
perpetuated  by  deceiving  all  those  who  are 
naturally  unwilling  to  believe  in  the  existence 
of  such  an  organized  creation  of  respectable 
wickedness. 

An  apology  may  be,  perhaps,  due  to  our 
readers  for  the  manner  in  which  the  British 
government  is  mentioned  in  this  work,  making 
the  author  appear  to  have  "  damnable  iteration 
in  him."  It  has  been  unavoidably  required 
in  the  performance  of  our  duty  towards  both 
the  history  and  the  people  of  Ireland.  Some 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel's  wrangling  and  scholastic 

♦  I 


discipline  might,  possibly,  have  taught  us  to 
pay  the  same  respect  to  the  British  govern- 
ment as  if  it  were  really  respectable ;  but  we 
are  unwilling  to  learn  insincerity  by  rule,  or 
to  assist  in  the  perpetuation  of  perversions. 

Let  the  Irish  people  remember  the  Treaty 
of  Limerick,  and  the  coNrrNuxL  perfidy 
which  accompanied  the  cruelty  of  the  penal 
laws.  Let  them  beware  of  expecting  any 
justice  from  England  unless  they  can  deal 
directly  with  the  true  representatives  of  the 
real  people  of  England.  What  "justice"  can 
be  expected  from  a  gewgaw  gang  whom  the 
voice  of  History  has  already  convicted  of 
being  letter-openers,  boundary-breakers,  oath- 
jugglers,  sacramental-slanderers,  and  treaty- 
tramplers  ? 

Until  the  English  people  possess  in  reality 
the  power  of  forming  their  own  government 
according    to   constitutional    principles,   no 

FAITH  OR  CREDIT  IS  DUE  TO  ANY  TREATIES  OR 
ARRANGEMENTS  MADE  WITH  THE  BrITISH  (sO 

called)  GOVERNMENT.  We  are  also  necessi- 
tated to  declare  that  this  caution  is  not  merely 
applicable  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  but  that 
every  other  nation  having  the  misfortune  to 
depend  upon  the  honour  or  justice  of  the 
British  government  will  eventually  discover 
that  they  are  dealing  with  a  power  which 
robs  its  own  people  for  the  express  purpose 
of  creating  the  means  and  the  influence  to 
deceive,  divide,  and  rob  the  whole  world. 
Under  these  circumstances,  there  is  nothing 
but  wo  to  the  nation  expecting  justice  from 
the  British  government.  Any  degree  of  rash- 
ness would  eventuate  better  than  the  painful 
folly  of  such  expectations.  No  robbers  are 
so  incorrigible  as  those  who  practise  the 
rapacity  which  (securely  and  sanctimonious- 
ly) robs  under  the  robes  of  respectability  and 
religion. 

The  history  of  Ireland,  from  its  first  con- 
nection with  the  English  crown, — and  more 
particularly  since  the  politico-religious  tyr- 
anny of  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  the  money- 
morality  of  1688, — teaches  the  world  that 
such  a  CAUTION  is  positively  requisite,  and  we 
now  leave  this  Complete  History  of  Ireland 
to  our  successors. 


LORD-LIEUTENANTS  OF  IRELAND. 


^;-.« 

i{.:^^ 


1^^ 


1361,  Lionel,  Earl  of  Ulster. 

1379,  Edmund  Mortimer,  E^l  of  March. 

1382,  Philip  Courtney,  Lord  Birmingham  General. 

1384,  Robert  De  Vere.  Earl  of  Oxford. 

1394,  King  Richard  II.  in  person. 

1395,  Roger  Mortimer,  Earl  of  March  and  IJlater. 
1399,  King  Richard  II.  in  peison,  (second  time.) 
1401,  Thomas,  Ekirl  of  Lancaster. 

1410,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford. 

1413,  Edward,  Earl  of  March. 

1414,  Sir  John  Talbot. 

1416,  Thomas,  Earl  of  Lancaster. 

1427,  Sir  John  De  Grey 

1428,  Sir  J.  Sutton,  Lord  Dudley. 
1433,  Sir  Thomas  6<tanley. 
1438,  Lion,  Lord  Wells. 

1440,  James,  Earl  of  Ormond. 

1446,  J.  Elarl  of  Shrewsbury. 

1449,  Richard  J^ke  of  York. 

1461,  George,  Duke  of  Clarence,  for  life. 

1479,  Richard,  Duke  of  York. 

1483,  Prince  Ld  ward,  son  to  Richard  III. 

1485,  John  de  la  Pole,  Earl  of  Lincoln. 

1490,  Jasper,  Duke  of  Bedford. 

1496,  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kildare,  and  in  1504. 

1501,  Henry,  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  Henry  VIII. 

1504,  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kildare. 

1520,  Thomas  Howard.  Earl  of  Surrey. 

1530,  Henry,  Duke  of  Richmond. 

1558,  Thomas,  Earl  of  fcJuBsex. 

1598,  Robert,  Earl  of  Essex. 

1599,  Sir  Charles  Blount,  Lord  Mountjoy. 

1639,  Thomas,  Lord  Viscount  Wentworth,  Elarl  of  Strafford. 

1643,  James,  Marquis  of  Ormond. 

1649,  Oliver  Cromwell. 

1660,  James  Butler,  Duke,  Marquis*  and  Earl  of  Ormond. 

1669,  John  Roberts,  Lord  Roberts. 

1670,  J.  Berkeley,  Lord  Berkeley. 
1672,  Arthur  Capel,  Earl  of  Essex. 
1677,  James  Butler,  Duke  of  Ormond. 
ItiSa,  Henry  Hyde,  Earl  of  Clarendon. 
1688,  Richard  Talbot,  Earl  of  TyrconnelL 

1600,  Henry  Sidney,  Lord  Sidney. 
1695,  Henry  Capel,  Lord  Capel. 
1701,  Lau.  Hyde,  Earl  of  Rochester. 

1703,  James  Butler,  Duke  of  Ormonde,  and  in  1711. 
1707,  Thomas  Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke. 


1709,  Thomas  Wharton,  Earl  of  Wharton. 
1711,  July  3,  James,  Duke  of  Ormonde. 
1713,  October  27,  Charles,  Duke  of  Shrewsbury. 
1717,  August  7,  Charles,  Duke  of  Bolton. 
1721,  August  28,  Charles,  Duke  of  Grafton. 
1724,  October  22,  John,  Lord  Carteret. 
1731,  September  11,  Lionel,  Duke  of  Dorset,  and  again,  Sep- 
tember 19, 1751. 
1737,  Sept.  7,  William,  Duke  of  Devonshire. 
1745,  August  31,  Philip,  Earl  of  Chesterfield. 
1747,  September  13,  William,  Earl  of  Harrington. 
1751,  September  19,  Lionel,  Duke  of  Dorset. 
1755,  May  5,  William,  Marquis  of  Hartington. 
1757,  September  25,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford. 
1761.  October  6,  George,  Earl  of  Halifax. 
1763,  September  22,  Hugh,  Earl  of  Northumberland. 
1765,  October  18,  Francis,  Earl  of  Hertford. 
1767,  October  14,  G>eorge,  Viscount  Townshend. 
1772,  November  30,  Simon,  Earl  Harcourt. 
1777,  January  25,  John,  Earl  of  BuckiiiKhamahire. 
1780,  April  14,  William  Henry,  Duke  of  Portland. 
1780,  December  23,  Frederick,  E^rl  of  Carlisle. 

1782,  September  15,  George,  Earl  Temple,  and  again,  De- 

cember 16, 1787,  as  Marquis  oi  Buckingluim. 

1783,  June  3,  Robert,  Earl  of  Northington. 

1784,  February  24,  Charles.  Duke  of  Rutland,  died  24th  Oo- 

tober,  1787. 
1787,  December  16,  George,  Marquis  of  Buckingham. 
1790,  January  5,  John,  Eiarl  of  Westmoreland. 
1795,  January  4,  William,  Earl  Fitzwilliam. 
1795,  March  31.  John,  Earl  Camden. 
1798,  June  20,  Charles,  Marquis  Comwallis. 
1801,  May  25,  Philip,  Earl  of^Hardvvicke. 

1806,  March  18,  John,  Duke  of  Bedford. 

1807,  April  19.  Charles,  Duke  of  Richmond. 
1813.  August  -26,  Charles,  Earl  Whitworth. 
1818,  October  9,  Charles,  Earl  Talbot. 

1821,  December  29,  Richard,  Alarquis  Wellesley,  and  again 
September  26,  1833. 

1828,  March  1,  Henry.   Marquis  of  Anglesey,  and  again, 

December  23, 1830. 

1829,  March  6,  Hugh,  Duke  of  Northumberland. 

1830,  December  23.  Henry.  Marquis  of  Anglesey. 

1833,  September  36.  Richard,  Marquis  Wellesley. 

1834,  December  29,  Thomas,  E^arl  of  Haddington. 

1835,  April  23,  Henry  Constantine,  E^l  of  Mulgrave. 
1839,  April  3,  Hugh,  Viscount  Ebrington. 


THE  SHAMROCK,  THE  ROSE,  AND  THETHISTLE 

The  shamrock,  the  rose,  and  the  thistle  combined. 
Have  long  been  as  emblems  of  union  entwined ; 
But  oh !  they  regard  not  the  emerald  stem. 
Who  tear  it  from  earth — to  entwine  it  with  them. 

For  the  rose  hath  its  thorn,  and  the  thistle  its  sting, 
Wliile  naught  can  the  shamrock  but  gentleness  bring ; 
And  their  touch,  when  they  meet,  darts  the  venom  they  bear. 
To  the  life  of  the  shamrock— that  soon  withers  there. 

Tlie  rose  and  thistle  togetlier  may  cling. 
And  impart  to  each  other  their  thorn  and  their  sting ; 
But  say.  shall  the  shamrock  of  Erin  be  found 
With  their  porcupine  prickles  eternally  bound? 

Oh  no !  in  full  freshness,  unsullied  'twill  blow. 
When  round  it  nor  roses  nor  thistles  shall  grow ! 
Too  long  have  their  presence  retarded  its  growth. 
Then  oh !  may  our  isle  soon  refuse  bloom  to  both ! 

O'Moiic. 
END    OP   THE    THIRD    DIVISION. 


-^**:' 


?;a. 


J** 


ANALYTI)CAL   INDEX 


TO    THE 


SECOND    AND    THIRD    DIVISIONS. 


SECOND    DIVISION. 

CHAPTER  I.— Moral  aspect  of  Ireland  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury—Political tendency  of  the  visit  of  Henry  the  Second 
—Jealousy  of  his  queen,  and  rebellion  of  his  sons— Mili- 
tary and  political  arrankements  by  the  king— Meath  ap- 
propriated to  Hugh  de  Lacy— Admiration  of  the  Enelish 
for  their  Saxon  nobility  a  parallel  case  to  that  of  the  Irish 
for  their  native  chiefs— Summary  view  of  Henry's  general 
policy  while  in  Ireland— His  return  to  Wales  . .    23—25 

II.— Real  extent  of  Henry's  conquest— Conference  between 
De  Lacy  and  O'Ruarc— Defeat  of  the  English  by 
O'Dempeey— Strongbow  called  to  Normandy ;  his  return 
— Raymond  le  Gros  retires  to  Wales— General  rising  of 
the  septs— Raymond  recadled  ;  his  marriage-^nfirma- 
tory  treaty  between  Roderic  and  Henry— Death  <rf 
Strongbow— Burning  of  Limerick— Strongbow's  charac- 
ter     25—30 

III.— Fitz-Aldelm's  arrival— De  Courcy  enters  Ulster— Car- 
dinal Vivian's  liberal  exertions — ^Treachery  of  Roderic 
O'Connor's  eldest  son,  Murtagh— Devastation  of  Con- 
naught— Superseding  grants  given  by  Henry  to  John  and 
his  followers — Appomtments  and  recalls  of  De  Lacy — 
Death  of  St.  Laurence  CToole— Bull  of  Pope  Lucius  tlie 
Third— Retirement  of  Roderic  O'Connoi^Arrival  of 
John  at  Waterford 30—35 

IV.— John's  discourteous  treatment  of  the  Irish  princes,  and 
his  impolitic  behaviour  towards  the  original  "men  of 
iron" — ^The  nature  of  Henry's  grant  to  John — Retirement 
of  Roderic  O'Connor— Connaught  devastated — Death  of 
Henry  the  Second 35 — 40 

v.— Accession  of  Richard  the  First— Death  of  Roderic  O'Con- 
nor— Eklucational  and  religious  movements  during  the 
reign  of  the  last  monarch  of  Ireland 40 — 13 

VI. — Accession  of  John— Divisions  in  the  O'Connor  family- 
Partition  of  Connaught— Arrival  of  John  in  Ireland— Do- 
nations of  the  Anglo-Irish  lords  for  religious  edifices  in 
Ireland 43—48 

VII. — Accession  of  Henry  the  Third — Confirmation  of  the 
Great  Charter— Irish  troops  called  by  Henry  into  Wales. 
Scotland,  and  Gascony— Grant  of  the  kingdom  of  Ireland 
to  Prince  Edward— General  rising  of  the  septs— State  of 
Ireland  at  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  connection  with 
England 48—52 

VIII.— Accession  of  Edward  the  First — Seizure  of  the  Welsh 
crown— Opposition  of  the  Anglo-Irish  barons  to  the  ap- 
plication of  the  Irish  people  for  English  laws— New  coin- 
age—Irish parliament- Irish  troops  again  required  for 
service  in  Scotland 52 — 56 

IX. — Accession  of  Edward  the  Second— Consequences  of  the 
battle  of  Bannockbum— Edward  Bruce  lands  in  Ireland 
—Arrival  of  Roger  Mortimer— Interposition  of  the  pope 
— Eloquent  remonstrance  of  the  Irish,  headed  by  O'Neill, 
Prince  of  Tyrone— Defeat  of  Exlward  Bruce  at  Dundalk— 
Domestic  warfare 56 — 60 

X.— Accession  of  Edward  the  Third— Irish  .feodaries  and 
English  subjects— Assassination  of  the  E^rl  of  Ulster — 
Self-appointed  assembly  at  Kilkenny— Administration  of 
the  Dufee  of  Clarence— ^Statute  of  Kilkenny— Astounding 
discovery 61 — 67 

XL— Accession  of  Richard  the  Second— Duke  of  Ireland 
created— Two  visits  of  King  Richard  to  Ireland— De- 
fection of  Henry  of  Bolingbroke— Deposition  and  death 
of  Richard 67-77 

XII.— The  three  Lancastrian  kings— Henry  the  Fourth. 
Henry  the  Fifth,  and  Henry  the  Sixth — The  Desmond 
family— Intrigues  of  Omiona  and  Desmond— Rebellion 
of  Jack  Cade — Rising  of  the  O'Connors  and  the  O'Nials 
—Battle  of  Wakefield 77-87 

XIII.— Accession  of  Edward  the  Fourth— Earl  of  Worcester's 
parliament  at  Drogheda- Rivalry  between  the  Butlers 
and  the  Geraldines— Ireland  held  by  r^  royal  foree  of  120 
soldiers— Short  usurpation  of  Richard  tlie  Third— Ire- 
land's own  affairs 88—97 

XIV Accession  of  Henry  the  Seventh— The  Duchess  of 


Burgundy  brings  forward  Lambert  Sinmel  aixl  Perkin 
Warbeck— Kildare  disgraced— Poynings**  parliament— 
Warbeck's  marriage— Kildaie  restored- Battle  of  Knock- 
tow,  and  defeat  of  the  Irish  Page  97 — 109 

XV.— Accession  of  Henry  the  Eighth— Condition  of  the  Pale- 
Coinage  in  Ireland — The  parliament  confen  on  Heniv 
and  his  successors  the  title  of  "  King  of  Ireland" -Irian 
troops  called  into  France  and  into  Scotland— Henry'a 
want  of  money,  and  consequent  desperate  proceed- 
ings      109—117 

XVI.— Ecclesiastical  changes  of  the  sixteenth  centnry,  and 
the  commencement  of  their  political  influence  aiwn  the 
history  of  Ireland— Character  and  death  of  Heiuy  the 
Eightli 117— 12« 

XVII.— A  digression  on  digressions— Continental  progrras  of 
the  "  Reformation"— Catholic  and  Protestant  evidence 
regarding  the  religion  which  Henry  the  Eighth  thoaght 
proper  to  oppose — Leo  in  Italy  and  Luther  in  Germany 
preparing  the  way  for  Henry's  changes  iu  England  and 
Ireland 127—137 

XVIII.— Digression  continued— Progress  of  the  "  Refonna- 
tion"  through  England,  and  safe  arrival  in  Ireland — 
Argumentative  evidence  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  ao- 
thorities— The  subject  sufficiently  explained  to  proceed 
with  the  historical  narrative 137—153 

XIX. — Accession  of  Edward  the  Sixth— Formation  and  pro- 
ceedings of  the  council  of  regency — New  privil^es  for 
Dublin— An  Irish  brigade  ordered  to  Scotland— Enforce- 
ment of  the  new  Enplish  liturgy ;  opposition  of  Dowdal — 
Division  of  the  O'Briens— Desolation  of  Ulster— Death 
Edward  the  Sixth— Progress  of  the  '*  Reformation"—: 
trigues  of  the  Drke  of  Northumberland ;  unfortunate 
fects  upon  the  interests  of  Lady  Jane  Grey. .     153 — 1 

XX.— Accession  of  Mary — Movements  of  O'Neill—' 
reinstated— Mary's  marriage  with  Philip  of  Spain — . 
ministration  of  Sussex— Restoration  of  Dowdal 
Catholic  influence— Death  of  Mary 16*—: 

XXI.— Accession  of  Elizabeth— 1558  to  1570— ConsecraticHi  of 
Parker — English  liturgy  reformed  again — TreatmeBt  at 
tlie  disBenters  who  did  not  conform  to  the  act-of-pariia- 
ment  religion— O'Neill's  visit  to  Elizabeth— Death  of 
Shane  O'Neill— Dublin  parUament  of  1569— lUustrativs 
authorities 175—192 

XXII.— Reign  of  Elizabeth— 1571  to  1580— Earl  of  Essex  visito 
Ireland— Death  of  Rory  O'Morra— Arrival  of  Fitz-Mao- 
rice's  fleet  at  Smerwick— Administration  of  Lord  Arthur 
Grey— Sir  Walter  Raleigh  in  the  field— Historical  au- 
thorities      192—211 

XXIII.— Reign  of  Elizabeth— 1581  to  1590— Lord  Grey  re- 
called— Ormond's  reinforcement— Expatriation  o(  the 
Catholic  clergy  and  gentry — Perrot's  administration — 
Irish  parliaments  of  1585  and  158&— Shameful  scramble 
for  the  estates  of  Desmond — O'Donnel  perfidiously  kid- 
napped—Perrot's  adulterated  coinage— Digression  (« the 
fate  of  Marv,  Queen  of  Scots,  for  the  sake  of  a  compari- 
son with  that  of  Ireland— Resignation  of  Perrot— Ap* 
pointment  of  Fitz-WilJiam- Wreck  of  the  SpanSh  ar- 
mada—Tyraimy  of  Fitz- William— Commencement  of 

the  fifteen  years'  war— Authorities 211—231 

XXIV.— Reign  of  Elizabeth— 1591  to  160»— Fbunding  of 
Trinity  College,  Dublin- Edict  against  the  CaUK^ic 
clergy— Fitz- William  succeeded  by  Sir  John  Russell- 
General  rising  of  the  septs — Alarm  of  tlie  queen — Elaii  «rf" 
Essex  appointed  lord-lieutenant,  and  provided  with  an 
army  of  twenty  thousand  men— Disappointment  of  the 
queen— Departure  of  Essex— Operations  of  Montjoy  and 
Carew— Critical  situation  of  O'Neill's  affairs— Arrival  of 
succours  from  Spain— Hasty  battle — Success  of  the  Eng- 
lish—Every  living  thing  destroyed  over  the  surface  of 
Munster— Retreat  of  the  southern  insurgents  towards 
Ulster,  where  O'Neill  perseveres  until  the  death  of  Eliza- 
beth—Indicative authorities 231 — 257 

XXV.— Accession  of  James  the  First— AdministratioD  of 
Oiichester— Guy  Fawkes  and  gunpowder ;  imitated  in 
Ireland— Flight  of  O'Neill  and  O'Doimel— Campaign  of 


ANALYTICAL    INDEX, 


Sir  Cahir  O'Dogherty— Seizare  of  six  conntiee  in  Water 
— Leasons  in  the  art  of  cooferrinff  civilixation  with  an 
immediate  profit— Appointment  of  the  "  CommiiBion  for 
the  Discovery  of  Defective  Titles" — Desizna  upon  Con- 
naught— Character  of  James— Authoritiflulioatrating  the 
acts  and  spirit  of  his  reign ng6  S57— 387 

XXVI.— Accession  of  Charles  the  Fjist— fitate  of  public  af- 
fairs in  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland— Falkluid's  ad- 
ministration— Large  meetings  ii|^Ireland — Banaiuing  for 
"royal  ^ces"— Stafford's  administration— Money  paid 
by  the  Insh  people  for  justice ;  and  judges  bribed  by  the 
government  for  injustice — Tyrannical  treatment  of  the 
Irish  nobility — More  civilization,  plantation,  and  sub- 
ornation rfjuries — Revolt  of  the  Covenanters  in  Scotland 
— Stafforcrs  presence  required  in  England  by  Charles- 
Ireland  lefl  in  the  hands  of  Parsons,  Borlase,  and  a  re- 
formed reformation 287 — 299 

XXVII.— Sympathy  with  Scotland— Rebellious  ridng  in  the 
north — Parsons  and  Borlase  exactly  suited — Real  State 
of  Ireland,  as  seen  by  the  remonstrance  at  Trim  to  the 
king's  commissionerB— Proceedings  of  the  confederates- 
Positions  of  the  king ;  attitudes  of  the  Dublin  government ; 
policy  of  the  parliamentarian  party;  and  spasmodic 
struggles  at  sincerity  by  the  trio — Disastrous  disunion  of 
the  friends  of  Ireland — Success  of  the  spoilers — Chules 
outdone  in  lying  and  intrigue — Civil  semi- barbarism  of 
the  times 299—309 

XXVIII. — Cromwell's  invasion  of  Ireland— Specimen  pro- 
ceedings of  two  years  of  the  government  under  him — 
Administration  of  Ireton  and  Ludlow— State  of  Ireland 
at  the  close  of  the  Puritan  wai^-Comparison  of  the  Eng- 
lish administration  of  Cromwell  with  those  precedin)<  and 
following — Digression  on  the  moral  lessons  and  political 
benefits  eventually  resulting  from  the  persecution  of  the 
Roman  Catholics— The  scene  temporarily  changed  to 
America — Real  and  perpetual  nature  of  American  politi- 
cal superiority— A  character  for  Cromwell— Interesting 
authorities 309—331 

XXIX.— Restoration  of  Charles  the  Second— Court  of  claims 
in  Dublin— Act  of  settlement— Quarrels  over  the  prey  of 
iniquity—  More  plots— Administrations  of  Berkeley,  Essex, 
and  Cmnond— Executions  of  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh 
and  tlie  Earl  of  Stafford— Death  of  the  king.    331—344 

XXX. — Accession  of  James  the  Second — Liberty  of  con- 
science proclaimed— Inconsistency  of  the  liign  church 
bishops — Troubles  of  the  king— Protestant  invitation  to 
the  Prince  of  Orange  that  he  might  seize  the  throne  of 
his  father-in-law- Landing  of  James  at  Kinsale — Move- 
meuts  of  Hamilton  and  Antrim— Rally  of  the  Protestants 
at  Derry— Battle  of  the  Boyne,  between  King  James  and 
the  parfiamentEiry  king,  William— Douglas  abandons  the 
siege  of  Athlone — Limerick  successfully  defended  by 
beuity  and  braveiy— Folly  of  St.  Ruth,  and  final  fall  of 
Athlone— Battle  of^Aughnm— Ginckle's  unavailing  siege 
of  Limerick— James's  nnal  retirement  from  public  life — 
Instructions  from  William  to  close  the  war— Treaty  of 
Limeridc 345—384 


THIRD    DIVISION. 

CHAPTER  I.— Reign  of  William  and  Mary— Church-and- 
atate  estimation  of  the  Treaty  of  Limenck— Immediate 
resumption  and  continual  progress  of  the  penal  lawa— 
Acceaaion  of  Queen  Anne— Legislative  union  of  Scotland 
with  En^and— Diapatea  between  the  Engliah  miniatry 
and  the  Dublin  parliaments— Acceaaion  of  Gecvge  the 
First- beland'a  darkest  hour,  and  the  loweat  degrada- 
tion of  Christianity— Wood's  conscientious  copper- 
United  rally  of  the  people — Returning  dawn  of  Irish 
liberty. Page  393—401 

II. — Acceaaion  of  George  the  Second — ^Terror  of  ttte  privileged 
tyranta  at  the  union  of  the  people  by  Swift— Progress 
of  the  penal  laws— Census  under  the  Duke  of  Dorset- 
Bishop  Berkeley  and  America— Primate  Stone  and  Ire- 
land--QuarTel8  of  the  factious  over  the  surplus  revenue- 
Lucas  as  a  writer— Patient  submission  of  the  people  un- 
til better  times  for  Ireland 401—408 

III.— Acceaaion  of  Gleorge  the  Third— Continued  agitation  in 
Ireland— Right  of  petition,  and  encouragement  of  the 
manufacture  of  papsr  by  the  receivers— Lucaa— Flood— 
Grattan — Burke— Revolution  of  the  American  coloniea 
— Sympathy  of  Irishmen— Organization  of  the  Vdun- 
teers 408—423 

rV.— Proceedings  of  the  Volunteem— The  Americana  dia- 
posed  of  by  British  submission- Immediate  rally  of  the 
church-and-state  influence  in  Ireland— Lord  Chanemont 
cajoled— Dispersion  of  the  Volunteeia— Splendid  ac- 
commodations for  the  spare  energies  of  aristocratic  pa- 
triots—Tlie  principles  of  unity  extending  among  tlie  real 
people— Rise  of  the  United  Irishmen 423—431 

v.— Ireland  united,  and  the  true  restoration  commeuced— 
Addreaaea  of  the  United  Irishmen— Means  taken  by  the 
Ikitiah  government  to  produce  the  '*  rebellion"  of  17B8, 
and  establish  the  Union— Titles  for  treachery,  and  the 
gallows  for  goodness  \  gold  for  spies,  and  paper-money 
for  the  people— Pitt  triumphant,  and  the  United  Irirtimeu 
temporarily  defeated 431 — 442 

VI.— Legislative  union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland— Awful 
pause  under  tlie  paws  of  the  Briti^  lion— The  scaffold 
for  faithful  patriots,  but  respectable  titles  for  legislative 
liars  and  traitorous  thieves— Wonderful  efforts  of  Dan- 
iel O'Connell,  achitmpion  of  the  people  proper— Glorious 
awakening  of  the  English  mind— Death  of  George  the 
Tliird— Success  of  Catholic  emancipation. . .    442—458 

VII. — Accession  of  William  the  Fourth — Parliamentary  re- 
form obtained— Movements  for  repeal— Elxertions  of 
Daniel  O'Connell — Acceswon  of  Queen  VicttMia— Father 
Mathew— Declaration  of  Irish  rights-sympathetic  reso- 
lutions proposed  in  the  American  congreas— Tlie  national 
redemption  of  Ireland  inevitable— Close  of  the  narra- 
tive      458—467 

VIII  .—Expression  of  Sympathy,  for  conscientious  cu- 
rates       467—471 

IX.— Digression  of  Advice,  to  rambling  readers.    471 — 474 

X.— Concloaion  of  Caution,  pro  bono  publico. . . .    474—477 


